7. Jot Notes

#66Challenge

Many years ago I learned of an activity called Jot Notes from a reading coach at our school. It remains one of my favorites, and I decided to use this learning activity with my Global Perspectives class this past week. The curriculum called for the learners to brainstorm the advantages and disadvantages of virtual learning.

The first step is for the groups of 4-5 learners to take turns writing down and saying out loud something they know, believe, think about, like, or dislike about virtual learning. All of them have had the experience in the spring of 2020, and some were still learning virtually last year.

Once they had exhausted all they wanted to say about it, they take the jot notes and categorize them by advantages and disadvantages.

Jot notes is always an engaging activity, but this time around it was even more so. It became obvious to me after a short time that this was probably one of the first times they have had to sit together and actually talk about their experiences. It was instructive to me as a teacher to hear how they viewed what has happened in their academic life, and

Some of the advantages that were listed:

Not being stuck on school time

Easy assignments

Easy As

Got to sleep in

Could take breaks whenever they wanted

No homework

Had more freedom

Could eat whenever they wanted

Got to play games and do work at own pace

All the work was posted for the week

Could cheat

Understanding teachers

 

 

Some of the disadvantages

Zoom was glitchy 

Can't see friends in classes

Don't get to meet new people

Teachers paid more attention to in-class than Zoom kids

Wifi problems

Teachers not being helpful

Loneliness

No socializing

Boring

Difficult to learn 

Couldn't always get answers to questions

 

It is worthwhile to note that the advantages were virtual in general, but some of the disadvantages seemed to point more toward kids who were on Home Connect where they had to "attend" the class in real time. 

 

All in all, the days we did this in class were some of the best conversations and involvement I have seen so far this year. Looking forward to finding another reason to use this as soon as I can!