Movement breaks and brain breaks are definitely not a new concept in education. However, never have I taught a school year that required brain breaks more than 2020. Due to COVID restrictions, this year I have 14 first graders who are not allowed to leave their seats all day. Six year olds, at desks six feet apart, all day long. No centers, no "find a partner who..." activities, no real group work, not even the option to get up to sharpen a pencil or grab a piece of paper. We have truly no movement naturally built into our day.  So, I started the school year by intentionally planning movement breaks and partner activities that would be a part of every school day, to protect the mental and physical health of my students. 

I have always actually leaned away from formal brain breaks, like the ones posted on Go Noodle, because they often get students wound up and then require me to lose teaching time to get us refocused. Instead, I have always just built natural movement into our day, with center rotations, group projects, allowing students to get their own materials and work in every corner of our classroom. However, with all of those things being big no-nos, I went into this school year with an intentional plan to give students movement without taking away from instructional time. Here are a few of the things I have done:

"Action Break" Transitions 
Even though my students can't rotate through centers, I am continuing to teach through small group rotations. Only this year the students complete the activities at their desks and I move from one small group to the next with my rolling whiteboard. In between each rotation, when students would normally be moving from one area of the classroom to another I have created "action breaks".
For these action breaks, I typed up a list of different actions, everything from basic exercises (like jumping jacks and pushups) to yoga poses (like chair pose and boat pose) to imagination activities (like pretending to drive a car or pretending to hula hoop). I cut up my list and during each transition, I pull an action and the kiddos have thirty seconds to a minute to complete it. This is about the same amount of time that I would normally give students to transition between center rotations, so no lost teaching time and the kids get out of their seats.

The lack of movement and conversation our kids are experiencing due to COVID is very concerning to me, as a parent and as a teacher. It is not good for anyone's mental or physical health to sit still all day, or to be isolated from their peers. While I understand that this disease is dangerous, the measures we are taking to prevent disease spread are also dangerous. Please, as a teacher, find ways to add movement and conversation into your classrooms, whether you are teaching virtually or face to face. And if you have a great way to add this into the classroom that you'd like to share, please leave a comment with that information. Let's learn from each other to make the best decisions for our students.

Hybrid learning is out and virtual learning is back, at least in my district. With one week left before school, there isn't a lot of time to recreate the wheel for distance learning. So now I'm looking at all of those worksheet resources that I use and trying to figure out which ones I can convert to Google Classroom resources.  Although this sounds difficult, I have found a very simple way to prevent myself from reinventing the wheel. So I am spending this week turning assignments into things I can use in Google Classroom.

Choosing the Correct Format for Google Classroom 
​When I am creating assignments for my class using Google Drive, there is always a debate about whether to use Google Docs or Google Slides or Google Forms. Each format has it's own benefits and drawbacks.

Google Docs provide students with the option to type as long as they would like without "running out of space". They are also very easy for teachers to copy and paste pre-created prompts or assignments into. This is great for essays. However, Google Docs allows students to have complete control over formatting, which can be challenging, especially with younger users. Additionally, if students need to create a picture, they have to create that picture using the "insert picture" function that is slightly challenging for kids to use. I use Google Docs predominantly for writing assignments and long response reflection responses. 

Google Slides allows you to put a picture as a "background" and use text boxes to complete a worksheet. Additionally, students can create pictures right on the slides, which is super helpful with math activities. However, due to the limited space of each slide, assignments need to be broken down into appropriate steps before handing them off to students. Also, because assignments are often broken down into one piece on each slide, students need to be trained on how to navigate the slides to find what they are looking for. I use Google Slides predominantly for math problem solving or for worksheets where the formatting helps guide students through the activity, like my math projects.

Google Forms grades quizzes for you, providing students with immediate feedback on their work. Additionally, Forms is an easy way for students to look at a large group of student work very quickly. It even gives you graphs of student responses! However, Forms will not grade written responses for you, unless it is a number answer or a single word, given in a specific format. This means that Forms are most effectively used for multiple choice activities. While you may add a picture to a form when you are creating it, respondents can't add pictures to a form. Additionally, if a student starts a form today, they cannot save their work and come back to it tomorrow. I use Google Forms predominantly for multiple choice quizzes and quick check exit tickets.

Turning Worksheets into Google Slides
As you can see, I use all formats: docs, slides and forms, when creating activities for my kiddos. However, recently my focus has been on Google Slides. To turn a worksheet into a Google Slide, I take a screenshot of the worksheet. Then I set that screenshot as the background of a slide in Google slides. Finally, I insert text boxes into all of the places where I want kiddos to write. Personally, I leave my text boxes "invisible" without borders or shading. Then, when students open the Google Slide, they see just the worksheet, but as they click where they would like to type, the text box will be there waiting for them. 

It does take a little bit of training for students to remember to click on those text boxes, but they get the idea quickly. I also train my students on how to add their own text boxes, in case they accidentally erase the ones I have provided. This skill is just one of many Google Slides navigation skills I teach my kiddos, including how to draw, how to add shapes, how to highlight, etc. By the end of the year, the kiddos are often better at Google Slides than I am!

Save More Time, Use My Pre-made Google Slide Worksheets
Don't have time to create Google Slide Worksheets? I am working hard on updating my more popular items into Google Classroom assignable activities. Here are a few that are ready and waiting for you to download from my Teachers Pay Teachers store and assign right away:
Ice Cream Shop Project
Be an Architect Project
Holiday Shopping Project
Party Planner Project
Balanced Checkbook Project
Holiday Recipe Project
Field Trip Planning Project
Student Created Video Project
Graphic Organizer Sheets

As we approach the 2020/2021 school year, more and more districts are choosing to stick with distance learning. So, we are especially focused on how we are going to teach from a distance. But how many of us have thought about how we are going to assess kiddos from a distance? So much of my informal assessments come from me observing how my students are doing in small group. Without being able to sit next to my students, how am I going to assess their current level? Without seeing them, how do I know that the work on the screen is actually theirs? One strategy I plan to use is video, specifically using the website FlipGrid.

FlipGrid in the Traditional Classroom
FlipGrid is a website I have used in my classroom since we got Chromebooks. It allows students to record short videos of themselves and share them with me and their classmates in a safe and secure way.

In my traditional classroom, I used FlipGrid in a few different ways. One great way was to allow students to explain their thinking for math word problems to the video camera. This practice allowed students to justify their thinking verbally before they tried to write it out. This helped them to gather their thoughts and think about their word choice. Additionally, it allowed me to go back and watch the kiddos who I was unable to work with in small group for whatever reason.

Additionally, I have used FlipGrid to help students work on reading fluency, as they recorded themselves reading the same book multiple times. This allowed them to see how they were growing as readers in a very visual way. And it was a great way to show growth to parents during conferences!

Using FlipGrid with Distance Learning
With the advent of distance learning, FlipGrid can become so much more. It can allow for you to see the individual thinking of each student. You as the teacher can create a mini lesson video and add it to an assignment. Additionally, students can create response videos to their classmates, so they can actually have a digitally delayed discourse on a topic. Here are some of the ways I can see FlipGrid being helpful for Virtual Education:
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 - Teachers might read a story or poem to the students and/or post a video in FlipGrid of this read aloud. Each student can then respond to the text with a video of their own. Either they can all respond to the same question, or you can do a "virtual jigsaw" and have each student answer a different question. Students can then go back and watch the videos of their classmates to gather additional information that they hadn't thought to include.

  - Teachers might assign a math problem or post a math mini lesson video with a problem at the end of the video. Each student can then solve the math problem and create a video explaining their thinking. Again, differentiation can be put into play by assigning different groups of students different problems to answer.

 - Before writing about a topic, students may create a video discussing what they know about a topic. This can serve as their pre-writing to help get their ideas into order. Additionally, when students complete their writing, they might share it with the class by reading it into a FlipGrid video.

 - After completing research or lessons on a topic, students might create a presentation video to teach the rest of the class what they learned. In fact, my Student Created Tutorial Videos Planning Sheet works great for helping kiddos plan out videos like this.

These are just a few ways to use FlipGrid for both learning and assessment. How will you use this powerful website this school year?

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FREE Resources for Your Classroom

As you take some time to take care of yourself, here are some free resources that will save you planning time and allow you to plan a little less:

Back to School Vocabulary Packet for English Language Learners - This packet has 4 differentiated levels and guides students through 5 days of work for each level.

3rd Grade Problem Solving Path - This packet gives you 10 community based word problems for 3rd grade students.

Parts of Speech Quizzes - These quizzes (with answer keys) gives you multiple ways to assess if students can use the context of a sentence to determine the part of speech of a word.

Long I Spelling and Vocabulary Packet - This packet has 4 differentiated levels and guides students through 5 days of work for each level.

​As the 2020/2021 school year approaches, teachers have a lot of questions about what it will look like. When we ask this question, it seems like all we hear is “We don’t know yet.” Since governors, district leaders and administrators don’t know what schools will look like next year, teachers are struggling to figure out how to prepare. In this blog series, we are looking at 10 ways that we can prepare this summer without wasting our time. Each way will prove beneficial to you, whether your district ends up using distance learning, traditional classrooms, or a hybrid education approach. Included in each blog post in this series will be tech tool suggestions, free resources, and a giveaway entry form.

We have already talked about setting up your digital classroom, exploring technology tools, exploring both digital and paper formats for teaching resources, building up a communication system for parents, digging deep into your standards, making prerecorded teaching videos, having a classroom management strategy prepared and differentiating from a distance. Today we will discuss something else all teachers should do to prepare for next school year:
You can explore ways to find a balance between family and teaching responsibilities.

Something that I do not feel has been discussed enough is how many teachers are balancing our teaching responsibilities AND supporting our personal children as they learn to navigate distance learning. Personally, I have 3 sons at 3 different levels of education - elementary, middle and high school. We have homeschooled before, so I thought that distance learning would be a cinch for us. However, the reality was that the older 2 were having to balance 6 to 7 different classes, with varying levels of expectation and support. Additionally, they were missing their friends and they needed me to be there to support them in other ways. In fact, I'm certain they needed me much more than I was aware they did.

We do not know if distance learning is going to happen in the fall, and I am preparing for the classroom as if it could be either way. However, at home, I am preparing as though we will be distance learning. In my way of thinking, if we aren't distance learning in the fall, it will not hurt to have done some preparation. If we are doing distance learning, I won't have to think about it while I am prepping my classroom for distance learning. 

How Am I Preparing to Balance Teaching and Parenting During Distance Learning

First, I bought each of my kiddos a desk. When we home schooled, we were living in an RV and we worked just about anywhere - on the floor, at a picnic table, in the car, etc. This worked for homeschooling because I was around and I knew exactly what they were working on (because I had assigned it). However, this DID NOT work for distance learning. They needed to be sitting at a desk for Google Meets and they focus better on their Chromebooks when they have a separate desk, away from each other. 

Secondly, we upgraded our internet. We live on an off grid homestead (See my other blog - Our Desert Homestead), so we do not have broadband lines and were using hotspot data from our phones when we started distance learning. While we do not have the option to install broadband lines at this moment, we have upgraded to an unlimited data hotspot and we have gotten my youngest son a phone with unlimited data (like the rest of us already had) in order to make sure that we all have the data we need.

Additionally, we have agreed to create collaborative ToDo Lists in Google Keep. My husband and I each have access to the boys' ToDo Lists, so we know who has completed what and when. This keeps us all on the same page with expectations as well as completion rate.
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Finally, we have set up an afternoon "check in" system where each child checks in with me on what they did that day. This includes me checking their Google Classroom for each class. We set this up the last week of school, during finals, which was not very helpful to last year. However, I hope this will set us up for success if we have to do distance learning in the fall. It reminds me and them that even though I trust them to do their work, I am going to be checking behind them each and every day. 

Having these systems in place will be helpful for my family whether we are doing distance learning or brick and mortar schools in the fall. Hopefully it will also help my stress level regardless of what learning looks like. 

Your family situation probably looks way different from my family situation. That doesn't mean you don't need to think about how you're going to find balance between family and work next school year. Many people suddenly will have new and different expectations in this "new normal" of the next school year.  So what can you do to be more balance next year?

FREE Resources for Your Classroom

As you take some time to think about balance, here are some free resources which may help you out:

Homeschool Preschool Choice Cards - When I was homeschooling, I used these cards to have my son choose what he wanted to do that day. This is great for parents who are balancing teaching and homeschooling littles. You can keep those preschoolers busy and active while you complete work.

ACK Word Family Unit - Needing to work on teaching your personal child to read? Word families are a great way to build in basic phonics skills. This packet gives you multiple ways to work on the ACK word family.

We have already talked about setting up your digital classroom, exploring technology tools, exploring both digital and paper formats for teaching resources, building up a communication system for parents, digging deep into your standards, making prerecorded teaching videos and having a classroom management strategy prepared. Today we will discuss something else all teachers should do to prepare for next school year:

You can consider differentiation options.

Differentiation was a very challenging part of distance learning. At my school, we used Google Meet for our live lessons, and there were few ways to have each student working at their own pace. However, all of my students still had individual learning needs. One way that I was able to provide differentiation was with a To-Do list. I presented a list of possible math problems. Students start at the top of the list (with the easiest problem) and then work their way down as they get each problem correct. (I presented the list on Google Meet and then watched their work using Whiteboard.fi.) This allowed my quick finishers to move on to harder problems and I could attempt to support my struggling students with guiding suggestions. Since I couldn't pull those struggling students into a "small group" like I would in class, I would then create a video mini lesson on any topic that I saw them struggling with and post it onto Google Classroom.
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This tweaked version of the To-Do List differentiation strategy (which I used in my brick and mortar classroom regularly) worked well in a distance learning environment. Another differentiation strategy that works well with distance learning is tiered assignments. In my math lessons, all students were working on similar problems, but at a range of difficulties. I generally had 3 or 4 different problems. Students are told ahead of time which level they should work on. All students worked on the 1 problem that was closest to their level. Then we reviewed all of the problems as a whole class, so all students could benefit from the review. This could be done with reading comprehension questions as well.
How else could differentiation look in a distance learning environment? Some of that will depend on your particular school's rules and expectations. We weren't allowed to do breakout groups because of technology issues and equity concerns, but small group instruction might be a differentiation strategy that works really well at your school. No matter what, differentiation needs to be at the forefront of our mind. I suggestion looking at the different strategies that I line out in 10 Differentiation Strategies - How and Why to Use Them, and asking yourself: "Is this something I could tweak to work in a digital environment?" and "How can this work if I need to go back and forth between bricks and mortar and distance learning?"

FREE Resources for Your Classroom

As you take some time to think about differentiation, here are some free resources which may help you out:

Subtraction with Regrouping Tiered Activity - This activity gives you 3 leveled sheets for subtraction with regrouping, as well as a quiz for pre and post testing students.

Shape Words Self Correcting Puzzles - This puzzle allows students to work on reading shape words. They know automatically if they have the correct answer because each word only fits with one picture. Once students have used this puzzle at least once, give them a set amount of time to see how many they can match. (Different groups can have different amounts of time.)​

The Tortoise and the Hare Fable Response Packet - This packet has multiple pages at multiple levels. All of your students can read the same fable, while filling out different pages in a form of jigsaw differentiation.