Creative Remote Teaching: with Greg Bagby
This year, many teachers have found themselves teaching remotely, whether they had planned on it or not. Hamilton County (Tennessee) Technology Coordinator Greg Bagby normally works with teachers to integrate technology for in-person schooling. As one would expect, this year his job has changed and he shares his ideas for how to navigate potential pitfalls of remote teaching. We also discuss best practices, planning and where to find additional resources to support educators who find remote learning challenging.
Programming note-this will be the last episode of the calendar year. Look for the next episode of The Thoughtful Teacher Podcast in the middle of January 2021.
Outline
It is important to use “grace and flexibility”
Importance of being preventative and teaching online citizenship just like these activities are important in a brick and mortal environment
Concerns about stress among teachers this year
Concerns about high stakes testing this school year
What the future could look like
Equity issues regarding availability of technology
Using games like Minecraft
Links
Matt Miller author of Ditch that Textbook
https://ditchthattextbook.com/
Cult of Pedagogy, Jennifer Gonzalez Editor in Chief
https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/
Catlin Tucker author of Blended Learning in Action
The Distance Learning Playbook by Douglas Fisher, Nancy Frey and John Hattie
https://us.corwin.com/en-us/nam/the-distance-learning-playbook-grades-k-12/book275865
Tisha Richmond, gamification expert
https://www.tisharichmond.com/
Transcript
Scott Lee 0:01
Welcome friends and colleagues, I hope you are safe and well. This is The Thoughtful Teacher Podcast. I am Scott Lee. Whether they plan to or not this year, many teachers have found themselves teaching remotely or facing the possibility that they could just switch to a remote teaching environment at any time. So it is fitting today that we welcome Greg Bagby, the technology coordinator for the Hamilton County, Tennessee schools. In our conversation, we'll discuss a wide range of issues, including some advice that Greg offers, as well as discussing resources and policy considerations. Welcome to The Thoughtful Teacher Podcast Greg Bagby.
Greg Bagby 0:48
Well, thank you very much, Scott, I appreciate you having me on your show.
Scott Lee 0:52
So I guess as we get started, as a history teacher who now works in education media, I'm always interested in people's journeys, tell us a little bit how a music and band teacher becomes a school district instructional technology coordinator.
Greg Bagby 1:07
Well, it was kind of a bizarre journey. It happened when the school technology person, when I was a band teacher, he brought in a computer and set it on my desk. And he told me he'd be back next week to set it up. And I was like, okay, that's fine. I went ahead and set it up myself. And the next morning, I get to school. And the principal calls me to his office, he says, who set up your computer? I said, "I set it up myself. It's a computer wasn't that difficult?" And then he asked, "so you want to teach computers next year?" And I thought, "sure, why not". So the next year, I became a computer teacher. And I started going into classes, helping teachers integrate technology into their courses into their classes, so that they can use teach the technology in a more broad sense. And then folks realize that I do a little bit more. So applied to become principal at that same school, ended up going to another school, but continue to do computer and technology training. Even when I became a principal, in my own school, I would go to other schools and do training before school, GM and run my school and then after school, go and do training. And then a couple years ago, someone came into my office and said, Hey, you want to do this for the district? And I thought, you know, that's what I've been doing for the last 15 years, I might as well focus on it and get it done that way. So it was a kind of a bizarre journey. But that's what got me to the position I'm in now. Yeah,
Scott Lee 2:31
I understand a lot of us are doing things that we never really planned on. And it just kind of happens. Yeah, definitely did not think 30 years ago. It's been that long. Yeah. This is what I'd be doing either. So, so tell us a little bit about the ins and outs of what you do right now.
Greg Bagby 2:51
Currently, thanks to COVID-19 pandemic, a lot of my focus has been on, on working with our learning management system, making sure that it's up and running. And the teachers have the right courses. And it's working with our student information system, and everything is talking back and forth. And not only the learning management system where the curriculum is housed, but also different technology tools that we're integrating inside of the management system. So that teachers will have one place to stop and send the materials out to the students. And students likewise, can log on, go to one place, click a couple of buttons, and all of their curriculum or all their needs are met right there from that one spot. So I am doing a lot of support in that area. hopefully within the next couple of weeks. Actually, it's starting a little now. But I could turn back over the leaf or the the lever to where I am in the classrooms working with kids and teachers, helping them integrate technology and creative ways. Like I did the digital timeline for one school, I'm doing a Minecraft in ELA with another school and just doing different things that gets kids engaged in learning and active learning with the technology that they're already using. So hopefully that'll come back around soon.
Scott Lee 4:13
We want to come back to that as well. A lot of the things about what you're integrating and and how to do that. So we'll talk about that a little bit more in just a few minutes. But as you mentioned, a lot of teachers are teaching virtually, or will be teaching virtually or are worried that they might be teaching virtually at some point this year. And maybe in the next year. What do you think is the most important thing that they know or think about or do?
Greg Bagby 4:42
Well, the most important? That's a difficult one, but I can give you several that are seven or eight.
Scott Lee 4:47
Yeah, because the next thing is what are some other pieces of advice? So if it's a if it's a list of things, that's fine, just go right ahead.
Greg Bagby 4:54
Okay, well, what are the most important things when they're moving to virtual just to understand that It is not the same thing as if you're in a brick and mortar classroom. I know that some teachers over the summer they were planning out. Okay, so I have seven and a half hours with a lunch break, put in there and then figure out how I'm going to do this with my students. No, you cannot do that on a virtual manner, we should not do it thinking of best practices. And there are several research studies that have been out there, believe it or not on virtual learning, teachers can find those and, and it shows that you don't want to try to just move everything from your classroom to a computer and send it off that way. Also, as teachers are working, they need to make sure that they're thinking about two words that I've used a lot this summer and beyond grace and flexibility, they're going to need to show grace to their students as they're going through this because a couple of things, it's a pandemic, and most students haven't been virtual forever. So they just need to be willing to show grace to the students and themselves and be flexible, because sometimes things will happen, things will come up. And we can't, of course, control all the tools, and all the things. And there have been times when large platforms such as Google, or Microsoft, or other big major platforms have had issues in one part of the country or one part of the world or another. You just got to be flexible and move over or figure out another way to teach kids and work with kids. And that same light without whatever tool is not available.
Scott Lee 6:26
I love that I was just writing that down grace and flexibility. I'm like, I may steal that one and use that one myself. You know, one of the things that I do is I sometimes look at teacher blogs where you know, that are teacher focus teacher written, there's been a lot of buzz, especially about funny things that have happened, a younger sibling, running naked behind a student with an embarrassed mother chasing them. Yes. My own niece, who's a first year teacher and is doing all of her work online, told me some really funny and sometimes scary things also. But
Greg Bagby 7:05
yes,
Scott Lee 7:06
you know, there's a lot of funny things. But I think, you know, really hidden behind that, from what I hear teachers talk about and write about, is there's a lot of concern about other things, in particular how this new virtual schooling and more virtual schooling could affect things like cyber bullying. Do you see that as a problem? Or do you have any advice for teachers about how to deal with that, and what some good strategies are, if that's a concern that they have,
Greg Bagby 7:36
one of the focuses that I have when I'm working with teachers in a digital environment is making sure they understand digital citizenship, and not just digital citizenship for the teachers or the students as they're navigating their online space, but also training the parents sender in digital citizenship, allowing them to understand what students should be doing online how to be a basically good citizen, while you're online. And, of course, have parents modeled these things. That's one of those things that we search, or we seek to do. And even when I was a principal in the building, I would host digital citizenship classes for parents, because I wanted them to understand what I was teaching their students, so that they'll know that having these conversations with your students about cyberbullying, about treating people the right way online or offline, or through an app, it doesn't matter the app. So most schools that I am aware of, they've been pushing a lot of digital citizenship, and not just for the bullying asset aspect, but for other aspects. And I think it's helping, actually, I know it's been helping in some areas, not just digital citizenship, the whole idea of making sure when you pull your classroom in, upon first getting together, a lot of teachers are now creating not just the bitmoji classrooms, but virtual classrooms for students, but they're finding ways that students can engage and be a part of the classroom. So they'll have some, quote, skin in the game in this virtual space. That way they're building these relationships and working on relationships, from student to student, which I think helps break down the barriers that would cause cyberbullying in the first place. So they are breaking down these barriers through relationships, and then talking about digital citizenship and how to be good digital citizens. And I think well that's a way to help students not all bully other for when they you know,
Scott Lee 9:33
I love that you're using the word digital citizenship and citizenship in particular, I know that there are many people advocating stronger civic education and stronger citizenship education, and that's not necessarily about learning about government. It's learning how to get along. Exactly and and it's the same thing in a virtual world. It is about a civics and citizenship. Teachers need to be teaching in an in person school. Those citizenship skills and how to get along. Do you worry? Or do you think that teachers need a reminder that we have to spend as much time in a virtual learning environment doing that citizenship piece? How do we get along piece depending on you know, the age of your kids? Is that something that you think people don't think enough about? Oh, a lot of times my class sizes, or my class time is shorter in a digital learning environment, I don't have time to do this, you know, citizenship is? Is that an issue? Or is that something you have to remind people to do?
Greg Bagby 10:36
I think, yes, you definitely have to remind them even in the brick and mortar, so you have to remind the teachers that students don't naturally get along, yes, we throw them in a room and say, hey, go for it. But that's one of the areas that get left out. I'm not sure what of the curriculum is due in by the first two weeks of school. But I don't want you to work on curriculum, until you've built relationships with your students, as well as worked on just being good citizens to each other. So that was one of the things that I pushed for, for the first two weeks, I want you to just build relationships, and build an understanding, figure out how you all are going to work together and get along. And then the curriculum will work on that later. Because I think if we get the basis of how we're going to work as a class, then the other things will come easily. And I believe that's one of those things that we leave out not only in the brick and mortar, but also in the virtual world, you're thinking I have all this curriculum, I don't even know how to use it. I don't know what to do with it. So I think a lot of the things that we want to build up of our build our students up with, it falls by the wayside, we just let it go and run with what we have. Because we have to get this curriculum in.
Scott Lee 11:48
If a local or state school board member happened to be listening to us, are there any suggestions that you might make for them?
Greg Bagby 11:58
Local or state school board? I know, we have been blessed with the knowledge of knowing that the state's tests, in Tennessee will not affect the way that teacher is observed or graded this year. However, I think the state tests in itself should not even exist in a time like now, just because it's one of those things where it's hard to test students in the first place. And the test just show how the students were doing that particular week out of the year. So I don't think the test is actually a record or an indicator as much as an indicator as we want it to be. And this year, many kids will be virtual, and many kids will be at home, they're still saying that we need to have this assessment, which I'm not against assessments, I want to know where my kids are, I want to know, how they've achieved if they've achieved, but I just think right now, it's not the best time. And another thing I would let them know is that teachers are hurting, teachers are worn out, they're weary. I have friends that are teaching virtual and face to face at the same time. And it's it's very stressful, making sure that they're communicating and working with the folks on the screen, as well as the kids that are in front of them. And it's wearing teachers out and I hate seeing how many teachers, I'm in several Facebook groups and Twitter groups, and even even on LinkedIn folks saying, Okay, I'm looking for my second career, because I'm going to retire after this year this year is done me in even some that are retiring at Christmas, just because the work is gotten to be so hard and minimal breaks. I appreciate what's happening in my district, where we do our wellness Wednesdays and we check in with some of the mindfulness. Actually some of the things that you had Jennifer Knowles on your site. Yeah, he's done some work with the district in that area. That's, that's been great for having a place where teachers can go for this. However, it's not a universal thing. It's not a universal thing that districts are taking care of their teachers, even as this district takes care of its teachers. It's still really hard for teachers. Sothere you go.
Scott Lee 14:08
It is interesting. You mentioned the episode where Jennifer was on, and mindfulness in schools and that is still the most downloaded episode of this podcast. The interesting thing is that particular episodes on mindfulness in the classroom had an increase in downloads after school started this year, a lot of interest, a lot of interest in mindfulness. That's interesting that you bring that up because you're right, teachers are hurting. And the whole way that the testing system is set up. I know the first year that the PARCC Consortium even though
Greg Bagby 14:44
Oh, yes,
Scott Lee 14:45
you're you're not in a common core state, but I forget if it was PARCC or Smarter Balanced where about half half of the testing was online and half of the testing was on paper, and 10 points lower per student on average per student in the online testing environment, which was something they totally did not expect. So this many students online, yeah, I'd be worried about not just the accountability piece. But I would question whether you'd get accurate results to begin with.
Greg Bagby 15:16
Yes,
Scott Lee 15:17
taking a look at the big picture, some policymakers have been suggesting that this is the COVID is an opportunity, you know, the way schools are changing as an opportunity and, and when you're in it, it never feels like an opportunity. But, you know, oftentimes crises do present opportunities. There have been suggestions by several governors of the governor of New York, most famously saying that the changes in technology, because of COVID give us an opportunity in the future to really remake schools based on new uses of technology. First of all, do you see that? And do you think about issues like that? And if you do see some changes, some positive changes that this crisis could create, in the big picture and longer term using technology? What are they?
Greg Bagby 16:15
I was on a panel for, for these, this big company talking about changes in technology. And that's the future of education. And one of the things that I'll mention here that I mentioned there is that, my hope is that because of this pandemic, we'll break the way that we're doing schools, the mold will be broken. We have students learning online, all across the country, all across the world, actually. And we have students that have access to tools that actually some have had access, but more and more kids are getting gaining access. My hope is that we do change the way that education happens. And it can change from the idea of seat time and the Carnegie unit, as well as you're in whatever grade you're in, based on your age, which I'm sorry, that's one of my soap boxes, let me not go there. But oh, no, that's okay.
Scott Lee 17:08
With you, I question the need for necessarily assessment grades, but grade levels, you know, why? Why do we have those?
Greg Bagby 17:17
I'm right there. Just the other day, I was telling someone Yeah, I was that kid that I didn't get the concept on the last day of the grading period. But the next day of the next grade, the following grading period, I would get the concept. And because my mastery took place a little bit longer than it did for others. I didn't receive the A in the course or achieve mastery, so to speak, in the time they assessed for me. I did maybe a little later, therefore, I didn't get the right grades. And hopefully, this will change that. One of the things that I appreciate the district I'm in Hamilton County, I think this will happen more and more across the US. Actually, I've heard that it's happening. And I may even have to do a dissertation on this. But we're shrinking the digital divide between the haves and have nots inside of a district. I'm not sure if you're aware, but we're providing devices for all the students and for the students that are on free and reduced lunch that don't have access to the internet, we are connecting them to the internet for free with broadband capabilities. I think that's something amazing I think we have like 1000 students connected at this time, I was thinking we are going to actually eliminate the digital divide here in Hamilton County. But then I found out that doing the same thing in Wichita, the school district in Wichita, they are doing very similar things where they are providing internet access broadband access to all the students that need it. It's exciting for me, of course, being in a city where I can get a gigabit of internet coming straight to my home. It's great. I just remember going to a conference in Atlanta, and talking about broadband and digital equity and things like that. And, and I had some teachers come up to me afterwards saying, you know, we don't even have internet. And this was just a year ago. And I was like, What do you mean, you don't have internet? And they were like, well, we live out in in the eastern part of the state. And it's very rural. We don't have internet, it's like, a couple miles between houses. I was like, That's insane. And then I took a drive out to that area. And I saw why they don't have internet and, and and i think that broadband and connectivity. It should be just like a utility. Yes. It's a right. And I can't remember how they phrased it. But my wife did some research over in Finland. And she talks about how it's, it's like the law. It's like you get water, electricity, internet. It's just one of those things that comes to your house that the government will socialist countries. Government supports everything. And my hope is that this pandemic will bring about access to the internet for most of those students, the inner city kids and the rural kids because there's so much now that the knowledge has moved from the front of the classroom to the device inside the students hands that opens up new worlds for all of them.
Scott Lee 20:02
But it doesn't do any good. Without that internet connection and the right kind of internet connection, I was doing some work in another city, you know, like you, I'm used to having fiber optic gigabit speed to my house, and I was someplace else where I had a different kind of connection, the download speed is very fast, but you can't be interactive, because the upload speed is just a little bit better than dial up, you can get almost a gig down, but not even six megabits a second up. And I'm trying to work there. And it's the same kind of thing that you're and this was in a rural area. It's not just even the access, it's getting the right kind of access.
Greg Bagby 20:45
Yes.
Scott Lee 20:46
Because if it's not fiber, or that extra thick co-ax, coaxial cable, you may only get the internet in one direction was still another problem. You mentioned some of the things that you do in classrooms, when you get a chance and would like to continue to do that. Could you share some good ideas for teachers that are looking for ideas and or looking for resources to help improve their virtual teaching skills?
Greg Bagby 21:15
A couple of things that I would like to share, I try to go, why do we rob banks because that's where the money is, I try to go to where the kids are. And a lot of the kids are using Minecraft, and games like that. So the whole idea of gamification has been working in Minecraft. If they set it up the right way, they can have the kids doing some virtual stuff. And you can teach different lessons inside of Minecraft, because it has the quill and ink and the kids can write they can do their math problems and they and it's a story and they can build in Minecraft. It's it's one of those things that there is a learning curve. The kids are already there. But there is a learning curve for the teachers. But once the teachers get an understanding, I'm amazed at how well they go. Another place or resource I'll talk about is a friend of mine, Matt Miller. He is the person that wrote Ditch that Textbook. And he also wrote Ditch that Homework, Tech Like a Pirate, Don't Ditch that Tech. If you go to his website, ditchthattextbook, I believe ditchthattextbook dot com
Scott Lee 22:17
I'll find it and put a link on the website. Okay,
Greg Bagby 22:19
fantastic. But there's several resources there that he has for distance learning, and things that you can do with your students that are engaging and captivating there. I think of there's so many there that I can't put my pin on one specifically. But he has a great resource, another great resources, Cult of Pedagogy, by Jennifer Gonzalez, she does podcasts, blogs, puts out information she does the Teacher's Guide to Tech. And those things are all phenomenal. Just following her on Twitter and the things that she produces. I am blown away. A couple other folks, Catlin Tucker who does a lot with blended learning. She's been very helpful, a place where I can send teachers to share different ideas and different things. And she helped write the Blended Learning in Action book. So there's that the last book that I'll talk about is the Distance Learning Playbook. It's a newer book, but it has some amazing features in it amazing things that teachers will have access to a Doug Fisher and Nancy Frey and John Hattie book. So it talks about Hattie's 250 engagement things that are the research that Hattie did. And one of the other things that I found recently, there was another thing that or another resource that I found lately, of course, a lot of teachers have jumped on doing the Bitmoji classrooms, they engage students, which is great. But recently, Tish, Tish Richmond, I believe she had this whole Amazing Race, digital Amazing Race series that she was using with students. And she's posted a lot of the content, actually maybe all of the content online because I found it there. And I was like, This is great. And you can use it with your kids in a virtual environment. And it's just really great to have engaging, interacting things with kids, even through a through a screen.
Scott Lee 24:17
Thank you very much, Greg, I appreciate all of what you've shared with us. It's been good getting to talk with you. And thank you for all that you are doing for our kids. Thank you, of course for joining us today. Well,
Greg Bagby 24:32
thank you very much for having me. And I hope that someone finds anything I said a little bit helpful. If nothing else, the links that I'll share, there's some helpful things in there, right.
Scott Lee 24:44
This has been episode number 22. The Thoughtful Teacher Podcast is hosted and produced by R. Scott Lee, who retains copyright. We encourage diverse opinions however, opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of producer, partners, or underwriters. Guest was not compensated for appearance, nor did guest pay to appear. Transcripts are available following podcast publication at our website, thoughtfulteacherpodcast.com. Sponsorship opportunities, or other inquiries may be made on the "Contact Us" page at our website, thoughtfulteacherpodcast.com. Please follow the thoughtful teacher podcast on twitter @drrscottlee, and on facebook@facebook.com thoughtful teacher podcast.
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