This is a short post. Teachers are tired right now.
I am currently in a hybrid teaching situation. For those who think it isn't possible, it is. I'm not saying it is easy, but with each passing day, the tech takes up less space in my working memory, and the ability to address those in my room as well as those on my screen gets a little more natural.
Because we are now two weeks in, it was time to give the first test. Figuring out how to do this fairly has perhaps been the most difficult thing to wrap my mind around. Giving a regular paper test makes cheating far too tempting for those at home. Giving something different to those at home than those in the room was just going to create perception problems. So, I decided to do what I did when everyone was at home, using a combination of Go Formative with monitoring (for multiple-choice questions) and Flip Grid (for short answer questions or skill-based questions).
While no method is perfect or without the potential for cheating, and the videos take a long time to grade, this combination is what works for me in this moment.
Yesterday, I discovered a benefit I had not anticipated. While watching the videos on Flip Grid, I got to know my students better. From the hams who practically performed their answers to the introverts whose voices I rarely get to hear in the room to the creativity of a student who cut out a picture of a fire hydrant to use in her video as though it were real, I got to see the personalities of my students in a way that I would not have if they had written the answers to the questions on paper.
The quarantine of the spring and the hybrid classes of the fall have forced us to examine our practices to figure out how to make them work in this situation. Doing so has been difficult, and we are all tired. It has, however, had the upside of finding benefits to methods we might not have otherwise used. As you innovate, keep your eyes open for the unexpected benefits.
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