Mrs. Carino's Reflection

In my 23 years as a middle school teacher, this school year was like no other I've experienced. No one would have thought that it would take a global pandemic to modernize and evolve the way we prepare, teach, and evaluate our students. As a robotics teacher, I watched these innovative changes in awe. Yes, there definitely were frustrations. However, there were also surprising successes.

How I conducted online classes

As our island's COVID-19 positive rates and deaths increased during the first semester, we all continued on to the business of education. Some days were difficult and other days were worse, but I posted weekly lessons using a variety of online resources such as Google Slides, Nearpod, BrainPop, Code.org, Padlet, Quizizz, Kahoot!, Scratch, and Google Sites to name a few. I recorded weekly videos on YouTube, conducted Zoom classes, graded student assignments on Google Classroom, and communicated with students and parents via email. When the second semester came around and I taught face-to-face classes in addition to the online classes. I had a small 6-student class of 7th graders for Cohort A and 5-student class of 8th graders for Cohort B.

Frustrations on connecting with students

Throughout this year, the frustrations came in droves to challenge even the most tech-savvy of teachers. While I have been using Google Classroom for years, I had to learn and train others on all its features as we faced teaching students completely online. Unlike in previous years when I would be able to look over my students' shoulders to provide directions, I had to blindly instruct students through posts, emails, and videos. I took for granted the extreme importance of this connection with my students to the success of my lessons. Due to the online nature of my classes, I not only had to completely rework the way I taught my classes, but I also had to rework my expectations of my students and try to understand that school may not be a priority to them or their parents.

Unexpected successes

There were also successes this year. For the first time, I incorporated different types of programming in my content. In the past, I had exclusively taught students to program using the LEGO Mindstorm visual programming software that operated their robots. Without the physical use of the kits for the online classes, I had to seek out other online sources of teaching programming. I found code.org—a free website with various set lesson and activities and in various programming languages. In 2nd Quarter, my students programmed a Star Wars video game, a dance party, and a COVID-19 phone app! Then in 3rd and 4th quarter, I also used scratch.mit.edu—a free website using the Scratch language also with set activities. My students programmed animated videos applying their knowledge about the Mars rover and helicopter. And on a personal success, I am surprisingly elated to realize that I had scripted, recorded, edited, and uploaded 20 YouTube videos this school year!

Overall, I am happy to have survived this school year without too much damage. With all the health scares throughout the pandemic, I made sure to take care of my emotional well-being as well as follow the COVID-19 guidelines. The frustrations I faced taught me that we have a long way to go to make online learning an effective teaching method. My successes taught me that, more than ever, we have to constantly evolve the way we teach to meet our rapidly-changing world.