Welcome back to Teacher Insights at Tech Talk for Teachers. With this series, we celebrate teachers and the important role that you play in our lives and community. We learn about what is happening in virtual and hybrid classrooms across the country—what is working and what’s challenging.
This week, we meet with Julie Beaver, a middle school and high school math and world language teacher from Zimmerman Middle/High School in Zimmerman, Minnesota. A master teacher with 20 years of experience, Julie has been a finalist for Minnesota Teacher of the Year. She shares her experience bringing blended learning to the classroom pre-pandemic and creating an environment where she felt comfortable failing and being vulnerable with her students to engage them and inspire them to remain resilient through challenge.
Join our Digital Learning Specialists as they talk with Julie about how to continue to engage and motivate students when schools close, but class goes on in a virtual space. Julie’s optimism and ability to reframe challenges are central in helping both her students and her colleagues navigate pandemic teaching and learning.
Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass. It’s about learning how to dance in the rain.
Vivian Greene, artist and author
Teachers Need Teachers
Inspiration comes in many forms. For teachers, we often look to one another for support, empathy, validation, and understanding. This week, with Julie Beaver, we’ll talk about the power of empathy and resilience in the virtual and hybrid classroom. When so much of daily life is in flux, Julie shares how teachers are often the most reliable, safe space for students today.
Teacher Insights
From investigating the best and worst lessons that have been taught to discussion about pedagogy and techniques, we talk with teachers to learn how their practice has changed during pandemic teaching—their challenges, their successes, and their wonderings for the future. Tune in to hear more about one teacher’s response to the important questions below:
- Can you describe how your school has been set up during the pandemic?
- What have been your greatest successes?
- What have been your challenges, and have you found ways to overcome them?
- What blended-learning strategies did you use during hybrid learning? What about during distance learning? How did it compare to using them before distance learning?
- What have you learned during distance learning that you can bring to your classroom when you and your students return to face-to-face?
- What do you believe are the essential technology skills and mindsets that you need to be a successful teacher?