Tag Archives: Best Practices

Florida teachers turn students’ desks into little jeeps

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First grade teachers Patricia Dovi and Kim Martin from DeLand, Florida, turn their students’ desks into little jeeps to help their kids adjust to safe face-to-face instruction during the pandemic. (Photo credit: CNN)

Educators all around the country are scrambling to find ways to keep their students safe when face-to face instruction resumes. Two first grade teachers from DeLand, Florida, have come up with a unique strategy to create social distancing in their classroom. They have transformed their students’ desk chairs into little jeeps!

Patricia Dovi and Kim Martin, who teach at St. Barnabas Episcopal School, fashioned headlights,tires, front grills, and license plates from construction paper, Between each jeep they placed three-sided plexiglass dividers that serve as windshields and side windows. The dividers serve double duty as coronavirus barriers.

“We had a little meet-the-teacher session and we gave them keys to their car and told them just like in a motor vehicle, you have to stay in your car at all times and wear a mask when you get out in case you come across hazardous conditions,” explained Kim. “So we’re playing on this vehicle concept to turn social distancing fun and more kid friendly.” Many students said they could hardly wait to take their desks for a test drive, the two teachers revealed.
Paul Garcia, principal of St. Barnabas, said the plexiglrass shields were purchased by the school, but the teachers will be reimbursed for the $200 they spent on the other materials they used to transform the desks into vehicles.
Patricia and Kim said an Instagram post from Jennifer Birch Pierson, an elementary school teacher from Texas, served as the inspiration for the project. To read more about these innovative educators, see this link to CNN.

First grade teachers Patricia Dovi, lfet, and Kim Martin, right, from St. Barnabas Episcopal School in DeLand, Florida. (Photo credit: CNN)

Free online tutorials to use while teaching at a distance

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During the current Covid-19 pandemic, classroom teachers are seeking meaningful learning experiences they can share online with their students. This is especially true as educators prepare for another school year, and the prospect of teaching predominantly, if not completely, online.

It is my belief that, whether students are home-bound or not, online tutorials provide excellent learning experiences. Here are a few of my very favorite online educational tutorials. Some are for younger students, others are for high school students. Check them out, and use the comments section to recommend other tutorials to your colleagues. Have a wonderful year!

PhET. This website offers interactive simulations for physics, biology, chemistry, earth science, and mathematics. Sponsored by the University of Colorado, Boulder.

Hippocampus. Check out this website that offers over 7,000 free videos in mathematics, algebra, geometry, calculus, and statistics and probability.

Code.org. Code.org offers free tutorials and entertaining practice about computer science, including an Hour of Code. Your computer education students will love this website.

MusicTheory.net. This site includes interactive slide shows and music theory lessons for beginning through advanced students. Choose various tools including the ability to create custom drills and exercises.

FacingHistory.org. The Facing History website explores the topics of racism, prejudice, and antisemitism. The materials presented on this website are especially relevant given today’s current events.

Best Language. This website offers tutorials and assistance with basic phrases, vocabulary, and grammar in 15 different languages.

Khan Academy. Use this site to locate tutorials that coordinate with your specific lesson plans from among the many free offerings found on the website for Khan Academy. Tutorials are provided for math K-12, grammar, science, history, advanced placement, and SAT preparation.

College Readiness. Use this website to find practice tests and sample questions for the SAT test covering the areas of English, reading math, writing, history, science, and languages.

For online instruction, consider these virtual tours

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During the current coronavirus pandemic, I’m sure classroom teachers are seeking meaningful learning experiences they can share online with their students. This is especially true as educators prepare for another school year, and the prospect of teaching predominantly, if not completely, online.

I believe, whether students are home-bound or not, virtual tours provide excellent learning experiences. Here are a few of my very favorite online educational virtual tours. Use the comments section to recommend other virtual tours to your colleagues. Enjoy!

Ellis Island. Lead your students to this wonderful virtual tour of Ellis Island, and the story of immigration to the United States through this important and historic entry point. Created by Scholastic. Includes a Teacher Activity Guide.

United States Capitol. Share this exciting virtual tour of our nation’s Capitol building. Includes important paintings, sculptures, monuments, and architectural design elements throughout the Capitol complex. Created by the official Architect of the Capitol.

White House. Guide your students to this virtual tour of the interiors of the White House that would normally be open to the public for in-person tours, including the North Entrance, the Blue Room, the Green Room, the Red Room, and the State Dining Room. Enjoy 360 degree views and zoom in on objects of special interest. Created by Google.

NASA. This website offers a plethora of exciting virtual tours, including one of the International Space Station, Hubble Telescope Mission Operations Center, and an exploration of the stars. Prepared by NASA.

Athens Acropolis. This virtual tour includes such sites as the Parthenon, the Theatre of Dionysus, the Erechtheion, and the Temple of Athena Nike. Accompanied by in-depth videos that provide a fascinating and educational insight into ancient Greece. Created by the government of Greece.

Louvre Museum. Suggest your students explore a virtual tour of the Louvre Museum in Paris. They can view Egyptian antiquities, the Remains of the Louvre’s Moat, and the decorative arts of the Galerie d’Apollon. They can discover details about each room through detailed descriptions. Prepared by the museum.

San Diego Zoo Live Cams. This one is not a virtual tour, per se, but your students will love viewing live cams of various animals at the San Diego Zoo, including pandas, penguins, hippos, monkeys, tigers, elephants, polar bears, koalas, and condors. Created by the Zoo.

More virtual field trips for your homebound students

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I hope everyone is maintaining a good attitude, even though many are off at work, stuck in their homes, attempting to create exciting distance-learning activities for their students, and/or home schooling their own children. Looking for some absorbing activities to keep the kids occupied? The past couple of days I have been offering some suggestions on how to make your time at home with your own kids educational and productive. I have also shared some links to some virtual tours from around the world that your students may find exciting. Here are some additional websites for virtual tours you can share with your kids, or even indulge in yourself!

Here’s the list:  The Anne Frank House, Buckingham Palace, Farm Tours, the Great Wall of China, Holy Land Tour, the Houston Zoo, the Louvre Museum, and Mars.

Here’s the link to the lot: Virtual Field Trips

Enjoy!