Friday 5: Reflections on Teaching This Week

Moving forward I will be using Friday's to write a simple reflection on five things that worked well in the "classroom" each week (distance learning or face-to-face) This post is meant to be simple, to the point, and may contain obvious realizations about teaching and learning. I apologize ahead for any redundancy in previous posts, and feel the need to reflect on the week in a concise way is meaningful for me, and hopefully other teachers, looking for empathy, insight, or ideas.

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1. Having music playing while students enter Zoom set a relaxing tone. Many students sent messages in the private Zoom chat requesting a playlist of songs I have playing. Phoebe Bridgers was the artist of choice this week!

2.  Using the "File Upload" and "Quiz" feature in Google forms for students to "submit" images of work for grading created a much more efficient way to quickly assess written work. Click here for simple form example. ​

3.  Padlet continued to be an excellent place for students to demonstrate hands-on work in my science classes.  Click here and here for examples from this week's chemistry class.

4.  Setting aside 15 minutes to grade each day was MUCH more effective, and rewarding, than my usual bulk grading.

5.  Student excitement around videos related to Assistive Technology this week confirmed that the field is a meaningful and engaging medium for teaching engineering to young students.