Is your cooperating teacher delivering lessons using a totally virtual or hybrid
delivery model? As you observe these lessons, what have you noticed with regard
to the amount of time dedicated to each subject? In essence, has your teacher been
able to dedicate time to each of the subjects that he/she is required to teach at
that grade level? Has he/she been devoting more time to certain subjects than to
others? Which subjects have been given the greatest amount of time and attention
during this online teaching period? Have you found that some subjects are being
not given any attention? Which subjects are they? Do you feel that some/many
children are struggling academically as a result of the delivery method they are
receiving? How do you think that this teaching approach will affect student
scores when they are required to take state tests? Why?
My cooperating teacher is using a hybrid model to deliver this year's academic instruction. On Friday we were actually discussing these question topics during our lunch break. She definitely feels that she is teaching a modified schedule and that more would have been done if this was a normal time. Right now, she is focusing on teaching main concepts in math and ELA. Does not really teach any concepts in science or social studies from what I have observed. She has expressed concerns about in math that students are not able to access manipulatives and for certain they are ahead of where they need to be. She wishes that she could allow these students to play math games on the floor with each other, but due to Covid-19 she has to ensure that students are separated from each other. Another concerns of hers and mine is that these kindergarten students while they are in the classroom cannot move around and are stuck sitting at their desks all day. We came up with a solution that we are going to ask parents to send their child in with a beach towel to sit on. This will hopefully help with their engagement and give them a break from sitting at their desk. Overall, I am so impressed by my students because they have really adapted to the environment. They are responsive to specific safety directions despite being so young.
ReplyDeleteThe district I am in is doing a hybrid teaching model. However, every Friday is virtual. With this model I have noticed that the time given to each subject has been limited. Since, the days are half of days and only half the students are in class everyday most of the day is set aside for language arts and math. However, science and social studies are given the least amount of time and are always at the end of the day, when the students are tired and ready to go home. Also, the students who are virtual that week are expected to do these subjects by themselves because there is never a google meet scheduled during that time. Also, because of this teaching model I see that a lot of the students are struggling because they are only at school for half of the day and are in class every other week. When the students are at home they do not have to access to everything they need and sometimes they do not even have a parent around to help them. I do not know how kindergarteners are expected to successfully learn by themselves.
ReplyDeleteDr. Ries for Dennis Martin
ReplyDeleteOur district (Newark) is teaching totally virtual until January 25th, 2020. Because my cooperating teacher and I do small group instruction, 6 students at a time out of our total 24 students enter in 50 minute meetings (20min ELA + 10min Break time + 20min Math). Science occurs later in the day where the A group has science Mondays and Tuesdays and the B group has science Wednesdays and Thursdays. In the beginning, we primarily focused on ELA and Math because of early assessments, but now we have given each subject its 20 minute period. I had not seen any social studies instruction in the live meetings, but I was informed that social studies was being taught using pre-recorded read alouds for the students to watch on Fridays. Now we are looking towards bringing social studies into our ELA periods as students progress in their letter-sound correspondence and recognition of sight words. In terms of students and taking tests, Kindergarten for us will most likely take the same test they were assessed with in the beginning of the year so we can measure student growth.
Thank you,
The district I am in is using a hybrid method. The school has decided that only language arts and mathematics will be taught when students are learning live in the classroom. Social studies and science lessons are being taught through videos and learning programs when students are online. Students are also responsible to complete math and language arts activities when they are home as well. Therefore, my classroom is really focusing on Language Arts and Mathematics where they have kind of put social studies and science on the back burner. I do not feel that students in my classroom are struggling because of the hybrid method that they are learning through, however I do think it will affect them when it comes for state testing because a lot of the students aren't logging on to google classroom everyday and completing all of the work. They aren't learning everything they will need to know for state testing which is concerning.
ReplyDeleteThe district I am in is doing a hybrid schedule except for Wednesdays are virtual for a cleaning day. Students have the choice to use the hybrid schedule or be online until the next trimester. The time is definitely limited because when the students are in the classroom it's half day. The subjects that get the most time are ELA and math which take up a good portion of the day and the school is to still fit in a related arts each day. So when it comes to science and social studies, the teacher will fit in one of those two subjects at the end of the day for however many minutes are remaining. I feel like the students who are in class are getting a better experience than those virtually. It is hard for anyone to learn through a virtual method and being in class gives the students the full experience of being in school where there are little distractions. The students in class seem to be engaged throughout the lessons and the virtual students for the most part seem to be as well. I honestly feel like the students are handling this situation well and are doing what they need to in order to get the most out of their time at school. However, I have noticed that sometimes they are lacking skills they were supposed to learn last year which could be expected but might hurt them in the long run. What they are learning now in the hybrid schedule seems like it will prepare them for state testing but if it turns out they have to go back to being fully virtual again I am not sure they will fulfill the skills needed.
ReplyDeleteMy cooperating teacher is delivering the class lessons using a hybrid model. Some of the students come to school (one group on A days and a different group on B days) and then the rest of the children are learning completely remotely from home. In terms of what subjects she is teaching we have mostly been focusing on ELA and Math since the beginning of the school year. However, being that the class is now finally getting into the swing of things my cooperating teacher is going to start incorporating Science and Social Studies into the daily lessons. I know that it has been hard for her to try and cover all four of the main subjects because the school is only having half days, so there isn't a lot of time to cover everything. For that reason she has only been focusing on ELA and Math. However, I know that as of the week of November 9th we will be starting a Social Studies unit that she will be combining with ELA. This way both subjects are being addressed. Science will also be started shortly. In terms of how the students are all doing I feel that some of them have adjusted very well to this schedule/type of instruction whereas others are completely falling behind. There are a couple students in the class who have not completed any assignments since the beginning of the school year and are both fully remote. My cooperating teacher has reached out to both of the students and the parents regarding this issue. She is beside herself because no matter what she does these students are not completing any assignments. At this point I feel like she should get the principal involved, however, a child can't be forced to complete their work, especially if they aren't in school. So I don't know what good that will do. With regards to state testing, who knows if that will even happen this year with how school is going right now. I am very concerned.
ReplyDeleteRight now, my cooperating teacher is delivering instruction through a hybrid model. There are 3 students who are totally virtual and 12 students that are hybrid. Half of the hybrid students come in Monday and Tuesday, Wednesday is a full-school cleaning day so all students are virtual, and the second half of the hybrid students come Thursday and Friday. The Kindergarten teachers at my school put a main focus on Math and Language Arts. While the students do work on Science and Social Studies, in comparison to math and LA, it is very limited. A lot of the students in this class are very low-leveled which is in part to that those students who are low, never went to pre-school. It is also apparent that those students are having their work done by their parents. The teacher has reached out to the parents and they are willing to work with the changes the teacher wants to see which is a good sign.
ReplyDeleteJessica Kellenbach: My cooperating teacher is doing lessons for children in school and online. This means that she has to create each lesson to be virtual & in person. This is something that is a lot for her and I tend. to help out in making assignments for our google-classroom so that she only has to make assignments once, then I recreate it to be virtual. I have noticed that there are some lessons that we think will take 10 minutes but being virtual turns these lessons in 40 minutes. This is because some students are not great with technology so some instructions have to be reviewed more than once or twice. My cooperating teacher is doing a great job designating equal amounts of time to each subject. She does this by relating a lot of topics to each other so that students can learn a broad topic that could relate to more than one subject.
ReplyDeleteJessica Kellenbach
ReplyDeleteMy district has been virtual and we have been creating lessons solely through zoom which can be difficult at times especially when it came to being observed. We dedicate a lot of our time to Language Arts and Math and try to do science and social studies once a week. My cooperating teacher has all the materials and textbooks online through the districts website which can also be challenging for me to come up with something to do because I didn't have access to the material myself. I feel that some students are falling behind in math because it is very hard to keep them engaged especially since it's after lunch and the kids are drained from the morning.
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