Nailing the First Days of School while Teaching from Home

If you teach in California like I do, you probably just learned that schools in counties where Coronavirus numbers are climbing will start the 2020-2021 school year completely online.

This news is bitter sweet to me. I know the best teaching happens in classrooms, but it is nice to finally know what we will be doing when we return in mid to late August.

Typically, I plan over the summer. Don't get me wrong, I have fun in the San Diego sun, but I do plan an hour here and an hour there so that I don't have to do as much when we start the new school year. It goes without saying that there is nothing typical about this summer. I've actually been on pause. I didn't want to commit too much energy to lesson planning because we didn't know until today what education was going to look like.

I have been wanting to start an education blog for quite a while. I used to blog on LiteracyTA.com, some of you might know it as eCoach, but I haven't blogged for LeMasterEDU. This is going to be an extraordinary school year, so I thought I would use the news today to launch my new blogspot!

I try to be practical with everything I do in education. For this reason, I want to provide some practical strategies, tips, and ideas to help teachers nail the first days of school while distance learning. We need to be ready with the right space, tools, and resources. We also need to have creative activities that we can do online that help us connect with our students. I think this will be the most important work we do to kick off the year because if we don't hook our students early, the online experience will be hard for everyone including the parents.

To make this information more scannable, I have divided topics into subsections. Feel free to bounce around and camp at the topics you find most interesting.

Physical Space

Create enough space in your home for a desk, free-standing whiteboard, and a computer. Since you will be teaching from a desk most of the day, I also recommend a few more comforts.

• Standup Desk (must have)

• Comfortable chair (Costco has some good ones)

• Privacy screen (this creates your own little space)

• Candy jar (optional)

Teacher Resources

It's a good idea to know what recording software you will use for lessons, student feedback, and support before you begin this journey. We really didn't begin this journey last March. We avoided a crash landing. Here are some that I like.

• Loom.com

• Screencastomatic

• Google Meet +Record (You should have access to Google Meet in your Google Classroom)

Tools and Tech

This is a list of tools and technology that I think teachers will need to be most effective this school year.

• Document Camera (Ask your admin. if you can borrow one from your school)

• Personal Computer

• Slides Carnival and/or Slides Go

• Wireless headphones

• Online Websites (see table below)

Skills	Programs	Notes and Examples
Reading	Quindew.com ActivelyLearn.com	Reading practice & assessment
Writing	Google Docs Google Blogger	Daily journals Formal writing Writing workshop/Peer Review
Speaking	FlipGrid.com	Presentations  Video feedback
Collaboration	Google Meet Google Jamboard	Whole class and small group Jamboard is in your app cluster
Grammar	Quill.org	Weekly grammar practice

Building Relationships

This is the most important step to nailing distance learning. We have to dedicate time at the beginning to make sure we are connecting with our students. I recommend meet with small groups for the first week or two. Do this more often than whole class. Here are some activities that I will do. Feel free to use any of them and add your own in the comments below.

• Share a photo with Google Jamboard (Explain why it is important.)
• Roll the Dice: Getting to Know You Matrix (Coming soon)
• Pictionary with Google Jamboard (Students take turns drawing and guessing words just like Pictionary)
• Character Word Puzzle with Jamboard or Padlet (mix the letters that spell the words in your character curriculum like "respect" and "ownership."
• Community Storytelling with Google Slides (Set up five slides for the five students you are meeting with. Each of them can start a story. Then, after a few minutes, have them move slides and add on to a different story. Repeat this process until all students in the group have contributed to every story.)
• A Story of What Happened (Find a strange photo and have the students write about what happened. Then, they can take turns in small groups sharing what they wrote.)

Obviously, there is more to do here. Look for future blogs about Building Relationships and Lesson Design. Jump in and be part of the community by adding your ideas below.

Get more practical ideas by following this blog and following @lemasteredu and for all of your reading needs @literacyta and @quindewing on Twitter, Insta, and Facebook.