I haven’t slept tonight. I keep just writing post after post. I’m feeling driven by the Holy Spirit because I keep thinking of my dear friends and colleagues who are OVERWHELMED right now.  I have LITERALLY been doing this – teaching while the world has been burning down around me for the past 17 years. 😆 Anyone who knows me will tell you that the Waldrons just keep moving from crisis to crisis. In fact, I  JUST finished a Nov – Feb ordeal in which I was teaching my 6 classes at BYU-I as a visiting professor (each class meets 2 times a week with a total of approx. 300 students) and a daily Seminary class at Madison High School (add 5 more weekly classes, 23 students) to try to get hired on SOMEWHERE as a teacher when my BYU-I contract ends this July. Yes, that’s 11 preps for 17 classes weekly – all while, I am the mother of three and my poor husband (who already has other medical conditions) had a shoulder surgery (12/23/19) and then a bout with internal bleeding  at the end of January that left him zero energy for quite a few weeks. 

I GET how difficult this is for you, for all of us around the country and the world. My daughters’ schools are closing the same day that I am supposed to go live teaching my collage classes again – and we’re all going to be one big happy family in a two bedroom apartment as I try to teach students who are also in chaos (more on how to do that coming soon). Fortunately, I only have my BYU-I classes right now and my husband is doing much better – so this for me is like a vacation. 😉

My point is, these posts are here to help you. For whatever reason, I feel compelled to share, but I can’t get these posts into the hands of the overwhelmed teachers without your help.

So, breathe, and let’s start over –

Remember when you were a first time teacher and you did it one class at a time?

You only need to get one class up at a time.

Don’t overthink the whole few weeks at once, don’t stress.

Simple lessons and assignments.

(I have already written posts with more examples that are coming)

Here’s a quick example of something easy that you can do – (I sent this to my cousin who is an art instructor)

1. Watch this video (use a youtube video from someone who is showing you how to use a certain technique, make sure to give that person praise, gratitude, and credit)  If you are worried about copyright and how it will effect you, here is some information Public Statement: Fair Use & Emergency Remote Teaching & Research
2. If you can’t find a video on youtube or pictures on the web – grab your simple camera phone – 1-2 minutes video demonstrating the technique or procedure, or a succession of pictures (think old slide shows). Throw them up on a platform that you understand (Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, etc.) and send it in a link to your students in an email with a short lesson.
3. Have your students try the technique and
4. Answer these questions:
   • What did you learn as you used this technique?
   • What do you need to do to improve as you move forward?
   • How can you use this technique in the future?
   • What else would you like to learn about?

Take any/all of that – adapt it to your needs. Copy, paste, edit. I give you permission.

In this post – Help! I have to change my face-to-face classes to online in just a few days I have a link to the first announcement that I gave my classes. Take any/all of that – adapt it to your needs. Copy, paste, edit. I give you permission.

In this post – Okay, Virtual Reboot, Now What?  I give tips and examples of instructions for the students to know what to do on the day that they come back. Take any/all of that – adapt it to your needs. Copy, paste, edit. I give you permission.

In this post – Tips for Virtual Conference Lessons I’m sharing some hard-learned advice and tips on video conferences. They are great, but I don’t anticipate that they are going to be what the classroom experience is. So I am trying to put up other options as fast as I can. Take any/all of that – adapt it to your needs. Copy, paste, edit. I give you permission.

In our short meeting tomorrow (see the instructions on the post above) I will likely spend the time doing the following (that is if the tech doesn’t crash)

• Practicing the different features of the room – going in and out of breakout rooms.
• I have some questions based on their prep for them to discuss. Oldest in the group leads the discussion, youngest takes notes, all are expected to participate) – we may or may not get to that, depending on the tech. Yes, I do think it’s going to be a problem, but that’s just based on my past experience. 😉
• I have other plans for if the tech breaks down which you can read about in this post on – Tools for Teachers Who are Mired in the Middle of Converting F2F classes into Online Classes which is scheduled to be published in one minute and has a great suggestion for a discussion board that I can use in case it all breaks down. Take any/all of that – adapt it to your needs. Copy, paste, edit. I give you permission. 
• I will give announcements like – I will be talking about asynchronous work  (I’m changing all of my due dates to the end of the week) and working on lessons that they can do anytime during the week. Because this is a hectic time for everyone!

YOU’VE GOT THIS!!!!

See, here’s an ugly picture of a whiteboard with instruction on it for a lesson that I did.  😉 Take simple pictures, take pictures of you handwriting something, of you demonstrating a vocal technique, or a dance move. It won’t be brilliant, but it DOSEN”T have to be perfect right now. I agree with this article from Rebecca Barrett-Fox, Assistant Professor of Sociology at Arkansas State University, Please Do a Bad Job of Putting Your Courses Online who reminds us to not take the prep and tech too high-end right now, because we are all in a crisis situation. Agreed! Use what you know. Be simple. If you have time, try out a new tech. If you need to do a quick discussion board for the first day, there is that idea again.

Again – YOU GOT this!!