Due to the Coronavirus pandemic and the “hybrid” return of students to school this fall, Rectory faculty and administrators are on a mission to “build community” to welcome our students back and make them feel at home. Teachers are working diligently to plan lessons and activities to help students get to know each other and feel comfortable in class together. A shining example of this is a lesson that eighth-grade English teacher, Ms. Siobhan O’Neil, designed for each of her classes during the first two weeks of school.

Ms. O’Neil asked her students to interview a classmate and then create a Google slide to illustrate his/her classmate’s interests, hobbies, and talents. Students were asked to reveal an intention or goal that they would like to achieve this year. Each student also created an avatar of themselves, which was included on their personal slide. Then students “introduced” the classmate they had interviewed by displaying their completed slide to the rest of the class. Finally, Ms. O’Neil compiled the completed slides into a Google slideshow presentation of the entire class, along with her personal slide of her own interests and many talents. (Her slide is this article’s Showcase photo.)

Please view the attached photo galleries to see the finished projects for Ms. O’Neil’s three English classes.  We think you will agree that these projects illustrate our students’ creativity, collaboration skills, friendship, and genuine interest in each other. Congratulations, Ms. O’Neil, for planning a thoughtful, well-designed project for your students to learn more about each other and practice their interviewing and public speaking skills. By the looks of it, we think they had a lot of fun working on this project!

Note: Click on the first photo in each class to see the full gallery.

Ms. O’Neil’s Time Block 1 Class:

Gallery|11 Photos

Ms. O’Neil’s Time Block 2 Class:

Gallery|10 Photos

Ms. O’Neil’s Time Block 6 Class:

Gallery|15 Photos