Happy New Year 2021!
Back in May of last year, I shared in Edtech Elixirs that Shelby County launched a vodcast series on YouTube titled "Shelby Speaks: Looking Forward." The videos consisted of interviews with our district educators which focused on answering two main questions: what new things are you trying during this non-traditional instruction (NTI)/emergency distance learning, and how might that transform your teaching or classroom in your future?
In November 2020, I discussed our support for teachers attempting a concurrent/hybrid model of teaching (i.e. teaching students at home and in person at the same time). One of the important pieces of this support was creating a Concurrent Classroom Dashboard Doc, which contains resources, tips and strategies; as part of those resources, we were blessed with Shelby educators who created self-made videos to share what they were doing that was helping them be more effective. Via screencasts, recorded teleconferences, or cellphone filming, our staff discussed everything from hardware configurations to online discussion strategies to virtual classroom management to basic blended learning best practices. In several cases, educators that shared their reflections in "Shelby Speaks: Looking Forward" returned to discuss how their experience last spring led to continued growth and success this fall.
We soon realized that was a lot of valuable footage which could be helpful beyond our own district needs. What could we do with those videos? And how could we further celebrate their work beyond the Dashboard Doc?
The answer to those questions -- and the bringing together of both threads above -- lead us to our newest vodcast series "Shelby Speaks: The Concurrency of Our Classrooms." The videos are on our Shelby County Public Schools YouTube channel, and the Playlist for the series is here. When all editing is finished, we plan on publishing a total of thirteen episodes.
As an excellent example to showcase the series, here's episode 3 with Kelly Hudson. Ms. Hudson, an eighth grade ELA teacher at East Middle, emphasizes the importance of consistency and norms in a concurrent classroom. She also shares her digital organizational structures to ensure that learning is the constant, regardless of where the students are located, or whether it is a synchronous or asynchronous environment:
