It seemed a sad ghost town when I went to my classroom yesterday -- my one visit for the month (no more than 5 teachers allowed in the building at a time, keeping at least 6' away from each other, and bleach wipes in hand). I usually crave time at home to relax and recover from all the things, but I actually felt a pang of missing our in-person learning space when I walked into this long-empty room that had been newly cleaned up with freshly-hung bulletin board posters and displays of books for our new units of study. The place sits unused and silent. Sigh... The realist in me is planning for all possibilities, but I do hope that we might be together as a class to hear each others' voices and laughter and to ask questions and have discussions in real-time before this school year concludes. Sigh... Be mindful that this dual-credit class will continue entirely online while we're on quarantine and without any paper packets for pickup at the school; KCC has guided us to be mindful, of course, of pacing so as not to overwhelm students in a time that is already strangely stressful, but also to maintain a college-level expectation for the quality of engagement. The online work is the most engaging for my history classes, and as I've been able to contact each of you digitally, I am proceeding as such. However, if you find that you are having spotty online access, please do call the tech support line offered by our Unit 9 school district -- 815-293-7041. Specific tasks for today: 1. Your Chapter 21 or 22 notes should now be submitted in Google Classroom. (Your Chs 19 & 20 notes should be saved, as they will be used later.) 2. Continue work on the CCourse #35 -OR- #36...get it nearly done today, but you will have tomorrow to fine tune it. 3. Do a journal entry. ; )Wednesday, April 8, 2020
KCC -- Wednesday 4/8
It seemed a sad ghost town when I went to my classroom yesterday -- my one visit for the month (no more than 5 teachers allowed in the building at a time, keeping at least 6' away from each other, and bleach wipes in hand). I usually crave time at home to relax and recover from all the things, but I actually felt a pang of missing our in-person learning space when I walked into this long-empty room that had been newly cleaned up with freshly-hung bulletin board posters and displays of books for our new units of study. The place sits unused and silent. Sigh... The realist in me is planning for all possibilities, but I do hope that we might be together as a class to hear each others' voices and laughter and to ask questions and have discussions in real-time before this school year concludes. Sigh... Be mindful that this dual-credit class will continue entirely online while we're on quarantine and without any paper packets for pickup at the school; KCC has guided us to be mindful, of course, of pacing so as not to overwhelm students in a time that is already strangely stressful, but also to maintain a college-level expectation for the quality of engagement. The online work is the most engaging for my history classes, and as I've been able to contact each of you digitally, I am proceeding as such. However, if you find that you are having spotty online access, please do call the tech support line offered by our Unit 9 school district -- 815-293-7041. Specific tasks for today: 1. Your Chapter 21 or 22 notes should now be submitted in Google Classroom. (Your Chs 19 & 20 notes should be saved, as they will be used later.) 2. Continue work on the CCourse #35 -OR- #36...get it nearly done today, but you will have tomorrow to fine tune it. 3. Do a journal entry. ; )