Gamification of learning is an exciting trend in education. I’ve heard of many different schools and districts that are using ideas started in the classroom to gamify Professional Development by offering learn-on-your-own modules that teachers can complete to earn points or badges. I have been interested in this idea and have even started developing ideas for setting up a choice menu and badges for a summer professional development offering for my staff (more details to come 😉 ), but this morning, after listening to a couple of episodes of the Well PlayED Podcast on my morning run, I was inspired to gamify EVEN FURTHER! Continue reading
Meredith’s Favorite Graphics Go-To’s
Have you ever seen a flyer, template, or quote graphic and thought, “How did they make that?” OR if you’re me… “How did they make that SO CUTE?” Continue reading
EDU Podcast Tasting + Podcasts & Pedometers for PD with Choice and Movement!
We are offering a new kind of PD this spring at Ault Elementary inspired by an idea shared by Tricia Reilly @PrincipalReilly at EdCamp Cy-Fair. Instead of a standard “sit and get” we are encouraging staff to get up and move as they listen to an educational podcast of their choice – taking care of their minds and bodies during this stressful time of year! Continue reading
Student Created Learning Playlists
When I was in high school, I recall frequently being divided into groups of four students, each of the four members being given a different section of the textbook to read, and then we would come back together and teach each other the part that we were responsible for. You may know this as the Jigsaw Method.
In this digital age, why not allow students to be more creative than this, use the digital resources freely available online, and create something that they are proud to share with their classmates – or even a larger, global audience? Continue reading
Virtually Duplicate Yourself! Embed Instructions OUTSIDE the Canvas in Google Slides and Drawings
Duplicate yourself and guide each student in your classroom simultaneously by embedding instructions outside of the canvas in google slides and drawings. Continue reading
3 Ways You can Impact Your School Culture TODAY
Often, when we think about school culture, it can feel like something we have no control over. This is a myth! The truth is: a school’s culture is created by every person in the building.  So if you’re looking to improve the culture on your own campus, take these three simple steps to make an impact on your school TODAY. Continue reading
Create Interactive Stories with Story Speaker Add-on
I found a super awesome Add-on for Google Docs this week! It’s called Story Speaker. The creators of this add-on wanted to utilize google’s voice recognition capabilities to create interactive stories within Google Docs that can then be played on your Google Home with no coding necessary!
7 Treasures from TCEA 2018
I was so blessed to get to not only attend the #TCEA Conference in Austin, TX last week but also to present about running Twitter Chats alongside the #TXed leadership team. I was so impressed by the amazing educators who shared not only theory and tools but also real-life ideas for implementation. Here are 7 treasures I gained from TCEA:
Personalized Scatch-offs Templates
I’ve seen it all over Pinterest… a crazy concoction that teachers can whip up to create
Now you can create your own personalized scratch-off cards in just a simple peel and stick? YES! That’s what I’m talking about!!!
Valentines is just around the corner, so I’m using this idea to create these Valentine Lotto tickets for my staff:
Super Bowl Squares Choice Board
The past few years we have enjoyed playing Super Bowl Squares with our staff. If you don’t know about this game, you can check out the full rules here and get some helpful templates. On our campus, we don’t sell the squares, instead, teachers earn them by completing tasks or being caught implementing a specific initiative. Here’s the basic overview of how we’ve adapted for our staff: Continue reading
Meredith Akers 