My Virtual Final Project : Virtual Assemblies as PD Inspiration and Community Building

The Background:

As in common in most schools, our elementary school has a tradition of gathering once a month together. COVID has forced us to rethink how this occurs in our school and I’m happy to say that we have found a way to adapt. My principal started virtual assemblies earlier in the year and, although at the time it was considered quite a success to create a meeting on Microsoft Teams and have everyone successfully join, our virtual assemblies consisted of one activity and an encouraging message from the principal. 

When changes in my schedule permitted, I volunteered to take over this role to help relieve some of the workload from the principal but soon realized what a gift planning virtual assemblies could be. When used thoughtfully, they can provide a channel that not only connects the school, provides some levity and excitement, but also showcases technological skills that could be adopted to a virtual learning setting. It is my hope that by celebrating these types of activities, teachers will be inspired to seek me out if they are interested in learning how to do something similar with their class. This is particularly important this year as a traditional PD delivery method cannot work in our current climate of accelerated adaptation of new skills, limited PD time and pressures of the realities of a COVID classroom. 

All the assemblies follow a similar script and feature grade 6 students of the school. It is our school tradition to provide special leadership opportunities and experiences for the grade 6 students of the school. Sadly, due to COVID these have been eliminated, and so inviting them to take an active role in the planning, creating of content, and delivery of the assemblies, is an attempt to provide a special role for these students. Each assembly also has a theme which highlights something happening in our school, community or library. The assemblies also often feature a competitive challenge. The principal installed a classroom points challenge early in the year and, although these challenges don’t always occur during assemblies, there is often an opportunity for classes to earn points towards a year-end prize. These are the themes of past and future virtual assemblies for 2021:

January	Dance Party Assembly
February	I Love to Read Assembly
March	Garden Assembly
April	Earth Day Assembly
May	Healthy Eating Assembly
June	Farewell Assembly

 

The Two Past Assemblies

As of the planning of this assignment, I have run two school assemblies (January and February). Each one builds on the skills demonstrated in the last assembly and incorporates new technological tools. Many of these I have encountered through blog posts of fellow students in the course or have been inspired by explorations required in the first section of this course. Please find below a brief synopsis of the three previous virtual assemblies, as they provide context for the two assemblies, and a more detailed plan of the future assemblies. All student names have been redacted to ensure their privacy and anonymity of the school in which I work.

https://www.dreamstime.com/illustration/kids-online.html

Here is a brief description of each of the reoccurring assembly segments that are visited regardless of monthly theme:

Welcome: I start the assembly just after 9am when I see that all classes have joined the Microsoft Teams meeting. If I notice a class is missing, I quickly run down to check in with the teacher if they are experiencing any technical difficulties. Often teachers are in two different teaching spaces at the same time during code orange and so we quickly learned that I must send meeting invitations to all educational assistants as well since they are often logged in to the secondary teaching space. This is also true for substitute teachers and it took until the March assembly to iron out these kinks. Here is a great video which I used when learning how to do this:

Roll Call: As a fun way to welcome everyone and to celebrate our community, we start our assemblies off with an invitation to each classroom to give a cheer when they hear their class name called. This is a highlight for many classes and results in a deafening momentary sound for the rest of the attendees!

Land Acknowledgement/O’Canada/Announcments: We start our assemblies at 9am on Day 5s because it is the only day that I am scheduled to work mornings and our Kindergarten class runs only in the mornings. Because of this happy circumstance, we have started our assemblies off with our normal morning announcement routine which includes a land acknowledgement statement, O’Canada and announcements. The statement and announcements are delivered by the grade 6 emcees. Each month we invite a different student to pre-record a video of him/her singing or playing an instrumental version of O’Canada.

Jokes: Peppered throughout the assembly and in-between segments, the grade 6 emcees prepare and deliver knock-knock jokes. They are chosen with care to be accessible to the younger students and about a school-appropriate topic and often end with a collective groan. Here is an example of one of the jokes a student picked for our February assembly:

https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/parenting/g28581033/best-jokes-for-kids/

Classroom Points: Started in September by the Principal, the school has small competitions to gain points throughout the year. Once during every assembly, we revisit the standings and encourage participation in the next challenge. A prize will be given to first, second and third place classes in June.

Sharing Our Learning: Each assembly I ask for at least one classroom to share about something they have been learning about in their classroom. It can be a piece of artwork that we display or a short video of students explaining a project. Sometimes it has even been a final product which is performed for the school’s benefit by sharing a pre-recorded video. The idea is connect the school and showcase some of the innovative learning happening in the school.

Principal’s Address: Each assembly the Principal is invited to share a few words of encouragement or wisdom.

Goodbye and Thank You: To end our assembly we always thank the students who contributed to the making of any materials shared during the assembly and to the classes for listening so respectfully. 

I have included a video of the script for the February assembly here to serve as an example. For the complete document, please click here.

 

Please find below the simplified scripts of the past 2 assemblies. Please see the above description for reoccurring segments.

 

January “Dance Party” Assembly	January 29, 2021
Welcome/Roll Call	See description	Emcees
Land Acknowledgement, O’Canada and Announcements	See description  A student sings and plays his acoustic guitar	Emcees and Grade 6 Student Volunteer
How to Recycle Skit	We re-launched the recycling program at our school and had grade 6 volunteers make a humorous skit about what can and cannot be recycled. Due to privacy, this video cannot be shared.	Grade 6 Student Volunteers
Dance Party	Videos were shared and the whole school joined in dancing: The chicken dance The Macarana Dinosaur Dance	Ms. Simpson
Principal’s Address	See description	Principal
Goodbye and Thank You	See description	Emcees

January Demonstrated Skills:

·      How to screen share a pre-recorded video

·      How to screen share a Youtube video from the internet

·      How to remember to share the sound when screen-sharing

·      How to run and participate in a virtual assembly (remembering to mute mics, invite everyone, share presentation abilities with the Principal for her message, etc…)

 

February “I Love to Read” Assembly	February 17, 2021
Welcome/Roll Call	See description	Emcees
Land Acknowledgement, O’Canada and Announcements	See description Grade 2 signs O’Canada in ASL (This is the video I used to instruct the class: O'Canada ASL)	Emcees and Grade 2 class
Kahoot	Identify this well-known children’s character Picture Book Characters	Ms. Simpson
I Love to Read Month Video	Through creative post-production editing, grade 6 students appear to ask other students from different grades about their reading habits and favourite books. Due to privacy, this video cannot be shared.	Grade 6 volunteers Students from other grades
MLA Reading A Story	Our local MLA sent a pre-recorded video for us to share of him reading a book which was shared.	Emcees MLA
Sharing Our Learning (2G)	Students from 2G created a short video of them signing their ABCs in ASL  (American Sign Language)	2G
Principal’s Address	See description	Principal
Classroom Points	See description	Emcees
Colouring Contest Intro	Students were invited to enter a school colouring contest to be entered into a draw for a chance to win books. They had to colour in a sheet which featured all the branches of the library. Contact information and how to get a library card info was included on the back of these sheet.	Emcees
Goodbye and Thank You	See description	Emcees

February Demonstrated Skills:

·      How to navigate kahot.it and enter in answers

·      How video editing can be used to create final projects

·      Where to find local library branches and how to get a library card to the public library

·      How students can participate in O’Canada by signing since students are not allowed to sing in class due to COVID

 

The Next Four Assemblies:

 Looking forward I wish to build on this momentum and continue highlighting tools for teacher use while elevating student voice in our virtual space. Just as the ones above, they will follow a similar format and script. 

Please find below my overview plans for March assembly which was planned and delivered while I was writing this final assignment, and the three remaining virtual assemblies of the school year. The assemblies listed below also contain the reoccurring segments listed above, but for the sake of efficiency, the explanations have not been duplicated. 

March “Garden” Assembly	March 23, 2021
Welcome/Roll Call	See description	Emcees
Land Acknowledgement, O’Canada and Announcements	See description A staff member sings O’Canada	Emcees and Grade 6 volunteer
Sharing Our Learning (Grade 3/4W)	Students in 3/4W made pamphlets as a final project to show their learning about Manitoba. Five students explained their project and a short video was created to share at the assembly.  * See example at the end of this simplified script	3/4W
Story Sharing	Jack’s Garden by Henry Cole as read by a grade 6 student.  ** Please see note below	Grade 6 volunteer
What Grows in Manitoba?	To help us in choosing plants to be put in our brand-new garden, some grade 6 volunteers created a PowerPoint presentation which highlights the seed, plant and part we eat of  plants which would all thrive in our zone 3 climate. Classes are invited to guess which each seed will become using the chat feature in Microsoft Teams. Teachers were invited to fill in an online survey with the class's top 10 picks. ***Please see video below	Grade 6 volunteers
Garden Art	Students are invited to pick their favourite fruit, vegetable or flower as shown in the story and Powerpoint presentation and draw it on a small 2x2 square. All squares will be collected and displayed on the bulletin board outside the library. ****Please see example include below	School activity explained by emcees
Principal’s Address	See description	Principal
Classroom Points	See description	Emcees
Goodbye and Thank You	See description	Emcees

 

* An example of the work products shared. For the purposes of this final project I cannot share the video created as it shows student faces and identifies them by name.

** Due to copyright I cannot post a recording of the student reading this book to the internet but this reading on Youtube gives you a sense of what the student population would have experienced. 

*** This is a video of the PowerPoint as produced (with support) by grade 6 students volunteers.

**** Here is a zoomed in example of the squares that students produced to show what they were most excited about featuring in our school garden. 

March Demonstrated Skills:

·      How to use a document camera (used to show the pictures as the book is being read)

·      How to use the chat feature in Microsoft Teams (classes will guess which fruits, vegetables and flowers can grow here prior to the PowerPoint presentation share)

·      How to use SurveyMonkey (Teachers are asked provide their classes top 10 favourite fruits, vegetables and flowers to guide or seed purchases)

 

  

April “Earth Day” Assembly
Welcome/Roll Call	See description	Emcees
Land Acknowledgement, O’Canada and Announcements	See description Grade 6  volunteer singing	Emcees and Grade 6 volunteer
Sharing Our Learning  (Grade 1G)	Students in 1G are learning about computer programming and share their learning about Scratch Junior. Due to privacy concerns, this video cannot be shared.	1G
Story Sharing & Book Trailer	Ms. Simpson will read Every Day is Earth Day by Lisa Bullard and introduce the concept of book trailers to students by sharing an example. Book Trailer for the book  *Please see video below **Please see video below	Ms. Simpson
Earth Day Posters	Grade 6 students will teach the student population about the three R's (reduce, reuse, recycle) by explaining the posters they have made. These posters will be displayed in the school hallways and a short video will be prepared for sharing purposes.  *** Please see comment below	Emcees and Grade 6 volunteers
Earth Day Calendar  ChallengeClassroom Points	A calendar of in-class or outdoor activities will be provided to each classroom. Teachers mark an x on each activity completed and return it to Ms. Simpson by the next assembly. Classroom points assigned for the class with the most squares complete. **** Please see image below See description	Emcees Emcees
Planting Seeds	Following up on last month's garden theme, and celebrating this month's Earth Day theme, students will be supplied with a different seed per grade and taught how to plant them correctly. The following video will serve as a guide as I am not allowed to visit each classroom due to the COVID. *****Please see video below	Ms. Simpson
Principal’s Address	See description	Principal
Goodbye and Thank You	See description	Emcees

 * Here is a Youtube version of the book that will be shared at the assembly:

**This book trailer for Salamander Sky by Katy Farber and Meg Sodano will be shared during the April assembly as an example of what a book trailer is.

*** Examples of these posters cannot be shared as they have not yet been created by the student volunteers. Here is an example of what they may look like:

https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/412853490846527778/?d=t&mt=login

**** This Earth Day activity calendar was created by myself and will be shared with the staff at the beginning of the month. For a link to document, please click here.

***** The first part of this video demonstrates to students how seeds can be started to increase their chances of success and germination. 

April Demonstrated Skills:

·      How to access Staff shared folder on the Portal (Earth Day Calendar Challenge will be shared there)

H How to share a link to a document using Microsoft Teams (a second way this document will be shared)

·      How to use Scratch Junior as demonstrated by 1G

·      Introduce the concept of Book Trailers (excellent way to learn about new books we've purchased since the library space is closed to students)

    Demonstrate how Youtube can be used to upload lengthier videos that students can access at any time.

 

May “Heathy Eating” Assembly
Welcome/Roll Call	See description	Emcees
Land Acknowledgement, O’Canada and Announcements	See description Grade 6  volunteer singing	Emcees and Grade 6 volunteer
Sharing Our Learning	Students in 5/6B are learning about electricity and and will share their learning with the school. Due to privacy concerns, this video cannot be shared.	5/6B
Healthy Eating Bingo	Students will participate in a month-long classroom BINGO challenge where they are encouraged to try different foods (at home and at school) and then cross them off the BINGO card. Each week will have a different theme. Classroom points will be handed out to the classes with the most squares completed. *see images below	Emcees
Classroom Points	See description	Emcees
Story Sharing	Good Enough to Eat by Lizzy Rockwell ** see description below	Grade 6 volunteer
QR code scavenger hunt	Wooden blocks will be placed around the front of the school and students will be asked to find them (but not to touch for COVID safety purposes). The QR codes will be scanned to reveal a healthy snack or an unhealthy snack. Students will sort them into columns on a worksheet as they go. *** see description below	Emcees
Book Trailers as created by 4/5J	Students inspired by the book trailers shown last month, have created book trailers for their favourite novels of the year. 4/5J will share a few of their favourites with the school.	4/5J
Principal’s Address	See description	Principal
Goodbye and Thank You	See description	Emcees

 * Here are the four BINGO sheets used for this month's points challenge:

Used with permission from Victoria Wojakowski

** For privacy reasons, I cannot share the student reading this book, but it would be very similar to this video of a teacher reading this same book. 

Good Enough to Eat

*** To view on the entire document, please click here. Below is an example of the QR scavenger hunt clue students will find hidden in the school yard. Here is an example of the QR code for the clue 'apples':

May Demonstrated Skills:

·      How to use QR codes to create scavenger hunts

     How to use a iPad or iPhone camera to scan QR codes

    Reminder/Review of past skills highlighted.

   

·   

June “Farewell” Assembly
Welcome/Roll Call	See description	Emcees
Land Acknowledgement, O’Canada and Announcements	See description Grade 6  volunteer singing	Emcees and Grade 6 volunteer
Story Sharing	The story I Wish you More by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Tom Lichtenheld will be shared with the school. * Please see below for the video	Grade 6 volunteer
Sharing Our Learning	The Kindergarten class will share some art they created.	Kindergarten
Kahoot with Memojis	Teachers will be asked to create a Memoji of themselves prior to the assembly.  These emojis will be assembled into a Kahoot for the students to play. Students will be asked to identify which teacher is shown. To aid in this learning of how each staff member can produce a memo, the following links will be provided (as well as in-person support): https://www.muo.com/tag/get-memoji-android/ https://support.apple.com/en-ca/guide/ipad/ipaddca01563/ipados	Ms. Simpson
Talent Show	Students will receive an invitation to submit a talent video of themselves to Flipgrid or SeeSaw. These will be shown and celebrated. Talents can include music, sports, baking, magic, tricks with pets, special skills or other. A email home will be sent to explain how to upload videos to Flipgrid and SeeSaw for students who require support. ** Please see below	Ms. Simpson
Grade 6 Farewell Powerpoint	Using Prezi, each grade 6s will each be featured and pictures from their time at the school, refelctions of their years here and their plans for the future. This will serve as a their goodbye ceremony and will be shared with the whole school.	Ms. Simpson
Book Trailers as created by 4/5J	Students inspired by the book trailers shown last month, have created book trailers for their favourite novels of the year. 4/5J will share a few of their favourites with the school.	4/5J
Principal’s Address	See description	Principal
Goodbye and Thank You	See description	Emcees

* This book which can be found YouTube will be shared and read in person to the school.

** Here is a video that I will share along with the invitation to participate to serve as inspiration for students to share their talents. (The video is in French, and I am explaining how my talent is breaking fruit in half.)

June Demonstrated Skills:

·      How to create Memojis 

    How to use FlipGrid to submit videos (used in our school division for students from 5 and up)

    How to use SeeSaw to submit videos of talents (used in our school division for students from K-4)

·      How to use Prezi to share information

H

Conclusions:

After each assembly, I also send out a quick email sharing the dates of the next assembly and inviting a classroom to volunteer for our Sharing Our Learning segment. I also make a point to invite any staff members who have questions or who are interested in learning about something that was demonstrated in the assembly to swing by my office. This tactic has proven successful so far in that many teachers have asked for support using the document cameras.

This project served as an impetus for me to work on some technological skills I had intended to develop but hadn't had enough time or motivation to do prior. For this project, I learned how to start a Youtube account and post videos online. I created my first SurveyMonkey account and survey as well. I also learnt how to use Prezi and finessed my Microsoft Teams skills as I was able to incorporate screen sharing, document camera, document sharing via link and chat features into live presentations. I also finessed my ability to edit video by using iMovie and FlipGrid to produce short student-learning segments for each assembly. Although each of these skills on their own, shows small progress, it was the coordination in bringing them all together and sharing them with a live audience that really made me feel as though I had pushed my technology abilities. 

I am proud of what I was able to accomplish during the assemblies that occurred during this course as I was able to include much of what I learned through the readings and blogs. I am saddened that I cannot share a complete recorded version of a virtual school assembly, but due to privacy constraints, it is impossible. I hope that these descriptions and artifacts will suffice in communicating the level of technology and engagement I was able to produce. 

I suspect that even post COVID, many of these skills will be put to good use. I hope that my demonstration of these programs, apps and technologies can be used to inspire other teachers to adopt them into their practice. For now,  at the very least, it has allowed us to gather in a virtual space and build community during these challenging times. 

References:

Three Ways to Start Plants. Book and Bloom. March 30, 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j812dkMCHTI

6 Apps to Get Memoji on Android and Animate Yourself. 2021. Make Use Of. https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/get-memoji-android/

Earth Day Every Day by Lisa Bullard and Xiao Xin-Earth Day Books for Kids. April 20, 2018. PV Storytime. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvdhsn-BFDI

Garden Powerpoint. Book and Bloom. March 24, 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBk5XewtYrg&t=5s

Good Enough to Eat. Joey Barnes. May 23, 2013. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hewFCeeMixk

How to Invite Anyone to Microsoft Teams. Kevin Stratvert. May 29, 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bF-CSd4HgM

I Wish you More by Amy Krouse Rosenthal & Tom Lichtenheld. It's Reading Time. May 19, 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIGAEDdE8G0

Jack's Garden by Henry Cole. Ms. Rhone. Retrieved on March 21, 2021 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLSa8BjzLrc

Kids Enjoying Conversation online. Retrieved on March 21, 2021 from https://www.dreamstime.com/illustration/kids-online.html

Knock, Knock. Marisa Lascala. Retrieved on March 21, 2021 from https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/parenting/g28581033/best-jokes-for-kids/

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Poster. Retrieved on March 27, 2021 from https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/412853490846527778/?d=t&mt=login

Salamander Sky - Book Trailer. Meg Sodano. June 29, 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c37dKWBXQl0

Talent Show. Book and Bloom. March 27, 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vo4Qynms5Sg

Use Memoji in Message on iPad. Apple Inc. 2021. https://support.apple.com/en-ca/guide/ipad/ipaddca01563/ipados

Wojakowski, V. (2021) BINGO nutrition cards.