I am a font lover. There. I said it. I love great fonts and I cannot lie! I believe that a well-chosen font has the power to change the entire aesthetic of a slide deck, document, sign, or assignment. I think we can all agree there is a big difference here:
One note makes you feel loved while the other makes you scared for your life! Continue reading
I’m preparing for an upcoming presentation and have been thinking of creative ways to split the participants into small groups without the overused “numbering-everyone-off” strategy. I’m enrolled in Tony Vincent’s Classy Creations course and this week one of the many things Tony taught us was how to create a tear-off sheet – you know, the kind that you often see posted in which you can tear off a tab of information to take with you. Even while watching Tony’s tutorial I knew THIS was the solution I was looking for! I could put a tear-off sheet at each table, ask participants to take one, and then get into small groups based on their tear-off. Continue reading
I don’t know about you… but I keep seeing Valentine’s cards at the grocery store! It’s that time of year to start getting Valentines ready for your personal kids, students, and colleagues. This year, I wanted to do something different than the grocery store folded cards and candy. I decided to create a sticker that can be printed on Avery 2″ circle labels so that I can place the labels on ANYTHING to turn it into a Valentine.
Here’s what I came up with:
Have you ever been in the audience of a presentation that looked something like this?
The presenter tries desperately to make a point using the data, but often, the participants (whether adult or student learners) are so distracted by the sheer multitude of information on the screen that instead of helping to support their point, the chart or graph actually ends up taking focus away from the presenter’s main point. Continue reading
When my daughter Madison was really little, I used to print on paper lunch bags and put treats, games, and activities inside for when we went on long trips. This way, she had something new to open and do every 30 minutes on our trips instead of being bored and asking again and again, “Are we there yet?”
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
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
When I was an Assistant Principal, I had an unconscious habit of always putting confiscated items in my desk drawer alongside typical desk drawer office supplies such as pens, pencils, rubber bands, and paper clips. It was not uncommon to open my desk drawer and see cute colored sticky notes right next to a pocket knife or skull-shaped toy waiting for a parent to pick up. Continue reading
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
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
