As teachers navigate the now-more-familiar waters of distance learning, it’s important to remember the void they are all feeling. Nobody enters the teaching profession without a passion for being in front of a classroom full of eager students, and that’s not our current reality at the moment — at least not in the traditional sense.
While teachers continue to help students achieve their academic goals, organization and planning have never been more important than they are now. Daily routine and structure is vital to a teacher’s success, and Sycamore School has the resources to help keep everything on track during this unprecedented time.
Plan Lessons and Modules in Advance
Planning a week’s worth of classroom material may look a bit different than it did a few months ago, but the overall objective of helping students learn remains the same. To assist in that process, Sycamore School’s lesson plans help teachers stay organized during this frenzied period of distance learning.
Sycamore’s lesson plans can be created for each day of the week, and teachers can include their introduction, resources, procedures, evaluation, etc., into each plan. Additionally, there is a Homework section that allows both families and students to see what work is due for a particular day. For the more hands-on teachers, lesson plans can also be printed up to a full week ahead. In what’s especially beneficial to elementary teachers, lesson plans can be printed in a table (Grid View), giving teachers an organized and structured layout of lesson plans for each day of the week.
Design Your Own Class Curriculum
Distance Learning is focused primarily on adjusting and modifying classroom instruction. Sycamore School’s Curriculum Manager makes it easy for teachers to create and manage their own individualized curriculum. This includes documents, assignments, lesson plans, etc. Since the curriculum for Distance Learning likely differs from what the curriculum would be in a normal classroom setting, the Curriculum Manager gives teachers plenty of creative freedom. With every unit of documents, assignments, and lesson plans created, teachers also have the option to make these resources available to families and students. That way, teachers, families and students are on the same page and there are no surprises for any weekly curriculum.
Modified Gradebook for Distance Learning
Throughout the course of a school year, a teacher’s best friend is his/her gradebook, and that applies during distance learning as well. Teachers are able to adjust and update their gradebooks as needed. Many schools have configured grading for their final quarter to be Pass/Fail. In the Sycamore School gradebook, teachers are able to grade students based on Pass/Fail without affecting the previous quarters that followed standard grading procedures.
Along those same lines, during this time of distance learning, teachers might choose to make certain assignments optional in response to where their students are with the materials or what other work may be in process. For those optional assignments, in Sycamore School, teachers can set an ‘Excused’ status for each student who chose not to participate in the assignment. The teacher will still grade the assignments from students who participated, but the grades of those who opted out of the assignment will not be negatively impacted.
While these times are anything but ordinary, teachers can rest assured that Sycamore School has the resources to help them stay organized and on track to finish the school year strong! To learn more about how Sycamore can assist your school with distance learning, simply sign up for a demo to start your free trial.
