Many of us spent the better part of 2020 scrambling for DIY professional development as we all had to quickly come up to speed with strategies and tools for distance learning. It has been said quite often that teachers in 2020 have been asked to fly the plane while building it. Even as recently as a few days ago, I stumbled across a great tool for use with Google Slides! That pretty much defines how 2020 has gone for me–stumbling through a brand new landscape.

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But the fact of the matter is that many educators have been using digital learning for years. Theresa Wills, author of Teaching Math at a Distance, is one such educator. Wills, an assistant professor in the School of Education at George Mason University, has been involved in synchronous online classes since 2010. She has put that knowledge into a super user-friendly new book from Corwin Press. So instead of continuing to stumble around hoping to find effective ways to use technology for instruction, I thought it would be a great idea to read and study her book! Want to come along for the learning?

With past book studies, I have relied solely on comments on blog posts and Twitter chats for participants to interact with each other. Now that we’re all so familiar with Zoom, I realize it’s a far better approach. I have set up a page for the book study, and I’ve scheduled the first Zoom meeting for January 12 from 7:00-8:00 CST. You will need to register in advance for the Zoom meeting using this link. Future meetings will be held every two weeks and will be scheduled on the book study page.

I freely admit I’m kind of in the stumbling zone for this new book study approach, but I’m super excited to get to have real discussions with teachers from across the country! “See” you on January 12th.