Today is the first day of the concurrent hybrid schedule. This counts as a special day, and so I'm doing "A Day in the Life" today:
8:00 -- I arrive at my school. As I enter my classroom, I'm still trying to figure out whether I have access to classroom websites, particularly APEX.
The good news is that I finally have access to APEX. The bad news is that despite this, I can't access any of the actual classes in APEX. Instead, I get a message indicating to click to add classes. And so it appears that I will have my first day of hybrid without APEX access.
It appears that it's a simple matter for the regular teacher to add me on as a teacher in APEX, just as previous teachers have added me in Google classroom. And so I make a mental note to contact him after school today.
8:45 -- First period arrives. This is an eighth grade class. There are fourteen students in this class, with twelve of them in Cohort TT (Tuesday/Thursday in person) and two in Cohort TO (online only).
There is a thermometer that we as teachers use at the start of the day. We aim the thermometer at the forehead and pull it to find the students' temperature. We only do this for the first class of the day. One girl is absent today. Another boy -- who skipped online classes yesterday -- arrives to school late, even though he has a zero period class.
Since today is Tuesday, the focus will be on my seventh grade class, and so I'll describe my eighth grade lesson in more detail tomorrow. Today I'll write only about the logistics of the hybrid schedule.
At the start of the period, the Wi-Fi isn't working, but I don't really need it. Since I can't access APEX anyway, the regular teacher has already sent me a copy of the lesson in Google Drive. And so I write the notes on paper and display it using a document camera and projector. The online students should be able to see the projected image as they watch on Google Meet.
Later on in the period, the Wi-Fi is working. By now, the students can access APEX themselves, and so they can complete the online lessons.
10:25 -- The hybrid schedule is like a block schedule, and so first period ends here. But instead, it's time for tutorial. In order to avoid unnecessary intermingling with other students, each day is given a certain period for the students to attend during tutorial. Today, the assigned period is first period, and so the students must remain here in first period even longer.
11:10 -- First period/tutorial finally ends for snack break. During the break, the head of the math department quickly speaks to me. She tells me that there should be an assignment on Go Formative for the students to work on.
11:25 -- Third period arrives, as this is like a block schedule with odd periods. This is a seventh grade class, also with fourteen students. Thirteen of them are in Cohort TT with only one student in Cohort TO (online only).
Today's lesson is on using properties to add and subtract "rational numbers," especially integers. These properties are the Commutative, Associative, and Distributive Property. Notice that the students haven't learned multiplication of integers yet, so it seems strange that there would be a lesson on Distributive Property (of Multiplication Over Addition). But the examples in APEX only use positive integers in their examples of distribution.
In order to keep the students on-task, I choose students at random to answer questions on the properties of integer addition. My randomizer includes the boy who is viewing the lesson online.
12:15 -- Since the 100-minute block periods can be daunting, I break up the period with a song. The song for today is Square One TV's "That's Math," performed by the late Gregory Hines, a world-famous tap dancer:
THAT'S MATH by Gregory Hines
First Verse: Hey, thank you,
Hey, come on in here.
Let me tell you something about math,
Let's look at this bill. What have we got here?
I had two plain pies at six bucks apiece,
Add one with extra cheese, that's seven.
Add eight cream sodas, a buck a pop,
Adds up to $27.
We know the tax is five percent,
In this great state we live in.
Multiply by three, 15 percent,
That's the tip that I'll be givin'.
Refrain: That's math! That's math! That's math! That's how you figure it out.
That's math! That's math! That's what it's all about.
Second Verse: Bottom of the ninth, we're up by three,
Full count, two outs, and three men on.
This guy comes up hitting .405,
Six homers last month alone.
Gotta think, last year he hit my fastball,
Six times out of seven,
He was three for five on my curveball,
But only one for four on my slider.
After going over the numbers,
I wind up and let one fly,
I strike him out with my slider,
And I'm voted Most Valuable Guy.
Refrain: That's math! That's math! That's math! That's what it's all about.
That's math! That's math! That's how you strike 'em out.
Third Verse: Imagine an island three feet wide,
A thousand feet below,
I gotta drop a survival box,
To save a guy named Joe.
So I calculate my altitude,
Direction and wind speed,
And I factor in the box's weight,
And the angle I will need.
Now I'm not ashamed to say I hit,
A perfect bulls-eye and move on.
Joe can eat until he gets rescued,
I just hope he likes croutons.
Refrain: That's math! That's math! That's math! That's how you figure it out.
That's math! That's math! Bing! Beng!
Fourth Verse: Now the only thing as great as math I see,
As far as I'm concerned,
Is music I can dance to,
Here's something I recently learned:
Music is a kind of math,
And intervals and beats.
Every time I sing a note,
Every time I move my feet.
And it's not just school,
It begins when you close your book.
Tread any path and you'll find math,
Everywhere you look.
Refrain: That's math! That's math! That's math! Bing! Beng!.
That's math! That's math! That's what you can do with math.
I bring my guitar to school, making this the first song I've played on the instrument in ages. (Yes, I know -- I bring my guitar on the day that a famous guitarist, Eddie Van Halen, passes away.)
To keep the song simple -- especially since I want to focus more on the preparing my classroom rather than practicing chords -- I play only one chord, a G major chord (as G/B). In the EACGAE tuning (that my guitar's stuck in due to the broken D tuning knob), this chord is fingered as x22023. I also added a few extra bass notes (for example, G-B-C-D) during the spoken verses in the original Hines song. But no, I don't tap dance along with Hines, since I can't.
12:15 -- Some students work at a leisurely pace on their APEX assignments. I tell them about Go Formative, but none of them find a new assignment for them to work on there. For those who have nothing else to do, I keep asking a few extra integer problems and asking students to answer them.
Since the students aren't used to this block schedule yet, some of them grow restless. This is a great time for me to mention my tenth resolution, "We are not truly done until we have achieved excellence."
1:05 -- Third period leaves for lunch. And this turns out to be a good time for me to focus on my "eleventh" resolution, the one that's only for myself -- improve my communication skills, particularly with my colleagues.
For the first time today, I see other teachers in the lounge -- yes, there are still teachers in the lounge even during the pandemic. We're spread out so there's no more than two of us per table.
Many of the other teachers are discussing the problems they have so far during hybrid. Most of them involving problems with technology -- either the Wi-Fi shutdown at the start of the day, or problems with APEX and other similar sites in their respective departments. There are also the expected problems with students accessing entertainment websites during class time -- either on phones (which, of course, are awkward to confiscate now) or even by using their Chromebooks to send text messages.
1:45 -- Fifth period arrives. This is the Math Skills class. It's a small class with only eight students scheduled to have a lesson today, with six in the TT cohort and two in the TO cohort (fully online).
Yet seven students show up in my classroom. For some reason, one guy is on campus even though he's listed as TO on the roster. Thus there's only one student attending the class online today.
As usual, this period has only ST Math to complete this week. Since the class is so small, I'm able to walk around the room -- remaining socially distanced -- to check the Chromebook screens, especially after hearing the other teachers mention students sneaking to play games. Fortunately, I don't see any games on any of the screens (though admittedly, some parts of ST Math look like games).
2:35 -- Fifth period leaves. Both fifth and sixth period "meet" everyday that the respective cohorts are on campus, since sixth period is independent study PE (so in reality, that all students go home now).
I visit the attendance office and inquire about the extra student in my fifth period. The lady there tells me that his other teachers noticed this too, and so she will try to clarify his situation with the parents by Thursday -- the next day this student is scheduled.
I call the regular teacher to report on this first day of hybrid. I ask him to add me to his APEX classes, but lo and behold, he's not the one who can add me. Instead, it's the people in the district office -- the ones who put me into APEX in the first place -- who must also add me to the classes. (In other words, they could have done all of this in one go, but they didn't.)
Also, the regular teacher tells me that the seventh graders (unlike the eighth graders) are supposed to take a quiz (in this case Quiz 2.3.5) in APEX on the days that they are on campus. I gave them APEX time today, but never specifically told them to complete the quiz. I'll make sure that the seventh graders meeting the rest of the week do take the proper quiz.
That, in a nutshell, is my first day of concurrent hybrid. Let's hope it all goes more smoothly tomorrow.
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