Teaching from Home - 3 Key Steps
Hello Teachers,
We know what uncertain times these are for everyone and hope you are keeping well. At Green Ninja, we've been busy supporting teachers as they translate their classroom experience into a home-based experience. Different schools and students have different needs, but we've all been learning together in how to continue to provide meaningful learning experiences for our students. We've provided below some tips and resources that may be helpful to teachers facing these challenges. Onward!
In moving to an online or distance format for instruction, let's keep these ideas in mind.
Expectations. Let's start with low exceptions for how our first days go and empathy for our students and ourselves. Moving over to a remote teaching environment is a big lift, and typically during normal circumstances, teachers and coaches can spend months planning for a new online course. Today, many of us have a couple of days to get prepared, so let's moderate our expectations of how well this will go initially, and celebrate the parts that work well. We also need to realize this is challenging for our students, and be kind to ourselves as well. It might be a little rocky at first, but with time, it will get better!
Community. An important part of student success are the norms associated with going to school. A student has a teacher who cares for them, friends who they learn with and socialize with, and a regular schedule for their day. This creates a culture centered around the intention of learning and helps students succeed. Our focus today should be to maintain as many of those norms as possible in this new environment, especially when it comes to teacher-student interactions. Having a regular teaching schedule, whether synchronous or asynchronous, helps to establish a regular pattern for learning. Providing students with direct feedback, either online or though tools like google docs, supports that important connection between student and teachers. And having opportunities for students to work with other students, when possible, can also recreate some of that classroom experience.
Science Practices. Another recommended strategy is to spend some instructional time helping students improve on their science and engineering practices (i.e., NGSS SEPs). Although we all have science content we had planned for this academic year, the SEPs are also part of our science standards and for students learning at home, we can use the SEPs as an area of focus for almost any project that students do at home. For example, if you asked your students to go outside and take a photo an artifact from their local area (e.g., plant leaf, piece of concrete, soil), students could use I notice..., I wonder..., and It reminds me of... sentence frames to ultimately 'Ask Questions', one of our SEPs. Using the SEPs like 'Asking Questions' or 'Constructing Explanations' are great ways to translate content local to students homes into science instruction.
For teachers who want a quick resource for their next science class, here is something from our Green Ninja video library (https://greenninja.org/Green_Ninja_Show).
Have students watch For Goodness Rake (https://greenninja.org/Green_Ninja_Show/18)
Have students answer some of the questions from the Teaching Guide. For example
What did the Green Ninja do to help mitigate the damage caused by the homeowner’s use of the Blotron 9000? (Look for at least 3 actions)
Have you ever been around a leaf blower? If so, what did you experience?
What is exhaust and how does it impact both human and environmental health?
How did the operation of the leaf blower directly affect the air in the yard?
Create a list of the benefits gained by switching from the leaf blower to a rake. Next, think of a modification you can make in your personal life that might give you one of those benefits.
That's it for now - good luck and reach out to our team if we can help you in any way!
- Green Ninja Team