Uplifting Strategies for Distance Learning

Attitude is a powerful thing, and it's important to UPLIFT students during distance learning when we can all feel a little glum!  

To combat my classroom Debbie Downers, I started a Moodlifter Monday video segment.  Basically, I played a humorous or thought-provoking video while my class watched & ate their morning snack. 

First, I set the stage for the video clip and stressed the importance of keeping a positive attitude even during times of adversity, and then played the funny reel.  My students LOVED getting in on the action and really enjoyed finding clips for me to share based on something they had created or found online.

During this time of distance learning and the pandemic, you can share a slide with your students through your shared screen on ZOOM, Google Meets or Google Classroom, etc.

As you can see, there's an attached video clip (in the bottom right corner) for students to watch.  In this example, I have shared a humorous animal video clip from a search on YouTube.  I also recommend Kid President and Ellen for more great material!

• sharing a joke of the day(can be changed to thought or quote of the day)
• sharing a bitmoji image(can be changed to a giphy.com or selfie)
• Ask a check-in question through the Classroom stream, a shared Slide or Form
  (example: What's something fun you did yesterday?)
• Include "national holiday" or "this day in history" fun facts
  (National Day Calendar or History)
• Include a physical or mindfulness exercise clip for all to participate
  
• Inspire creativity with a directed drawing (art video clip) or fun read aloud
  

If you would like to use the digital template pictured above in your classroom, click here.

3 Tips to Make Distance Learning Accessible

As an educator, I'm always considering the needs of how to make the curriculum accessible for my struggling readers.  Now more than ever, it is important these students get the help they need in the form of these technical tricks:

#1 - Share This Google Chrome Extension with Families

You may already be familiar with Read&Write Gold from your school's access to these amazing text-to-speech tools!  Click this link to access a free 30-day subscription to Read&Write. 

Read&Write for Google Chrome™ provides personalized support to make documents, web pages, and common file types in Google Drive (including: Google Docs, PDF & ePub) more accessible.  It's designed to help everyone engage with digital content in a way that suits his/her abilities and learning styles.  Here are some of the accessibility features:

• text-to-speech to hear words, passages or entire documents read aloud (with easy-to-follow colored highlights)
• text and picture dictionaries to see the meaning of words explained
• speech-to-text to allow dictated writing
• word prediction to help with spelling

As you can see, these features work wonders to help your English language learners, dyslexic, and below-level readers access a grade-level text passage!

#2 - Insert Audio Recordings into Google Slides Presentations



When teaching a reading lesson, I typically help scaffold my students to digest and comprehend the text to apply the new information learned.  Well, when no longer in a face-to-face classroom, students have to decipher through a lot of text on screens.  One way to make the information more accessible (as many educators use in classroom) is through showing an engaging video clip or tutorial on the concept.  As a 4th grade teacher, my students really enjoyed watching video clips from BrainPop or Flocabulary to bring the content to life!





However, there are certain teacher tidbits I like to share with my students based on my years of experience.  So I found that using the voice recorder app on my phone, then uploading the files to my GoogleDrive I was able to add my words of wisdom to the presentations I share on Google Classroom.



After you have uploaded your voice recording onto your Drive, then go to the desired slide in your Google Slide presentation and click INSERT -> AUDIO.



See this in action on my interactive Text Structure lesson.










#3 - Use Screencastify for Tutorials & Oral Presentations



Another Google Chrome extension that comes in handy for inserting audio into your Google Slide presentation is Screencastify.  Click here to download the extension to CHROME from your Google Educator / work account.



I watched the video linked above and used a Screencastify recording I made  in my Text Structure lesson to explain how the interactive features work on my presentation (requiring students to toggle back and forth between edit and present mode).



You can also have your students use Screencastify to narrate a presentation they created with Google Slides and turn it in via Google Classroom for you to grade as you would an oral presentation in person.  Just share a quick tutorial video with your students and families like the one linked above!