Monday Motivator #23 2020-21

 

4 Collaboration Tools That 

Take Learning Beyond the 

Classroom

By Rachelle Dene Poth February 25, 2020

https://www.gettingsmart.com/2020/02/6-collaboration-tools-that-take-learning-beyond-the-classroom/

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With so much technology available to us today, finding the right platform or tool to use in
our classrooms can present some challenges. Which tools will benefit our students the most?
What purpose will each specific tool serve for our students and our own professional growth?
How does technology enable us to provide more for our students?  And maybe one of the most
common questions, how much time will I need to get started?

These are just a few of the many questions that come up when considering the implementation
of technology in classrooms. There are always concerns when it comes to technology. We must
think about access for students, determine the costs involved, understand the privacy and security
that is in place, and know what data might be collected and how it will be used. We need to think
about each of these issues before bringing digital tools into our schools, while also focusing on
the overall purpose of the initiative.

We don’t have the same limits on learning as in the past. We now have the opportunity to provide
different learning spaces for our students that provide them with more time to explore,
communicate, and build the essential skills that will best prepare them for when they leave our
schools. We can also provide more student choice by offering multiple ways for students to share
learning and build confidence and collaborative skills in the process.

So how can we help students communicate and share their learning beyond the traditional
classroom space and time? Here are six options that can promote student choice, foster the
development of digital citizenship and social-emotional learning skills, and extend learning to
meet students’ interests and needs. Starting with a few of these options, we can learn from our
students and empower them to be creators rather than just consumers in our classrooms.
Students can decide which format best fits their needs and interests and use it as a starting
point to build skills in more personalized ways.

For educators, these options enable us to provide the authentic, specific and timely feedback that
is critical for student growth. They can be used to facilitate global collaboration between
classrooms to promote cultural awareness and create a more authentic and meaningful learning
experience for students. My classroom has collaborated with other schools using similar tools
and it has made a lasting impact on my students and their connection with the content.

1. Wakelet has become quite a versatile tool in the past few months. It started as a content
curation tool—a space where I would curate a variety of resources for my students.
With recent integrations with tools like Buncee and Flipgrid,
Wakelet can now be used for having students collaborate on a project, engage in a discussion,
share resources, record short videos, and store everything within the Wakelet collection. Students
can use it as a digital journal or create a mix of responses to evidence learning. When used to
create Buncees, they can be quickly embedded into Wakelet. (Wakelet is free).

2. Flipgrid started as a video response tool a few years ago and has grown into a versatile social
learning platform that provides many options for extended classroom discussions and learning.
We have used it to connect globally and exchange videos for our project-based learning (PBL)
and students use it for reflecting on their work or speaking assessments. There are many options
for adding content for students along with the Flipgrid video responses. It is a great way to
provide students with a comfortable space to share their learning, ask or respond to questions,
and engage in more communication with their peers and teachers. For teachers, it makes it easier
to hear from and provide feedback to every student. (Flipgrid is free).

3. Parlay is a discussion platform where teachers can create their own questions/topics for
discussion or select from the library of discussion topics available. Using Parlay, students can
join in a live roundtable discussion or continue the conversation asynchronously. For the prompt,
students have materials to review before submitting their responses, providing peer feedback,
and participating in a Socratic-style discussion. Teachers have access to data and can provide
feedback to students in a timely and more personalized manner. (Parlay offers some free
prompts and also a paid subscription). (You can just use the discussion platform in Canvas,
but if you need to change it up a bit, it's another option to try)

4. YO Teach! is a backchannel communication tool and one that became an alternative for many
educators who were using Today’s Meet. Using Yo Teach!, teachers create a chat room and can
post questions, moderate discussions, delete responses and have control over who is
communicating within the chat room. Some of the additional interactive features include the
option to submit a drawing, create a poll, or use the voting feature. It promotes collaboration
between students and is helpful for fostering the development of social-emotional learning skills.
(Yo Teach! is free).

Beyond the possibilities for extending the discussion between students, we need to help them build communicative and collaborative skills using the technology resources that are available. In looking toward the future, students will need
to be flexible and have a variety of skills. Creating opportunities for students to learn how to
interact in these digital spaces is important as we prepare them for the future.

Monday Motivator #22 2020-21

 

3 Things To Say To Students Crushed By The Pandemic

February 19, 2021 by Michael Linsin

https://www.smartclassroommanagement.com/2021/02/19/3-things-to-say-to-students-crushed-by-the-pandemic/

I think back to when I was eight or eleven or fifteen years old. I’m not sure how I would have made it today, in this time of Covid.

Living in a pressure cooker of abuse, it was my friends who got me through it.

It was the neighborhood, the games of stickball, the hours spent talking under the streetlamps. It was the school I couldn’t wait to get to every day.

Most never knew.

But it didn’t matter. I had brotherhood. I had escape. I had freedom to get away from the fear and the distance to know that it couldn’t last.

I had teachers who knew, and looked after me. Teachers who inspired me, saved me, and somehow got me into college in another state.

But what of these kids?

Trapped and muted. Dreams shattered into pieces. Forced inside and away from the friendships that mean so much to them and the school that centers their life.

What do you say to them? How do you ease their pain? How do you provide comfort without putting your foot in your mouth or making things worse?

How?

You recite the following three phrases from that place in your own heart that knows suffering, loss, and disappointment.

“It’s okay to be sad.”

Sadness is part of living in a fallen world. It’s always with us, like a fault line running through granite batholithe. Denying it or pretending it doesn’t exist just makes students feel worse.

When you acknowledge it, however, when you confess that it’s part of being human, and that it’s okay, then they don’t feel so alone.

They don’t feel so weird and ostracized.

Social media tells them that if they’re not happy, then there is something wrong with them. You must counter this message with the truth.

You must tell them, say to them every day if need be, that sadness is a normal response to bad things happening in our life.

“It will get better.”

Children don’t have the life experience to fully grasp that the pandemic is temporary. It feels to them like the end of the world, like the life they once knew is over.

But it isn’t true. And they need an adult like y0u they trust and respect to set the record straight. This nightmare they’re living through shall pass.

They can still pursue their dreams to the full.

Coming from the right person, this message can have a powerful impact. It can give them just the encouragement they need to hang in there for just a few more weeks.

It can help them prepare, adjust, strategize, and be ready and excited to hit the ground running on a life that must be lived.

“You can overcome.”

Your belief in your students and what they’re capable of means everything to them. I know from experience. I had a teacher change my life because he saw something in me no one else did.

This alone, and nothing else, was enough.

Like Andy Dufresne escaping Shawshank, once that belief took root inside me, I was ready to crawl through sewage to reach my own dreams.

The human spirit can overcome great obstacles. Your stories and examples are important, to be sure. Lincoln, Mandela, Keller, Beethoven, Tubman, Hawking, Shackleton, Robinson, to name a few, have proven it can be done.

But it’s your unshakable belief in your students and their ability to grow and contribute and live productive lives that will have the greatest impact.

Believe in your students and it will come through in your every word and gesture. And it will change them.

Fields of Gold

Living through what Churchill called “the black dog” and coming out stronger than before isn’t easy, but with the support of people who care and understand, it’s possible.

The problem is that people are in short supply.

Some students haven’t seen their friends in nearly a year—or only from a distance—and their family may be too preoccupied with trying to survive themselves to notice.

But you can fill the void. You can offer hope and comfort by remembering the three phrases above and expressing them from the empathetic depths of your own setbacks and disappointments.

Let your strength be their strength.

It may seem as if you’re not needed much these days. Your lessons are dumbed down. Your expectations have bottomed out.

Masks, plexiglass barriers, physical distance, and in some cases even miles of radio waves stand between you and your students.

No matter. They need you more now than at any other time in your career. So I urge you, be that one teacher who sees through the forest to the fields of gold beyond.

Be that one teacher who tells the truth and then walks with them hand-in-hand through the valley of the shadow of death.

And to the other side.

PS – If you suspect a student is suffering from more than normal sadness due to life circumstances, then refer them to your school psychologist.

You can also call your local police for a check-in or the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at 800-273-8255.

Monday Motivator #21 2020-21

How Do We Create a Community of Learners in a Virtual or Hybrid Model? #BetterTogether

Claire Landrigan

https://www.clarelandrigan.com/blog/ral9t497hndt8djbr2f8rm4actqhzh

I wrote in a journal every day between March 13, the day the whirlwind began, and June 19.  I wrote what I was observing in virtual classrooms. I  recorded what teachers and students shared with me. I took notes on what I tried, what worked, and what completely failed.  I jotted,  I reflected, I looked for patterns and I tried to make connections to what I believe to be true in elementary learning communities.

Part of me hoped I would never need this journal again.  It would simply remain on my bookshelf, a documentation of some strange time.  It has not, however, gathered any dust since June 19.  I have been reading, rereading, collaborating with teachers, and trying out new ideas with students based on my notes.  I decided to consolidate this learning in light of an impending new year that will be unlike any other year we have known.

As I reread my notes, I notice how often teachers and students mention missing their space – the physical space in which they connect with one another and we connect with them.  They missed some of the furniture and tools as well – the teacher’s chair, the class puppets, the classroom library, reading bins, math manipulatives, Legos, the job chart, and the meeting area to name a few.  They also missed the rituals, systems, and structures of their classroom – morning and end of day routines; question of the day; attendance, class jobs, choosing books, and show and tell are some examples.  They also missed each other.  Students wanted to see their teacher and their classmates synchronously.  They missed learning together as well as recess, lunch, centers, and genius hour. 

It is clear to me that students and teachers missed their community because they had a community to miss.  This got me thinking about the beginning of the year. How can we virtually create a space for our students that is predictable and familiar?  What systems and structures can we recreate virtually for students? How can we empower students and give them agency in their learning community?  What can we do virtually to help them connect and develop into a learning community that is compassionate and engaging?

I collected and organized some of the ideas I tried in collaboration with teachers last spring and with students this summer.  Here are some I think worked well - thank you to all the teachers who shared and continue to share so generously.  I truly believe we were and are #bettertogether -- we need to continue to support one another in the months ahead.

Creating a Virtual Space That is Predictable and Familiar

- Use your teacher chair, puppets, pointers, calendar etc. during online sessions

- Create a Bitmoji Classroom: Learn how to create a Bitmoji Classroom here.

- Use a picture of your classroom as your virtual background in Zoom or slide background in Google Classroom - you can even change it to reflect areas for your classroom depending on what you are teaching.

-Create a Virtual Classroom Library

- Send you students on a Virtual Classroom Library Scavenger Hunt

Creating Virtual Predictable and Familiar Systems and Structures that Empower Students

- Continue with morning/end of the day routines (how to they get ready virtually/how do the end    the day)

- Use Google Forms for attendance (student calls out names while teacher shares screen and checks off in the beginning. Later, students can fill out the Google Form as “morning work.”

- Create virtual classroom jobs

- Teacher of the day (or other things like that you typically do)

- Show and Tell (or Show and Teach or …)

- Question of the day

Creating a Community of Learners Virtually

- Some Good News Try a classroom version

- Morning Meeting Games 

- Virtual recess, free play, crafts, etc.

- Eat lunch together (certain days or small groups)

- Virtual Field Trips  Other virtual field trip destinations:

https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/articles/teaching-content/virtual-field-trips/

https://www.weareteachers.com/best-virtual-field-trips/

https://www.discoveryeducation.com/community/virtual-field-trips/

https://www.today.com/parents/try-these-virtual-field-trips-educational-fun-home-t176105

- Online version of popular games

- Surprise readers

- Virtual dance parties

- Share funny videos

- Daily Class Pet/Stuffed Animal

Monday Motivator #20 2020-21

 

4 Strategies to Support Students 

with Learning Differences in the 

COVID-19 Educational 

Landscape

By Justin Aglio and Guest Author November 16, 2020

As a society, we are working to pivot and develop new routines due to the impact of COVID-19. 
We know that educators and leaders have spent the last couple of months scrambling to meet the
 immediate needs of learners in their community.  The world of education, which historically is
resistant to change, has been forced to evolve. Educators have been in a race against time to
develop new learning environments and platforms that allow instruction to take place while
ensuring the safety of students and staff remains the top priority. In this race against time and
limited research and best practices available, educators are challenged not to fall into the old
practice of planning for the mythical average student; students that do not fit that profile are
often an afterthought.

Students with learning differences are a subgroup of students that have found this ever-changing
state of education and the “new” normal difficult to navigate. The amount of cognitive shifting
that is necessary to find success within a hybrid, virtual, or e-learning landscape is taxing for all
students, let alone students that have challenges with processing, working memory, and executive
functioning skills. It is more important now than ever for families and educators to work together
 to support students with learning differences.

Some learning institutions have embraced this challenge of working together, such as the 
AIM Institute for Learning and Research, by committing to offer a free
 Pathways to Practice Webinar Series based on the science of reading and focused on the
language comprehension upper strands.

We encourage families and educators more than ever to continue to work together to determine
strategies, specifically, accommodations and modifications that will best support their students
within a virtual setting. When considering support for students with learning differences,
accommodations, and modifications are typically organized into 
four categories: presentation, response, environment, and timing/scheduling. 
The following are accommodations and modifications that families and educators should consider
 when developing plans to support students in a hybrid, virtual, or e-learning environment.

Presentation Accommodations and Modifications in a Virtual Setting:

• Use audio recordings or text-to-speech programs:
  • Learning All
  • Audible
  • Microsoft Immersive Reader
  • Google Read & Write
• Increase the font size of the digitally presented text
• Increase the spacing/amount of text presented digitally
• Include visual representations and cues (clipart, memes, gifs) with written text
• Include verbal summaries and cues (recorded) with written text
• Chunk information presented into discrete pieces of information
• Limit note-taking during digital lessons, provide notes before the lesson or transcript
        after the lesson
• Provide digital graphic organizers, skeleton notes, advanced organizers, anchor charts,
        and information keys
• Provide videos of instruction for students to return to as needed
• Provide verbal cues (sounds and audio recordings) embedded in lectures and digitally
        presented text
• Provide all instructions for assignments in a concise, written format; paired with a
        video explanation
• Determine a consistent way digital information will be organized across teachers
        and courses

Response Accommodations and Modifications in a Virtual Setting:

• Provide students choice on how they submit responses and assignments:
  • Video or audio recordings of themselves providing answers (Loom, Flipgrip, etc…)
  • Pictures of handwritten work
  • Typed responses (use of Text to Speech programs as needed)
• Provide students with online calculators or assistive technology tools specific to math
• Provide students manipulatives
  • Tangible manipulatives sent home by the teacher
  • Printable manipulatives
  • Virtual manipulatives
• Provide students increased wait time, cues, and alternatives (writing, circling, pointing,
        gestures) when asked to speak or present in front of an online class
• Provide digital graphic organizers, sentence starters, or templates for writing activities
• Include the use of Spelling, Grammar, and Punctuation assistive technology supports

Environment Accommodations and Modifications in a Virtual Setting:

• Provide a designated space for e-learning to take place, free from auditory and
       visual distractions
• Provide sensory and fidget items to students while they are engaged in digital instruction
• Allow the use of headphones or earbuds
• Provide small group or one-on-one learning using breakout rooms or individual on-line
       conferences

Timing/Scheduling Accommodations and Modifications in a Virtual Setting:

• Embed frequent guided and unguided brain breaks
• Embed physical/kinesthetic instruction and movement
• Increase the amount of time provided to complete a task
• Allow extended time beyond what would typically be allowed during in-person instruction
• Chunk larger assignments into smaller tasks and provide individual due dates over several
       days, instead of one due date for all the smaller tasks
• Provide a written outline of due dates no more than one week at a time
• Embed visual timers into online instruction
• Provide visual timers for breaks
• Provide a consistent visual schedule or outline for each day or class period

Even though, as educators are in uncharted territories it is important to remember that we
must support students on an individual basis. There should never be a one size fits all approach to 
education regardless of the learning environment. When designing a plan to support your child during
online learning first consider individual strengths and then select accommodations and modifications
listed above that will help to support specific areas of weakness.

---

Dr. Mandi Davis Skerbetz is the Assistant Head of School for Dallas Academy and an
Adjunct Professor at Johns Hopkins University. She has worked in the field of Special Education
 for the past 18 years as a teacher, administrator, researcher, and consultant.

Dr. Justin Aglio, a former teacher, and the award-winning principal is the Director of
Academic Achievement and District Innovation at Montour School District and
Visiting LearnLab Scholar at Carnegie Mellon University’s Human-Computer Interaction
Institute in the School of Computer Science.

https://www.gettingsmart.com/2020/11/4-strategies-to-support-students-with-learning-differences-in-the-covid-19-educational-landscape/

Monday Motivator #19 2020-21

 

The Perfect 5-Minute Exercise Break For Students And Teachers

https://www.smartclassroommanagement.com/2021/01/29/the-perfect-5-minute-exercise-break-for-students-and-teachers/

January 29, 2021 by Michael Linsin

A short exercise break can relieve boredom, improve thinking, and reverse the negative health effects of sitting.

To be most effective, however, it must be purposeful.

It must be targeted in a way that increases your heart rate yet stimulates every muscle in the body.

Here at SCM, we’ve got you covered.

What follows is the perfect 5-minute workout. Anyone can do it, at just about any age, and just about anywhere.

It’s gentle, low impact, and will leave you and your students feeling refreshed, revived, and ready to tackle the rest of the day.

Note: Instead of counting repetitions, do each exercise for one minute with no break between sets.

Twist

With your feet shoulder-width apart, turn the upper and lower body—shoulders and hips—to the right and to the left. Let your arms hang loose and move centrifugally as you shift your weight from one leg and to the other.

While twisting (to the left, for example), bring your heel up on the opposite (right) leg as your knee points down. As you progress, twist farther and farther around until you’re nearly looking behind you.

The Twist is a great exercise to begin with because it feels good after long sitting. It slowly warms the body and prepares it for the next, more challenging exercise.

Wring

From a shoulder-width stance, lift your left knee as your right elbow crosses and descends to meet it. Set the left leg back down, right arm at your side, and do the same on the opposite side.

Try to touch your elbow to your knee on each rep, going back and forth while keeping your head steady. Each repetition should take between one and two seconds.

The wring is a standing ab exercise that works the lower, middle, and upper sections of the abdominal wall while also increasing your heart rate.

Shove

Starting with your feet together and hands positioned an inch or two in front of your shoulders—like you’re at the bottom of a push-up—take a big step to your left with your left foot and drive your arms straight out in front of you.

Pull your left foot and hands back to starting position and then do the same with your right side. Move smoothly back and forth while driving your arms powerfully to each side.

The exercise involves the larger muscles of the back and legs and thus will push your heart rate to a higher level. To make the exercise more challenging take bigger steps.

Circle

Straddle your legs two shoulders-width apart while placing your hands on your hips. While keeping your back straight, lean over to your left so your head is above your left foot.

Now begin circling toward the front, then over to the right, then around to the back, and then back over to the left where you began. Continue circling at a moderate pace, then reverse and circle in the opposite direction.

This exercise works the core, both stretching and strengthening, but also engages the legs, glutes, and lower back.

Ski

Narrow your feet so they’re 3-4 inches apart and bring both arms straight out in front of you. Ball your fists like you’re holding ski poles.

Now, drive your imaginary poles deep into the snow as you swing your arms down and behind you and then back up again. Simultaneously, pulse the knees up and down with the rhythm of your arms.

To make the exercise more challenging and/or to finish the workout strong, drive the poles harder while bending your knees lower. The exercise works primarily the arms and legs, but also the shoulders, back, and chest.

Note: Click here to watch a demonstration video of the workout.

Technique is Important

Although your students will benefit regardless of how well they perform the exercises, it’s important to focus their attention on proper technique.

This does several things.

First, focused movement is meditative and will clear their mind of unwanted stress and tension. Second, it conditions your students to do everything in your classroom in a certain, very specific way, which is one of the secrets to great classroom management.

And third, focusing on technique makes the workout more effective and will guard against the inclination to cut corners and give less effort.

I’ve used the same rotation of exercises as a warm-up for high school PE, but they’re also simple and gentle enough for kindergarten or even pre-K students.

If you wish, run through the exercises twice for a better, more complete workout and a calmer class.

Monday Motivator #18 2020-21

Becoming More Inclusive

By Melanie Meehan

https://choiceliteracy.com/article/becoming-more-inclusive/

We are having more and more conversations in our district and beyond that address the importance of inclusive practices in all aspects of education. At a recent faculty meeting, we watched a short video of Rudine Sims Bishop in which she talks about the importance of books serving as mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors. Teachers understand why inclusive practices matter; it’s not hard to get people on board with the belief. However, many teachers are asking what they can do and how they can do it better.
The first thing to know is that we’re all on a progression of learning, knowing, and doing better when it comes to inclusive practices that respect, reflect, and honor all students. At the beginning and end of a recent presentation, I cited Clare Landrigan’s wise words to “expect and accept a lack of closure” along this continuum. That being said, here are three ways to think about inclusive practices within our daily classroom work.

Notice, reflect on, and adjust who is represented in our classrooms and curriculum.

One way to think about this is to consider how the materials in our classrooms present and show people, language, and cultures from a diversity of backgrounds. Envisioning her kindergarten classroom, one teacher thought about the human figures in her building play center. “I need some different colors,” she said. One of the social workers talked about the cards she uses to generate role-playing situations with children. “They’re mostly of white people,” she reflected. She ordered new ones during the presentation.
Within this concept, we should consider how historically marginalized people are represented in terms of power and perspective. If all of the books and curriculum in our classrooms emphasize and highlight the struggles of historically marginalized people, then what messages are we sending?
For example, if our books emphasize the civil rights era, students may begin to think that black people are always struggling for their rights instead of working through the same sorts of social issues as white people. Books should contain relatable struggles about life and relationships—not just conflicts that involve people’s color or sexuality or disability or religion or whatever else. When children repeatedly experience similar stories about themselves or other people, we risk those stories becoming their perceived truths.
Additionally, all children should see themselves in books but also feel like it’s possible for them to create those books. Therefore, it is important to pay attention to who is writing, illustrating, and publishing books. As we think about the books we use to teach both reading and writing, are we including contributions from historically marginalized people? When people see people like themselves as creators, they are more apt to become creators as well.

Expand mentor texts and choices for reading to build inclusive practices.

In both reading and writing classes, more and more teachers are offering students choices, an important way to be more exclusive. As I consider books for our curriculum and how they fit with learning progressions and standards, I also think about the following questions:

• How do these books show historically marginalized people in terms of activities, representation, and contributions?

• How do these books reflect the diversity that exists not only in my school and community, but also in the world?

• Are historically marginalized people engaged in a range of activities across a range of time periods and settings in these books?

Through this work and thinking about these questions and the issues behind them, I have created mentor text charts that represent all people, as much as has been possible. Rather than have one book or text be the mentor for all students to study as they notice and note craft moves, students can choose mentors from a variety of books.
With the charts tucked into the cover of the books, students can choose which text to use for inspiration. This link will take you to the collection of books I have created charts for in three genres: narrative, information, and opinion.
Although the number of websites and resources for finding inclusive books continues to grow, Social Justice Books is one of my favorites. This website offers many comprehensive and curated booklists, as well as reviews and articles.

Increase our awareness of language and commit to simple shifts wherever and whenever possible.

As with so many things, when we know better, we do better, and if we commit to paying more attention to the language we use and the nuances of subtle shifts, we have the potential to create a more inclusive environment for all learners. Here are some examples of shifts to take on:

Instead of saying	Try saying instead	Because
Mothers and fathers	Caregivers	Not all children have two parents, have a mother and father, or live with their parents at all.
Ladies and gentlemen, let’s learn about—	Students, learners, readers, writers, people	Not every child is sure about their sexuality, gender, and orientation. This phrase implies that everyone is one or the other, which isn’t always the case.
Boys, line up— Girls, line up—	Anyone wearing sneakers, line up— Anyone wearing jeans, line up—	Same as above.

These changes in language involve empathy and perception, two skills that we have to teach and model whenever we can.
I always remind myself that when we know better, we do better. As we recognize the importance of inclusive practices, I have no doubt that we will continue to progress along the continuum and do the work more thoughtfully and effectively.