Hello All. Hope your enjoying summer and staying well! As we are approaching the end of July, the district is formulating their plans that have to be submitted to New York State addressing the three scenarios of returning to school, so I have a question for all of you and I would like some input.
As you know, MITA and NYSUT have discouraged the use of live platforms, "live" meaning synchronous real-time instruction, such as Google Meet, Zoom, and the like. The reasons for this are because they posed various risks to teachers and students, and as I have explained before, my role is to protect us all collectively; I will continue to discourage the use of these, although I understand the district may very well have an interest in increasing the presence of these platforms in what we do, if it's necessary to provide distance learning to whatever extent this fall.
That being said, I'm looking for your input as far as what other platforms/programs/ apps did you use with success this past spring as you provided distance instruction for your students? There are so many different applications out there, I would like to have alternatives to present to the district that would be endorsed by MITA members, so I'm asking for your input. What have you used with success? What kinds of programs did you enjoy using with your class? That you felt were productive? That you felt your students got the benefit of? ...All of those type of things. Tell me what you used while we were on distance learning this year that you can recommend!!
Please email me, president@middleislandteachers.org I would love to put together a list of these things so that I can suggest them when we start speaking about the particulars of distance learning instruction going forward. Thank you everyone!
