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8 Strategies for Building Belonging with Students and Families Virtually

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8 Strategies for Building Belonging with Students and Families Virtually

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Imagine a day in the life of a student in a traditional school setting. First-grade students greet their teachers with special handshakes as they enter the classroom. Principals hand out high-fives in the hallways. Middle schoolers huddle together during homeroom to discuss their favorite TV shows as they wait to hear the morning announcements over the intercom. Fifth graders sit in a circle as their teacher leads them in a mindfulness exercise to start the day present and focused.

In the wake of coronavirus school closures, educators, parents, and students across the globe are coping with a new reality. How can educators continue to foster a sense of belonging with students while schools are closed and learning has shifted online? What are ways to maintain strong teacher-student relationships and keep students engaged?

In this post, we'll explore research on belonging and connectedness, the key tenets of virtual communication for educators, and effective strategies for building virtual connectedness.

Download Toolkit: 5 Restorative Practices for Building Belonging with Students

I. Research on Sense of Belonging II. Tenets of Virtual Communication and Collaboration III. 8 Strategies for Building Connectedness Virtually IV. Additional Resources
What the Research Says About In-Person and Virtual Connectedness

Research suggests that students with a high sense of belonging are also happier, healthier, and more engaged learners.

Not only is connectedness linked to better academic outcomes, but students who feel connected to school are less likely to skip school, abuse substances, have emotional distress, or be involved in fighting or bullying behavior.

So, can educators still promote student belonging in virtual spaces? Research from the children's media field suggests that technology can, indeed, facilitate meaningful connection. Joint media engagement-a relatively new concept-refers to using technology and media as a co-engagement or co-viewing tool between adults and children. Multiple studies show that a healthier way for children to interact with technology (especially screen media) is if an adult is physically or virtually present and participating in usage with the child. The positive benefits increase when the technology delivers high-quality educational content.

This means that educators can design-or adapt-educational activities, virtual lessons, and online social-emotional learning programs to foster connectedness online. That connectedness can be between students and peers, students and their caregivers, or students and their teacher.

"Students with a high sense of belonging are happier, healthier, and more engaged learners... and less likely to skip school, abuse substances, have emotional distress, or be involved in fighting or bullying behavior."

Tenets of Virtual Communication and Connection

Communication (with students and their caregivers) is a key component to helping students build a strong sense of belonging online. Here are some guiding principles for communicating and connecting with students virtually:

Clear and Consistent. Be clear in your written and oral communication with students and their families. In addition, consistency of timing and cadence can help families anticipate your communications and schedule their days appropriately.

Proactive and Reciprocal. Proactive communication can help you anticipate the needs of students and your community. It can also encourage students and families to proactively communicate with you and other school staff members, and can ensure that they know the best methods to do so.

Authentic and Familiar. Maintain the teaching style you use in the classroom to recreate a sense of comfortability for students. This could mean using similar language and phrases that you would use in the classroom.

Flexible. To meet the needs of all learners, consider multiple options for communication and student participation. Can you call a family to deliver a morning announcement if they do not have access to high-speed internet? Can you provide a pen-and-paper option for a virtual activity? Consider these tips on strategies in special education as children learn from home and resources for English-language and diverse learners.

Creative and Innovative. With so many different virtual tools at your disposal, make sure to take advantage of them. Virtual adaptations are great opportunities to innovate and try something new. See this time as a way to think creatively about ways to reach each student and consider trying tools such as Padlet or Flipgrid.

"To meet the needs of all learners, consider multiple options for communication and student participation. Can you call a family to deliver a morning announcement if they don't have access to high-speed internet? Can you provide a pen-and-paper option for a virtual activity?"

8 Strategies for Building Connectedness Virtually

1. Host a virtual morning meeting.

In typical classroom life, routines are an important way to build connection. Create ways for students to still experience these routines at home! Virtual morning (or afternoon) meetings via a web conferencing service, like Zoom or Google Hangouts, are one way to bring students together routinely -- whether that means hosting a check-in circle, connecting with social-emotional learning activities, or participating in group mindfulness practice. If a student is unable to attend, you might invite them to write a message to their classmates in advance that you can share during the meeting.

Download this toolkit to access templates for virtual morning announcements.

2. Record and share videos or audio clips.

To simulate daily or weekly announcements that students hear over the intercom, consider recording short video or audio clips and sending them out via email or text. These announcements can include student birthday shout-outs, important resource information, or updates on school policies. For students without access to high-speed internet, try calling by phone instead. Many educators recommend rotating through groups of students each day to make the phone calls manageable.

3. Take your class on a virtual field trip.

Many museums, zoos and cultural centers are offering digital tours for free. You and your students can go together (or asynchronously) to museums in Sao Paulo and Paris, watch live footage of animals at a zoo, or walk through Yellowstone National Park. To supplement this activity, consider creating a scavenger hunt for students as they explore individually, and then come together to share-out findings and wonderings in a chat room or video conference.

4. Send daily or weekly newsletters to families and/or students.

Get creative with these communications! Consider recording and uploading a video to include in the email. Many teachers have recorded themselves reading a children's book, conducting a science experiment in the kitchen, or even delivering a short lesson. You can also include academic lessons or SEL strategies to try at home. If you are already using a tool for family engagement (such as ClassDojo or Remind), you can use the messaging capabilities in those apps to send the newsletters.

5. Build a virtual classroom hub, website, or blog.

Using Google Classroom, Google Sites, WordPress, or other free services, you can create a class website or blog for your students to access. Once built, you can add various activities-from virtual journaling to resources for additional learning and movement.

6. Moderate a classroom chat or discussion board.

Host small or large online chats with students using platforms such as Zoom, Canvas, or Google Hangouts. Provide prompts to students ahead of time, especially if you'll be discussing academic content. You can also position the online chats as quick check-ins or informal time for students to connect . Students can also submit ideas about what they'd like to chat with their peers about.

7. Host informal office hours.

Dedicate one to two hours per week to holding office hours in a video conference or chat room. This can allow for students, caregivers, or fellow teachers to connect with you to ask questions, share how they are feeling, or just say hello.

8. Collect and share virtual notes of gratitude and appreciation.

Over the course of a week, ask students to submit notes of appreciation about their peers. Compile these notes in a slide deck or on your classroom website to share with students, caregivers, and staff.
Download this toolkit to access templates on Google Forms and Google Slides for "notes of gratitude."

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8 Strategies for Building Belonging With Students and Families Virtually

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Imagine a day in the life of a student in a traditional school setting. First-grade students greet their teachers with special handshakes as they enter the classroom. Principals hand out high-fives in the hallways. Middle schoolers huddle together during homeroom to discuss their favorite TV shows as they wait to hear the morning announcements over the intercom.

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Active Learning Activities & Bitmoji Classroom Templates

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Active Learning Activities & Bitmoji Classroom Templates

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Engaging Students Through Active Learning

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Engaging Students Through Active Learning

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Learn two  simple approaches to use when planning and 7 strategies you can use right away!

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This article walks you through planning collaborative projects and provides great resources for implementation!

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25 Strategies to Engage Students on Your Next Zoom Meeting

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25 Strategies to Engage Students on Your Next Zoom Meeting

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Great collection of strategies to engage students during Zoom calls!

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Now that we have all been thrust into the world of online learning, we have to figure out ways as educators to engage our students when they are online. Some of the first things schools did when shifting to remote learning was to hold regular video meetings with their students. These can vary based on the ages of the students and the frequency of when a teacher interacts with their students, but most teachers realized quickly that they can't use the same behavioral strategies (like proximity) that they use in a physical classroom. This can lead to a lack of student engagement and involvement in what is trying to be taught regardless of age.

These 25 strategies listed here are not meant to take the place of deeper learning. That kind of learning is generally better when done with a mix of asynchronous learning. That said, in order to get our students to that deeper state of learning with greater depth of knowledge (DOK) levels, we need to make sure they are engaged when we have synchronous conversations and discussions. Some of these strategies take little set-up while others might take more time and energy to make them really successful. The purpose of these tools is to draw students into the lesson/activity and make them engaged and looking forward to your next virtual class meeting.

While there are a lot of video meeting solutions out there, I'm going to focus many of the tools around the Zoom platform as it has some of the best interactive features and seems to be the most widely accepted in K-12 schools across the country. However, as many of these strategies can be used with any video platform or device, I only focused on Zoom-centric ideas on the first 5 strategies, the rest you can use on any platform. Also, kids (especially teenagers) can say and do that darnedest things, especially when being remotely hidden behind a screen. As you would with the physical classroom, I would strongly encourage teachers discuss norms when it comes to interacting over video chat with their students prior to any of these strategies.

Here are 25 strategies to engage students on your next Zoom meeting:

I'm going to start out with one of the basics. While you may be doing many of your chats with just video, don't forget that you have the ability to share part or all of your screen with your students. This can be something as simple as sharing a question of the day to an entire slide show. If you have a slideshow that you've already created for use in your classroom, don't recreate the wheel, just launch it on your share screen and use built in Zoom tools like 'raise hand' or the chat room to have a floating backchannel as you go through your slides. One bit of advice, check what items you have on your desktop and in your "favorites" bar of an internet browser before you share that with your students. There's nothing more embarrassing than you students seeing your latest beach pic or maybe your bookmark for you favorite drink recipe.

2. Use the Whiteboard feature

Of course, if you don't want to share your screen you can always use the built-in whiteboard feature that comes with Zoom. This feature can take some getting used to, especially if you are using a mouse or trackpad. To use it, simply go to share your screen and choose "whiteboard". A little tip - if you have tablet like an iPad, install the Zoom app and then join the meeting with your iPad as well. This works better for drawing especially if you have a nice stylus or Apple Pencil. (just be careful you have one of the devices muted to avoid echoes) Of course, as you get more comfortable with Zoom and student expectations, let your students also use the whiteboard feature to share their understanding. If you are not using Zoom, a tool like Classroomscreen.com has a bevy of tools including a whiteboard if you share your screen with your students.

3. Enable the Annotation Features

Another feature that you could use when sharing slides, photos, or websites is the annotation tools. You'll want to check your account settings to make sure these features are enabled by default. Having these tools enabled, you'll be able write over any image, highlight certain features of a website, and make the viewing experience for your students much more interactive.

My favorite of all the Zoom features for learning is the ability to create breakout rooms for your students. Unlike whiteboard and annotation features, the ability to create breakout rooms are not enabled by default. You'll want to go into your account settings to enable this ability before using it with your students. Once enabled, you can have Zoom either automatically or manually assign students into rooms. Even if it's automatically assigning, you can swap students out depending on group dynamics (note: it helps to have your students put their name on their Zoom login). You can even rename the rooms depending on group names or topics before assigning certain students to each room. The great thing about these rooms is that it can create a more collaborative setting than the large whole-group zoom experience. As the moderator you can float around and join rooms to check in on the discussion, post an announcement to all rooms, or even place a time limit on them. Once you ask students to rejoin the whole group and end the breakouts, they'll have 60-seconds to wrap-up their discussion and rejoin. A powerful way to enable collaboration remotely! Check out the video below for a quick how-to:

If you've been in any Zoom meeting the past couple of months, you've probably seen all sorts of crazy and fun virtual backgrounds. These can be hilarious but also distracting so some educators have disabled this feature for their group meetings. However, there could be some productive uses of these virtual backgrounds. Some examples of using virtual backgrounds might be re-enacting moments in history with the appropriate backdrop, selecting a geographic landmark they might be studying or "visiting" virtually, or just having students select either a solid green or red background to quickly show if they agree or disagree with a topic (hint: use Grid view for this). No matter the reason, virtual backgrounds can be much more than everyone acting like they are a character from The Office.

If you really want your students to focus on everyone in the classroom, play a game of "I Spy" backgrounds. You can do this either with or without virtual backgrounds, but in essence you are describing things that you notice in the background of someone's zoom call. Students then quickly have to search all the attendees and see which student's background is being described. A fun, 5-minute way to get students hooked into their next Zoom meeting.

Probably one of the most popular games to play with students is a virtual scavenger hunt. The premise is simple, you have a list of items and then ask students to run through their house or apartment attempting to find the items and show them on the screen. A quick word of advice on this is to be sure you are not picking exact objects for them to find like "a toy cell phone". Rather, create a category that could involve all sorts of different objects that qualify like "an object with numbers on it." This will reveal a lot of different interpretations of the clue as well as not limiting what students can find around them. You could also use software like Eventzee or Goosechase to do a virtual scavenger hunt throughout the day or week where students capture items you've identified with their camera.

Last week, I got to host a virtual trivia night via Zoom. We had over 150 people during the event that drew lots of positive feedback for keeping them engaged while also doing something fun during this stressful time. I used a pro-level software called Crowdpurr to run my event, but I could just as easily do something similar using a tool like Kahoot! or Quizziz. These quizzes or trivia can either be done live or student-paced. Having the scores decrease as time dwindles down on each question also prevents students from "googling" the answers as it will affect their score. Check out the latest " Challenge " feature within Kahoot to create more of a self-paced challenge for your students that might have limited access to technology or can't participate synchronously.

In the classroom, we use the classic "raise your hand" to gather feedback from students. In Zoom, it's no different as there is a "Raise hand" button available to students, but some savvy teachers have also figured out that the chat room can act as an impromptu survey as long as it involves brief responses. For better tracking, you could always use a tools like Nearpod, Polleverywhere, or Peardeck to gather feedback via a second screen or browser tab. Playing a game like "would you rather" would work well to test this out before using it more in-depth in later lessons.

Gathering feedback in polls is one way to interact with students, but you could also use a shared collaborative space like a Padlet or Ziteboard to have students discuss and brainstorm ideas on shared spaces. You could also combine this with the breakout rooms (#4 from above) to have each group brainstorm a topic while you navigate from board to board. A tip here is to create the "walls" or spaces for the students to collaborate on so that you have a live link to what they are working on. Once you've split them into groups, share your link to each group to work on.

Yes, you can share your screen and even your slides with your students via a tool like Google Slides, Keynote or Powerpoint. But since you have them live, why not use a tool like Nearpod to actually guide them through the learning with you. Ideally, this would work best with two screens, but since everything these days is web-based you could guide them through the presentation on one screen while they follow along to your voice on the other. Doing this on an iPad? Share the join code with your students and then have them switch to the Nearpod app while leaving the Zoom app open in the background so they can hear your voice while following along. Of course, one of the best parts of using a tool like Nearpod is all the extra features like Virtual field trips, 3D models, Microsoft Sway, collaborative boards and more. One thing I've tried that worked well was embedding a PollEverywhere poll within my Nearpod. That way students didn't have to jump out of the app ever.

Silence can be awkward in the classroom. It's even more awkward when you are looking at more than two dozen teenagers on the screen. That said, it's important to let students pause and reflect throughout the lesson. Using a countdown timer either on a slide, video or on a tool like ClassroomScreen.com helps students know when they should break from their pause or reflection. As I will mention on my next point, students need breaks from lengthy instruction throughout their day whether they be on a screen or not. If you are hosting a 50-minute lesson online, build in a 5 minute break for students to stretch or get a glass of water to keep their brain active.

Taking breaks throughout a lengthy lesson are important whether it be for a reflective pause or just an opportunity to stretch. Using tools like GoNoodle, teachers can lead a virtual dance party in their remote classroom to get the kids up and moving. One word of advice here, if you are playing a video through your system speakers, make sure you don't have headphones on or adjust the audio source in Zoom by clicking on the up-carrot symbol next to "Mute" to change your selection of audio output. (see image on the right)

With everything being digital, it's also nice to take a break from digital as you already have a Zoom meeting occupying the students' screens. There are a wide variety of analog strategies you could use with your students by using paper and pencil. One might be sharing a math problem on your screen while students work out the results. Then, countdown and have them reveal their answers to their cameras at the same time. I've also seen teachers have success doing a "directed drawing" by pointing their webcam or phone camera down to a sheet a paper while they give instruction and then have students share their creations at the end.

A big struggle with online learning via video is keeping students focus and attention, especially to the finer details. The game "Box of Lies" was made popular by Jimmy Fallon (video below) and would be a creative way to see if students are paying attention. The premise would be that the teacher or student has an object out of camera view and then has to describe the object. You could do this with all sorts of other ideas from historical figures to using descriptive words in another language.

Taking that directed drawing from #14 to the next level by doing a Monster drawing. In this activity, a teacher or student read aloud descriptions of their drawing but don't let other students see it. They have listen for information like "my monster has a rectangle body" or "my monster has 5 eyes, one of them is big and in the middle" to figure out the drawing. This helps kids both with descriptive words but also with listening and translating. In the end, have students show their creations on the screen to see who got closest to the description. This activity could be used in other areas as well such as re-creating a story character or describing a graph in math.

Distance learning doesn't just have to be about kids filling out digital worksheets or playing online learning games. Students can still do long-term projects either individually or in groups even though they final results may be different than what was done traditionally in the classroom. Using online project management and productivity tools like Trello, MeisterTask or ClickUp can help students struggling with organization and timelines. Coupling those tools with video meeting check-ins can help kids learn how to collaborate and complete a project online over a length of time.

BreakoutEDU has always been one of my favorite ways to engage students of all ages by creating a series of clues and challenges that the students have to uncover. For the last couple of years they've been offering Digital BreakOutEDU as an online version of their platform. Teachers could leverage the "breakout" room feature of Zoom with a Digital BreakOutEDU and have teams solve the challenges within a certain timeframe. The great thing about their platform is they have already done most of the heavy lifting in creating the BreakOuts for you based on subject and age level. You can also check out this " Build Your Own " resource if you don't have the funds to purchase a subscription.

A fun non-tech game to play is "Who's who?". In this game, students privately message the teacher some facts about themselves and then the teacher reveals the clues. Students then write down their guesses as to who the person is based on the clues. This could also be turned into "Two truths and a lie" fairly easily. Other adaptations could be students sending clues about historical figures, book characters, etc. that the class has to figure out.

Who doesn't love a good game of BINGO? While this isn't the classic game with numbers, balls, and clever calls, it is using the set-up of Bingo as a way to review facts, geographical locations, scientific terms, or even mathematical applications. Using the Flippity.net BINGO tool, you create what goes in the squares and then you read out the clues while students fill out their own digital square or by printing a game card. Flippity actually lets you send out the cards via link or QR code as kids can fill in their cards digitally. Then when it's over, have them share their screen and review their answers to see who wins!

Amongst some of the other Flippity.net tools is the classic Jeopardy-like game show. A great way to review information for a unit or novel study, you can fill in the back-end answers using a Google spreadsheet and then share your screen with the game board. Students can play individually, or you could pre-assign teams and then send them to breakout rooms to discuss what they think the answer might be.

You remember the "telephone game" or maybe the game "one-word stories"? This is a similar concept where you start the story and have random students add the next line. A story could start with "Once upon a time...." and then you could select the student by unmuting their mic. By doing it randomly rather than in a specific order, you cause all students to be thinking of a response rather than just waiting until their turn. Mix it up with story recaps or historical fiction to see what they come up with.

For those of us that are not budding artists or struggle with drawing with a mouse, I've long been a fan of Autodraw.com. This web-based application has you draw out a shape as close as you can while the AI guesses what it might be. When you see an object that is close to what you are drawing, you select it to place into your drawing. One fun thing I've tried with this is having students draw their favorite movie scene and then putting the picture on a Padlet wall for everyone to guess the movie.

Flashcards can be pretty boring, especially if you are just using them yourself to practice terms, definitions or maybe even a foreign language. Now that we are remote, it becomes even more challenging to find a partner or group to practice with. Using tools like Fishbowl and Quizlet Live can be leveraged to create fun and energizing ways to have kids practice their terms either as a group or in breakout rooms.

One of the hidden nuggets I always love showing teachers is the Polygraph feature contained within the free, web-based math app called Desmos. This tool acts creates a "Guess who? " like game where 2 students are randomly paired up via a join code you share with them on the screen. You create the cards and student A choses one of the items to be their "mystery item". As you can upload any image, the mystery item could be a person, place, thing, word, math problem, etc. Then student B has to ask yes or no questions and decide which items they can eliminate. Polygraph creates a private loop between the students and the teacher can see the questions and guesses that each student is making to better check for understanding.

Additional Resources:

Want more of these kinds of resources? Check out my new course The Remote Learning Coach! Most of these are mentioned in my module centered around student engagement. The course also includes modules around assessment, collaboration, and more!

While most of these activities I either have done with students or teachers (both live and online), there are hundreds of other resources and games out there available to use freely with your students as you teach remotely. Here are two that I'll give shout-outs to as I found them while writing this post:

TCEA Tech Notes - Zoom Games - This post came out while I was writing this post and contains many other games like the scavenger hunt and Pictionary that teachers could benefit from using.

Quarantine Games - This google doc compiled by @ihartnia has pages of board games, card games, and other things that you can play online.

I hope you enjoy my list and please feel free to share any other games or ideas you have in the comments below and give my new course a look. Here's an infographic with all 25 of the strategies (ironically) on a Zoom call. 🙂

Stay safe and stay sane!

Educator, global speaker and consultant, event organizer, educational strategist and CEO of HookerTech LLC, Future Ready Schools Faculty member, author of the 6-book series "Mobile Learning Mindset", "Ready Set FAIL!" and his latest book "Learning Evolution: The New Era of AI in the Classroom." He also is the host of the ISTE Learning Unleashed podcast and the UnDisruptED podcast by Future Ready schools. He is most importantly, a husband and father of 3.

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25 Strategies to Engage Students on Your Next Zoom Meeting

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Now that we have all been thrust into the world of online learning, we have to figure out ways as educators to engage our students when they are online. Some of

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This is a collection of videos that shows how to play a variety of math games at home. It would be great to share it with parents & caregivers!

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With so many families grappling with the effects of COVID-19 and trying to provide quality home-schooling for their children, I decided to share some of my favourite maths games. All of the games have been selected because they are filled with rich learning opportunities, do not require very much in terms of resources and are both fun and easy to play.

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10 Characteristics of Learner-Centered Experiences for Remote Learning

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10 Characteristics of Learner-Centered Experiences for Remote Learning

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As we are forced into remote learning and our school days currently look and feel very different, the more I realize that the most impactful learning in a remote setting are the same 10 characteristics of learner-centered experiences face to face. Our methods and tools might change but the characteristics remain more important than ever in learning.

I shared this in the original post, " 10 Characteristics of Learner-Centered Experiences "
Education Reimagined defines the paradigm shift from teacher-centered to learner-centered as shifting how we see learners and their critical role in their own learning now, and throughout their lives. The critical shift is that "Learners are seen and known as wondrous, curious individuals with vast capabilities and limitless potential. This paradigm recognizes that learning is a lifelong pursuit and that our natural excitement and eagerness to discover and learn should be fostered throughout our lives, particularly in our earliest years." When we focus on learners, connect to their interests, needs, and goals, we can create experiences that ignite curiosity, develop passion, and unleash genius. As I work with diverse educators and talk with students, there are common characteristics that always surface when people share powerful learning experiences. They often share experiences that are: personal, allow learners to exert agency, have goals and accountability, they are inquiry-based, collaborative, authentic, allow for productive struggle, provide and use models, ensure time for critique and revision as well as reflection.
The accountability systems as we know them in education are disrupted for unforeseeable future and without the standardized tests, seat time requirements or end of course exams in many places the goals (and barriers) that many have known to be a fixture in our system are not in place. Remember when you said, if only we didn't have standardized tests, I would love to ..... Well, let's lean into that.

For too long we held people accountable for standardized tests, grades, and other data that is easy to capture yet often fail to set goals and hold others accountable for developing the skills that we say we actually care about like creative thinking, complex thinking and problem solving, communication, and innovation. Now is the time to set goals with learners that actually matter to them and help to move them from their point A to their point B, not just keep up with the class or the pacing guide.
Some ideas for goal setting and accountability:
Check-in with your students (if you can do a zoom call or phone call this is ideal) and ask what their goals are. If they know, great. If they don't which is more likely since many haven't been asked this question before you can start with what you know about the students. Both of my kids' teachers set weekly check-ins to build the connection and relationship and also to monitor progress on goals. Helping students set goals, track progress, and feel the sense of accomplishment is a lifelong skill and would be amazing if students learned how to do this and continue to set and work towards their goals.

In school, students are compelled to follow the schedule and move through the lesson at the pace that we set. Although they may not love it it is easier to keep everyone on track and move through the lesson. Yet, as learners are at home, they have different, contexts, schedules, and resources available. Now, more than ever, learning must be personal. The more we can offer choice and flexibility not just in terms of pace but also in the path that learners choose will provide more purpose. Often we think that personalized learning means that the teacher has to create a unique plan for each learner. In reality, this is unsustainable and unrealistic for each teacher to create a plan for each student whether you have 20 or 200 students. Instead, it becomes personal when learners are taking ownership and can make choices about what they want to learn, or how they solve a problem that matters to them and others.
Here are some ideas for making learning personal:
Ask students what they are interested in learning or what they have been doing when they aren't doing schoolwork? What problems are they interested in solving? Is there a need in their family or community that they could research and work on? Is there a skill, talent or hobby they have always wanted to explore. Have them learn and document the process.

Personal projects are important but we also need to focus on personal development of foundational skills so we are better able to engage in meaningful projects. I am not a proponent of sitting in front of a computer and only working on adaptive software but if it's targeted to learners needs, spending time working on foundational skills that are relevant to each learners is important and possible without a lot of extra work from the teachers with program like Khan Academy and others. This can also be as simple as giving choice in time and pace of the learning.

Agency comes from the power to act and requires learners to have the ability to make decisions and take ownership of their own behaviors in the process. We have to decide what the goals are (compliance or empowered learning) and if we really want learners to be taking ownership and motivated to do their work, we have to create the conditions and teach them the skills that allow for them to do this. We can't control the learners and simultaneously expect them to be motivated without opportunities to exert agency in the learning process.
Here are some ideas for increasing learner-agency:
As mentioned above teaching students how to set goals and tracking progress is an important skill and can be empowering for learners. Allowing choice in how what they learn, how they learn and how they show what they know is also critical and students need various levels of help in this process. One example that I have enjoyed seeing is instead of a list of problem to complete, pose a complex problem and allow students to share how they solved it. Let students choose a book or articles that they want to read? Have students choose how to respond: Journal, flipgrid, draw, create a multimedia graphic. You don't have to leave everything open-ended but consider how students can increasingly have a choice in the topic, the resources they choose to learn, and how they show what they know.

Inevitably, when learners are posing questions and seeking answers, they are more invested than if they are being told what to think or do. My friend just shared how her 5 year old is taking daily walks and they always see lizards so she has become very curious about lizards and as a family, they have started to research them and learn more, they are reading books about lizards and she called her grandparents and is sharing what she knows about lizards. When challenges are presented or learners can find their own to solve, they are often more intrinsically motivated to seek answers to questions that they are genuinely interested in figuring out. We have to remember that learning happens inside learners, not just in school.

Here are some ideas for inquiry:

Exposure is key to more questions. Show videos to spark curiosity, read books- I love picture books to spark conversation no matter what age, go on a nature walk or around the neighborhood to explore your community (6 ft apart of course), ask people what problems they are solving or any of the current events might spark some questions to research and investigate. Sometimes it just requires being still and listening rather than telling.

Collaboration is definitely harder when we are physically isolated in our homes but it is so important. As we are well into a month of social distancing and many schools will not open for the rest of the year, many of our students are experiencing isolation and lack of connection, especially with peers. One of my students this week shared that the people and the collaboration are often the best part of the classes and moving online has removed the hallways conversations and the connections built outside of the classroom experiences. Collaboration and connection are vital to our academic success as well as our social-emotional well being. They can occur more naturally in our face to face environments which is why we have to be more intentional about creating the conditions for this to happen when we are remote. Here are some ideas to connect learners remotely.
Here are some ideas for collaboration:
Breakout rooms in Zoom are great for collaboration and connection. Book clubs are a great way to give structure to the collaboration or even peer editing and check-ins can be helpful but also think about having siblings work together, call family members or friends that are experts or can help based on your goals or questions.

I shared more ideas in this post 6 ways to create a remote learning community

My son was frustrated the other day because he said he had worked so hard on his paper and nobody was going to see it. In a world where so much is uncertain and feels like we could be living in the movie Groundhog Day over, doing things that matter can be motivating and give purpose to our days. There is no better time than to work on projects and tasks that are meaningful and authentic. Experiences, where learners get to solve a challenge that is meaningful and relevant to their context, can empower learners to take action and do something that matters to them and others.
Here are some questions to inspire authentic projects:

What problems are you interested in working on?

What do you want to learn more about?

What do you know and what do you still need to learn?

What resources i.e books, articles, videos might help you learn more?

How does this connect to what you already know?

What are some creative ways to solve this problem?

Who are the experts you can learn from?

How will you share what you are learning?

Especially now that our time together is non-existent I hear many say I just want them to turn in it and they get credit. I get it but let's think about this another way. If our goal was to learn and improve rather than complete assignments, couldn't we work on growth and spend time giving feedback and helping learners revise and improve their work? This where the connection to personal and authentic work comes in. If you are working on goals that matter to you as an individual or have a bigger goal you can seek and use feedback.

Instead of expecting the first draft to be the best, we need to realize that with time, clarity, critique, and revision, we are capable of much more than we realize. When we raise our expectations and create the conditions to achieve those expectations, people will often go above and beyond. It is important to deliberately create conditions where learners feel valued and can openly share challenges to grow and improve as a critical part of the learning process.
Here are some ways you can focus on critique and revision:
Connect students with experts, peers, and other learners. This will allow for a different level of accountability and authentic feedback than one gets from simply handing something into a teacher for a grade. I love to use tuning protocols to give and get feedback in a structured way.

I got a hard reminder of this over the past few weeks. 3 weeks ago we started the official distance learning program for my kids and my husband started official teaching too so we had a lot of new in the house. New passwords, programs, platforms, expectations, endless zoom calls, and check-in times and it was overwhelming. In addition to all the new expectations, my kids had to learn new habits and develop new skills to manage their own schedules and learn how to do what was expected of them. We were still catching up on work at 6 pm and there were a lot of fo frustrations and challenges. Fast forward 3 weeks to today and my kids got up started working on their tasks and had finished their work by 10 am I was reminded that we had to go through this struggle to get to this point. It was new and we were all learning. It was messy and uncomfortable and hard but we worked through it and have better systems, expectations, and skills to work through it.

As parents and teachers, it is hard to not jump in when our children struggle but with so much on our plates, many don't have a choice but to let learners figure it out. I think that if student can learn to navigate their own learning journeys, and develop the skills to navigate the learning pit as James Nottingham calls it, we will all be better off in the long run.
Here are some ways that you can embrace productive struggle:
Provide a schedule or list for students and let them decide what to prioritize and when and where they will work. Work with them on how to figure out their problems not just solve them. Give them space and time to work through the challenges.

Models are so powerful in the learning process but so often in school, we have this fear of copying or cheating. There is a lot of talk about creating rather than consuming but to create something better, we need models to inspire new ideas, build off of and stimulate thinking and creativity. It's also worth noting that if an assignment has only one right answer or final product, maybe there are some opportunities for it to be revised.
Here are some ideas for using models:
My daughter loves watching baking shows and recreating her own version of what she has seen. Students can watch youtube tutorials, read how-to articles, check ou the latest TikTok video or their friends on flipgrid for examples and model to create their own ideas. This is an opportunity to make our learning public and learn and build off the many ideas out there to create something new and (hopefully) better.

Reflection is often the forgotten part of the learning process, in a fast-moving world, taking time to pause and reflect can easily get cut when we lack time but it is often the most valuable part of the learning process. We have time to reflect, let's make sure to do it! I have been taking in so much new information as I talk to people and experience new things. I try and jot down my ideas in my journal or on post its but at least weekly I reflect publicly and blog about what I am learning personally but I have also tried to reflect on the week and capture the moments of my family week by week on Instagram. Taking in what I had learned from others, the feedback I receive and process what I am learning is critical to my growth.
Here are some ideas for reflection:
Ask students for feedback and to share what they have liked about remote learning, what they haven't. Reflect together on what revision might be made. Students can keep a public or private journal, document their process on video, share pictures, and reflect on Instagram or TikTok or even better is they (we) put it all together in digital portfolios. Spend time in your class meeting reflecting on learning or in 1:1 check-ins make space for students to reflect on their growth, challenges, and progress. Also, make sure you make time to reflect in these ways too, and share it with your students.

I would love to hear your thoughts and ideas on the 10 characteristics for remote learning. What am I missing? What could be revised?

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10 Characteristics of Learner-Centered Experiences for Remote Learning

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As we are forced into remote learning and our school days currently look and feel very different, the more I realize that the most impactful learning in a remote setting are the same 10 characteristics of learner-centered experiences face to face. Our methods and tools might change but the characteristics remain more important than ever in learning.

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Do you want to get kids outside for authentic, engaging learning opportunities? SciStarter has a massive collection of citizen science projects for every grade level! You can search for projects by topic, student age, or location.

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SciStarter connects people to citizen science projects, citizen scientists, and resources. Real science we can do together.

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Self-Efficacy: Helping Students Believe in Themselves

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Self-Efficacy: Helping Students Believe in Themselves

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This article provides information to help you understand what self-efficacy is, why it's important, and strategies to help students build it!

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This summary was written and compiled by Karin Kirk, SERC, and contains an overview of motivation research and pertinent references.

Self efficacy is commonly defined as the belief in one's capabilities to achieve a goal or an outcome. Students with a strong sense of efficacy are more likely to challenge themselves with difficult tasks and be intrinsically motivated. These students will put forth a high degree of effort in order to meet their commitments, and attribute failure to things which are in their control, rather than blaming external factors. Self-efficacious students also recover quickly from setbacks, and ultimately are likely to achieve their personal goals. Students with low self-efficacy, on the other hand, believe they cannot be successful and thus are less likely to make a concerted, extended effort and may consider challenging tasks as threats that are to be avoided. Thus, students with poor self-efficacy have low aspirations which may result in disappointing academic performances becoming part of a self-fulfilling feedback cycle. ( Bandura ) [Margolis and McCabe, 2006]

How can students gain self-efficacy?

There are four sources of self-efficacy. Teachers can use strategies to build self-efficacy in various ways.

Mastery experiences - Students' successful experiences boost self-efficacy, while failures erode it. This is the most robust source of self-efficacy.
Vicarious experience - Observing a peer succeed at a task can strengthen beliefs in one's own abilities.
Verbal persuasion - Teachers can boost self-efficacy with credible communication and feedback to guide the student through the task or motivate them to make their best effort.
Emotional state -A positive mood can boost one's beliefs in self-efficacy, while anxiety can undermine it. A certain level of emotional stimulation can create an energizing feeling that can contribute to strong performances. Teachers can help by reducing stressful situations and lowering anxiety surrounding events like exams or presentations.
[Margolis and McCabe, 2006] and ( Bandura )

Pedagogic strategies that foster self-efficacy

It is particularly exciting to note that teaching strategies used in the classroom can and do make a difference to students' self-efficacy. (Fencl and Scheel, 2005)

Research shows that the type of learning environment and teaching method can improve self efficacy in the classroom ( Bandura ). A similar result was reported by Fencl and Scheel . They describe a required, nonmajors' physics course where the effects of different teaching methods on the classroom climate and self-efficacy were measured. The students' response indicated that a question and answer format, inquiry-based lab activities and conceptual (rather than quantitative) problems had a significant effect on creating a positive climate in the classroom. In addition to those pedagogies, collaborative learning and the use of electronic applications showed a positive correlation with increased self-efficacy in their student sample. Fencl and Scheel point out that the teaching methods that showed a measurable positive effect share the common feature of engaging students in a comfortable or creative manner. Moreover, pedagogies such as collaborative learning and inquiry-based activities have also been shown to have a strong correlation with how well students learn physics [Fencl and Scheel, 2005] .

Bandura also concludes that cooperative learning strategies have the dual outcome of improving both self-efficacy and academic achievement. "Cooperative learning structures, in which students work together and help one another also tend to promote more positive self-evaluations of capability and higher academic attainments than do individualistic or competitive ones." ( Bandura )
Other pedagogies for improving self-efficacy include:

Establish specific, short-term goals that will challenge the students, yet are still viewed as attainable. [Schunk and Pajares, 2002]

Help students lay out a specific learning strategy and have them verbalize their plan. As students proceed through the task, ask students to note their progress and verbalize the next steps. [Schunk and Pajares, 2002]

Compare student performance to the goals set for that student, rather than comparing one student against another or comparing one student to the rest of the class(Bandura ).

Teaching Practices to Avoid

In his 1994 textbook chapter, Albert Bandura notes that certain well-worn pedagogical practices may have the unintended effect of diminishing the self-efficacy of students who do not reside at the top of the class academically. These include:

Generalized, "lock-step" instruction that is inflexible and does not allow for student input. A formulaic type of instructional setting makes it harder for students to ask questions or become involved in the process. The result may be that if a student becomes confused or discouraged, they are likely to remain so.

Statements or teaching practices that compare students' performance against each other. This may raise the self-efficacy of the top students, but is likely to lower the self-efficacy of the rest of the class. (Bandura )

Tips to improve self-efficacy for struggling students

(from Margolis and McCabe, 2006 )

Use moderately- difficult tasks
If the task is too easy will be boring or embarrassing and may communicate the feeling that the teacher doubts their abilities; a too-difficult task will re-enforce low self-efficacy. The target for difficulty is slightly above the students' current ability level.

Use peer models
Students can learn by watching a peer succeed at a task. Peers may be drawn from groups as defined by gender, ethnicity, social circles, interests, achievement level, clothing, or age.

Teach specific learning strategies
Give students a concrete plan of attack for working on an assignment, rather than simply turning them loose. This may apply to overall study skills, such as preparing for an exam, or to a specific assignment or project.

Capitalize on students' interests
Tie the course material or concepts to student interests such as sports, pop culture, movies or technology.

Allow students to make their own choices
Set up some areas of the course that allow students to make their own decisions, such as with flexible grading, assignment options or self-determined due dates.

Encourage students to try
Give them consistent, credible and specific encouragement, such as, "You can do this. We've set up an outline for how to write a lab report and a schedule for what to do each week - now follow the plan and you will be successful."

Give frequent, focused feedback
Giving praise and encouragement is very important, however it must be credible. Use praise when earned and avoid hyperbole. When giving feedback on student performance, compare to past performances by the same student, don't make comparisons between students.

Encourage accurate attributions
Help students understand that they don't fail because they're dumb, they fail because they didn't follow instructions, they didn't spend enough time on the task, or they didn't follow through on the learning strategy.

Teachers need high self-efficacy too

Teachers with a high sense of efficacy about their teaching capabilities may have an easier time motivating their students and enhancing their cognitive development. These teachers may also be able to rebound from setbacks and more willing to experiment with new ideas or techniques. Low efficacious teachers may rely more on a controlling teaching style and may be more critical of students. [Woolfolk Hoy, 2003] and ( Bandura )

"Schools in which staff members collectively judge themselves capable of promoting academic success imbue their schools with a positive atmosphere for development that promotes academic attainments regardless of whether they serve predominantly advantaged or disadvantaged students."( Bandura )

Further reading

Web sites

by Albert Bandura, Stanford University

This is a comprehensive summary of the topic written by one of its pioneers. The site provides a definition of self-efficacy, characteristics of efficacious people, and a description of how self-efficacy can be developed or undermined. The author describes self-efficacy in social, family and school settings and in various stages of life.

by Frank Pajares, Emory University

This site contains an extensive historical overview about self-efficacy and its place in education. Topics include the origins of the theory, current research and educational applications. One of the author's conclusions is that the educational system would benefit from additional focus on self-efficacy in students.

Information on Self-Efficacy: A Community of Scholars
This is a clearinghouse of information about self-efficacy, hosted by the Division of Educational Studies at Emory University.

Journal Articles

Improving Self-Efficacy and Motivation: What to Do, What to Say
by Howard Margolis and Patrick P McCabe
citation and bibliographic information
This article suggests practical solutions to improve the motivation of struggling learners. Specifically, the authors present strategies such as using peers as role models, teaching specific learning strategies, presenting the students with options and choices, communicating recent success, and more. These tactics can strengthen struggling learners' beliefs in their academic abilities and increase their willingness to engage in academic tasks.

Engaging Students: An Examination of the Effects of Teaching Strategies on Self-Efficacy and Course Climate in a Nonmajors Physics Course
by Heidi Fencl and Karen Scheel
citation and bibliographic information
Self-efficacy is a key predictor of achievement and retention in most academic areas, including the sciences. In this study, the effects of teaching strategies on self-efficacy and course climate were examined. The teaching methods that made significant contributions to self efficacy were question and answer, collaborative learning, conceptual problems, electronic applications and inquiry lab activities.

The Development of Academic Self-Efficacy
by Dale Schunk and Pajares, Frank Pajares
This textbook chapter provides a synthesis of educational psychology research as it relates to students' beliefs in their own abilities. The authors describe self-efficacy and its relation to other motivation constructs and explain the role of various sources of and influences on self-efficacy. The effects of various pedagogical practices are discussed, including a description of specific methods that improve self-efficacy. The role of gender and ethnicity on self-efficacy are also discussed.

Self-Efficacy in College Teaching
by Anita Woolfolk Hoy, The Ohio State University
This essay examines the topic of self-efficacy in the context of teachers' self-efficacy and how that translates into their performance. The author asserts that highly efficacious teachers tend to be more open to new ideas, more willing to experiment with new methods to better meet the needs of their students, and more committed to teaching. They persist when things do not go smoothly and are more resilient in the face of setbacks. And they tend to be less critical of students who make errors and to work longer with a student who is struggling.

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teach the earth enhancing your teaching affective domain

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Self efficacy is commonly defined as the belief in one's capabilities to achieve a goal or an outcome. Students with a strong sense of efficacy are more likely to challenge themselves with difficult tasks and ...

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View this short slideshow for an overview of learner orientations, strategies to move students to a mastery orientation, and online resources.

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How can you help students develop a growth mindset and mastery approach to learning? Here are several resources to support this important shift!

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Increasing Engagement Through Task Value

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Increasing Engagement Through Task Value

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Thanks to Gail Wormwood for creating and sharing this amazing resource!

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There are new challenges (by grade-level) weekly and most can be done with materials already in most homes. This is a great opportunity to provide equitable learning experiences for students, and get them to 'unplug' for a while!

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Posted: Wed, 04/01/2020 - 4:54pm

The Continuous Learning Challenges are weekly choice boards specifically designed without technology in mind. The skill sets of the Continuous Learning Challenge are connected to Michael Fullan's Deep Learning Competencies. These are great activities to ask your child to try on their own or with a little help. Your challenge is to complete at least two activities from each row for the week. An extra challenge is to create your own activities that would apply to each Continuous Learning Skill and complete them. Please share any examples of the completed challenges to social media tagging @EducateIN.

Special Editions

Challenges

Challenges - Spanish

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Posted: Wed, 04/01/2020 - 4:54pm The Continuous Learning Challenges are weekly choice boards specifically designed without technology in mind. The skill sets of the Continuous Learning Challenge are connected to Michael Fullan's Deep Learning Competencies. These are great activities to ask your child to try on their own or with a little help.

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Research article by John Hattie describes the variation of effect sizes around feedback. Very interesting (but dense) read! If research isn't your thing, no worries! Check out the tables of effect sizes for a quick reference.

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How can instructional videos be used to improve student learning and maximize engagement? This 6-minute video explains the benefits of effective instructional videos.

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Benefits of Effective Instructional Videos

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This series of videos can be shared with parents to provide math games that can be played at home to support a number of skills.

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With so many families grappling with the effects of COVID-19 and trying to provide quality home-schooling for their children, I decided to share some of my favourite maths games. All of the games have been selected because they are filled with rich learning opportunities, do not require very much in terms of resources and are both fun and easy to play.