When the Coronavirus forced all schools into lockdown, many of us were unprepared. This was especially true of early literacy teachers, whose students can’t yet read directions, struggle with logins and navigation of technology, and have higher energy needs and lower attention spans than many intermediate aged students. At first, we were inundated and overwhelmed with the amount of choices for tech tools and the steep learning curve for some of them.
As teachers always do, we adapted. We created responsive schedules, printed out pictures of “mute” and “video” buttons and set out to train our students how to learn in this new environment. We are working tirelessly to accomplish our goals, teach, and keep improving our teaching as we continue through this time.
One trick I recently discovered is that the cursor arrow can be changed to make a better pointer for reading shared text online. There is both a Chrome and a Microsoft extension for this called “Custom Cursor.” There are hundreds of cursor types to choose from. Here is one example:
I am so impressed with the resilience and creativity with which teachers have met the challenges of this time. I hope you find a bit of time for yourself and rest up to continue the work.