Pandemic teaching is Zoom fatigue, desk dividers, and telling students to pull up their masks twenty thousand times a day.
These are things I hope to leave behind at the end of this year. Undoubtedly, you also have a list of things, chores, practices, and fears you’re hoping to leave behind after this year of pandemic teaching.
However, to my genuine surprise, there are some pieces and practices I’m keeping from my year of pandemic teaching.
This post this post may contain affiliate links. Please read the Terms of Use.
Keeping the Laundry Approach to Grading
Firstly, I am keeping the laundry approach to grading. Because of pandemic fears, I have done more laundry this year than ever before. I have an entire ritual for getting home, changing clothes, and sanitizing my phone. As a result, I can no longer wait until the weekends to do laundry. Instead, I run the laundry machine when it’s full.
This year I have learned to do the same with grading. Is there grading? Yes, always. Does it all have to be finished in one sitting? No, hardly ever. Instead, when there is grading, I “start the machine.” I make a plan to finish the “cycle” by a certain date, and then I work backwards to make sure the “clothes” get “done.”
Overwhelmingly, this is the best grading system I have ever tried.
Keeping Pandemic Teaching Technology
Perhaps more than any other area, I am most excited about keeping the teaching technology I have tried this year. My number one piece of pandemic teaching technology is Loom. I use this extension to make instructional videos, film lessons, and sometimes provide feedback. It’s better than Screencastify. Just try it.
Here are the other pieces of pandemic teaching technology I’m keeping:
- Google Jamboard
- My document camera
- Google Slides Silent Discussions
- These headphones I use to film instructional videos
- 11 Unexpected Chrome Extensions for Busy Teachers
Keeping Pandemic Teaching Boundaries
Because I am so focused on keeping school germs out of my house, I have brought home very few papers, books, or other items from school. As a result, I have done a better job drawing a boundary between my personal and professional lives.
While I don’t want to imply that the pandemic is good, a greater sense of separation from school has been an unexpected “benefit” of pandemic teaching. This has helped me keep a cleaner schedule, answer fewer emails on personal time, and prioritize school chores so they happen on school time.
Keeping an Emphasis on Health
I am not the athletic type. I never played sports growing up, and I hated gym class.
However, when we were all under stay-at-home orders, I was antsy. I would spend 6-8 hours on the computer, so I needed some kind of productive outlet.
As a result, I started exercise 3-4 times a week with Sydney Cummings on YouTube. To my complete surprise, I have managed to stick with it even during this wild year of pandemic teaching.
Similarly, quarantine helped me learn to hydrate, and this water bottle is a huge part of my continued success. I love this water bottle so much I have one for school and one for home.
Overall, this emphasis on my own health, including exercise and better work-life boundaries, is something I will be keeping from this year of pandemic teaching.
What will you keep from a year of pandemic teaching?
