Community Connections - Tech-based examples
Part of the Virtual Crew Collection
"Crew" as a structure in EL Education schools usually refers to a small group of students, usually no more than 16 students and one teacher or other staff member as crew leader, who meet multiple times a week. Many schools also use this term for larger, less frequent gatherings at the grade or schoolwide level, sometimes called Community Crew, or Community Circle, or Community Meeting.
By any name, this is a structure that many of our partners are actively continuing virtually. This might be a Zoom call with hundreds of students signing on; it might be an Instagram Live session; it might be a video edited to include clips that multiple teachers filmed in their own homes.
Here are a few examples from our partners:
Elgin Math and Science Academy used Twitter to provide students prompts about growth mindset.
Capital City Public Charter School’s Middle School Principal Laina Cox appears on Instagram on Mondays:
Amana Academy hosts separate Elementary and Middle School Virtual Community Circles as huge Zoom calls:
They also created an album to capture their staff and students’ virtual Spirit Week looks.
Clairemont Elementary School’s Principal Curtis Armour offers read-alouds from the Media Center:
Have an example to share? We are learning alongside you about what virtual crew can look like, and welcome your contributions. Use this form or email Sarah Norris at snorris@eleducation.org.
And for treasure hunters out there, we are maintaining this public folder with everything we find.