Hi everyone, my name is Pamela Santiago and I would like to say that it’s a pleasure to be here sharing a little bit of my knowledge with you! PE Central and S&S Worldwide have been an awesome source of research since I graduated in 2006.

Teaching in Brazil

I am currently employed in two international schools here in the city of Curitiba, State of Paraná, Brazil. My groups are super diverse, so the content is too. It goes from toddlers to high schoolers. Due to the pandemic situation, teachers all over the world, including me, had to reinvent ourselves to attend to the demand of schools and students as well. That’s why I have created a YouTube channel. Here in Brazil, the school year starts in January (our summer season) so we were doing in-person mode, but then a government decree obligated us to teach from home.

That’s why the Virtual Animal Themed activity was created! I was thinking about engaging kindergarten students and parents that, in my opinion, is the most challenging group on online learning. I thought about something of child’s interests like colors, animals, sounds, textures mixed with movements, poses, and stretching… and then the script was made in my head. The second step of this project was learning how to apply the background to my videos. SInce last year I have been using GIFs and stickers only. I saw lots of tutorials on the internet and then I tested them! It was a real challenge for me because when you are practicing you really learn how the whole process works like the details of space, the distance of the camera, lightning, etc. It took about 4 hours to make a less than 4 minutes video but I enjoyed the learning process!

Video:

How to Set Up the Video

1. Green fabric/cloth or paper roll to cover the wall to make a green screen. Size depends on the space you’re going to use.

2. KineMaster app to add layer (Apple App or Android App)

3. InShot App to add stickers and sounds/songs.

4. The script, because you must imagine what to do and to know how to act, depending on your activity goal.

Class Dynamics

The theme of the class was animals and with a characteristic of the kindergarten kids beinf their difficulty to have sustained focus, an online 30-minute class has to have at least 4 different activities to keep them in front of the screen. The Virtual Animal Theme activity was the last of that day and the reaction was WOWWWW! They got amazed because it was something unexpected! After a while, they realized it wasn´t for only watching but also to be imitated. Some of them called the parents to watch, and when the class was finished they asked for the link! It was definitely worthwhile.

About the Author:

Pamela Santiago is a kinder, middle, and high schooler PE teacher at Curitiba, Parana, Brazil. Besides the degree in PE, she is a specialist in school development and management. She is currently taking an online  TPD – Teacher Professional Development at Full Sail University in Orlando, FL. Pamela enjoys reading about neuroscience and really believes PE can help to improve the life of the students.

You can follow her on Instagram @pepasantiago or YouTube channel