4 tips to avoid the Land of Confusion in the Covid-19 era.

My favorite lines from this song have always been:

Now, this is the world we live in
And these are the hands we're given

Use them and let's start trying

To make it a place worth fighting for

With the "new normal" of the COVID-19 world, there will likely be times when our daily tasks and routines are disrupted to one degree or another.  Tonight, President Trump suspended flights to and from Europe, the NBA has suspended the season, and there are questionable hoarding practices (toilet paper, really?) by far too many people.

Once the wave of disruption reaches your locality, it will NOT likely be like a bad weather day.  The disruption probably won't be corrected later in the school year using one or two predetermined "make up" days.  This coming front will be decidedly different than our last cold front.

IF... that's a strong IF... you have to start considering your own personal classroom contingency plan, consider the following:

1.  Take care of yourself & your loved ones: If you're not ok, then you won't be of any educational help to your students. This includes maintaining communication and connection with fellow teachers and staff.  Your campus is NOT simply the physical brick and mortar.  The cultural fabric of your school is made of relationships which can continue and gain strength in moments like this.

2. Reach out: Use tech resources like Remind, Zoom, Flipgrid, or even emails to check in on your students.  They need normalcy and you can provide that for them by simply checking in.  Make sure to reach out to parents as well to let them know what you are offering and when.  Make parents a part of the process if at all possible.

3.  Stay positive: It's a scary enough world already for most of our students and the "coolness" of sitting at home will wear off quickly enough.  Student's parents may be experiencing lay offs, a variety of material shortages, and/or a surplus of anxiety.  Act like a hero even if you have to fake it.  Model for your students that teaching isn't just a "job", it's a calling.

4. Be a rock: Move your teaching to an online format.  Teaching online means offering a predictable schedule/routine that your students can rely on and look forward to.  If you can keep your school schedule in place, then do so.  If you need to move somethings around, then do so.  But try to be available the same time each day and the same days each week.  It's times like these where you are literally the foundation of civilization by doing that thing you do.

4. Keep teaching: Whether you're an online expert, a blended guru, or something else, your lessons can serve as an appreciated addition to the "new normal".  Try using well thought out, high Bloom's discussion boards.  Learn or experiment with Canvas, Google Classroom, or some other tech LMS vehicle.  Create a "home base" for your lessons. As long as you keep the relationship in focus, keep pushing kids to think.  Keep engaging students with rigorous content/questions.  Keep putting yourself out there for your students. Model for them that the world hasn't shut down, it just look a little differently for a little while.

Don't ask:

Oh, Superman, where are you now?
When every thing's gone wrong somehow?

Rather, be that light that shines in the dark that cannot be extinguished by the dark. 

The Easiest Tool You'll Ever Use!

When thinking about today's tool, I was thinking I wish I had an Easy Button to push.  Then I remembered that YouTube exists so here's your very own digital Easy Button.  Feel free to push it after trying out today's spotlight tool.

Today I want to share a really powerful but incredibly easy tool called Vocaroo.  Vocaroo only does one thing - record audio.  When you first look at the Vocaroo website, it seems so simple that it couldn't possibly be very useful.  At first glance it does seem that way.  I can click the record button and record.  So what?  I can do that on my phone too.  What's the big deal?

I'll tell you what the big deal is.  The power comes from the combination of the simplicity of using the tool combined with the ease of sharing out the recorded audio.  This tool is so easy that I recommend it to kindergarten and first grade teachers all the time, but it can still be a useful tool in the upper grades.  Let's take a look at what happens after you finish recording to see the power of this tool in action.  

Once you finish recording your audio and click save, this awesome option bar appears.  Notice that you don't have to download the audio or manipulate it or anything else.  Now with just one click I can share this audio straight to my audience by posting the link, using the embed code or opening up the QR code.  If you really want to, you can also download your audio file.

Now that we see how easy this tool is to use, let's talk about all the great ways that we can use it in classrooms.  How awful is it to wake up early in the morning and realize that you are too sick to go to school that day?  I know for me it was always harder to make sub plans than to just go to school.  Now, you could just click open Vocaroo, record instructions for your students for each activity you want them to do, pop the links into an email and now your sub can simply play your audio file so that you can explain to your students what they should be doing.  How awesome is that!  Another way that I've seen teachers using this tool is to record students.  Think about elementary teachers who have to do fluency checks or running records.  Sometimes its hard to fit all of those in during the day.  Now you can set up a center and teach students how to record themselves.  Then they can simply copy the link and paste it to a Padlet or Seesaw or other tool.  How many of you are doing things such as book clubs or PBL with your students where they work in groups?  Don't you wish you could hear all of their great conversations (and sometimes maybe not so great)?  Now you can.  Have each group record their group discussion with Vocaroo and turn in the link via Google Classroom or Seesaw when they finish.  There are so many other options such as creating audio for listening centers, having students record an audio of their writing to share with parents and even creating audio announcements to email home to parents.

Vocaroo is such an easy tool to use.  I feel confident that you'll be up and going in just a matter of minutes.  Watch the short video below to learn more about using Vocaroo and get started enhancing your classroom with audio today!

Let us know how you are using Vocaroo in your classroom by sharing a comment below.