MFT 2/ Final Class

Teacher meeting

A few days later

The day had come when Mr. Stark wanted to tell us how the lessons would continue. For this I had to wait for about half an hour, because we wanted to clarify this via an online meeting. My condition has not improved yet and so I continued to lie on the couch with fever and with my cough and watched all the programs on the TV program bit by bit.

By the time the 30 minutes had passed, I had already started my laptop and was waiting to get into the meeting room. Mr. Stark was the only one who had the authorization to do so. Shortly after, I and the other teachers were in the meeting. Mr. Stark like the other teachers and I had their camera on as well as the sound so we could hear each other as well. "Have a great afternoon. Great that we were all able to meet online here today, that we are going to discuss how teaching is going to continue now during this difficult time. Before we discuss that, though, I wanted to ask the affected colleagues how you are doing health-wise. I would like to start with Mr. Johnson and Mr. Jenkins, if it is all right with the other colleagues." Everyone was fine with that and we now listened to the two and Mr. Johnson, respectively.

"Mason and I are currently still in the hospital as the doctors continue to research this virus. Our first symptoms were, as in the beginning, only the cough. Further, now the doctors have found out that the other symptoms can also be fever, vomiting and occasionally chills. Meanwhile, the doctors have also found a name for this virus. Named "Forera." Before you ask why they had named this virus now, it is very complicated to explain," Mr. Johnson told us. "Have any other teachers gotten sick?" now asked Mr. Jenkins when he got a chance to speak. "Indeed. Further, this affects Mrs. Parker, Mrs. Cortons, Mrs. Carter, Mr. Mitchell, Mr. Hobbs and Mr. Smith," Mr. Stark enumerated as he read the names off a list. "How many students are currently infected?" now asked Mr. Johnson. "I don't have a list of that, because I have been able to detect symptoms in almost no students that day." "But it would have to be noticeable quickly in the students as well, since the condition deteriorates quickly in anyone infected," Evelyn surmised. "That's not true," I mentioned and most seemed confused. "What makes you think that Mr. Mitchell?" now Mr. Stark asked me. "I'd like to know that too since you don't really look healthy either and you probably have a fever too," now Abby stated. "That's true but not everyone is as bad as me and maybe some others. Kendall, a student from 4KD was tested the same day as me, to be exact barely five minutes after me in this tent and he had the same signs as me. The next day he emailed me and told me that it continues to be just the cough for him and how I am currently feeling or how this illness is progressing," I explained briefly and then coughed again. "That's right. Everyone reacts differently with their condition to this virus Forera," Mr. Jenkins agreed with me.

"Henry also just had a cough at first and with him it worsened but with me it all stayed with that annoying cough," Mason recounted. "Very interesting. Did the doctors say anything else important to you two?" asked Mr. Stark. "They mentioned that those people who are not infected should wear masks, as that apparently helps ward off Forera," Mr. Jenkins explained. "Good, I actually wanted to check with you all on how things are going to proceed now with the classes online. The meetings, if you want to do them with your students or classes, will be on this site where we are right now. You simply create a meeting room with one click and then send that link in an email to all the students in a class," Mr. Stark explained. "Can we also put assignments online for the students on this site or rather not?" now asked Mr. Hobbs, who also coughed shortly after. "On this site, unfortunately not but there is another one. I'll share my screen so you can all see which website you can upload assignments to. This one is called "Eduvidual" but I first have to get to grips with sharing my screen with you." After a short time, Mr. Stark managed to do this as well and now we were seeing his computer screen.

"Now we are, as you can already see on another page respectively learning platform, where you can now also upload the tasks. The first thing is that you have to log in to this page and indicate that you are a teacher so that you have permission to upload assignments here. The next thing would be for you to create your own course for your subject, as I will demonstrate briefly here." Mr. Stark now logged into the learning platform with his credentials and immediately created a course. He simply called it "Test" to demonstrate to us colleagues how the site works. "Once you are in this course, you click on add and can now provide your learning materials for the students. However, before you can do that, you need to submit a code to the students so that they can get into the course as well. The code is randomly selected with four to five characters, which is then forwarded to the students. The problem with that is if a student can't get into the course with that code, a new one is selected to then have that student get into the course. Everything clear so far?", Mr. Stark asked in between to make sure we understood everything. Everyone agreed with him and he continued to explain the features of the website. Additional features were to create the date when assignments were due, an information that we could upload Word, as well as Excel and PowerPoint files, as well as to email students if the platform was not working for us.

"When does this so-called "Distance Learning" start?", Claire now asked eagerly. "This would start as early as this week, if you all feel up to it. If this is not the case, as assumed now with Mr. Mitchell, you can also just upload assignments for the students in the meantime," explained Mr. Stark. "How do we need to do this now with the students so they can get into this course?" now asked Mason. "That works best if you invite the students into this online meeting that we are all in right now. They then share their screen so all the students can see what and where they are supposed to do something so that everything works smoothly, too." "But what if a student's microphone or camera is supposed to not work?" now asked June. "Here in this meeting room, there is also a chat function where students can also write in case they can't hear or answer anything," mentioned Mr. Stark and gave us a brief demonstration. "What if there is a problem and we can't write it with the student through the chat because they don't understand it that way?", now I asked. "There is also a solution for that. This one sounds a bit strange now but it is very effective. Just ask the student to write his phone number in the chat, so that you as a teacher can then call him and help him over the phone," replied Mr. Stark. "Do the students also get notice of how classes will continue to operate during this crisis?" asked Claire. "The students as well as all the classes, I have sent an email with a letter from the federal Department of Education for them to read through and so then everything else is cleared up.

You would have to let the students or the classes know when you want to have a meeting, so that they are ready to sit in front of their laptops to listen to your lessons or how you explain the functions of the website. Is everything clear now or do you have any questions?" asked Mr. Stark. All colleagues answered in the negative and the online meeting ended after 45 minutes.