Shutdown Food for Thought: Share Your Planted Seeds

We made it to Thursday. Does anyone else feel like these days are both shorter and longer at the same time?
In follow-up to yesterday's message about feeling disconnected, I began wondering how things are going with everyone else and if you've had any successful moments with your students and their families (or with your own kids) now that we've settled into this a bit.
I personally had some awesome learning moments with my kids when we ventured out to Sleepy Hollow State Park for a hike. What started as an escape from the house for some fresh air turned into a great learning experience in reading maps, navigating using the map with the sun's position, talking about how the sun moves across the sky in different times of the year, identifying trees by their bark and branching characteristics, all while getting the blood flowing with a 4-mile hike.

Today we took to the outdoor classroom for a cross-curricular PE/Geography/Science lesson. 4-mile hike, map reading, navigation, and tree ID. #MiMakerBreak pic.twitter.com/zjMUcG9Vy4

— Justin Knull (@Everyday_Genius) March 17, 2020

All the while I couldn't help think about how their curiosity was driving their learning rather than someone else telling them what was important. It really brings a tweet from Jessie Heckman that I saw recently to life,

Just 🤔:What if during this time, removed from expectations of grades and performance, we encouraged open curiosity, creativity & connection? I wonder what kids will come up with? How can we plant these seeds from afar?

— Jessie Heckman (@Heckmantechman) March 17, 2020

But... these things are all easier said than done. We need to help each other out a bit by sharing our stories and successes with each other to help us plant those seeds. I've heard of some of our teachers using Flipgrid for read-alouds with their classes and having students read back... Awesome!

I've seen friends creating stop-motion videos with their kids at home... Awesome!

Today we are playing around with stop-motion. Lego is such a fun medium for this. Just playing around with @OSnapPhotoApp and watching magic come out the other side. #MiMakerBreak pic.twitter.com/OCJCrA63zS

— Andrew Hudson (@ahudsoncms) March 17, 2020

I've seen Kindergarten teachers sending directed drawing videos to their students... Awesome!

Ms. Zeeb put together a directed drawing for our Oakwood students to enjoy. Bring you pictures back to school when we return! Enjoy! #portlandraiderpride pic.twitter.com/OYVlc7xWN7

— Oakwood Elementary School (@school_oakwood) March 18, 2020

I've heard of teachers using the current events as a way to "make math real" by investigating how experts are modeling the outbreak... Awesome!

I've heard from a teacher that she's hand-writing and snail-mailing letters back and forth with her students pen-pal style... Awesome!

Please remember through all of this that children WILL learn on their own. It's been happening for a couple hundred-thousand years. Plant a seed and set them loose. Then help each other out by sharing those seeds with the rest of us so we can sow them even wider.