Skip to main content

Having A Support System Important Now More Than Ever

We were all caught off guard by the Coronavirus. When I heard we weren’t heading back to school for the rest of the year, I began to panic. Like many of you, I began asking myself: “What am I going to do? How am I going to teach students from home? What about assessments? How is this all going to work?” After thinking and asking myself these questions, I realized something: I know TONS of people that can help! Why would I try to do this alone? I have a great support system! Where? Twitter.

Those of you who don’t use social media as a professional resource might be surprised. Let me explain. The Twitter Physical Education (and education in general) professional learning network is like my second family. I remember first joining because I was having a tough time with assessments. Now, with the help of my support system, it has become a strength. I quickly realized that much of the problems I was having in class, other teachers had as well. Twitter is a gathering place for us to learn from each other. Teachers are constantly sharing ideas, providing resources, and answering questions others have. In addition, I have developed some wonderful friendships with teachers from around the world. I now look forward to attending and presenting at conferences knowing that I get to reunite with them. A few friends and I even collaborated via Zoom to do a virtual dance video to share with our students.

Let’s rewind to three years ago when I started. Because I was new, it seemed a bit scary. To help teachers get started, there is an easy to follow, 14-day Twitter twitterChallenge, created b Jarrod Robinson. Each day, you complete a simple task to get you going (create an account, update profile, do your first “tweet”, etc.). This makes the process seem more manageable, more “digestible”. Once I got all signed up, I took the time to read other people’s posts about physical education. I then started to follow certain people that I found interesting. Then, I began to reply to their posts. I would engage in conversations and eventually create my own posts. Three years later, I’m so glad I did it. And, without even realizing it, so are my students.

Twitter has been especially important with the current distance learning. I log in to chat about how certain lessons went and to gather new resources that might be beneficial for my students. In just a few days, I was able to access hundreds of resources to use to continue teaching and inspiring my students from home. We used the hashtag #HPEatHome (Health and Physical Education at home), which gathers all resources postFitness Monopolyed on the topic and keeps them in one place for us to easily access. I studied these resources and determined which would best meet the needs of my students. I then began coming up with an outline and progression on what I want these weeks off to look like. Through the app Class Dojo, I was able to quickly communicate with families. I then created and connected my students to my “google classroom”, where I can record myself teaching for my students to view. Typically, students complete a few challenges, and then post a picture/video to the classroom as evidence where I can assess each one.

All of these resources have been shared via Twitter, my “support system”. They have the experience, knowledge, and skills to help meet my needs, ultimately helping me meet my students’ needs. They are also there to help emotionally when I get frustrated. The question is: Who is your support system?

 

The post Having A Support System Important Now More Than Ever appeared first on STORIES FROM SCHOOL AZ.



Udimi - Buy Solo Ads from STORIES FROM SCHOOL AZ | RSS Feed https://ift.tt/2WWulEG
via IFTTT
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Author discusses book on grad school

Graduate school is a great mystery to students, and to some faculty members, says Jessica McCrory Calarco, the author of A Field Guide to Grad School: Uncovering the Hidden Curriculum (Princeton University Press). Calarco is an associate professor of sociology at Indiana University. She believes many faculty members (as well as graduate students, of course) will benefit from her book. She responded to questions via email. Q: How did you get the idea to write this book? Why did the issue speak to you? A: This book started as a tweet . Or, rather, as a series of tweets about the hidden curriculum of higher ed. Ph.D. student Kristen K. Smith had tweeted about the need to better educate undergrads about grad school opportunities, and it made me think about how opportunities in academe are often hidden from grad students, as well. Reflecting on my own experiences in grad school, I thought about the many times I'd found myself embarrassed because of what I didn't know -- the ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Bad Education: A Movie Review

"It's not having what you want," quips Roslyn Assistant Superintendent Pam Gluckin in her Long Island accent, "it's wanting what you got." And what educators got from HBO's Bad Education was a harrowing detail of a pair of school administrators gone rogue with the school district's treasury, sacking $11.2 million before they were caught... by [...] from The Educators Room https://ift.tt/3d5LaSu via IFTTT
Post a Comment
Read more

Tips and Strategies for Remote Learning (March 2020)

For the past four weeks, starting two weeks before our Spring Break last week, teachers, administrators and staff at our school have been preparing for “remote school” for students as a result of the coronavirus / COVID-19 crisis. On March 19, 2020, our Head of School sent out a letter to our parents including information about our remote learning plans and FAQs for parents . If your school is currently preparing for remote learning ( as all Oklahoma public school districts now appear to be , pending tomorrow’s state school board meeting vote) I encourage you to review these publicly shared documents and information. As our school’s “Technology Integration and Innovation Specialist” this year, I’ve been building an instructional site for our teachers to support remote learning, on support.casady.org , which is openly licensed CC-BY . This collaborative effort with many other teachers and members of our school staff has provided a good opportunity to curate as well as present instruc...
Post a Comment
Read more