Five MORE Ways to (Reimagine) Rock Your School
Rock Your School, Reimagined is right around the corner, coming to you February 8th through 12th. Rock Your School is Reimagined this year to meet the needs of all educators, whatever your circumstances may be. Rock Your School is designed to be a source of fun + joy, a reminder of what we love about our role as educators, and a time to intentionally build community within our classrooms and schools. If you haven’t already, register your school and download all of the free RYS resources our team has designed for you. Be sure and check out our introductory RYS blog post, as well as our post on how to best utilize the free RYS resources. Whether this is your third time doing Rock Your School or your first, there’s something for everyone!
We just couldn’t stop!
We’re back with another five ways to rock your school this February! We just couldn’t stop thinking about it, and knew you might still be looking for an activity or two to fit into your RYS week. We want you to remember this, though - there is no one way or right way to rock your school - it’s all about you and your students. So as you read through this second list and maybe pick another thing to add to your RYS week, we hope that you’ll be thinking about doing what serves you and your students, even if it’s not the biggest and boldest act.
1: Virtual “Escape” Room
Escape rooms or breakout activities have become incredibly popular in recent years, but generally require students to work closely in small groups to solve. A great solution for socially-distant classrooms, hybrid, or all-virtual classrooms is to use digital escape/breakout activities. These can be done effectively using a variety of methods, with the most popular being through Google or Microsoft forms. A few tips for making your breakout activity a success:
Decide and practice, in advance, how students will work together - if you’re intending for it to be a small group activity. Will students work in small groups in breakout rooms, or will you utilize another method? Be sure and work within your school/district policy about students being “unsupervised” in a breakout room. This might be a perfect opportunity to engage specialists in your building in RYS week, or have some family volunteers join to help facilitate the activity with adequate supervision.
Our very own Ty Cook has a great how-to video on his YouTube channel that explains how he’s used digital escape rooms in his classroom, as well as the basic components of creating a digital escape room in Google Forms. (Note: You can use Microsoft Forms in a similar manner, but you’ll utilize “branching” to create the escape/breakout room effect rather than data validation.)
2: Transform Your Environment
Our environment impacts so much, and even small changes can make a big difference. This year, things are a little different (to say the least) - making things like full room transformations out-of-reach for many. With social distancing for in-person learning, it’s tricky to balance decor with functionality. Still, there are small changes that can be made to freshen up your environment (and even give that “transformation” feel). A few tips for transforming your environment:
If you’re teaching in-person, consider what areas you could temporarily re-decorate without impacting social-distancing, and without breaking the bank (or testing your sanity). A great way to make a big impact is to have students help you with the transformation! For example, sentence strips make a great border, and can easily be decorated by students at home or in school and then put up to replace the existing border. Similarly, decorating the walls with some bigger pieces of themed art can brighten your space. If you or your students aren’t feeling too artistic, print out some of Sarah Dlouhy’s graphics full-page or poster sized. (Note: To save on ink, print the black & white versions and have students color them in.)
If you’re teaching virtually (including hybrid), consider what virtual spaces your students frequent that you could change-up. Perhaps you utilize a Bitmoji classroom that you could swap out for another theme (or simply add some of our free RYS graphics), or you could jazz up your headers/add some themed graphics to your Canvas or Google Classroom page. If your school district doesn’t have the features locked, you might even be able to provide students with custom Zoom backgrounds, or the ability to temporarily change their profile pictures to match your theme.
3: Have a Crossover Moment
Teaching with a theme can be a lot of work, but can also yield high levels of student engagement (and can be SO. MUCH. FUN). Picking a theme could be choosing a single read-aloud for the week and weaving its themes through all your content areas, or using your latest unit of study in science or social studies to drive your reading and math instruction. You could also stick with the rockin’ rock theme of RYS and find tie-ins in each of your subject areas. A few tips for teaching thematically during RYS week:
You don’t need to abandon your pacing guide, especially if you’re concerned about stressing yourself out in the long-term! Build your theme around what you already need to accomplish. This might mean electing to go with a rock-n-roll theme, which you can bend more easily to the content and standards you need to cover. Select read-alouds that touch on the theme, incorporate it into math via manipulatives, details in word problems or scenarios, etc.
When in doubt, find ways to theme your activities/products rather than content. It’s a lot easier to say, develop a rock-n-roll themed activity with content about the water cycle, than it is to find a way to connect the water cycle meaningfully to rock-n-roll. Crossing-over any theme into science or social studies might be a little more tricky, but think about how your activities - not content - could reflect the theme in what they produce (i.e. “liner notes” for a CD that covers key vocabulary).
4: _______’s Got Talent!
Remember the days when “Show and Tell” was a staple of just about every classroom? Students love to be able to showcase their talents and special interest areas, and what better way to build community during RYS week than to give them space to do just that. Inviting just a few students each day to share a unique talent or something that they’re passionate about can bring your classroom community closer together than ever! A few tips for implementing “Show and Tell” during RYS week:
Model for students what their time should look like, and provide them with a “cheat sheet” outline to help them plan how to make the most of their few minutes at the front of the class or on Zoom. This might mean breaking down how much time they should spend on an introduction and closure versus the actual content, or whether or not they can invite questions. This will also help families prepare their students at home for their moment to shine!
Remind students that they don’t need to have a special talent in order to have something special to share with the class. Sharing an interest area, a passion, or even something that’s special to them - a trinket or memory - will serve the purpose of sharing part of themselves with their classmates. A great way to help students decide what they might like to do or say is to brainstorm together prior to RYS week, giving them ample time to decide.
If doing “Show and Tell” won’t fit during instructional time, consider using an app or platform like Flipgrid to have students pre-record their content. Students can view it at their leisure, and if you allow them to, interact with their peers using the reply features. This is a great solution that doesn’t require you to offer an extra Zoom outside of contract hours or give up your lunch/planning time at school.
5: Community Service
One way to come together as a classroom community is to give back to others. With COVID limitations, this looks different than it otherwise would. Instead of physical efforts like a bake sale or book drive, it might mean making physical or digital cards for frontline workers, art for nursing home residents separated from their families, or being reading buddies to a younger grade-level at your school. A few tips for including community service in your RYS week:
Before introducing any community service plan, make sure you contact the organization or individuals you’ll be working with to ensure they can receive the assistance or support. You may need to rely on digital means of assistance/support - such as digital cards or letters instead of physical ones.
You can do something as simple as utilize Google Slides or PowerPoint to create a digital slideshow of gratitude or encouragement. Each student can work on their own slide, and you can keep an eye on their progress/support them as-needed. If you’re able to deliver something physical, you can print out the slideshow and bind it, but if not, it is easy to share digitally!
We would love to hear from you about how you’re celebrating Rock Your School week! Fill out this form and your ideas might be featured right here on the blog or on one of our social media channels.
