Casey L. Walker
Educator, Artist, Designer, Do-Gooder
We will adapt: Pandemic Teaching
The novel coronavirus pandemic has turned our lives upside down. It has forced educators to push ourselves harder than ever before to provide safe and effective ways for our students to develop relationships and engage in meaningful learning experiences.
This page contains a small glimpse into some of the successes that I have been able to share with my students between March 2020 and March 2021.
Some Kind of Hybrid Situation
October 2020, two students in Engineering Design use identical sets of materials to prototype together over video chat
Modifications in the Art Room included swapping out group tables for individual desks, and providing each student with their own box of materials (those white boxes).
October 2020, an in-person learner conducts her portion of a prototype test with her Remote Learner classmates over Zoom
October 2020, two students in Engineering Design use identical sets of materials to prototype together over video chat
-
Remote & In-Person Club Members collaborated on the Charity Ornament Club's 2020 holiday sale: Charity Ornament Club Instagram Showcase
-
Remote & In-Person students in Art 2 collaborated on collections inspired by Dada, Surrealism, & Max Ernst: Instagram Showcase
#StayHome
When we first closed "for two weeks" we decided to use FlipGrid for group critiques, like this one for Graphic Design
We continued to use FlipGrid to asynchronously share work and feedback as the end of the school year approached
In place of an Art Show, we created a Padlet gallery for students from all my classes to submit their favorite work from the spring.
When we first closed "for two weeks" we decided to use FlipGrid for group critiques, like this one for Graphic Design
-
Adapting Graphic Design lessons for remote learning involved teaching both Adobe PhotoShop and the browser-based alternative PhotoPea at the same time. Check out my students' photomanipulation projects on the school's Instagram
-
My coworker/roommate and I challenged our Engineering classes to build epic blanket forts and give an MTV Cribs style tour. Here is our fort!
-
Remote learning involved making a ton of video tutorials and individual feedback videos for my students
-
During the sequential blizzards of 2021, our school switched back to all-virtual learning. I challenged my engineering students to create snow structure or sculptures. Here are my two favorites:
Summer STEM Camp for Middle Grades
For staff, campers, and our two counselors, this was everyone's first attempt at figuring how to work in groups and maintain social distancing. NJ regulations allowed students to be in closer proximity for short periods of time when outdoors and masked, so we did the classic "Foil Boat Challenge" outside.
An artsy shot of the individual supply kits we prepared for each of our 18 campers for the week.
Students show off their "Social Distancing Outfits" for their parents on the last day of camp
For staff, campers, and our two counselors, this was everyone's first attempt at figuring how to work in groups and maintain social distancing. NJ regulations allowed students to be in closer proximity for short periods of time when outdoors and masked, so we did the classic "Foil Boat Challenge" outside.
In between the first and second waves of COVID-19, our school was able to use the NJ Summer Camp guidelines to get approval to run a one-week summer enrichment program for middle school students interested in STEM. The topics ranged from sewing and bleach-tie dye to CAD and robotics.
"We will adapt."
I happened to be watching Star Trek Voyager throughout the pandemic, thus my inclusion of Seven of Nine's pragmatic catchphrase in the title of this page.