A survival kit is a helpful tool in the hands of a teacher. My survival kit includes an ipad, puppets, magazine pictures, a USB stick, a die, stationery, writing prompts, a bell, stickers and a camera. Hover over the image below to view the purpose of each item in my survival kit.
A survival kit will help me face problems that may occur in my classes. So it is a type of anticipation and preparation toolkit for challenges which may cause me serious classroom management issues. I may have prepared a technology enhanced lesson and there may be slow or no internet connection. In another instance some students may be bored with a lesson I may have designed or some of them may have finished earlier. In both cases the students will end up in, if not making a mess of my class, causing some sort of trouble. The items my survival kit contains will save me in these difficult situations because they will serve as a plan B or C to the original one I had planned. For example, an offline app on my ipad or a game of rolling the die will relax my students after tension; a writing prompt will serve as a time filler in the spare class time of students who may have completed their work earlier than others. In other words, my survival kit will provide me and my students with helpful ideas to easily modify a lesson or will provide a back-up plan.
'Ongoing communication between parents and educators is extremely important in education' as S. S. Terrell points out in The 30 Goas Challenge for Teachers (2015: 24). Engaging parents and collaborating with them will bring about the best results for our students' progress, especially as digital citizens. Creating a resource hub for parents will provide a bridge of dual communication which will render parents as our allies rather than our enemies. Consequently, we will be able to get them involved in content we want them to have access to so that they can help us promote it. In our current case, we need them to be our collaborators to help students develop as smart and responsible web users and creators. Parents will also have the chance to suggest ideas and resources for the benefit of their kids.