Erin Lewis

I preach planning and goal setting to my own children because it took me years, as a young person, to realize how important those skills are towards becoming a successful adult.

I assumed that because the parents of the children I teach are younger than me that they would be more tech savvy.  This is not the case and I will make sure to incorporate video tutorials for all the technology I teach with in the future.

If remote learning continues in the Fall, I want to make sure that I am able to movtivate the parents of my students to participate in the assignments and communicate with me.  Due to how quickly remote learning had to begin, guidelines and rules weren't established which caused some confusion in the communication process.

We need to consider our students' motivation.  Is it intrinsic or extrinsic?  Understanding their level of motivation will help us with knowing how to motivate them to do the work and help us understand why they don't want to do the work.

I learned that it is important to communicate your communication expectations early on.  I should have established that parents check in daily instead of weekly or not at all.

I teach first grade and since move of my communication is with their parents, I should be aware of the characteristics of their parents generations.  I think most of my students' parents are Generation X or Y.  It has taken me some time to get used to their grammar and spelling rules.  

I've learned during the past couple of months how important netiquette is.  I have been corresponding with some of my parents through text messages and sometimes their tone is not very positive.  I'm able to remain professional but that is something that definitely needs to be taught.

I know that some districts are not allowing their staff to use Zoom or other videoconferencing platforms for privacy reasons.  I think is Zoom would be a great way to communicate with students and establish relationships.  If the districts have to continue with remote learning, I hope they will consider allowing Zoom, Google Classrooms, etc. in the future.

It's important continuously modify the course content to fit the needs of the learners.  Remember the four o's to modify course content:  origin, organization, orchestration, and outcome assessment.

Even though I teach first grade, I would still like for them to have the opportunity to communicate with each other about the assignments they've been given to complete.  If not the students, then the parents should be able to communicate with each other, too.