Danielle Emmons EDT563 Blog

Problem Statement:  “Students need a way to feel connected and safe with their classmates because mask wearing and social distancing prohibit them from interacting as they normally would/could . ” When talking with students, recess and group work/ math games were a common theme during our discussions. My goal for my prototype was to come up with safe ways to allow them to still work in a small group or play a math game and for them to be able to play a recess favorite (kickball).  The PE teachers used a few of their class sessions to review the kickball safety guidelines and practice playing kickball. They have a few more “practice sessions” before they have the opportunity to play it at recess.  Students were also needing a way to work in small groups and play math games. I was able to obtain a divider for my table, so I have been working with groups of two students on skills at a time. The feedback has been really positive and students are saying that they can’t wait ...

 For this Raising the Question assignment, I looked at Emily Franzke's brainstorming post. I connected to it because we had done the same warm up activity for our brainstorm post and we both have how might we questions centered around difficulties teaching in covid times. I also found it interesting that while we both did opposite and analogy thinking, she preferred analogy over opposite, while I found opposite to be easier. I am mainly using email, and send out newsletters every Friday. I don't typically get any responses from parents about the newsletter though, so I'm unsure if they are being read or not. We also just had our first round of conferences virtually. When thinking about communicating with parents, the biggest challenge is always finding the time and getting response.  My questions to Emily are: A re your students currently in person, remote or a mixture of both? W hat types of communication are you using right now? Are you having conferences this year? If so...

  The three principals I took away from the readings are: Gather inspiration, Share your work, Think Bigger. No matter what project you are working on or problem you are trying to solve, I think these are universal and essential steps. For me gathering inspiration on my problem comes from talking to other teachers and students, researching online and reading blogs/post from other teachers. Sharing my work is mostly done through informal conversations with other colleagues. Recently, I have been sharing work through this blog which has been new to me, but also enjoyable. Like Kleon said, even sharing something small can be big. Thinking bigger for me is a mindset to always be growing and evolving. Once you think your work is done or your problem is solved, brainstorm with others, gather new information and self reflect. See how your work can change and become inspiration for someone else.