This is a great little practice guide for parents and educators:
The book is available on Amazon here.
Support for Parents and Educators
Tips (Breathe Like Bear)
Skim through the pages and find the ones that stand out to you
Be ready to teach on the fly! Have an upset little one? Offer “Hot Chocolate Breath” or “Pizza Breath” – Pay attention to their reaction. If they seem interested, you could try it with them.
Be willing to adapt practices based on kids’ requests and needs. It’s okay to go outside the book and make up or modify into your own versions of things!
Other suggestions for the classroom:
-Where do you even get started? Learn a few practices at time. Know that it’s okay to know very little! Start small!
-Try it out and see what works – listen to the kids’ feedback. Does this one work for them? Would they like another one instead? Which one is their favourite?
-As you learn more practice ideas, it gets easier to offer breathing exercises in the moment –to help support them with calming, grounding and centering, whenever they need it.
Remember: Check your own breathing! These practices can help you, as a parent and/or educator to stay calm, centred and grounded yourself. You can role-model self-regulation to kids by becoming more aware and in-control of your own breathing. When you are ready, if you like, you might take the time to slow down for a while and practice your own breathing exercises and or meditations. There will be benefits for you and your kids/classroom!
“…students are often not learning to be safe and responsible Internet users at home, so schools and teachers must make sure that students are acquiring these skills in the classroom; otherwise we are putting young people at risk.” -Page 7
“If we want students to be lifelong learners, they should see learning as something that can happen at any time, but by keeping technology out of the classroom, we send the message that school is separate from “real life.” ….Incorporating digital worlds and digital citizenship into the curriculum helps bridge the gap between school and home.” -Page 9
Ribble’s Nine Elements of Digital Citizenship – Reflections.
Here are some of my own notes and takeaways of the main points from the guidelines;:
-Respectful and appropriate communication to and with others
-Allowing children to fully participate in digital society
-Understanding ethics, laws and legalities
-Understanding the implications of digital communications and digital footprint
-Teachers must develop their own digital literacy capacities first; then they can pass this important knowledge on to students
-How money is spent online, taking care and cautions, and avoiding scams
-Exploring freedom of expression and protection from bullying and harassment online
-Balancing physical and emotional health and wellness with internet use
-Protection of personal data, protection from viruses
-Bring your own device policies and programs: There are benefits to letting kids use their own devices!
As Educators, we must:
-Always be teaching at age and grade appropriate levels, embedding knowledge within various subjects whenever possible and appropriate
-Be familiar with outcome and indicator goals and incorporate appropriate teaching and learning within these contexts
How to connect Ribble’s nine elements of digital citizenship with grade levels, subjects, outcomes and indicators?
-Introducing digital literacy as a core learning goal, at the beginning of each school year
-Use of multi-disciplinary learning: For example, embedding digital literacy practices into other subject areas. E.g. As learning increasingly uses more digital software and platforms, digital literacy practices accompany.
-As the class becomes more familiar, asking them to draw upon their knowledge and share with classmates and teachers what they have learned and are practicing
-Children learn to analyze, and explain the purposes of digital literacy practices, breaking it down into step-by-step practices and purposes
-Schools become digitally literate, and it becomes a common school language
-Children understand the knowledge and expectations appropriate for their age and learning level, and are able to apply these skills in the classroom.
How can you integrate digital citizenship into your future classroom?
-Have regular, open-ended discussions with students
-Keep a list of goals and priorities on the wall
-Allow students to reflect and grow on their digital experiences
-Teach scenarios: “What is the worst that can happen?” and “What does healthy digital citizenship look like?”
-Create mini workshops and tutorials for parents to help keep them updated, educated and informed
Student’s need to develop twenty-first century skills!
Apollo Research Institute’s 10 key skills critical for the future workforce are:
-sense-making
-social intelligence
-novel and adaptive thinking
-cross-cultural competency
-computational thinking
-new-media literacy
-transdisciplinarity
-design mindset
-cognitive load management
-virtual collaboration
Supporting digital fluency will help nurture the development of these skills.
As I read about ways to use iMovie in the classroom, I can’t help but think about some of my own ideas and inspirations for classroom learning.
Use for collaborative learning
Projects for kids to share their learning experiences with their parents (and classmates!)
Telling Stories
Helping kids to learn step by step processes
Documenting classroom experiences
Field trip videos!
Doing a photography project and creating a slideshow with music
Self-Awareness and Awareness of others practices: Using media to help kids talk about their personality qualities and how they see themselves and others.
Making videos about feelings. E.g. What does Peace look like? What does Peace feel like? Etc.
Incorporating nature into the classroom using video technology. Why not get out and film a river flowing for a while, and then make an iMovie to play as a peaceful background during quiet reading or reflection time?! Kids could learn the story and history of this river, spend some time at this river as a class, and then connect with this river via video in this classroom while they work.
Increasing access and connection to First Nations culture by various forms of video. Creating community partnerships and engaging in projects to increase availability of relevant video materials to students. Ideally, students are part of these projects and feel connected to the videos.
Classroom video exchange – The next step up from Pen Pals – A video exchange group between two cross-country (or cross-world?) classrooms!
The use of iMovie easily slides across the three furthest domains of Augmentation, Modification and Redefinition. With iMovie, there is space and opportunity for functional improvement in learning (Augmentation), resdesigning tasks (Modification) and redefining how kids learn entirely!
Here are a few helpful articles with useful tips and ideas:
Last weekend, I set out to use iMovie for the first time.
I was nervous. I was born a perfectionist, but over time, my values have softened to becoming more realistic and gentle with myself in my own processes. However, I was definitely feeling my own internal pressure to make the first video as well as possible.
After watching a few iMovie tutorials, and checking out some videos made using iMovie, I felt ready for my next steps.
Use Voice Memos App on iPhone to record an audio file
Later Steps:
Use Text Art app to create a thumbnail for the video
Create YouTube Space for uploading and sharing the video
Using iMovie
Open a New Project
Name the project. To do this click the back arrow with “Projects” in the very top left corner. A new window will appear. You can enter in the title of your project here.
Upload media into Project Media space. You can do this by browsing media, and pulling it into the Project Media space. I got my Project Media ready with all the files I needed first: Videos, Audio clip, and photos, so that I was ready to go!
Drag down media into the bottom half section of the screen to begin putting the iMovie together. For my movie, I wanted to overlay an Audio clip with the videos. All I had to do was drag each of these files into the bottom section.
I learned that to clip and delete files you need to: click on the first section then “command B” – then click on the end “command b” and hit “delete.” It is that simple!
Then I could just move the video and audio clips around slightly, drag down the pictures to where I wanted them, drag out the pictures for the length of time I wanted them to play for.
After getting the basics figured out, I realized I could add a short sound effect clip at the start of the film. There are many free songs and sounds that come with iMovie. I used a rain sound.
I also figured out how to zoom in and out of photos for different effects.
It was a solid learning experience for me. I feel happy with my work, as a first time user. I have so much yet to learn, but I feel grateful to have figured out the basics! It was exciting to make a YouTube Channel – I am working on plans to make more videos in the future.
According to Michael Wesh, “When medias change, human relationships change.”
In his YouTube Documentary, “An Anthropological Introduction to YouTube” the themes of global community and connection are explored as viewers learn about the history of the ever-popular YouTube website.
The concept of cultural inversion stands out. Welsh analyzes the dialectic of expression: individualism, independence, and commercialism to value: community, relationships, and authenticity.
We are expressing one thing, while valuing something else. YouTube seems like such a powerful medium to hold space for the entirety of this dialectic. Wesh says that cultural inversion leads to cultural tension. This community has provided a global space, and is one form of response, or expression to that tension.
The values we must explore as future educators, living in an educational technology world, require intellect, understanding and knowledge. We need to know the programs. We need to know the systems. We need to know the benefits. We need to understand the risks. We need to keep our students safe, and we need to keep them connected to their communities.
We need to be able to utilize technology in ways that seek to support our students’ capacity for growth and connection, all while informing their awareness of potential risks and minimizing any harm to them.
There’s a lot to be said about the potential for creating wide open spaces on the internet, where people can experience a sense of freedom in creativity, and self-expression. As Wesh puts it, webcams or watching others on video may give people the “freedom to experience humanity without fear and anxiety.” This idea has significant implications, and though as Educators we wish to create varied forums for self-expression, we must stay cautious.
Our ultimate goal in using technology is to increase human connection – between our students.
Finding a balance between technology use, and providing opportunities for real-world interactions and in-person social interaction, including the development of interpersonal skills is critical. If we can harness the power of Ed Tech to help benefit our kids’ relationships safely, then we know we are doing a good job.
Let us always seek to find a balance, and to keep mental health at the forefront of our educational goals.
Connection matters. Human connection matters. Connection can happen in various forms – and we can be open to grow and change with the new possibilities that each year and generation of technology offers. Let us open up our practices and classrooms to evolve with technology safely.
After much reflection, and contemplation, my learning project took a bit of a turn this week.
After scouring the web for kids yoga videos and ideas, I realized that while there is tons of amazing and useful content out there…something is missing!
This was my big insight…that both Education students and Educators need more support in feeling comfortable and confident to experiment with, and to implement, kids yoga and mindfulness practices into the classroom.
I had a few different ideas for video content: The first would be a video just for Education Students to help find their inner calm. I believe that we need to establish our own inner sense of calm, before we can share this with others. This is a practice that we can grow into and that will shift and change over time.
The next video will focus on establishing and using our inner calm as we seek to support children and other students within the classroom.
This was my first time ever making a Yoga Meditation video. It was a really exciting and interesting process! I am really looking forward to making more videos, and refining my editing skills. For now, this is the best I’ve got!
I hope there is something for you – that you may find helpful along your own path – in this video.
-Checked to see if I have iMovie on my Mac. For some reason, I do not, so I downloaded it!
-I went into the program, and played around on my own for a bit to try to get a feel for the program.
-I got stuck and realized I need some support – so I went to YouTube and searched for Tutorial Videos. Here are a few that I found helpful:
Watching tutorials, I realized how important it is to make sure you have good, clear content to work with. This could include videos, photos, and audio/music.
So far, I have not been able to generate that much content. With my busy work and school schedule, it has been challenging for me to create the space and time with my kids to practice yoga together. An additional challenge for me, is with the basement yoga studio construction project in my house, the sanding dust triggered a huge asthma/allergy response in me.
It has affected my ability to talk, sing and laugh!
Here is a photo of my basement yoga space.
The wood wall in the back was coated in a varathane finish. It needed to be sanded to get the look I want to achieve. But I had no idea what type of reaction it would trigger in me! After many attempts to clean the dust, including days and nights of a cold Yukon breeze blowing through open windows, multiple air purifiers, paying a professional to clean, and trying different asthma and allergy medications to help me feel better – nothing was working.
Earlier this weekend, I ended up at the hospital – requesting more extensive treatment. A few days of steroid medication later, and I am hoping to be back on the mend soon – to have my yoga, meditation and singing voice ready to use in my classes again, and to be able to laugh, talk and connect with the people I love without having to gasp for air.
For this week’s learning, I reviewed an idea from one of the kids yoga websites I follow: Kids Yoga Stories.
The title of this Yoga Lesson is “Family Yoga in Outer Space” but it can easily be adapted for the classroom, by renaming it to “Classroom Yoga in Outerspace”
I really liked the ideas for warming up by pretending to be a spaceship, and going through different outer space movements and references. It sounds so fun! This activity could be done in a larger space, with a teacher to guide the class, and by letting kids take turns to demo or teach! Some matching art cards would be a helpful tool. There are lots of other great classroom ideas here too. Space alien craft project, anyone?
-Increases concentration, focus and attention span
-Promotes thinking and boosts memory
-Stimulates auditory processing and responsiveness
-Expands imagination and creativity
Improves ability to be less reactive, more mindful of thoughts, speech and action
-Reduces stress and anxiety
-Balances low/high energy levels
-Improves attention and emotional control
-Positively influences neurotransmitter function
-Flynn, L. (2013). Yoga for Children. Adams Media, p. 22
Providing a Trauma-Informed Yoga Environment (knowledge base from my own training background)
-Providing and emphasizing choice
-Helping kids to feel a sense of control over their own body
-Be positive and encouraging
-If a child wants to observe instead of participating, let that be okay. Teach them that they are allowed to make choices with their own body!
-Provide access to doorways and exits (and make sure you have a helper to check on kiddos if anyone needs to take a break!). Be aware of lighting. There is always the potential for triggers, including emotional and physical safety triggers in traumatized kids.
-Provide opportunities to feel what’s happening in their body in safe, supportive ways and environments
-Let them know it’s okay to stop anytime.
This week, I was also able to get some of my video equipment unboxed and closer to being ready to be used. Here it is: nicely organized in the back of my closet!
How can Twitter be used as a professional development tool?
Twitter is a great way for education students as well as new teachers to access a variety of resources. One of the suggestions made in class is to find different people and groups to follow.
Connecting with other students in education has huge benefits, for helping us learn together, share our ideas, and grow as a community of educators.
“Twitter is whatever you want it to be” – Teach Thought
I found a great guide for Teachers getting started.
Some of my personal challenges using Twitter so far:
-Keeping it brief is hard for me! During the class #SaskEdChat I found myself wanting to write long comments, but having to reduce my words to fit the limits, and then struggling to keep up with the pace of the chat as a result!
-Linking Twitter to my blog site took me a bit of playing around, but eventually I got it!
-There are so many interesting people, groups, chats and hashtags to follow. It was hard for me to stay focused!
And finally, from the journal of Educational Technology:
“Students, teachers, and other stakeholders use it as a pedagogical tool to gain information, interact and engage with each other, participate in their respective communities of interests, and share their insights about specific topics. Moreover, Twitter has the potential to enhance students’ learning capabilities as well as improve their motivation and engagement due to its unique features and non-traditional teaching approach.”
This week, I subscribed to Feebly, an online feed reader that organizes information from the web into one place. A few categories I set up to organize my favourite topics are: Education Resources and Yoga!
Two favourite education resources I discovered are:
Ted Ed
Ted Ed consists of short educational videos. This site is an offshoot of the Ted Talks, with videos designed specifically around educational topics.
I watched a cool video about the air we all breathe – this feels especially relevant in the era of global warming and the season of the covid pandemic and continual mask wearing. We need to think about our air!
Teach Thought
This site offers a wealth of teacher resources including quotes, inspirational and ideas lists, podcasts, workshops and webinars.
I read a great article about Reciprocal Teaching, where students take on both roles of teacher and learner within small groups as a method of improving their reading comprehension. I love collaborative learning approaches, and I like encouraging learning that involves using multiple areas of the brain to help solidify understanding and information consolidation.
I am looking forward to using Feebly! I have never used this app before and it’s cool to try something new! It’s got a great set up – right off the bat, it seems very organized and easy to set up! The one downside seems to be that the search options seem limited without paying for a subscription. For example, when I went to search for #naturekids (a topic I am very interested in), it said nothing was available without a subscription.
