Thanksgiving is almost here! I thought you might be able to use the following Thanksgiving resources this week with students (or maybe even next week with your families!):
THANKSGIVING PASSES:
How about telling your students you are thankful for them with free pass from their teacher? Consider changing up the passes with this editable copy of the Thanksgiving Passes so you can change them up and make them the type of passes you are comfortable giving out to your students!
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It seems that for decades, elementary students (and their parents) eagerly await the reveal of who their teacher will be for the upcoming school year. Some schools post teacher names and class lists on the school’s windows, some send out postcards, and others have teachers call each family to introduce themselves and reveal that they are the assigned teacher for the year. Last school year, on our campus, we tried a new way to reveal homeroom teachers to our families that was loved by families and staff.
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Teaching during a pandemic has created A LOT of additional work for teachers. Many educators (including myself) have advised teachers to pick top priorities and choose to let other things go. One priority that teachers SHOULD NOT let go of is making time for building relationships with students. This is just so paramount! So how can educators keep building relationships a top priority when they are so incredibly pressed for time?? Here are some super fast and easy ideas that take ZERO prep time (cause I know you don’t have any to spare) for keeping what’s most important from getting pushed aside by other required tasks.
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On my campus, all of our teachers are teaching both online (to remote students) and face-to-face (with students physically in the classroom) simultaneously. We are working hard to keep relationship building and a strong classroom culture a top priority – especially since about half of the students in each class will be learning from home. One common idea for helping students connect to each other is asking them to answer some get to know you questions and then spotlighting one student per week or per day until all students have shared. Traditionally, at schools across the world, this has been done by cutting and gluing pictures onto poster board. In an effort to keep passing of papers at a minimum and to level the playing field with an assignment that students can complete online or can be printed and completed with paper and pencil, I created a Student Spotlight template!
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On my campus, we are making plans to have our first ever VIRTUAL Meet the Teacher. While we can’t safely invite all parents and students into the building at this time, we still want everyone to get to meet their teacher and have a quick get-to-know-you conversation, see the classroom, practice walking from their entrance to class, AND we still need to gather lots of information from families. We know that just like when homeroom letters went home in the past, when these Virtual Meet the Teacher’s go out, parents and students will talk to each other and compare who got who. We want this to be a GREAT first impression for ALL of our teachers – so myself and three teachers from my school (Kelsey French, Brittany Laurell, and Ina Nguyen) developed a template for all teachers on campus to use with easy to follow instructions so that we all make the same GREAT first impression.
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On my campus, while we are working hard to meet the academic needs of students remotely, we are also focused on ensuring that students still feel connected to their teacher and their classmates. In the same way, while I want to meet the work needs of my staff members, I also want to ensure that we stay connected as a staff and continue to grow and build our culture – even remotely. Teachers are planning weekly class Zoom meetings for team building and culture building. As a staff, we are hanging out in a virtual staff lounge on Zoom and also sharing memes, jokes, and ideas on a staff padlet wall. Staying connected during this difficult time is so important for our students’ and our own mental health! After the first few – “It’s so great to see you” Zoom class or staff meetings, it can be hard to come up with more ideas for bonding and having fun together from a distance. Here are some ideas I’ve found across the internet that I hope you’ll find useful! Continue reading
As we all try to wrap our minds around teaching and learning remotely, a major concern is how to continue to connect individually with each and every student (or staff member if you are a school leader) when we are physically so far apart. I’ve brainstormed and collected a few ideas to get us started! Continue reading
Google Forms are used by educators the world over for formative assessments, quizzes, to collect information from parents, and much more. But how might we use a Google Form to build relationships? It’s all in the questions we ask and the consistency in which we ask them! Continue reading
The past few years we have enjoyed playing Super Bowl Squares with our staff. If you don’t know about this game, you can check out the full rules here and get some helpful templates. On our campus, we don’t sell the squares, instead, teachers earn them by completing tasks or being caught implementing a specific initiative. Here’s the basic overview of how we’ve adapted for our staff: Continue reading
Lately, I’ve started using voxer to send voice messages of praise and appreciation to students, staff, and parents. If you aren’t using Voxer, it is a walkie-talkie app that you use to send voice recordings. If your intended recipient has the app, you can send your voice message of encouragement directly to them through the app, but even if they don’t have the app, you can record your voice and then email the recording to them. I have seen these messages have a HUGE impact – at times, bringing others to tears as they hear the honesty and sincerity in my voice that sometimes does not come across in writing. Continue reading
Meredith Akers 