06 May Teacher Spotlight: Anne Price
Our Northshore Schools Foundation Teacher Spotlight this week is on Anne Price, a 3rd grade teacher at Woodmoor Elementary.
District-wide our teachers have had to really change the way they teach in our new Northshore Learns remote environment. This can be especially difficult for our younger, elementary students. Ms. Price was nominated for our Teacher Spotlight because of her creative, new ways to teach her students.
On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday her class beings their day with a live Zoom morning meeting and sneak peek into the academic task for the day. The class takes time to connect and say “Hi”, “hello” and “good morning”. Then we take a few minutes and go over Zoom classroom expectations before we launch into learning. Ms. Price said, “After a couple of live Zoom meetings, I noticed some “classroom consistency” was needed. I decided to use Google Slides to show the routine like in the classroom setting; schedule, calendar, community “circle”, whole and small group groups, movement breaks, academic teaching points, social skills, shared learning and modeling, etc. There are so many things that can be done using online tools.”
Just like when her students are together at Woodmoor, their buddies from Mrs. Angie’s Functional Skills and Academics class join us for the morning meetings. The two collaborate to create an opportunity to make learning accessible for everyone; an interactive calendar with patterns, true weather using images and sounds if applicable, social skills, movement breaks, show, and share, etc. “Social skills and big feelings around learning and technology are extremely important during these unexpected times, so we make sure to take a quick “Zones” check-in along with sharing some strategies to keep us “in the green zone, ready to learn”. For example, counting to 3, taking a deep breath, positive self-talk, hand squeezes, and taking a movement break(s),” says Ms. Price.
Some of the ways she gets students involved in “hands-on” learning is by playing interactive games. For reading, writing, and word work, her class has played Boggle, Hangman, and “word blurt”. For movement breaks and for fun she has had her class go on an indoor scavenger hunt and danced using GoNoodle. Mystery math task cards, Geometry sorts, and art using shapes have helped to reinforce all we are learning in math. Ms. Price admits: “It takes a lot of time and effort to create innovative ways to teach and learn from a distance, but seeing my students be successful is worth every minute.”
We are really in awe of Anne’s creativity in changing up her teaching style to pivot to meet the needs of her 3rd-grade students during this challenging time – not just academically, but socially and emotionally as well, which is really critical for our students, especially right now. Thank you, Anne, for your hard work and dedication to Woodmoor students!
If you know of a teacher in our district who is doing creative and innovative education in our new virtual classroom platform that we should know about please email their info to julie@nsdfoundation.org
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