TL;DR:
- Find success with hosting Twitter chats by scheduling your tweets, using your computer, inviting your PLN to join, and picking a topic that you are truly passionate about.
- Global School Play Day is a holiday that brings awareness to the benefits of unstructured play.
- BreAnn shares an original poem, Let Them Be Little.
These past two weeks have been a whirlwind of excitement! Last Thursday I had the honor of hosting MasteryChat for the first time! What a fun journey! I actually got started with the team through MasteryChat, so I feel really thankful for this weekly resource from the team!
Tips and MasteryChat Tricks
A few tips for anyone who is thinking about hosting: contact the team with your great idea. Use TweetDeck to schedule your posts and your responses, and use your computer instead of your phone. Message your PLN before the chat and invite them to join in, and pick a topic that you are passionate about so people get to see the true you! It was great to see some of the founders of the Global School Play Day join in! I may have been fangirling a little bit! The chat went so quickly and my fingers were flying on the keyboard to keep up with all the great ideas!
If you know that Thursday nights are tough for you to join in the chat, you can preview the questions and use TweetDeck to schedule your responses with the times of the chat (don’t forget to hashtag #masterychat). You can also go back and search the hashtag to catch up on what you missed with your morning coffee the next day! There are so many different voices each week that you can learn a lot in a little bit of time. This is a great place to get started with the team.
Right after MasteryChat, I got to go LIVE and recap with Chad! I had a blast! You can go back and see the recap on the Teach Better Youtube channel. The theme song makes me want to dance every time! On Wednesday, I took over the Teach Better stories on Instagram for the Global School Play Day.
Global School Play Day
Global School Play Day took place on February 3rd! It was a huge success in our classroom and in many classrooms in our school. I was so happy to hear that many teachers learned about it through the MasteryChat and were going to sign up for it. If you didn’t get a chance to participate, you can have a play hour, you could plan it for later in the school year, or you could start planning for next year. I just promise you will not regret it. It is something my students remember the next year!
Rock Your School
Coming up this week in the having fun at school tour is Rock Your School. This event is brought to you by Get Your Teach On! My plan for this week is to do an amazing room transformation and tie in a mid-year review for my first graders! Since I loop from first to second grade I try to do a different room transformation for first grade and second grade!
If you played last week and are afraid about stepping out of the norm twice this month, please know that Momma Fennell is telling you it is ok. Your kids are going to learn and have fun at the same time! Set up those sanitizing stations or fire up your WiFi and get rocking! If you need support, feel free to reach out @playyay or check out the Rock Your School section on this website.
[scroll down to keep reading]
Let Them Be Little
By BreAnn Fennell
Darkness and gloom have no room
Here.
We want to change the world… but there’s
Fear.
Trapped in an endless race
of growing up
learning our place
We were born to move
Tiny tapping toes
learning a groove
Eyes open with little cheeks
pink from the cold
Haven’t learned for weeks
Catch a snowflake on your tongue
There’s time for everything we’ve already done
Let them be little
Bigger, smarter, faster, stronger
can’t they just play a little longer
Let them be little
Tears and a suitcase packed with trauma
missing the mark
Hunger and Lessons
instead of the park
scuffed shoes with no laces
Play can take us to other places
Let them be little
Aching hearts lifted high
Can we understand if we just try?
Let them be little.
A tiny voice with a great big song
Play can help us get along
Let them Be.
Let Them Be Little.
About BreAnn Fennell
Mrs. BreAnn Fennell is a first-grade and second-grade looping teacher in Ashland, Ohio. She has worked in both public and private settings and is passionate about providing exciting learning environments for students. Mrs. Fennell is a published author of children’s books including Play? Yay! and Choose Your Cheer. She is a mom to two energetic boys and a defender of play!
