alicemercer

Responding to the call from Pocketful of Primary to answer questions about how teaching during the pandemic is going.

I’m still tired. This week, it’s mostly due to poor planning on my part, and things in my family life. Class, that’s settling into a routine. I’m making adjustments as I get feedback from my parents. Mostly it’s about giving kids “breaks” but also transition signals and check-ins to get them or keep them on […]

Week Two is the first, full five day week of teaching. It went good. The kids are getting from Zoom to Nearpod quicker, but it’s still taking time. Today, I’m going to talk about the SEL things I’m doing. I will admit that I have a MUCH easier time “establishing” a class community because I’ve […]

I used to do a weekly review of my week in the classroom and before that, the computer lab. I thought it might be a good time to revive that practice. First, some background. I am teaching a fourth grade classroom that is largely comprised of students I had last year in third grade. This […]

I like to use physical two-dimensional maps with students. I think they can be very useful to show the movements and changes in a place like the United States that has changed quite a bit since Europeans began coming en masse since the 1500s. I recently used his map from National Geographic in my third […]