Potentially Obvious, Possibly Brilliant! Daily Notes and Ideas Collection

With the recent COVID-19 pandemic, educators and organizations are dealing with a new reality. Remote learning for students, online connection and instruction, working from home...these are the new normal for our current educational landscape!

We want to continue to support teachers, leaders and organizations through these unique times! Each week, we will be posting five "Potentially Obvious, Possibly Brilliant" notes to our collection, as well as sharing daily through our social media channels. We hope this collection can provide ideas, inspiration and support to the greater educational community!

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Potentially Obvious, Possibly Brilliant Collection

  1. Establish specific times of the day in your daily schedule where you plan to check and respond to email. Responding to every email as it comes can distract from larger tasks at hand.
  2. Create a daily work plan that establishes times and the tasks you hope to realistically complete during that time. Structuring your day in this manner can be more productive than a simple “to-do” list.
  3. Consider using Remind, a free text messaging tool for teachers, to send out messages to families. Encouragement messages, a joke or thought for the day can lift spirits and reach families with limited internet/data access.
  4. Robert Havighurst described a teachable moment as “that moment when a unique, high interest situation arises that lends itself to discussion of a particular topic”. Give yourself permission to set aside the lesson plan and learn with your students. #WeAreAllLearners
  5. Focus on the positive: keep a gratitude journal, where each day you write down three things you are grateful for. #positivethinking
  6. Are you wondering how to check in on your students’ reading development? Try Flipgrid for listening, & responding to, students reading aloud. They have a Remote Learning getting started page to get you underway within 5 mins.
  7. Turn to Peachie Speechie for support with the articulation of sounds, as well as resources for parents at home https://peachiespeechie.com/pages/peachie-speechie-videos #speechlanguage #slp
  8. When engaging multiple participants in a video platform, ensure that all participants are instructed to mute their microphones when not speaking, to reduce background noise. As a meeting organizer, you can also mute microphones - more information at https://bit.ly/2JOP9X3.
  9. Establish “partner activities” for your class - create a specific learning task or project and assign partners to have to connect during the week to complete the task. Model how the connection could be made online, by phone or another viable platform.
  10. Establish 20 minutes in your schedule each day to review a resource for consideration for your instruction. A great resource to check out is A Remote Learning Link Pack from Fountas & Pinnell Literacy™ https://bit.ly/34GbZty
  11. Rethinking Reading Groups - trying to organize and deliver small group reading instruction can be a challenging endeavor when working remotely. It’s o.k. to change your focus to meet the needs of the students, and the challenges that come with delivery, in this new context. Consider switching your small group Guided Reading instruction from being text leveled based to strategy or skill based. Teach a meaningful strategy or skill, which students can employ to any text they are reading. Invite students (parents) to join you at a specific time and for those who cannot make it, record your session using the record feature in Google Hangouts, making it available to families at their convenience. You will still be providing meaningful reading instruction that all can benefit from!
  12. Vous avez plusieurs rencontres en ligne ou par téléphone? Assurez-vous d’établir un contact positif avec vos élèves ou votre personnel en les accueillant chaleureusement. Cela est aussi simple que de nommer leur prénom lorsqu’ils se joignent à votre rencontre “Bonjour Sylvie! Merci de te joindre à nous aujourd’hui”. Un truc simple pour maintenir les relations positives!
  13. Set Boundaries! Working from home can be a constant distraction! Provide yourself a workspace, and only do your work there. Do not take work to bed with you, and do not let the laundry or dishes follow you to work!
  14. Take a Break! With the constant virtual connection, screen time is often associated with seat time! Don’t forget to stand up, stretch, and move around - even to go refill your water bottle! Schedule time in your online meetings to encourage those on the other end to mute their microphones, hide their videos, and do the same!
  15. Lorsque vous faites une rencontre avec plusieurs personnes sur une plateforme vidéo, assurez-vous que chaque participant sait comment mettre son microphone en sourdine lorsqu’il ne parle pas. Cette simple stratégie permet de réduire les bruits ambiants. Si vous êtes l’animateur de la rencontre, vous pouvez activer et désactiver les microphones des participants. Pour plus d’informations Commandes relatives aux participants.
  16. Check out these Resources for Caregivers and Educators from The Learning Bar. There’s family activity cards, reading to your child, & a young learner friendly reading log.
  17. Assume Positive Intent! What is meant to be said is not always what is heard through digital communication. Assume that the message you are receiving is coming with the best of intentions, and respond accordingly - with empathy.
  18. In times of chaos, structure is naturally sought. Rather than lose meeting processes that were previously in place, plan for those meaningful connections and purposeful work times to happen more often as the pace for decision and action has definitely increased!
  19. Establish 20 minutes in your schedule each day to review a resource for consideration for your instruction. A great resource to check out is the following one by Toy Theater for virtual manipulatives. https://toytheater.com/category/teacher-tools/virtual-manipulatives/
  20. https://www.cadre21.org/ressources/12-conseils-pratiques-pour-le-travail-a-la-maison/ Ces 12 conseils pratiques pour le travail à la maison vous aideront à garder l’équilibre entre votre personnelle et professionnelle. CADRE21
  21. In these times of uncertainty, it is important for us to acknowledge that while there may be chaos around us, it is critical that we not allow this chaos to thrive within us.
  22. How do we define “business as usual” in highly unusual times? Let’s begin by embracing the mistakes we are going to make and the resulting, valuable lessons we are about to learn. Begin today by giving one another the space, permission and support to make these invaluable mistakes.
  23. Great idea from @Lyricalswordz to support Independent Reading at home. Please make a copy and adapt to suit your age group. https://docs.google.com/document/d/164cZCkn7YEO7gy...
  24. Go on a Nature Walk and observe the weather and your surroundings. Write a story about what you saw or create a video. Learn a new skill like juggling. Engage in a skip rope competition (invite others online to join you).
  25. En cette période d’incertitude, nous cherchons à établir une certaine structure organisationnelle. En tant que leader, prenez le temps de planifier des réseaux de liaison efficaces avec votre équipe. Envisager des rencontres de groupes, de sous-groupe ainsi que des rencontres individuelles ayant des intentions et objectifs clairement définis. Billet blogue- Comment planifier efficacement des réseaux de liaison?
  26. Revisiting and rallying around your primary goal(s) as a staff is crucial to maintaining focus and fostering momentum within a new reality.
  27. Make More Art: The Health Benefits of Creativity jamesclear.com/make-more-art
  28. Headspace is offering free access to all K-12 teachers, school administrators, and supporting staff in the US, UK, Canada, and Australia https://loom.ly/0FUHCzU.
  29. Encourage students to engage in life skills! Help the family with spring cleaning, such as cleaning closets, the garage, washing windows, etc. or choose a recipe to make with an adult.
  30. Imagine the possibilities for supporting students from afar with your colleagues. What new strategies, accommodations, interventions might be possible through virtual #collaborativeresponse?
  31. Demonstrate Gratitude! Play a song on an instrument and share it with family and friends. Sing a favorite song and share it with family and friends. Make a card and share it with a special person.
  32. Offrir de la rétroaction à nos élèves est très important pour leur cheminement scolaire. Le CADRE21 vous offre une excellent blog à ce sujet ainsi qu’une formation très enrichissante!
  33. Leading with grace through a time of uncertainty means that we move with heightened presence, thoughtfulness, and ease. This enables us to recognize the beauty inherent in knowing that regardless of the uncharted waters ahead of us, our teams will continue to collaborate as we unlock answers together.
  34. Big Ideas for Little Learners (FB Group): A Facebook Group simply sharing a safe and fun space for young learners to engage and be creative while being at home during this uncertain time. All families with young learners are welcome to join, as well as early educators.
  35. Avoid unexpected phishing and scam emails by knowing the source
    • Double-check the email address of the sender by clicking on details
      • Often the originating address is unfamiliar and/or spelled incorrectly
      • This may also show a list of email recipients - another sign that it is a scam email
    • DO NOT CLICK on anything asking for personal information
      • This is particularly true of those that offer you money if you send your banking details
    • DO NOT FORWARD the email
      • Many of these messages are encoded to retrieve contact list details to send future messages
    • Report the email of concern
      • By taking a moment to click the “Report as Spam” button, the algorithm that searches for these types of messages will now filter out these messages to other user in an attempt to end the scam
  36. Innovating Play! When I consider what we mean when we say to another person "Do you want to play?" I think we mean, do you want to connect with me? Do you want to discover and explore alongside me? Do you want to imagine possibilities with me? I think of play as the ability to manipulate the world through imagination and exploration. - Jessica Twomey
  37. Explore new areas of curiosity… for students of all ages.
  38. Games to Teach Social Skills without using tech, shared by @ONTSpecialNeeds. Try Jenga to teach self-control. Try Team Pictionary to teach teamwork. Try Chess to teach decision-making. Try Charades to teach social cues. Try Guess Who? to teach conversations. Try Candy Land to teach turn taking. Try Scrabble to teach flexibility. Try "Feelings" Uno to teach emotions.
Author: Kurtis Hewson