I am feeling very mixed about this. It will be good for the students not to have to think about school stuff, especially NCEA. I will miss seeing them though. It has really cheered me up this week seeing them come online for a chat and plod through a little bit of work. I've only been giving them little chunks to do and have said to them that they don't need to do it outside of lesson times. I am available then to help if they need it. They don't need to stress anyone else at home about it.
But then I have heard from staff members who have received emails from students who are helping round the house during the day and can't join scheduled meets. I got an email from a student who is up north with little to no connection and can't join in.
We can only do what we can. Help who we can when we can when they are ready. There is no point in stressing ourselves or the students. We are all in uncharted ground at the moment.
Anyway, today, thanks to Fiona in the Manaiakalani Community, I learned how to use a Chrome extension for Google Meets. It is called Google Meet Grid View and it means you can see everyone online at the same time.
I only had two students online when i tried it out, but it adds a button to your meet that you can turn on and off and the layout changed when I clicked it on.
Before and after shots here. I know it is not too obvious with two but it will be very useful.
Update
P6 has just finished. I saw two of my Y11 girls. The same ones as I have been seeing all week. Then another dropped in. I was so pleased to see her. We chatted about nonsense. Talked a bit about work and she shared some stuff with me but it was good just to catch up.
It gave me an excuse to have a go with that extension with more people.
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