Not sure what the upcoming school year will look like, but one thing I am certain of there will be lots of changes. Our district continues to work on proposals for HS/Remote and K-8/Hybrid models as they work with DESE, Union and the community at large.
One of my biggest change will be transition from a high school to a middle school within the our district, as an integration specialist. So, one thing that makes this tricky is making new relationships with teachers in a unusual model while we socially distance from each other. The first few weeks back will be stressful and anxious for both staff and eventually students. We will involve professional development on a variety of topics from the district, the first few week of school, but I also on helping teachers revisit tools they may have used last spring, along with several new updates that happened over the summer and many more that Google plans to roll out in the fall.
Teachers will need to clean up last year's classes - End of the year clean up tips here and plan to prepare to create new Google Classroom and revisit new features and topics they may not have tested out yet. One of the best form of PD and sharing of information can be found on twitter and the MTA shared this tweet. by @lloydcinspire and @austinmWPS. I plan to use/remix (giving credit and add additional information from as Google roll out more features).
I plan on joining the middle school IT Google Classroom, reviewing last year surveys as well as sending staff a getting to know you survey and possibly a flipgrid.
In addition I will be exploring Google’s Applied Digital Skills and CSFirst curriculum and developing a scope and sequence for a trimester hybrid offering. The curriculum is outlined here https://www.edtechteam.com/blog/2018/10/applied-digital-skills-week-explore-curriculum Another area of development will be with portfolios.
Some topics and tools that worked last spring that we may revisit this fall based on the district subscriptions.
- Google Classroom http://bit.ly/backtoschoolgoogleclassroom
- Screencastify
- PearDeck
- Flipgrid
- Edpuzzle
After teaching a few graduate classes this summer, there is a big shift in content delivery for all remote training. I am hoping although we will start the year in hybrid it will give us an opportunity to connect with each other so if we do go remote we can build upon our connections. It should be interesting but I am hoping everyone remains safe and healthy above and beyond anything else.