[The following is a work of fiction, but it doesn’t have to be.]
8:07 AM: I pull into the high school parking lot. As part of Group E, my badge won’t even allow me into the building until 8:15 because everyone has staggered start times to prevent overcrowding the hallways. I do some light stretching and practice Tai Chi in the parking lot while I wait. It helps me focus up for the day.
8:20 AM: I breathe in the aroma from my fresh cup of coffee before setting it down on my desk, putting on my mask, and picking up my tablet. My desk is right near the door, as I’m always the last person in and first person out. I still have a couple minutes before students arrive, so I catch up the school’s internal social media network while I wait. The Science Teacher on my team has recently started blogging, so I read her latest post and leave some supportive words in the comments.
8:25 AM: My class of 8 students are starting to line up outside the classroom, in an order now habit based on seating, and I greet each of them at the door. On the first day I told them that I’m not exactly comfortable with handshakes yet, so they have their choice of a Young Frankenstein elbow bump or an eastern bow. They all know I’m a total weeb so the bow is surprisingly popular. As I take attendance on my tablet, it gives me a reminder that it’s Tim’s birthday. I wish him a happy birthday and let him know that all his teachers signed a card for him which he’ll find on his desk.
8:32 AM: The students watch a pre-recorded video from the principal on the large monitor at the front of the classroom containing the days announcements. Meanwhile, I sit down at my desktop PC and start checking in students from the Zoom waiting room. As I say hello and log their attendance, one my of two monitors provides me with “just in time data” on the student I’m talking to. I congratulate Sue on her team’s Rocket League victory and give Kay some encouragement for their upcoming Debate.
8:45 AM: Class has officially started, but it’s not really “mine”. The English Teacher’s lesson is broadcast live into my classroom from the one down the hall. My class is actually one of 8 classrooms that constitute a single cohort. All 8 teachers and 64 in-person students in the cohort share a common start time, common classes, common lunch time, and common departure time. These groups were established through data clustering algorithms designed to group students with common needs while also promoting classroom diversity. While the English Teacher’s lesson is running, I monitor backchannels like the chat room and answer homework questions on the discussion board. We have another 64 students in the course who are still fully virtual, but only about half of the online students sign in for synchronous activities and the rest are self-paced do to various circumstances.
9:10 AM: The English lesson is wrapping up and the Teacher outlines the details of the group activity to come next. We try to include have a five minute stretch break every half hour where students can stand up and break from the monotony of extended computer time. The kids also appreciate time to socialize freely amongst themselves.
9:15 AM: A deep “a-hem” grabs the attention of my students, and I begin facilitating the small group activity. We’re reading Concrete Rose as a class (and by “we” that includes myself) so we have some heavy conversations about systemic racism and its relation to gang violence ahead of us. Fortunately, I’ve been well prepared for these through substantial planning with my team. It’s still a strange feeling to be a “Math Teacher” in this kind of situation, but it gives me a chance to see students how develop students develop their arguments in a way I wouldn’t ordinarily see in my content area. I’m learning as much from the experience as they are and scribble down notes on how I can build deeper connections into my next stats lesson.
9:40 AM: Following the small group session, we take some time for each class to “share in” to the rest of the cohort. It’s always surprising to see how each “class” approaches the topic from a slightly different angle. After the English Teacher summarizes some key themes from these discussion, the Social Studies Teacher chimes in with a follow-up question relating our reading to the Black Lives Matter movement. This clues in the students to what learning experiences await them after their break. Their Social Studies time follows a similar pattern as the English class, with about half an hour of teacher-to-cohort livestream followed by a half hour of small group activities.
10:45 AM: Our cohort’s “lunch hour” begins — or at least that’s what we’ve taken to calling it. It really more of a combined lunch and study hall period which makes it easier to follow social distancing guidelines by staggering our trips to the cafeteria. My class won’t actually “go to lunch” for a while still, so I spend the time helping students catch up on missing assignments or help out with upcoming projects. Our class DJ throws on some hip-hop instrumentals which helps lighten the mood. Some of students can’t really restrain from singing along but the masks muffle out most of the sound so you can’t make out the words unless you know the jam in the first place.
11:03 AM: The persistent cranking sound of the automatic hand sanitizer dispenser fills the hallway as my students and I prepare to make our way to the cafeteria. We pick up our meal and immediately return to class to eat. Our actual lunch time is strangely peaceful. It’s one of the only times in the day where we’re not wearing masks but no one is really talking because we’re too hungry. A soft burp and whispered “excuse me” break the silence and gives way to laughter.
11:31 AM: Most students have finished eating by now but our lunch hour isn’t quite over. We still have some time in the schedule for students to wash their hands, use the restroom, and wrap up what they were doing during study hall. Meanwhile I take some time to prep the browser tabs I’ll want to have open for my upcoming presentation.
11:45 AM: I take a deep breath. Even after a year of teaching online in Zoom the camera still makes me a little anxious, but once I start talking about math I soon find my groove again. My lesson is simulcast from my desktop to the monitor at the front of my class, the seven other classrooms on the hall, and to about 40 students who are learning remotely. All 100+ students have joined me in a Desmos Activity, so as I’m talking to them about means and standard deviations they can manipulate the graphs in real-time. Continuing with the themes established by the English and Social Studies lessons earlier, we’re examining crime data before and after the implementation of three strikes policies. While I’m providing whole-cohort instruction, some of my co-teachers are providing live feedback through Desmos while others are direct messaging me with observations or student questions.
12:15 PM: We come back from another stretch break into small group instruction. Each of the teachers in my cohort has chosen a data set from a pool based on their interests. We’ve found that when we’re more engaged in the data as teachers that students get more into it as well. There’s a distinct math component of the task students requiring students to find the mean and standard deviation, but not all the data sets are normally distributed. Each class has to put analysis in context and decide whether or not this is the right tool for a job and what external factors might be influencing those numbers. I play the role of moderator as each teacher’s class reports back in.
12:45 PM: The final lesson of the day is led by our cohort’s Art Teacher. The theme of today’s lesson is “juxtaposition” and we review several examples from a variety of media. I can feel the excitement growing in the room as students start brainstorming what kind of symbols to use in their upcoming assignment.
1:45 PM: The students finish up their artistic compositions a while ago, and they’re now busy sharing their creations on the school’s social network. This time is technically a 15 minute break period for the students, who are presently taking turns using the restroom and refilling their water bottles. I take advantage of the opportunity to send my wife a text and see how her day is going.
2:00 PM: A line of school buses forms outside the main entrance, but my cohort won’t be actually dismissed for another hour since we were one of the later groups to arrive. The students use this time to complete their “homework”, which now seems like a misnomer since it all gets done at school. They have short reading assignments, reflection prompts from their English, Social Studies and Art Teachers, and couple math problems from myself. Each teacher keeps an open breakout room in Zoom during this time, so students can hop in and out as needed for additional help.
2:55 PM: The students have officially been dismissed for the day and I take a few minutes to collect myself before meeting with my fellow cohort teachers to plan tomorrow’s lesson. Most of the planning has already taken place asynchronously throughout the day by the Civics, Biology, Spanish and Computer Science Teachers, so they present the tentative plan over Zoom and solicit input from the rest of the team. In addition to the 8 “Core Teachers”, our team is supplemented by a group of 4 “Specialists” who help ensure that we’re meeting the needs of all our students. These specialists include a Behavioral Psychologist, a Social Worker, an Instructional Designer, and a Data Analyst, but all of them have been through considerable training on how to meet the needs of students with disabilities. They also help manage our students that are still fully virtual throughout the day and double as substitutes in the event any of the Core Teachers are absent. The system is designed this way to keep contract tracing as simple as possible.
3:47 PM: Our planning meeting wraps up a little early, so I take some time to catch up on the school’s social network again. I post a brief reflection from this morning’s discussion on my school blog and grade a few assignments in my queue.
4:06 PM: My work day was technically over at 4:00, but I got a little carried away responding to feedback on my blog post and lost track of time. I start packing my things to leave for the day. Per school policy, my cohort needs to leave by 4:15 PM so that the disinfecting team can be brought in to deep clean the classrooms. All of my work supplies stay at work and I walk out the door with a clear conscience regarding tomorrow’s instructional plan. I won’t have to even think about work until the following day.