What I Wish I'd Learned in School

Saturday, August 29, 2020
Distance Teaching: Week 2 Reflections
Digital Literacy Unit: Intro to Google Docs Lesson Plan
For the last 5 years, I have been starting the year with a digital literacy unit. It is my shortest unit, 1-2 weeks, but it sets the ground work for all of the tech assignments we will be doing for the rest of the year.
I decided to go this route because I found that many of my students didn't know how to write an email or how to bold a text - simple commands that are very teachable. I'm sharing my lesson plan from this week about Google Docs, which I do with all of my English classes as we move them toward using MLA formatting when constructing a paper.
Lesson Plan Duration: 50 Minutes
1. Energizer: Digital Charades.
We started class off with digital charades. I asked for volunteers and private messaged the volunteer a word. The student acted out the word in Zoom and we all guessed what it was. It was the first time I tried it, and it was actually a riot. Here are some terms that you can use if you do the same in your classroom:
Virtual Charades List:
Getting married | skipping | swinging | toothpaste |
Raking leaves | eating | Playing hide and seek | guitar |
Planting a garden | Ironing clothes | Rowing a boat | Changing a diaper |
Snowball fight | Make a campfire | yoga | glue |
surfing | Riding a rollercoaster | Riding a carousel | Visiting the zoo |
Building a sandcastle | Having a food fight | Riding a motorcycle | Feeding ducks |
Flying a kite | Delivering mail | Playing baseball | Making a pizza |
Sunday, August 23, 2020
The Coexist Disability Awareness Sticker - my journey creating a bumper sticker!
Today I thought I'd write about an art project that I have been working on for some time now.
It is a COEXIST Disability Awareness sticker.
I started thinking about it when I was first sitting in our Back-to-School kick off. I really wanted to put together a bumper sticker that promoted disability awareness and has the vibe of inclusion and the multitude of disabilities that exist - especially hidden disabilities or disabilities that are not always apparent to the naked eye.
I started researching the different disability icons, and began drawing in my journal. It took me 2 weeks to come up with the final design, and then another 1 week to draw it in Google Slides by free drawing and tracing. The biggest challenge was coming up with the correct shade of blue.
From there, I went to my print shop and showed the design and talked about different dimensions, sizes and he printed out a proof. For this project, I decided to use the 3 x 11.5'' dimensions.
I'm pretty happy with the end result. We have it on the back of our van and I love how my daughter points out the van in a parking lot by saying, "look, Mom it's our car! It has the Coexist sticker."
Here is it on Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/listing/731074378/not-all-disabilities-are-visible?ref=listings_manager_grid
Creating bumper stickers was a new venture for me, but it was really fun. When I put it up on Etsy, I wasn't expecting many bites, but the reception has been great. I hope to keep improving it and coming up with new designs in the future. For now, I'm happy that I was able to start the project and complete it from start to finish.
This is something else I created on Photoshop that I threw on a black-T through my print shop. I wanted to wear it at a Back-to-School Kickoff or something. :) It was just for fun.
Would love to hear your opinion/suggestions/etc. or any bumper sticker designs you'd love to see! It was a fun project. If you are thinking about creating a bumper sticker, I highly recommend that you find a reliable print shop that you feel comfortable working with. I work with Vietnam Printing in San Jose. Henry, the owner, has been an amazing mentor to me! If you are in the area, I highly recommend his services.
Stay well,
- Kristine
Friday, August 21, 2020
Distance Teaching Reflections: Week 1
Tuesday, August 18, 2020
First Day of School 2020
It was another late eve before the first day of school.
No matter how hard I try to preplan the first day of school, the details never seem to be clear to me until the day before. As a teacher, it's hard to put into words the stress and anxiety that comes before the first day of school, which commingles with the assurance that you've done this many times before and have many more tools to pull from than you've ever had before.
This year we started the year off with distance learning. We all knew what to expect to some degree as we met the challenge of distance learning last Spring. It didn't feel like a work-less summer as we all anticipated a possible distance learning return.
Of course, we decided to switch to the Canvas platform this year, and I tortured myself with deciding to go "all in" and teaching myself the platform in the days before.😆
Here I am, at 4am to reflect on the first day of school. Here is a working Mom's teaching schedule on distance learning. This isn't typical, and this kind of day really only works for me, but it's nice to memorialize this time for a moment.
10-2am - Sleep
2am - 6:30am Prep for First Day of School
6:30-8:00am - Sleep
8:00am - Wake up, get my eldest daughter up for distance learning
8:45am - Ensure my daughter has breakfast/snacks for a couple hours of distance learning, recheck her work station, pack a snack bag extra clothes for toddler who is going on a playdate with grandma, get ready to start my day
9:30-10:45 - 1st Period SAI Study Skills. 4 students were absent. All students had their cameras off. :( I immediately missed meeting the freshmen on my caseload and seeing former students.
10:45-11:00 - Quick Breakfast Break, check on eldest daughter
11:00-12:30 - 3rd Period SAI English. Everyone was there!
12:30-1:00 - Lunch break, fort building with my 4-year-old
1:05-2:20 - 5th Period SAI Study Skills. A couple students were absent. Rowdier but fun bunch! I did an icebreaker where we showed pictures from our summer break and one of my students showed a picture of a gory, mutilated hand and then froze his screen. FYI I was being observed by a new coworker. Groan. Turned off the student's video. Eldest daughter comes in and needs help with her distance learning. Assign students to breakout rooms with IAs to check in for a second while I log her in.
2:20-3:40 - Phone calls to parents for students who did not attend, answer emails, case management
3:40-5:30 - Nap with my toddler
5:30 - Costco 😂
Although this wasn't a typical first day of school, I'll take it! It's more of a juggling act, that's for sure.
Here was my Canvas Homepage for the day.
Here were our lesson plans for the day.
Friday, August 14, 2020
Free Bitmoji Classroom Template!
This week, my daughter started her school year with Distance Learning. She has been enrolled in a Spanish immersion program since kindergarten. It's been pretty surreal to see her grow up learning another language and we are thankful to have that opportunity.
Her school has also transitioned to using CANVAS, as are we. The night before, we practiced logging in and I put a bookmark on her Google chrome.
On the morning of the first day of school, she was starting at 9am and I had a meeting at 9am - it was a challenge to get us both online at time. Needless to say, I could not figure out how to access the WebEx link for the class meeting! Until, she pointed out (correctly), that his WebEx link was on his virtual classroom slide on his homepage. It was so brilliant that I decided to make one for my own class. Check it out below:
If we can't be in the classroom, at least we can have semblance of what our classroom looks like in the real world. Since then, I've shared this template with some coworkers, and thought I'd do the same here.
Link to the Free Bitmoji Classroom template here! It is on Google Slides and will make a copy into your Drive.
I hope you enjoy decorating your classroom as I did! I plan to use it on my homepage on CANVAS.
Tips for Personalization:
- You can use any picture as a "poster" by copying+pasting the image, and changing the border to 4pt weight and the color: white
- When looking for classroom elements be sure to Google "_____ clipart". You want the background to have a transparent background. Sometimes, it looks like an image is transparent (i.e. when you do the image search it has this gray and white grid in the background), but when you paste it into your slide, it isn't transparent. True transparent images usually look like they have a white background, but when you click on it to view, the gray and white grid appears.
- Etsy has some great clipart to use if you wanted to go more in depth with this. (i.e. "plant clipart")
- TpT also has some bitmoji virtual classrooms for purchase and they are amazing!
Hope you are doing well in the first days of school!
- Kristine
Tuesday, August 11, 2020
25 Distance Learning Community Builders/Icebreakers
Good morning and happy PD (if that is what you are doing).
One of my colleagues brought up the need for Distance Learning Community Builders/Energizers. That was absolutely a challenge that came up this last Spring. I decided to compile a list of Distance Learning specific Community Builders/Energizers to draw from.
I just posted it to TpT here!: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/25-Distance-Learning-Community-BuildersIcebreakers-5898132, and it's for FREE! (Or, click the image below!)
Here is one of my favorites:
Virtual Charades. Send a word to a student via private message. The student then acts out the word and the class tries to guess what it is.
Sample list:
Getting married | skipping | swinging | toothpaste |
Raking leaves | eating | Playing hide and seek | guitar |
Planting a garden | Ironing clothes | Rowing a boat | Changing a diaper |
Snowball fight | Make a campfire | yoga | glue |
surfing | Riding a rollercoaster | Riding a carousel | Visiting the zoo |
Building a sandcastle | Having a food fight | Riding a motorcycle | Feeding ducks |
Flying a kite | Delivering mail | Playing baseball | Making a pizza |
Distance Teaching: Week 2 Reflections
We just ended week 2 of Distance Learning in Santa Clara County. I’ve learned a few more pros/cons: Pro: I’m able to collaborate more with ...
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This week, my daughter started her school year with Distance Learning. She has been enrolled in a Spanish immersion program since kindergart...
-
We just ended week 2 of Distance Learning in Santa Clara County. I’ve learned a few more pros/cons: Pro: I’m able to collaborate more with ...
-
Good morning and happy PD (if that is what you are doing). One of my colleagues brought up the need for Distance Learning Community Builder...