Hybrid teaching requires you to be two teachers at once: one for your in-person students and one for your Zoom students. After three days of hybrid teaching, I've learned a few tricks and am still looking for advice with this balancing act.
Tag: Distance Learning
HYBRID TEACHING: DAY 1
When quarantine started over a year ago, I naïvely thought we'd be teaching remotely for two weeks. Little did I know distance learning would continue over a year and that we'd have an intermediate stage to distance vs. in-person teaching: the "hybrid" teaching scenario. Today was day one back at school for me. It was [...]
WHY YOU NEED A WACOM FOR ZOOM TEACHING
I LOVE me a good doc cam. Considering I started my teaching career with only a blackboard - no projector, no whiteboard (and this was 2014!!) - I've been on the path to find the perfect, cheap classroom tech that works best for me and my students. For in-person teaching there is seriously nothing better than a doc cam. But that's not what this blog post is about. This is about my new love: my Wacom drawing tablet.
TIPS FOR VIRTUAL PARENT-TEACHER CONFERENCES
We hosted our virtual parent-teacher conferences two weeks ago. Luckily, our conferences in the spring were also virtual, so I knew what to expect. But I have some general tips and some new ones for you this time around! 1. Have an agenda. This doesn't have to be a formally written agenda, like you might [...]
WHY OCTOBER IS THE LONGEST MONTH OF THE YEAR
During my first year teaching, I thought that October was rough because I was still going through the growing pains of being a brand new teacher. But then my mom told me that October is always the roughest month for my dad, a newly-retired teacher of 30 years. That first year, I didn't fully understand [...]
Google Forms Must-Do’s
Google Forms have worked well for my distance learning classes. I used them almost daily in my Algebra 1 and Physics classes in the spring and now I use them daily for every class, for my warm-up at least.
Sneak Peak! ’20-’21 Teacher Planning Workbook
TOMORROW my '20-'21 Teacher Planning Workbook will be live on Amazon! I created this workbook because it's what I want to use to plan for next year. It's full of meaningful reflection questions and space for planning everything from your classroom set-up (if we're in-person), to supplies, to calendars, and even clubs.
Reflecting on the 2019-2020 School Year
I've been on summer break for a few weeks now, so I've decompressed enough to start unpacking exactly what happened this spring! Needless to say, THIS. YEAR. WAS. CRAZY. While I was in the thick of remote teaching, I honestly felt a lot like I did my first year teaching...
Virtual Teacher Interview: elementary school art, Arizona
In today's interview, we're hearing from Lianna. She and I went to high school together and she is SERIOUSLY one of the most talented artists I've ever met! The fact that she's now teaching youngsters how to "art" makes me so happy and so excited for the future of humanity! Julia: Tell me about your [...]
Virtual Teacher Interview: high school computer science, Maryland
When I first got to college, I'll admit I was nervous, just like most students are! I was 3,000 miles away from home and I didn't know a single person who went there or had gone there before. My closest relative was a 5-hour drive away. Mom and Dad helped me unpack and set up [...]
Julia Ziac 