Hi everyone. I am not yet actively Teaching yet - we do not start until August 31st. But I am actively preparing. This is my first time teaching code.org. I was a replacement teacher last schoolyear for the second semester. I am excited about planning my own material, my own way! I teach TOTALLY asynchronous and have adapted the first lessons to fit my students (we do not meet all at the same time so partners never work out)
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Welcome @ssawtelle!
Totally Asynchronous is a daunting task to me! You may want to look at the “Virtual Lesson Modifications” that can be found in the right hand Preparation menu for all of the lessons.
Hi Madeline,
I am also an asychronous online teacher. I’ve been teaching this way for more than 20 years. We are the first online school in Idaho. We started in 2001. I just started writing a new course for our school for the CS Principals class. This is all new to me too. I have found the “Virtual Lesson Modifications” attached to the lessons to be most helpful in getting my brain wrapped around how to modify these lessons for asychronous students. We should collaborate about how we are modifying these lessons and some things we have discovered. It’s nice to know there is someone else out there in my situation.
Anna-Marie
Richard McKenna Charter High School
arobertson@rmckenna.org
I love totally synchronous.
I have looked at that has been added as modifications
However, I have had to further modify…
We do not have set meeting times so doing any of the partner things, does not work out.
Unfortunately they do not do well at discussions as they are on whatever schedule works for them as long as they have everything turned in on time.
So they do not get that social interaction part unless they get on our helpline and partner with me. Still waiting for that to happen
We have the same experience with discussion boards. When we first started we tried doing them to allow students to be more social, but these students didn’t like the discussion boards and had no idea how to properly use them. I tried building in the needed instruction for it and even modeling good dicussion board usage, but it did not good. They continued to write one or two words and even skip it altogether. We finally did away with all discussion boards for many of the same reasons you voiced in your post. These asynchronous kids just want to work through the material and get done and move on. They are not concerned about being social in this school setting. They each have that social component in their lives in their own ways when they want it.
Hi - I am totally asychronous for my third year. I have given up on discussion boards. Your experience is fact. I found having them just respond to me. Works better.