This could include flipped lessons describing each stage at the process, so students could re-watch the videos as they need them.

There would also be extension activities for the students who move quickly through the lessons. It could be related news articles on a website like Newsela that offers leveled readings or authentic videos that connect to the content.

An idea for the Mastery Path: create a series of questions based on the maps they are responsible to apply. The mini-quizzes will ask questions that get progressively harder. Students have to earn 100% on the quiz to move on to the next one. As the teacher, I can monitor which quiz they are on, where the common misunderstandings are, and give feedback alongt he way.

Since I am transferring courses, I am grateful I do not have to start from scratch for each unit. I can take what already exists in the PLC and customize it to the needs of my students. In a technology-rich instruction, creation and customization is part of the yearly process. Things are not just duplicated exactly year-to-year.

I asked, my district does not currently have a synchronous presentation tool, so all of the online classes offered through the district are asynchronous. They offered to let me explore and suggest one for the future.

Solely teaching in a synchronous means being able to uber multi-task: present the lesson, read the chat, answer questions, manage different apps/websites, watch for student responses… all while talking coherently. The big ah-ha is how exhausting it was to plan, even just for a single 10 minute synchronous lesson. What would it feel like to multiply that by 180 school days? (Do they have a traditional school calendar online? Do you “meet” everyday?)

It needs to be logical for the students or they will not preserve to find it, especially the struggling learners who would benefit most from re-watching the video.

Our school does give an Interpersonal Skills grade as well as the academic grade, so maybe they could be tied together to encourage students to help each other out. Not everyone is altruistically motivated, but they are often worried about their own scores. This would be more tangible way to access the interpersonal skills that currently used.

I can envision the quotes of the week, with the best sentences that captured my attention, but than I would have to be careful to show a range or writers voices. How long would this take to do well?

Rice had a possible solution for nonparticipation “create alternate assignments for learners who are unable to make up discussion activities” (155). If they are responding way after the other students it decreases the educational value. Could their time be better spent? But if they aren’t interested in making the assignment up, is it wasting your time to constantly have a Plan B?

I already have elements of both station-rotation and flipped classroom in place, but the text and various articles have given me things to think about to improve the flow and management. I want the students to come away from the rotation model feeling like they were challenged and their learning was enriched, not like their time was wasted (not that I would ever waste their time intentionally, but I don’t want it to be the worksheet of the digital world).

I had not considered some of the access issues with websites and documents. As I am building a new Canvas course from scratch, I can add the Alt Text and proper headings to make the material more accessible for students using text-to-speech features.
It is also important to think about using a variety of media to present information – I liked short videos giving the overview of what is expected of students. If it was combined with a checklist I think less students would miss components.