# data[].attributes.body
Check out my smore. Almost as tasty as the real thing!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Fall 2020 (509 practicum) I still feel like I'm making this whole teaching thing up as I go along, but I've learned a lot since we went to a remote learning model and I thought I'd share my grand idea! Sincerely, Andrew Jamboard wasn't my jam and youtube videos never played at the volume the students wanted.

# data[].attributes.body
Thank you Andrew for reminding me that Smore exists!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Student Feedback

Initially, when we learned about asking students for feedback on lessons or in class activities back in classroom management, it made me nervous. I was worried students would be too harsh, and be opposed to the way the class was going. However, I have found that asking the students what they think was valuable, useful, and what could be modified has been incredibly useful in my understanding of teaching.

When Do I Ask For Feedback?

To be frank, I only recently have done this. We used this technique at the start of the new quarter to review the classroom "rules" we created at the beginning of the year. This was to check in and make sure myself and my co-teacher were following the expectations of the students, the students were doing what we expect, and that the students were respecting each other. The students had comments on ways to make transitions from activity to activity smoother, and asked that the screen sharing function is turned off during discussions. Small things like this are important to recognize, especially if the students are asking directly. As I move forward I want to do weekly check-ins with students one-on-one, if I can, to see if they're getting the material, need clarification, or have any other comments. I think this will help me gain insight on what a student needs in a classroom, but also help me gain rapport with the students. Mutual respect is very important, and as I take on more responsibility teaching and designing lessons, I want my students to feel their voices are being heard.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Initially, when we learned about asking students for feedback on lessons or in class activities back in classroom management, it made me nervous. I was worried students would be too harsh, and be opposed to the way the class was going.

# data[].attributes.headline
An interactive tool for online  teaching and learning

# data[].attributes.subject
An interactive tool for online  teaching and learning

# data[].attributes.body
Please let me know if you are unable to access to it. Thanks.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
There are numbers of platforms out there for teachers and educators. Sometimes we might not know what to choose because we have too many options. "Don't overwhelm myself or my students." I used to tell myself.

In an online teaching environment where we are lack of interactions with students and their peers, it's a challenge to engage them in the classroom activities.

To make it more interactive, here comes Nearpod.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
There are numbers of platforms out there for teachers and educators. Sometimes we might not know what to choose because we have too many options. "Don't overwhelm myself or my students." I used to tell myself. In an online teaching environment where we are lack of interactions with students and their peers, it's a challenge to engage them in the classroom activities.

# data[].attributes.body
So far, what feels most effective in the classroom is relationship-building and community building, so I created a single google slide about that (and I pushed myself this time to make it a little more graphically appealing-- hope you all like it)! These are just some of the thoughts I have been having because classroom community seems to be the biggest challenge in the digital ELA classroom.

# data[].attributes.body
Made this lil' ditty

# data[].attributes.body
Less homework and more in-class involvement. Sound good?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Let's get creative

As many of us have already experienced, teaching a foreign language online can be challenging...

In the past few weeks i've been experimenting with different strategies to raise participation and rely less on homework assignments for grades. And this is what I have come up with...

My Grand Idea

I like to combine the three: Padlet, Youtube and Vocaroo!

To raise participation and simplify grading, I like to play videos directly on Padlet and have my students post their answers/ findings etc. on padlet for class participation. When we have generated enough posts/answers, they then transfer what they or their classmates wrote down and create a voice recording through vocaroo. I've used this with music, verbs, pronouns and pronunciation practice and i've seen an improvement in participation after a few trials. It's been great for writing and speaking practice in a foreign language. Try it out!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
As many of us have already experienced, teaching a foreign language online can be challenging... In the past few weeks i've been experimenting with different strategies to raise participation and rely less on homework assignments for grades. And this is what I have come up with...

# data[].attributes.body
Since I don't have a class of my own (yet), I have had the opportunity to have one-on-one meetings with students. These have proven to be a really effective means for me to create a stronger online teaching environment.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
What is Nearpod? Why has it been so instrumental to class success during distance learning?

Well let me tell you!
"Nearpod helps educators make any lesson interactive whether in the classroom or virtual. The concept is simple. A teacher can create interactive presentations that can contain Quiz's, Polls, Videos, Collaborate Boards, and more." (Nearpod.com)
Nearpod has been instrumental to my class success during CDL (comprehensive distance learning). This is because it allows me to turn ordinary slides into something that can help track student engagement in real time.

Assessment and Differentiation

As I mentioned briefly, Nearpod is great for assessing student work. You might provide sentence frames during class to give some students a boost, or even allow them to record or draw their answers. Because each Nearpod lesson is saved, you can go back and look at it with the student, and show them specifically what they need to work on. It is also great for differentiating learning style, as you are provided with a number of different tools to utilize during live class sessions.

Next Steps

I'm looking to continue using Nearpod during CDL as my students become more and more familiar with the platform. You can also use it for asynchronous work, as there is a feature which allows students to work on it outside of live classes. I post these on Canvas! In any case, I hope you will consider using this in your future lessons, and if you have any specific questions I would be happy to help!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Well let me tell you! "Nearpod helps educators make any lesson interactive whether in the classroom or virtual. The concept is simple. A teacher can create interactive presentations that can contain Quiz's, Polls, Videos, Collaborate Boards, and more." (Nearpod.com) Nearpod has been instrumental to my class success during CDL (comprehensive distance learning).

# data[].attributes.body
Here's my s'more one-pager where I discuss two things that opened my eyes a bit this quarter.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Field Experience Context

On the first day of the 2020/2021 school year, I began a long-term substitute teaching position at Beaumont Middle School. I took over a 7th grade teacher's role as she took a leave to care for her newborn. The classes I covered were English Language Arts, Spanish Language Arts, and Spanish Social Studies. I was there for the entire first quarter and my role as their teacher came to an end on November 10th.

____________________________________________

As soon as I started the job, I was told I would have to attend Professional Learning Community (PLC) meetings. I was a bit unsure of how it would go at first, but it was part of my duty as a teacher, so I attended. The PLC I was in is for 7th grade ELA and all of the 7th grade ELA teachers were in it (4 of us total). After the first meeting I realized how beneficial and great this PLC was going to be for me. The teachers were incredible and loved to collaborate. From the beginning we decided we would be implementing the same curriculum to all of our classes which helped us all tremendously since we could share any and all of our work and materials. We helped each other figure out online learning and the somewhat confusing directions from the admin team. We went through the process of building our Canvas pages together and were there through all of the trial and error we went through at the beginning of the year. After our frequent meetings at the beginning, we started to only meet once a week and would discuss what our students would be working on the following week.

As a new teacher, I had never been part of any type of PLC or collaborative group to work on our teaching practice, but this experience has opened my eyes to something that could be indispensable to my practice. Without this PLC, I would have had an incredibly difficult time with this position as a first year teacher. It was helpful to have teachers who were familiar with the school and the common procedures. I do feel that I had a particularly helpful and friendly group of educators to collaborate with, so I can't say that PLCs would be beneficial to everyone. It really takes a group of teachers who are willing to be open and flexible enough with their curricula to be effective. In addition to that group, I eventually found a PLC dedicated to Dual Language Immersion that helped me create my curriculum for my Spanish classes. In the future, I will take the opportunities I have to be part of PLCs, searching for helpful groups of teachers that seek the benefits of collaboration.

____________________________________________

Another new strategy that I used a lot during my time at Beaumont was active presentations, more specifically, Nearpod. Nearpod is a software that allows people to create slide presentations that are more active and engaging for students. As opposed to the typical slide presentation, Nearpod provides the capability of making individual slides more active by allowing us to add things like quizzes, collaborative boards, games, videos (with embedded questions if needed), audio, images they can draw on, and more. To make it even more accessible, Nearpod interacts directly with Google Slides, allowing users to add in the engaging features to existing Slide decks.

I started the year using Google Slides to present, but quickly realized I was not getting any engagement, feedback, or data from the students. I was not able to tell if I was getting my messages across or if students were even there, considering many had their cameras off. I was introduced to Nearpod through one of my PLCs and almost immediately started using it in everyone of my lessons. It was a bit difficult at first since it was new to me and the students, but we quickly got into a routine and were using Nearpod effectively constantly.

I will continue to use this throughout the year as my cooperating teacher also uses Nearpod in almost all of her lessons. I think it is a much better alternative to Google Slides when it comes to online learning, but I will likely continue to use Nearpod as we move into physical spaces, too. The downside, of course, is that all of the participating members need to be using computers. These past few months have forced education to move into the digital era, which gives me hope that when we return to brick & mortar learning, all students will have access to Chromebooks and we will continue to have access to these great tools that make learning, teaching, curriculum design, assessing, etc. much more streamlined for educators. These tools are incredible for what we do and the sooner we are able to learn them and make them a part of our educational toolkit, the better.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
On the first day of the 2020/2021 school year, I began a long-term substitute teaching position at Beaumont Middle School. I took over a 7th grade teacher's role as she took a leave to care for her newborn. The classes I covered were English Language Arts, Spanish Language Arts, and Spanish Social Studies.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
An argument for the importance of movement in distance-learning

As a Spanish World Language teacher, I am always looking for unique and fun ways to engage students in learning. In the online environment, a student's day is mostly filled with sitting still all day while staring at their computer screen.

In person, I believe movement-based exercises are quite useful in sparking interest and in aiding retention of content.

The challenge, then is thus: how does one adapt movement-based exercises to the online environment?

Movement as Routine

Now more than ever, routine and predictability are crucial to fostering a positive and safe learning environment.

In my classroom, students can expect that every class will start with an emotional check-in, followed by a review of the date/day of the week, and a native land acknowledgement.

Then, we move to a review of the pronouns in Spanish. I present the below image, and the students have to point according to which pronoun I say.

See below for an example of how this looks.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
As a Spanish World Language teacher, I am always looking for unique and fun ways to engage students in learning. In the online environment, a student's day is mostly filled with sitting still all day while staring at their computer screen. In person, I believe movement-based exercises are quite useful in sparking interest and in aiding retention of content.

# data[].attributes.body
Three Years of Reflection

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Three Years in the Making - What's Worked

Reflection, Reflection, Reflection!

It is truly remarkable the extent to which deep and continual reflection has informed my teaching. I began doing this my first year without even realizing it, and have continued with the process ever since.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Three Years in the Making - What's Worked It is truly remarkable the extent to which deep and continual reflection has informed my teaching. I began doing this my first year without even realizing it, and have continued with the process ever since.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
One of the most relevant things I remember realizing last year was that creating a class structure and routine early on was what allowed me to be able to do so many other things with my students. For example, we were able to build a relationship, change things up once in a while and most importantly, learn.

This seemed like an obvious thing to do at the beginning but I didn't realize how significant it was to implement a routine that would help students know what expect. I noticed the fact that students knowing what to expect everyday lowered their anxiety in meeting a new teacher and learning a language.

After a few weeks, I didn't have to reinforce structures as much as we all knew what to do, therefore, there was a lot more time left for instruction and class activities. Furthermore, this meant providing students with consistency which was so important in order to develop a relationship of trust between us.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
One of the most relevant things I remember realizing last year was that creating a class structure and routine early on was what allowed me to be able to do so many other things with my students. For example, we were able to build a relationship, change things up once in a while and most importantly, learn.

# data[].attributes.headline
A grand idea, presented to you with pizzazz 

# data[].attributes.subject
A grand idea, presented to you with pizzazz 

# data[].attributes.body
The Essential Question: Why?

# data[].attributes.headline
Learning and Teaching is the key to success

# data[].attributes.subject
Learning and Teaching is the key to success

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Lisandra's One Page Grant Idea - 2 months of Student Teacher Experiences by Lisandra mesa falcon | This newsletter was created with Smore, an online tool for creating beautiful newsletters for educators, nonprofits, businesses and more

# data[].attributes.body
Hi Nora, Thank you for sharing your experiences and what has work well with you and what it needs to improved especially with virtual learning. I think that having a positive attitudes means so much not only for yourself but with your students. Finding solutions and be able to be open to others alternatives is a step to lead to success. You are an inspiration to me and I think by reading your one page gran idea I can be able to see different points of views.

# data[].attributes.body
Looking for engage with mi students, I explored their immediate environment to push on their speaking abilities.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
When I started teaching in Spanish and trying to establish a conversation with my students, they did not answer back. Looking for a topic that would let me open a conversation, I decided to ask about their favorite stuffed animal.

They did put effort into speaking Spanish when they tried to describe their stuffed animal. The ones that did not have it, started talking about their pets.

A routine for Thursdays was born

During the Social Emotional Learning morning class, I created a routine that consisted of taking turns to talk about their favorite things they like at home. Any time I taught this class, the students gave me the next topic. What I started as a topic that created discussions in Spanish, eventually became a formal topic. As they knew that they could add their favorite topic, the discussions centered on things they love from home: relatives, pets, books, video games, tv shows, food, parks in the area, etc.
Any time I taught this class, the students gave me the next topic
Usually, the students used to speak on a topic and showing items to the class. Now the class is shaped by the Social Emotional Learning format. We greet each other with a dynamic, I present the topic with a story, they make comments on the reading, then I ask for a drawing, description, or story of this home item. And finally, they share it with the class.

As the students shared what they like in their homes, was inevitable that they wanted to share their favorite music. When they presented it, they shared their screen, and they enjoyed doing it. From there another routine is born, they take turns playing their own music in our 5 minutes break.

Beach Elementary School

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
When I started teaching in Spanish and trying to establish a conversation with my students, they did not answer back. Looking for a topic that would let me open a conversation, I decided to ask about their favorite stuffed animal. They did put effort into speaking Spanish when they tried to describe their stuffed animal.

# data[].attributes.body
What a great/simple formula! It is true that work can be less difficult if we work together and split it. Different point of views is a barrier that we need to over come when we attempt what you suggest. This is a good remainder that things can be achievable having in mind that we need to enjoy and have fun of what we do. Thank you for sharing it!

# data[].attributes.headline
Danielson Group: Framework for (Remote) Learning [revised in light of COVID; used by David Douglas SD for teacher preparation and self-evaluation]

# data[].attributes.subject
Danielson Group: Framework for (Remote) Learning [revised in light of COVID; used by David Douglas SD for teacher preparation and self-evaluation]

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Danielson Group: Framework for (Remote) Teaching

# data[].attributes.headline
Nearpod is the bomb! I have only seen it a little bit, and just as an asynchronous thing, but  you are inspiring me to check it out more! Thank you for being so specific on how to use it!!

# data[].attributes.subject
Nearpod is the bomb! I have only seen it a little bit, and just as an asynchronous thing, but  you are inspiring me to check it out more! Thank you for being so specific on how to use it!!

# data[].attributes.headline
Yes, I wish more teachers would incorporate movement in general! My CT always includes movement breaks, even in first period (go find a book you like, go look out the window, 

# data[].attributes.subject
Yes, I wish more teachers would incorporate movement in general! My CT always includes movement breaks, even in first period (go find a book you like, go look out the window, 

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.smore.com/61ncq

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
ITP 509 Grand Ideas Instructor Feedback_F20 1

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
bitter sweet beginnings

One thing that has blown me away is backwards design for lesson planning. This has completely changed how I look at teaching ELA and how I lesson plan. It has not built my confidence, in fact it has done the opposite, but that actually encourages me. But learning how to lesson plan like this has been incredibly inspiring and has contributed dramatically to my professional growth.
The reason I feel comfortable with backwards design crunching my confidence is because I know it is making me grow as a teacher. Growth is painful and lesson planning right now has been nothing but that. When I began introducing this strategy to my lesson planning during the pandemic, I observed a stiff decline in student engagement. This was shocking to me because I was aiming for the opposite. But I learned that I'm struggling to balance teaching content and standards. In the beginning I focused too much on teaching the standard and this became boring to the students. I took away the one thing I"m good at, showing the kids my passion for literature! What fool! Growth is a grind sometimes but I know learning this lesson planning technique will be great for my students and will eventually make teaching much more enjoyable.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
One thing that has blown me away is backwards design for lesson planning. This has completely changed how I look at teaching ELA and how I lesson plan. It has not built my confidence, in fact it has done the opposite, but that actually encourages me.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Taking Attendance During Asynchronous Learning with Padlet

This year there were many things that were thrown at us that we were not prepared for. Among those things was taking attendance for students during asynchronous learning. At Roosevelt we were not informed that we would be responsible for taking attendance for students when we were not meeting for Live class. The first two weeks of school we spent time teaching our students how to use Canvas, websites and Distance Learning technology during live class, there was no asynchronous learning time. After the second week, our schedule changed to meeting with 2 classes in the morning split between the two from 9:15 - 11:55, Lunch from 11:55 - 12:35 and Asynchronous learning for the other two classes you did not meet for live class from 12:35 - 2:45. The first week I tried having students send me emails, but it was extremely hard to track and keep up with all the emails I was receiving from staff, the district and other students not from asynchronous learning as well. It was overwhelming so I came up with the idea of posting columns on Padlet for each class period each day we had asynchronous learning. It worked so much better! I am able to view which students posted on padlet everyday and can view if they checked in the day of or a day later which essentially means they were absent for AL. I also post a question they needed to answer on the padlet which is usually ¨what are you working on today?¨ Students are also reminded to contact me if they have questions. I am really content with padlet. I like that I can view the attendance of the week for each day, in an organized manner.

It honestly has made my life so much easier.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
This year there were many things that were thrown at us that we were not prepared for. Among those things was taking attendance for students during asynchronous learning. At Roosevelt we were not informed that we would be responsible for taking attendance for students when we were not meeting for Live class.