After 10 months in a global pandemic, keeping classes Zoom engaging remains challenging. Though it’s impossible to simulate the energy from a classroom experience, there are tools and techniques to make learning virtually more optimal and enjoyable. 

ATT’s Chani Friedman shared essential aspects of the remote environment from a physical and an emotional perspective with ATT teachers. These are factors that every teacher must consider when planning a Zoom lesson. 

The physical Zoom environment 

Teachers pour effort and energy each year into making sure their classroom is an appealing and effective learning space. With virtual learning, there is less time spent making bulletin boards and more time learning how to make Zoom learning more appealing. 

You don’t have to get a green screen or spend hours perfecting your background. However, Zoom presenters must make themselves visible and interesting. Make sure to pay attention to your background, position and lighting. Adjust your camera position because how the audience sees you as the presenter affects their engagement in the presentation. 

When missing so much of the energy from the classroom, your facial expressions as a teacher can still serve to keep students engaged. That means smiling and appearing approachable to minimize the feeling of being on autopilot for lessons. 

Breaks are even more crucial during remote learning. After 15-20 minutes of instruction, be sure to take a break. This could be an exercise break, a question, poll or asking students to react to something. The more you can get them actively engaged, the more enjoyable the lesson will be. 

Technology provides the ability for continued effective education during the pandemic. However, when there is a glitch or something isn’t clear, it can be frustrating for even the most motivated students. To enhance clarity, screen share your document, especially the daily agenda or lesson plan. 

The emotional Zoom environment 

The importance of connecting with students in any classroom environment cannot be over-emphasized. In the Zoom environment, this can be a challenge. Try saying each child’s name throughout lessons. Keep a daily checklist when you name a child or give them active roles in class that day to ensure that each student is participating. 

Take time to promote questions, comments or reactions from students. The Zoom chat feature is excellent for getting students involved. Allowing students to be the presenter at times and share is a great way to get them to actively participate. You can make one student at a time the “chat monitor” on a rotational basis. 

Students thrive with structure and routine, so create as much structure and predictability as possible on Zoom. By posting the schedule and needs for materials and texts on a daily basis, students will know what to expect and be more prepared. Especially with students in younger grades, ensure that parents are clear on directions and expectations. 

While it’s important to create an organized online classroom, there should also be an emphasis on creating a warm virtual experience for students. Try playing music as the class starts or during attendance. 

Choose words and phrases that are motivational. For instance, “You have several choices to consider,” “Your next challenge is,” “Here are three things to try.” In each of these instances, the pronoun “I” is intentionally omitted to place the emphasis on the student. 

To make the virtual classroom feel warmer, use techniques to build community. One technique to try is when you join the classroom, have students turn on and off their camera as an answer to a question. For example, ask students to turn the camera on if they are feeling happy, tired, or any other emotion. You can also use an emotion wheel with faces to provide a visual for students.

Together as a class you can create a “gratitude slide” with an image to stress feelings of appreciation or thanks. Ask students what they are grateful for on an individual level, as a class or a community. You can use the chat feature to make this even more interactive. 

Internal Zoom tools

Taking the time to familiarize yourself with Zoom’s capabilities will greatly improve the effectiveness of learning remotely. Set the Zoom meeting to mute microphones upon entry to keep it organized. 

You can use the screen share feature and its tools such as the whiteboard, ability to annotate shared documents, share files and audio. Be sure to always check your Zoom meeting feature settings before you start your session. You can also use breakout rooms for short periods of time to have students discuss topics. 

To promote active participation, enable the Zoom poll or ask a question with chat. Chat can be to everyone or you can have students send responses directly to the host when necessary. The chat must be monitored and it can be set to save automatically for future reference. 

Non-verbal feedback within Zoom is a great way to get feedback easily from students. Students can give a thumbs up, show their paper to the camera or use a hand signal. In a 20-30 minute lesson, stop every so often and request some student participation to keep them actively involved in the learning. You can use a side by side view when you share your screen so the students can see both the teacher and material. 

External program tools 

Zoom’s built-in programs offer interactive tools to make learning more engaging. For even more engagement, there are many online programs that you can use to enhance virtual education:

Math and reading tools

• Mathematics Question of the Day 
• Zearn: K-5 Online Math Curriculum 
• Critical Reader Question of the Day: For this, you need to subscribe by providing your email address and you’ll receive a new question to your inbox daily.

Engaging tools

• Would You Rather: A or B? Open up for discussion – live or chat. Plus hundreds of other questions.  
• YouTube and Edutopia.org – browse the video library using their search tool.
• Artsandculture.google.com – This requires pre-searching to see what is applicable for your class. Here is an example: Anne Frank’s family home before she went into hiding.
• Google Earth:  Search for any place and see its location and pictures.
• Khan Academy: You will need to sign in to use Khan Academy. Here is an example: Multiplying Two-Digit Numbers
• PBS Learning Media: hundreds of short videos and lesson plans for all grade levels and subjects in general studies. Here is an example: Photosynthesis

Make time for games or brain breaks during remote learning

When you need a break or want to incorporate some fun into learning, there are an overwhelming amount of games and online resources. We’ve narrowed it down to some favorites with some possible applications: 

• Word-maker: How many words can you make from a larger word? Display your word on the shared screen.
• Whiteboard ideas: Hangman – using Hebrew or English words.
• Pictionary: Create teams with a designated drawer (rotate drawer role) Students draw a picture/scene having to do with the lesson and classmates guess it; the student needs access to the whiteboard and you can also use the private chat.
• Scattergories: Color with a letter, any category with a letter – Judaic or general studies.
• Four-square: Name, place, animal, thing in 4 squares – can use specific alphabet letters.

• Boggle: Points for words that are not shared.
• Fact or Fiction: A derivation of the 3 truths and 1 lie activity. Give students three facts and one false fact about a particular topic. Use the chat to have each student figure out the wrong fact. This can be used as a review activity or just for fun.
• National Geographic: Online ready-made trivia games
• Surveys and Polls
• Bingo: Use whiteboard or shared screen for visuals: create your own related to your lesson content. Create a BINGO board. You can use Hebrew fonts, as well.
• Dress up game: Relate this to your class content.
• Create a story: Open a word document on a shared screen. Teacher starts a story and types it. Go around the class. Each student adds a sentence. Teacher can type the sentence as it is said.
• Classroomscreen.com: You’ll need to sign in to use timers, stoplight, clock, choose students, dice, textbox, drawing tool.
• Kahoot.it: Multiple choice quiz maker.
• Triviamaker.com: Can use Hebrew fonts too.
• Read together: Put pages of a book (or find a story online) into your PowerPoint and read as a class. You can unmute student microphones that are doing the reading. You can actually read a book as well and use the camera.  The website vooks.com  allows teachers a free account for a year due to the pandemic. 
• Show and tell: Using the camera can be very effective.
• Word find/search: You can create Judaic ones with Master Teacher in DavkaWriter – use your shared screen to annotate as an activity related to your lesson content.
• Eye spy: Google them or create your own related to your lesson content.
• Flashcards: Both Judaic and general studies. You can create your own related to your lesson content.
• Quizlet.com: Creation of flashcards, use of created sets of cards – free sign up, will take Hebrew fonts – create your own related to your lesson content.

By Rabbi Avrohom Moller

When planning for teaching Chumash, there are three levels of planning necessary:

1. The annual plan is the overarching goals and content paced out for the year.In this process, the teacher identifies the learning standards which they are expected to meet over the course of the upcoming school year.
2. The unit plan prepares a group of lessons for 2-3 weeks. It focuses on the specific themes and concepts that are unique to this unit and identifies effective instructional methods to teach them. Summative assessment should be planned for the unit as well.
3. The daily lesson plan is the actual choreography of what will happen in the classroom on a daily basis. It includes the content to covered, the methods that will be used, the timing of the lesson, the materials and activities that will be needed and how the lesson will be evaluated for effectiveness so that the teacher is certain that the students “got it”..

These planning phases are necessary when teaching any content but this discussion will focus on the specific considerations when teaching Chumash.

A rich curriculum in any subject includes a focus on content, skills and a hierarchy of skills. When it comes to Chumash, our goal is for students to view the text as a Divine text(תורה מן השמים) which serves as a guide to our lives. It is written in a unfamiliar language which the students needs to master and, at the same time the student needs to absorb the content, analyze it and adopt it to their lives. As the student progresses, he/she needs to become more analytic by applying more sophisticated thinking skills and also open to multiple readings and commentaries.

The planning process for teaching chumash

Annual Plan: The first phase of planning involves clarifying the content to be taught over the year, the standards of learning and the time available to teach the content. This information is provided by the instructional administrator and it is important to have complete clarity about the standards so that they can guide all of the instructional activities. The school calendar should be studied and all of the time allocated for Chumash identified. A pace for the learning should be established with the recognition that not every posuk will take the same amount of time to teach to the standard.

Unit Planning: The next step is to plan the units. Different sections of Chumash lend themselves to building different skills. Some contain important hashkafa or halach. Some units can teach language skills such as numbers. Some can be used to teach gathering information and tabulating it. At this point it is important to make sure that the standards that are being used are developmentally correct. If the students aren’t cognitively ready for certain information it will quickly become frustrating for them. An example is teaching Hebrew verb conjugations based on tense and/ or person when the student has no concept of these ideas in their mother tongue.

Daily Lesson Planning: The daily lesson plan is a careful choreography of what will actually occur in the classroom. It includes the instructional plan and the timing of execution. It contains everything that the teacher needs to prepare in advance, materials, technology, supplies, etc. It describes activities such as frontal learning, games, cooperative learning, independent learning, and how these will advance the goal of meeting standards. The lesson objective will be a clear description of what the student will be able to do if the lesson is successful. The assessment will plan how the teacher will be able to demonstrate that the lesson was successful.

Hunter’s Model for Lesson Planning:

Madeline Hunter (1916-1994) formulated some of the key components of successful lessons. Many have created lesson plan templates based on her formulation. It is a good practice to incorporate this template in the instructional section of the lesson plan.

Elements of a solid lesson plan:

• Anticipatory set: the hook and bridge of prior knowledge 
• Objective and purpose: tell students where one is going
• Input: what students need to understand the lesson
• Modeling: show them what they’re learning in a concrete way
• Check for understanding: a variety of strategies to assess learning
• Guided practice: do something together with the students and check on their progress
• Independent practice: give students time to work independently
• Closure: wrap up, the lesson and reflect on learning

Hunter’s elements do not make up the whole plan since teachers need to add time management, activities, materials and differentiation for a complete plan. Good lesson plans ultimately benefit teachers by making them more prepared, creating lessons of high quality and providing clarity for all.

Candid conversations with specialists on the frontlines

When making considerations for helping a child with learning difficulties, there is an abundance of information that can be overwhelming to parents and teachers. 

To better support these students, as well as ATT staff, ATT teachers heard from Mrs. Rivka Varnai, M. Ed. LBS1 a reading specialist and Heera Chandani CCC-SLP/L, a speech and language pathologist to support them. 

The four pillars of learning

The four pillars of learning connect neurobiology and cognitive psychology to try and make the best use of the brain’s learning algorithms.

The first pillar of learning is recognizing that attention is the gateway to learning. By reducing distractions, students are more attentive, aware and better equipped to retain what they are learning. 

Students benefit from being taught how to pay attention to relevant details. Students can become easily overwhelmed with information, but when they are taught to pay attention to captions, headlines and context clues, this can make the learning more manageable.

The second pillar of learning promotes active engagement and participation in lessons. Especially when learning is difficult, teachers can encourage participation by making learning more fun, setting clear learning objectives and encouraging rewards. Rewarding the process, not just the end product can help minimize anxiety and stress and give students a dopamine boost to learn effectively and have a positive association with education. 

Error feedback is the third pillar of learning that inspires students (and teachers!) to learn from past mistakes. It’s important to adopt a growth mindset to learn how to accept and correct mistakes. Eventually, students will be better equipped to correct their mistakes quickly and take constructive criticism more easily. 

Once the first three pillars have been constructed within, the fourth pillar of learning entails consolidation – practicing every day. Regularly practicing these pillars will help make them habitual. Space out the learning and practice with daily drills of about five minutes. Throughout the process, check the retention to ensure the students are retaining the information. 

Keep cognition in mind

Understanding different elements of cognitive processing can play a major role in helping a student with learning disabilities. Cognition consists of the mental processes involved in gaining knowledge and comprehension. These cognitive processes include thinking, knowing, remembering, judging, and problem solving to show how learning becomes a cycle.

The cognitive process of selectively emphasizing and ignoring sensory stimuli is known to students as attention. These modalities process information from different sensory fields: visual, auditory, spatial, tactile. Try to get students to focus on one sensory modality instead of having their attention distributed across modalities.

There are different types of attention used in learning. Sustained or selective attention is used to emphasize what is relevant in teaching.  Alternating or divided attention is the ability to switch from one area to another. 

Visual or orthographic memory is one part of visual perceptual skills. This type of memory is used when students have to copy or spell. It focuses on one’s ability to recall visual information that has been seen. Visual memory is a critical factor in reading and writing and the best way to help students build their memory muscles is with practices. 

Be aware of how students process information

Auditory memory is the ability to remember information that is heard. Teachers and parents should be mindful of whether their students can process what they hear the same way other students do. They may have normal hearing, but there is interference with how the brain interprets sounds. These students will respond better if the teacher speaks more slowly, pauses often, breaks down directions, provides visuals and graphic organizers. 

Phonological processing is the ability to listen for and manipulate individual sounds in spoken language and is a key factor to diagnose dyslexia. These students have difficulty rhyming or with sounds. They may also experience difficulties with visual processing which affects how visual information is interpreted, or processed by the brain

Dyslexia is a type of learning disability that may be accompanied with the following: 

• Difficulties with decoding and spelling (fluency)
• Deficits in phonological processing
• Neurobiological
• Brain differences
• Runs in families
• Unexpected – a weakness in a sea of strengths
• Secondary implications – reading comprehension and vocabulary, behavior difficulties

The International Dyslexia Association (IDA) has a Dyslexia Handbook for Teachers along with many helpful resources such as a guide to their structured literacy program and how it works to help students with dyslexia. 

Managing dyslexia 

Many students with dyslexia are able to thrive with the right support. Students with ADHD often have trouble with executive functioning and could also benefit from working on these skills.  Helping with executive functioning skills can provide a way for students to manage the brain systems more effectively.

These mental skills to build include: 

• Attention
• Working memory 
• Flexible thinking – read and read
• Organizing, planning, prioritizing, setting goals
• Self-monitoring
• Initiating tasks
• Self-control
• Ensure basic needs are met – food, sleep

Students with dyslexia may also require help building social emotional functioning skills. A student may require support if they have difficulty in social interactions or seem isolated. When major changes to family structure, upheaval such as job loss, school closures, or remote learning may also impact the student more greatly. To help with the social emotional side, check out Growing Our Resilience Muscle by Alexandra Fleksher. 

Anxiety is a big part of the world these days, but particularly with students with dyslexia they may face challenges with their sense of well-being. Emotions are like oil, and rationale is water. Oil always rises to the top. To reach learning, the layer of oil has to be traversed first. 

Overconsumption of Technology

In The Book in Crisis, Carol Jago  issues a call to action saying reading is in crisis among students in general. “Too often, too many students are choosing not to read.” She surveys teens who admit to almost always being on their phones. Especially in the times of the pandemic, working and learning remotely takes a toll. Overconsumption of technology affects sleep, self-control and inhibition for children and adults who may or may not have other learning processing challenges.

These days, especially, it’s important to be aware of over consuming technology.

ATT teachers recently heard from Sarah Wineberg of REACH to discuss three “brain states” as a way of promoting behavioral understanding. By identifying these brain states, teachers are better equipped to connect and collaborate with children in a way that helps them move through the brain states.

The three brain states are survival, emotional and executive. Some students may experience difficulty building a bridge between them. Learning these techniques can help kids move from the survival or emotional state to an executive one, building skills and allowing for lasting change and problem-solving. 

Basic principles

There are some essential foundation points to keep in mind to help stay focused and on the right track:

• Modeling has the greatest impact
• Kids do well if they can
• Skill not will – assume the positive intent
• Expect conflict and use it as an opportunity to teach
• Love, connection and relationships are the best motivators for learning and growth
• The child is the best source of knowledge

In a typical response to a child or situation, even if a teacher knows the proper response it does not always translate to reality. Practicing these responses helps a teacher respond effectively in the moment. 

Three brain states and responses

1. Executive state – What can I learn from this?

2. Emotional state – Am I loved and in an emotionally safe environment?

3. Survival state –  Am I safe right now?

The survival state is the most unregulated state and in it, students may be triggered by fight, flight and fright or feel helpless and in trouble, Factors that contribute to this can be the teacher’s tone, relationship until now, or when the emotional bank account is imbalanced. 

For the teacher, the first step to balance the equation is to regulate ourselves by breathing and gaining the reassurance that we can properly manage the situation. Waiting until a calmer moment will help handle the situation more mindfully. 

For the student, use the following techniques to help them:

• Encourage them to breathe
• Validate them in public
• Have them spend time in a calming corner
• Provide reassurance and empathy
• Stay calm yourself as your calm is contagious
• Remind them to be a STAR = Stop, Take a breath And Relax.

The three brain states correlate to the three states of engagement: regulate, relate and reason. The survival state may look like screaming, tantrum, avoidance, resisting eye contact, eye-rolling or not wanting to be touched. 

Steer clear of telling the student to calm down to avoid stressing them out further. We can only regulate or elevate others to the place that we are at, so if we are currently residing in the survival state, we will need to identify which stage we are in before responding. To promote self-awareness and relate to students, try to identify the triggers that put you into survival mode. 

Often we can just see the tip of the iceberg, but if we look deeper we can discern what the child is really saying. 

Empathy as a prerequisite 

The starting line for collaborative problem solving is learning how to empathize to try and regulate the child through a deeper understanding. There are tools and techniques to use to achieve this such as reassurance and reflective listening. 

When interacting with a student, make sure to open with a neutral statement such as, “I noticed that.” “Can you tell me more about what’s going on?” 

According to  Think: Kids, “Lagging skills are the reasons that a child is having difficulty meeting these expectations or responding adaptively to these triggers.” These are not about having teachers be diagnosticians but instead allows teachers to take a best guess as to what may be getting in a student’s way. 

It’s helpful to consider the skills you can identify that are lagging when a student is pulled into their survival state. Helping them figure it out can lead them in the right direction. 

Techniques to try

• Deep breaths, draw feelings, model or vocalize to children what you are doing, and use a calming activity
• An emotional state is our response to upset and can only be soothed through connection.
• Stay with the child and calm them down until they can talk about it.

Behaviors in an emotional state

Sass, chutzpah, attention-seeking, attitude, testing and tears are just some of the major behaviors you will see in students. For the teacher, self-care, sharing with a helpful adult, and empathy can help work through emotional states. For the student, showing empathy, being “curious not furious,” giving jobs, choices, staying close and building the relationship are ways to help. 

Collaborative problem-solving stages

The first stage of collaborative problem solving is empathy. We tend to insert our own thoughts when someone else is talking. Real empathy is being able to understand others from their perspective. Empathy is nonjudgmental, feeling with people. Rarely an empathic response begins with “at least.” Rarely can a response make something better. What makes it better is the connection felt through empathy. 

The executive state is the optimal state for problem-solving and learning. It frees us from past conditioning, attunes us to the feelings and experiences of others. The goal is to act out of rational ideas and respond from a place of calm and inspire the student to rationalize, problem-solve or come to a conclusion on their own (or with some guidance.) Getting into the executive state makes it possible when both sides are regulated. 

The second and third stage occurs when the child is regulated, shares adult concern and hears another perspective. This is when the problem-solving magic happens and together you can brainstorm solutions. 

Collaborative Problem Solving solves the problem durably, builds skills, builds connection and relationships. It teaches children to have long-term healthy response techniques, to not avoid conflict and to use every opportunity to learn or teach.

For more resources on the three brain states and collaborative problem solving, check out thinkkids.org and consciousdiscipline.com.

Join the ATT’s week of community-wide inspiration & virtual learning

November 28, 2020 – December 6, 2020

Launching our annual campaign with lectures from world-renowned speakers and short videos from local educators all week long

Featuring:

Rabbi YY Jacobson

Motzaei Shabbos, November 28, 2020 @8PM: Keeping Positive in an Age of Uncertainty
34th Annual Rabbi Isaac Mayefsky Memorial Lecture
Sponsored by the Mayefsky Family in memory of Rabbi Isaac and Mrs. Florence Mayefsky z”l

Zoom link: https://zoom.us/j/94567994722

Rabbi David Fohrman

Sunday, December 6, 2020 @ 11AM: The Unfinished Story of Jacob’s Ladder
Sponsored by the Tanielle Miller Foundation by Ruth Rotenberg and Glenn Miller

Zoom link: https://zoom.us/j/94939500454

Support the ATT annual campaign with a donation for our week of learning

Contact Rabbi Uri Zimmerman with any questions.

If there’s one lesson to take from 2020, it’s that the job of a teacher extends beyond just teaching. That mental health can affect student learning is well-known, but this year it’s that much greater. 

Fortunately for the ATT, in collaboration with Walder Education, Angela Searcy, Ed.D recently presented to ATT teachers how to implement social and emotional learning strategies to help students thrive in learning despite the extraordinary challenges of learning in a pandemic. 

Social and emotional learning (SEL) is the process through which children and adults understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions.

Helping students thrive 

For some teachers, being mindful of social and emotional learning may come naturally. If that’s not yet a strength, there are many tools and strategies teachers can implement to ensure students’ emotions aren’t standing in the way of learning.

A systemic approach to social and emotional learning intentionally cultivates caring, participatory, and evidence-based practices to actively involve all students in their social, emotional and academic growth.

In her book Push Past It! A Positive Approach to Challenging Classroom Behaviors, Dr. Searcy shares examples and explains where SEL fits within the mental health continuum. In her presentation, Dr. Searcy reviewed steps that support good behavior planning, outlined tools to help educators MATCH a strategy to their unique students and program, and shared what to expect at different phases of implementation.

Implementing SEL techniques 

It takes time to master any new teaching strategy, so a great starting point is a visit to the National Center for Pyramid Models Innovation  (NCPMI)’s  Practical Strategies for Implementing the Pyramid Model for social and emotional learning idea inspiration. 

Following are strategies to easily and effectively implement SEL into lesson plans. 

1. Book Nook 

There are many popular books that can be read to children to support social emotional development and teach them about various emotions and responses to life’s daily events. 

Each book has a lesson or activity that is relayed in a positive and engaging manner with hands-on ways to embed social emotional skill building activities into everyday routines.

Check out this comprehensive children’s book list to teach about cultivating relationships and enhance positive behavior. 

2. Keep in touch with student emotions 

There are countless visual tools to monitor or express how one is feeling emotionally. From feeling wheels or faces to charts, to greeting boards, to bulletin board mood meters samples, teachers can be in touch with the mood of their students. More importantly, this helps the students gain the awareness to be in touch with their own feelings. These concepts are effective from toddlers to teens and help build community in the classroom.

3. Resolve conflict creatively 

Once students understand their emotions, they can progress to conflict resolution.

There are additional videos to help teachers guide their students in conflict resolution.

Coping and calming strategies with sentence starters are also effective ways to help children practice expressing empathy and feelings in daily situations. In the classroom, creating creative, peaceful and calming corners works for some students. 

By modeling these strategies for students, teachers can help inspire social emotional learning and help students thrive in learning whether it’s in the classroom or remote. 

We recently  welcomed Megan Hoffman, LCSW and Emily Crane, MEd from the Compass Health Center to present to ATT teachers about how to support day school families as their children’s needs change dramatically this year, sometimes on a daily basis. 

Our job as teachers and as the ATT is to help students thrive. As part of that, we are working hard to implement tools and strategies to promote positive mental health. 

When the pandemic first started, this sentiment resonated with a lot people: “We are in the same storm, not the same boat.” When we consider the disparities among how equipped families are to deal with the ramifications of this time, it’s clear that each family and individual continues to experience it differently. 

Mental health anguish can often feel like a flood of very complex emotions. When the biblical flood threatened the world, Noach built an ark to keep life moving forward. Now it’s our job to teach our children how to build an ark. Only this time instead of gopher wood, we have tools from organizations like Compass to help students thrive in the most challenging circumstances. 

Impact of COVID-19 on mental health in uncertain times

Trauma, grief and loss all have respective psychological, behavioral, social and physical reactions. Everyone has lost something due to the pandemic, and the grief is personal and specific to each individual. This loss could look like a loss of a loved one, loss of connection with school, peers and participation in cherished activities.

Some may experience the loss of routine, safety and certainty of what will happen in the future. The combination of these losses can lead to a loss of personal identity and new or intensified mental health struggles. 

Educators are also experiencing these losses and are learning how to support their students and colleagues through grief. It’s even more crucial now to normalize and allow a safe space for others to talk about emotions. It’s not always possible, but humor or a silver lining can be healing. 

Once the losses of the pandemic are validated, the Kubler-Ross model of the Five Stages of Grief can be a helpful guide for understanding what students are feeling. Some students may feel shock, denial, frustration and depression at times. Students will benefit greatly from having a teacher that is able to help them navigate these emotional waves. 

Emphasis on emotions

Developing and expanding emotional vocabulary is a helpful way to cope with difficult situations. Knowing our emotions helps us get our needs met, in other words, “If you name it, you can tame it.”  

A great starting point is recognizing that feelings are not facts. There are resources such as  Lindsay Braman’s emotion-sensation wheel to expand emotion vocabulary. This method works by giving students the vocabulary to be able to share their feelings more comfortably.  Once an emotion is identified, the teacher can ask the student if they can think of anything that would help in this situation. 

Teachers should have a chart or graphic with faces of various emotions easily accessible in the classroom to help a student feel more comfortable when asked, “How are you feeling today?” This allows students to separate themselves from the emotion. Oftentimes, emotions pass and this method helps students move through the emotions more smoothly. 

Stress and distress reactions

Pain is unavoidable at times, and teaching acceptance around what cannot be controlled may help students avoid unhealthy coping mechanisms. Teachers can work with students on a personal “stress survival guide” to help them nourish their body, mind and soul. 

For the body, encourage students to get enough sleep, exercise, eat well, practice deep breathing, listen to calming music, etc. To help put their minds at ease, encourage talking about their stressors, have them keep a journal, learn to prioritize time, and set healthy habits and rituals. Engaging in positive self-talk, taking a break from social media, accepting stress as normal, trying mindfulness and finding ways to relax are all ways to help nourish the soul and keep from getting burnt out.

Though a certain level of anxiety during stressful times is normal, there are indications when additional help might be needed. 

Here are some stress and distress reactions to watch out for:

• Significant changes in sleep patterns
• Increase in physical/somatic symptoms
• Increased irritability, increased distractibility
• Increase in isolation and avoidance
• Decreased sense of safety
• Increase in frequency and intensity of worries
• Avoidance of fears
• Engaging in excessive reassurance-seeking behaviors
• Major shifts in mood or activity levels
• Talk of suicide or self-harm
• Substance use
• Intrusive thoughts about Covid that are impairing

Mental health in the classroom

To promote healthy mental health in the classroom, it’s important to manage expectations versus reality around school. This can be achieved by normalizing the range of reactions and creating a space for students to talk about how their year is going. 

One way to begin this dialogue is to ask students if they have questions or concerns about the future and uncertainty. In this conversation, it’s appropriate to say, “I don’t know” when there aren’t clear answers which can actually help validate fears around uncertainty, feelings of isolation and loneliness.

It’s important to master and then teach students how to hold the dialectic, or find the balance between acceptance and change. This inspires students to identify what is in their control and what is beyond. Mindfulness strategies and emotional regulation can help with this.

By taking some time to enhance classroom management strategies, educators can work towards helping students thrive despite the present challenges. Teachers can implement morning meetings, have break-out groups on Zoom, have one-on-one check-ins with students to see what is going well and what needs some work.

Having the students participate in these ways can help create accountability in students. It may also be helpful to use games in the classroom as a way to creatively combine learning with some much-needed entertainment and unwinding.

Ways to help students cope

Encourage boundaries – Maintaining proper boundaries is even more important with social distance and virtual learning. Kids and adults are both feeling overwhelmed with connecting with others via technology, and it’s necessary to have proper boundaries in place to be able to “turn-off.” Identify consistency and availability within the context of boundaries. 

Teachers should encourage self-care. One creative way to help students with this is by playing “Self-care BINGO” and have categories like reading, being kind, creative activity, dancing, playing outside, etc. Teachers can start by creating their own self-care board and show clear boundaries on food or technology to model a sense of balance. 

Validating vs. fixing- It’s imperative to distinguish between validating problems and fixing them. Validation doesn’t mean there aren’t expectations or consequences and the behavior should be redirected if inappropriate. Although it feels natural to want to help someone by finding a solution to their problems, sometimes all they need is to be told, “I hear you, but we need to move forward” and discuss it another time if it remains a problem.

Consistency, predictability and uncertainty – Schedules and routines when possible help students stay grounded when so much around them is uncertain. There should be a clear understanding of expectations, rewards and consequences and students should be guided toward finding the delicate balance between consistency and flexibility. 

Even if they don’t know where the river is headed, they should know what the boundaries of the river beds are. When a teacher practices acceptance around not knowing, students can learn that uncertainty is a part of daily life. Teachers cannot predict the future, but they can help students learn how to cope and FACE COVID. 

Focus on what is in your control
Acknowledge your thoughts and feelings
Come back into your body
Engage in what you are doing

Committed action (engage in our values)
Open up
Values
Identify resources
Disinfect and distance

4 mental health boosts for students

1. Radical acceptance

Identifying what is within our control and what is not means having students ask themselves, “What am I the boss of?”  By teaching students that they don’t have to like what is happening but accepting reality can help them cope with life’s uncertainties.

Remember – Pain + non-acceptance = suffering. 

2. Grounding techniques

Use this while radically accepting to get students through difficult moments. Grounding exercises include: taking a break, petting your pet, 4×4 breathing exercises, using the 5 senses to get the mind off of it, using fidgets. Teachers can have students identify their own coping tools. Youtube has many videos on breathing exercises that can help students in stressful moments. The book Alphabreaths:The ABCs of Mindful Breathing and other similar books help kids get through stress. 

3. Gratitude 

Teach students through exercises to bring their awareness and attention to what they are grateful for. Ask students to name just one thing we are grateful for this week, as a class, as a community? Even on Zoom the chat feature can be used for this type of exercise.

4. Goals and motivation

Setting and striving towards a goal is a great tool to boost mental health. Teachers can use goal-setting in the classroom or during remote learning. Once the goal is set, work with the students on how to gradually achieve it by breaking it into smaller steps, establish clear expectations and encourage motivation. 

Keep in mind, it’s impossible to implement every single new technique and expand emotional awareness overnight. Gradually adding in some of these elements to already planned lessons and being more mindful going forward will help teachers help their students grow and thrive. 

The need to assess students’ knowledge is vital to enhancing teaching and learning. But with so much disruption to the school year last year, assessments this fall 2020 are even more important than usual. In order to prepare for the school year, ATT teachers attended a workshop with Rabbi Dr. Dovid Jacobson, Educational Consultant, Yeshiva Educational Services, Inc.,  about the types of assessments they can use.

 There are 4 types of student assessments:

1. Placement testing: a pre-assessment before instruction begins. This creates a baseline for instruction.
2. Formative assessment: done by the teacher at the beginning and during instruction to note students’ progress and check for understanding. This is not necessarily for a grade, it is to help the teacher assess the progress of the learning.
3. Diagnostic testing: used to figure out if there is an impediment to learning so that the teacher can make accommodations or provide extra resources.
4. Summative assessment: tests at the end of a chapter, unit, year, course for purpose of giving a grade or advancement to next level of learning and to collect data on the student progress.

Placement testing and formative assessment are used to assess readiness, and teachers might need to adjust their teaching accordingly. This is always important, but it’s more important this year since students have not been in the traditional classroom since March. 

Once you have your assessment results, you’ll need to  

• Revisit the plan for the course/unit/lesson and make adjustments as needed.
• Provide or seek support for students who are below (and above!) level,
• Implement differentiated instruction based on student needs

This year it’s essential that teachers focus on ways to make remote learning interesting and effective. Now’s the time to make a habit of finding ways to make virtual learning interesting and interactive, as some students in the ATT system have opted to learn from home this year and others have to stay home even for a slight cold. Plus, there’s the realistic possibility that some classes or schools will have to learn remotely at times this year.

To help provide teachers gain the tools necessary to make this unusual year successful, the ATT is offering teachers additional professional development opportunities. Recently, education consultant Lakey Silber met with teachers over Zoom to explore creative ways to make virtual learning exciting for students. 

Practice using the virtual whiteboard whether it’s in-person or virtual 

With the many types of different learners out there, having a visual component to any lesson can be both engaging and essential for some students. Take the time to practice on your own and with your students by writing your name, drawing, coloring and using the different tools offered. 

Here are a few ways to use the whiteboard to make learning engaging: 

• Hangman – Take turns coming up with the word the students guess and having students submit words to use. 
• Pictionary – A fusion of words and pictures can be both fun and educational for students.
• I packed my bags to Israel – “And in it I put…” Followed by an object and the next student repeating the original object along with an addition. 
• Picture by piece – Draw one part of a picture at a time and have the students copy each part. At the end, share the picture with the class.
• Alphabet four squares –  A name, place, animal, think in four squares
• BINGO  

Shared screen

Having access to a screen sharing feature offers many creative learning opportunities for the virtual classroom. Games such as Boggle, Scattergories and Secret Code can all be used while screen sharing. Putting up a maze on your screen allows the students to simultaneously journey to the completion together. 

Sharing your screen can also be an engaging way to read a story together as a class. Read the story on slides so that the text and pictures are clear and vibrant to students. Screen sharing also allows the students to participate in a show and tell virtual experience. 

More activities to use with a shared screen include: 

• I spy
• Word find
• What is missing
• Can you guess the sound
• Show a part of an object and the students guess what it is 
• Memory game
• Scavenger hunt
• Dots and boxes
• Find the hidden objects in the picture 

There are enough options that you can incorporate many of these activities into daily lessons and see what works best with your class for the future. 

Effectively playing games 

Learning games are a tried and true method of teaching, and remote learning affords teachers many opportunities to incorporate fun and educational games into the mix. 

Triviamaker.com has different game modes to make quizzing students on materials fun, social and engaging. Similarly, teachers can use Family Feud, multiple-choice activities or other trivia games. Powerpoint and other software enable teachers to easily create Jeopardy-style games to quiz students’ knowledge. 

The picture story game is a very engaging and thoughtful exercise to do with students. For the game, each student receives a picture. Then, one student begins the story and each student continues the story with their individual picture. 

Another option is to play “Last Letter.” To play, the teacher selects a category for the game. The first player names a word in that category. Then the next person names a word in that category that starts with the last letter of the previous word the person said. The game continues until everyone is stumped.

Art projects for virtual learning

Participating in arts and crafts projects is proven to reduce anxiety, and in a time of such uncertainty, students will certainly appreciate the change of pace. The projects don’t need to be so complicated either. Make a flying paper airplane, paper boat or a simple paper plate project like a smiling sun. Teachers can have the students draw a picture and cut it out to create their own puzzle. 

Movement and exercise 

With remote learning, the thought of sitting and staring at a screen for hours can be daunting for even the most patient students. Break up the learning with some movement and exercises as often as needed. Play “Simon Says,” and teachers can give students the opportunity to play “Simon.” 

Freeze dance is a great way to incorporate music and energy into the learning experience. Put on music and let the students dance until it stops. Students can also dance with an object like a broom or a scarf to make it more interactive. 

“5,4,3,2,1” is an exercise where the teacher proposes five different movements in descending order. Five jumping jacks, four spins around, three hops on one foot, two walks around the room and one high-five for a friend. 

Movement and exercise can also mean using the time for relaxation and focus techniques. Practice breathing strategies with students such as smell the flower and blow the pinwheel. Have students breathe in while raising their hands and breathe out slowly putting their hands back down.  Giving students clapping rhythms to copy or providing Youtube videos such as JJ Duchman’s “Keep School Fun” are also creative ways to keep students engaged. 

Although nothing can replace the power of in-person learning, using creative and engaging activities can make the best of the virtual learning situation and give students a positive experience when they need it most.