An Epic Fail (and a Recovery)

So, I usually post my blog on Thursday nights (sorry this one was late, but I was REALLY tired last night), so with all things considered (with teaching in the world of COVID), my post for last Thursday made it seem like the first week of school wasn't too bad. Then Friday came. And it was time for my science lesson (not that I'm actually into my science content yet--we are still working on launching procedures with the students). If things could go wrong with my science time on Friday, they did. It was an EPIC fail. 

My focus for launching procedures with the 5th graders has been centered around using Canvas, our online learning platform. On Friday, my lesson was about showing the students the different ways that they could submit an assignment in Canvas. My hope was to show a short video over the Google Meet that we had going so that we could use it as a jumping-off point to discuss procedures. Well, the volume levels in the different classrooms didn't really jive well with the video. Oh well, I learned from that one that it isn't a great idea to try to play a video through a Google Meet. 

I pivoted and explained that the classrooms and students could watch the video on their own (since it was loaded on a shared slideshow). However, that's when things really got interesting. Right after the video fail, the landscaping crew had moved onto their lawnmowing duties RIGHT OUTSIDE MY CLASSROOM! The microphone in my classroom for the Google Meet could therefore pick up the sound of the mower and send it into all the other classrooms...deep breath, deep breath. 

Trying to move past it, I explained that the students could pull up the information for the assignment that I wanted them to practice submitting in Canvas. EXCEPT I LOADED THE ASSIGNMENT INTO A COURSE THAT THE STUDENTS WEREN'T PUT INTO YET! The 5th-grade team had created a general course in Canvas for announcements, procedural information, etc., so I figured I would put this practice assignment in that course because it wasn't an actual science assignment. The kids are automatically loaded into their other courses, but since we made this course they weren't. Luckily (and here's where things recovered), everyone was very patient with me as I moved the assignment into a course where it could be accessed! Such an awesome team! I definitely had lots to reflect on from this experience, and it made for an exhausting afternoon!  Hopefully I don't have a repeat of that anytime soon!

Mindfulness thought for the week: Don't tell me the sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon. --Paul Brandt

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