Category: Major Learning Project

Final Project Reflection

- Chris Busby 1 Comment

As I look back at my major project, I am very happy with the learning that has taken place for myself, but more importantly, for my students. As noted in my first post, the aim of my project was to work with a group of grade 3/4 students on understanding their mental health and developing coping strategies.

One of the best parts of this project was exploring the Microsoft Teams Reflect app. Our students began each day checking in on their devices. The Reflect app gives them a visual and written description of a wide variety of emotions. Once students choose their emotions, teachers are able to see their entire class’ feelings on their dashboard. It provides a great snapshot of how everyone is feeling that day. This lets us know first thing in the morning who we need to check in with to see why they are feeling outside of the green zone.

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The Surveys and Where We Go From Here

- Chris Busby 1 Comment

I concluded last week’s post mentioning that I would go into the three surveys that we administered in this week’s post. So here goes…We developed three surveys to do some deeper digging with our students and families. We had a survey for our grade 1 and 2s, grade 3-8s, and one for our parents. We used Microsoft Forms as our platform as it offered multiple question formats, gathered and organized feedback, and included immersive readers for students who needed help reading questions. I have to say, Microsoft seems to be doing some great things. My experiences with Teams and Forms have been easy and exceptional.

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March 8 Update

- Chris Busby 7 Comments

Wow! I can’t believe it has been a month since I’ve provided an update on my project. Time flies! I am happy to report that I have had a busy and successful month of project work with my Grade 3/4 students. Over the past month we have:

  • continued our use of Microsoft Teams for daily check-ins with our feelings monsters
  • continued to learn about zones of regulation
  • discussed emotions related to anger, frustration, being upset
  • learned about stress
  • learned and practiced coping strategies for our toolboxes
  • administered three surveys – primary, middle years, parents
  • analyzed survey results and generated some ideas for the future to address needs

Let’s chat about all of this in a little more detail.

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Major Project Update with a little Digital Citizenship

- Chris Busby 7 Comments

It has been a busy couple of weeks for myself and my students as we undertake our mental health learning journey. Our initial weeks have been filled with understanding our emotions. As I had mentioned before, the students in our grade 3/4 classroom check in using the Microsoft Teams Reflect App every morning. When they sign in to their account, this is what they are met with:

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EC&I 832 Major Learning Project

- Chris Busby 6 Comments

I am excited to get my project off the ground this semester. I think it is going to be very meaningful for me as a teacher. More importantly, I think it is going to be very meaningful and impactful for my students.

As we are all well aware, mental health is a challenge for many students with what is going on in our world today. As such, my project is going to focus on making sure my students are okay and developing strategies and tools to assist them in being just that. Most of you are likely somewhat familiar with the OurSchool survey. The results in my school have told us year after year that students are struggling with anxiety, depression, and many other mental health challenges.

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