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Virtual First Marking Period

As a teacher November was a milestone because it marked the end of the first marking period. Although I’m retired, this year I have been running the virtual little red schoolhouse house with nursery school extension.  I’m very cutting edge.  There is a fourth grader, a second grader and a kindergartener with a marauding two-year-old in constant search of a playmate.

The day starts with morning meeting and then the fourth grader zips off to her first Zoom and second grader and kindergartener have time for a chocolate milk before their first Zooms.  The household requirement is that everyone is dressed but shoes are not required and snacks seem to be mandatory.

Contrary to my personal experience with high school freshmen, a kindergartener can remember and enter passwords and open hyperlinks.

Fortunately, our schoolhouse has more than one room. The second and fourth graders are at desks in their bedroom while the kindergartener has a small table in the living room with an extra seat for the two-year-old who enjoys the online books that are read and the invitations to the sight word dance parties.

And I have my cellphone to download and print worksheets. I double back to photograph work not completed on screen and upload to Class Dojo or Schoology, which is a fickle program on a good day. And yes, the household internet was upgraded to handle all of this and their dad working in his office formerly known as the toy palace.

Each of my students have three Zooms a day.  The toughest part is different lunch times, not to be confused with open breakfast and snacks. I’m also the lunch lady.  Once lunch times are over, I reel in a kindergartener for his 2pm Zoom.  He has been deep in play with his little sister, dinosaurs or matchbox cars and garage.

Fortunately, the three of them are technology competent and educationally compliant.  The fourth grader zooms with friends in between class zooms and makes grilled cheese for herself. Her clean up skills are a C.  The Language Arts and Math graders are higher.  In fact, one assignment introducing critical reading and writing skills was genius by her teacher and only doable with google docs in a classroom or virtual.

The second grader seems to be building excellent time management skills. Book assignments were promptly completed. However, the pages needed to be photographed and submitted by uploading to Schoology. My photo gallery is overrun with school work.  The second grader responded well after the new procedure was explained. Schoology responds selectively, sometimes it checks out, sometimes hiding the access point for submission and occasionally it works on the first try..

The Schoology home page displays all her courses, then ELA (English Language Arts) opens to three folders: Word Work (new name for spelling), Reading and Writing.   In the tradition of the Russian nesting dolls each of those folders have folders. So far, the second grader is keeping up.  Inside of Schoology a google doc opens in miniature.  The second grader knows how to magnify the screen but didn’t understand that half the info is now scrolled off screen.  She was searching for her spelling words, that to her seem to be in Cleveland, then scrolling back to type them into text boxes that keep moving.

The seven-year-old is exhausted and it only 8:50 am. This is a huge cognitive leap.  One might thing that the computer class teaching keyboarding would be a help. It’s a stretch for a second grader with a perfection streak.  YIKES. 

Again, we have settled in and the ELA and Math grades were fine.

Every situation is different.  I’m grateful that my sacrifice is reaping a benefit for my grandchildren.  I’m fortunate to be dealing with teachers who are Acing the transition to virtual learning.  They are doing an incredible job under awful circumstances. I know that the cost is exhausting.

My grandkids are doing fine and their teachers are an A+.  And all of us deserve an improved world in the coming marking periods.