Semester 2 Week 8 Reflection

Schools have been closed down for three weeks now, however Etiwanda High School has

been open for online learning. Originally, we had planned to give students a project over their

spring break, however now that students are to stay at home, we had decided otherwise. At this

point students have only had a week of online learning and a week for spring break. I was

worried that many students would decide not to come back to school this week because of

COVID. Sadly, I was right. It wasn’t until later in the week that students started to get calls home

from my master teacher and I. We had started with emails and reminds, and if we did not get

contacted back, we started to call home. Calling home seemed to be the best method to get into

contact with students and encourage them to continue working on their assignments.

I have continued to remind students that if they are missing any work, or have not turned

anything in yet I would still accept them and give them full points on the assignments. I had

many kids message me about computer and internet issues. This has been the biggest problem to

face, but giving students ample time to turn in assignments seems to help. I have noticed just

being a supporting figure to these students was the best motivation for them. I believe many of

my students are stressed about more than just there grades. COVID has been increasing in New

York and students are feeling the same panic and fear that the rest of us are. Being a consistent

and supporting figure might help comfort students, and these assignments might be a method to

distract students from the outside world.

This week I had introduced the students to a project. This project is were students picked

a problem that humans have caused and create a project about it and what is being done to fix the
problem. I was very worried about giving students a project online, where I didn’t have the

means to thoroughly explain face to face, and guild the students. I was pleasantly surprised that

the students took a step up and were able to build this project with little help. I had set up check

in dates were students submit there work to get reviewed. This helped the students stay on track

and allowed me to see who was working and who was not. this also allowed me to catch any

students who were struggling or needed some encouragement.

I have given the students two weeks to work on this project, because I wanted students to

adjust to this new learning environment. It has been announced that we will not be coming back,

and to wanted students to not feel overwhelmed. My goal for the next week is to continue to be a

supporting figure to my students and help guild and encourage students during this time.