In relation to a theme session on challenging classrooms, we asked our participants to go online and, for 5 minutes or so, mention 1 challenge they wish to see tackled during the session. This did not work enough to be of great value, only 5 people contributed and 2 more the morning of the session – far too late to be of any use in the lesson planning.
We have had to come up with a few quick ideas to make up for the absence of contribution like pair-share to gather hopes or expectations. We used four challenging classroom scenarios and only 2 came from the participants. We ended up using four stations with challenge definitions and then pass the problem to use the collective mind to come up with ideas to different aspects of the issues: ‘what is the problem,’ ‘what could you have done before, during, and after. We ended with a large group brainstorm. This ended up adding about 15 minutes on top of the planned lesson. The participants were very happy with the session but the idea we have learned is: we must have a backup plan for sessions that rely on online participation. Having to come up with ideas on the run – even when they work – messes with the time table.