Today I've been thinking about marking and what are some of the best ways for me to approach it. I've never liked marking, as such, even though I understand how valuable it is. There are a few things that I've done to help make it more manageable for myself, but there is room for improvement.

Today's question: Do students need something to care for before they can care about something?

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Today, I try to make the case that teaching is not an academic exercise. It's too practical to be. In education, we are outcome-driven and that is reflected in how we engage and teach students. I don't know that we teach students things that are interesting, simply because they are interesting. I don't know that we should be, either.

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Today I've been thinking about how to increase opportunities for students to speak up, and about what we're missing when students don't say anything. I'm thinking about how the online environment is and isn't conducive to real conversations and how synchronous learning might help mitigate some of the difficulties I'm facing. I believe that all students have something to say but I'm not sure that they all have the opportunity to say what the want to.

Today's question: Where’s your favourite place to work? If you can’t go there now, how can you replicate it at home?

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I took some time to reassess the teaching I've been doing, based on the feedback that I've received in the last week. I came to realize that I probably haven't been capitalizing on the assets that my students have. I also needed to give students the option of a greater structure, by providing them with a detailed schedule. This wasn't easy for me, not only because it took some work.

Today's question: Boredom can be a good thing. It gives us time to think and to search for meaningful activities. When you’re bored, only something that truly interests you will snap you out of it. How can we use this effectively through remote learning?

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We have a special, contributors episode today. Melanie Madray, a grade three teacher in Scarborough, shares her thoughts on teaching equitably during remote learning. She shares some of the things that she's doing with her class to address her students' needs. She also reflects on how she creates engaging material and communicates effectively with students and their parents.

She leaves us with the question: How have you been able to co-create learning opportunities for your kids that are equitable in nature?

Follow Melanie on Twitter at @callmemsmadray

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For today's Big Idea Fridays, I'm talking about providing students with structure and helping them develop executive function skills. Students need these skills in order to be successful, but how do we teach them? Each student's needs are different, meaning that we have to be very intentional and specific about how we choose to help students develop these skills.

Articles referenced in this episode:

Edutopia: "Helping Students Develop Executive Function Skills"

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Tonight I was thinking about connecting with colleagues and how I don't know about what's going on with them. I have maintained connections with my professional learning community but not with the people I work most closely with. I think it's important to reach out to them so that they know you're available to support them.

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Experiments are an effective way to teach, but doing experiments remotely is hard work. It takes a long time. It's annoying to have to do. I spent a good five hours today putting together a video of me rolling a marble down a tube. I suggest that you get students to do experiments at home but you should also be doing them yourself. Videos aren't a replacement for students getting hands-on, but they are a bad alternative.

Today’s question: What’s one book that you think every educator should read? Or, what’s one book that changed your perspective on education? Let me know by tagging me on Twitter.

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I had interesting conversations with my students today. I asked them three questions:

The conversations left me with the sense that I should scrap my entire program. I left the students with the task of thinking up a meaningful project.

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My students are working on a photography unit that a parent has volunteered to teach. I think it's especially important that students connect with arts now so that they can express themselves through an emotive medium. Not only is this an interesting art unit, I think photography has become a constant in our lives so it's important for students to know how to do it well.

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