September Newsletter

Blended Learning Department

In this issue:

Creating Culture
Did you Know? Read & Write Accessibility Features
Blended Learning Best Practices: Culture
Blended Learning Focus: Culture
Communication: Students, families, colleagues

Monthly checklist (videos you may need now)
Culture-specific resources
Blended Learning Network
BL Resources
Culture Challenge: Chance to win!

Creating Culture

The games, rides, food, and shows make for a fun and exciting amusement park culture. Attendees can often be seen laughing, smiling, and hollering in delight. Now, let's think about classroom culture. What key things or activities create your classroom culture? If a snapshot were taken of your class, what would students be doing? Classroom culture is all about building a rapport with students to where they feel safe and open to communicate and collaborate. This newsletter is designed to help you create a positive classroom culture with the support of the district tools we have available.

Did you know that educators can obtain a free license of ReadWrite from TextHelp? This tool allows for read aloud, speech to text, simplifying text, word prediction, screen masking, dictionaries, translation, and highlighting. Students also have access to a free 30-day trial that is pre-approved in the chrome extension store or iPad student self-service. After the trial expires, students will still have access to the read aloud feature.

https://www.texthelp.com/products/free-for-teachers/read-and-write

If you need additional assistance, please contact the GCS Assistive Technology team to assist you with student use, tatej2@gcsnc.com.

Blended Learning Best Practices: Culture

Culture and communication go hand in hand. When rules and expectations are clearly communicated, it helps create an environment where all answers are accepted and where various points of view are validated. The more students feel safe and accepted, the more likely they are to participate, engage in the content, and to take risks. See our "Checklist" section for district-provided resources that can support creating a warm and inviting classroom culture.

Blended Learning Focus: Culture

A positive environment is a key factor that draws people to attending amusement parks. It is the fun and excitement that draws people to wanting to be a part of the magical moments. Your students want to feel safe, welcomed, and know that you care. As a classroom leader it is important to build relationships and have a positive environment.

One way to do this is to get to know your students and their likes/dislikes. A positive classroom culture that is created to promote a collaborative environment is key as you begin the school year.

Here are a few things to consider as you look at building a positive classroom culture.

Monthly Checklist

Consider...

Syncing your Canvas grades to PowerSchool
Creating a Canvas Discussion: Create a discussion post for students to introduce themselves, share an experience, or state some of their favorite things. Online discussions give a voice to students who may not be as comfortable sharing out verbally.
Making a copy of THIS Jamboard to help classmates learn about each other. Ask for volunteers to share which option they chose and why. Have students introduce themselves by creating an "All About Me" page like THIS one.
Using the collaboration board feature in Nearpod or asking poll questions to learn more about your students and for students to learn more about their peers.

Culture-Specific Resources

(*While these resources are free, they are not district-supported).

Students can create an avatar using voki.com (click on the speaker icon to add text) to introduce themselves to their classmates.
Students can create a flipgrid video to introduce themselves or to tell about a favorite moment, event, or person in their lives.
Students can use this free instagram template, from Ditch that Textbook, to tell a story from their lives.
Have students collaborate around creating class rules or positive actions and behaviors that are needed to learn, using padlet.com

Blended Learning Network

We are looking for 2 representatives from each school to serve as a blended learning liaison for their school. If interested, please let your principal know and they can sign you up now. The deadline to sign up is 9/22/23.

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!

Congratulations to Rachel McConoughey, from Southern Guilford High School, for being selected as the Communication Challenge winner for the month of August. Ms. McConoughey won a $25 gift card to Taco Mama, for submitting a link to a Google form she created to collect information from students about Battle of the Books. See our September Challenge, below. The next winner could be you! A special thanks to Taco Mama on Battleground Ave. for their generous donation.

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Culture Challenge

How do you promote a positive learning environment in your classroom?

Please submit a screenshot of one of the following to THIS LINK. Once you submit your screenshot, you will automatically be entered into a drawing for a prize.
- - - - Student work sample from your favorite application that you use to get to know your students at the beginning of the year.
        Get to Know You Survey that you created in Microsoft or Google Forms to gather student likes/dislikes.
        Google JamBoard used for promoting a positive culture and building relationships.
        Canvas discussion board that focuses on building relationships.

Last Day to submit your Culture Challenge entry is Wednesday, September 27th.

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