Grade 7 ELA teacher
William S. Hackett Middle School
“I am grateful that myself and other teachers wrote a grant to acquire a Chromebook cart to share among our rooms two years ago. Because of that we have been using Google Classroom frequently and it made the transition to distance learning during the COVID-19 pandemic a bit easier. Students know how to log in, understand the format of Google Classroom, can hand work in and ask for help/feedback with assignments from their teachers.
“Of my 100+ students I have had about 75% log on from home and complete at least one assignment. A struggle so far has been getting students to complete their one weekly ELA assignment. It has also been a time-consuming challenge for me to upload documents that they can use to complete their Book Club Project. One of the main struggles that I have the most trouble with is I am at my computer 8-10 hours a day helping students. However, many students cannot complete work until late at night, making it so the feedback they receive is delayed or not as helpful as it would be if I could interact with them in real time or in a Google Meet.
“I feel that Google Meet has been such a blessing, as it has been GREAT to see my students and to interact with them. I do a Google Meet for each lesson of the week as well as my office hour on Tuesdays. I also pre-record the lesson and post it later on so kiddos that cannot make it to class do not miss out.
As you can see, that is a lot of work – but I believe it is paying off. The Sora app and OverDrive are great for my students who love reading. They can't get enough.”
