A Whole New World



 I can't believe we are already a few weeks into the school year. My 25th year. And yet I'm feeling like a first-year teacher in so many ways. 

There have been big changes, any one of which would've thrown me for a loop if I'm honest. 

Block scheduling. 

Teaching virtually. 

Pivoting for hybrid learning. 

My colleagues and I are leaning on each other. We are taking this one day and one week at a time. I'm incredibly proud of the work we are doing. 

I've made a Bitmoji Classroom (sorry, not sorry--it's a fun way to introduce myself to my students but it's not central to the work we're doing). The classroom contains links to our school website, National History Day Symbaloo Webmix, and other links. It also holds a daily agenda slide. I've upped my tech game by creating it. Housing the classroom in our Schoology page was an tech accomplishment for me, too. I update it daily with an agenda slide that updates when I complete it in Google Slides.

My Bitmoji also made an appearance in one of our first activities--a Virtual Locker.



The locker went over very well. The students enjoyed making it and it stands as a clear reminder that I am striving to know the young people behind the screens. We shared in breakout rooms and discussion went well. 

We are reading nine,ten: a September 11 story again this year. I love seeing my students all stare at their screens when something suspenseful happens! It is solid evidence that I'm building connections with them.

We are learning the language of historians through the Stanford History Group's Thinking Like a Historian series. This vocabulary lays the foundation of our work this year. Gamifying the vocabulary with Gimkit has been successful.

Finally, my A day classes started National History Day Speed Topic-ing. This is the first time I'm working with students that have already completed an NHD project as 7th Graders. My 8th Graders last year mentored these students with their projects and I'm really excited to see how this impacts our learning this year.





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