S4 E2: Problems of Practice

Today, Drs. Rebecca Hines and Lisa Dieker answer their first question from a listener. Tune in to hear their tips on ways to connect with students during virtual learning. 

We are still accepting questions from teachers to ask problems they would like some renewal ideas on. We look forward to receiving your questions on our Google Phone (407) 900- 9305, Facebook (Practical Access), Twitter (@AccessPractical), or Instagram (@Practical_Access).

Transcript

Lisa Dieker: 0:04

Welcome to practical access. I'm Lisa Dieker.

Rebecca Hines: 0:07

And I'm Rebecca Hines. And Lisa, today, I think we are launching our new format for this season. Yes, so

Lisa Dieker: 0:14

we're going to be looking for problems of practice. And we have a phone number for you, if you'd like to call, it's a Google Voice number, great little tip for teachers, to have a backup to your regular phone number, it's 407-900-9305. Again, it's 407-900-9305. We'll also put that on our Facebook, on our Twitter and out on the practical access podcast site. So in case you're

Unknown: 1:13

My students attend in person and online, and I'm on a semi block schedule. So some classes meet for 60 minutes, and some meet for 90 minutes. So I have a two part question for today's. So my first part is that my students aren't required to keep their cameras on during class, so many disappear throughout the lesson. How can I keep them engaged enough to stay all class period? And then the

Lisa Dieker: 1:55

Alright, and just in case you had a little trouble hearing there in the beginning, Lisa, English teacher, ninth grade, and two parts that we got to think about here. One is kids are turning their cameras off and leaving. I know, that shocks us both. I think we've been victims of doing that ourselves at some point in this world of zoom. And then the second part is kids with

Rebecca Hines: 2:22

It's English. And she said her classes are 60 minutes and 90 minutes around the block. Yeah, so I think the first thing there, Lisa, obviously,

Lisa Dieker: 2:31

not this Lisa, Lisa, the podcast, not low,

Rebecca Hines: 2:34

it's a both of you Lisa's is the obvious, which is chunking the time because 60 minutes is a long time for anyone to attend to a podcast. So I mean, even TV shows are half out or in a lot of cases. So I think that chunking is obviously one thing to consider. But I think there's some other ways in other issues that go along with this. So when we try to chunk and we kids are at home,

Lisa Dieker: 3:17

Yeah. And I always say, you know, if you're going to send them away to do something, make it so fun, that they'll want to come back, you know, bring me the most treasured item in your home. Find two items related to the main character and convince appear in a breakout, why this is important. And I do think that that's part of it is is that chunking not only chunking, but increasing

Rebecca Hines: 4:41

Well as a former language arts teacher, and Lisa, I'm sure you've done this too. I did do alternative book reports all the time, that that are something specific you could search for with that idea of go find me something that represents you know, your understanding of something You read. So if you're looking for a search term search alternative book reports, and then let's just

Lisa Dieker: 6:32

But and you know, you talked about me being bored when and everything to do so I co taught with a couple of teachers just that were friends and said, Could I come online with you and be almost a co teacher and one of the things I did is I added two things. One, I've already talked about novelty but did crazy things like just screamed once in a while dropped a pan. I know that sounds

Rebecca Hines: 6:53

Maybe if you scream, that's how you get their attention to come back. That's

Lisa Dieker: 6:57

exactly. But what I also I did is when we asked them to come back, they had to check in and if they didn't want to turn their cameras on. And as we all know, kids have a lot going on in their lives. Maybe it's not, they don't look good, their home isn't you know, they don't want to share they have six siblings behind them. And it's too confusing and they have there is I would say you know, six times 6 million, what would you get? And so think about those small kinds of routine things that they come to expect. So they get somewhat of a break too.

Rebecca Hines: 8:50

As we think about the actual content itself, you know, if we say we'll give them something else to do that's away from the screen for a minute, what we asked them to do might look different to I know that again, when you have kids who struggle with reading maybe the reading part is a real barrier here. So my next recommendation and a really strong one is to perhaps look for a

Lisa Dieker: 10:03

And I'm going to kind of piggyback and blend the two questions together and one that I think would kind of go across both that kind of backs on what you were saying is a choice board. And you know, I think we both like choices, we would definitely as friends make very different choices when given choice. And I think that's very, very true, especially as we start to think of our kids on

Rebecca Hines: 11:41

agree, we definitely need more mini lessons on tools to support learning. And I think if we could start thinking about our job, you know, in chunking, our own jobs a little differently, where here's a mini lesson, you know, at 10am, a mini lesson on this one tool. So I think that support tools absolutely are critical. And you know, finally, I think at least in my last, my last just

Lisa Dieker: 12:50

And I will just wrap up with you know, what if a kid can tell you, if a kid can draw it, if a kid can write it, if a kid can take a test on it. All of those are showing what we know. And I think we've got to get past. But this is how they have to do it on the state test. I always say that's one day of 180. The other 179 if I become a better reader, I have more confidence in myself as