Classroom

Notes From Grown-Ups Update

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Back in 2019, I was blown away by the incredible energy and enthusiasm that filled the air during Back to School Night! The atmosphere was simply electric as students eagerly walked around their new room. Their grown-ups also had a job to do: write messages to the students. The results were fantastic and I couldn’t help but be captivated by the sheer brilliance and boundless positivity that jumped off the poster. These messages were like shimmering gems, glistening with love and inspiration, ready to guide and uplift the students throughout their entire journey. It was an absolute adrenaline rush of joy and motivation, leaving everyone buzzing with excitement for the amazing year ahead! If you want to relive that thrilling and heartwarming moment, head over to this link to read more about it!

What began as a humble idea in my classroom, born from a fleeting moment of inspiration in 2019, has blossomed into something truly remarkable. The joy that this concept brings has now spread far beyond the walls of my own classroom, reaching other classes, schools, districts, and even states. The impact of this simple idea has been truly astounding.

Allow me to share with you one particularly heartwarming story that exemplifies the reach and power of this concept. Martha Klein Conway, a dedicated educator and member of the EduProtocols Community Facebook Group, decided to implement this activity for the parents of her 5th-grade students. Recognizing the profound impact it could have on fostering a sense of connection and engagement, she eagerly created a space to share messages. The response from both parents and students was overwhelmingly positive, and it served as a testament to the transformative power of this idea.

Message board from parents

Notes From Their Grown-ups

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My district holds Back to School Night the night before school starts, at least for the TK – 5 schools. I personally love this. No parents are asking about behaviors, assignments, etc. I get to meet them and get to know each family a bit. It also helps the kiddos see where to report to in the morning. I really enjoy this model.

This leads me to August 2019. Sometime during my classroom setup, I got the idea to post a giant poster in the room and invite parents to write little words of encouragement. This was the last year in elementary before they went off to middle school. I wanted to make it memorable. Little did any of us realize that the universe was most certainly going to make it a memorable school year!

Some notes touched on the importance of making mistakes, believing in yourself, and asking for help when needed. This poster stayed up in our room for a long time after school started. I referred to them from time to time reminding them of what their families wanted them to know.

We have many multilingual families and some monolingual families (non-English). They were invited to write in the language of their choice. Had a parent wanted something written for them, I certainly would have helped with that too. Their words mattered. Side note, as I sat to write this today, I realized I wrote about it in 2019 too. Funny how a great idea sticks with you.

Inspirational Quotes

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I have the honor to go into a 3rd-grade classroom in my district. Each time I am in there, the teacher has an inspirational quote posted. This isn’t your everyday quote. No, this teacher organically connects these quotes to social-emotional learning (SEL).

As you can see, the teacher is helping the students to have a healthy mindset about previously made choices. Not only does the teacher write these words, but demonstrates them to the students daily. The students are also reminded that mistakes are okay but in an authentic voice. It’s one thing to tell students, but it’s another thing to experience the compassion and encouragement to be gentle with oneself.

I have learned so much from this teacher. And hopefully, you learned a thing or two as well.

California Missions

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I know that there are mixed feelings regarding creating California Missions. I’m going to focus on the positive. I work with a fourth-grade class in my district. The teacher went “old school’, her words, not mine. She had the students create physical models.

Now before anyone is concerned about equity, I assure you all student creations were created equally. How? Students created them in class with teacher-provided materials. She provided the cardboard, basic dimensions, paint, rulers, and scissors, while she hot-glued the walls together. Some students did bring in some extra decorations and happily shared them with others. Check out some of their work

Clearly, these were all student created. In order to get ready for this project, they did their research. The students began by learning about the colonization of California and the role Missions played in changing it. Then each student researched a mission: its history, founder, indigenous people, and its current use. They then produced a slideshow to present to the class. There was a lot of learning that occurred before this culminating activity.

All in all, I was blown away by their work. They did an amazing job and each student was proud of themself.

Distance Relationships

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My district has been in distance learning since August. One apprehension I have had with my new position (Tech TOSA) is not being able to connect with students. How wrong I was.

This past week, I had a few different interactions with students. Student A is a former student. They have had a hard time with the distance learning and personal issues. I have been encouraging them all year. This week they contacted me to let me know they got a B+. They were very excited! As a result, they get brownies. Anything to encourage them to keep working.

Then there are two sisters from my previous site that celebrate Diwali. Remembering how excited they were to share information about their holiday last year, I made sure to wish them a Happy Diwali celebration this year. The sisters were excited and shared pictures of their hands with me. Their mom does it for them each year.

Then there was the student in a class that I regularly assist in. This student is not a fan of communicating at all. I met them virtually in this class this year. They independently reached out in Google Chat (school account). This is HUGE for them. I contacted the teacher to let her know. We both celebrated!

My point to all this is that virtual, face to face, or hybrid model, we can connect with students. We don’t need to limit ourselves to those in our classroom. We can keep in contact with former students. We can encourage them and celebrate them. We can make new connections with students.

Distance Learning Advice

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I originally thought that I would do this post based on what I’ve seen in classes. I then realized that I should put it out to the masses. Thank you to those that responded. This is what they had to say:

  • I’ll start: take attendance and let kids in zoom/meet/teams while playing a song. Super fun! ~ MathReps
  • Brandi Cross Miller – Lisa Nowakowski my daughter’s teacher does this and I have my own little dance party (out of view) as we start our day!
  • Cris McKee MathReps let the kids pick the song. Sometimes it helps to give them a choice between 2 songs.
  • Naomi Harm – MathReps And the best way to amplify that song while you’re waiting are you using Spotify or another resource to ensure the kids can hear the music as I’ve been in a session recently that they should have had background music and they could never get it to work yet I’m assuming that they didn’t check the box prior to going live which did not enable the sound to be embedded into the playback of the webinar.
  • Cris McKee – Naomi Harm I just use YouTube videos with the lyrics in the hope that my 2nd grade friends read them!
  • Marisa PierucciI teach rsp so we only have an hour together 4 days a week – so yesterday I decided to end teaching 5 min early so the kids could just chat about whatever they wanted. They really enjoyed that time to kick back and share about life.
  • Carrie Tibbs I play music while I admit my kiddos and have them do their “bell ringer” check in. They are getting quite the education of oldies.
  • Courtney Butterfield The paintbrush roller for copying formatting in Google Slides!! It’s a total game changer!
  • Sarah Buhler Vierra Using a second monitor
  • Alicia KirbyMengel Second monitor helps so much!!! I may keep my vision!
  • Jan Mathews Remember to share your screen because eighth graders won’t tell you you aren’t.
  • Loretta Wolfinbarger -Jan Mathews, funny. My fourth graders didn’t even tell me. After throwing in an incentive, they now all that out.
  • Susana Rudy – Jan Mathews Junior High Teachers Unite! Lol! I had to make it a rule; they must tell me if they can’t see my screen, and that helps. They have to tell me, as in, unmute their mic! I give extra credit points to the first person to let me know. It’s working.
  • Loretta Wolfinbarger Spending the time reviewing “how tos.” When this doesn’t work, try this.
  • Jennifer HoytDuring our lunch – break out rooms! They want to talk to each other a lot!
  • Veronica Gonzalez Meza Pear Deck add in for PPT (or google slides too)! Total participation game changer for me. I can present and see kids answering/ working on problems. Went from 4-5 kids raising their hand to answer to 22/27 attempting math or writing a response. I love it!
  • Jan Mathews If you see “Sign in with Google” use it—its like the Magic School Bus! It takes you right where your teacher wants you to go!
  • Jan Mathews – Mackenzie Ferreira The credit goes to one of my brightest eighth graders—shout out to Alejandro!
  • Nikole Kempi Scarlett – Jan Mathews yeah, my right hand student is Carlos! Nice to have student helpers!
  • Anila Bowers Change your viewpoint on tech glitches. View them as a normal part of life rather than a frustrating part of life.
  • Susana Rudy – Anila Bowers yes. And a learning experience. Discuss the tech issues with your students. This is the world they will be inheriting.
  • Sandy JohnsonOn Friday we have free choice fun Friday. Kiddos bring toys to the last 20 minutes of class. They get to talk and visit. Some of my kindercuties have become friends as if they were in the classroom
  • Dawna HunterSaving silly faces for the end of our day.Lots of songs!
  • Angela Der Ramos This may be basic but I didn’t know you can share sound directly if you share the tab instead of the window.I put music video on to take attendance, and we’ve had two movie parties already. Think I need an upgrade on the computer though…
  • Gloria McGriff PearDeck- getting students to show their thinking, since we have to track student engagement this saves me some work keeping another form.
  • Gloria McGriff Coffee shop social – allowing 4 students to stay on Zoom call to chat – me with my video and sound off. Has been a hit.
  • MaryAlison Weintraub Trying new tech tools and doing comparison polls in Webex to see what kids prefer. Ex Nearpod vs Pear Deck, prefer Nearpod, prefer Pear Deck, either works for me, don’t really like either.
  • Gloria McGriff I have been inspired to write jingles and song bites and encouraging students to do the same: Zero is my hero, because it SAVES place value! And for exponents It’s all about the base, bout the base, and exponent
  • Angela Der Ramos Leaving video or voice feedback embedded in the kids work on Seesaw. Error analysis and Feedback is a sweet spot that isn’t easy in DL.Benjamin Cogswell showed me this.
  • Ben’s Video
  • Kristan Dm Shared google slideshow is my go to daily place for students and groups to post their solutions to math problem. Assign 1 problem from daily set to each group, let them discuss in breakout room to prepare group slideshow and insert combo of photos handwritten work and typed explanation . After class I switch setting back to view only so kids can only edit during the class period. So simple but very effective as group and class collaborative space

Google Jamboard (The App)

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Over the summer I read an article about this. I was intrigued. I contacted my district’s tech person. After several tries (apparently there is a small checkbox or toggle that was causing an issue), he got it working for me and my students!

I had been thinking about potential uses in the classroom. One idea I had was to use it as a collection tool in the same way many of us use Padlet. I love Padlet but I am a teacher. What I mean by that is that I can now only have 5 for free. If I want to create more, I need to purchase the premium version. I don’t use it enough to justify the cost.

Then this week happened. The week before Winter Break. The week we teachers try to keep it together. So, I did a bit of experimenting. Each year I have students create ninjas using Google Draw. I am 1/2 of TLC Ninja after all. This year’s ninjas were awesome! My favorite was the Ninja Avengers. Normally, I would collect and display them on Padlet. However, I decided to experiment with Jamboard. I did a bit of prep with my class. I told them that all this could go terribly wrong. They were up for the challenge and did NOT disappoint.

After creating our ninjas, we downloaded them as JPEG files. I then set up the Jamboard so that 5 ninjas were on one jam, thus creating a total of 5 jams for the ninjas. The class was super respectful of each other’s work. I was so happy!

Ninjas: Featuring The Ninja Avengers That is not to say that the process wasn’t without its pitfalls. First of all, one of my darlings kept selecting the > on the top of the Jamboard which, at one point, created 28 jams. Secondly, all uploaded images upload in the center of the jam. Fortunately, I was demonstrating when a student uploaded hers on the same jam as I was on. This allowed us to stop and see what happens. Great learning opportunity! That happy happenstance helped students to be respectful when uploading.

Overall, I’d say the experiment was a success. I would say it’s an ‘aight’ replacement for Padlet, not great but you can make it work. I can see other uses for Jamboard, too: exit ticket, voting, catch the pulse of the class, and brainstorming. I know there’s more, but like I said, it’s the week before Winter Break.

Fast & Curious Teams

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In the first Eduprotocols Field Guide by Marlena Hebern and Jon Corippo, they describe one of my favorite EduProtocols: Fast & Curious. I use this daily and the kids love it. Recently, the website I use, Quizizz, made some updates and they are AMAZING!!

battle board game challenge chess
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First of all, the students are loving the ‘teams’ play. We don’t play teams each time, but when they play it creates a fantastic bonding experience with the groups. The app places students into 4 teams randomly. Now, add in the newest feature: redemption question. This means that if a student gets a question wrong they have a chance to redeem themselves by trying to answer it again. There are so many reasons that I LOVE this feature. Immediate feedback, better retention, and not a ‘gotcha’ situation.

NOTE: There are a few other new features that have enhanced the app. Check it out at quizizz

If all that wasn’t amazing enough, I have implemented ‘Classroom Economy’ in our class this year. One of the bonuses we agreed upon was 100% (on selected items like quizizz) earns a student $50. So the stakes are even higher and more fun. What my class does with this information and teams is beautiful. They sit in their teams and help one another in order to get 100%. If someone on the team needs help, it’s freely given. They are also aiming to get 100% as a class (this comes with a $100 bonus for all).

They don’t think I see or hear what’s going on. I do, of course, and I how could I ever stop such wonderful energy?

Words Matter

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Tonight was Back to School Night. Our school has done it the night before school starts for over a decade. I like it as it helps everyone’s anxiety.

This year I tried something new. I asked parents to write words of encouragement to the 5th-Graders. The words they write were amazing! The families were so thoughtful. I will definitely continue this tradition. This is some of what they wrote:

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End of Year Gifts

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It’s nearing the end of the year and many of us are thinking about giving gifts to our students. Years ago I began creating word clouds for my students.
Screen Shot 2019-05-19 at 2.36.17 PMI use Google Forms to collect adjectives from students. The students don’t know why I’m doing it. I ask for three adjectives to describe their classmates. We brainstorm a list of positive qualities that could be used to describe someone. I do 3 students at a time. Any more than that and the students start to repeat themselves and it’s less personal. I take the adjectives, check spelling, and place them in a word cloud generator. I use Wordart. I try to pick images that match each student’s interest, passion, or personality. The secretary at my school is kind enough to print them out for me. I cut them to size and place their school picture on it and put it all in a frame that I purchase from the Dollar Store. Adding a short message on the back of the frame is also a nice touch. It’s a personal gift and easy on the wallet.

I love this gift so much!