If your school district has ever participated in Flip Flippen’s Capturing Kids’ Hearts training, you are probably familiar with the process of sharing good things each day with your students. With many teachers across the country scrambling to put a plan together for teaching online, a lot of us are still hoping to keep our students in the habit of sharing good things as a way to bond.
For me, keeping our students in the habit of sharing good things is not only fundamental for keeping with the Capturing Kids’ Hearts process. No doubt, it is important for any person – regardless of age – to develop a daily habit of recognizing and acknowledging the good things in their lives each day. An attitude of gratitude is an overall part of a good growth mindset and a general happy life. Sharing good things with each other – no matter how small – is an exercise in culture-building, celebrating others, and mindfulness.
As for the virtual teaching and the fact that many of us aren’t really sure what we are doing, the consistent process of sharing good things will be good for a sense of normalcy for our students and for ourselves. It will also help us continue with growth mindset teaching. Lord knows we all need as much normalcy and structure as possible right now!
As I type this post, much is unknown about the rest of this academic year. Will we return to school in the next few weeks or will we not? If we do not physically return to school, will we take part in AMI days (alternative methods of instruction) for the remainder of the year or will we simply end the school year early? Regardless of whether we return to our classrooms this school year or not, many of us are preparing to resume virtual teaching at least for a while. This may only go on for a short while or it might stretch for a while.
How to Continue Sharing Good Things with Students Virtually
I’m trying really hard to be a glass-half-full kind of person right now. Therefore, I created 30 “Tell us something good” graphics to share on Google Classroom in the event we continue online instruction or (even better!) return to our classrooms soon. Actually, there are three different sets – one set of “good things” images for younger kids, another set for teenagers and possibly college-level, and another group of images with teachers pictured rather than kids.
For the first week of online teaching, I simply typed the good thing question into an “announcement post” each day. Although that works fine, I think the images will add a little more pizzazz to sharing good things. As we continue with teaching remotely, my plan is to use the set of teacher images in my Google Classrooms each day for two weeks. After the first two weeks, I will rotate through the set again or I may switch to the teenage set of images for sharing good things.
Continuing to Tell Something Good in the Classroom Setting
Obviously, these images can also be used while sharing good things once we return to the regular classroom setting. If you project work or an opener onto the screen at the start of class each day, you can easily project one of these images to start sharing good things. Again, you don’t have to have taken part in a Capturing Kids’ Hearts training to enjoy sharing good things with your students. Simply, ask your kids each day to share something good about their week or day with you and the other students. You, the teacher, can share also. Many of us have been doing this is some form or fashion for years, anyway, as a genuine way to get to know our students. Again, if you have been a part of Capturing Kids’ Heart training, these graphics will support the program.
I am dropping the links below for you to download whichever graphics you would like to have. I thought about putting these as a freebie in my Teachers Pay Teachers store. Honestly, it is faster for me to add them here, and most of us don’t have time to waste to get ourselves prepared for this distance learning business.
Sharing Good Things Graphics (Young Students)
Sharing Good Things Graphics (Teenagers)
Sharing Good Things Graphics (Teachers)
You can add the “tell us something good” graphics to your arsenal of online teacher tools. I think we might need all the tools we can find for a while! Hopefully, you and your students will enjoy sharing good things virtually! Whether online learning or in-class learning, we can still continue to capture kids’ hearts! Also, has your school staff started a private Facebook group for social camaraderie among staff yet? If so and you need posting ideas, I have more free downloads for Facebook engagement post ideas! Go check it out!
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