Sónia Moreira is a teacher from Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal, and creator of the Coopera project, based on the pedagogical model of cooperative learning. In 2020 she was awarded Teacher of the Year by the Global Teacher Prize and is now in the Top 50 of the global competition.

You wanted to be a teacher since you were 5 years old. What inspired you (and continues to inspire you)?

First, the love for listening to the stories my mother used to tell me so well with books or without them. I recounted these stories to my dolls by reading the images from those same books or imagining the scenarios of those told without books.

At the age of seven, I was already helping my teacher with passion and dedication, in a tutoring that extended after the school term. I used to receive at home classmates and other girls from the street where I lived, whom I loved to guide in carrying out the work, replicating the excellent example of my teacher. My vocation was reinforced in adolescence, as a mentor to a classmate who had recently arrived from South Africa. The challenges were to help her learn to communicate in Portuguese and facilitate her inclusion process. A mission that I fulfilled with all the dedication and some success. It became increasingly clear that this was the path I would choose to follow in adulthood.

Given the above, it’s easy to tell that my first sources of inspiration were my mother and my first teacher. Currently, my main inspirational references are other teachers, but also students and guardians.

What changed for you in a professional (and personal) capacity by having this recognition of the Global Teacher Prize?

The Global Teacher Prize (GTP) is like a Nobel Prize in Education, which recognizes the value of the pedagogical work of enterprising and inspiring teachers, where they reflect in their projects the transforming power of Education.

I had the immense joy of being honored with this award, in Portugal, as Teacher of the Year in 2020. Public recognition and the appreciation of a lifetime of investment in a professional career as a teacher, a choice I made in the first option, was, is and it will always be an unforgettable milestone in my personal and professional life.

This award gave me direct access to the GTP 2021 global competition, which is one of the most important awards in the field of Education. After submitting the application of 12,000 teachers, I am extremely honored to be able to be in the TOP 50 representing Portugal, and all Portuguese teachers who in any year (typical or atypical), face the difficulties, find answers, in a timely matter for students to develop their skills in the most responsible, inclusive and attractive way possible.

In short, for me this award values and praises all teachers who believe it is possible to promote quality education in any country.

What are the main challenges you faced in the creation and development of the Coopera Project?

The persistent dream of wanting to have a school where each child felt special, unique, belonging to this space, to this community that is also theirs and that allows them to grow and form in an involved, participatory and happy way, gave birth to a project of pedagogical intervention named COOPERA, based on the pedagogical model of Cooperative Learning. As a mentor of the project, one of the main challenges was being able to stand out, to coordinate the Coopera that involved the five schools of the Escultor António Fernandes de Sá School school group. We are talking about 29 classes (Pre-School to Grade 9), 60 teachers, 730 students, with continuous training in context and with the application of 14,282 surveys, ensuring, in this way, the monitoring of all the work carried out.

Currently, the main challenge is to be able to increase the work team. The requests are immense and in these last 3 years Coopera, supported by Cooperative Learning, reached 20 schools, 150 classes (Pre-School to 9th Grade and some secondary education classes), 350 Teachers and 3,000 students.

You wanted to be a teacher since you were 5 years old. What inspired you (and continues to inspire you)?

First, the love for listening to the stories my mother used to tell me so well with books or without them. I recounted these stories to my dolls by reading the images from those same books or imagining the scenarios of those told without books.

At the age of seven, I was already helping my teacher with passion and dedication, in a tutoring that extended after the school term. I used to receive at home classmates and other girls from the street where I lived, whom I loved to guide in carrying out the work, replicating the excellent example of my teacher. My vocation was reinforced in adolescence, as a mentor to a classmate who had recently arrived from South Africa. The challenges were to help her learn to communicate in Portuguese and facilitate her inclusion process. A mission that I fulfilled with all the dedication and some success. It became increasingly clear that this was the path I would choose to follow in adulthood.

Given the above, it’s easy to tell that my first sources of inspiration were my mother and my first teacher. Currently, my main inspirational references are other teachers, but also students and guardians.

What changed for you in a professional (and personal) capacity by having this recognition of the Global Teacher Prize?

The Global Teacher Prize (GTP) is like a Nobel Prize in Education, which recognizes the value of the pedagogical work of enterprising and inspiring teachers, where they reflect in their projects the transforming power of Education.

I had the immense joy of being honored with this award, in Portugal, as Teacher of the Year in 2020. Public recognition and the appreciation of a lifetime of investment in a professional career as a teacher, a choice I made in the first option, was, is and it will always be an unforgettable milestone in my personal and professional life.

This award gave me direct access to the GTP 2021 global competition, which is one of the most important awards in the field of Education. After submitting the application of 12,000 teachers, I am extremely honored to be able to be in the TOP 50 representing Portugal, and all Portuguese teachers who in any year (typical or atypical), face the difficulties, find answers, in a timely matter for students to develop their skills in the most responsible, inclusive and attractive way possible.

In short, for me this award values and praises all teachers who believe it is possible to promote quality education in any country.

What are the main challenges you faced in the creation and development of the Coopera Project?

The persistent dream of wanting to have a school where each child felt special, unique, belonging to this space, to this community that is also theirs and that allows them to grow and form in an involved, participatory and happy way, gave birth to a project of pedagogical intervention named COOPERA, based on the pedagogical model of Cooperative Learning. As a mentor of the project, one of the main challenges was being able to stand out, to coordinate the Coopera that involved the five schools of the Escultor António Fernandes de Sá School school group. We are talking about 29 classes (Pre-School to Grade 9), 60 teachers, 730 students, with continuous training in context and with the application of 14,282 surveys, ensuring, in this way, the monitoring of all the work carried out.

Currently, the main challenge is to be able to increase the work team. The requests are immense and in these last 3 years Coopera, supported by Cooperative Learning, reached 20 schools, 150 classes (Pre-School to 9th Grade and some secondary education classes), 350 Teachers and 3,000 students.

What are the main challenges you face in continuing training in the context of teachers of the Coopera Project?

The combination of working hours of the teachers involved is one of the main challenges. Another even greater challenge is to be able to respond to the numerous requests that come from teachers from different schools and regions of our country, since continuous training in context implies being in the classroom, monitoring, participating and assisting the teachers involved in the Cooperative Communities of Professional Learning.

The democratization of Cooperative Learning through the creation of a web platform that is already under development, appears as a possibility to respond to this challenge. Through it, we will be able to reach more students and teachers and thus provide:

• pedagogical resources to support Cooperative Learning classes;
• surveys for monitoring (validated scales to assess: Classroom climate; Self-efficacy; Social Skills; Creativity; Motivation; Academic achievement;
• automatic reports (customized dashboards depending on the profile: student, teacher, coordinator, director, guardian);
• training (integrated training environment in Cooperative Learning);
• application for mobile devices (android and IOS).

What are the main challenges that teachers report in implementing collaborative learning methodologies?

The need to have more hours (time) of collaborative work included in the working hours.

How do you view technology inside (and outside) the classroom in a collaborative learning context?

Technology is definitely at the service of pedagogy. Technology makes it possible to use a greater diversification of instruments and techniques not only to gather information, but also to develop a set of cognitive, social, emotional, creative skills provided for in the Profile of Students Leaving Mandatory Schooling (PASEO, 2017), enabling the formation of each student as complete and harmonious as possible.

What are the main changes you have seen in the process and demands of the education system over the years?

Like the health system, the educational system and all the professionals who work in it also need to be constantly updated. The requirements are above all at the level of a paradigm shift in the teaching-learning process, which is intended to be more collaborative and technological (and less transmissive), making use of different methodologies and learning environments. It is also necessary that we, teachers, are even more human, keeping alive the pedagogy of affection and proximity (even if digital), where each student is a student, adopting a more humanistic, inclusive, coherent and flexible paradigm, supported by the pedagogy of example.

The combination of working hours of the teachers involved is one of the main challenges. Another even greater challenge is to be able to respond to the numerous requests that come from teachers from different schools and regions of our country, since continuous training in context implies being in the classroom, monitoring, participating and assisting the teachers involved in the Cooperative Communities of Professional Learning.

The democratization of Cooperative Learning through the creation of a web platform that is already under development, appears as a possibility to respond to this challenge. Through it, we will be able to reach more students and teachers and thus provide:

• pedagogical resources to support Cooperative Learning classes;
• surveys for monitoring (validated scales to assess: Classroom climate; Self-efficacy; Social Skills; Creativity; Motivation; Academic achievement;
• automatic reports (customized dashboards depending on the profile: student, teacher, coordinator, director, guardian);
• training (integrated training environment in Cooperative Learning);
• application for mobile devices (android and IOS).

What are the main challenges that teachers report in implementing collaborative learning methodologies?

The need to have more hours (time) of collaborative work included in the working hours.

How do you view technology inside (and outside) the classroom in a collaborative learning context?

Technology is definitely at the service of pedagogy. Technology makes it possible to use a greater diversification of instruments and techniques not only to gather information, but also to develop a set of cognitive, social, emotional, creative skills provided for in the Profile of Students Leaving Mandatory Schooling (PASEO, 2017), enabling the formation of each student as complete and harmonious as possible.

What are the main changes you have seen in the process and demands of the education system over the years?

Like the health system, the educational system and all the professionals who work in it also need to be constantly updated. The requirements are above all at the level of a paradigm shift in the teaching-learning process, which is intended to be more collaborative and technological (and less transmissive), making use of different methodologies and learning environments. It is also necessary that we, teachers, are even more human, keeping alive the pedagogy of affection and proximity (even if digital), where each student is a student, adopting a more humanistic, inclusive, coherent and flexible paradigm, supported by the pedagogy of example.

The pandemic brought a challenge to all and the educational community, facing the need to reinvent itself in a very short time.

In Brazil, in March, when classes were suspended, we had that feeling it would be something provisional and in two, three weeks max, we would be returning to face-to-face classes. However, we are now experiencing classes in an emergency and mediated manner with the help of technology for seven months.

In such a diverse country, it was necessary to resort to technologies and understand technology is a driving force within the learning process, however, for itself has no power to transform education.

Thus, in many Brazilian states the solution was to resort to existing technologies, such as radio and television and in other states it was necessary to sponsor data and comprehend what kinds of access students had as mobile devices and from them create applications to mediate classes.

The pandemic highlighted the inequality of a country that, while evolving in education, brings serious concerns, such as in the field of training, in which research such as that conducted by the Instituto Península 2020 shows 83% of teachers did not feel prepared to teach classes mediated through technology, and it is necessary to overcome several barriers to promote Education.

I am a professor of Technology with a solid work done in the field of technologies, which was recognized internationally by the Global Teacher Prize.

This Award is considered the Nobel Prize in Education, and in 2019 elected me one of the 10 Best Teachers in the World regarding my work of robotics with scrap. A bold proposal to turn garbage into an object of knowledge by building prototypes from scrap, I came across the need to review the pedagogical doing and adapt my classes, so that I could continue teaching students computational thinking, culture maker, among others.

Dealing with cameras, getting the right tone of voice, and comprehending that even though I didn’t see the students faces I would need to move on, it was some of the difficulties I faced. Gradually I understood the need to not only work with the technologies but determine clear goals for my classes.

I share below some of these tips:

Active Methodologies: allow the student to conquer a center stage of the learning process, which in the face of the pandemic scenario, proved essential, by addressing new ways of conducting the learning process, through its modalities, as an inverted classroom that makes students along a formative path to become curators alongside a hybrid teaching, an key model for a possible face-to-face return when merging online and face-to-face environments.

Socio-emotional skills: as essential as working on active methodologies, it is essential to work with socio-emotional competencies, mainly due to the long period of social distancing, in which it is essential to promote spaces for students where they can have a moment to talk about their senses, to deal with frustrations and losses, even across technology-mediated classes.

Technological Tools: and facing so many challenges, technological tools can be an important ally to the learning teaching process. Nevertheless, it is necessary to consider skills and levels of knowledge, analyzing those that students will have access to and can be used offline.

Below I list some tips that you, as an educator, can learn more about and adopt the one that will contribute better to the learning process goals and foster interaction in the classes.

Blackboard  resources and tools to assist the transition from classroom class to technology-mediated classes, bringing resources to promote interaction in a hybrid way.

CenturyTech a tool that assists in individual and/ or collaborative learning through micro-lessons to address gaps in knowledge, challenge students, working with logical reasoning and long-term memory.

ClassDojo and Edmodo connects teachers with students and parents by creating communities in the classroom; in environments that resemble social networks, more with educational potentials.

Moodle open learning platform, community-oriented, and that includes worldwide assistance, with wide possibilities to route materials and perform paths and training trails.

Schoology supports learning and collaboration, as well as the evaluation process.

Seesaw supports the creation of portfolios, which can be a great alternative to assist students in building their own formative path.

Digital tools are a great option for learning, if accompanied by clear goals. As a facilitator for teachers and students they do have the potential to support pedagogical practices, by being explored at the service of the learning journey.

The process of globalization of the economy and communication, the evolution of technologies and an awareness of network globalization have caused sharp societal transformations, driving the arising of new paradigms, models, educational communication processes and new scenarios of teaching and digital learning. But no one, not even teachers who already adopted virtual environments in their practices, imagined that such a rapid and emergency shift would be necessary, almost obligatory, due to the expansion of COVID 19.

In fact, the suspension of school activities in the territory of physical face-to-face, a little throughout the world, has led to the obligation for teachers and students to migrate to virtual environments, revealing, on the one hand, the possibilities and challenges of Distance Education, and on the other hand, the crucial role of schools as safe communities with a strong feeling of belonging. The crisis and the experiences of emergency remote online education throughout Europe and the world in the spring of 2020, and the subsequent dual operation, with the partial reopening of schools in some of these countries, have also made it possible to comprehend that instead of returning fully to the way school education worked, it is possible to think of a more blended, more hybrid education, which allows combining different presences (physical and digital), times (synchronous and asynchronous), technologies (analog and digital), cultures (pre-digital and digital) and, above all, articulate different spaces and learning environments (analog and digital).

More than the integration of physical and virtual learning environments, hybrid education should assert itself as a concept of total education characterized by using combined solutions, involving the interaction between different modalities, pedagogical approaches and technological resources. That is, more than integrating physical and online learning environments, hybrid education must be understood, on the one hand, as a dynamic strategy that involves different technological resources, different pedagogical approaches and different times and, on the other, as a highly complex communication process that promotes a series of interactions between human and non-human actors that can be successful provided as long as all these elements are embedded.

Indeed, in times of profound transformation, of a world structured in a complex way where analog and digital, real and virtual cohabit, human and machine, offline and online, of the acknowledgment that we live in a new social, cultural, economic, political and, even, ethical order and the dizzying evolution of digital technologies, we are facing the need to rethink the educational paradigm where communication can take a central role by uniting and bringing actors closer to human and non-human. This centrality of the communication process, and not of the teacher, student, or technology, refers to significant communication variables such as interaction, connection, connection, and participation, essential to the pedagogical relationship.

Thinking about the processes of innovation sustained in this context, and not disruptive, means that these hybrid forms, present themselves as an attempt to offer the best of the different existing realities.

Implementing hybrid education models, not as a pure disrupting process, but as a process of sustained innovation, will allow us to move towards the idea of an educational community united in its purposes of change.

In this century the experiences of blended education have increased significantly, as a result of different initiatives to innovate pedagogically, especially in schools in remote areas; in teaching the itinerant communities; in teaching of students who are also high competition athletes; or in emergency situations related to armed conflicts or natural disasters.

Nevertheless, this approach can also be implemented effectively without being in exceptional situations if several factors are taken into account. The important thing is decisions are based on what is best for the student depending on the context; whereas there is a clear understanding and sound justification for incorporating this hybrid approach; and that actions are carefully planned, created and monitored.

This type of blended approach can allow, depending on the current reality that we live from unpredictability in relation to the frequency of school facilities of all students simultaneously, to develop flexible and personalized learning situations.

Figure 1. Blended Learning: personalization and flexibility

Source: European Commission, 2020, p. 8

But beyond the comprehension of this reality, this blended approach also requires a high level of competence and innovation of teachers and school leaders and a transformation of the education system and its support mechanisms, in terms of legislation and structures, resources, professional development and quality assurance.

It is necessary, for example, to define a legislative framework with a flexible structure that allows changes to happen. A framework that includes, for example, learning in virtual environments; describing how curricula and evaluation can be addressed or adjusting to work effectively in this blended approach; defining guidelines for more flexible and combined teaching and learning structures; and requiring all educational actors to carry out training in this area.

However, this shift of approach is only possible if teachers and students collaborate actively in this process, as it also depends on their own ability to actively participate as individuals and groups in a spirit of creativity and research.

As the first measures concerning the new COVID-19 were carried out, schools suspended the classes until further notice and teachers were suddenly thrown onto unknown land, with an equally alien concept to master: ERT – Emergency Remote Teaching. No, that is not the same as home-schooling, that is not the same as online teaching per se, that was not distance learning as it should be. Using social media, Facetime-ing with their grandchildren, keeping an updated cloud drive seemed enough to get teachers feeling tech-savvy, right?

Thereâ€s democracy in education now, and parents are getting more involved with their childrenâ€s education, at last, some Brazilian bloggers and social media activists would say. Just log into your online classroom account, turn your camera on and hereâ€s your dream remote-teaching scenario.

What everybody needed now was some sort of miraculous super power through which classes would be delivered with engagement, efficiency and grace. After all, everybody is online all the time, arenâ€t we? A myriad of apps, tips, tutorials, online courses on how to teach online started popping on our feed. How to pick the right platform to teach my students? What features would guarantee a better class?

What is everybody else doing? Am I the only one struggling? What if thereâ€s no connection? This has caused teachers to get into a rush as new skills and practices were made urgent – regardless of their context, familiarity with technology, or their years of experience in education.

Well, apparently, itâ€s not only technology we are talking about from now on. Should we break it down? According to recent research carried all over the country, Brazil is experiencing its technological summit along with its inefficacy of making technology reach the outskirts of our society. It is a paradox not detached from the many we find inevitable to discuss.

That research raises awareness of the importance of taking that development to the disfavored people as only 70% of Brazilians have access to the internet, and from that number only 49% of people living in rural areas can surf the web, for instance. It shows that, at the same time there is a booming wave of technological development flooding the ones comfortable with their economic power and living in central areas, there are those struggling to have minimum access to basic technological resources. That being said, it couldnâ€t be any different with education. Far be it from teachers not to complain about the scarcity of appropriate technological resources in their schools and where they live. Not to mention the need for digital literacy.

Knowing how to use the internet doesnâ€t necessarily mean knowing how to use it for educational purposes. As the French philosopher Pierre Lévy once said after a profound historical analysis of the development of human culture and technology: technology is neither good nor bad, it is neutral. The use we make of it is what rouses a good or bad effect on society. ERT classes are keeping schools and families connected trying to learn the least while offering their most, even when many people have poor internet connection and or only one computer or TV set for the whole family.

As educators and parents, letâ€s not fall into the trap that Emergency Remote Teaching is simply transferring the lesson from the classroom environment to the front of the screen. Letâ€s not lose sight of some important ‘detailsâ€: we are not machines. Screen time is not the same as face-to-face time in so many levels as thereâ€s a huge difference in the quality and duration of our attention span. The school syllabus and the forms of assessment havenâ€t been designed for this scenario – the hardware (PCs, tablets, mobile phones), the software (websites, platforms and apps) and most importantly, the liveware (the people operating the machines) have to be taken into consideration in a new dynamic that was overlooking the human component and the urgent need of transcending the concept of education and productivity during quarantine and hopefully, after that.

If you are a parent: how would ERT fit best into your routine? How could families communicate better with schools and find a middle ground on which both parts have most of their needs met? As a teacher how much time and content should be delivered in this lesson format? Shouldnâ€t we take the time to do some revising and focus on the teaching and learning of other skills rather than sticking strictly to a syllabus? If you run a school, wouldnâ€t it be a good moment to reflect upon the team dynamics, teacher-school and school-family relationship?

We hope this moment brings the community closer and helps us gain insights on how to better educate our children, train our teachers, engage our families and make the most out of the available resources – and above all, the people around them.

 

Carol Romano (Belo Horizonte, Brazil) is an English teacher, speaker, teacher trainer and performing artist. She is a CPE and a Celta holder, has a degree in English Teaching and Literature (UFMG/University of Nottingham) and a post-graduate diploma in Education. She develops projects in teacher education such as T4T-BHz (Teachers For Teachers Belo Horizonte) and is a BRAZ-TESOL BH Chapter Board Member. Carol is an academic consultant for National Geographic Learning and Troika and has worked with students of all ages and proficiency levels.

 

Flavio Martins (João Monlevade, Brazil) holds a degree in English Language and Literature and is a specialist in language teaching in computer-mediated environment from UFMG and also a specialist in English teaching from the University of Oregon, USA. Flávio is currently a graduate student in Technological Education at UFMG. He is a teacher trainer and a speaker, a specialist in technological education, founder of T4T-BHz and is academic consultant for Oxford University Press.

I am Jonte Lee, chemistry and physics teacher in the Early College Academy at Calvin Coolidge High School, located in the DC Public Schools District. I enjoy teaching; I love teaching. Daily interactions with my students are a joy. When I started this academic school year, I had no idea it would end like this. This year was filled with happiness, sadness, enthusiasm, weariness, achievement, disappointment, and accomplishments. The academic year 2019 – 2020 will be one I would never forget.

January 2020: I first heard of the coronavirus. Honestly, I didnâ€t put much thought into it. The media was giving mixed reports on its severity, and the virus has not reached the United States at the time. I was not worried.

February 2020: The news was reporting the deaths and the spread of the virus around the world. Some reports downplayed the effects of the virus, and some did not. I was not concerned.

March 2020: The number of people impacted by COVID 19 was terrifying. States started to report their first cases. School districts began to close. Hospitals were being overwhelmed. I was scared. Teachers were given the following calendar:

• March 13, 2020: Students†last day of school.
• March 16, 2020: Teachers will report to school and prepare lesson plans for distance learning.
• March 17, 2020, to March 23, 2020: Spring break. This was moved up from April.
• March 24, 2020, to March 31, 2020: Students will participate in learning from home.
• April 1, 2020: Teachers and students will report back to the school.

My first thoughts belonged to my students. I was worried about their safety and health. School is not only a place where students go to receive knowledge but, for some, a place where they can escape a dangerous situation at home or a place where they can get a hot, nutritious meal.

I was concerned about their family members, and, if someone had the coronavirus, how would that impact the students. So many questions were racing through my mind. I felt that I had to be strong for my students, so I wished them well and informed them that I would be in contact over email and text messaging with instructions. I wasnâ€t concerned about school assignments.

March 16, 2020: Teachers reported to school to plan for distance learning. It was on this day that I realized one of my responsibilities as a teacher. I must be a point of consistency for my students. Consistency is essential because it provides the young scholars with a mental anchor in a time of an unprecedented amount of change. With only hours left, I packed up as many items and chemistry equipment from my classroom as I could carry. I knew that we were going to be doing some form of online teaching, and I wanted my students to see a familiar place when they logged in online. At the time, I didnâ€t know what I was going to do it, but I knew I was on to something.

March 20, 2020: It was announced that students and teachers would not return to school until April 27. After this announcement, I made sure to check on every one of my students and their families. I also checked in on my family. My family lives in New Orleans, Louisiana, and New Orleans was an area struck by the coronavirus in high numbers. Around this time, I received word that my 75-year old aunt contracted the coronavirus. I was frightened. My mind was overwhelmed with thoughts. I couldnâ€t sleep or eat. I live in Washington, DC, and I wanted to be there with my family, but I couldnâ€t. To calm myself, I did the only thing I knew to do. I worked. As I provided consistency to my students, my work provided consistency to me.

March 31, 2020: My principal asked me to teach a live lesson on Instagram, and I agreed. I transformed my kitchen into a chemistry classroom. I was excited by the idea of teaching a class on social media. It was something I never did before. I was nervous about wondering how my students would receive a chemistry lesson on social media. This provided a distraction from worrying about my aunt.

April 3, 2020: I went live on Instagram. My lesson was titled “Chemistry of Monsters.” It was a hit!!! The students enjoyed the lesson and asked me to do more on Instagram. I felt a jolt of energy. That same energy I get when teaching students face-to-face. I decided to do a lesson once a week, and each week, more and more students tuned in. I had something to look forward to.

 

April 15, 2020: My aunt made a full recovery. I cannot describe the feeling of relief. I continued to do the Instagram lessons in addition to other teaching methods to engage with my students.

April 17, 2020: Schools would remain closed until May 28, and the school year will be shortened. The feeling of excitement was marred with sadness. Even though I knew that all my students were okay, I was sad because I wouldnâ€t get a chance see them. A teacher needs to see their students because it gives assurance that they are genuinely okay. I knew my students were healthy, but what about their mental state? Besides, I wouldnâ€t get the chance to say goodbye and give them good wishes and advice for the next academic year. The end of the year goodbye is my closing out tradition. It wouldnâ€t be the same performing it online.

April 18, 2020, to Present: The live Instagram lessons exploded in popularity. My students told their friends, and so on, and I have parents, teachers, and students, logging in from all parts of the country. Social media has allowed me to become a community teacher that is not bound by four walls.

 

This pandemic has fortified several things: Four walls do not limit a teacher. We can teach anywhere and anytime. Teachers do not teach to the brain of the student but the whole student. We interact with their past, present, and future experiences. Teachers provide stability in their students†lives. Teachers have a deep investment in the success of the student. Students want to learn, grow, and achieve greatness, even during difficult times, and this is the part where we come in as teachers.

 

 

Mr. Jonte†Lee is a community teacher and is willing to help any student that is in need of learning. Mr. Lee is willing to be a thought partner to parents and teachers during this pandemic. Mr. Lee can be reached as @JonteRlee on Instagram and Twitter!
Mr. Jonte Lee has been teaching STEM in DC Public Schools for eight years. Before becoming a high school teacher, he worked in the corporate sector as a marketing specialist. His first call to teaching was when he volunteered for the Big Brother Big Sister program while working in the private sector. There he would read to his little brother twice a week. He liked it so much that he sought out to become a teacher. He first taught college in the school of business part-time while still working in corporate America. He discovered the joy of teaching and wanted to do it full time. It was through Ready To Teach, an alternative teaching certification program, at Howard University that he earned his teaching license. Through teaching, he found his lifeâ€s passion. He cannot see myself doing anything else. He enjoys making meaningful connections with students and pushing them academically forward. Hus greatest joy is seeing them grapple and learn a concept.

What is this all about?! Emotions!!! Yes, this weekâ€s tip is about emotions and we will invite you and your whole family for a cinema session with popcorns included to discover how Disney Pixarâ€s enchanted the world and may help you to explore emotions, understanding their role in your daily life and learning how to deal with them. And isnâ€t it a perfect moment to explore this with your loved ones?! No matter your age, come with us to discover this weekâ€s tip!

Disney Pixarâ€s universe is plenty of magic and enchanted stories that may work as great stimuli to explore emotions, but this time, we will invite you to watch “Inside Out”, an animated film that portrays the story of Riley, an 11-year-old girl who faces some important life changes – moving to a new city, house and school – that challenges her to deal with her inner emotional world, as would happen with anyone of us.

Throughout the film, we get into Rileyâ€s brain, where we meet her personified emotions – joy, sadness, anger, fear and disgust –, as well as the magic room where these emotions live (i.e., the conscious mind) and where all Rileyâ€s daily (re)actions are monitored, through an interactive control panel.

We are also shown that the main events of Rileyâ€s day are kept in spheres, coloured as the emotion theyâ€ve generated (e.g., if it is a happy memory, it is yellow – the colour of joy). Through this personified and joyful animation, youâ€ll be able to explore and reflect about how our brain works; how we emotionally deal with the different circumstances of our daily lives; how daily external experiences are internally processed and turned into memories; and furthermore, that all the emotions – even those we can consider less positive – are fundamental for a healthy emotional development.

And you may strengthen this exploration with the activities we will now propose to be carried out after watching the film, that can be adapted to your childâ€s age (up to 12 years old approximately) and will, with no doubt, make everyone happy at home!

The first activity we suggest is “crafting emotions”. What we propose is you and your children recreate the emotions presented in the film, using toilet rolls or kitchen towel. You may simply draw and paint each emotion according to the film or gather other crafting materials to recreate an upgraded version of the characters. Throughout the activity, it is important to ask your child about the emotion he/she is working on, naming it, remembering the examples that have been shared in the film, and sharing stories about situations that usually make each one of you experience that emotion (e.g., You feel happy when you are playing mimes with him/her).

It will certainly be an engaging opportunity to take each other perspective on how you experience different daily situations, what might eventually enhance the probability of future spontaneous sharing of feelings and emotions.

Our second activity proposal is a “guess the emotion” game, in which kids are challenged to find the emotion related to a clue (e.g., how you feel when you receive a gift; how you feel when you go to the doctor) given by a family member. These clues may be created based on the situations that have been shared in the previous activity, adding any other situations you may find relevant for your child. Kids may use their previously crafted characters to identify the emotion they relate to each situation presented. Encourage them to explain why they are making that connection, remembering we may all experience them in different ways.

The third activity we suggest is “mimic of emotions” that consists of representing different emotions (e.g., joy, sadness, fear, disgust, anger…) using your body movements and facial expressions. The emotions should be written in small folded papers, and then picked by a family member that should mimic the emotion for the others to guess it. Besides being a joyful family moment, where winners for the most smiley or grumpy faces can be chosen, this game will enhance each oneâ€s capacity to read others†emotional state by identifying signs in their body language.

And last but not the least, the fourth activity is “home story of emotions” where you may challenge your kids to join you creating and illustrating your own story of emotions, with your customised characters and life examples. Create your story about the different emotions and illustrate it with the materials you prefer. Join draws, photos and other memories… and we guarantee that it will offer memories and emotions that will last for life!

So, let†s all learn and strengthen ourselves by exploring emotions with our loved ones?!

Thank you to: https://wallpaperaccess.com/inside-out (Header image)

 

Contribution by:
Ana Mouta, Ana Paulino and Inês Sá Couto are Pedagogy Specialists at jp.ik.