3 Strategies to Keep Students Engaged and Accountable with Video Content

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3 Strategies - Video

More and more and more I see educators using video as part of their instruction. Whether they find a great video that covers the content well or create their own with a quick screencast or webcam video, many educators struggle with assigning video content because they fear that students won’t really watch it (or they just won’t pay attention). Just as great educators often infuse their face-to-face lessons with formative assessments  to engage and hold students accountable (such as high-level questioning, turn and talk, and signals to indicate understanding), we must do the same when assigning video! Here are three great strategies for doing JUST that! Continue reading →

Digital Breakout Made EASY!

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Digital Breakouts made easy (1)

There are lots of resources out there for creating digital breakouts or escape rooms, but I have to admit, I thought I just wasn’t creative enough (and didn’t have enough time) to create one myself. I challenge my staff all the time to take risks and try new things, so I decided I better practice what I preach! A couple of weeks back, we had a staff meeting scheduled on a week that turned out to be very bust – with lots of other events, schedule changes, and meetings that popped up after the initial staff meeting was planned, so I knew I wanted to do a flipped meeting or virtual meeting instead of having everyone come in at the same time before school. This was the perfect opportunity to try out a Digital Breakout/Escape room with my staff! Continue reading →

Easy Strategies to build Future Ready Skills

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Easy Strategies to build Future Ready Skills

In his article in Forbes, “The 10 Vital Skills You Will Need for the Future of Work,” Bernard Marr shares that the skills we believe are important in today’s market are quickly changing due to automation and artificial intelligence. What skills will the workers of tomorrow need? His research indicates creativity, emotional intelligence, critical thinking, active learning with a growth mindset, judgment and decision making, interpersonal communication skills, leadership skills, diversity and cultural intelligence, technology skills, and the ability to embrace change. Do these sound familiar? The majority of these skills sound like the future-ready skills we are trying to instill in our students as educators! Creativity, critical thinking, active learning, communication skills – these are the kinds of skills we are being challenged to grow in our students for their future success. Continue reading →

Google Slides Drag to Solve

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Drag to Solve

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about more ways to take full advantage of the touch screen devices we have on our campuses. One way is to have students drag and drop words and objects to show their understanding. I wanted to see if I could do this using Google Slides. Since I planned with my 3rd grade team last week, I created a template with the content they were working on (multiplication) and a silly theme I thought would appeal to their kids (rainbow unicorns, of course!). Continue reading →

4 Ideas for Promoting Creative Thinking with YOUR Content

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Creative thinking

Today is International Dot Day! This is a day to be creative and not be afraid to share what you create! The day is a celebration of creativity based on the book The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds. Click here to learn more at the International Dot Day website.

Vulnerable moment: Every single time I write a blog post, at some point I think to myself, “This is dumb.” or “This isn’t good enough to share.” But, just like the teacher in The Dot encourages her student to “make her mark”, I attempt to make my mark with each blog post. I think it is important to model risk-taking for our students AND to give them opportunities to take risks and be creative. These are the life-long skills they will need in the workplace.  Continue reading →

Blended Learning Kindness Lesson Checklist

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Blended Kindness (1)

Jumping into a blended learning checklist for the first time can seem super scary! Letting the students complete tasks at their own pace?! How will you keep students accountable? Allowing students to move around the room and chose the right place for themselves? Will they complete their work or just goof off? Allowing them to go in any order they choose? Will the class turn to loud chaos?

These are the most common fears! Continue reading →