National Lockdown 3 or Lockdown3.0 as it has been called started in the beginning of the Spring term for me. We had already planned for an online day on the 4th Jan before the Christmas holidays, so Monday’s set of lessons had already been planned for, however, when the PM stated that we were going to enter a new lockdown and that schools would “be shut” until Feb 1/2 term it meant that my planning had to change.
So my classroom instead of being full of students just contained empty chairs. I decided to come into school as much as possible in the first week, as my timetable was pretty full and we were being asked to host “live” lessons for every lesson we should have on our timetable.
So what have I learnt from that first week?
Lessons learnt from Lockdown 3.0 Week 1
Live Lessons are different!
One of the first lessons learnt is that live lessons are difficult. It is like going back to training college again and learning how to teach again, because the environment you are used to have changed. Normally when I teach there are so many different environmental aspects that you pick up on as a teacher. The engagement level, the looks on the students faces, how well they respond to explanation, the quality of their replies or their written work as you move around the room. Even the weather outside can affect the mood of the class. In a live lesson at my school we have taken the decision to have no cameras or mics on. Mics can be switched on to ask a question. The result is a very different classroom environment to the one I have taught in for the last 21 years!
Pace and feedback difficult to gauge.
The pace of the lesson is difficult to gauge, as you cannot see what the students are doing at the other end of the screen. In a normal classroom setting you get a feel for the pace, and can see the progression taking place, but in the virtual world this is difficult.
Feedback is also different, and can be difficult to give as a class. In the normal classroom environment I can read students work as they are writing and as I move around the class I get a sense of how well the students are doing,
Many students don’t like to speak online.
One interesting observation is that many of my students are not keen to talk using their mics to ask or answer questions but do prefer to type up answers and to ask questions. This is fine, but it does make the lesson very impersonal particularly when you are used to teaching face to face. The face to face teaching and the professional relationships you build up with the classes is what makes teaching enjoyable.
Technology issues are really difficult to overcome for some.
I have had a fair number of students dropping out and then rejoining the Teams live lesson, which must be frustrating for them, and does stop the flow of the lesson at times when a notification comes up to admit them back into the class.
I have also been surprised by the lack of familiarity of Office. We often forget that although students might be living in a digital world and fully immersed in it – they will be so in the platforms of their choosing and so Office / Teams / Google classroom / any other platform might not be as familar to them as we would think.
The main issue seems to be editing an online document via Teams.
Making life easier.
Have a starting screen with a timetable of events or a time scale of what is happening when.
This allows the students to see the overall lesson plan and road map of the lesson, and when writing it, allows you to see if there are any pitfalls.
I have found that as the first week draws to a close I am exploring different features within Teams, and also other websites to make the learning experience richer.
Next week I shall review my progress using Teams once more and share with you some more ideas on how I have made my lessons more interactive.
Until then…
Geographical reflections 