Several years ago, while I was an Assistant Principal at Ault Elementary, my awesome partner AP, Julie Clements (@jclements01), and I lead an online book study together. We wanted to have all of our participants create a #BookSnap as evidence of their learning and as a way to process their reading. If you aren’t familiar with #BookSnaps, the original idea was to snap a picture of a page from a book and using the SnapChat app, add annotations, bitmoji’s, and stickers to elaborate, express your feelings, or connect with the quote. Continue reading
Tag: google slides
Tap to Reveal Google Slides Hack
When I was a classroom teacher, I used to love to create games, incentives and interactive lessons using the Smart Notebook software because it gave me options to have students “Tap to Reveal” answers in different fun ways. Did you know this can be easily replicated in Google Slides??? Check it out – click on the balloon to reveal the answer: Continue reading
Year in Review Student Reflection
I truly cannot believe the school year is almost over! I personally love to take time to reflect at the end of each school year (here is the template I use to help me reflect on my year) and I believe we should provide opportunities for our students to reflect at the close of each year, as well. Continue reading
3 Google Slides Add-ons You Didn’t Know You NEEDED!
You probably know about Chrome Extensions – those little apps that you can add to Google Chrome. You may not know that you can also customize Google Slides (and Docs, Sheets, and Forms for that matter) with similar little “apps” called Add-ons. Continue reading
3 Googley Ideas for Quick and Easy Formative Assessment
Something I believe every good lesson includes is purposefully planned formative assessments. Whether looking over student work, having students turn and talk, taking a classroom poll, giving an exit ticket, or using another formative assessment strategy, the effectiveness really comes when the teacher takes what he or she learns from collecting that data and uses it to adjust instruction – helping to reteach and mitigate student misunderstandings. Here are three of my favorite Google Tools you can use to quickly and easily gather student data to drive your instruction during a lesson: Continue reading
From Thanksgiving to Christmas: Positive Incentives and Templates that WORK!
I can’t believe it’s here already, but here we are: that span of time that can sometimes feel like one of the longest stretches of the school year – the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas. We’ve had a taste of break. Those days off felt great! We’re refreshed and rejuvenated (well, I am anyway đ)! The first week back feels great! But then, the closer we get to Christmas break, the more excited about Christmas the students get and the more stressed we tend to get. Why? I say the culprit is… presents! Kids are excited about them and we’re stressed because we’ve got to get them all (and clean our houses for guests, and prepare meals… so much to do before the big day)! Continue reading
Book Study in a Box
I am currently participating in a book study on The New Pillars of Modern Teaching by Gayle Allen facilitated by Kathryn Laster @kklaster of Region 10. The book challenges educators to provide learners with choice in the time, place, medium, and socialness of their learning. Kathryn and her team have done an outstanding job of giving book study participants like me power over their learning in each of these areas throughout the book study. Continue reading
Frayer Model Collaborative Slide Deck
You may have heard of the Frayer Model before. It is a graphic organizer used to help students work with vocabulary in four different ways – providing the definition, characteristics, examples, and non-examples of the vocabulary word. This instructional strategy is used to help students process and understand vocabulary words deeply. 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
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