It is hard to believe that we have been out of our classrooms for over a month now! I was able to go back into my classroom to pick up a few things last week and that's when it hit me, like running into a brick wall, that I wouldn't be getting my class back the way it was before. As I tried to quickly grab things from my room that I thought would help me teach from home, I was overwhelmed with sadness. I saw books that students were in the middle of reading on their desks, the tribute wall of paintings we had made to honor #24, the late Kobe Bryant. There was a pile of classwork that I planned on hanging up for Open House on my desk, the whiteboard still had table points listed and I couldn't help but cry. Thinking about that last day with my students I remembered how I tried to prepare them for a few weeks off. I told them it would kind of be like Winter Break. I was so hopeful that things would get back to normal. I don't think I ever dreamed that would be the last day in the classroom with my students.
Thankfully, it is not the end of our story. In the last few weeks, digital learning has been all over the place for me and my students. We have all learned a lot. After going back into my classroom I knew I wanted students to feel like we are still a class even though we aren't in the physical classroom. I want to recognize students for all the hard work they are doing. I want them to know how much I care about them and want them to succeed. I also wanted to figure out a way to keep students motivated. I thought about what works in the classroom and how I could translate that into a virtual classroom. I cam up with digital brag tags. I've used them before in my classroom, the students loved them I just needed to make them relevant to what students are doing now. So I came up with a couple of different brag tags. Today in our classroom Zoom meeting, I asked students to come up with suggestions too.
The plan is that I will give the brag tags out weekly to students on google classroom. The students will download the brag tag and insert it into a Time to Brag Google Slide. When they fill up a slide with Brag Tags that will mean they have earned a reward. I am thinking I might try to mail them something or maybe just have them come get a prize next school year. Either way, students are super excited about it. I have already seen a lot of them going back to last week's work so they can earn a brag tag for 100% completed work. The motivation so far is working! Here is a short video of what I did to get started.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1L_K-rKBPszsnHsepDrlgAyeuJrYw1VhO/view
This is the link to the Time to Brag google slide I made. Feel free to use it if you like.
It is hard to believe that we have been out of our classrooms for over a month now! I was able to go back into my classroom to pick up a few things last week and that's when it hit me, like running into a brick wall, that I wouldn't be getting my class back the way it was before. As I tried to quickly grab things from my room that I thought would help me teach from home, I was overwhelmed with sadness. I saw books that students were in the middle of reading on their desks, the tribute wall of paintings we had made to honor #24, the late Kobe Bryant. There was a pile of classwork that I planned on hanging up for Open House on my desk, the whiteboard still had table points listed and I couldn't help but cry. Thinking about that last day with my students I remembered how I tried to prepare them for a few weeks off. I told them it would kind of be like Winter Break. I was so hopeful that things would get back to normal. I don't think I ever dreamed that would be the last day in the classroom with my students.
Thankfully, it is not the end of our story. In the last few weeks, digital learning has been all over the place for me and my students. We have all learned a lot. After going back into my classroom I knew I wanted students to feel like we are still a class even though we aren't in the physical classroom. I want to recognize students for all the hard work they are doing. I want them to know how much I care about them and want them to succeed. I also wanted to figure out a way to keep students motivated. I thought about what works in the classroom and how I could translate that into a virtual classroom. I cam up with digital brag tags. I've used them before in my classroom, the students loved them I just needed to make them relevant to what students are doing now. So I came up with a couple of different brag tags. Today in our classroom Zoom meeting, I asked students to come up with suggestions too.
The plan is that I will give the brag tags out weekly to students on google classroom. The students will download the brag tag and insert it into a Time to Brag Google Slide. When they fill up a slide with Brag Tags that will mean they have earned a reward. I am thinking I might try to mail them something or maybe just have them come get a prize next school year. Either way, students are super excited about it. I have already seen a lot of them going back to last week's work so they can earn a brag tag for 100% completed work. The motivation so far is working! Here is a short video of what I did to get started.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1L_K-rKBPszsnHsepDrlgAyeuJrYw1VhO/view
This is the link to the Time to Brag google slide I made. Feel free to use it if you like.
This is the link to the Time to Brag google slide I made. Feel free to use it if you like.
Hi Alina! What stood out the most to me while reading your post is the overwhelming sense of love that you have for your students. =^..^=
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