It’s the midweek check in!!! How is everyone getting on this week?
It seems that like me, so many others had an unsettled week last week but it is OK to have an unsettled week given the changes and restrictions. There is a rainbow coming in Phase 1 on May 18th.
Today, I wanted to check how many of the class were actually online today and checked into Teams. While 20 of the 28 commented and checked into Teams this morning, 2 more sent me work on Seesaw, so I am happy with the response from my class. I had thought with the confirmation that we would not be back in the school building before September that some of my class would not respond anymore but I think they need the routine more than ever.
Have you found that preparing lessons and resources for Distance Learning is taking up loads of your time. I am trying to work on my own planning and develop a system to make the most of my time. I often find I can spend hours online between setting work, responding to queries and then correcting work to send back. While I am glad of the distraction of school work some days I do find I need to make more time for myself too.
As part of the hours I have spent preparing work this week, I have spent lots of time looking through the Over The Moon series from Gill Education. I have been sharing the anthology ebooks and skills books with my class over the last two weeks and they have responded really well. While I am still using my own in class strategies I am now using activities that are outlined in the Skills Book to encourage discussion with my class on Teams.
Within the Skills book for the Narrative Genre I am working on there are activities for Before, During and After Reading. There are different comprehension activities within the After Reading section, activities for Phonics and Grammar along with Oral activities and links to the Writing Genre. So it is the ideal accompaniment for the new language curriculum.
I also like how it explores the Author’s Purpose at the end of the stories we have been using. There are so many elements to the series that I have yet to work on but I want to make the most of it during the Distance Learning. I will keep you all posted.
Now I’m off to binge watch more Grey’s Anatomy for some self care and time out.
Stay Safe Everyone
Aistear Muinteoir
Aistear Múinteoir 