Day 1

Day One - Wednesday, March 18, 2020

We started Day One with a Google Meet at 8:00 am.  I was really excited to have the majority of the kids there (and most of them seemed pretty pumped, too!)  We talked for a short time about the procedures of remote learning, but most of our meeting was answering questions to reassure anxious kids.

It was 100% amazing to connect with the kids.  We all missed each other, and having such a short time to say our goodbyes on Friday didn't help.  We chatted for what I learned is too long for a Google Meet.  Our first day's video still hasn't uploaded and it's been over 36 hours.

Enter - Adventure Story
After we had gone through questions, I was able to introduce our Remote Learning Adventure Story Project!  Here's a little background:
During a plague quarantine in 1605-1606, Shakespeare wrote King Lear (and possibly Macbeth and Antony and Cleopatra). 
During the summer of 1816, Mary Shelley was essentially quarantined due to an especially long winter.  One referred to as the year without a summer.  During that time she wrote Frankenstein in a ghost story writing contest with Percy Bysshe Shelley and Lord Byron.

In the spirit of the greats, my students will be using this Remote Learning adventure to write an adventure story of their own.  Today's task was to decide what  message the adventure story will teach (what is the theme?)

Lessons Learned: Day One
1. I miss the kids. We had great chats today.
2. Fifth graders have A LOT of questions. Today's focus was answering questions and helping them feel ready for this.
3. The kids are ready to work and keep it as "normal: as possible
4. Having a dual monitor setup would make life easier.

For Tomorrow:
* Figure out how to do Math notes effectively without a second monitor
* Shorten Google Meets so they upload efficiently