Planning for blended learning

As I write this, we don't know what September will bring. We assume September is coming as expected but local lockdowns and bubble collapsing appear to be the normal. I have been fortunate to have 5 minutes to think about what do I want my classroom to look like in September. I am fairly certain I don't want to teach live lessons virtually. I am fairly certain for a few reasons: 

1) How will I check progress?

2) How will I adapt if they're not getting it?

3) How will I give feedback

4) It sounds exhausting

In terms of checking progress, my usual go to tool would be Pear Deck or Slido. Both allow me to collate feedback, confidence checks and contributions whilst presenting. In the section of my lesson where I chalk and talk. In the new virtual world. This should be entirely still possible. However I have been delivering staff CPD virtually for a few months and in the majority of cases staff's internet hasn't been capable of hosting a virtual meeting and another tab in the browser. I have tried guiding staff through joining both Pear Deck and Slido via their phones as well as the Google Meet on their browser. This was a clunky experience for all involved. I'm not sure I want to pursue this. 

Adapting my content, sure, this is a skill I have in my locker but is it a skill I have when running a virtual meeting? When I will be in present mode and not see my students? I am able to join the Google Meet on another device so I can see the participants on one screen and present on another but the focus and attention that takes means I am not focusing on what matters, the learning experience.

Giving feedback. The awkward delay waiting for a response when you throw a question out there, then they talk when you talk. No thank you. If I have an important message to give I want to give it my full attention in my delivery and the recipient to be ready to receive it also. All of this sounds exhausting.

I have blogged before on the Driving Digital New Normal blog about planning. As I have gained more experience in the virtual teaching world I am more convinced than ever that we need to deliver in a team teach approach. In a traditional classroom we plan 15 minute episodes. Ideally staff could take it in turns to deliver 15 minute episodes. Whilst one is delivering the other is running the chat, offering feedback. This seems sensible to me. So far it doesn't seem to be catching on as a concept.

So we are back to square 1, how will I deliver content virtually. Alice Keeler and Jo Boaler have often said, stop pretending that Google exists. Now more than ever we need to embrace the tools and material that already exist. I think the skill of teacher is in the relationship and feedback the teacher builds with the learner. The learner has to trust the teacher and in that trust be willing to take risks, that's when transformative learning experiences can take place. 

My plan currently is, and this is subject to change, record my chalk and talk section. Post this to Google Classroom with the resources of the lesson, then hold a live virtual meeting to discuss how the work has gone and give valuable feedback and build those relationships. Followed by a class virtual meet where we quiz or assess our skills at the end of the topic. I could run a quiz or a bingo in a Slides presentation like in class, where they draw a 3 x 3 grid, and that seems like a nice experience for students.

Hyperdocs are going to be key. Everything all in once place. Self marking quizzes to help check progress. Existing videos that explain my point. You know for that moment when no matter how you say it some students just don't follow? Now we can include an alternative video on the same topic so if they need to hear it from another voice to help it sink in, we can! There are opportunities to be had, we need to seek them out a bit.

Equatio and Read & Write

I have sat for years listening to CPD that was absolutely brilliant with a voice in my head going "not possible in a maths classroom though. " I have tried to fight it, shushing my inner voice, willing things to be possible. But we have to hold our hands up and say maths is a different subject, we can't ask students to expand or share an opinion on someone else's correct answer. 

Imagine sitting in a CPD session on Read and Write from Texthelp. Read and Write can read aloud text to learners, look up words in a picture dictionary and allow learners to speak in and it types for them. (it does a LOT more but I'm trying not to waffle!) it's brilliant, what a powerful tool for our learners. Amazing. Now how do you embed that into a maths lesson? Possible, thankfully, but not a perfect fit. Can it read complex formulae or calculations? Does it have pictures in its dictionary for density? No? Boo! I was gutted when I first came across it. I thought, argh it's so close but it's still not for me. 

A short while later I was sat down again to be talked at, sorry I mean, I was sat down in a CPD session, and this time it was on Equatio. Which is a pain to blog about because Google thinks I mean Equation, so if Google auto corrects and I miss it I apologise, I am talking about Equatio! Hold on to your seats if you've not heard of Equatio before and if you are a maths or science teacher this will blow your mind!

Equatio is a toolbar that allows you to speak in maths work. You say 2x bracket x add 4 bracket and it will write 2x(x+4) with curly xs. Equatio will let you type in fractions and curly xs and all the other niggly things we battle with typing as maths teachers with ease. If you have a touchscreen device you can freehand your maths and it will type it up for you. Hurrah, at last we have something amazing for maths, whoop! I was so excited and got straight on it, fractions were now a breeze to write, my work sped up when I was writing questions and making resources. You can even put it in Google Forms and make quizzes! I mean come on, this is the dream folks!

Loving my new Equatio life I ingested their website. I watched video after video, became certified in Read and Write (Texthelp make both products, I am not paid by them for this post, this is not an ad, I'm not paid by anyone to blog, wish I was!) importantly I signed up to updates from Texthelp and their monthly webinar list. Some time later I was introduced to the mobile features of Equatio. Students can handwrite their working out, photograph it into Equatio and it will make it editable typed maths for them... Take a moment... Take that in. Happy dance!!!!!!! Equatio has and does a lot more but I might do another blog on the other bits later. 

Students prefer pen and paper for maths in my experience. Maybe it's because I teach resit and they have experienced that paper linear exam, I don't know. I know that I prefer paper when I am work things out, I always have a pen in my pony tail ready to go in class! Students like to show their working out, sometimes! I like those conversations where they have spent ages anwering a question incorrectly and you go through their working out together to spot where it went wrong. I dislike those conversations where they have spent ages working something out incorrectly and their working out cannot be followed and they cannot articulate what they were trying to do. Those conversations are the hardest, where you desperately want to help but you can't. I have always wanted a way to make students stop and check their work or at least check they are on the right track. I have tried setting timers to get them to practise pausing mid answer but generally they just lose their flow. I have tried building in check your answer time but mainly they stare into space. Anyway back to Equatio... 

It's become my new way of working, especially since lock down. Students snap their work and sent it to me all typed up. Yes they could just snap their work but sometimes I struggle with the shadows of their photos, or the clarity of their working out. This way Equatio does the quality check for me. If it can't read what the students have put (and its very good at reading, trust me I have tried all sorts of maths working out to try to catch it out!) then an examiner wouldn't be able to read what they have put. Equatio helps me promote high standards. Equatio saves me time and it saves me marking on paper, although that's not happening in the world anyway at the minute.

Since lock down I have wanted to stay connected with my learners. I have found that the Read and Write tools that I have ignored in my maths lessons have really become invaluable. It has a feature where you can make a 1 minute voice note. I have been able to give verbal feedback to my learners. I don't mind that it's 1 minute because if I'm talking for more than 1 minute to each learner I'm not being clear enough in my feedback. My learners have said they feel little difference in terms of marking and being in the classroom, they can still hear my voice. 

I am so overjoyed that finally I have something that is invaluable and it is maths specific and maths focused. I feel like we can truly support learners remotely now, which is more important than ever. We have accessibility and maths speak all under one roof. Learners like it too. Sure they get frustrated when it doesn't correctly type up their written work and they have to edit it. But what's the harm in that, they are checking their work! A battle I long since thought that i would never win!