Hi All,
As you all know the beginning of the school year is extremely busy for all teachers from Prep to high school. You would think that because Distance Ed is done through web-conferencing there would be less preparation but actually I have found that it's quite the opposite. Although I myself don't have a physical classroom, to create and hang resources in, I do have to be super organised and have those resources ready to mail out in the first week of school to my students.
The items I include in my first mail out bag are mixed. Some are simply to create a relationship between my students and I, some are to establish classroom expectations and others are physical resources that will be used in their lessons throughout the year.
For getting to know each other I create a craft glyph using the book 'Pete the Cat Rocking in my school shoes'. After creating their glyph my students have been mailing them back in so I can use them in a display at the school as well as sharing them on our Class Dojo where they can discuss what they have learnt about each other. I have shared this file on my TpT's store.
Because our time on-air is very limited (1hr/ day for English) I try to use a little of the Flipped Classroom model of having students view digital learning resources before class. This year to establish classroom expectations for learning and behaviour my students listened to a reading of the book 'How do dinosaurs go to school?' at home and in class we created a Y chart of what we wanted our on-airs to sound like, look like and feel like. At home they completed a writing task, so I would have a beginning of the year sample and dinosaur name plaque to show cutting skills. You can find the dinosaur template and writing paper on my TpT store.
I also like to establish with my Home Tutors some communication and teaching norms that will make a their classroom run smoother and unsure continuity. I send out a Home Tutor Guide and in it I include timetables of lessons, work returns and hints for the tracking of the assistance they gave during the units of work. This Evidence Of Learning feedback guide is now being used by other teachers to unsure continuity across the school.
Lastly, I include templates for maths resources that can be printed out by my time poor Home Tutors to use with my students during lessons or to assist my students with their rote learning. After the Home Tutor establishes the routine my students are then expected to independently complete these activities which frees up time for the Home Tutor to do prep work or work with their other students. I also provide links for where Home Tutors can download songs that will assist with the rote learning of skip counting patterns and number facts.
This year I have also added in a Number of the Day sheet. This allows my students to be increasing their fluency with a range of number concepts and I'm expecting to be seeing improvements in their working time during Maths on-airs.
Some students have received this as a booklet while others have it printed and laminated in A3 size and complete it with a white board pen, as per the Home Tutor's wishes.
As we all know accidents do happen and to ensure that each of my student always have access to the resources they need to ensure their learning success I provide all my Home Tutors with these resources on a USB which they return for updating every five weeks. I also include additional resources on this USB that I feel may be of assistance to complete the units of learning in those five week. I will have posts about some of those resources soon.
Another big post but hopefully well worth your time. Chat to you all again soon.
