Remote learning taught me so much about clear instructions, the social and emotional needs of learning communities and how students rely on each other to decode activities that they need to complete for the subject I am teaching them.

This example comes from my Year 9 History OneNote Class Notebook from the end of Term 3 and a long spell of teaching and learning remotely.

The topic we had covered for most of the term was “Making a New Nation”. The students were weary, and we had completed the assessment for the topic but there were 3 lessons to go until the holidays.

Typically our Year 9 students have spent a week in Melbourne and three weeks in China by this time of the year. They were missing their friends and upset about what should have been. I decided that hosting an excursion would be something different even if we had to go virtually!

So, we “went” to the Canberra Art gallery!

The second lesson of the week asked them to share and discuss one of the images they chose. Choices were shared on 4 pages within the Collaboration space. A number of students offered to talk about their choice and then students were asked to pick 4 favourites from those submitted.

While this excursion was not really a better way to go than if we had been able to actually visit an art gallery, it did allow for most students to enjoy something a bit different that summed up or studies over the term.

The last lesson of the Term was VERY successful. Three groups took on creating a task for their classmates. I facilitated and the term ended with a lot of much need laughter. We had a Kahoot run by two boys; a quiz shared by a girl who had been a bit disengaged in the last few weeks and a challenge from another girl.