Eating Cereal With a Spoon

This week I was fortunate to participate in some professional learning around distance learning. One of the speakers associated quality distance learning to eating cereal with a spoon. It brought me back to the importance of our integration of Blackboard with our practice of live streaming. For any virtual learning to be successful, we must ensure that we have provided students with the right "tools," so they can consume the learning experience. If we set-up a live stream, but we fail to post key resources, handouts, learning outcomes, etc. to our Blackboard classes, then we are essentially asking students to eat their cereal with a fork, which can be a frustrating and ineffective experience. To aid the system in our development of creating meaningful virtual experiences for students, we have shifted our priorities to align to the development of Blackboard, while ensuring the social and emotional well-being of our students and staff. 

As all secondary teachers get up and running with the live stream on November 2nd, please continue to remind yourselves that the goal is always progress over perfection. It's okay if right now if students are eating their cereal with a "spork." Through targeted professional learning around our goals for Blackboard, we'll eventually get everyone a spoon. 

Teacher Testimonials

I used to think: live streaming would add technology behavior issues, headaches, confusion, bandwidth issues, frustrations, extra work for me etc. Now I think: the bumps getting started smooth themselves out quickly. The extra work I am putting in is paying dividends. Starting small, simple, and easing into it helped avoid creating huge unexpected glitches. The students have been courteous with live steaming and follow our set norms, and they often interact with the rest of the class as though they were right here with us. It has also given me a window/alternate view into my own instruction, because I am able to watch parts of my recording, (when time permits) and I can reflect and make changes based on seeing myself through the student’s eyes on the recording. I also realize best practices that work in a live classroom are similar practices needed for setting up a successful live stream. Though there are downsides and complications, for the most part live streaming allows students that are at home, for whatever the reason, to feel more connected with me and the rest of the class. When they have come back to class, if they did indeed attend the live steam classes that were offered, it is like they didn’t miss a thing, and they slide right back into face to face classes.
~Jake Paulson, Literacy Teacher at Butler Middle School

Live streaming has helped us continue to work through content on a consistent, daily basis. We have worked to keep a similar schedule to what we have done in the past. It has provided the flexibility to allow students opportunities to learn and practice skills in class, get questions answered in person or at home, and receive immediate feedback on any given day. The experience getting to live stream last year, while overwhelming at times, was a huge help. Some of the frustrations last spring helped to answer questions leading into this year and set the stage for live streaming this year. The students have been receptive to the streaming. It has taken some flexibility on all parts - for example, some students watch the recordings later in the day if they have to miss for some reason and are aware that if they miss a virtual class, they may feel overwhelmed the next day. Being able to record the lesson has been helpful, especially with the links to the recordings posting right to our space. Students have shared they have watched at different times if they have had to miss class or that they choose to re-watch a lesson if we covered a difficult concept. While there have been some hiccups, live streaming has been an incredible asset this year.
~Dan Schreier, Waukesha South Math Teacher

Live-streaming, while not a perfect solution to our current challenges, has offered huge benefits to my students since I started offering it several weeks ago. Without live-streaming, I could only teach two face to face lessons per week in the hybrid model. I wasn’t able to provide the kind of instruction I wanted, making it much more challenging for my students to acquire the knowledge and skills they needed to succeed. Live streaming allowed me to teach four new face to face lessons per week, as virtual students could easily join my class through WebEx, and have full access to what was happening at school. I was able to teach better lessons, cover required content, add depth, and have necessary time to practice reading and writing skills. I also clarified what I expected of students on virtual days: their assignment was to come to class. When I surveyed them about their learning preferences in the hybrid environment, 52 percent said they liked having the live-stream classes, 11 percent preferred independent self-directed lessons, and 25 percent preferred both! Another 12 percent preferred neither livesteam nor self-directed learning; they wanted to be back in school for full instruction. What I have learned so far, and what my students have made abundantly clear, is they want to be taught. They value the classroom experience, they prefer having a teacher who can guide them, and they will willingly join from home when given the opportunity for live instruction. Moving forward, live-streaming will make my classroom available to every student, every day, no matter where they are. And while it has certainly added to my workload in terms of prepping, communicating, posting materials to bb9/WebEx, and managing the technical aspects, it has also helped me to maintain continuity in my instruction, maintain a consistent and predictable connection with every student, and given me a reliable tool for keeping all students engaged in a most difficult time.
~Rich Mertes, Waukesha South History Teacher

The topic of live streaming classes during the COVID 19 pandemic has been seen as both a solution to the problem of virtual engagement and a source of anxiety for staff as they navigate how to make it happen in an effective way. When I received word that all classes would begin live streaming their classes for students at home, my immediate response was "How will students ever have the confidence to participate in class when being streamed live?" It turns out, my worries were misplaced. Students have risen to the occasion and helped their classmates have the best possible new experience at home. My new concern lies more on the technical side right now. How can we optimize sound and video quality at home? How can we engage students so they are not passively sitting in front of a screen for hours? These are real concerns, but they are ones that can be handled. I guess the famous proverb "necessity is the mother of invention" will need to once again prove true.
~Mark Anderson, Waukesha West Social Studies Teacher