How do we connect with our students in a virtual education setting?

Hi everyone!

How do we connect with our students when we are working with them in a virtual setting? Here are some ideas to build that strong foundation for trusting relationships!

1. SNAIL MAIL

Send your students post cards, letters, or cards to say hello and drop a compliment! I stocked up on blank greeting cards every year and usually put them in my classroom mailboxes, but this is the same idea. When my students received a handwritten note, they were thrilled. Many parents told me that the kids kept their cards on display in the house, others kept the cards in their desks at school as a reminder that they are respected and loved. Send them mail! They'll go nuts, I promise you.

2. MORNING MEETING

Responsive Classroom is just good teaching. I love it. I love that our staff has been trained in Responsive Classroom! Morning Meeting is a cornerstone of the program, focusing on social emotional learning. Teachers express that Morning Meeting sets the stage for kids and teachers to connect, develop respect in the classroom, and bond. We all know kids work hard for teachers they connect with AND LIKE. 

So, keep it going. Maybe not every day, but try to have a class meeting once a week on Zoom or Google Meet. Get the kids together.Use fun activities like, "Would You Rather?" or  "This or That?" Make it fun so the kids participate and want to come back for the next meeting. If you can't have synchronous meetings, use a platform like flipgrid to record themselves and watch their peers. We did this last spring and had a theme each day: Minute to Win in challenge Mondays, Talk About It Tuesdays, Would You Rather Wednesdays, Think About it Thursdays, and Free for All Fridays!

3. BE ORGANIZED, STRUCTURED, and CONSISTENT

If the kids understand your expectations, know what they need to do in your class, and feel comfortable asking you questions, you're winning. At our school, we're using the same style choice boards across grade levels, everyone is using Google Classroom, and grade level teams have decided on the same organizational styles for their Google Classrooms. Consistency is key.

Let me know in the comments how you're connecting with kids during virtual teaching!

Stella by Starlight by Sharon M. Draper - Let's connect our subject areas and use our valuable classroom time wisely!

Cross curricular planning. SO IMPORTANT! I always feel like the clock is my greatest enemy in the classroom. Do we ever really have enough time for everything? The answer is no. So, we need to plan smart. Use read alouds to foster a love of literacy and learning - hook your little readers and get them excited to pick up a book on their own - but also tie it to your curriculum!

Stella by Starlight is a great example of a read aloud text for intermediate grades that will definitely connect to your Social Studies content. (I tend to find a lot of book relate to Social Studies well, and that's fine by me since we could only get to Social Studies a couple of times a week for a formal lesson, anyway.) 

Stella by Starlight is set during the Great Depression in the South, which was still segregated at the time. The Ku Klux Klan has an increasing influence over the residents of the small rural town of Bumblebee, North Carolina. The protagonist is Stella Mills, 11 years old and ready to confront racism, as well as deal with the everyday problems in school, her family, and friendships that a pre-teen tends to be challenged by.

Here are a few other great texts that connect Social Studies curriculum:

Toliver's Secret

The Hope Chest

Eagle Song

Journey to Nowhere

Any of the I Survived series books!

Five for Friday

The day after our NYS ELA state assessment ended we set up a crime scene in the classroom! Kids really had a blast finding clues, recording evidence, and deciding what the evidence most likely meant. It was totally engaging and fun!

The crime scene materials came from The Engaging Station's TpT product. It had suggestions for how to set up your classroom and handouts for students to record their notes.

And here is some of the writing my students did the day after the NYS ELA assessment! On the third day of the test and the 9th written response question, I had some of my most talented writers telling me that they were tired of writing. Well, that all changed when they walked into our transformed classroom and determined that their lovely teacher was a suspect in a terrible crime! They really did jump right in and got excited about writing again!

Lucy has been a MUSH with all of the rainy weather we have had here in New York lately. She doesn't mind playing in mud puddles after the rain, but she really does NOT like walking in the rain. So...she sleeps. :)

With the NYS ELA assessments over, we have about a month until the NYS Math assessments, which my kids are sure will be a total blast because they love math. Definitely less anxiety there! We can do it!

Spark Student Motivation Saturday

I'm here, linking up with Joanne from Head Over Heels for Teaching, for Spark Student Motivation Saturday!

Our class had so much fun with our SECRET AGENT day!

(Grab the FREEBIE here!)

I used white string and black lights to set the stage. 

Kiddos were each given a badge, glow stick, and spy glasses.

They also used their Flashlight Friday flashlights and our lanterns around the room to see their work!

I had a CCLS aligned task to go with each subject area, four total.

The close reading and summarizing piece was my favorite! We worked at the back table in small groups to read and highlight the important information with a lantern, and then turned off the lantern so the black lights made what we highlighted GLOW. It made summarizing the MOST important information that much easier for the little second graders.

It was a fun day!

Five for Friday

Here I am, and I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching this week for Five For Friday!  

Gallery Walks

I'm loving a good gallery walk this year!

The one above is a culminating activity from our Immigration unit. It's in the second grade CCLS ELA domains.

Each child had Post Its and went through the pictures. They wrote down facts that they remembered from our unit and their thoughts on the pictures. (I did have the Smart Board on with a cheat sheet of helpful vocabulary words for my little second graders!)

Next up, I think that I will try this as an INTRODUCTION for an upcoming unit. Activate a little schema and get the kiddos thinking and EXCITED about what's coming next!

SocksBean

I ordered some fun new necklaces from SocksBean.com!

I'll be giving a couple away to my sisters for birthday gifts, but I'm thinking that I'll keep that last one for myself! 

SUPER CUTE!

And I used a sweet 20% off code from Schroeder Shenanigans in 2nd!

(And yes, those are Lucy's feet in the picture. She loves being a part of a blog photo.)

Modern Family.

I've just been really into this show recently. :)

NEW FLAIR PENS!!!

This is an exciting day.

I like to use Flair pens when I'm writing greeting cards for my kiddos. I try to write each child a personalized greeting card and put it in their mailbox a few times a month, and Flair pens are perfect for that!

Plus, they are great for writing little desk top reminders on Post Its for my second grade cuties.

Lucy is always a fun way to end a Five for Friday!

Frolicking outside in her pajamas.

Five for Friday

I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching this week for Five For Friday! 

We celebrated the winter solstice on December 21 with an indoor campout! I set up a real life tent. I also used bulletin board paper to make some lean to's. I also brought in some real wood and set it up around a touch light for a camp fire in our meeting area. We even had smores! Well, graham crackers, chocolate bars, and fluff! :)

Before winter vacation I downloaded Hope King's science experiments file from TPT. We had been learning about matter, but the kiddos were struggling. I had a few days before winter break, and instead of starting a new unit, I stayed with matter a bit and tried out some experiments and hands on activities. Obviously, they loved it!

We don't actually have science built into our schedule in my school. (I know, crazy.) Especially for me, someone coming from teaching fourth grade for five years and knowing that there is a state science test, well, I can't NOT teach science. So, I squeeze it in whenever I can. Plus, science experiments are SUPER engaging and fun for kiddos!

The experiment above is neat. We put pop rocks into the balloon, attached it to the soda top, and flipped the balloons at the same time. The pop rocks fell into the soda, created gas, and inflated our balloons. The kiddos went nuts!!! I think it was one of their favorite experiments. 

We also made ice cream, made root beer floats, dressed up in clear garbage bags and added balloons to represent molecules for solids, liquids, and gases, AND A LOT MORE!

We finished up our life cycles unit, so I took ten minutes in a day for some fun! We each had a partner and wrapped each other up in a chrysalis! And then we EMERGED! It was a hoot.

Each child had a black chenille pipe cleaner wrapped onto their fingers to look like antennae and butterfly feet. We then dug through the Cheetohs (pollen) for the candy (nectar). When the victor emerged from the bag with the candy, their pipe cleaner was covered in Cheetohs dust. We made some great connections to our life cycles unit as we finished it up!

You may not be able to see, but my friend had the polka dot dog mat embroidered with Lucy's name! My entire classroom is black and white polka dots with splashes of yellow, so it is very fitting and I love it. :)