ABOUT THIS EPISODE
• I've been on leadership committees and we've been talking about our multi-tiered support systems (MTSS), that's the multi-leveled system of tiered support groups for those interventions, so tier one, tier two, tier three interventions. Right now, we are all just trying to help those tier one students, because we want everybody involved. How are your schools doing when collecting this data?... I'm kind of curious to know what other schools, districts across the nation are doing when it comes to understanding and or reaching out to their student populations and communities and trying to understand what students are going through. How are you doing those social and emotional wellness checks-in's? (2:04)
• You've heard me in the past mention that my school district, we are a Microsoft school district, and with that we don't use Canvas, Google Classroom, or Schoology. There's a lot of other systems or LMS systems that you have access to, Blackboard is another one, I don't have that I use, just Microsoft Teams that is to implement and share, distribute all of my lessons. My assignments, I have weekly channels that I've broken down by week one, and right now currently we are in week 11, I am a trimester school, so we have another week and a half until... It's close to the end of the trimester. So there's a lot going on right now. Emotions are high. Stress is a most high, but what Microsoft just did was they rolled out a couple of weeks ago. It's an app called re-reflect. So for those of you who are a Microsoft School District, this little PD bytes, this is for you, for other schools or for other teachers here listening... I don't know all the other ways of how you implement social and emotional check-ins with your students, maybe you do surveys, maybe you have an actual system in your classroom where you do some sort of check-in with your students to see where they're at, but for me, which I'm really excited about, which is the reason why I'm sharing this. (3:54)
• We now have access to this app in teams called REFLECT. So much like the praise button, we now have this reflect app and it's in my general channel and I'm able to issue it out every day, and it gives six faces. And the question is, how are you feeling today? And then a student gets to choose which face icon best represents their mood, I love that. It's giving that visual, that visual look because I'm a visual learner. You're a visual learner. We're all visual learners in some way, shape or form, so... Great, there's no thinking really involved, except kind of thinking about, Okay, how am I feeling right now, then going in, diving a little deeper, so that's all the student has to do, the student just has to select to face what they like or what best represents them, and then me on the teacher's side, I'm able to quickly view those analytics right then and right there, I'm able to see a group overall, what students are feeling clumping, three students felt happy or excited, six students were a mediocre, one student was angry, and then you're even able to break it down that much more, and it then identifies each individual student and it says what they posted, so immediately, right then and there, if a student is having a rough day, I'm able to isolate them, go around to them privately, and pull them aside and have a conversation with them. (5:56)
• Its new learning. I love learning. Is there something... What do you do to fill your cup? There was a great image posted on Twitter earlier this last week. The image was posted by Dr. Bryan Pearlman, I don't know if I'm saying that correctly, but on Twitter, he's at DrP_Principal, and he says, "Fill your own cup first self-care. It's an image of a cup, and on the very bottom of the cup, that's first, learn something new. The second tier is take a moment out for yourself, the third tier, write down what you are grateful for, the fourth tier, get some fresh air, and finally five... Do something that brings you joy". So what I'm right now, this brings me joy, sharing my learning. Its new learning. It's also solidifying what I have learned if I'm able to summarize basically that new learning, that new knowledge, that brings me joy, and it also helps me continue to build on the why, why is my own learning, important. Because I don't wanna go stagnant, I wanna continue to learn to bring in new trends, so that way what I'm doing is staying relevant with what our kids are learning and what they're going through, if I'm struggling with the learning process that I'm trying to muddle through, gosh how are my students feeling (13:01)
• Sharing my resources and sharing this network of amazing individuals that we have within our Family and Consumer Sciences networking group, our organizations or associations or communities are professionals. We are truly better together, and I want to continue weaving and interlacing all of us together. My goal is that I am just a puzzle piece, bringing us closer together and giving you the resources that you need for right now, and maybe later with all of this content and all of this knowledge that you've received, that professional development... Because that's what this is. This podcast is bite-sized professional development that you can take what you need right now and shelf the rest for later, come back when you're ready for more, and that brings me so much joy. So much joy to practice what I've learned and to give away to those that need, because I wouldn't be where I am to if it wasn't for all of the other amazing resources that I have found on the internet or within my Washington Family and Consumer Sciences organizations who have shared and shared and shared, we are truly making ourselves better for ourselves in the future and our Students.(16:46)
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WHEN DOES IT AIR…
NOVEMBER 10th, 2021
