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      The inspiration for my research were my students and my own desire to improve their agency and engagement.  In March of 2020, when school buildings were closed due to the COVID 19 Pandemic, teachers scrambled to take everything in their pedagogical bag and recreate it for a completely online experience. Many teachers felt confident and sure of their abilities in a in-person setting. In the time it takes to snap your fingers, it changed, Everything teachers knew how to do had to be re-created for use in a completely digital world, leaving us feeling deflated while simultaneously questioning ourselves and our abilities.  Rather quickly, I noticed that it was not just the teachers struggling, our students were as well. 
    
     Students who spent the past 6-8 years learning to navigate the in-person classroom, felt out of place and ill equipped to navigate a digital classroom environment. Most of them were able to get online and navigate their favorite online game and learn all of the intricacies necessary for success in that digital realm, but were unable to transfer those skills to their digital education. They struggled to be engaged with their teacher and class, but also with their ability to use technical tools to complete digital assignments, or even have the agency within themselves to even attempt gaining the skills necessary to do so.  

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Classroom Design...

     In the beginning, all students were participating in Distance Learning, meaning that the students were all attending classes online via ZOOM, the teacher was teaching from the classroom, and there were Para- Educators that were both in the classroom and attending from their residence. 

     The class schedule was designed so that there were 3-48 minute class periods each day for a morning group and then taught again for an afternoon group. The morning group would attend Zoom classes from 8-10:48, then have a 30 minute lunch followed by 40ish minutes of a non- computer activity, and then was to do asynchronous learning from 12:12-3:00 pm. The afternoon group had their asynchronous time from 8-10:48 and Zoom classes from 12:12-3:00 pm.  

     Teachers were to teach the lesson during the Zoom sessions and then provide assignments/work for students to complete during their asynchronous time. During the last week of October we switched to a hybrid model where some students attended live classes instead of attending through Zoom, so the teacher taught both online students and in-person students simultaneously. 
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      In my class, we would work together on an assignment, the warm up, that was given to everyone to help them improve their basic math skills.  I would teach students how to complete each of the problems, there were also videos available in case they forgot how to complete the problem between class and home. The second stage of the day, students would go into a breakout room determined by their need to receive a live lesson and have time to work on their assignment with either the teacher or Para-Educator. Students were given a certain number of problems to complete for the day, and  if they did not complete the problems in the Zoom/live class, they were to complete them at home during asynchronous time.  Also during asynchronous time, students were to complete 15 minutes in an online math program that not only reinforced skills taught in the classroom, but also skills that each individual student needed to work on. 

Research

Design Process

Support and Next Steps