SHOUT OUTS are a great way to build community! 📣 🎉🥳
I’m no stranger to talking about and promoting community building and relationship building when it comes to school. So why stop when we are in distant learning?!?!
I’ve seen time and time that teachers are afraid to try things in distant learning… Yes, you can still have sharing, Friday Line up, Student of the Week etc. Distant learning should be no different in this regard. So if you are used to writing letters/notes, or having shouts you should still be doing that whether you are in person or online.
My site does a wonderful job of handling this…they treat it just like we were in person! Go figure! It can and (should) be done imho.
Last Spring when we were ( thrown into ) and…knee deep in EMERGENCY remote teaching my school gave out OWLL SIGHTINGS. It was an award which stood for…
OUTSTANDING WEB BASED LEARNING LEADER ~~ how cute are my admin!?!?! 🦉🦉🦉
I received this award last Spring by my admin and was the first one to receive it. I was shocked, humbled and incredibly grateful and encouraged. If you haven’t noticed — I’m not so young. LOL I grew up on dirtbikes and staying out til’ the street lights came on in the 70’s and 80’s so technology doesn’t come naturally to me. I definitely have to work at it.
It was so encouraging to see that my hard work was paying off and even more so to be recognized for it. We don’t do this for the kudos but in an emergency state of learning and teaching I will say it sure picked my spirits up.
Guess what that little bit of recognition made me do!?!?! It made me want to step up my game even more…learn more apps, research how to be even more successful in distant teaching. That’s what encouragment does folks. We all innately want to do our best for our students but great leadership doesn’t hurt. It has always made me want to be better and do better.
This time around ( we are still in the distant learning model ) our PTO has stepped in as well. They are accepting SHOUT OUTS to students, families, and staff. What a fantastic idea! They will share them on social media and at our Friday Line Ups each week. I think rewarding people for their hard work, kindness and dedication is crucial especially in times like we are in currently.
If you are interested in a little shout out form that you can use in your own classroom or want to share with your site – I have some editable ones you can grab just by joining my email list.
See my side bar or the top of my blog to join!
ALSO these are editable so you can even add your school mascot or teacher bitmoji to them to personalize them!
Why not spread the love, spread kindness and find the good in all the hard work you see happening around you!?!
However you are currently teaching I wish you well…bless you my teacher friends and….happy teaching!
xoxo,
