This week we hear from Mrs. Jennifer Buller (Elementary Special Education) and Mrs. Christa Janzen (Art Teacher, all grades).
Mrs. Buller
Contact with individual students while we are all at home has been a definite highlight for me during this time. Once a week I try to touch base with each of my students. I miss you all and can’t wait until I once again get to see you in school!!!
Here are my Top 10 ways to connect with kids through zoom during this time…
10. Read a book where both the student and I have copies in our hands, and we take turns reading. Comprehension questions and writing prompts can come from these readings!
9. Help students explore a new way to get thoughts down “on paper” through Google’s voice typing tool.
8. Demonstrate / help students organize thoughts for writing. (Use the drawing option under ‘Insert’ in a Google Doc and the use of simple shapes and lines create a quick visual organizer!)
7. Read a story on Epic! by taking turns reading and/or following along as the words are highlighted in “Read to Me” stories.
6. Learn new vocabulary that we discover together in our weekly reads and sometimes send the kids to go dig deeper into understanding its meaning.
5. Review math concepts or explain story problems using the whiteboard that’s associated with zoom.
4. Use interactive manipulatives to discover math patterns in different ways. Interactive hundreds boards and place value charts have been my favorite.
3. Play on-line math games together to strengthen concepts of money, time, fractions, etc.
2. Sometimes I find something online that I know a student will like, and it’s fun to see what they do with it.
1. Finally, and most importantly, getting to visit with kids and their parents every week has been the greatest highlight! We have great kids and families at Heartland!!
Mrs. Janzen: I’ve been posting drawing videos and reading art-related books to my elementary kiddos on my art website. Right now the 4-6th graders are voting on the next thing they want to learn how to draw, and then I’ll do a step-by-step video for them to follow along with. I’ve been giving my 7-12 students optional drawing challenges and we did March Madness with eight artists that I picked. They had to look at the artists’ works and pick their favorite each day until we got to the final winner. I also check in with each 7-12 grade on Zoom once a week.
One last thing to note is that since we weren’t able to have a K-12 Art Show this spring, I am posting a Digital Spring Art Show on Facebook for the next several weeks. These are images of drawings and other creative works of art that students have been doing on their own since being at home. The first installment of photos posted yesterday and I hope to post another group of photos in 2 weeks.
