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Creating a Positive

Online Culture

https://bit.ly/GoogleIE20Culture

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Checking In

If you could wake up tomorrow with the ability to play any musical instrument, which one would it be?

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Mentimeter Code:

78 82 63

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Hello!

Heather Hilz Fitzgerald

Romoland School District

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Remember… Most images and or highlighted text are Hyperlinks to extra resources.

https://twitter.com/hilz2teach

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Current Realities

Guardian Support

Teachers and parents concerned with the learning support at home. Parents need How To’s and guidance to support ongoing learning.

Inconsistent Participation

Do students have access at home? How many devices are being used amongst multiple students in a home? Do students have the self-efficacy skills to be successful?

Family Needs

When the new school comes, what do families want? Will they be okay to send their students to school? Are we ready to get back to “normal”? How will schools keep students safe?

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As we begin to come back during this fall for school, many new realities may be upon us. Virtual learning and or hybrid options may be the only instructional options available, therefore troubleshooting and working towards perfecting this online pedagogy will be of utmost importance.

Reflecting on the closures we previously had in March, we see that there are some concerns we may have when returning, and in order to create a successful virtual model we will need to conquer these areas.

Some of the concerns previously mentioned at the beginning of the closures was providing support to families. Being able to assist families with the tools and guidance needed to be successful facilitators of learning at home.

Teachers also voiced the inconsistency of participation. And a deeper understanding of homelife and the skills the students have to self monitor their own learning and study habits, can be a determining factor of the motivation students have with online learning.

Lastly, keeping in consideration what families need in order to be successful during this time, whether it is social emotional support, flexivity, and consistency, we see that as educators, we are doing more than just teaching academics at this time, but truly nurturing the whole child.

That is why today’s topic is covering culture.

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Today’s Focus Supports Two Groups

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Students

"With increasing recognition of the importance of transitioning students from school to the outside world, student autonomy has become a key area of focus. Education leaders argue that ‘student agency must become the norm, not the exception”

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Since school closures in March, we have seen an extreme transition of education. Where students have needed to be self-sufficient, self-motivated, and strategic in accessing their learning.

Recent publishing by Google for Education has directed our attention to “give students more agency over their education, from what they learn to how the classroom operates.” That being said, as we move into a more online learning environment, we are really going to need to look at each individual child and see what their needs are. That in a sense is truly building positive culture, because it is focusing on what makes a child motivated, what engagees them, what challenges, and what supports them. And in this idea - it truly doesn’t mean making an individualized lesson for each child, but really being able to be flexible, provide options, and accommodate each learner based on their needs and abilities.

And if you get a chance, feel free to click on the Google for Education logo above to read their report on future trends in the classroom.

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Communication is Key

Talk with students
Meet with students
Allow for sharing

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“Instructor presence is a critical factor in the success of online learning.”

RCOE Remote Learning Guidance

How will you connect?

So how do we meet these students needs? How do we understand who they are? And the simple answer to that will be communication.

From many experts in the Educational World, as they analyse the effects of Covid-19 closures, we see that the most beneficial element to a successful distance learning model is that of communication. Teacher presence in vital. Through Google Meets on a daily basis that provide purposeful and meaningful instruction, and google meets that are structured to support small groups, these learning moments are vital for students to learn new skills. That being said, creating consistent daily instruction as a whole class should be scheduled at a consistent time daily… in this time a check up could be administered, and then a direct instruction mini-lesson that would benefit all learners within a grade level content standards. Other small group sessions would also need to be scheduled on a daily basis or at least a bi-weekly basis, that way you are meeting with students to provide instruction and presence needed to be successful.

Another suggestion would be for teachers to schedule a day where one on one meets could take place, or even record video feedback to students once a week as well.

Besides instruction, we have to think about the peer interaction, so allowing for students to talk with one another, have structured conversations based on content being learned, or even just fun moments of sharing, laughing and joking… making moments of conversation not only supports academics but supports the social emotional aspects of relationships.

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Knowing Your Students

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Students need the connection to a mentor and a facilitator of learning, but also a connection to themselves...

Intro Staff to MM Tip Sheet

One idea that will spark communication in a positive and meaningful matter during your classroom meets is to just check in to see how students are doing.

When we reach out to see how our students are feeling, we are letting them know that what they are feeling matters, that it is okay to feel the way they do. When you perform these activities during your meets this then also allows you to gauge how your next steps or next teachable moments will be.

The mood meter shown here is a great way to incorporate that selection of feelings and if you click on the link above, you can learn more about facilitating the activity.

Another option to stay connected with how your students are feeling, or what is going on in their lives, and even an attendance tracker is to use google Forms.

Check out this option from Erin Lozano at Boulder Ridge… just a simple form to check in daily. (Share) This is a Google Form that allows for specific questions to be asked about

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Developing a Positive Culture

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Going from this...

To this...

How will my teacher create a positive culture for me?

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What types of culture building activities have you used while Distance Learning?

Use this Menti Code to Share

10 50 92

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Eduprotocols

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Setting aside time to get to know one another pays off in the long run.

Don’t have the book? Highly recommend you check it out!!! Could literally structure your entire class instruction from it!

“Culture is Everything”

Marlena Hebern & Jon Corippo

As we progress through the rest of this presentation I wanted to take time to mention some great options to help building culturel.

The first suggestion I have is to check out Eduptocols Book 1 - where in the beginning of the book it outlines everything that focuses around Culture in the first few days or couple of weeks of school. In there you’ll find activities and strategies as to how to get your students connected, being able to feel comfortable to share, and also learning about them as well for your own sake.

OUr Google Drive Shared Eduprotcl Folder contains all of the digital templates you need to set up engaging first day activities. ALl of these activities can be modified and or adapted to your own classroom, therefore they work for the littles all the way up to our 8th graders.

Educaptotocols are also perfect instructional strategies to implement in a virtual setting, so feel free to review the book and find ways to really support student Learning.

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Developing the Norms

Why is my continued learning important?
How will we respond to one another?
When will we check in?
How will I structure my day?
When will I receive feedback?
What will I do with my feedback?
How do I reflect on learning?

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The Science Behind Classroom Norming

Neat little read, check it out!

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Classroom Mission Statements

One great addition to a classroom culture builder is a Mission Statement:

Individualized and Classroom Based

The following process can be used for personal use or group use.

7 Habits of Highly Successful People Here or build through the simplified version.

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A work in progress! Wouldn’t it be great to have a Google Meet and script your Mission Statement together live?!

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Personalities

What is a personality test?

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Recreate this Personality Test in whichever form you would like…

Online Document
Online Form
Online Assessment Tool

Or…

Assign this as a link

16 Personalities

(My previous 5th-graders were able to take this test)

Wikipedia Knows...

Another idea to help secure the sense of identity would also be opportunities to understand one’s self - and the Personality Test is a perfect activity that allows for students to explore who they are. The Myers & Briggs Test is the most common test you will find, but you can always search and find tests that are more user friendly based on your grade level.

One suggestion is to have maybe 4-8 grade students take the 16 Personalities test online. It allows for students to pull up an entire page that reflects on their individualized personality, assigns them a character, and makes connections to famous people with their type.

I see this as a way to also connect to many of our subjects… such as writing narratives may be about an opposite personality to themselves, or charting data based on how many introverts there are compared to extroverts, and so much more research and exploration with sciences and social studies.

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Values

Values in an individual can be a driving force in one’s life…

“Learning virtues and values such as empathy and kindness, and developing emotional intelligence are equally as important as the math and science lessons that we teach, in order for children to understand themselves, their connection to others and to the world.”

Nastaran Jafari, Independent International Education Consultant

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Visit this Google Sheet to Narrow Down Your own Values, Share with Your Students, or modify for Digital Forms.

Values Exercise for Model the Way

From Future of the Classroom Google Global Report

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Collecting Evidence for Greatness

Digital Portfolios are a Special way to Curate student Work!

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Step 1

https://sites.google.com/new

Create a new site

Step 2

Choose a Theme

Step 3

Add Pages

Check out my entire presentation of Digital Portfolios Here!!!

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Families

“What’s exciting about communicative technologies, but what I think has been underexplored, is how you really use parents as a partner in education. I think often there’s been a bit of a: once kids get to school age, it’s all the school's job and the parents are slightly shut out.” Rachel Wolf, Founding Partner at Public First

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Begin the Year with Communication

Google Meet Kick Off

Share about yourself
Have students share
Play Games

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Parent Friendly Communication

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Weekly Check In’s

Screencastify-ing or Recording your Weekly Learning Plan and the expectations you have for completion of tasks can be the ticket to keep everyone on track.

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Kim Voge - A fellow educator shared how successful her check-ins were with families when she recorded and sent them out for later reference.

“Parents preferred a 2 minute or less video ...took less time to compose than a lengthy email. They could replay it quickly. They could hear tone of voice.”

Kimberly Voge (@KVoge71)

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Gather Feedback

One way to see if the at-home learning is successful is to ask questions.

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Family Surveys

How is learning going?

What supports do you need from me?

What online tools are working best?

What are things you would like to learn about?

What are you struggling with?

How else can I support you?

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Be Realistic...

Instructor Presence
Daily Instruction
Bi-Weekly Small Groups
Check-ins
Learning that is Meaningful
Establish relationships and Community

Students and Family

Respect the Individual Student and Circumstance

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Thank You!!!

It was a pleasure to be here with you!

Questions, suggestions, or shares are appreciated!

Access the survey here!

hhilz-fitzgerald@romoland.net

@hilz2teach