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Ninja Notes

Let us help you teach like a ninja!

Pandemic Teaching

Energize Your Gym Class With Very Little Equipment

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Do you have to teach physical education with safety restrictions? Maybe you're trying to teach gym online through distance teaching. We've collected some ideas for activities you can do with your upper elementary class that don't require much equipment. Come check it out.

Are you teaching face to face this year? Do you have to provide some sort of physical education program? Is all your equipment locked up? Are you supposed to be socially distanced? Do you students have to wear masks? What are socially distanced gym activities?

Remember when teaching physical education was so much easier? Remember when you could touch things?

Well, don’t worry.

We’ve been collecting ideas for your socially distanced, equipment-free, mask-wearing gym classes. We’ve even found a few ideas for online classes. Let’s get started.

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Easy to Use Remembrance Day Assembly Ideas

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Are you trying to plan a Remembrance Day assembly around social distancing requirements? We came up with a way to have your ceremony. Come read our list of safe and simple Remembrance Day ideas.

Every school across Canada has held a Remembrance Day assembly since the end of the Second World War. In fact, it is written into the School Act in Alberta as a requirement. Schools must have a Remembrance Day assembly on the day closest to November 11. We’ve got some Remembrance Day assembly ideas for you.

We had to make some changes during the pandemic. These ideas can work whether you’re able to gather together or need to be apart or learning online.

We’ve been rethinking how we’ll honour our soldiers at school. If you are planning a Remembrance Day assembly, we might have a few ideas for you.

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How to Celebrate a Physically Distanced Halloween

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Are you looking for ways to celebrate Halloween, but have to be socially distanced or have other related restrictions? Come check out this list of things we gathered to celebrate Halloween safely this year.

Halloween is such a special time for many students. How do you celebrate Halloween during a pandemic when you are trying to physically distance yourself? What happens when everything about Halloween becomes a safety hazard because you have to socially distance?

In past years we’ve had parades, assemblies and handed out candy. I mean, there was a time when bobbing for apples was a good idea. Now the thought of countless students scrambling to bite into an apple floating around in a tub full of mouth germs…ugg.

Our classroom is usually bustling with parent volunteers who help out at different Halloween-themed stations, but this year none of that will be possible since parent volunteers cannot enter the school as long as pandemic restrictions are in place.

If your school and students are celebrating Halloween, here are some safe and generally easy ways to have a little fun.

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How to Reconnect From Your Pandemic Teaching Island

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Are you feeling lost and alone as a teacher in this pandemic? First, you're not alone. Second, come get some ideas to reconnect. We're here for you, ninjas.

Teaching has always been an isolating profession. We spend all day in a classroom with little people who get our jokes. The adult conversations we get happen during recess or staff meetings or in the bathroom line waiting for a toilet. It can leave anyone feeling disconnected.

My husband has a joke about teachers, they can seek each other out anywhere in the world. It never fails that when we travel to another country and meet another couple, one of them will be a teacher. He calls it teacher radar.

And it’s true. When two teachers meet in the wild, they talk about teaching. Because it’s another human in the world who actually gets it.

I mean, Mr. Ninja tries to be supportive, but unless you’re in the trenches, you don’t really get it.

Well, you know what makes teachers even more disconnected-a freaking pandemic. Yup! Imagine that. So what’s a teacher supposed to do now?

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