These Are Trying Times!
The last time I posted on this blog was in February, before the novel coronavirus became a global pandemic, shutting down schools, businesses, and other institutions worldwide. Here in upstate New York, My students and I have been engaged with remote learning since mid March and schools are closed in our state through at least the end of April, as of this writing. A lot of teachers have been graciously sharing resources for remote learning on blogs, Twitter, Facebook, among other outlets. In this post I will share a few things that have been helpful along the way:
Daily Screencast Videos via Canvas Studio
My school uses Canvas as a learning management system, which has a built in video creator, which includes the ability to screencast. If you use an LMS that does not have a built in video creator and you want to do a screencast, Screencast-O-Matic is a great one. I create the content for my screencasts in good old PowerPoint. Google Slides or another slideshow creator would also work well. Do I speak 90%+ in French in these videos like I strive for in class every day? No, sadly, I don't. This has been one of my biggest struggles in the switch to remote learning. Not being able to negotiate meaning through gestures and other modalities as well as check for understanding face to face, I've had to rely more on the use of English to ensure student comprehension. It's not ideal, but unfortunately the classroom experience cannot be entirely replicated in an online setting. I allow students to leave comments on the video in case they have questions, and sometimes a student will leave some positive feedback saying something was helpful or that they appreciated the video. I think doing a video every day is nice because it gets students seeing the language every day (ideally, but of course students are free to watch the videos all at once if they choose to). I also really enjoy making them. I sort of feel like I'm back in the classroom with my students when I'm recording them! I will say that I consider myself pretty tech-savvy, so creating these slideshows and videos doesn't take too long. Don't feel badly if you don't have the time to create a video per day. Shoot for one a week if you can! There are plenty of other resources you can share with your students to get them connecting with the language. Here are some of the things I've done in the videos:
--Reviewed vocabulary or grammar - Ok, so it probably isn't as exciting or engaging as when I do it in class, but I find being able to talk with accompanying text and images onscreen is more useful for students than just reading it.
--Taught this two part Impressionism lesson with an optional self-grading quiz at the end asking them to identify the painter of various impressionist paintings (their only choices were Monet, Renoir and Degas, the three painters I focused on in the lesson).
--Took students on a tour of the Musée d'Orsay and Musée de l'Orangerie in Paris, pausing at paintings done by the artists they learned about in the Impressionism lesson and asking them to identify the painter before revealing the answer. I then linked them to the sites so they could explore them on their own.
--Asked students to answer a question or finish a sentence in French in the comments. This is a really easy, quick way to get student participation and check for understanding.
--Played "Pictionary." Basically, I put an image on the screen depicting an action in French, and I asked the students to pause the video, jot down their answer, and then press play again to see if they got it right. I do this in class all the time, so I figured, why not have them do it at home?
--Read a version of this story about SpongeBob that I wrote. Normally I do a pretty funny SpongeBob voice (when I say "funny," it's definitely the kind where students are laughing AT me as opposed to WITH me, but hey, at least they are laughing!), but I didn't do it in my video for fear that without the ability to read my lips, it might hinder comprehension.

Taking students on a tour of the Musée d'Orsay


This was featured in a slideshow of teachers in our building reading, to promote literacy.

This was featured in a slideshow showing photos of staff members in our building holding up signs with words of encouragement.
So, what has worked for you in this age of remote learning? In what ways are you connecting with students digitally?
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