DUBLIN, Ga. — Irish Gifted Academy English and Math teacher, Deanna Ryan encourages her 6th and 7th grade students, like Robert Haywood and Morgan Davis, to interact with each other through the "What's Your Jam" assignment.
"So like Jam is like your hobby, so we had to make a video so we could introduce ourselves to the teacher," Haywood said.
"You would post on the Flipgrid: What's My Jam and you'd get to watch it and see," Davis said.
"What that was done for is so I could figure out what their interests were and that I could have a session where I responded to them about their interests and made a connection there, because that's the most important thing when engaging with a child is that you don't just see a face or their name, you see something that really drives them," Ryan said.
Morgan Davis's mother Jennifer thinks it's a great way for students to learn about each other from a distance.
"They're not all in one classroom together sharing what they did last weekend, or what they did last night. They're not talking and having that social time so I think it was a good way to, just like Morgan said, get exposure to each other on what they like and know a little more about the students in the class," Jennifer Davis said.
"This was my first meeting with them and already I got some of their likes and dislikes and it was just from observing," Ryan said.
"She's a fun teacher actually like she like gets to know us better and she wants to know from our perspective and she'll know if we're learning good or if we're having trouble," Haywood said.
For the next step, she'll have students comment on each other's videos to make connections on their shared interests.
Ryan has been teaching for 21 years. This is her first year at the Irish Gifted Academy.
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