Category Archives: Thor

Pandemics, Emotional Roller Coasters, and Edwige Simon

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Way back in March when this pandemic became a significant part of our reality, I innocently thought that it would last one to two months, maximum. I thought to myself “okay, it’s no big deal (it was a big deal) don’t panic (I panicked), we’ll stay in our houses and after shelter in place, everything will be fine” (it wasn’t fine.)
And now, here we are, nearly five months later and not much has changed…back in March I truly didn’t fathom that we would continue to plan for having online classes, and hybrid classes in the better case scenario. When the months passed, and I came to the harsh reality that I wasn’t going to be able to teach how I naturally teach and how I’ve always thrived and was comfortable and I was going to return to the chaotic dumpster fire that was remote distance learning (I’m being dramatic), I was definitely in denial and disbelief…

I wallowed, and had a minor pity party and after I collected my thoughts, I did what any normal person would do in a time of emotional crisis: I went to ALLUDO! And I saw how many tasks there were to do, and I closed my computer immediately and watched Netflix instead.  🙂

But when I finally decided to be productive, I chose to take some online courses that were offered through Coursera. (And I became overwhelmed again…this was really an emotional roller coaster for me). I chose to take the Blended Language Learning through University of Boulder Colorado. Let me tell you: THIS COURSE WAS FANTASTIC (in my opinion). The course was taught by Edwige Simon, and I’m assuming she designed the course, and I’ve got to say, her teaching online style really appealed to me:

Edwige Simon
My takeaways from this course that I have and will continue to apply to my online classes are:
  • Divide the class into 3 parts: teacher presence, social presence (where students interact with each other) and cognitive presence (where students interact with the material and their own thinking). I took this another step and decided I’m going to organize my classes in that order and students will have the last bit of class be autonomous where they have the freedom to work on the assignment individually right in that moment, or take a break and continue to it that night or in a few days. Breaks from the screen and brain breaks are so essential (as I’ve come to find out after Zoom after Zoom on PD days)
  • Backwards planning is important for online courses. What do you want the student to eventually know at the end of the lesson? What is the culminating (summative) idea and lessons you want the students to learn? Then you start planning what activities and assignments will help achieve that objective.
  • The way the class itself was structured gave me a phenomenal example of how organized, clear and structured the class was: It was composed of a short video, followed by a short powerpoint, a small formative quiz (which gave feedback and multiple tries), a discussion board, a reading assignment, a written assignment, a few more videos and quizzes, followed by a summative test at the end. There was immediate feedback, and the structure was routine, clear, and consistent. I loved the seamless transitions and routine that I knew what to expect for every assignment and there were no surprises and no pressure. 
  • There was an “integrity” portion where students had to click a box agreeing to academic integrity and sign their name that they would use their own words and no outside resources otherwise there would be consequences. I’m not sure how I would’ve gotten caught, however just that reminder definitely was on my conscience and I didn’t use outside resources, even though I was tempted. I liked this feature a lot.
  • There was an approximate time slot for how long assignments should take. I found these time approximations to be overestimated, and assignments that took me 2 minutes were estimated to take up to 20 minutes. I liked this feature, however because it allowed me to budget my time and prioritize assignments. In my classes, I will give a more general time frame like “short, medium, and long” so that students are able to budget their time. 
I will try to emulate this structure as much as I can, because I really enjoyed how the class was structured and delivered. I felt no pressure to perform, and it was a relaxed learning atmosphere. I was eager to write this blog post despite not having put the strategies to practice, because I was afraid I’d forget, however I think it’s important in building my course right now. I may update this post to see how it all goes with students, but I’m optimistic. 

“Ditch That Homework”

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Homework
Ditch That Homework. 

 How do we define “homework”? Is it worksheets, and “busy work” that keeps students chained to the material even while they’re trying to watch The Bachelor at home? Is it a masterfully designed project that will stimulate students to delve into their passions, and exploit their creativity to potentially change the future of the world? Is it something in between? Is it necessary, unnecessary? Are we doing a disservice to our students if we assign homework? How about if we don’t?










There are a few questions that I have learned to ask myself before I assign homework for a lesson:
  • “Does it increase a student’s love of learning?
  • Does it significantly increase learning?
  • Does it stimulate students’ interest in the subject and make them want to delve deeper?
  • Are students able to complete the assignment without help?
  • Is it differentiated for ability or interest?
  • If the students didn’t have to do it, would they want to do it anyway?
  • Is it fair to all students, especially those from poorer families and less-educated households?
  • Does it avoid causing fights, parent/child division, and a lack of harmony in the home?

If you answer ‘no’ to these questions, maybe it’s time to ditch that homework and try something else instead” (Miller xvii).
I recommend the book Ditch That Homework by Matt Miller and Alice Keeler. They’ve also written Ditch That Textbook, which is also a thought-provoking read.
After reading this book (a few times, it’s a quick read), I have definitely come to the conclusion that worksheets and “busy” work are not effective for my class. With worksheets, many students either forget to do the assignment, they didn’t understand it, or simply weren’t motivated to do it (how can they be, The Bachelor???) so they copy their peer’s worksheet to get credit. Unless there is a ridiculously “off” answer, I don’t really have much of a way of knowing whether the student understood the material, or if the assignment is plagiarized. This assignment serves no purpose for me. I’ll admit, I assigned worksheets in the past. I KNOW, I KNOW, MEA CULPA.

I’m not judging anybody who assigns worksheets, they just don’t work for me anymore. I have switched to assigning other types of homework. Sometimes, I assign students to write sentences using the structure that we learned in class. This is not an extremely challenging assignment and most students can get it done in under 10 minutes. It reinforces the material so they at least had a chance to practice it the night before so we can work on it in class again. It’s a memory refresher and it’s a gauge to see if students can fly solo on the material that was taught in class. They can also get creative with sentences, and they can be funny too.

Other nights, I assign weekly video diaries where students are given a prompt and they have to spontaneously respond in spoken Spanish in a 1-5 minute video. Initially, students dread this assignment however, as time goes by, students become more comfortable with speaking and I get a glimpse into their thoughts, their life, sometimes their families, and it’s a different way to interact with students that isn’t just the classroom. The quiet students in class have a way to express themselves and practice their Spanish in a more comfortable environment.
I also assign video tutorials on Schoology, where students watch a video explaining a grammar or cultural lesson, and they take notes or write down any questions they have so that we can review it the next day in class. Students don’t mind watching the videos, they are usually pretty short and palatable. They also have the option to not watch the video if they feel they understand the material, or if they don’t have access to the internet (lol, yeah right).
I’ve also decided that if the students can show mastery in the classroom, then the homework isn’t as necessary. I implemented a “negotiation” that I made with my students in class. I have a cylinder full of 100 colored rocks per class. Each class has a different set of rocks. Historically, I have struggled with students being willing to actually speak in SPANISH in class. I ask a question and students ask “en inglĂ©s?” and I say “no, en español” and they become indignant and say “ugh. Nevermind”. Then students would proceed to speak in English, with no consequence. This is tragic. And so began the PIEDRAS (rocks). 
SOOOOO I cut them a deal. Every time I heard English spoken in class, students would lose 10 rocks out of the 100. If they were left with 30 rocks by the end of the week, (which means as a class they spoke 7 times in English) they wouldn’t receive homework over the weekend. Students were very eager, and I have to say, I haven’t assigned homework over the weekend in over 2 months. I haven’t even come close. Students are holding one another accountable and demanding that they speak in Spanish. One student asked “en inglĂ©s?” and I said “tienes que sacrificar 10 piedras” (you have to sacrifice 10 rocks) and sometimes they take the sacrifice, but most of the time, they struggle through the Spanish because they don’t want to lose rocks. These students are practicing the language so much in class, that I don’t find the need to assign practice assignments for homework. It’s become ingrained in their brains because they are using the language, which is significantly more effective than simply writing it.
These are just some things that I have taken away from reading this book. It’s a great read, and I recommend it to anyone who has struggled with homework. I have a copy of both books if you would like to borrow.