Happy Teacher Appreciation Day! Today is a good reminder to pause for a few moments and remember all of the extraordinary teachers that made an impact on our lives. Check out this 3-minute video from John Spencer called Because of a Teacher (A Tribute to All of Those Making a Difference).
I organized several ideas to help you and your students celebrate and reflect as we walk the "final mile" for the 2017-2018 school year.
Reflect - It's important to pause and reflect before we move forward. Was there a major theme or question that your students thought about all school year? What was their most meaningful takeaway from your class? What advice could they provide for your incoming students? How can students be successful in your class? They could provide three highlights, three game changers, three disappointments, or three experiences that helped their growth. Practical tools to help facilitate this process:
- Flipgrid - Just like MASH teachers have done this past school year on our Show & Tell EdTech page(password for access: learning247), you can provide a space for students to reflect on a prompt of their choice. Just go to https://flipgrid.com/, go to Educator login at the top of the page, and then use your school google account (at least for MASD teachers). Use the free options. Create a new grid (or add a topic to your existing grid) and post your question. Send the link out to students to complete. Check out these Flipgrid reflection examples from our AP Human Geography students. Don't forget to create a grid password and share that with students.
- Padlet - These guys are changing some site features. Check out the latest District Learn, Create, Connect digital newsletter about these changes. Anne Reardon shared some key updates that impact Padlet users. Once you create your own Padlet board, you can have students post (with a variety of options such as text, audio, video, sketch, etc.) some sort of reflection.
- Google Slides - Another option to facilitate reflection could be a shared Google Slide deck with all students. You can provide students with editing capabilities and allow each learner to have one slide where they can share their reflection. I like this technique because students appreciate the opportunity to make their slide their own through a design approach. Provide expectations about not messing with other student work.
- Google Document - Don't have time for all these options above, yet still need to reflect for your own benefit? Create a Google Document or a Google Keep note for yourself and add thoughts and suggestions as you go throughout your day. Reference the document often and keep track of growth over time.
Celebrate Success - There are a number of ways to highlight student accomplishments and memories. I like to memorialize classes that I teach by having students contribute their signatures and memories on a class poster. Here are some digital options:
- Students can contribute to a class http://en.linoit.com/ board. Have them write a special memory on a post-it note.
- Create a short video from Adobe Spark or Sharalike. I've been using Sharalike lately because it provides music from Spotify and it's easy to create. Check out this short video example that served as a tribute to the Cheery Center at a recent event.
Please share any other ideas or techniques that help teachers celebrate and reflect during this busy time of year.
