This morning I had the opportunity to the “10 minute Teacher Podcast” presented by Vicki Davis. This podcast is run by a teacher who creates shorter episodes for teachers to listen too. As you may know already, I NEED ALL THE TIME I CAN GET!
This episode’s guest was Dr. Matthew Rhoads, who has been working with teacher candidates to help utilize best practices in our new online setting. Right now, he is secondary teacher in special education (Davis and Rhoads).
Dr. Rhoads goes on to speak about how teachers are spending too much time on Zoom (Davis & Rhoads 2020). He believes that we should have zoom sessions twice a week and should not spend more than 15 minutes for a session online. However, he did acknowledge that many students may be at home unsupervised. To combat this, he suggested putting each student in a breakout on their own and let them complete the asynchronous work. This will allow students to work independently and still be supervised.
One great idea that he has suggested is to post all the lesson assignments for the week (Davis and Rhoads). For my class, I have been posting all for that day only. This would allow students, who struggle with attending live sessions, have the ability to complete the work at their own time. However, I am not sure I am organized enough to do that just yet. As the year progresses, I plan on implementing this strategy.
One thing I wish he would have addressed more in depth is how distance learning can effectively work at the elementary level. Teachers in kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grade need adult supervision at home to help facilitate discourse and keeping them online. How do we actively promote engagement. I am not sure all grades are able to take advantage of asynchronous work.
Check out the podcast using this link!
Davis, V., & Rhoads, D. (2020, September 28). Research Based Strategies for Distance Learning with Dr. Matthew Rhoads [Audio blog post]. Retrieved October 5, 2020, from https://10minuteteacher.libsyn.com/research-based-strategies-for-distance-learning-now-with-dr-matthew-rhoads
Life of a 3rd Grade Teacher 