Tupelo Distance Education - aired May 11

May 11, 2020

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Please stand by, this is a test.

Please stand by, this is a test.

>> good morning and welcome to another edition.

I'm greg and i'm so honored today to be joined by a kindergarten teacher and proud native.

Welcome to the show.

>> thank you.

I know your student will be glad to follow along was today.

And i know you miss them dearly.

>> i mess them a lot.

>> we'll hit the ground running.

>> today i just wanted to bring in a component of learning that we incorporate in our schools at up the low.

It's called social emotional learning.

>> i think at this time especially it's important, we're all off of our normal schedules.

Hopefully families at home have been able to have some type of schedule w all of these things happening, just not knowing what may happen, children really need that component.

To be able to talk about how they feel i'm going to mention cosmic kid control gay.

Most mornings, some kays at home we get off our schedule at my house.

>> some days.

I have two daughters.

I have a five-year-old and three-year-old.

I try to get them dressed and we get outside and maybe just walk around.

Come back in and do some stretches and have breakfast.

>> that's a nice routine.

Maybe stretching and yoga is what helps and gets our brains going for getting ready to learn.

I mentioned this because this past year we have on our daily schedules in our school in k through 2 grade added a block for social emotional learning you could have a shoe box or something stimulus payments holdening at thes in.

I have things my kids like picking up around the house and maybe using, it helps multisensory.

These are multisensory things.

These are just dry black beans.

They may go and get these during brain breaks.

Something to work with and besides being in front of the computer screens.

>> your eyes need a we're on a 23 1/2 hour break.

,.

>> these things are multisensory.

Then playing with them and manipulating them help their fine motor skills.

We all need that in kindergarten to be able to write.

Speaking of, teaching them through google meets i have brought an activity from the classroom to my google meets that my kids were used to doing.

So they are learning all about google meets so they are going well trained by the time we get back to school.

It's been exciting and it's been a learning curve.

I think for them like kindergarteners especially and younger grades, they are so resilient and about learning new things.

We were not doing google meets.

But we were taking ar tests with the computer.

We were using lex i can't on a computer in kindergarten.

They were getting used to doing that.

Now we have social contracts.

We have that in class at school and we brought one into our google meets classroom.

>> is it quite different than one you had in class?

>> it's different.

Our social contracting class is always posted in an area where we can look and figure out how we're supposed to be moving throughout our classrooms. it's kind of different.

Just at the beginning of each meeting i just kind of remind them of the things that we do.

So they know muting your mic is one thing so they don't get feedback.

>> adulting are having a hard time with that.

>> i forget and no one is hearing me.

They know we have motions they can use to show me that they are engaged and i have them use motions as well.

>> you were talking before the show i love how you shall doing this.

You are kind of splitting your class up times of the day to meet different need.

Can you talk about that and how you came one that idea?

>> i came up with that idea because at first i was offering one google meet per week.

And it was like i sent out a survey to see what time families would be able to meet.

We came to a time that was 2:00 p.m.

And that was good for everyone.

But i still noticed that some of my children weren't able to join.

So i then reached out to those parent just to see and i found out that i had some parents that were still having to work during those hours.

So i have now opened up two slots and one is still 2:00 p.m.

Weekly at the same time.

And the next one is at 6:306789.

>> that is so awesome you are doing that to be able to meet the need of all of your student.

I know they appreciate that as well.

>> i've gotten a lot of feedback from parents they are grateful for that.

Moving back to writing.

This is one of the things it's called a circle map.

We use these in class.

If it was in class it would be more of like an anchor chart.

Here it's a graphic organizer.

And just with the stupid we aree learning that week.

>> assume today's lesson is y.

>> if you are at home and you want to do this activity and it doesn't have to be the sound of the week, just like in kindergarten, they need to know all of their letters and sounds.

This is just a simple one.

A.

It has a on it.

Greg, can you help me come up with some words that begin with the sound a.

>> you put me on the to spot.

>> axis like on a globe.

>> i guess this is how you draw it.

>> put a bar right down the middle.

>> apple.

>> let me ask you another question.

For kindergarten age, obviously they recognize what an apple is.

They know their letters.

Are they seeing just letters in a word, at what point do they start actually reading?

>> so this helps with that.

It's going to give them a picture.

And we use a lot of pictures in reading in kindergarten.

Their books they are used to seeing readers that may have the word apple but then there is a picture right above it.

This is teaching them that when this is used as an anchor and they look at it in class, and they want to use anytime writing, they say i know the word yawn, we had that on our chart last week.

>> kind of association.

I'm going to associate that let we are that picture until they begin to read.

>> yes.

>> i owe you another a.

Ant.

>> i want to mention on the google meet they just give me these word and i make the list and then i go back and draw the pictures and send them digital picture of it for their families to go over.

And just like here, they are able to talk to their parents about the words.

They are able to talk about give a sentence to their parents, maybe verbally give their parents a sentence.

And then they could exit to where they could write sentences.

>> we are going to take a quick break.

When we come back, we're going to -- >> we are going to talk about math.

>> oh boy math.

All right.

We'll be right back with distance learning 101 with ms. riley.

>> today i'm joined by kindergarten teacher at carver, thank you for being here.

We talk about reading and different things we can do at home preparing ourselves for the day and now you say we're going to dive into my favorite subject math.

>> you'll do great with this too.

>> now on to math.

This week aboutive for math i can count the 100 and i can count by two.

Downing that.

I know that even being a teacher, we have a chart.

I know parent don't have those lying around the house.

We got to improvise you know.

I have brought a dry erase calendar.

>> you don't have a numbers chart but you may have old calendars, ones that you may have one like this.

Anything that a child can look at and see patterns and numbers and learning numbers is going to help them at this age.

So that there is a calendar.

Also just drawing things out.

You could get any straight edge or a ruler and make number grid for students to be able to fill in their numbers.

>> it in a chart form so something they are used to.

>> parent it's up to you to help a child with these charts.

>> now at school we do use calendar math in our classrooms. and i remember being younger like i said and my grandmother making lots of things.

She would just make things for me to learn like writing them out.

She even made me a calendar once so i could learn how to use it.

>> like i said, anything also learning to count, anything that you can manipulate with.

Counting beans.

And so one activity that you could do with these counting by tens is.

>>ic do this.

>> i know parent at home saying i'm not that creative.

But there are other ways to do things.

Simply counting out loud to 100 or maybe even if you are not making it to 100 right now, maybe just counting out loud and helping them build to 100.

Counting to 100 is something that we've been doing almost since the first day of school.

Also there are songs that you can look up on youtube and one of my favorite channels is jack hartman's music channel kids music channel.

And he has several things not only dealing with math songs.

But any subject area just about in the primary areas.

You can find songs that have movement with them as well.

>> that's to get the kid's attention, maybe there is a rhythm to it they will catch on to.

>> a lot of times with our children who are musically inclined, that will get their attention quicker than maybe something that a child that maybe visually gifted will do.

>> i like the option that you are able to give your students.

We've talked about it on every show.

Every child is different.

They learn in different ways.

When you are able to connect with that child on their style by giving them options.

>> it does.

He has lots of videos that teach skills like i mentioned earlier.

You are mentioning the different options that we're able to give our kids.

I want to say that i have just been blown away and one of my favorite things to witness during this time is how our district and our entire city and community have been able to pull together.

And justifying you're things out.

>> it has been neat to sit back.

This is where you see the good in people.

It is with the one heart beat philosophy.

It is a difficult time.

Not just for the students but for adults too.

I know you miss your students and they miss you.

To see everybody come together and do what they can to help has been awesome to sit back and watch.

>> it has.

And i want to mention our virtual teaching community.

One of the big things that we are about here in up to low are our learning communities.

I want to mention how i've been able to communicate still with my people from my school, with people around the district.

It's so easy to send an email.

Also on social media.

I've been able to connect with teachers just around the country and the globe to collaborate ideas.

And it's been neat.

Because the one goal that we all have is to be able to teach our students and their families.

>> absolutely.

That's a great idea.

You share ideas.

And what works in arizona may not work here.

But it may.

You see how different parts of the work are doing things.

This is all new.

You weren't taught to teach virtually.

And in a matter of two days you had to develop a whole plan and just throw away everything you've known and go virtual.

I love how you guys are reading and sharing with everybody.

>> so we have parents who have had to become teachers.

So i just wanted to share i noah we're all wearing many hats.

Juggling work, juggling school, juggling lots of things.

I just wanted to share with you something that our principal is what shawms says to us and she says make sure you are taking moments to do things for yourself.

And i think that parents and families, it's very important because we have gone from a normal to a different time.

Make sure we are finding those moments to just squeeze things in to do for ourselves.

I myself have had to squeeze it into our day, whether it's going ob a walk with the kids, but also if i'm just putting them to bed and maybe getting able to read a book or write or stretch.

We just have to do things these days to help keep our hearts and mind clear.

>> whether we remembers it or not there is a stress level and anxiety level we do every day in this unknown.

It's so important the take care of the mind and soul through this whole process.

Parents can be stressed with this.

I've had parents tell me they are doing things in the first grade i didn't do until the sixth grade.

We're all learning here.

I know the teachers are available to be reached out to.

You have your email address and i'm sure y'all chat a lot.

>> we want parents to reach out and we never want anyone to be stressed, not the child, not the parent.

These are just suggestions of things that we have given to carry over learning into the homes.

>> have you found a situation where you've had a student who maybe in the regular classroom setting was a little bit quiet and was kind of stayed in the background but you've seen them virtually blossom and come out of their shadow?

>> i have noticed that.

I don't know if it's a different setting or the fact that i'm not around my friend sos i don't have to be -- i'm at home and i can express myself freely.

I know of one student but yeah, it's been great for all of us.

>> awesome.

We're all learning together.

This is the style of learning that we're not going to let go away.

We're going to continue to learn and carry it.

Every child learns different.

This is a way for us.

Thank you so much for coming and sharing with us today.

And our students, our teachers miss them.

You can see the passion from all the teachers when they come on.

>> we miss you guys.

>> good luck with your two daughters at home.

>> thank you.

>> you are teaching and parent.

>> yes.

>> we will see you on our next episode for mrs. riley.