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PD in your PJs 185-200 minutes Seesaw for teachers team: H.Hollenbeck * Hamline * L. Hollenbeck * Heery * Hoelscher Credit for original presentation: Trisha Ratazak Brown Modifications have been made to fit our campus needs

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To give his students a sense of stability, an elementary teacher has shifted his morning meetings to asynchronous home learning.

Eric Raptosh Photography / Tetra Images, LLC / Alamy Stock Photo

In an ideal world, you could get all 30 second graders logged into Zoom at the same time, with everyone seeing and hearing each other and no students fidgeting with their keyboard, crunching pretzels, using the webcam to show their tonsils, or making fart noises. But who's in that world? Not me. I'm still trying to get permission forms back to even try a Google Meet with my first and second graders.

Home learning is so different from being present with our students. Every day in the classroom, we notice little details as our students come in-we keep a finger on the pulse of our learning community. But from miles away it isn't easy to know how students are truly doing.

At school you can observe kids' lunch trays and see they're getting enough nutrition. You're able to send a student down to rest after not getting a solid night's sleep. Or you notice when they fidget so much, they fall off their stool, so you give them a movement break to get focused.

So how can elementary teachers create a sense of normalcy in our chaotic situation? I'm resorting to what we know works-a morning meeting, where relationships are strengthened through interactive, engaging activities designed to help our students learn more about themselves and their classmates. Morning meetings are how we've started over 125 days this school year, and students need them now more than ever.

Incorporating morning meetings into our home learning plan can help in a number of ways. First, students thrive on familiarity, especially in challenging times. Next, morning meetings help develop or maintain social and emotional skills. They can help increase student motivation for learning and sharing in online discussions. Finally, morning meetings can help get our students ready each day to take on the academic challenges we're sending home.

Asynchronous Morning Meetings in Home Learning

Ideally you can show students something familiar. If you're still able to get things from your classroom or have pictures of your room, include those identifiable elements that make your classroom your own. I brought home several morning meeting items: the calendar, the birthday sign, and the place-value pocket chart so we can continue to count the days of the school year using straws. I also grabbed novelty items we use in meetings, like my stuffed taco and bird, and our movement break activity dice.

Greeting: I have many excellent greetings, but they mostly involve face-to-face, nonverbal communication, and often hands-on methods to be successful. They work best when you can see students' body language to gauge how they're doing.

Start a virtual morning meeting with elements that are simple for your students to do and not too complex for you to manage given whatever platform you're using. Students will need time to figure out how to find and respond to the new virtual meeting elements.

I started with a Seesaw journal post and tagged all students so they could comment and see peer comments. In the video greeting, students were instructed to greet me back with a typed or voice comment. After students were comfortable with that, during the third week I added the following directions: The first student to comment greets me, the second student greets the first student, and so on. At the end, I greet the last student, mimicking a circle greeting.

Flipgrid is a great option for video greetings, and I've read that Nearpod, Padlet, and Google Classroom have varying capabilities of video, audio, or text greeting options.

Sharing: Nearly every morning in the classroom I had students at my feet asking to share. During home learning, I'm letting them share every single day if they want. It's the one time I don't have to say, "I'm sorry, we don't have time for more shares." I have my students share in Seesaw by taking a picture of something red, or shiny, or bumpy, or things like the family pet. Then they record their voice while sharing. It's nice because now I don't have to get permission for a student to bring in a pet snake or help a student carry in the 50 rocks in their collection. Sharing has many benefits, including academic ones.

Activity: This is the most challenging one. We plan so many awesome community-building games for the classroom that simply can't be done online. How on earth could you get a hula hoop to pass wirelessly or do a group juggle virtually?

However, we can build community through the 4 Cs: collaboration, communication, creativity, and critical thinking. Try sending home a riddle or doing a read-aloud-anything from your meetings that you can do virtually.

Morning message: I send an announcement video to students about nuts-and-bolts items like our agenda, daily activities, birthdays, the date and weather, and the pocket chart for the number of school days. I also address any issues, procedure changes, or concerns about home learning.

Social and Emotional Learning Reflections

I include SEL reflections to determine how students are doing emotionally at the beginning and end of each day. My check-ins are quick, maybe as simple as sharing an emoji. Or I might do a "Yucks and Yeahs" check-in where students create a drawing, text, audio, or video reflection on a Yuck-something that was hard or they're worried about-or a Yeah-something they're excited about.

We know SEL must be woven into our home learning plan for our students, who are out of their routine, discombobulated, and quite possibly scared. Aren't we all feeling those things ourselves? Many families have told me they saw a tremendous change in their child's emotional state once I began the morning meeting routine. I didn't begin with all four parts already set-instead I started small and built our meetings up.

The biggest challenge we have is helping our students return to school not traumatized by this situation. Their social and emotional health should be our number one goal so they return to us with their spark and love of learning intact. Morning meetings and reflection are the foundations of that social and emotional work.

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Bringing the Benefits of Your Morning Meetings Online

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To give his students a sense of stability, an elementary teacher has shifted his morning meetings to asynchronous home learning. Eric Raptosh Photography / Tetra Images, LLC / Alamy Stock Photo In an ideal world, you could get all 30 second graders logged into Zoom at the same time, with everyone seeing and hearing each other and no students fidgeting with their keyboard, crunching pretzels, using the webcam to show their tonsils, or making fart noises.

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Quick Start for Seesaw for Schools Teachers - Introduction to Seesaw

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On any given day in schools across America, many students exchange warm greetings with a smiling teacher, then perhaps move on to a morning check-in, followed by a quick mindfulness exercise to start the day grounded and mentally focused. Surrounded by peers they've known for months, or perhaps even years-and a teacher they see daily-kids feel connected.

In spite of some critics who downplay the importance of social and emotional learning and the value of belonging-the number of such skeptics is falling, to be sure-the research is clear and has been for some time: When kids spend their daytime hours in safe, supportive schools where adults work every day to build strong relationships with every student, they are simply better, more engaged learners.

But how should educators foster that sense of belonging in this new, decentralized world-with teachers and students tethered loosely together via Wi-Fi and cellular networks?

"Right now, it's all about the technology-the mechanics of how to teach remotely. But when I speak to my colleagues who are high school teachers, it's about: 'How are we going to hold our students' hearts?'" says Mays Imad, a professor of pathophysiology and biomedical ethics at Pima Community College.

So we asked dozens of teachers, and peeked in on Instagram and Twitter threads, to find some of the best ideas that teachers are experimenting with to maintain the relationships that drive engagement and learning.

1. Try to Say Hello Frequently, If You Can

Try to make sure your kids know you are thinking of them, care for them, and miss them. For kids with access to technology, simple daily hellos via video might be the only time the student sees the teacher on some days-and that sense of connection is important to sustain.

First- and second-grade teacher John Thomas' masterful, fun hello video to his students is a great example.

For students without internet connectivity, try calling by phone; consider rotating through small groups of students each day to make this a more manageable task. "Taking the time to reach out and call each kid takes forever," says sixth- and eighth-grade English teacher Cathleen Beachboard, but she's seeing a big impact: "The first few days, I had only a few kids logging on, but now I have almost 98 percent attendance," she says.

2. How to Maintain Morning Meetings

Routines that foster connection are a core part of classroom life, and finding ways for students to experience these at home will go a long way toward easing students' transition to home-based learning. "If you do morning meeting, reflect on the elements you have in your meeting and what could be completed virtually at home," writes Thomas. "If technology allows, record and share daily video announcements and read-alouds."

Margaret Shafer, a third-grade teacher, has kids respond to daily prompts during her morning meetings. Kids can see each other's responses and react if they want to. "My relationships with my students are part of my instruction, and their relationships with each other are critical to their enjoyment of school," she says, underscoring the fact that maintaining relationships is not an afterthought. "So when I planned (very quickly!) to start distance learning, the first thing I wanted to start daily was a way to comfort the kids and let them know that I still care about them and their friends are still out there."

3. Reimagine Temperature Checks

Routine, everyday check-ins- roses and thorns or selecting an emoji to match your mood, for example-shouldn't fall by the wayside. Keep it quick and simple: "I posted on Schoology to give me a thumbs up, thumbs sideways (meh), or thumbs down to describe their day.... I encourage them to take selfies of their thumbs," says high school teacher Javier Rivera via Twitter.

Along with checking in with her students herself, Imad is making connecting with peers part of her students' homework: Each student is assigned the task of connecting with one classmate. "Then, I'm asking them to write to me and tell me how, say, Jackie is doing today. They can decide how they want to check in-email, text, Skype," she says, adding that she sets up guidelines and models the practice for her students first. "This exercise might work even better with K-12-'My homework is to check on Allie.'"

4. Try Snail-Mail Pen Pals, Phone Pals, or Virtual Turn and Talk

We learn better in social contexts. For many students, transitioning to learning from home is complicated by the impact of being cut off from peers-even though many older students might communicate with friends via social media and texting.

"If technology doesn't allow, create pen pals or other paper-and-pen activities by sending home envelopes, paper, and stamps if your school is able," says Thomas. "Or mimic 'turn and talk' by setting up phone pals where students call each other on the phone several times a week to discuss specific topics or prompts."

Third-grade teacher Michael Dunlea follows his whole-group instruction via Zoom with breakout rooms so that peers can reflect on the learned material together. Then he seeks deeper connections with students individually: "I keep one student on for a one-on-one conference and ask them to read out loud for a few minutes. This time also provides an opportunity to check on their emotional well-being and see if they need clarification on assignments."

5. Create Virtual Tables (but Don't Just Group Friends)

For older kids, says Kasey Short, an eighth-grade English teacher at Charlotte Country Day School in Charlotte, North Carolina, teachers can set up virtual table groups. Short uses Google Classroom for this because her students are already familiar with the platform. "I will set up discussion threads with four to five students so they can discuss assignments, ask each other questions, and stay connected," she says.

Though many kids will stay in touch with their circle of friends, she says it's important to think about pairing kids with peers who aren't in their immediate social circle-and then mix up the groups weekly. "There will also be spaces for whole class discussions, but I know many students will feel more comfortable sharing ideas in a smaller group setting," she says.

6. Consider Including Parents

Dunlea, the third-grade teacher, asks students to invite a parent online, giving the adults an opportunity to ask questions, express concerns, or request advice.

Beachboard, the sixth- and eighth-grade English teacher, connects with parents each day-she uses the messaging platform Remind, or a dedicated Google Voice phone line for parents who don't have text messaging. She also connects with families by email. "I check in with them once a day with a 'How are you?' and 'Do you need anything?'" she says. "It's important at this time, more than any other, that we are looking out for the mental health of our families and students."

7. Get Kids to Name-and Process-Their Own Emotions

Writing assignments, says Short, the English teacher, offer valuable opportunities for students to process the complex mix of emotions they may be experiencing as a result of their upended routines and schedules, social isolation, and the challenges of being cooped up at home.

"I am going to use some writing opportunities for students to get their thoughts, feelings, fears, and questions down in a creative format of their choice," she says. "I will give them an option to share with the class, or only share with me. This will not only allow them to share out their feelings but also give me a place to check on them and follow up if I see any of them expressing sadness, fear, etc., that their parents may need to know about."

Most important, says Short, "I am going to be honest and as understanding as possible to let students know we are all in this together and will likely all need a little grace."

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7 Ways to Maintain Relationships During Your School Closure

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Suddenly, you're not in the same physical space as your students. We asked teachers to share strategies for maintaining relationships-both peer-to-peer and student-teacher-when everything's gone remote.

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"shadow puppet app" "iphone app" "ipad app" "educational app"

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Seesaw sparks meaningful student engagement by combining student portfolios, an activity library for teachers, and family communication. New creative tools m...

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Google Classroom Tips and Tricks for Teachers | EDTech Made Easy - GOOGLE CLASSROOM TUTORIAL

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Learn basic and advanced skills across Google tools with free of charge online training courses designed for educators of all levels.

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Google Classroom Cheat Sheet for Teachers by Shake Up Learning

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Google Classroom Cheat Sheet for Students by Shake Up Learning

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Here are the best remote learning resources for teachers and schools from Shake Up Learning-all on one page!

Remote learning is tough! We all need as much support as we can get right now.

In this post, you will find cheat sheets, templates, tips, blog posts, podcasts, tutorials, online courses, and more to help you rock remote learning!

These are resources and skills that will help you no matter where you find yourself teaching, at home remotely, at school, or somewhere in between.

I hope these tips and resources will help you maximize your time with students and engage them in new ways.

Google Classroom

1. Google Classroom Cheat Sheets for Teachers and Students

2. The Google Classroom Master Class (50% off)

3. 10 Google Classroom Tips for Remote Learning

4. Google Classroom FAQ - Your Most Common Questions ANSWERED!

5. How to Integrate Google Classroom with Google Meet

6. 50 Google Classroom Resources That Will Make Your Day

7. 5 Chrome Extensions that Make Google Classroom Even More Awesome!

8. 70+ Awesome Apps that Integrate with Google Classroom

9. How to Use Google Templates and Assign in Google Classroom

10. How to Package Your Digital Assignments

11. How to Organize Assignments in Google Classroom

General Remote Teaching and Learning

12. Shake Up Learning: Practical Ideas to Move Learning From Static to Dynamic (book)

13. 12 Practical Tips for Remote Learning

14. Home Learning Strategies for Primary Students that ALL Teachers Can Use!

15. How to Work From Home and Get Things Done!

16. Lessons Learned From Remote Learning

17. What Students Have to Say About Remote Learning [interviews with a 3rd and 12th grader]

18. Online Teaching Best Practices, Tips, and Tools

19. The Dynamic Learning Workshop (50% Off)

Choice Boards & Templates

20. Home Learning with Choice Boards

21. FREE Interactive Tic-Tac-Toe Choice Board for Google Slides

22. Interactive Learning Menus (Choice Boards) with G Suite

23. FREE Google Templates for Teachers from Shake Up Learning

24. Fake Instagram Template with Google Slides (FREE)

Leadership Resources

25. Leading Through Crisis and Beyond for Teachers and Educational Leaders

26. FREE Webinar: G Suite for School Leaders: Leading the New Normal with a Framework for Meaningful Digital Learning

27. G Suite Training for Schools

More Google Resources

28. 10 Ways Google Certification Can Support Remote Learning

29. The Chromebook Infused Classroom

30. Google Quick Tips Video Library for Teachers

31. 10 Google Docs Tips Every Teacher Should Know

32. 13 Tools to Record Audio on Chromebooks and Other Devices

33. 13 Tips to Organize Your Google Drive

34. The Google Slides Master Class (50% Off)

35. The Google Certified Educator Level 1 Academy

© Shake Up Learning 2020. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog's author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Kasey Bell and Shake Up Learning with appropriate and specific direction to the original content on ShakeUpLearning.com. See: Copyright Policy.

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35 Remote Learning Resources for Teachers and Schools | Shake Up Learning

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In this list, you will find cheat sheets, templates, tips, blog posts, podcasts, tutorials, online courses, and more to help you rock remote learning! These are resources and skills that will help you no matter where you find yourself teaching.

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It took a set of costumes, funny voices, and made-up characters for Jamie Ewing, a K-5 science teacher at P.S. 277 in New York City, to settle into a groove with video lessons, and rekindle a connection with his students after instruction shifted wholesale to remote learning this spring.

Karl Lauer, a history teacher at James Bowie High School in Austin, Texas, found success reaching out remotely to students through his own set of goofy videos, featuring teachers lip synching popular tunes, like the theme song to the sitcom "Friends."

And Mark Joseph, a 6th grade math teacher at KIPP Rise Academy in Newark, N.J., employed somewhat of a kitchen-sink approach: He pounded out more than 300 text messages a week to parents and students, harnessed an array of social media apps to "hype" his synchronous learning sessions, and held virtual movie nights and talent shows.

When the coronavirus hurled K-12 education into its biggest upheaval in recent history by forcing all learning to take place remotely, exposing inequities in digital access and tech-skill preparedness, teachers around the country reached deep into their bag of tricks to salvage bonds forged in-person throughout the school year.

They made home visits. They sent cards in the mail. They sang Happy Birthday through webcams. There were countless text messages and check-ins on the phone. Virtual office hours developed into a de facto platform for deeper one-on-one conversations about the stress of living through a pandemic.

"We're in the middle of a grand experiment here," said Mike Magee, the CEO of Chiefs for Change, a nonprofit whose members lead education systems serving 14,000 schools. "We're going to find out a lot about the degree to which relationships can be built online between teachers and students."

Many school districts are already set to start the school year remotely as COVID-19 cases continue spiking, or they are offering parents the choice to keep their kids home and maintain instruction through online learning. Teachers are already preparing for the reality that they'll not only be meeting students for the first time through a video conference but that those bonds will need to be cultivated at a distance for the foreseeable future.

Following are several stories and examples about what works and what doesn't to improve teacher-student relationships during remote learning. The stories and examples are organized by three key age levels in K-12 education: elementary, middle, and high school.

When school buildings closed in New York City this spring, Ewing, the K-5 science educator from the Bronx's P.S. 277, said he fell into a bit of a rut. His students were used to having humor and the theatrics of wigs and made-up characters woven into daily lessons, but Ewing said the instruction he provided for the first couple of weeks fell flat.

So he started using a tech platform to jazz up bland video lessons with graphics and slides. And then he broke out his kit of costumes and characters once reserved for the classroom. Class participation increased, Ewing said, after he "found his personal voice on video."

"If you're going to post a YouTube video and some worksheets, you're going to lose kids in a day," he said. "But if you're not the type of person who feels comfortable throwing caution to the wind and doing silly voices, then don't. It needs to be authentic."

What's the plan for this school year?

"That's a huge thing weighing on my mind right now," said Ewing, who attended a workshop over the summer about engaging children. "I'm going to have to work twice as hard to create those interpersonal relationships. I realize now there were so many missed opportunities, so I'm spending this summer trying to integrate those pieces to make sure I can connect at a much deeper level this school year."

In Samantha Westberg's 2nd grade class in Dickerson Elementary School in Chester, N.J., she used Flipgrid daily to post questions and videos during this spring's remote learning.  Her advice: maintain a strong visual presence with those young learners, and keep it consistent.

Moving forward, she's planning to either teach live lessons on video next school year or have students meet twice throughout the day on video.

If relationship building remotely during the spring was measured purely in metrics, then Mark Joseph, who teaches 6th grade math at the KIPP academy, was off to a good start this spring.  Joseph said he successfully lured 80 percent of his students to Zoom video lessons daily.

The secret? A whole lot of hustle.

As a grade-level chair at his school, Joseph is in touch weekly with the families of more than 100 6th graders attending that KIPP academy. Pre-pandemic, it was typical for families to receive one text message a week. Once school shifted to remote learning, Joseph upped the contact to three text messages a week, often pinging students directly on their cellphones.

He also used his personal social media accounts and those tied to the school to "build energy and momentum" for his online lessons by having students post and repost their virtual class experiences on Instagram. "It creates that hype when kids see their friends posting something like that," Joseph said.

"It's easy for an administrator to say don't do social media at all, but that's a missed opportunity for communication," he said.

For the upcoming school year, Joseph said he might set up virtual home visits via video before classes begin to lay out expectations and to get to learn a bit about his new students and vice versa.

One tidbit he offers educators: "Don't be like a bill collector," when contacting parents about grades during the ongoing crisis. Steady communication, he said, needs to be fostered without academics in mind before hounding about missing assignments.

Pren Woods, a 7th grade teacher at Alston Middle School in Summerville, S.C., found this out the hard way. Woods maintained steady checks on students by video, phone and email during the spring, shifting the focus of his lessons to social-emotional and reflective instruction once classes moved to a remote setting.

But when he called to prod parents on grades or assignments, it didn't go well.

"It was not fun. It was not unique or a Mr. Woods thing. There were other teachers that got burned by trying to help like that," he said, noting that some responses from parents were profanity laced. "It's tricky if parents don't hear from you, but you have to frame it in a way that's showing sensitivity that we're in a pandemic."

Woods said he noticed elementary teachers successfully stopping by the homes of students for in-person visits, and if classes this fall are moved to a hybrid or virtual setting "that might be something to steal from the elementary school playbook, if a parent thinks it's OK to come by."

Asked by an instructional tech coach to come up with a video that would put a smile on students' faces, Karl Lauer, who teaches history at James Bowie High School in Austin, Texas, landed on having teachers lip sync the theme song from the show "Friends." He had them record 10-second clips mouthing the song's catchy hook "I'll be there for you," at a time when the district had learned classes were staying online for the rest of the semester.

The video was emailed to all students and teachers, and posted on the school's social media.

"The feedback was great, and it seems like morale went up," he said. "The big point was to just show them we're here. We're trying to be as normal as we can be as teachers by making this silly video."

Over the course of those months in the spring, Lauer said his relationships with students "didn't decay, but some did grow distant."  Self-described as sarcastic and a jokester, he's planning to record "a satirical, ham-it-up video" for his new students in the coming weeks as a virtual intro.

"Hopefully it's a bridge to showing them my teaching style and personality," he said.

Teaching high schoolers in the midst of a pandemic that has upended the economy also means understanding that some of those students are going to be picking up new jobs or extra hours at work to help out with finances at home.

Taylor Ohlstrom, who taught math in Denver's Northfield High School last spring, said she only she saw half her students at the most during those months. Some had conflicts with work or childcare.

"You have to be willing to talk to kids about being honest with what's going. Nothing is too little when talking through these things," said Ohlstrom, who is starting a new teaching position this fall at Lakeside High School in Atlanta. "I tried to connect with each one of my students and ask them pretty bluntly what's going on, and I tried to be as flexible as I could with them."

Sometimes teacher-student connections didn't require any video.

Michelle Peck Williams, an AP World History and Current Events teacher at Paul Laurence Dunbar High School in Lexington, Ky., said she ditched video platforms early in the process.

Prior to the pandemic, Williams didn't do much in terms of online instruction aside from posting a few links in Google Classroom. But she had used an ed-tech tool called Nearpod, which facilitates class discussion through a chat feature.

Not every student is comfortable learning through a webcam and a microphone, and some quiet students unexpectedly shined when classes were held on the chat tool, she said.

"They drove the discussion way better than I could have expected," Williams said. "It was a whole other opportunity for these kids to learn and participate."

Williams is getting advice for the upcoming school year from college professors who teach remotely full time, and has come to the acknowledgement that she's going to "have to add Zoom and make it work" to enhance her online lessons in the future.

That doesn't mean that fostering a true connection with brand-new students she possibly won't meet in person will be any easier.

"I'm a bit terrified overall, honestly," she said. "Not knowing the kids already and having to teach them online is going to be a giant barrier."
> For more on this topic, read: How Did COVID-19 Change Your Teaching, for Better or Worse? See Teachers' Responses
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Nurturing Teacher-Student Connections in a Virtual World

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It took a set of costumes, funny voices, and made-up characters for Jamie Ewing, a K-5 science teacher at P.S.

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Google Classroom, Screencastify, Jamboard, Zite board, Google Meet,  Zoom, Flipgrid

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7 BEST Websites and Apps for Distance Learning

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Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

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Seesaw | Elementary Learning Experience Platform

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Training - Seesaw | Elementary Learning Experience Platform

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Webinars & Events Learn the ins and outs of Seesaw! Join us live or learn at your own pace. Upcoming Events Can't join live? Register anyway! All registrants receive a recording. View Full Calendar On-demand Webinars Watch an on-demand to learn on your own time!

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FAMILIES

The only tool you need to engage with, support, and communicate about your child's learning

Explore

Your child uses exciting and intriguing activities to dive into learning

Share

Students explain their thinking with video and audio recording, drawing, and more

Celebrate

Family and peers can see and comment on student work posted to the journal

On Seesaw, you can support your child's learning at home in powerful ways.

Comment on your child's Seesaw posts
(Note: Family can only see their child's work.)

Stop asking "What did you learn today?" and start asking about learning posted in Seesaw.

Keep your child's learning year-over-year.

Participate in family learning activities, as assigned to your child.

Click the Messages icon on the top left to get started. Here you'll see:

Schoolwide and class announcements

1:1 conversations with your child's teachers

Group chats started by your child's teacher

Automatic translations in 100+ language (determined by your device's settings)

Note: Your child's school determines what communication tools are available per their policy.

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Stay connected with your child's learning through Seesaw. Get real-time look into your child's progress and communicate with the teacher. Available on iOS, Android, and all computers.

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The CDC recommends that children and adolescents ages 6 to 17 years do 60 minutes or more of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity daily. But what to do if you're stuck indoors? We've got you covered with this list of amazing virtual PE resources that can help you find ways to bust some moves in the great indoors. Below find our top virtual P.E. streaming videos, apps, and lesson plans.

Virtual PE Streaming and Online Videos

Dancing is one of the easiest ways to get your body moving ... and grooving. As kids follow the moves on this YouTube-based dance challenge, they won't even realize the''re getting in a great cardio workout. Plus Just Dance features all their fave musical artists.

Stretch, bend and get movin' with the Cosmic Kids Yoga YouTube channel, where you'll find 10-20 minute guided yoga workouts for preschool to elementary school-aged kids. Kids will love striking poses in outerspace, underwater, on the farm and more! You can also stream episodes on Amazon Prime Video .

The Body Coach is a popular YouTube channel that features free, easy-to-follow, at-home workouts for everyone, including kids. Get fit no matter your fitness level with these active, engaging 5-8 minute videos. Joe Wicks also revealed to his followers that he will be starting online PE lessons during the school closures. The videos will start on Monday and run through till Friday on his YouTube channel. "It's called PE with Joe. It's a workout specifically designed for kids because when the schools are closed there is no PE."

A place for fitness, workouts, and wellness ... just for kids. Need a simple way to get your kids moving? Simply choose the age category, press play and stream to any device. Find over 100 sessions categorized by age group.

Preschoolers can practice balance and coordination while also practicing everything from colors to numbers to the ABC's in Coach Josh's fun workout show, streaming now on Amazon Prime Video.

Get fit with a little monkey business! Moovelee is an animated monkey that leads 4-10 minutes workout videos for kids ages 3-5. With a focus on meditation, yoga, and cardio, Moovelee will get your kids moving.

This 30-minute-long exercise YouTube video is the perfect excuse to get moving along with your kids. HIIT, or high-intensity interval training, is a workout that combines intense bursts of exercise and short, active recovery periods. Think marching, jumping jacks and squats. No equipment needed! Just put on a pair of athletic shoes and press play.

Dance to the beat of rated-G versions of popular songs like Thank U, Next, Señorita and Old Town Road.

Take advantage of time spent indoors by honing your soccer skills! Simply soccer's seven-minute YouTube video shows you how to work on some fancy footwork skills from the comfort of home.

Who wants to be a ninja? Join Abbey Manser on her YouTube channel to learn basic karate skills for kids.

Virtual PE Apps

This app features free 15-, 30-, and 45-minute workouts designed by expert Nike trainers, and will be a great fit for the sport-playing middle or high schooler looking to keep in tip-top shape at home.

The Sworkit Kids app makes it easy to create and tailor workouts that fit your kid's age, ability, and fitness level. Kids can count on building strength and agility as they're guided by app through an interval-style workout that mixes targeted exercises with fun challenges, making exercise feel more like a game than a must-do.

As your kids strike each of the thirteen yoga poses and breathing techniques featured in this yoga-focused app, they'll gain flexibility and strength. They'll also be more centered and calm thanks to soothing music.

Get up-and get down-with actress, dancer and choreographer Debbie Allen. The Fame star will be offering free classes on Instagram Live throughout the COVID-19 crisis. Follow her on Instagram @therealdebbieallen to find out when the next live video will pop up!

Teachers love to use the Go Noodle Kids app to get kids moving in the classroom. Interactive videos combine movement with mindfulness, helping kids center themselves for learning. The modules are short, making GoNoodle ideal for kids that need a quick energy boost through exercise.

Virtual PE Lesson Plans

Gopher, the go-to source for P.E. teachers, has gathered useful blog articles and two at-home lesson plan options for any parents looking to add education to their home learning curriculum: features free, wellness-focused K-12 PE lesson plans (3 weeks of materials for K-2, 3-6, middle school and high school). Dynamic PE ASAP has free lesson plans with both in-home and backyard activities that will get kids active STAT.

For students Carone Learning offers cFitness Academy, an accredited online school specializing in health and fitness for students.

Looking for movement ideas for the classroom? Sanford fit has hundreds of free resources-like brain breaks, lessons, and videos-to help kids make healthy choices inside and outside of the classroom.

Free PE activity ideas, classroom resources. and physical activity calendars are available for download!
Plus, check out 10 ways to encourage fitness and healthy living in tweens and teens.

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Our Favorite Virtual P.E. Resources to Keep Kids Moving at Home

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The CDC recommends that children and adolescents ages 6 to 17 years do 60 minutes or more of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity daily. But what to do if you're stuck indoors? We've got you covered with this list of amazing virtual PE resources that can help you find ways to bust some moves in the great indoors.

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Beginner ➡️ https://bit.ly/3fKh881
Advanced click image below ⬇️

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Google Classroom PD for Virtual and F2F Learning-Advanced Digital Icebreakers Slides Templates Teaching Slides Digital Assignments Uploading Materials Slides Add-ons Drag and Drop Slides Using Peardeck Using Jamboard Student Projects

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There are multiple videos in the playlist. When you click the link below it will begin with video 1. To access the playlist and choose your video click "open in new window" at the top of your browser.

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Getting started with online teaching? Trying to use Google Classroom but don't know how? This playlist is a greatest hits of the videos by friEdTechnology th...

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EDU webinar 04/02/20: Create to Learn with Matt Miller

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Online Professional Development through EdPuzzle

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Online Professional Development through EdPuzzle

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-EdPuzzle tutorials
-other PD outside of EdPuzzle (google, PBL, edutech, etc.)
-Learn at your own pace, get officially certified, and earn CEC hours!

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Learn at your own pace and get certified!

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Playlist of recorded webinars on a variety of remote learning topics

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How to Create a Digital Worksheet from a PDF 

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How to Create a Digital Worksheet from a PDF 

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Turn your PDF or hard copy worksheet into an editable digital worksheet!

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Videos, articles, advice, and more! UTeach PD for Remote Instruction

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Videos, articles, advice, and more! UTeach PD for Remote Instruction

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Our teachers have really put into practice what they gained from your Blended Learning course. Because of this course, we had a lot of support within our staff to help transition to distance learning. Luci Rodriguez, Principal, Welder Elementary School, Sinton ISD, Texas
Pear Deck Resources for Distance Learning

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Our teachers have really put into practice what they gained from your Blended Learning course. Because of this course, we had a lot of support within our staff to help transition to distance learning. Luci Rodriguez, Principal, Welder Elementary School, Sinton ISD, Texas Pear Deck Resources for Distance Learning

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Your go-to resource for classroom ideas and inspiration to make teaching science easier- and more fun.

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Not all screen time is bad! There are plenty of amazing ways for kids to learn on mobile devices, meaning they'll always have educational fun on hand. Case in point: reading apps for kids. While some kids practically need to have books pried out of their hands, others struggle to gain skills and maintain interest. Reading apps for kids can help both groups find what they need to succeed.

Some of the reading apps for kids on this list help them learn important skills, while others provide libraries of books for storytime or independent reading. Either way, these apps support reading in a meaningful and engaging way that kids will enjoy. Find your new favorite today!

Best For: Kids 12 and under

Why We Love It: Epic! gives kids unlimited access to an outstanding library of books, videos, quizzes, and more. These are books kids actually want to read, with lots of cool extra features like personalized recommendations and motivational badges and rewards.

Cost: Free for teachers and librarians. For others, free for 30 days, then $7.99 a month. Currently, teachers of schools closed due to COVID-19 can get free remote access for their students by clicking here.

Best For: Anyone who has a library card for a participating library.

Why We Love It: Tired of waiting for your library holds to come in? Try Hoopla! Everything on the app is always available for immediate virtual check-out, and it's FREE. Hoopla is especially popular for its wide selection of audiobooks, comics, and graphic novels. Plus, it has a dedicated "Kids Mode," making it easier for everyone to find books they'll love.

Cost: FREE for anyone with a library card at a participating library.

Available On: Hoopla is available on a variety of devices, including phones, e-readers, and even smart TVs. Find all the links you need here.

Best For: Anyone with a library card for a participating library.

Why We Love It: Most libraries use Overdrive for their e-book and online media lending. If kids have their own library card, they can set up an account. There's a whole section dedicated to kids, so they can find books just for them.

Cost: FREE

Available On: Overdrive is available on a wide variety of devices. Get all the links you need here.

Best For: Students of participating schools

Why We Love It: Sora is Overdrive's lending system just for schools. It allows teachers to assign, monitor, and assess reading. Students get access to the school library's online catalog, as well as their local library if available.

Cost: Free for students and teachers at participating schools. Schools interested in adding it can learn more here.

Best For: Anyone with a library card for a library with Overdrive

Why We Love It: Libby is another way to access books through Overdrive, with an interface specially designed for mobile devices. You can change the audience preference to Juvenile or Young Adult to limit the offerings kids see, plus there are dedicated guides for kids and Teens.

Cost: FREE

Best For: Grades 3-5

Why We Love It: This is the kind of reading kids do in school (and on tests), with comprehension questions to ensure they understand what they've read. It includes fiction and non-fiction to appeal to all readers. Teachers can use it in the classroom, while parents will find it great for home enrichment or practice.

Cost: The free version offers 12 stories to try, with additional stories available by subscription starting at $2.99 a month.

Best For: Pre-K and early readers

Why We Love It: Older teachers may remember Living Books, which were originally issued on CD-ROM for computers in the 90's. Today, these same books are available for download as an app. They're fully interactive: each page is read aloud, then kids can click on the text to hear the individual words again, or anywhere on the page to interact with the characters and other items. These books are a rich environment for individual exploration, but teacher guides are available to help you use them in a classroom setting too.

Cost: Try a free sampler app to see how it works. Each individual book title app is available for purchase for $4.99 each, some in multiple languages.

Available On: Apple App Store, Google Play Store, and Kindle App Store. Find all the links here.

Best For: Kids 12 and under

Why We Love It: This app offers thousands of books, videos, and games for kids, and gives parents lots of control over what kids can use and when they can use it. Teachers are likely to find lots of uses for this vast media library in the classroom, too.

Cost: Single child subscriptions start at $2.99 a month for Prime members. You can also get monthly or annual family plans that include unlimited access for up to 4 children.

Available On: Amazon devices including Kindle, plus Android and iOS devices too. Find all download options here.

Best For: Ages 2-8

Why We Love It: HOMER promises to create a personalized reading program for every child, based on their interests and current skill levels. Membership also includes access to 200+ interactive animated stories, with a whole section dedicated to favorite Sesame Street characters.

Costs: HOMER is FREE for educators. Other users can try it free for 30 days, after which subscriptions start at $7.99 a month.

Available On: Google Play Store, Apple App Store, Amazon App Store

Best For: Pre-K to grade 3

Cost: After a one-month free trial, individual Skybrary subscriptions start at $4.99 per month or $39.99 annually. Classroom and school plans are available through Skybrary for Schools.

Available On: Apple App Store, Google Play Store, Amazon App Store

Best For: Pre-K to grade 4

Why We Love It: Farfaria allows you to customize by reading level for personalized recommendations from their library of thousands of books. Kids can choose to have the books read to them, or read on their own. Farfaria is aligned with Common Core reading standards, too.

Cost: Individual monthly subscriptions start at $4.99. Special pricing is available for teachers and classrooms, starting at $20 per year.

Best For: Grades K-12

Why We Love It: Tales2Go is a subscription audiobook service designed for schools and classrooms. Individual subscriptions are also available. Their catalog has more than 10,000 audiobooks, with plenty of well-known titles and authors. They even have audiobooks in Spanish.

Cost: Classroom annual subscriptions start at $250, with library, building, and district licenses also available. Individual subscriptions start at $29.99 for three months. Schools currently closed due to the COVID-19 outbreak qualify for a special discounted price; learn more here.

Best For: Ages 3-7

Why We Love It: These very low-cost paid apps offer a wide range of fun, interactive games and activities to help kids learn to read. They build skills starting with letter recognition, eventually working toward reading complete sentences.

Cost: Reading Raven costs $1.99 on Android, $2.99 on iOS.

Available On: Apple and Android devices. Get the links you need here.

Best For: Early elementary

Why We Love It: Remember Choose Your Own Adventure books? SwapTales is an app version! Readers swap the words on each page (or not) to create new versions of the story. They also solve puzzles to help Leon along to one of 30 different endings. You can even read in 2-player mode. Readers are already clamoring for more of these engaging tales!

Cost: $4.99

Best For: PreK and early readers

Why We Love It: Phonics is a reliable and proven way to build reading skills. Kids will love these fun games designed to help them learn the 44 phonemes that make up the English language.

Cost: Schools can receive free access here. The app is free to download for individual users, with complete content available for $7.99.

Available On: Apple App Store, Google Play Store, Amazon App Store

Best For: Ages 5-8

Why We Love It: This app uses speech recognition to listen to a child read, correcting them and helping with the hard words as necessary. The real fun comes when kids race to see how fast they can read! Reading Racer is a really fun way to work on reading fluency.

Cost: FREE

Available On: Apple App Store

Best For: Ages 2-13

Why We Love It: A placement quiz at the beginning makes sure readers start at the right level. Then, animated interactive lessons use phonics and other concepts to improve reading skills. The program includes books made up only of words covered in completed lessons, ensuring kids meet with success every step of the way.

Cost: $9.99, add up to 3 additional users at $4.99 each. Teachers can receive a 4-week free trial here.

Best For: Early readers

Why We Love It: Kids read the words and sentences on the screen out loud to the cute animated character. Speech recognition technology provides instant assessment and feedback.

Cost: FREE

Available On: Apple App Store, Google Play Store, Amazon App Store

Best For: All students K-12

Why We Love It: IXL is a comprehensive learning app for all subjects. They offer reading and language arts practice for every grade level, with activities that are a terrific complement to other learning methods. IXL is ideal for kids that need extra practice outside the classroom.

Cost: A single-subject subscription is $9.99/month; full core subjects subscription $19.99/month. Schools can contact IXL for classroom and district pricing.

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Not all screen time is bad! There are plenty of amazing ways for kids to learn on mobile devices, meaning they'll always have educational fun on hand. Case in point: reading apps for kids. While some kids practically need to have books pried out of their hands, others struggle to gain skills and maintain interest.

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How to Keep Users from Crashing your Zoom Meeting/Class

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How to Keep Users from Crashing your Zoom Meeting/Class

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We love that so many people are finding Zoom to be an easy way to stay connected in this time of social distancing, school closures, and work-from-home routines. All these virtual happy hours, coffee breaks, afternoon hangs, dance practices, yoga sessions, and so many other events over Zoom - your creativity and resilience in these tough times are inspiring!

Some fun & much needed comic relief on our @zoom_us happy hour today. ? pic.twitter.com/vLpxusPeJw

- Beth Duncan (@bttopo) March 20, 2020

What's more impressive is that many of us are learning to host these events on the fly! As more people use our platform and host their virtual events using Zoom, we wanted to offer up tips to ensure everyone joining an event does so with good intentions. Like most other public forums, it's possible to have a person (who may or may not be invited) disrupt an event that's meant to bring people together.

So, a couple of reminders on using Zoom to host public events:

When you share your meeting link on social media or other public forums, that makes your event ... extremely public. ANYONE with the link can join your meeting .

Avoid using your Personal Meeting ID (PMI) to host public events. Your PMI is basically one continuous meeting and you don't want randos crashing your personal virtual space after the party's over. Learn about meeting IDs and how to generate a random meeting ID ( at the 0:27 mark ) in this video tutorial .

Familiarize yourself with Zoom's settings and features so you understand how to protect your virtual space when you need to. For example, the Waiting Room is an unbelievably helpful feature for hosts to control who comes and goes. (More on that below.)

Read on for a list of Zoom features that can help you safely share your Zoom virtual cocktail hour or dance break without unwanted interruptions. Ok, Zoomer? Let's do it!

Manage screen sharing

The first rule of Zoom Club: Don't give up control of your screen.

You want random people in your public event taking control of the screen and sharing unwanted content with the group. You can restrict this - before the meeting and during the meeting in the host control bar - so that you're the only one who can screen-share.

To prevent participants from screen sharing during a call, using the host controls at the bottom, click the arrow next to Share Screen and then Advanced Sharing Options.

Under "Who can share?" choose "Only Host" and close the window. You can also lock the Screen Share by default for all your meetings in your web settings.

Manage your participants

Some of the other great features to help secure your Zoom event and host with confidence:

This is useful if you want to control your guest list and invite only those you want at your event - other students at your school or colleagues, for example.

Lock the meeting: It's always smart to lock your front door, even when you're inside the house. When you lock a Zoom Meeting that's already started, no new participants can join, even if they have the meeting ID and password (if you have required one). In the meeting, click Participants at the bottom of your Zoom window. In the Participants pop-up, click the button that says Lock Meeting.

Set up your own two-factor authentication: You don't have to share the actual meeting link! Generate a random Meeting ID when scheduling your event and require a password to join. Then you can share that Meeting ID on Twitter but only send the password to join via DM .

Try the Waiting Room

One of the best ways to use Zoom for public events is to enable the Waiting Room feature. Just like it sounds, the Waiting Room is a virtual staging area that stops your guests from joining until you're ready for them. It's almost like the velvet rope outside a nightclub, with you as the bouncer carefully monitoring who gets let in.

Meeting hosts can customize Waiting Room settings for additional control, and you can even personalize the message people see when they hit the Waiting Room so they know they're in the right spot. This message is really a great spot to post any rules/guidelines for your event, like who it's intended for.

The Waiting Room is really a great way to screen who's trying to enter your event and keep unwanted guests out.

Keep Zooming responsibly

Zoom is a great way to stay connected right now, and we hope these tips will help you continue to host amazing events using our platform! If you're not sure whether a public Zoom event is the way to go, share the meeting link only with your close friends, co-workers, and clients. You can even password-protect it for another layer of security.

And keep those pictures from your Zoom virtual events coming! Share them with us on , , and and we'll like, fave, or retweet a few!

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How to Keep Uninvited Guests Out of Your Zoom Event - Zoom Blog

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We love that so many people are finding Zoom to be an easy way to stay connected in this time of social distancing, school closures, and work-from-home routines. All these virtual happy hours, coffee breaks, afternoon hangs, dance practices, yoga sessions, and so many other events over Zoom - your creativity and resilience in these tough times are inspiring!

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Transforming your Google Docs to include Hyperlinks that guide students through the lesson

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Copy of Try Out Hyperdoc - Google for Education Style

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G Suite

It's easy to feel anxious, overwhelmed and frustrated if you're asked to create elearning activities and teach remotely because of a school closure.

You might be asking ...

What are my students going to do?

How can they continue learning at a high level?

Can I maintain that teacher/student connection through elearning?

How can I keep up with the demands of elearning?

Some ideas and examples to follow can help. Having some plug-and-play activities to assign students can help, too -- even if you need to adjust them to fit your students' needs.

We've got you covered.

In this post, you'll find 100 elearning activities, templates and tutorials. They'll help you create elearning activities that lend themselves to powerful learning when students are away from school.

Some ideas to keep in mind as you roll out your eLearning activities:

Keep communication with students and parents at the forefront. Be ready for questions. Make your communication more thorough than you anticipate.

Simplicity is key. Activities that are too complicated can be hard to follow through without the proper support.

Make space for students' emotional needs, too. Their routine is disrupted. They don't get to see their teacher or their fellow students. Help them to make those connections while they're away.

Don't be too hard on yourself. If you've never taught with eLearning activities, it'll be a learning process. Do your best. Learn and improve.

Lean on others for support. Use social media and colleagues in your school/district to brainstorm ideas.

Here are over 100 remote learning activities, templates and tutorials you can use tomorrow:

Free Remote Learning Online Course

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2.5+ hours of video

Downloadable planning guides

Lifetime access

Forum for sharing ideas

Tech Like A PIRATE is now available!

Looking for more teaching ideas like these?

Get three FREE ebooks sent right to your inbox!

101 Practical Ways to Ditch That Textbook, Matt's insanely practical guide full of new teaching ideas.

101 Ways to Ditch That Textbook with G Suite, tons of practical, creative ways to use Google tools in the classroom.

50 FREE Templates for Teachers, with templates you can copy and download to assign directly to students.

Do More with Google Classroom

Teach better. Save time. Make a difference.

The short how-to tutorials on Google Classroom are EVERYWHERE. But how do we teach well with it? In this book, you'll find practical ideas to do great teaching with Google Classroom and thrive.

Looking for more remote learning resources? Our distance learning page has TONS of resources for bringing learning directly to your students no matter where they are! 💻 100 remote learning activities templates and tutorials
💻 Distance learning lesson planning guides and templates
💻 FREE ebooks for getting started or taking your remote teaching farther

For notifications of new Ditch That Textbook content and helpful links:

Are you looking for quality, meaningful professional learning that both equips and inspires teachers?

Matt provides in-person and virtual keynotes, workshops and breakout sessions that equip, inspire and encourage teachers to create change in their classrooms. Teachers leave with loads of resources. They participate. They laugh. They see tech use and teaching in a new light. Click the link below to contact us and learn how you can bring Matt to your school or district!

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©2023 Ditch That Textbook by Matt Miller.

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100 remote learning activities, templates and tutorials

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Remote learning activities can be fun AND promote quality learning. Here are lots of examples and templates to use!It's easy to feel anxious, overwhelmed

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How to Support your Students During School Closures

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How to Support your Students During School Closures

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Recorded Webinars from Edmentum. Part 1 in link. Part 2 here: https://tinyurl.com/uxu96yz

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Various resources, specifically bilingual books read-aloud online

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Various topics - ebooks, virtual field trips and more

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Online learning resources for students - Wakelet

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Virtual field trips, coding, math, science, cooking, reading, TED talks, author connections, databases and more....

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Free Resources to Continue Learning During School Closures Don't let community emergencies and other unexpected school closure days derail student learning. Printables e-Learning Plan Live Webinars OnDemand Webinars Parent Letters Product Resources Latest News FREE Resources to Power Learning Offline options are great to have during unexpected school closures.

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There are multiple videos in the playlist. When you click the link below it will begin with video 1. To access the playlist and choose your video click "open in new window" at the top of your browser.

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friEd's Favorite Creation Tools Playlist

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Here is a curated list of some videos to get you started with some of our favorite creation tools!

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With schools cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this has been a challenging time for all. For teachers, implementing distance learning with little-to-no training ahead of time, has left us overwhelmed and worried as we navigate these unchartered territories.

But what's really amazing, is that in the midst of this uncomfortability and uncertainty, I have witnessed so many teachers come together, and rise to the occasion. We are not giving up. We are committed, as always, to educating our students.

One of my favorite parts of our school day is our morning meetings. Wanting to continue to foster that classroom community and build relationships with my students, I knew I needed to find a way to implement a virtual morning meeting. Today I'm sharing the steps to implementing a morning meeting / classroom meeting with your students, despite not being at school.
Plan Your Meeting Components
Just like any time we teach, the first step is to lesson plan. Decide the components you'd like to include in your virtual class meeting. Then plan for those components. I included a Greeting, Share, Activity, and Message. You can read more about the components of class meetings here. Want a copy of these plans? Click here: Week 1 Virtual Morning Meeting Plans.

Prepare Your Slides
I thought about recording a virtual morning meeting of just myself talking, but what fun would that be? Plus, visuals help students understand better. The picture above shows my slides that I edited for our our first virtual morning meeting. Using the blank templates from my Class Meeting Slides, I added text and a visual to go along with each component you'll see in the plans.

The pictured slides were created using the templates from my Editable Class Meeting/Morning Meeting Slides in my TPT Store.

Select and Set Up a Screencast Program

(spoiler alert: it's easier than it sounds!)

You could just do a screen recording, but here's why I chose not to do that: A screen recording is just that - a recording of your screen. When you use a screencast system, the video captures your screen AND you. This will give your virtual morning meeting a much more personal touch.

There are many screencast programs out there. I have been using Screencastify and Screencast-O-Matic. They're both free and you can use them on chrome. Here's a general overview of how screencasting works:

Install the free program

Select your screen recording options (do you want to record your entire screen, just an application screen - such as powerpoint, or just a webcam)

Start recording!

Save to drive and/or share with your students!

I also love that with Screencastify, you can share directly to Google Classroom!

Record Your Morning Meeting and Share!
Once you have your screencast system selected and running, you're ready to record. Get your slides ready, and press play. Remember, the point is not to be perfect - it's to continue fostering a classroom community with your students, even if it has to be virtual.

When you've finished, share it out to your students. Encourage them to interact/participate with pictures, videos, and comments. If you teach Kindergarten like I do, this may mean that parents have to help. I chose to make the posting participation optional.

To watch my first Virtual Morning Meeting, click here!

For Editable Class Meeting/Morning Meeting Slides click here!

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How to Have a Virtual Morning Meeting During Distance Learning

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With schools cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this has been a challenging time for all. For teachers, implementing distance learning with little-to-no training ahead of time, has left us overwhelmed and worried as we navigate these unchartered territories.

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R10 Remote Learning - Discovery Education

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You have probably heard of Flip and have seen tons of people sharing their experiences using it on social media. It seems that people all over the world have been using Flipgrid in all sorts of creative ways.

Flip is a video response platform where educators can have online video discussions with students or other educators. Teachers can provide feedback to students AND better yet students can provide feedback to one another.
The best part? Flipis completely FREE!
My first experience with Flip was back in early 2017 in our weekly #Ditchbook Twitter chat where a group of educators from all over the country shared ideas and inspire one another online. Since then I have had the opportunity to use Flip with students, administrators, as well as other educators in workshops and professional development sessions.

Each time I introduce it the reaction is always the same, "Wow! There are so many ways to use this tool. I can't wait to try it out in my class!".

But don't take my word for it, check it out and try it yourself!

In this post you will find over 50 ideas and ready-to-use Flipg activities for your class. You can use the quick navigation box below to jump to any section or scroll through the post to find something that you can use in your class tomorrow!

Getting started with Flip

Getting started with Flip is easy. As a teacher you can sign up (see the steps below) and start creating your grids and topics right away. Students and participants don't need an account, they will simply use the code you provide to log in and start recording!

The Flip Getting Started Guide

Want even MORE assistance bringing Flip to your classroom? Check out their onboarding webinar or visit the updated help center that to get up and running in no time!

Flip conversation starters from the Disco Library

Flip understands the power of community and educators connecting and becoming better together. The "Disco Library" tab at the top of your Educator Dashboard and you will find over 20,000 Flip topics ready for you to add to your Grids. Once you select a Topic to add you will have an opportunity to update and make any changes to the Topic before it is added to your grid.

Below you will find six popular topics from the Disco Library that can help your students get started using Flip in a fun and easy way. Just click on the button Don't see a topic you like? There are lots more here.

50+ Flip activities for your class

English Language Arts

Ready-to-use ELA activities from the Flip Disco Library

Reflect and assess with Flip

Flip Math activities

Ready-to-use math activities from the Flip Disco Library

Science and Social Studies

Ready-to-use science activities from the Flip Disco Library

Creating a community

Ready-to-use community building activities from the Flip Disco Library

Flipgrid beyond the classroom

Conversations about race, equity and justice from the Flip Disco Library

Appsmash with Flip

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Flip for ALL! 50+ ways to use Flip in your class

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Flip, a FREE video discussion platform, gives all students a voice. Here are more than 50 Flip ideas and activities for your class. This post is written

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Kids can learn a lot from observing animals, from what they eat and how they raise their young-to more advanced concepts like habitats and adaptations. Unfortunately, getting access to live animals is a challenge. Enter webcams. We compiled a list of the best nature webcams that offer kids a window into the animal world... so check it out!

Zoo Atlanta Panda Cam

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJGrLNCg0pM[/embedyt]

These gentle giants eat almost exclusively bamboo ... and if this webcam is any indication, they do it all day long. Check out their powerful jaws!

California Academy of Sciences Penguin Cam

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtZ5yiUvov8[/embedyt]

Let the waddling commence! Watch these little cuties from South Africa and Namibia swim and nest from one of three webcams.

Monterey Bay Aquarium Jelly Cam

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gHKDHmgVlU[/embedyt]

These beauties are as mesmerizing as they are dangerous. These sea nettles, as they're known, have stinging cells on their tentacles in order to paralyze prey.

Seattle Aquarium Sea Otter Cam

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNwy2pMdsP4[/embedyt]

The Seattle Aquarium is home to four northern sea otters. The somersaults and log rolls are pretty amazing, but we won't stop watching until we see them hold hands.

Cornell Lab FeederWatch Cam

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N609loYkFJo[/embedyt]

This FeederWatch cam is located at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in Ithaca, New York on the edge of the Sapsucker Woods. Their feeders attract chickadees, woodpeckers, and the Red-winged Blackbird.

RoyalCam Live Albatross Cam

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9XNKQY4tQc[/embedyt]

Albatrosses are large oceanic birds with wingspans up to 10 feet. The last time we checked, this season's not-so-little chick was hanging out in the nest.

Raptor Resource Project Decorah Eagles

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmclL6funN8[/embedyt]

When this breeding pair's nest was destroyed (twice!), a team of researchers rebuilt it. The eagles have been coming back to brood ever since.

Bear Watching Transylvania Live Animal Cam

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BDnAMR3GLg[/embedyt]

You won't see any vampires on this live animal cam located in Transylvania, Romania. However, you will see bears as well as red deer, roe deer, wild boar, fox, rabbit, wolf, and other wild animals.

GRACE Gorilla Forest Corridor Cam

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgXWDk7rh4w[/embedyt]

Watch the Grauer's gorillas as they play, eat, and rest in their forest habitat in the Democratic Republic of Congo. You can even "meet" the gorillas and then try to identify who you're looking at!

Africam Nkhoro Bush Lodge

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUZjDCZEMDA[/embedyt]

You'll need a lot of patience for this one, but you just may be rewarded with one of Africa's "big five" safari animals: lion, leopard, rhinoceros, elephant, and Cape buffalo.

Aquarium of the Pacific Shark Lagoon Cam

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvfaMv9nbJc[/embedyt]

Don't worry-it's not as scary as it sounds. Witness the many species of sharks inside the Aquarium of the Pacific's shark lagoon-sand tiger, zebra, and whitetip reef sharks, for instance.

Polar Bears International Cape West Camera

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tC-J27EF800[/embedyt]

Polar bear maternity dens?! Yes, please! Check in on the mama bears and cubs at Cape Churchill in Canada's Wapusk National Park.

Boulder County Osprey Cam

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNX8tOgE1gI[/embedyt]

You're just in time! Last year, the ospreys arrived on March 22nd, so we should be able to watch them nest any time now!

Bella Hummingbird Nest

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nv-pUx0hhwY[/embedyt]

This tiny nest in La Verne, California, has been home to female hummingbirds and their babes since 2005. For reference, it's about the size of a golf ball cut in half.

Honey Bee Hive

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOgKDQp2BHE[/embedyt]

If you've ever wondered what goes on in a beehive, then check out this livestream. It uses an infrared camera to show the inner workings of a bee colony living inside a large hollow log.

Nonsuch Expeditions Live Endangered Bermuda Cahows

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AN_rHmK7nug[/embedyt]

Prepare to squee! You're looking at a critically endangered (and adorably fluffy) Bermuda Cahow chick and its parents. It's a beautiful sign of hope for a species once thought to be extinct.

Trevor Zoo Red Pandas

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5_oHPJDDOM[/embedyt]

There are less than 5,000 red pandas in the wild. During the day, you can find the Trevor Zoo red pandas sleeping in the trees.

Animal Adventure Park Giraffe Yard Cam

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXy9SJpnCwI[/embedyt]

April the giraffe went viral when the birth of her calf was live-streamed in 2017. Now you can check in on her and her son Tajiri while she enjoys her retirement.

Mpala Live African Watering Hole

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NIt6ibAD6I[/embedyt]

We're here for the hippos, but at this watering hole in central Kenya, you catch also catch elephants, giraffes, zebras, gazelles, crocodiles, and leopards taking a drink or going for a swim.

San Diego Zoo Butterly Cam

This live stream from inside the climate-controlled Hidden Jungle greenhouse features approximately 30 species of butterflies. Watch for zebra longwings, giant swallowtails, blue morphos, and more!

St. Augustine Alligator Farm Beach Swamp Cam

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnxRJii_dp8[/embedyt]

It's not just gators on this feed, although they are prominently featured. There's also roseate spoonbills and other wading birds in these Florida wetlands.

Lubee Bat Conservatory Mixed Species Flying Fox Cam

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuW5jvSxRi8[/embedyt]

Check out these rescued fruit bats and please, help us figure out if that really is a teddy bear in the cage. Do bats need toys?

Orcalab Rubbing Beach

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jcU2MVkEy8[/embedyt]

Believe us-you've never seen anything like this before. Watch as orcas in British Columbia's Johnstone Strait engage in a unique behavior called "beach rubbing."

Audubon Puffin Loafing Ledge

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKs7vZ4xlYs[/embedyt]

You're going to have to bookmark this one until the puffins return, but it should be soon. In the meantime, you can watch the livestream highlights of Atlantic puffins foraging, feeding, and raising their young in the rock crevices of Seal Island off the coast of Maine.

Brooks Falls Katmai National Park

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3T45Dn_RYpc[/embedyt]

One more to save for later. For now, check out the amazing highlights of brown bears as they feast on the salmon who have returned to spawn.
Have your own favorite nature webcams? Come share in our WeAreTeachers HELPLINE group on Facebook. Plus, 25 Amazing Virtual Field Trips for Kids.

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25 Best Nature Webcams for Science Learning at a Distance

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Kids can learn a lot from observing animals, from what they eat and how they raise their young-to more advanced concepts like habitats and adaptations. Unfortunately, getting access to live animals is a challenge. Enter webcams. We compiled a list of the best nature webcams that offer kids a window into the animal world...

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Candid Conversations: Managing What's Beyond Our Control (Episode 2)

Dr. Becky Bailey offers insights and problem solving for everyday challenges with special guests in the Candid Conversations webinar series. Kyndal Easter, this episode's guest, shares her experience of being 39 weeks pregnant and an Assistant Principal for a primary school in the context of COVID-19. Discover how Kyndal uses her foundation in Conscious Discipline to manage feelings of anxiety, uncertainty and loss of control, and uncover ways to apply self-regulation concepts in your own life.

Candid Conversations provide a relatable, practical window into the world of Conscious Discipline. Join Dr. Bailey and her guests as they explore personal challenges, successes and ways to use Conscious Discipline in everyday life.

Hosted by Conscious Discipline Master Instructor Jill Molli, this episode of Candid Conversations explores healthy ways to cope when the proverbial rug gets pulled out from under your feet. In Kyndal's words, "All of a sudden I lost control of the things I thought I had control over." Yet, from this place of uncertainty, we can cultivate a sense of acceptance, support and trust within ourselves. In this episode of Candid Conversations, we explore self-regulation in terms of active calming, gratitude, acceptance, going within, and the essential roles a support person and a School Family can play during times of stress.

Webinar Outline

00:17 General introduction with Jill Molli

1:50 Introducing Kyndal Easter, Assistant Principal and expectant mother

2:58 Feeling safe and secure during the first few months of pregnancy

3:37 COVID-19 hits: Loss of control, big feelings, big responsibilities

4:29 Uploading and downloading composure to co-regulate

5:25 Seeking outside control vs. going inside to calm

7:25 Who is your support person?

8:43 Managing a disappointment with a support person

9:55 The best environment for a child is one where adults get their needs met

10:47 How the pandemic is bringing awareness and changing teaching

11:50 When you don't have a support person, gratitude and faith can help

14:18 Workarounds during COVID-19

16:50 Acceptance allows you to reach a higher brain state so you can think and plan

18:40 Becky summarizes acceptance, the power of a School Family and trust/faith

20:12 "I'm so glad to see you, the world was waiting"

20:40 Managing what's inside via self-regulation rather than attempting to control what's happening around us

Helpful Next Steps

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Webinar: Candid Conversations: Managing What's Beyond Our Control (Episode 2) | Conscious Discipline

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Dr. Becky Bailey offers insights and problem solving for everyday challenges with special guests in the Candid Conversations webinar series. Kyndal Easter, this episode's guest, shares her experience of being 39 weeks pregnant and an Assistant Principal for a primary school in the context of COVID-19.

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Many students are experiencing high levels of stress as school schedules change due to the coronavirus pandemic. Some students may be separated from friends and stuck at home. Others might be worried about getting sick. Students whose families are experiencing financial worries or illness are especially vulnerable. There are ways you can support students socially and emotionally even if they're not physically in your classroom every day.

School - whether it's done online, in person, or a mix of the two - can give students a sense of normalcy. But it's important to acknowledge the anxiety students might be feeling. Chronic stress and trauma can interrupt the learning process. You can help by incorporating social-emotional learning (SEL) in your teaching. SEL can help students learn better.

1. Schedule regular check-ins with students and their families.

Research shows that positive teacher-student relationships improve student learning - especially during stressful times. This is also true for online learning. To help build relationships, try to schedule regular check-ins with your students.

From the series: Back-to-School for Educators: Start With Relationships

Learn the research behind relationship building, download a printable to share with families, and get tips for connecting with students and families.

Show articles Hide articles

Articles in this series: Back-to-School for Educators: Start With Relationships

Use these individual check-ins to talk with students about how they're feeling. Before you start scheduling the check-ins, see if your school district has recommendations for tools to use to communicate with families. Then consider what format and frequency will work best for your students. Students who are falling behind on assignments might need more frequent check-ins. Finding out where they're struggling can help you suggest new strategies.

2. Teach strategies for organization, planning, and self-regulation.

3. Read and discuss current events.

When teaching about current events like the coronavirus pandemic or racial injustice, give students age-appropriate, factual information. For example, students can read about how health care workers and scientists are tackling the coronavirus or how people are coping with stress.

Current events also give students a chance to talk about their feelings. This can help them feel less alone. Many families are experiencing a variety of challenges. Learning about these challenges can help students build social awareness and empathy.

4. Assign a project that encourages students to be "helpers."

Taking action can ease anxiety and depression. It also gives students a way to build their social awareness and relationship skills.

Read to younger siblings or help them with schoolwork .

Make a video that helps other kids have fun while stuck at home.

Help with cooking meals or snacks.

Call or send a card to someone who might feel isolated.

5. Share stress-reduction and mindfulness strategies.

From the series: Back-to-School for Educators: Start With Relationships

Learn the research behind relationship building, download a printable to share with families, and get tips for connecting with students and families.

Show articles Hide articles

Articles in this series: Back-to-School for Educators: Start With Relationships

About the Author

About the Author

Trynia Kaufman, MS is the senior manager of editorial research at Understood. She is a former educator and presents nationwide at education conferences.

Reviewed by

Reviewed by

Shivohn N. García, PhD is an experienced educator and the senior director of the Impact team at Understood.

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5 tips for supporting students socially and emotionally during distance learning

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Many students are experiencing high levels of stress as school schedules change due to the coronavirus pandemic. Some students may be separated from friends and stuck at home. Others might be worried about getting sick. Students whose families are experiencing financial worries or illness are especially vulnerable.

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Common Sense Education provides educators and students with the resources they need to harness the power of technology for learning and life. Find a free K-12 Digital Citizenship curriculum, reviews of popular EdTech apps, and resources for protecting student privacy.

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Advancing Social and Emotional Learning - CASEL

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CASEL is helping make evidence-based social and emotional learning an integral part of education, preschool through high school.

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SEL and Self-Care Resources for Educators, Schools, and Parents During the Pandemic

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A compilation of social-emotional learning (SEL) and self-care resources for educators, parents, and school communities during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Welcome to our supplemental Social Emotional Learning Activities page!

As you will see below, many of the supplemental SEL activities and lesson plans include characters from our game-based, social emotional learning interventions. And when you use the online programs with your students, these activities will reinforce the learning that occurs during game play.

These supplemental resources - lessons, activities, and worksheets - are in the following SELskill areas: Communication, Cooperation, Emotion Regulation, Empathy, Impulse Control, and Social Initiation.

These resources are age-appropriate for elementary and middle school students and are typically used in a classroom or a small group setting. And in most cases, if materials are required for the activity, they are items that you already have in your classroom or office.
Note: Please share this page on your school website so other educators may also benefit.
Social Emotional Learning at Home

Additional Resources for Social Emotional Learning

Our classroom management plan is a step-by-step guide and includes proven strategies, tips and printables for elementary school teachers, and it covers four key components for establishing a successful, well-managed classroom.

These free downloadable posters will decorate your classroom and be great teaching resources, reinforcing social and emotional skills in your classroom and reminding students to practice their skills like emotion regulation, impulse control, empathy, and more.

Social Emotional Learning Quotes

For each of the topics below, we have curated a list of quotes. You can incorporate these quotes in your social emotional learning lessons, add them to social media images, create classroom posters, or write one on your whiteboard each day.

Need Something More Engaging And Effective For A Few Students?

Simply request a FREE Centervention educator account and start using our online programs!

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95 Free Social Emotional Learning Activities

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95 free social emotional learning activities, worksheets, and lessons to help students in elementary and middle school. Most are no-prep and ready to go.

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Find resources to help students manage their emotions, resolve conflicts, and make responsible decisions—creating the healthiest school culture possible.

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All Practices | Greater Good In Education

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To find what you need quickly, sort the practices by age level and duration.

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Common Sense Media editors help you choose 17 Apps to Help Kids Stay Focused. From little kid to teen, all kids get distracted (adults, too!), so consider using some tech to keep them on track.

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Join the Peartember celebration for giveaways, exclusive templates, and more! Learn more >

From webinars to custom professional development sessions, there are lots of ways to learn about Pear Deck and our team of educators is here to help! Whether you're an administrator or a classroom teacher, our pre-recorded webinars can help you get started.

INTRODUCTION TO PEAR DECK FOR GOOGLE SLIDES

Designed for beginners, this webinar moves at a pace that allows you to follow along in lock-step as we build slides and start a live Pear Deck presentation. Join us if you're new to Pear Deck or if you'd like a review of how to create interactive presentations.

Watch the Introduction to Pear Deck for Google Slides webinar!

PEAR DECK FOR GOOGLE SLIDES: ACCELERATED

Everything you need to know about Pear Deck at a faster pace than the Basic Introduction session. Very much like the former Pear Deck 101 webinar, this webinar will teach you how to create slides, present lessons in Instructor and Student Paced modes, give formative assessments, evaluate responses, embed websites and videos, publish responses, and more. This comprehensive session is for those who already have some familiarity with Pear Deck, and/or are comfortable with digital learning tools. We'll also save time for your Q&A!

Watch the Pear Deck for Google Slides: Accelerated webinar!

PEAR DECK FOR PowerPoint Online

Discover the amazing tools at your fingertips with Microsoft for Education and Pear Deck. This course will teach you everything you need to know about creating interactive slides and presenting with Pear Deck for PowerPoint Online. We'll also save time for your Q&A!

Watch the Pear Deck for Powerpoint Online webinar!

Set your sights on a milestone

Earn a Pear Deck Achievement

We're amazed by your dedication to delivering powerful learning moments and growing as educator, and we to want to celebrate that! After joining a Pear Deck webinar, we'll send you a Lifelong Learner Badge. When an achievement is unlocked, the full-color badge will come directly to your inbox! There are tons of Pear Deck achievements to earn - make a goal to collect them all!

Alternative learning options

Can't join a live session?

Schedule a Pear Deck workshop

Conducted by Pear Deck team members or one of our trained coaches, these customized workshops can help departments, schools, and districts maximize the usage and efficacy of Pear Deck! Depending on the length of the session and number of attendees, additional costs may apply.

Schedule a Workshop

Pear Deck 101 PRE-RECORDED WEBINAR

The same great content from our live Webinars, but at your own pace. Learn how to create Decks using the Google Slides Add-on and PowerPoint Online Add-in, use templates to add formative assessments, and see best practice examples to help cultivate an engaging classroom with Pear Deck.

Watch Pear Deck 101 Pre-Recorded Webinar Here

Looking for more resources? Check out the Knowledge Base to browse our library of help articles or our collection of Help Videos.

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From webinars to in-person professional training, the Pear Deck team of educators is here to help you be the best teacher you can be!