This week's Spotlight on Success shines the light brightly on two MPS School Psychologists, Marybeth Abbatello and Ashley Zagorski. Marybeth and Ashley were highly recommended for how they are using technology for counseling and working with groups to practice social skills. We asked Marybeth and Ashley to tell us about their success, and their thoughtful answers are below. Thank you Marybeth and Ashley for sharing your success and your dedication to your students! Do you have any words of wisdom or tips for your colleagues on how to be successful in this hybrid environment and/or integrating technology with your students? Develop a growth mindset- we’ll admit that initially, we were unsure about how to incorporate technology into our work as a School Psychologist at the elementary level. Our students are used to hands-on activities in counseling and working together in groups to practice social skills. We don’t consider ourselves very “techy” and we were overwhelmed by learning so many new platforms. We decided that we need to practice what we preach and develop a growth mindset about working within our hybrid model. Once we dove in and started playing around with Bitmojis, Peardeck, and Screencastify we found ways to be interactive with our students that have been pretty exciting! Don’t reinvent the wheel- We truly are all in this together! There are so many resources out there that our colleagues around the country are sharing and discussing. When developing our Bitmoji School Psychology Offices, we each relied heavily on the Facebook group, “Bitmoji Craze for Educators”. The group is focused on sharing Bitmoji classrooms and offices that others have created. All of the content is free for anyone to copy and personalize for their own use. Have fun with it- Don’t overstress about fumbling in a video, taking a few tries to become comfortable with a new platform, or reaching out to a colleague for help. I think I recorded a screencastify explaining my Bitmoji Calming Room to students at least 5 times! It can be easy to compare ourselves to what other people are doing, but we are all doing an amazing job- remember we are still in the midst of a global pandemic and are learning a completely new way of educating our students- be gentle with yourselves and keep up the great work everyone!
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