Learn from Home

It's spring break for many teachers and students in south Texas, and other places around the country.  My original plan for this week's post was to chat about books - what I have read / am reading / want to read in the realm of education.  But, I was really inspired over the weekend by Kasey Bell's @shakeuplearning podcast in support of all the teachers that are, or may be, thinking about what it would be like to move from brick and mortar/ face to face school to an online learning environment due to school closures surrounding Covid19.  There are currently a ton of blog posts, podcasts, tweets, etc. out there talking about making that move, but Kasey put the rubber to the road and had Jen Pearson @1hightech, a teacher from the International School in Shenzen, China on the podcast.  Jen's words, recommendations, and lessons learned are spot-on, if not counter to a lot of the posts coming thought on my social media feeds.
Jen and Kasey's conversation has big ideas that reach beyond the moment we are in right now - the catalyst may be Covid19, but the lessons are ones that we can use to plan for the future.  There are big implications for equity in access when we talk about online learning outside of the school, but we need to have those conversations - out kids deserve progress.

I want to share my big thoughts after listening to their podcast:

• The term "home learning" focuses on the task at hand. We don't say "online work", we usually say work from home.  #learnfromhome
• If we, schools/ schools districts/ instructional leaders, are not already thinking about how home learning fits into the future of our instructional practice, we are behind the curve.
• Less is more.  Online learning isn't really about being online, and we shouldn't move to tools or platforms that students have not seen or used in a face to face experiences. Do we want our students to focus on learning the tool or learning the content?!.
• Digital piece delivery can help facilitate the directions and information, but we need to give kids the opportunity to seek out "real world" connections (think a scavenger hunts, of geometric shapes they are learning about, writing a argumentative paper a current event or issue happening in their neighborhood) .
• Classroom is about relationships, this is true if we are learning from home or learning at school. The successful online classroom is going to have routines and procedures driving the success of learning the same way it does in the face to face classroom.
• Thinking about the work that we are asking students in our classroom to complete:  What is the purpose? Is it meaningful? If my students were in a learn from home situation would this assignment matter?
• When you think about home learning, bring in those soft skills from AVID - post a photo of your own work-space, ask students what they notice / how it compares or how they plan to set up their own work-space.

Everyone has something to say.

Whether it is a hobby, work, or something in between everyone has something they are interested in, passionate about, or know too much information on.  Students are full of information - it might not be the Pythagorean theorem, and it is probably football plays, using curling wands, k-pop, etc.  Part of bringing relevance into the classroom is allowing students to share their understanding with a larger audience.  We have student research various topics all of the time and often times that research concludes with a paper that gets turned into the teacher, a poster that is hung up in the classroom, or a presentation that happens on an assigned day. Let's push down the four walls of the classroom and find ways for students to publish their work!  Publish might be a an eBook, a blog, or (wait for it) maybe a podcast!
Podcasting is a great way for students to articulate their learning.  Unfortunately, not every student is excited to write that paper or make that poster.  Providing options, like podcasting, is a great way to bring in all students. Because podcasting for students is gaining momentum, there are great resources out there to help you get started:
- NPR published a complete to curriculum to help students and teachers get started.  The great things about their resources: you can pick and choose the resources that your students need.
- Cult of Pedagogy has a quick blog post with some really great student examples already curated.  It is important for students to know that their first podcast is going to sound different from a pod-caster that has published 50 episodes.
- Common Sense Media is trusted resource with students samples, ideas for topics, suggested platforms, and more.
- Story Corps has a great variety of high interest student focused podcasts to get ideas rolling.  They also have a great question bank to help students start generating their talking points

Podcasting is a great way to facilitate student collaboration.  Intentional grouping and designated jobs are great ways to get students on the path to success. Ready to get started? I thought you might be.