SHELLY FRYER REFLECTION
Nelson Mandala called education "the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world." Shelly Fryer (@sfryer) is an educator who perfectly illustrates this notion. Fryer teaches 3rd grade at Casady School, but previously taught for four years at Positive Tomorrows, a privately funded elementary school for homeless children. While she was there, she taught in an iPad 1:1 classroom, was named a PBS Digital Innovator, and was one of four teachers asked to speak at the national 2016 PBS Broadcasters' Conference. Fryer is also an Oklahoma A+ Schools Network Fellow.
In Fryer's latest website post entitled "More Similarities Than Differences," she discusses the similarities between students at Casady and Positive Tomorrows. Fryer notes that all students face anxieties inside and outside of the classroom. She believes in building a strong classroom community, which helps students to feel welcomed, respected, and loved. I truly admire Fryer's dedication to putting her students first. If every single educator valued their students the way Fryer does, our world would be a much better place. |
One of the tools Fryer uses to build classroom community is Seesaw. Seesaw allows students to create a digital portfolio and journal. With the Seesaw for Families app, 10 family members can view their student's work. Learn more about how Fryer uses Seesaw by watching her webinar below.
Fryer finds many ways to integrate technology into learning. In her post entitled, "Technology 101 Skills for Teachers," she writes, "Technology tools like an iPad can empower teachers to use 'enrichment assessments' activities with students which can provide extremely helpful insight into what students understand, have synthesized, and can demonstrate." In this post, she discusses many resources she and her students utilize, including, but definitely not limited to, i-Nigma, Opinion, Book Creator, Shadow Puppet EDU, Pic Collage Kids, and iMovie. In her post, "Enriched Assessment with Technology" she shares resources from her presentation and workshop with the same title. I would HIGHLY recommend visiting these two pages. Actually, you should visit every page on her website because they are all SO insightful!
My three favorite posts of Fryer's are "Why My Students Love School," "Inspired by Dwayne Reed: Welcome to Room 108," and "Building Relationships With Students #GSPD." Fryer takes great pride in the fact that her Positive Tomorrows students love school. She wrote, "If we can make our students feel safe at school and love learning, we have succeeded." I would love school too if I were one of her students. Fryer is incredibly creative and takes great care in making her lessons enjoyable. Just look at how fun this music video is that she created with the help of her students and their music teacher, Cindy Scarberry (@cscarb).
My three favorite posts of Fryer's are "Why My Students Love School," "Inspired by Dwayne Reed: Welcome to Room 108," and "Building Relationships With Students #GSPD." Fryer takes great pride in the fact that her Positive Tomorrows students love school. She wrote, "If we can make our students feel safe at school and love learning, we have succeeded." I would love school too if I were one of her students. Fryer is incredibly creative and takes great care in making her lessons enjoyable. Just look at how fun this music video is that she created with the help of her students and their music teacher, Cindy Scarberry (@cscarb).
This music video was inspired by first year teacher Dwayne Reed (@TeachMrReed) who wrote the song "Welcome to the 4th Grade." His video is below.
In her post "Building Relationships With Students #GSPD," Fryer explores the "Global School Play Day" movement. The Global School Play Day is an entire day of unstructured play, something her Positive Tomorrows students deeply enjoyed because most of them do not own any of their own toys. I found this post to be incredibly moving and cannot do it justice. Please please please take a look. The twitter post below is a good illustration of the joy her students experienced while playing with one another.
In conclusion, Shelly Fryer is an INCREDIBLE educator. She is transforming the world of education with her belief in building strong classroom communities. She values every individual student, and allows them to take command of their own education by expressing their voices with innovative technology. Education has a bright future thanks to the work of Shelly Fryer. Please take a look at her website. I hope it inspires you just as much as it has me.