Hi TGJ. I'm a new CommTech teacher (second year) but was in the industry for 10 years before switching to teaching. I think last years biggest learning curve, for me, was managing a digital classroom. Learning the logistics, so to speak. The clearest example of this, for me, was using Dropbox for assignment submissions. It was a trial by error process, that took lots of revision before I had anything that approached a smooth process. Example: late submissions. I found that students are way worse at getting work in on time than I could have possibly expected. Work would be due, I would mark it and assign zeros where appropriate, but come report card/mark submission time I found myself scouring the dropbox for work to see if it had been submitted after I last checked. Multiplied by a number of assignments, this was a HUGE headache. In the end, I moved to a system where if work was submitted on time, it could be digital, but if it was late it had to be submitted in hard copy. This seemed to work, and it's the system I'm using now. But this is just one of the things I have struggled with learning, in the class, in front of students, under the gun because something isn't working the way I expected. So, my question, I guess, is 'what have you learned that you can share, with respect to classroom logistics and managing digital classroom/assets'? Got tips? Please share.
I'm a new CommTech teacher (second year) but was in the industry for 10 years before switching to teaching. I think last years biggest learning curve, for me, was managing a digital classroom. Learning the logistics, so to speak. The clearest example of this, for me, was using Dropbox for assignment submissions. It was a trial by error process, that took lots of revision before I had anything that approached a smooth process. Example: late submissions. I found that students are way worse at getting work in on time than I could have possibly expected. Work would be due, I would mark it and assign zeros where appropriate, but come report card/mark submission time I found myself scouring the dropbox for work to see if it had been submitted after I last checked. Multiplied by a number of assignments, this was a HUGE headache. In the end, I moved to a system where if work was submitted on time, it could be digital, but if it was late it had to be submitted in hard copy. This seemed to work, and it's the system I'm using now. But this is just one of the things I have struggled with learning, in the class, in front of students, under the gun because something isn't working the way I expected.
So, my question, I guess, is 'what have you learned that you can share, with respect to classroom logistics and managing digital classroom/assets'? Got tips? Please share.