Last Wednesday, after his first day of remote learning, teacher of almost 43 years Mr Danny Katzen shared with MLMC staff a summary of his experience. He showed that even with his considerable knowledge and experience he had to take on new challenges, learn new skills, display resilience and continue to encourage and support others in their learning. These are all qualities MLMC strives to instil in our students and Mr Katzen is a great example to all of us that you never stop learning and adapting.
Here is an edited reflection from Mr Kazten:
Having been in the classroom for close to 43years, I entered the day with a bit of apprehension about how it would pan out. I had spent many hours on the Tuesday planning and scheduling my lessons.
Periods 1 and 2 were a double with my Year 12 Biology class. I quickly discovered that I should schedule the roll marking question and all instructions for the lesson at least five minutes before the actual class. My computer skills have not involved to the stage where I can confidently ‘split my screen’ so I have two computers set up.
Students were good at shooting me short questions which I could immediately answer and I guess because most of these questions were visible to the rest it reduced the number of repetitive questions. I gave my students instructions to step away from their computers for five minutes in the break between periods and send an “I’m back” message when they had returned.
My challenge for Monday's lesson is to schedule a Google Meet session. I still need to develop my confidence with sharing my screen to explain an image or the content of a Google Slide presentation. I also enjoyed answering the many individual student questions. I never knew I could type that fast!
Recess time was just enough to get a quick cuppa and the obligatory slice of toast.
Period 3 and 4 saw me ‘teaching’ my Year 8 Science class. These students really kept me busy with the number of questions they sent which were relatively straight forward and demanded a short answer. I easily settled these students by sending them individual emails. I also learnt to set additional activities to keep the smarter ones occupied. Having my class lists with photos stuck onto my noticeboard in front of my work desk helped me put a face to the many questions thrown at me.
I deliberately did not ask them to ‘turn in’ today's task but more than half of them just wanted to show me what they had achieved during the double period. There was even time to send a congratulatory note to the class as well as individual emails of affirmation.
During ‘lunch’ and period 5 I went for a brisk 7km walk.
Period 6 came and I was confident that this would be even better. I had 7 Jade and since Mrs Rebecca Heyenga (who made great videos on using Google Docs, Google classroom and remote teaching etiquette) is their Homeroom teacher, I assumed that they would be all ready for this business of remote teaching. It ended up being my most difficult class but I learnt from it.
This was a great experience today and it clearly illustrated to me that we need to be flexible, tolerant and open to novel ways of doing things. Be kind to yourself, take care of your physical and mental health and take time to smell the eucalypts and admire the birds, like I did today.
