On March 23, 2020, we were notified that we needed to transition to distance learning. Our staff and faculty met on Friday, and by the following Monday, we were ready to take the challenge of teaching remotely. We prepared virtual lessons and packed bags with student books and learning material needed. On Monday, students stopped by campus to pick up their study supplies and meet with their teachers. The next day, we began to teach remotely!

The remote learning phase provided me the opportunity to get more creative! It was the opportunity to put into practice some of the blended learning techniques that we learned. I had to research new educational apps and ways to engage students. Distance learning also allowed me to schedule one-on-one Zooms with students needing an extra push, but also meet with students that needed to be challenged and learn material beyond their grade level. Remote learning does require a lot more time and preparation in order to engage students and give them ownership of their studies. I also had to create more activities to address students' social emotional learning; every Friday our Zoom at the end of the day was dedicated to social emotional learning.

• Quizizz

• Quizlet

• Freckle

• Flipgrid

• Edpuzzle

• Mathletics

• Class Dojo

• Google Classroom

• Google Suite

• Jamboard

I will continue using several educational apps- Quizizz, Freckle, Edpuzzle, Class Dojo, Google Classroom, Google Suite, and Jamboard. I also will continue with Good Deeds at the end of the week. Fridays- I like to reward students with a small treat for their various good deeds that I witnessed throughout the week. Once I model good deeds, I allow students to nominate each other and thank their peers for any good deed they may have experienced.

Students began their performance task by exploring various medieval perspectives (noble, commoner, & knight) and discussing similarities and differences. Students then created their own medieval perspectives for a noble, commoner, and knight. In addition, students discussed their possible medieval identity- Medieval Identity- Common Medieval English Names- a person’s name was one major way to tell what a noble’s rank was. Once students understood the major differences in lifestyles, they continued on their exploration by creating interview questions they would ask Joan of Arc, a commonor turned “knight.” In part #3, students researched possible coat of arms, shields, and symbols connected to their first and last names. Students researched and discussed several coat of arms, and created their own medieval shield and medieval canvas art. To conclude the performance task, students either created a medieval magazine (various mediums) or wrote medieval journal entries (Rubric: Google Doc), and presented their projects to the class in person or via a video-infomercial.