Barak brought me to TEARS today

I don't know if it's the loneliness I'm feeling from staying home so much because of our stay at home orders due to Corona Virus, or maybe because I feel like I want to do more in the Black Lives Matter movement or is it because I miss being with really smart people, but listening to Barak Obama speak today at John Lewis' funeral brought tears to my eyes and they fell down my cheeks. 

I trust him. I trust his words. I trust his ideas. I think he still has so much to give us as a country. MAybe it's the first time he has really spoken with politics since he left the White House. I miss him. I miss the idea of our leader speaking to us to inspire us and to help us be reflective of ourselves.

I'm working on my studio classroom and Scott and I are going to move rooms around so that I can have the bigger room to teach from.  Lots of emotions today.

Workshop Ideas for MITC

I've been asked to do a workshop for Math in the City at the end of August this year. Kara Imm was asked, but she doesn't feel prepared to do the workshop and asked me and then gave MitC my name and information and the most wonderful description or the leadership I've taken on this spring.

I did some prep today for my Google Educator Certification Level 2. I think I'll take the test at the end of the week or next Monday. I think I'll pass easily. Worried for the tech issues some people have had with ProctorU and Google. 

Be sure to learn about Hyperdocs. I've been learning about them. Adam Chawansky made some google slides that are probably similar. I think I will utilize them for my students as I teach remotely or in a hybrid model if we go back to school. 

Stay healthy by washing your mask and your hands. I think we need about 10 masks per person to wash them and have some variety. I only use two, so it's time to get some more. 

Today's tasks have included looking at and thinking about conditional logic with Google Forms. I am aware and have tried to create some forms with conditional logic, but I think a day or two of practice would suit me well. Thinking about a form to collect information from students so that we get ALL of the possible cell numbers, work numbers, home numbers for all of the people we would need to contact in the event of an emergency is one of those areas I think a form would work best. I think this especially because I am tired of misreading people's handwriting. 

So after I finish this chapter on my studying, creating that great form to collect information will be on my todo list. Using conditional logic in the form. 

Teachers Never Stop Thinking

Today I've done a lot of jobs at my parents house and I never stop thinking about what I can learn from them to help me teach other children in my classes. I can't always find ideas easily since this place is so different from where my students are from. However, learning the way to ask questions and to communicate with them as they age is a skill I've learned. My students need to learn to ask me questions differently than they as their friends because I'm different. I found a great article that talks about NYC finding interesting ways to teach in different locations. NYC can be the LEADERS

Teach and Create during the Pandemic... thinking

Yesterday President Trump and Secretary of Education DeVos got on the "schools must open" kick. Now the news runs with the ideas of how to open schools. The good thing is that maybe someone not in education can solve our impossible problem. Need social distancing, some kids need home instruction via internet, some teachers can't be in classrooms, some content doesn't work well online, small children NEED socialization, teenagers is all about social world.

I think we need to utilize parks, stadiums, parking lots with circus like tents (cirque de sole) so we can do social emotional teaching in social outdoor settings and then do more academic work online or virtually. Tap the companies that have done virtual work and find out what works and what doesn't. Jeff has worked with people in Lithuania for years and only been together IRL a few times maybe 14 days total. How do they get that to work? How are they productive together? We need to look outside of the education world to solve this problem.

Where are the think tanks? I need to be on one of them. Look here from 2015 an article to work apart.

Practicing my Blogging again

I am currently practicing to take my Google Educator Level 2 exam and blogger is a topic I need to practice, so I found my OLD blog. Ha! Sitting at mom and dad's typing away. I just had a study session with Ms. McKee and Ms. Higgs as they are studying for their Level 1 exams and plan to take them this week. They will rock the tests! I'm sure of it.

Do you still want to follow?

Some have asked that I do this again. Are you interested?