COVID ‘keeps’

Part 2

As lockdown has returned and we are embracing another period of guided home learning, we decided that this half term’s Teach Meet should continue the discussion around COVID-Keeps. It may not have been the ‘new year, new me’ fresh start that we had hoped for when we said goodbye to 2020, but it still really important that we continue to celebrate our successes in the digital, and that we keep ourselves motivated for the remainder of this lockdown. For this blog, I am going to focus on the tools that have been particularly successful at Northwood, therefore there is a heavy focus on the Google Suite, that being said, Microsoft and other platforms do have useful equivalents too. Again, this is just a wonderful showcase of all of the fantastic work that our teachers are doing to support their students during this time, they really are an impressive team of professionals.

Our #NWCFamily COVID Keeps

Jamboard

The staff at Northwood also discussed their COVID keeps, and one clear winner was Jamboard. Our head of History, Mr Allen has found multiple uses for this, such as:

• Collaborative essay planning
• Sharing ideas, e.g. ‘for’ and ‘against’
• Continuum discussion
• Hierarchy of complexity

What is also so excellent about Jamboard is that once you have created resources, you can save them as a PDF. To add to this, https://ditchthattextbook.com/jamboard/ has loads of excellent ideas and templates that can be used on Jamboard.

Google Sites

For the P.E. department, trying to teach the Junior School as well as the Senior school has been particularly tough as they have really felt the ‘hybrid’ learning when large numbers of girls are isolating or whole year groups have been sent home. To combat this, they have set up a Google Site which allows them to share a variety of workouts at a variety of different levels.

Google Sites is also being skillfully used in Classics, Mrs Holder is a big fan as it’s easier to access than firefly, it is much quicker to access from any device and is more bespoke and personal. Mrs Holder has set up Google Sites for year 7-9 Latin as a revision tool for the whole year group, at each new stage where new grammar is introduced there is either a handout or a video tutorial uploaded, and it also has links to the online textbook. There is also a section for each form which means there is personalised learning. For Year 10 it is also used as a revision tool, for example, the Classic Civilisation class made podcasts which are also shared on their Site as a revision tool that everyone can access.

In RPE, Mr Giblin is getting our A Level girls to build their own revision website for the course, this will be in existence much longer than any handwritten revision notes and will benefit future students too.

Google Docs

The collaborate nature of Google Docs is a real winner and a tool that we have been using since before lockdown, but some of the features have really helped us be able to see progress and support students when we can no longer take in books or just have those conversations in class when moving around. Mrs Sharif explained how she had been using Google Slides to set comprehension questions with each student having their own slide. This then allows her to see their written work all at once and instantly, a COVID keep as she said how this gives her an even quicker overview of how the class is doing.

Google Docs has also been used by Science to collate their Virtual Assessment feedback, this way as multiple members of the department are marking work, they can share common mistakes and misconceptions. A really simple but effective way to use the collaborative features.

Screencastify

This​ is a free Chrome extension that allows you to record, edit, and share videos of your computer screen. Recordings can easily be shared via email, YouTube or Google Classroom. This has been a real asset for any staff who wish to pre-record lessons or tutorials. Sometimes you really need to demonstrate how something works and this allows you to keep a record of this for any students who might have missed a live (even virtually live) demonstration.

When we discussed live lessons vs pre-recorded lessons, one of our Classics teachers, Mrs Holder, who had been off with COVID explained how she had used this tool to pre-record some of her lessons. As she was using the free version, this also meant that she was limited to 5 minutes and really thought carefully about what would be in the 5 minute instructions.

Mote

This is a Chrome extension that lets you easily add voice comments and feedback to shared documents. Mote is integrated into Google Docs, Slides and Sheets, as well as Google Classroom, for easy recording and playback. This has been used by lots of staff to not only speed up their marking, but also to give really personalised and meaningful comments. Again, another beauty of the free version is that you are limited to 30 seconds for each note, meaning that what is said is really carefully considered. However, you can also leave as many verbal comments as you like, allowing you to really focus in on specific areas.  Mote also generates a transcript (which you can check before posting) meaning that along with a verbal comment, there is a written one too.

Kami

This is another Chrome extension, Kami allows teachers to share PDF files with students, and students can annotate the files via trackpad or keyboard shortcuts using several different features, including Highlight, Add Text, Draw On, Add Shapes, etc. Kami also allows students to work on documents that weren’t created in Google Docs, so for a lot of staff we have historical documents that are in word and for certain subjects like Maths or Science, the symbols that they use do not convert onto a Google Doc, therefore Kami means that these documents can be opened up on any device and edited without the original integrity of the document being lost.

Reflections

Once again, the staff at NWC have proven how resilient they are in these difficult times, as well as continually going above and beyond to ensure that our girls are supported and able to flourish through guided home learning. This is just a snapshot of the wonderful and creative tools that they are currently using, and will continue to use after guided home learning. I hope that these can be of use to other schools in our community and beyond too.