Who here has designed and launched a virtual class using Google Classroom? The P wants me to design a math class that can be taken virtually so that it could free up a period next year and beyond so the school can offer an extra elective. Has anyone does this?
It would be no different than using it for you regular class--all assignment would have to be completely digital and online, and since it's math, a lot of the quizzes can be self-grading through Google Forms. All instruction would have to be put into a video format for the student to watch. You can schedule assignments, so you could keep students from jumping around, but that involved a teacher setting that up. However, someone is still going to have to create the material, put it online, and grade the material, as well as input it into a gradebook. Isn't it going to be held during the school day? Or it is for the kids to do on their own? Depending on the class and the students, it may be a nightmare--not all students do well with self-paced, online learning, so you may have students that do nothing until the very end, and then it will be a mad rush to get it done. It can be done, but it's going to be a lot of work--basically, take the class that you teach every day to your students (or every other day, depending on your schedule) and put that into a digital form. There are programs that have already done that for you--my district uses Edgenuity. It sounds like a lot of work, you may want to talk to you principal about investing in something that already exists.
The P said it would be run as a virtual class so that would free up a class period. Students would work on it all year and could come to me for questions during the school day.
Your P is living in la la land. Even thought it's supposed to be a virtual classroom, it won't run itself. It just sounds good for P to say that. But it sounds like you still will have another class to take care of. In fact, until you have all the tweaks ironed out, you will be doing MORE work.
Bad news is our school system doesn't have money to shell out for something like Edgenuity. And asking the students to bear the cost is out of the question. The P wants me to design a Financial Algebra online course for the seniors on the non-college route. Those kids don't want to do any work when they're in class!!
And they're going to be self-motivated to complete this course on their own??? Principal sounds like he doesn't know what he's doing.
There's already an online class built for another core course for the seniors. This allowed another teacher to offer an elective. Now he wants one for the lower seniors in math.
How successful was the online class that has already been launched? I would have lots of questions for the teacher running that class.
Online classes require students to be self-motivated, and if they won't do it in class, does he really think they'll do it with no supervision? What will happen is they won't do it all year, and then when the year is almost over, and they are reminded that they need this to graduate (if that is the case), there will be a mad rush to complete it, probably requiring you or someone else to stay after school or give up your planning while they work, and if they don't, the parents will come screaming down that the school didn't tell them the kids needed this, or whatever. I would respectfully tell your P that you don't have the time/expertise/whatever to get it done. If someone else does it, then that's on them, but if you create it, you know the P will want you to monitor it.
It was built for this year’s seniors. I’ll have to ask the teacher through the year. Since the one who designed it is very into Google Classroom, it was probably fun to design and create?
Are you also very into Google Classroom? If not, I would make that teacher my new best friend. I am mostly concerned with how well the students did in the course, and how much of the teacher's time was required - not just the creation, but in the running of the class, keeping the students on task and motivated. Was it a throw away course where it doesn't matter how successful the students were? Was that teacher surprised at how much time and effort was involved in running the course that is supposed to be for very self motivated students? These are just a few of the questions that I would be asking. Will this class be running, and potentially requiring your attention at the same time that you will be adding coaching to your schedule? Are you going to receive any kind of stipend for creating this computer course? Is this another class that you will teach and grade work for? Are you losing a regular class to attend to this new class, or are you supposed to just take this on gratis? I would for sure ask about a stipend for creating and running the course. Unless you are really into computer and tech, there could be a steep learning curve. Just some of my concerns . . .
