Learn how an educator uses education tech tools to help students express their uniqueness, foster community, and deepen connections. This article also highlights the power of shared storytelling and the importance of creating spaces where all learners can be seen and heard.
When I was teaching remotely during the first horrendous wave of COVID, I learned that allowing students to “see” the people in the room was still possible even in a Google Meet. I ached for students to know they were far more than what we saw on our laptops. We would just have to be creative. For the next several years, there was one activity I chose to carry with me.
There are a few digital creation tools I hold close to my heart and Google's Jamboard is certainly one of them. The fact that it is discontinuing perhaps lends this post to being somewhat of a tribute to a fabulous tool. What I hope, however, that readers take away from the following activity is that although Jambard certainly helped provide my students a space to shine and connect with each other, their desire to grow a community is the heart of their story and can transfer to any platform, including paper.
In the fall of 2020, I dove into my typical routine, teaching instructional technology from school to a wonderful group of fifth graders signing in from home. This particular morning, I was explaining to them our next activity, the “I Am Jam.” I assigned one jam and everyone was individually assigned their own frame to create something unique in order to share their uniqueness. Students embraced the opportunity and watching them create their designs in the moment was incredible. Learning about each of them beyond the surface was invaluable.
At the end of class, one student suddenly lost all of her work. I froze as did her classmates, all online at the time. They waited for my reaction. I felt absolutely awful and admittedly turned the moment into detective work trying to figure out what may have happened, reminding my students to be incredibly careful. I tried but there was no solution that I knew of at the time to recover her design.
As I was thinking out loud about what to do, a brave soul asked this student in the chat to remind the class what she had added to her frame. Six more followed suit and within five minutes they had re-created it for her. Her response in the chat was simple and heartfelt and went something like this. "Wow. This is better than what I originally had. Thank you so much."
When we create a space for people to share their stories, we are also handing them the message that all stories matter. Whether they are spoken out loud or spoken through pictures, whether they are written, drawn, painted, or videoed, it's the opportunity to both see and be seen that matters.
My students made this come to life in a way I could have never predicted. In fact, they stopped me in my tracks and what we lost was clearly something to gain. Often it's those unexpected discoveries that make the most memorable moments. Regardless of how you do it, and there are countless ways, I hope you will share how you empower those around you to make "I Am" their jam and make sure to give yourself the opportunity to participate.
A Few Quick Tips
Whether you are working with students or colleagues, I encourage you to create a new Jam (or Google Slidedeck, Canva Presentation, Seesaw Drawing, whatever works!) and share it with them to edit. This lends itself well to digital citizenship lessons around appropriate and respectful ways to work on something shared by others. If you are using Slides, having each person create their own slide and then import theirs to a community deck also works beautifully. For young students especially, showing the slides populate on a big screen can be a magical experience for them.
What I loved adding to this activity was letting the creators look at all of the frames and leave "positive post-its" for each other using Jamboard's sticky note feature. I encouraged students to ask each other questions on the post-its as well to get some digital dialogue going and in-person conversations if possible. This can easily be done with other digital tools and in fact one can even transform the speaker notes in Slides to “kindness boxes.” I also recommend letting them communicate with each other in the process (now face to face, during a Google Meet in the chat and Breakout Rooms) or even at home asking family members to chime in regarding their strengths, passions, values, culture, all that makes them who they are.
About the Author:
Nili Bartley is currently a personalized learning coach in Natick, MA. After an eleven-year adventure in the classroom, Nili’s technology integration role at the elementary level for the next three years pushed her to see the importance of a thriving culture and led her to write “Lead Beyond Your Title: Creating Change in School from Any Role.” Since then, Nili has been a middle school specialist and digital learning coach and is now embracing her new role on a district-wide team. An enthusiastic presenter, she is committed to sharing her passions beyond the school community and is always excited to connect with other educators.
