Listen Up!

Today I'm excited for my guest post at Dr. Jean's blog; click {here} to go there for this song and other fun ways to foster Emotional Literacy.

I'm also jazzed because our Virtual Classroom Survival Guide eBook released today; you can purchase it for $15 through the PayPal link in the right-hand column of my blog. We wrote it with caregivers everywhere on our hearts and in our minds.

With nearly 250 pages, the book got SO long that a few things didn't make it in, including these ideas about helping get our kids ready to learn online.

Give Me Five can help when it’s time to get quiet; raise a high five as a visual cue to teach your students that it's time to engage using these five expectations:

1.   Sit up straight, ready to learn.

2.   Mute your mic and get quiet.

3.   Look into the camera at the speaker.

4.   Pay attention with your whole body.

5.   Raise your hand if you want/need something.

Active Listening, a skill that we need to model, teach, and practice every single day with our littlest learners, is an integral part of remote schooling. Share this video clip with your parents to encourage them to teach active-listening skills and to practice listening skills with their children.

I learned about SOLER from a Capturing Kids' Hearts training years ago;

we use it to remind students how to listen with their whole body.

The other day on Twitter, someone asked why I refer to the Eye Contact step as the empathy piece; have you heard that "the eyes are the window to our soul?" Michele Borba actually suggests looking for the color of the speaker's eyes so that we can fully engage with who they are, what they're saying, and what they need us to hear, to understand, to embrace.

Listen up; are you ready for this adventure we call life?

Teach your learners this song to help them focus in and get ready for 

the learning adventures that you've got planned for them.

Listen Up

(Tune: If You’re Happy And You Know It)

If you’re ready *for adventure, listen up.

If you’re ready for adventure,  listen up.

Sit up straight and mute your mic,

Look the speaker in the eye.

If you’re ready for adventure, listen up.

*To write another verse or two, substitute the lyrics "for adventure" with phrases like "for the lesson, to get smarter, to explore now, for our math time, etc." to help your students transition from one thing to the next.

So many of us are transitioning from the traditional in-person way of doing things to the physical-distancing method that has become our new normal. Even my PD workshops have moved to virtual offerings, for now.

Is your upcoming school year going to start online or in person?