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Why I'm LOVING portfolios in my fully remote classroom

 I meant to blog in August but, you know, school started and all of that!

We are starting fully remote. 

I could not have been prepared for how different, awkward, and exhausting online learning would be. The energy during class is extremely different than when you're in a classroom, which makes my portfolios that much more needed. 

Some background:

  • 1:1 with chromebooks this year
  • 6 periods this semester
    • Periods 1-3 M/W from 9-12
    • Periods 4-6 T/Th from 9-12
    • The afternoons are for asynchronous work time, teacher office hours, small group intervention, and extra AP blocks. 
    • Fridays we have advisory, an all school meeting, and will have time for clubs to meet.

Daily Plan:

Each morning I post a "Daily Links" google doc (thanks to my twitter friends for this idea!). The students open it before class. This helps us bypass the "no live links in the chat on chromebooks" issue 🙄

We start the class with a warm up problem that I screen share. The students respond in the chat. Then we do a desmos activity. I love using the Desmos AB because it's like an interactive version of google slides with math tools added in. Plus, the teacher dashboard easily helps me keep track of my class of 34 kids 😬.

In the afternoon, students have work time. Since they only have 3 classes per day, we're expected to give them something small to work on in the afternoons. This is where our portfolios come in.

Portfolios:

Each portfolio started as a template I filled in and then posted on google classroom as an assignment. I had it make a copy for each student. (Shoutout to @dolence_math for sharing the general template with me!).

I started by filling in the table of contents and creating a couple slides for each day. The screen shot below is the Algebra 2 table of contents. (We are using the Eureka math curriculum for the first time this year, so I referenced the lessons we are using in the table of contents as well since the students have workbooks).

Each day, students choose at least one prompt to reflect on from class. I took these prompts from Geoff Krall's Necessary Conditions. (If you haven't read it, you really should!) Here's an example.
I love that I get to respond to them and that they get to give me feedback on the lesson. So far I have been able to clarify misconceptions, answer questions, and get feedback about the speed of class.

And finally, the students watch the short video linked in the google doc to prepare them for the next class. Then, they take some notes on the next slide in their portfolio. Some students even choose to include pictures in their notes, which I love. Here's an example of a student's notes about absolute value. 


If you are interested in having your students use portfolios, it's not too late to set them up! Here is a copy of my Geometry portfolio template: 

Geometry Portfolio Template

I'm happy to answer any other questions or share more about my vision and experience with the portfolios so far! Please feel free to reach out on twitter :)


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