I am not an expert in hybrid. Instead this is an effort to reflect on what has gone well and what I plan to adjust as we move forward.
Our district has three cohorts:
- A cohort meets M/Th
- B cohort meets Tu/Fri
- C cohort is full distance learning.
On the other days, all students tune in via zoom. On Wednesdays, we all do distance learning. The schedule has 48 minute classes, ensuring students can grab their lunch and go, keeping everyone safe. Then, a student support (treated like office hours) wraps up the day.
Safety
I wear two masks, an N95 mask underneath a cloth one. N95's hurt my ears (more than any other mask so far) but the cloth one holds it to my face. I also have two air filters I brought from home around my desk. This is in addition to the MERV13 filters (85%) effective. The front row of desks (yes, they are in rows, not by choice) have plastic sneeze guards and each student has the option to wipe down their desk with a hydrogen peroxide based approved cleaning solution. There is also a foot pump hand sanitizer at the back. They wipe down their desks for themselves, rather than for the next class. Students are pretty good about wearing masks, with only a few reminders of tucking in their noses during the first week.
I make sure my hair is up to avoid additional surface area exposure and change as soon as I get home. I go home at the end of class, change my entire outfit, eat and offer student support from home. I am extremely nervous about bringing anything home to my family, with two young children and a high risk husband. I will continue this pattern, especially as Orange County remains the only county in my generally area NOT in lockdown.
Room Set Up
I taught distance learning with two monitors. I shared my screen on one monitor and watched private chat and GoGuardian on the other. This EdTech Round Up Article has a nice overview of GoGuardian. Essentially, I can see what they see in their chrome browser.
Prior to hybrid, my school gave us the amazing opportunity to have a large viewsonic TV monitor at the front of our rooms. It is a touch screen computer and ideal for this situation. This is my new shared screen. The students on zoom see the shared monitor, and the students in the classroom don't need to log onto zoom to see shared content. Chromebooks don't work well with anything when running zoom, so it increases their device's effectiveness while decreasing the bandwidth usage at school.
I log into zoom on the TV, then rename myself "TV". (The students were private messaging me on the wrong device). The TV also has a camera and speaker attached that I point toward the TV. This lets them see when I gesture to the whole class. (Apparently, I teach a lot through movement. It is in my Italian roots.) Then I log on my desktop computer to Zoom. This is my "2nd screen" where I monitor chat, admit people into the room, watch GoGuardian, etc. By being on zoom on this second device, it logs me off on the TV, but I am still in the Zoom meeting. The added step on logging on each class isn't so bad with the automatic Google Sign in.
I found so much success with private chat, I didn't want to lose it. Plus, private chat in front of a class of students defeats the purpose.
Attendance
This seems like a silly feature to focus on, but I had different students attending on different days and they were in different places. So far, I am happy with my routine. I have 3 sets of attendance sheets printed. One set stays home for Wednesday attendance (pure distance learning). The other two sets are for different cohorts. One set is for Monday, Thursday. I have highlighted the students who should be in class. I also have their seating chart at the bottom of the sheet. Underneath that set is the Tuesday/Thursday set with cohort B highlighted. I check my in class students first, checking for any students who should be in class but are on zoom (they have a different attendance code). Then I take attendance using the Zoom participant list, double checking they were in class all period with Zoom usage reports. I have some students who sign out early and don't come back. Because I am using a different set every other day, I can rotate through each and end where I started. It worked so much better than I anticipated. I can still use my routines of keeping notes with participation and engagement using different color pens and attendance is easy, which is vital when also letting in students from the waiting room, etc.
First Week
I didn't plan much the first two days of hybrid. I knew students would be learning the location of classrooms and all the other excitement of the first week of school. It wasn't nearly as exciting. The hardest part was that our bell schedule had changed. Within the first week, everyone had figured out the new routine. Monday and Tuesday were very minimally planned. I adjusted the planning for Thursday and Friday to be more interactive. Online moved slower than in person, so it has been difficult to keep them on the same plan.
What I am working on
Participation
Engagement has been difficult. I can't walk around the room to sequence and select participants, and Zoom students seemed to think they were exempt from participating. Some students who came to school weren't happy about it (toward their parents) and avoided participation. In many cases, students who participated online wouldn't in class. After 6 days of in class instruction, my remedial classes and my honors classes had the same patterns of behavior. It felt like a class that had never participated in an activity. Even though the were proficient in participating online, we need to relearn participating in hybrid. I was surprised at how quickly they reverted to this behavior. They are still good on Wednesdays when we are at home. I have been working on using Desmos and virtual whiteboards to share student work. Then when I want students to talk, I ask a question, then use the Google Classroom App's student selector to select a participant. Not ideal, but neither is COVID. We are working through routines to get back on track, and in class students are still welcome to join via zoom if they want to private chat.
Chat Management
My students have gotten used to chatting with me on both Zoom and GoGuardian. At home, I was able to focus on these two apps, but in hybrid I am having trouble balancing both. So far, I have been verbally letting them know where to go. Overall, they know if they don't get a response, to try another place. Mostly, during any class discussion Zoom is the place to chat. Once we transition to student work, GoGuardian is where they will chat. This still needs some reflecting.
Work Flow
Even with engaging with students all day on zoom, I got WAY more work done with pure distance learning. Maybe it is working in a mask, or the comfort of my home. Either way, it feels like my work time has diminished by about half. I had trouble keeping up with Google Classroom notifications and emails at the beginning of the year in distance learning, so I am confident I will find my routine in this new situation.
Overall, hybrid is doable. It is challenging and new, but the community I have built in my virtual classroom has helped the transition tremendously. My students give feedback and ideas and are patient when I struggle with a new thing. I make sure to model learning something new and making mistakes on a daily basis. The hardest part is how frazzled and distracted I feel. I have difficulty focusing and giving my full attention to questions because of how much I have on my mind. It will come with time.
Patience with myself and my students is what is keeping me sane during this transition. I am still making adjustments as I know better. I would love to hear what is going well for others and share more ideas for what is going well for me. We are all in this together. :)
P.S. My formal observation is Thursday and I am doing a Polygraph for Rational Functions. This should be interesting!
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