Staying Connected to Our Kids During #Covid19

Recently I shared with some people that my entire life prepared me to deal with colon cancer the best I could, and the colon cancer prepared me for dealing with covid19. The mile a minute Rayna who would do so much in a day could have never sat back and relaxed, read, and connected with people during the covid19 pandemic. I imagine the old me would have been gung-ho, preparing learning experiences for kids at home. However, the directive from the DESE in MA is to provide enrichment and engagement opportunities for students. My district asked us to think in terms of low tech to no tech. I spent a few days thinking about what this could look like.

Here are some things my students have been doing to stay connected to our classroom community:

·      Every week throughout the year I send home an awesome problem of the week. It is a math problem from the Exemplars program, or you could make problems up. Students have a week to solve the problem if they choose. They have been emailing me answers, sharing in a Google Doc, or writing it down and sending pictures. Then if they solve it correctly, we post a picture of the group with awesome problem solver signs. Due to social distancing and no school this option is no longer possible. So, I asked students to create their own sign and send me a picture, and they did! One student even used scrabble letters. Love the creativity! Next year I might have the kids make their own sign too. The pride on their faces shine through!

·      Each week I send home a week in review in a Wakelet that I create using Adobe Spark and put in YouTube as an unlisted video. This week I encouraged families to send me photos with a caption (features of nonfiction). And I got so many photos the video was 3 minutes long!

·      I had a student email me this morning. Every day we do a circle meeting at the end of the day, participating in the 3As. Students can share an apology, an a-ha moment, or an appreciation. My student asked me if we could still do this. I told her sure! I created an ungraded, optional assignment in Google Classroom where students can share one of their A’s whenever they want!

·      I  also created a place in Google Classroom, which all students have access to, where students and parents could find activities at home to do. Kevin Carroll, author of the The Red Rubber Ball, sent me a great link to Play at Home. Students still need opportunities to move, play, create, make, and have fun!

·      Students are sharing inspirational quotes and telling us why they shared it in Google Classroom. Using the @ symbol to respond to individuals is helpful!

·      We also have a space for students to teach us something new in Google Classroom. A student already shared How to Count to Infinity!

·      One of my students used her leg as a canvas and sent me a picture of her painting. Canvases can be anywhere! Art is everywhere!

·      Some students are continuing to blog, work on digital portfolios, and reading letters because those assignments were part of their regular routine.

It is important that we keep connecting with our kids, letting them know we are here (even by an email or phone call or Google Form (Shout out to Allyson Apsey for the form idea)). There is a lot of information out there but remember keeping it simple is also something to consider. After all we want our kids engaged and enriched during this time. We want their minds going, synapses growing, and smiles flowing!

Reactions Show Character

Many days as an educator I often see students doing things that makes me pause. Some of the things I have seen this week:

·      A pencil being thrown across the room

·      Water bottles being flipped (guess this is back)

·      Students out of their seats visiting peers when it is working time

I often ask a child why he or she did the action he or she chose to do. It is getting to their WHY that is important. It could be as simple as I have no idea why I did that, or I was not paying attention, or I felt like it. There also could be more underlying things going on with the choice. By being proactive rather than reactive I invite a conversation with the child to get to the root of the issue, problem solve, develop a goal, and work towards a solution.

However, what I shared with my students about my thought process was surprising to them. I told them to throw the pencil or flip the bottle. It is their reaction to my response that matters more to me than their action. A reaction shows me their character. Will the child talk back? Will the student take responsibility for his or her actions? Does the child even want to share his or her thinking with me? How someone reacts to a situation tells me more about the person than their original action itself.

I look forward to building relationships with students, and this is one way to strengthen them! Allowing a child to make a choice and then reflect on the action can be very powerful. I hope students will pause and think about their reaction to my comments moving forward. It comes from a place of good intentions and full of heart.

The Power of the Written Word when Problem Solving

For the past few days we have picked up our students from their specials and gotten the same report. Students (not all but many) had trouble following directions, focusing, listening, and getting work done. As a teacher you are often disheartened when you hear this because you know the potential of your students. Our specialists have precious time with our students, and that time should be maximized with learning versus redirection of class behaviors.

In the past I have had students write notes to the teachers about the problems they saw with potential solutions. This time I decided to have discussion with the students about what happened. Sharing their observations with each other was an engaging! Students had clear ideas of what was working and what was not. So, I turned this into a narrative writing experience. Students were tasked with the assignment to create a narrative story about a specials class. They could choose the setting (art, music, physical education, or health), characters, problem, and solution. We discussed prewriting strategies such as making a table to identify their narrative story elements.

We shared potential problems that could occur in their other class, some of which were based on actual life experience. One student discussed that she wanted “equal rights” in her classes. When I asked her what she meant she told us she needs a break. We discussed strategies for taking a break with other classroom teachers.

Students then got to work writing their narratives. To help students build their writing skills they had a conference with one of their teachers. We were able to support them with revision and editing ideas, building on their work. Students discovered looking at crayons helps get more descriptive with using colors. Saying his face was red versus his face was violet red or red like a fire truck can enhance their pieces. Meeting with each student was a vital part of his or her success. It also shows them their teachers believe in them, believe in their work, and truly care about what they are doing.

We were able to take a problem and turn it into an engaging writing experience where several students asked to write a second narrative while others were still working on the third page of his or her first story. We could have just had a conversation and been done with it, but it was more important to dive into problem solving through the written word.

Social Media for Storytelling in the Classroom

Being out of work 12 weeks I learned more about the value of social media as a tool to connect to the classroom community. Whether it was creating a support group on Facebook, making the Wakelet for #positivesignthursday, or Facetiming with former students I was able to continue to build relationships while going through medical challenges. Using social media allowed me to be part of things despite hospital stays.

Often people will tell me they are afraid of using social media when I talk about having professional Facebook and Instagram accounts. They are worried about repercussions from administration. I think the best place to start is a conversation with administration. Show them how educators are using social media for good. Explain the story telling power it has to get in front of information! It is also a great way to connect a community of learners.

Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are all great places to start! Parents love seeing kids in action during the school day, and it provides ways for parents to probe their child about the school day beyond How was your day? What did you do? Monosyllabic answers often follow these questions. By sharing posts of the school day parents can reframe their questioning.  I have had grandparents and extended family members follow our accounts too! Former families can also engage in the conversation of what they remember from their experiences. Our current student population is also engrained in Tik Tok and Snapchat, so those are also tools to consider exploring as the social media platforms evolve. Our class has social media ambassadors for room jobs. Students handwrite posts for me to tweet out or put as a status update.

Adobe Spark is another great tool to create ways to share information with families. Due to data privacy laws my current students cannot use it. But they can help with week in reviews, which are short videos of photos and text about our week for families. They are all curated using Wakelet. I have also used Spark to create advertisements for things going on in the classroom that can be shared on our social media channels.

By modeling how to use social media for good students are learning about the tools and how to use them to tell a story and connect with a global audience. This is engaging, authentic, and promotes student voice. They begin to see the world as their classroom rather than the four walls.