Blended Learning Newsletter

March Newsletter

Blended Learning Department

In this issue:

Hiking Trip
Did You Know? Emojis
Building Culture and Community
Best Practices: Culture and Community
Monthly Checklist

March Digital Citizenship Focus
Professional Learning Opportunities
BL Resources
Hiking Challenge - Chance to win!

Hiking Trip

Picture it. You are lazily floating down a slow river. The sun is shining but the water keeps you cool. Or maybe you are fishing off of a pier watching for little tugs at your rod. Or maybe its the song that the crickets sing at dusk. We all have a happy place: a place where things feel calm and peaceful and a place where you feel empowered to be authentically you. What if a school or a classroom was a students' happy place? It surely can be.

Building a culture and community in your classroom can take some time, but with the right tools, students can feel safe to explore answers and ask questions of their teachers and peers. Join us as we continue our journey down a long hiking trail. We stop to have many adventures along the way that build us up and nourish our social-emotional needs.

Did You Know?

😊On a Windows computer you can pull up the emoji keyboard by using the keyboard combination Windows key plus the period key (Win+.).

😃On the MacBook you press the Control + Command + Spacebar keys on your keyboard at the same time to pull up the emoji keyboard.

😁Here are additional keyboard shortcuts for Windows and Apple devices.

Building Culture and Community

In order to feel comfortable engaging in a blended learning environment, a culture of acceptance, respect, and safety is crucial to student participation. Setting clear expectations and procedures, and even modeling what these look and sound like, for both face-to-face and online instruction is essential for successful student interactions. Use of digital tools can provide a variety of ways for students to interact and engage, so that all students feel heard and valued. See the best practices, below, that can help create an inclusive classroom where all can and do participate.

Best Practices: Building Culture and Community

When considering the calmness and the stillness of the water. Think about sailing away and relaxing as you explore Social-Emotional Learning ideas to build culture and community in your classroom. You cannot take care of others until you take care of yourself.

The article "Supporting SEL Through TECH: How Blended Learning Can Foster Social-Emotional Development" states:

Dallas ISD's Lucy Ford suggests that teachers can push students toward lessons that focus on specific SEL messages. Tailor the lessons to emphasize whatever message you've been delivering, that have "SEL skills built in." For example, when they're reading for comprehension, she says, pick stories "that teach the reader about what was going on, why [the characters] acted this way and why they changed their minds later."

Here are a few things to consider as you look at when building culture and community:

Monthly Checklist

Consider:

Using SWIVL to record academic or behavior goal-setting conversations during teacher/student conferences. These videos can be referenced at check-in points throughout the quarter.
Incorporating a Nearpod lesson on accepting emotions, building self-esteem, or any of the many topics that are offered through this platform. (**These resources should act as a supplement to your existing instruction. In addition, please vet all resources to make sure the content is age-appropriate**)
Creating a Jamboard where students can work together, collaboratively or share something about themselves. This allows students to grow and learn from and about each other. Example: A student timeline of life events or make a copy of Drag and Drop: What is your Mood, Today?
Conducting a Canvas discussion where students share experiences (see openers and closers) and make connections to the topic being taught.
Using Flipgrid to build student-teacher relationships. Have students make a short video telling you about themselves or sharing an answer to a question just with you.

March Digital Citizenship Focus

We find balance in our digital lives.

Today, we live in a world overflowing with digital media and technology. All of us -- adults and kids -- have constant access to real-time information from around the globe. But do the benefits of being ever-connected also come with risks to our mental health? It's an important question to ask -- especially for our kids. Our Media Balance & Well-Being lessons give students the space to reflect on their own media use. Plus, they'll get the tools they need to think critically about how digital media affects our communities and society overall.

Read more about this topic on the Common Sense Education website.

Lessons for all grade levels are available on the Guilford is Cyber Safe website. Family resources in English and Spanish accompany the lessons, with additional languages available on the Common Sense website.

All lessons and activities are designed to be taught in person and should take 15-20 minutes. They are available in Google slide or Nearpod versions. More activities and the full lessons can be accessed on the Common Sense Education website with a free educator account.

A link to the Guilford is Cyber Safe website has been added to Clever. Staff must be logged into their GCS Google account to access the website. Links to Teacher Guides on the Common Sense website do require a free educator account.

Professional Learning Opportunities

Blended Learning Spring Professional Learning Opportunities

Blended Learning has released all Spring Professional Learning offerings. These self-paced offerings can be found in Performance Matters, by searching using the unique naming convention GCS-BLDLRN. All sessions run from February 13th until May 4th.

Contact Shannon Franklin with any questions.

Resources

BL Resource Website: Visit our website for all things blended learning. Locate your blended learning specialist, find out about our virtual course offerings,

District-Provided Tools Database: Want to know what digital resources we have for you? Check out the district's Air Table. You can filter to find the information you need.

Resources Document for Best Practices: If you like the Blended Learning Look-for document but feel like you need to know more, please check out our resource page that directly aligns with each of the blended learning focus areas.

Digital Learning Resources Canvas Page: Need help with one of our GCS district-provided resources? Visit our digital learning resource page to find video tutorials and instructional guides on anything from Swivl to Canvas.

Congratulations to Heather Bowden from Sedgefield Elementary School for being selected as the Choose Your Adventure Challenge winner for the month of February for her Swivl submission. Ms. Bowden won a $25 gift card to Amazon and a free entrée coupon to Chick-fil-A. See below for our March Challenge. The next winner could be you!

A special thanks to Swivl for the Amazon gift cards and the Chick-fil-A on Battleground for their generous donations. We could not do this without our community partners.

Hiking Challenge

How do you use digital tools to promote SEL in the classroom?

Please submit a link of an activity you created to build culture and community using Nearpod, Jamboard, Canvas Discussions, or Flipgrid to THHIS LINK. Once you submit your link, you will automatically be entered into a drawing for a prize.
For help with these tools, please access the Distance Learning Resource course highlighted above or the links in the checklist above.

Last Day to submit your Hiking Challenge entry is Monday, March 27th.

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