Maintaining a Positive Community Remotely
Over the weekend, a friend shared a video with me that you may have seen as well, as it has been widely shared on social media. The video was taken in a neighborhood in Naples, Italy, a country that is currently under national quarantine. Despite that restriction, the residents of this neighborhood have all gone out onto their respective balconies to sing together in an act of collaboration and togetherness. A caption for the video explains that the sing-along started with just a few people, but soon others joined, then others, then people began drumming on pots and pans to accompany the melody. The unity captured in this video is a reminder that our collective need for belonging, significance, and fun are truly essential. Regardless of circumstance, humans are social beings who always find ways to connect with others.
It is no surprise, then, that as educators have begun taking on the task of moving their classrooms online, the question that we have been asked most frequently is: How can we continue to hold Morning Meeting or Responsive Advisory Meeting with students virtually?
Center for Responsive Schools is here to support you in this transition. Below are a few ideas and tips to get you started. We will continue to use our blog posts to provide you with resources, and we also encourage you to follow us on Facebook and Twitter, where you can share your ideas and gather more ideas from others in our community. We’re all in this together.
Virtual Ideas for Morning Meeting or Responsive Advisory Meeting
How you conduct a virtual Morning Meeting or Responsive Advisory Meeting will depend on your unique set of circumstances, including what resources are available to students and teachers. However, here are some general considerations:
- Embrace a growth mindset. Recognize that using an online platform changes interaction and impact. But where there is a will there is a way, so view this new challenge as an opportunity to stretch your creativity.
- Don’t feel you need to reinvent the wheel. Utilize the resources you have, such as The Morning Meeting Book or The Responsive Advisory Meeting Book, and adjust activities to adapt to a virtual platform.
- Take time to establish rules for your online meetings. You will need to create new expectations for your online classroom, so be prepared to explain, remind, and reinforce.
- Start small and grow. Just as you needed to scaffold the meeting process for students in the classroom, you will need to do the same for them in the virtual space. Consider starting with one of the components, then adding more throughout the next few days or weeks.
Whether you’re using a video platform or a chat platform to connect with students, here are some options to get you started, along with some ideas you can try out right away!
Morning Meeting
Greetings and Activities can be found in The Morning Meeting Book.
Responsive Advisory Meeting
Written by Karen Poplawski, CRS Director of Programs
Tags: Building Classroom Community, Transitions, Virtual Learning
63 Replies to “Maintaining a Positive Community Remotely”
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I wanted to ask a question about the references to the book. Many of us had to vacate our classrooms without warning or plan time. What resources are there to keep morning meeting in tact when you don’t have the book at home?
Thank you. wonderful resources
Thank you! I plan to utilize these ideas as I transition to online learning!
Thank you for the ideas.I have been wondering how to have a morning meeting if we do indeed go to e-learning!
Greetings RC!
My school had a two RC workshops with Earl. I appreciate the examples of Morning Meeting and I was wondering how to continue our classroom routines. I had a similar question, I do not have access to my Morning Meeting book, what can I do?
Thank you.
I don’t have mine either, but I simply going to focus on simple greetings and shares as well as a positive message-easy stuff, I feel like it’s the continuation of the concept that matters. Good luck! :)
This should be helpful for both of you :)
https://www.literacymn.org/sites/default/files/gamesactivitiesbook_0.pdf
Thank you!
Thank you!!!
these are some great ideas! thank you
These are great! The one bummer that I am having is that I am not allowed to enter back into my building and all of my RC books are in there! So, the name of the activity/greeting/share is hard to remember. :(
This is my issue too! I haven’t been able to get back into my classroom and so many things I need are there! My favorite shoes are still under my desk!
Thank you for the resources. I love the ideas.
Thank you! These are some wonderful resources that offer ways to engage all students. I am finding that my morning meeting is what I have been missing most since beginning E-Learning, so these solutions are very helpful! With the possibility of E-Learning continuing, I look forward to using these strategies in future meetings with my students!
This is AWESOME.
These suggestions are wonderful. Thank you for helping us out. Many international teachers have left the countries where they were working and left their books behind as well. We don’t have access to our Morning Meeting books or our Responsive Advisory Meeting books. If for a few of the meeting suggestions, you would be willing to post PDFs of the Greeting or Activity, we would be grateful.
Agreed. I left my morning meeting books at school and we are not allowed on campus.
Yes, my books are in school as well.
I hope this helps!
https://www.literacymn.org/sites/default/files/gamesactivitiesbook_0.pdf
This is amazing!! Thank you!
This is very helpful for those of us who can’t get to our classrooms to retrieve our resources. Can you send a link to a resource of greetings that can be used remotely?
If you have time, LOL!, and you use Slides for your Morning Meeting, you can install the add-on “Pear Deck” which will allow some interactive components such as you can ask a question and provide a few choices for a response and kids move their dot to the box…kind of like doing a survey question.
We are thinking of using Flipgrid for students to participate!
Yes
We don’t have access to our Morning Meeting books. Would RC be willing to post PDFs of Greetings and Activities?
REPLY
Yes!!
I agree with the above! I appreciate the suggestions greatly but only have a few of my RC books at home, none with any greetings of activities. Any support with regard to providing the accompanying materials for your suggestions would be very helpful!
I have none of Mt RC books at home!
All of my RC books are back in the classroom. I can’t refer to the page numbers. I am looking for greetings, activities etc. that can be used in video form or in Zoom meetings with 2nd graders.
School was abruptly cancelled for us with no return date in sight. I have been an RC teacher for a long time and am still finding myself struggling to come up with shares and activities (especially) that will work for a virtual platform where kids aren’t physically in the same room. We’re trying Alibi tomorrow.