Packing Your Room for The Year

Have you been in quarantine? Are you starting to wind down the days of distance learning? If so, it’s most likely that you will be limited in time and days that you can go back into your classroom and pack it up in preparation for summer. I have packed up my room for the summer (and in preparation for moving buildings!) and wanted to share some quick tips for making your end of the year closing a bit smoother.

PREP FOR A LONG HAUL

Make sure to bring snacks and water to keep you going all day. It is always an energy drain when you have to stop to go get lunch. Cheese and fresh fruit are great pick-me-ups when energy levels start to droop. Keep moving and focused on your lists. The quicker you get this job done the better you will feel. If you focus better with music playing in the background - play it! If your phone will be a distraction, put it on mute or put it away altogether and control the impulse to check it every few minutes.

CLOSE YOUR DOOR

You have limited time. Stay focused. If you’re a person that coworkers love to visit and spend time with, a closed door will send a message to not enter. Post a sign if you need to. If you’re one to wander and chat, a closed door will remind you to stay put and work on the task at hand. Either way, a closed door will keep you focused and help you stay within the CDC guidelines for best practices during this time.

MAKE A LIST OF WHAT NEEDS TO COME HOME

Which materials, files, books, etc... will you need during the summer break? If you have specific curriculum you want to work on, put it on your list. Pack it up in a “to go home” box before you start working on the rest of the room. Doing this list first helps alleviate the possibility you might pack it away and need to unpack to get it later on.

WALL PREPARATION

Clear off all your walls after getting your “to go home” box packed. Normally, I would do this during the early part of June and then slowly start to put items away throughout the next couple of weeks. But in this situation, it seemed smart to start with cleared walls. I took down the QR code hunts and bulletin board displays and filed them away for another time. All the rules and schedules came down. Having the walls cleared off helped me get over the “hump” of getting started.

PURGE THAT STUFF

If you’re anything like me, you have a copy paper box of worksheets that are sitting on a shelf collecting dust. Get rid of them. Seriously… why do we keep that box of worksheets? All it does is take up space. Recycle it.

Do you have broken items (pencil boxes, play toys, rulers, organizers) that get tossed about because you have never taken that final step of throwing them away? Do it now.

Purging items will be cathartic. Really scrutinize if it’s worth your time to pack up and label certain things that in the back of your mind you know will just sit next year collecting more dust.

STUDENT MATERIALS

Every school will create their own plan for getting student materials back to the students. Think about what the expectations will be for returning your students’ items to them. You may need to bring bags or boxes with you for this task.

Based on how my team operates, our students have very few personal items. As I was cleaning up the room I would place items in the students’ mailboxes. Toward the end of my time I placed all student items in a gallon-sized freezer bag and wrote each child’s name on the outside using a permanent marker. Bags were placed alphabetically into 2 copy paper boxes and will be distributed back to the students at a later date.

MENTALLY MAP OUT YOUR PLAN

Figure out where you are going to start. I tend to choose areas that will make me feel accomplished so I stay motivated. If you want to get a feeling of accomplishment immediately, you may want to start with cabinets or shelves that are already semi-organized and easy to pack.

Maybe you want to start at one end or corner of your room and work your way around. You will be able to see the progress you're making across your classroom. Working from one end to the other is a great way to create a designated area for packed items.

Stacking From the Corner

LABEL EVERYTHING

Make a pile of labels for yourself before you go into school. We make them digitally and print a few hundred to label boxes and furniture. The most helpful tip I have always used is to keep a notebook or spreadsheet of your boxes! As you label the boxes and furniture it goes into the spreadsheet. This way you know what you have packed and a brief summary of what is in that box. This is helpful if boxes get misplaced or you need to find something quick. In the fall, when I put my room back together and unpack everything, I cross off each box as it’s unpacked. The spreadsheet system works well and I highly recommend it!

EMOTIONALLY PREPARE YOURSELF

I will give you fair warning to prepare yourself for some unexpected emotions. Yours may come from a different spot in your classroom, but for me it was my whiteboard. I wasn’t prepared for the feelings I had when I looked at it. It was surreal; like an unopened gift that could never be opened. That whiteboard represented all the moments that have been stolen from us during this quarantine.

It was the first thing I noticed when I initially walked into my classroom. And I stood there frozen in time - much like the board. It had the information written on it from when I walked out on March 13 in preparation for a new week that would never begin: the day of the week, the letter day, the date, our count to 180 days. I stared at it for a while, felt uncomfortable, and then turned my attention elsewhere. I decided to face the emotions contained within the whiteboard later on. I waited until the last minute to erase that board - a final gesture that acquiesced the fate of this school year.

I then took a look around the room. Walls were bare. Boxes were packed. Everything was neatly stacked and labeled. As I made my exit from the room I made sure to anchor a different feeling. I reminded myself that the next time I will see these boxes and decorate walls it will be with the promise that a new school year brings. All the excitement and newness; meeting new students and families, delivering instruction that excites and enriches, the promise of doing it a little better than last year. So with that final look I harnessed those promises, discarded the sadness, and closed the door. 

Distance Learning: Novel Study and Book Clubs

 While we reinvent everything in the teaching world, why not throw in a virtual novel study...right?

When it was first announced that we would be teaching virtually I packed one box. Just one box. I grabbed a few picture books, a couple novels, and a file (large envelope filled with various materials about the American Revolution) from my filing cabinet.

I fully anticipated being in quarantine for the remainder of my American Revolutionary War Unit so my focus was on getting that stuff packed in the box. Secondary to the War, I brought my Women's Suffrage goodies (the novel The Hope Chest and a few odds and ends) as a "just in case". I'm so glad I did.

As time crept by and it became apparent that we would not be going back into the classroom, I started to plan how a Novel Study would look in the virtual world. I had put it off in hopes of us returning, but once our governor made the decision to keep school buildings closed, I decided I better put the rambling thoughts that were percolating in my head into a cohesive action plan.

This is how my team and I are delivering a virtual Novel Study.

FINDING A NOVEL

On-line libraries and book sites are a great place to start. You might get lucky enough to have your students be able to access a digital or audio copy. If you already have a bunch of materials for your novel study, the hardest part will be getting the novel into your students' hands (or ears).

We knew that we were going to use The Hope Chest. However, a digital/audio copy was not available (for free). So next I searched YouTube and found mediocre read alouds of the book. I wasn't able to listen while the only visual appeal was a still photo of the book cover- so I imagined it would be the same for my students. The only way forward was for me to create my own and upload them to my YouTube Channel.

I decided to create a set of videos featuring me as the reader. I recorded myself reading each chapter. That way, the students had a visual to watch while listening. Plus, no one does voices like me! The time and effort required to record and upload each chapter make it a worthwhile endeavor in a long range arch of my career. Sure, its time consuming now; but I will be able to deliver each chapter to my students and eventually I will have the whole novel available for when I teach this novel again in the future. I love when I login for the day and can see the students immediately clicking through to watch the videos.

I usually record a chapter or two at a time. I upload each one individually and label them by chapter. I then click the "unlisted" setting. Using an unlisted setting means that only the people with the direct link will be able to access the video. If someone opens up my YouTube channel, they will only see my Morning Announcements. Screencasts for my students and the read alouds I have done are kept unlisted.

BUILDING BACKGROUND

Building background is an important part of literature studies. With this situation it is especially difficult when I don’t know how many kids I am reaching each day or what time they might be logging on. My team decided to have a few rounds of Zoom/Google Meets each day to cover different topics that help the students make deeper connections. These are optional but I figured the more layers of instruction that can be offered, the better.

For the two weeks before the novel began students were reading nonfiction texts about the Women's Suffrage movement. One week they were assigned Heart on Fire: Susan B. Anthony Votes for President and Around America to Win the Vote. For accountability, students answer basic questions in a Google Form. The following week they read through four different texts that discuss important dates in the Women's Suffrage Movement. Students then had to answer questions using Google Slides. As an optional activity they could submit a 3-2-1 Response.

You can find the Women's Suffrage nonfiction texts and response activities here in my TpT store:

DIGITAL Women's Suffrage BUNDLE

You can get the Susan B. Anthony section for FREE by clicking the link below:

DIGITAL Susan B. Anthony Voted FREEBIE

The Hope Chest is set in 1920. Even in the optimum classroom setting, it is a difficult time period for students to wrap their heads around. Trying to convey the feel and social norms of the time seemed nearly impossible in a virtual classroom. The one aspect that students could relate to (a pandemic) is discussed in the first chapter. The feelings of uncertainty, urgency, and safety precautions (wearing a mask) surrounding the Spanish Influenza that were common at that time became an easy connection for the students. I imagine it will be that way for a few years to come.

We used a 5 Ws approach when building background. During the quarantine we have been presenting new information to the students using the 5 Ws. We have kept the format the same (no matter the topic) and simply switch out the content. Keeping a consistent format reduces the cognitive load and allows the students to expend their efforts on learning the material rather than trying to interpret the way in which it is presented.

Week of May 4 Topics:

• Elizabeth Cady Stanton
• Amelia Bloomer
• Susan B. Anthony
• Alice Paul
• Lucretia Mott

Week of May 11 Topics:

• Spanish Influenza
• WW1
• Jim Crow Laws
• Palmer Agents and Bolsheviks
• Constitutional Amendments

NOVEL STUDY ACTIVITIES

Students are expected to listen to the novel 4 days a week. One chapter each day. Wednesdays are our "Catch Up Day". You can read more about structuring your students' daily schedule here: Distance Learning: Creating a Structured Virtual Classroom

Every day at 11:30 we Meet with the students and discuss the novel. We chose to Meet versus Zoom because of better audio capabilities. Read more about how to plan your own virtual meetup and the pros and cons of Zoom versus Google Classroom Meet here:
Distance Learning: Virtual Meet Up Ideas

Some Meets we preview upcoming vocabulary. Sometimes we fill in a chart together. This past week we filled in three different charts: a family tree that broke down the relationships and characteristics of the Mayhew Family, an Evidence Chart that involved presenting text evidence to support or refute a given statement, and a comparison chart that broke down the characteristics of a "New Woman" versus a "Traditional" woman in 1920.

During Book Club, I have two devices running. I use my personal laptop to launch the Meet and use the host controls (screen share, volume, mics, etc...). I use my District-issued Chromebook to fill in a chart within my Google Drive. The convenience of using Google Drive and Slides to lead the students through the discussion is that I can have both devices opened and the Slide will sync within Google. If I need to stop sharing my screen on my laptop, I can continue to take notes on the Chromebook. Once the Meet is over, I like to share the chart in Google Classroom and indicate in the title and instructions the date and time the information was discussed. Depending on what we did during the Book Club, I might share the Slide as "material" (no editing allowed) or "assignment" (allowing students to create their own copy).

Book Club is also used to present information visually or orally to help organize characters and events. We incorporate mini-lessons about topics such as: author's craft, figurative language, visualization, predictions, and other talking points. This past week we covered Idioms and Adages. Upcoming topics include: Point of View and Symbolism. We love the interaction at Book Club. This special time of the day is a great opportunity for kids to reflect on what they have listened to thus far and ask questions they might have. We were able to clarify a few confusing parts this week!

I have been using Slides from my resource: DIGITAL The Hope Chest. I simply copy and save a single slide from my Master Copy that I want to use for Book Club.

Click the link to see everything this resource offers --> DIGITAL The Hope Chest

Mid-novel the students will be challenged with carefully reading and clicking through a Google Slide presentation that depicts important sights and sounds of the 1920s. Slides offers a great way to present information visually with the added benefit of embedding links so students can click and explore beyond the Slide. Our team has devised a plan to have the students explore the slide show and gather key words. These words will then be put into a BINGO board for a future ZOOM meeting. Hopefully, this will encourage them to take time to watch the slideshow in order to be able to participate in the BINGO game.

Toward the end of the novel, students will be invited to participate in a virtual lunch bunch! I have a 1920s menu planned. Simple ingredients and simple cooking. In a week or so I will be sharing my ideas with the class and give them a list of needed ingredients and prep work so that we are ready-to-go on our Virtual Lunch Bunch day. There are quite a few food references in The Hope Chest so I thought it would be fun to meetup with the students and have them prep and eat popular food items from that era.

Virtual Book Clubs aren't the traditional way to do a novel study, but we are doing an amazing job scaffolding the history that is deeply rooted in this complex historical fiction. The students are getting a true blend of history and language arts. And although Model T Fords, Jim Crow Laws, and Women's Suffrage will always be from a time long ago, our students will have a deeper understanding when they hear those terms and truly connect to a time that has eerily crossed a parallel and is impacting their lives today.

Distance Learning: Creating a Structured Virtual Classroom

If there is one thing I've learned during my career, it's that students thrive in a structured environment. We know what can happen when the daily classroom schedule gets disrupted (or there is a lack of structure). This is especially true if you've worked with students who have special needs or particular diagnoses.

Now that we cannot control (or structure) the physical space our students are working from, it is up to us to create structure within the virtual classroom. Let me share with you how my team and I have done it...

DAILY MORNING ANNOUNCEMENTS

This cannot be stressed enough. The daily morning announcements help start the day. They give students a reason to get up, prepared, and logged in. In the event students do not make it to the live announcements, they have the option to start their day with the announcements on replay.

I get it. Starting a YouTube channel and prepping for morning announcements every. single. day. can seem like an overwhelming task. However, it is worth its weight in gold. Set aside your insecurities, face the challenge of learning the technology, and do it. 

TASK CHARTS

Our team provides Task Charts twice a week. On Monday students get a chart for Monday and Tuesday. They get a second set on Thursday for Thursday and Friday tasks.

Wednesdays have become official Catch Up days. Students receive a special Catch Up chart that lists the tasks from the previous 4 days. If students have all tasks completed, Wednesday can be a day of rest or an opportunity to explore other activities within our Google Classroom.

Students use these charts to organize their work. In their Google Classroom we provide one set they can edit and one set that is VIEW ONLY in the event they delete or lose the other one.

MEETUP SCHEDULES - BONUS ZOOMS

We are rolling into week 8 of distance learning. We have a pretty consistent meetup schedule. The students have the schedule uploaded into their classroom each week so they know the times and topics for the week.

My team and I rotate the responsibility and hosting for that slot. It is a time when students can click in and learn more about a specific topic. Each week has a theme. Last week we highlighted Mathematicians, next week we will be talking about Leaders in the Women's Suffrage Movement. Other topics have been: Important Places in New York During the Revolutionary War, the 3 Branches of Government.

The format is always the same. We use a 5 Ws approach. Keeping the format the same helps provide that bit of structure for the students as they listen and learn about a new topic. After the meetup, we post the slides with details and pictures into Google Classroom to give our students an opportunity to read through the material again. We sometimes provide links to other related resources (articles, YouTube videos) the students might enjoy.

MEETUP SCHEDULES - SOCIAL ZOOMS

The social meetup is more popular than the Bonus Zoom slot. But that's no surprise because this is the time of the day when we play a game, do some directed drawing, or hold dance parties and singalongs! This time is designated for connecting socially with our students. 

Dance Parties have been happening on Fridays. My teammate puts together a playlist within her YouTube channel and while we are all linked into the Zoom, one person screen shares the video and another one plays Ryan Seacrest. The more popular videos are the ones where students can watch lyrics (ala karaoke style) or the videos where players have recorded themselves playing a dance game and posted their performance for others to watch. Students are getting more comfortable with getting up and dancing along with the videos. We've even started to take requests. Anyone have a good link to Bohemian Rhapsody?


You can make your dance party even more fun by choosing a theme and dressing up.

80s Dance Party!

MEETUP SCHEDULES - BOOK CLUBS

We are about to start a novel. We are adding a meetup to our schedule to help students get through the material and provide structured support. We won't be using the same platform (Zoom) and will be moving to Google Classroom Meet due to better audio capabilities. In the meetup schedule, students will see that it is in a different place. The schedule is color-coded to emphasize the change.

Generally speaking, all of our meetups have been in Zoom. We post the schedule on Monday so the students know when and where to show up and what the topic will be. Keeping the same schedule in place helps with structuring your meetups and giving students a sense of familiarity. They can expect a meetup at the given times. It's a small structure that goes a long way in creating a predictable environment.

SPIRIT WEEKS

Who doesn't love a great Spirit Week? These rare special weeks in a physical classroom can happen every week in the virtual one! Our school is a Positivity Project School, so for the past couple of weeks we have been combining our spirit weeks to the 24 strengths. Again, using a theme, we match up the daily spirit to a strength within the program and present students with a challenge to practice that strength. Last week was Disney-themed, next week will be Star Wars!

Disney Week!

Students who dress or complete the challenge are encouraged to snap a pic and share it. We recognize the student for their efforts by posting the pic in our social classroom: the Fourth Grade Forum.

ACADEMICS

Just with your physical classroom, a structured approach to academics is important in the virtual classroom, too. You can create a structure with academics in different ways.

When Assignments Are Posted
The expectation has been made that math and literacy are "every day" (sans Catch Up Wednesdays). Social Studies lessons are on Mondays and Thursdays, Science lessons are on Tuesday and Fridays.

Where Assignments Can Be Found
We have specific Google Classrooms for each subject area. Within the subject area we have been using "Topics" to keep the content organized. If you have just one Classroom where you are loading everything all together, I strongly recommend you start using "topics" to organize the material and lessons.

Use Due Dates
When you assign a due date it syncs in Google Classroom to show up on the left side of the student's dashboard in the "Upcoming" area when they log in. Using due dates helps the students know what is expected for work and when it is due. It becomes a "to do" list for the student. It is a nice alternative if students don't have Task Charts. Although my team and I use due dates, we accept work at any point. The purpose and function of due dates is to provide structure and a plan for organizing work completion.

Number Your Assignments or Use Dates in the Title
When you prepare a lesson for Google Classroom, you need to type in a title. My teammate has been numbering and dating the math assignments - "Math Assignment #24 - Tuesday 4/28". In Literacy and Content we have been using the date and topic of the assignment - "April 30: Around America to Win the Vote" "May 1: Teeth Brushing".

Using either numbered assignments or dates helps both you and the students/families. When we have had to navigate parents through their child's classroom to determine what work needs to be completed, it has been very helpful to use the titles to indicate what is done and what needs to be done. Although there are other places for students and families to locate and track work in Google Classroom, this simple system has proven to be a life boat for parents trying to navigate these choppy waters.

Keep Your Instructions Consistent
When typing in directions for assignments, we stick to basics. We number the steps needed to complete a lesson. We also let students know if materials needed are linked below the instructions or are already within the students' Drives.

As I was leading my students through a digital notebook we had started before quarantine, I set up the instructions in two parts and used capital letters to differentiate what students needed for the assignment and what tasks they needed to complete.

GOOGLE CLASSROOM INSTRUCTIONS EXAMPLE

YOU WILL NEED THE FOLLOWING:
SAP: Slides 27 & 28 (already in your Drive)
Screencast (linked below)
Video: History Brief: The Second Continental Congress (linked below)
Video: History Brief: Fort Ticonderoga and the Battle of Bunker Hill (linked below)

TASKS TO COMPLETE:
Watch the Screencast
Watch the Videos
Fill in SAP Slides 27 & 28

Keep Students' Responses Similar
Now is not the time to try something brand new or overly complicated. Stick with responses students are familiar with and have had practice completing. Three of the go-to responses my team uses are 3-2-1s, Memory Boxes, and 5 Square Organizers. From the student perspective it gives students an opportunity to demonstrate their learning in a unique way without the panic of answering incorrectly. From the teacher perspective, it takes minimal time to bring the slide up and quickly assess the student response. 

These 3 responses work with just about any lesson or content. They are highly adaptable and help students keep their cognitive load on responding to the material rather than figuring out the expectations of the response.

So easy-to-use! Go digital today!

You can get your own copies of these easy-to-use Response Slides (plus 2 other Slides for Reading Response!) when you subscribe to my email list. Click the graphic below and join today!

As we continue to adjust to this new way of learning, a structured system is more important than ever before. It's never too late to start! Just as we adjust things in a physical classroom, you can do the same in your virtual classroom. Find one way to structure your virtual classroom. When it feels natural and well-understood, add another structure. My team's virtual classrooms did not have this much structure 8 weeks ago; I imagine there will be additional adjustments as we work toward the end of the school year. Start adding structure tomorrow - you won't be sorry!