Supporting Teachers & Students through a Pandemic with Ismael Zamora

In our first episode of our new season, we talk to Ismael Zamora, the Math and Science Department Chair for Bloom High School in Chicago, IL.  Ish has been an educator for over 20 years and in this episode talks about the challenges and successes of leading during this crazy time of Covid19 and remote teaching and learning.

Supporting teachers as they are struggling with moving from face-to-face teaching to online teaching is a huge issue facing many education leaders. Ish shares strategies to help teachers develop relationships with their students even when they cannot ‘see’ them virtually. He talks about coaching cycles and conversations with teachers to help them engage students, create better assessments, and new ways of thinking about content and helping teachers become more reflective.

There are several resources/tools mentioned throughout the podcast episode. The links to these are provided below.

Resources Mentioned:

ClassKick – tool to allow you to create collaborative work, see students work, and give feedback.

ClassPad.net – a free, dynamic math tool that provides all-in-one ability to demonstrate, create, see all math, and share activities with students.

Danielson Rubric – A framework for teaching (4 domains)

GoGuardian – tool to manage schools 1:1 technology.

NearPod – A tool to make your lessons interactive (media, assessments, lessons)

PearDeck – a google slides support that lets you transform your presentations into classroom conversations.

Rubric Suggestions for Standards Based Grading