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https://open.spotify.com/episode/3Lowfj2Jy2gFLjCsyXYRR0?si=nE-m5dVSTgul9a38ind5Dw&dl_branch=1

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1B: Embodying Paghinga, Pahinga | Breathe, Rest

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Some resources on how to take care of ourselves

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Some resources on how to take care of ourselves

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https://plumvillage.org/articles/the-plum-village-survival-kit-part-i/

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In Part I we offer resources for dealing with anxiety and stress, creating calm and ease, some beautiful mindful music and online resources.

Managing Anxiety and Stress

In order to learn how monastics structure their day, balancing meditation, work and rest, you can read A Zen Master's tips for staying sane in challenging times. They are Thich Nhat Hanh's key teachings on the art of living each day well.

Here are two dharma talks from Thich Nhat Hanh on how to stay calm in a storm, and transforming depression, anger and fear with mindful breathing and walking.

Creating Calm and Ease

We invite you to come back to yourself with these guided meditation by our teacher Thay, giving the classic Plum Village guided meditation of Calm, Ease and Sr Chan Duc's meditation on healing with the breath. Or you might like to relax with Br Phap Linh's guided body scan and beautiful cello accompaniment.

Guided Relaxation with Cello and Br Phap Linh

Mindful Music and Chants

Have you ever been serenaded by Sr Chan Khong during total relaxation? Enjoy her song "I smile" here.

I Smile by Sister Chan Khong 4:23

Please enjoy this beautiful recording of Sister Chan Khong singing her classic song "I smile".

Join us in Lower Hamlet as we close the day and enter into Noble Silence with chants on the Great Bell with Sr Chanh Niem.

The Great Bell Chant by Sr Chanh Niem

Exercise at Home

Are you looking to stay healthy while at home? Try these qigong exercises with Br Phap Dung to start your day.

Qi Gong with Br Phap Dung

Plum Village in Your Pocket

Do you often have a few minutes of free time throughout your day? Perhaps between activities or while waiting? You can use this time to return to Plum Village and your island within by listening to audio tracks of Thay and his monastics guiding minfulness practices on the Plum Village Meditation App (free) and or listen to all the recent Dharma Talks within the Plum Village tradition on our Podcast.

Stay tuned for Part II - On cultivating compassion, helping others and seeing our current situation in a larger context. Coming soon!

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Survival Kits / The Plum Village Survival Kit - Part I: Taking Care of Yourself | Plum Village

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In Part I we offer resources for dealing with anxiety and stress, creating calm and ease, some beautiful mindful music and online resources. In order to learn how monastics structure their day, balancing meditation, work and rest, you can read A Zen Master's tips for staying sane in challenging times.

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[Blog] An Active Reading Strategy for Any Learning Landscape

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[Blog] An Active Reading Strategy for Any Learning Landscape

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A simple strategy to encourage students to engage with reading material whether online, offline or both!

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An Active Reading Strategy for Any Learning Landscape

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This strategy activates thinking throughout a reading task. It doesn't matter whether a student reads a story for English, a chapter in a textbook for science or math, or an online article for history; they need to be actively thinking about what they are reading.

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Rubric Maker - Create custom assessments

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Create rubrics for your classroom projects.

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[MANUAL] ACTIVE LEARNING AND ADAPTING TEACHING TECHNIQUES

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[MANUAL] ACTIVE LEARNING AND ADAPTING TEACHING TECHNIQUES

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Active Learning and Adapting Teaching Techniques

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[MANUAL] Teaching and Learning Strategies

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[MANUAL] Teaching and Learning Strategies

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[MANUAL] ACTIVE LEARNING AND TEACHING METHODS

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[MANUAL] ACTIVE LEARNING AND TEACHING METHODS

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Educ8 Meet a free non-restrictive video conferencing tool that focus on privacy and true end-to-end encryption. https://meet.educ8.ph

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2021 Teachers' Strong Start Playlist - add a song that reminds you to connect to yourself when you feel out of sync and cheers you up

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Teacher Collaborative Strong Start Playlist - what's your power song for the year?

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Teacher Collaborative Strong Start Playlist - what's your power song for the year?

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https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4nZyS3lXZ7lW9qI7vVpqVn?si=1bff0e2fbc1543bb

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https://digitaltayo.habieducationlab.org/ta/project-based-learning
A playlist of resources on Project-Based Learning

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https://www.facebook.com/habieducationlab/posts/2959613624250736
An exercise for celebrating wins and growth with your learners or your team.

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An article that shares why and how Strengths Based teaching works.

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"All children are ready to learn something, but each starts their learning from a different place. Teachers must find out what children already know, and prepare to take them from where they are to somewhere else." (Clay, 2016, p. 27)

Recently, my mother-in-law had a mild stroke. Because of this, she was required to take a driving exam in order to maintain her license. Having not been in that situation for more than 50 years, she approached that task feeling extremely nervous and apprehensive, concerned about what she would and wouldn't remember, and carrying the weight of the most pressing possibility: What if she failed and could no longer drive?

When I spoke to her after her driving exam, she recalled her uncertain start, but explained that the driving assessor had provided her with positive interaction right away. She said things such as, "You remembered to yield at the crosswalk-that shows you are paying attention to your surroundings while driving. Now continue to do that as you merge onto the highway and exit at the next stop." My mother-in-law attributed those quick, positive interactions to allowing her to feel much more confident, relying on what she knew to support her as she continued with the exam. Ultimately, she passed with high marks. The assessor recognized what she was doing well and helped her to make links between known strengths and the possible unknown.

And so it is with teaching. If we can help our teachers look at students from a strengths-based lens, they can elevate student learning by building on what they know, such as their personal foundations. Wherever students are on their learning path, their processing systems contain multiple strengths and abilities, including the ability and readiness to learn (Clay, 2001; 2016). When teachers identify individual student strengths and provide support with what is not yet controlled, new strengths can emerge (Clay, 2001).

In turn, the student becomes more confident, experiencing success and feeling in control of his learning (Clay, 1998). Learning, according to Vygotsky's zone of proximal development, begins (not ends) with the known and relies on the teacher to encourage and support the child to take on new tasks that are not yet known (1978). The unknown soon becomes the known, but only when the known was considered first as the support, or scaffold, to new learning. This approach helps teachers to avoid allowing the deficits, or the not yet known, to dominate plans and next steps for students.
Support teachers through focused messages about assessment and student progress
How can administrators support teachers to teach from a lens of strengths? There are a variety of different ways to shift this thinking, but much of this work starts with the actions and words of the administrator. When approaching assessments, focusing on what the assessments will reveal as strengths of students, rather than deficits, is a helpful model. When teachers question the assessment they are being asked to administer, discussions of the ways in which what their students know will be leveraged to inform instruction are valuable. When discussing assessment results with teachers, it is important to start with questions that keep the focus on the strengths of the student. Some examples include:

What does this assessment tell us about what this student knows?

What concepts/content/strategies of this assessment are understood by your student?

What are the foundational understandings of this assessment that your student can use to build on?

The same types of questions and focus are important when considering student progress in meetings and scenarios that are used to create clear learning paths for students, such as Response to Intervention and Multi-Tiered Systems of Support.

Consider how this student's strengths can support further learning in this area.

What does this student know about [insert topic]?

What does this student currently know how to do that they did not know before?

How can this new knowledge be used as a support to continue progress?

When administrators frame their mindsets around assessment data being pertinent to identify student strengths in order to support student progress, teachers may feel the same. This is only the beginning of the work to support strengths-based teaching, however. The message must be supported through action. Therefore, collaborative work with teachers should include practicing how to analyze assessment data from a strengths-based lens to inform instruction, and further, how to plan instruction based on these strengths.
Work collaboratively with teachers and focus on strengths first
Using real examples of assessment data can be powerful to support understandings of focusing our lenses on student strengths. If our first interaction with this data is to carefully analyze all that the student has demonstrated success in, as meager as that may be, we can then tailor our next steps to build on and grow these successes. One activity to consider is to look carefully at an assessment with the expectation of spending a short, set amount of time recording only the strengths found within the assessment results.

Identifying these strengths not only places a teacher's mind in a place of "can do," but also supports teachers to rely on those strengths to develop new strengths. This activity can stretch comfort zones-a positive happening in learning! It is familiar to view an assessment and see clearly all the areas of needed improvement. However, this doesn't always offer us a clear place to start. Once certain strengths are identified, these can be used as building blocks to learning.
Consider links, not gaps
Once teachers are comfortable identifying student strengths, support them to leverage strengths when planning instruction. It is both overwhelming and not helpful to become bogged down by all the areas where this student may be falling short. Instead, teachers can link student strengths to the not yet known through "If-Then" models. When a teacher has identified a student strength, this strength then becomes the "if" portion of the model. The "then" portion becomes the new learning that can be linked to and taught from the current strength. Teachers identify the strength and then pair it with all the new learning that can be taught from recognizing, praising, practicing, and scaffolding that particular strength. These If-Then models then become visual webs of the known to the not-yet-known.
Focusing on strengths is now more important than ever
The COVID-19 pandemic has left teachers with countless uncertainties as they consider the new students they will meet in the new school year. As schools reopen in various formats (traditional, hybrid, online), teachers may be filled with anxiety wondering how they will ever help their students "catch-up" from the potential learning loss from spring to fall. In a recent article from The Washington Post, Rachael Gabriel suggests we stop dwelling on all the ways in which students have "fallen behind" and consider all the things they may have learned outside of the typical school building and structure. As administrators, we must recognize it will be overwhelming for teachers if we send them messages that suggest it is their work to compact curriculum lost in the spring or accelerate student learning to make up for their time away from school. Instead, Gabriel encourages us all to, "welcome them with wonder and assume they have learned immeasurable and previously unknowable things (2020)."

As students make their way back to their schools and teachers this fall, centering priorities, messages, and teaching on student strengths is now more critical than ever. A strengths-based approach shifts teachers' thinking from, "There is so much they need to learn," to "There is so much they already know." It alters students' perceptions from "I'm not where I should be," to "I know things that will help me learn more."

Teachers are counting on their administrators to provide guidance as they navigate uncharted territory. Let's make sure the message they receive loud and clear is one that speaks to the power of identifying student strengths, communicating these strengths with students, and leveraging student strengths to plan instruction based on their personal foundations.
Works Cited
Clay, M.M. (1998). By different paths to common outcomes. York, ME. Stenhouse

Clay, M.M. (2001). Change over time in children's literacy development. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Clay, M.M. (2016). Literacy lessons designed for individuals (2nd ed.) Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Gabriel, R. (2020, May 19). Can we stop telling the 'corona kids' how little they are learning? Washington Post. Retrieved from washingtonpost.com.

Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

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Strengths-Based Teaching is About Starting with the Known

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"All children are ready to learn something, but each starts their learning from a different place. Teachers must find out what children already know, and prepare to take them from where they are to somewhere else." (Clay, 2016, p. 27) Recently, my mother-in-law had a mild stroke.

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Teacher Wellbeing - Resources for keeping our cups full and our teacher sparks alive.
Teaching Strategies - What have we learned after a year of remote learning? Let's try these for year 2!
Finding your teacher strengths - When we see the best in ourselves, we know what we have and how we can best be of service to others.
Empathy in the Classroom - Cultivating a caring learning environment for ourselves and our learners.
Teacher Basics - Quick guides and how-tos for different teacher tasks, tools, and everything in between.

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A free quiz for discovering your strengths.

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Free Strengths Test | Find Your Unique Talents and Character Traits

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HIGH5 is a free strengths test helping +2 000 000 people to discover their unique talents and to live a life full of happiness and fulfilment.

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[Article] How to Identify and Leverage Your Personal Strengths

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[Article] How to Identify and Leverage Your Personal Strengths

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This article has some practical tips on how you can discover and practice your strengths.

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Kathryn Sandford
Career Resilience Coach passionate about supporting others to grow and thrive in a complex world. Read full profile

As a recruiter, I have met and interviewed hundreds of candidates who have no idea who they are.

Without a personal brand, candidates struggle to answer the question: "tell me about yourself-who are you?" They have no idea about who they are, what their strengths are, and how they can add value to the company. They present their CV's believing that their CV is the key to their career success. In some ways, your CV still has its use. However, in today's job market, you need more than a CV to stand out in a crowd.

According to Celinne Da Costa:

"Personal brand is essentially your golden ticket to networking with the right people, getting hired for a dream job, or building an influential business." She believes that "a strong personal brand allows you to stand out in an oversaturated marketplace by exposing desired audiences to your vision, skillset, and personality in a way that is strategically aligned with your career goals."

A personal brand opens up your world to so many more career opportunities that you would never have been exposed to with just your CV.

What Is Your Personal Brand?

"Personal branding is how you distinctively market your uniqueness." -Bernard Kelvin Clive

Today, the job market is very competitive and tough. Having a great CV will only let you go so far because everyone has a CV, but no one else has your distinct personal brand! It is your personal brand that differentiates you from everyone else and that is what people buy-you.

Your personal brand is your mark on the world. It is how people you interact with and the world see you. It is your legacy-it is more important than a business brand because your personal brand lasts forever.

I have coached people who have very successful careers, and they come to me because they have suddenly found that they are not getting the opportunities or having the conversations that would them to their next role. They are having what I call a "career meltdown," all because they have no personal brand.

A personal brand helps you become conscious of your differences and your uniqueness. It allows you to position yourself in a way that makes you stand out from the pack, especially among other potential job applicants.

Don't get me wrong, having a great CV and a great LinkedIn profile is important. However, there are a few steps that you have to take to have a CV and LinkedIn profile that is aligned to who you are, the value you offer to the market, and the personal guarantee that you deliver results.

Building your personal brand is about strategically, creatively, and professionally presenting what makes you, you. Knowing who you are and the value you bring to the table enables you to be more informed, agile, and adaptable to the changing dynamic world of work. This is how you can avoid having a series of career meltdowns.

Your Personal Brand Is Essential for Your Career Success

In her article, Why Personal Branding Is More Important Than Ever, Caroline Castrillon outlines key reasons why a personal brand is essential for career success.

According to Castrillon,

"One reason is that it is more popular for recruiters to use social media during the interview process. According to a 2018 CareerBuilder survey, 70% of employers use social media to screen candidates during the hiring process, and 43% of employers use social media to check on current employees."

The first thing I do as a recruiter when I want to check out a candidate or coaching client is to look them up on LinkedIn or other social media platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Your digital footprint is the window that highlights to the world who you are. When you have no control over how you want to be seen, you are making a big mistake because you are leaving it up to someone else to make a judgment for you as to who you are.

As Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, once said, "Your brand is what people say about you when you are not in the room."

In her book, Becoming, Michelle Obama writes about the importance of having a personal brand and her journey to defining her personal brand. She wrote that:

"if you don't get out there and define yourself, you'll be quickly and inaccurately defined by others."

When you have a personal brand, you are in control. You know exactly what people will say about you when you leave the room.

The magic of a personal brand is that gives you control over how you want to be seen in the world. Your confidence and self-belief enable you to leverage opportunities and make informed decisions about your career and your future. You no longer experience the frustrations of a career meltdown or being at a crossroads not knowing what to do next with your career or your life. With a personal brand, you have focus, clarity, and a strategy to move forward toward future success.

Creating your personal brand does not happen overnight. It takes a lot of work and self-reflection. You will be expected to step outside of your comfort zone not once, but many times.

The good news is that the more time you spend outside of your comfort zone, the more you will like being there. Being outside of your comfort zone is where you can test the viability of and fine-tune your personal brand.

5 Key Steps to Creating Your Personal Brand

These five steps will help you create a personal brand that will deliver you the results you desire with your career and in life.

1. Set Your Personal Goals

What is it that you want to do in the next five years? What will your future self be doing in the next five to ten years? What is important to you? If you can answer these questions, then you are on the right path. If not, then you have to start thinking about them.

2. Create Your Unique Value Proposition

1. What are your personality features? What benefit do you offer people?

2. Who are you and why do people enjoy working with you?

3. What do you do and what do people want you to do for them? How do you solve their problems?

4. What makes you different from others like you?

Create your unique value proposition by asking yourself these four questions:

The answers to these questions will give you the information you need to create your professional story, which is the key step to creating your personal brand.

3. Write Your Professional Story

Knowing who you are, what you want, and the unique value you offer is essential to you creating your professional story. People remember stories. Your personal story incorporates your value proposition and tells people who you are and what makes you unique. This is what people will remember about you.

4. Determine Which Platforms Will Support Your Personal Brand

Decide which social media accounts and online platforms will best represent your brand and allow you to share your voice. In a professional capacity, having a LinkedIn profile and a CV that reflects your brand is key to your positioning in relation to role opportunities. People will be connecting with you because they will like the story you are telling.

5. Become Recognized for Sharing Your Knowledge and Expertise

A great way for you to promote yourself is by sharing knowledge and helping others. This is where you prove you know your stuff and you gain exposure for doing so. You can do this through social media, writing, commenting, video, joining professional groups, networking, etc. Find your own style and uniqueness and use it to attract clients, the opportunities, or the jobs you desire.

The importance of having a personal brand is not going to go away. In fact, it is the only way where you can stand out and be unique in a complex changing world of work. If you don't have a personal brand, someone will do it for you. If you let this happen, you have no control and you may not like the story they create.

Standing out from others takes time and investment. Most people cannot make the change by themselves, and this is where engaging a personal brand coach is a viable option to consider.

As a personal brand coach, working with my clients to create their personal brand is my passion. I love the fact that we can work together to create a personal story that defines exactly what people will say when you leave the room.

Other People's Stories

Listening to other people's stories is a great way to learn. In his article, 7 TED Talks About Personal Branding, Rafael Dos Santos presents the best Ted Talks where speakers share their stories about the "why," "what," and "how" of personal branding.((GuidedPR: 7 TED Talks About Personal Branding))

Take some time out to listen to these speakers sharing their stories and thoughts about personal branding. You will definitely learn so much about how you can start your journey of defining yourself and taking control of your professional and personal life.

Your personal brand, without a doubt, is your secret weapon to your career success. As Michelle Obama said,

"your story is what you have, what you will always have. It is something to own."

So, go own your story. Go on the journey to create your personal brand that defines who you are, highlights your uniqueness, and the value you offer to the world.

Featured photo credit: Austin Distel via unsplash.com

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How to Identify and Leverage Your Personal Strengths

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Kathryn Sandford Career Resilience Coach passionate about supporting others to grow and thrive in a complex world. Read full profile As a recruiter, I have met and interviewed hundreds of candidates who have no idea who they are. Without a personal brand, candidates struggle to answer the question: "tell me about yourself-who are you?"

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How might we use Google Classroom for collaboration and task management with our learners? This article is a handy guide!

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Editor's note: Shaun Langevin contributed to the most recent update of this article. Use these links to jump to any section below:
Google's most popular tools-Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Docs-are staples for getting organized and getting work done. These collaboration-friendly tools have revolutionized the way we communicate, work together, and store information online. For teachers and students, the education-friendly platform Google Classroom brings the benefits of paperless sharing, assessment, and digital collaboration to classrooms. Tens of millions of teachers and students use Google Classroom in thousands of schools worldwide, making it one of the most popular edtech tools around.

Read on to find answers to teachers' most commonly asked questions about the platform, with all kinds of information on how you can use Google Classroom with your students. Also, be sure to check out our guide for parents and caregivers, and our detailed review of Google Classroom's learning potential.

Google describes Google Classroom as "mission control for your classroom," which might be the easiest way to think about it. Simply put, it's a platform that ties together Google's Workspace tools (formerly known as G Suite) for teachers and students. It also acts as a digital organizer where teachers can keep class materials and share them with students-all paperless-ly. From there, you can pick and choose the features you want to incorporate. This flexibility and seamless integration with Google's popular tools have made Google Classroom one of the most widely used edtech tools today.

Technically, no. Google Classroom is not a stand-alone learning management system (LMS), course management system (CMS), or student information system (SIS). That said, Google regularly adds new functions to Google Classroom. As of August 2023, Google Classroom can sync data with Skyward 2.0, Skyward Qmlativ, Follett Aspen, and Infinite Campus student information systems. As Google continues to add features, it may start to look, and function, more like an LMS. But for now it's best to think of the tool as a one-stop shop for class organization.

Streamline how they manage classes. The platform integrates with Google's other tools like Docs, Drive, Forms, Meet, and Calendar, so there are many built-in "shortcuts" for classroom-management tasks. For example, if you post an assignment with a due date, it's automatically added to your students' class calendar for them to see.

Digitally organize, distribute, and collect assignments, course materials (think: videos, websites, PDFs, and more), and student work. Teachers also can post an assignment to multiple classes or modify and reuse assignments from year to year. If your students have regular access to devices, Google Classroom can help you avoid some trips to the photocopier and cut down on some of the paper shuffling that comes with teaching and learning.

Communicate with students about their classwork. You can use the platform to post announcements and reminders about assignments, and it's easy to see who has or hasn't completed their work. You can also check in with individual students privately, answer their questions, and offer support.

Give students timely feedback on their assignments and assessments. Within Google Classroom, it's possible to use Google Forms to create and share quizzes that are automatically graded as students turn them in. Not only will you spend less time grading, but your students will also get instant feedback on their work. Teachers can view individual and class data within Forms or an automatically generated Google Sheet.

Anyone! Google Classroom is included as a free service for anyone with a personal Google account. It's also free for organizations using Google Workspace for Education or Google Workspace for nonprofits. In most cases, teachers and students can access Google Classroom using a Google account provided by their school. While teachers and students in schools are the primary users of Google Classroom, some features can be used by administrators, families, clubs, after-school programs, and homeschoolers.

Because it's a fairly flexible platform, educators use its features in a lot of different ways. With Google Classroom, teachers can:

Formative: You can quickly create, distribute, and collect digital exit tickets or auto-graded assessments. And you can pose discussion questions for quick insights into what students are thinking.

Summative: Tests can include traditional question types like multiple choice, short or paragraph answer, checkbox, and more. There also are options for students to upload files (like movies or photos) when responding to a question or prompt, allowing students to share their knowledge in a variety of ways.

Grading and rubrics: Teachers can simply assign points to different assignments, or give different weights to different types of assignments (essays, classwork, homework, etc.). You can create rubrics right in Google Classroom, and students can view these as they work. Turned-in work can be graded using the rubric, and the score will be automatically calculated. Take note, however, that it isn't possible to use standards-based grades (at least not yet).

Plagiarism check: Another feature called "originality reports" is essentially a plagiarism-checking tool that compares a student's Google Document with webpages and books readily available on the internet. If the feature is turned on, students can run reports before submitting assignments-and teachers can run them after. Teachers may want to use the originality reports feature as an opportunity to teach the importance of citing sources.

Can teachers use Google Classroom for assessments and grading?

Yes. Google Classroom can help teachers streamline summative and formative assessments through its own features and third-party integrated tools.

Do teachers use Google Classroom to teach live, like with Zoom?

Some teachers use Google Meet as a video conferencing solution (instead of Zoom or a similar tool). Google Classroom integrates with Google Meet, and teachers can set up video meetings from within Google Classroom for live, or "synchronous," instruction. By default, students can't begin a meeting before the teacher, or rejoin the meeting if the teacher is the last person to leave. Google Meet videos created from within Google Classroom are only accessible from school-managed Google Workspace for Education accounts.

In addition to live-video capabilities, the recording feature in Google Meet gives teachers an easy tool for creating prerecorded video lessons for asynchronous learning, which students can watch on their own time. The Google for Education Teacher Center has helpful video tutorials about Google Meet to help teachers get started.

How do I set up Google Classroom?

The basic setup process for Google Classroom is pretty intuitive, even for first-time users. The Google for Education Teacher Center offers several tutorials for getting started-this is your best bet if you're looking for the most up-to-date videos and information. There are also plenty of do-it-yourself tutorials on YouTube posted by teachers and tech-integration specialists. Many of these teacher-created videos include practical tips and tricks they've learned from using the platform in their classrooms.

How can Google Classroom support differentiation in the classroom?

Read Along: This tool pairs young readers with a digital reading assistant named Diya, letting teachers assign activities based on grade or Lexile level while also tracking reading metrics like speed and fluency.

Reading Mode: Students and teachers can now customize how they view digital texts by adjusting typeface, font size, and colors, in addition to reducing potentially distracting elements like images and video.

Google Classroom makes it easy to customize assignments for individual students or small groups. Teachers can give modified or differing assignments to specific students or groups in a class. You also have the option to check in with a student privately to see whether they have questions or need extra help. An online differentiation strategy like this can make your efforts less conspicuous to the class, so students won't feel singled out in the way that they might with other types of in-person differentiation.

In addition, Google Classroom has unveiled new accessibility tools to allow for students of all learning abilities to engage with classroom content:

With or without a tool like Google Classroom, differentiation is always going to be a matter of creative problem-solving, and there's no one or "right" way to do it. Luckily, lots of teachers share their tips, tricks, and creative solutions online. Here's an example of how one teacher uses Google Classroom to meet students at their levels.

How can administrators and curriculum coaches use Google Classroom?

Google Classroom isn't just for teachers. Superintendents, principals, and curriculum coaches can benefit from using Google Classroom to organize staff notes, announcements, dates, documents, and other resources for teachers and other school staff. When using Google Classroom in this way, administrators can intentionally model many of the technological skills and proficiencies they'd like teachers to use.

Curriculum coaches can create anonymous questionnaires (using Google Forms) to receive feedback on recent professional development. Coaches can even go a step further and upload videos of model lessons for teachers in their district to view-a great way to bring teachers who are new to a school or district up to speed.

How can families and parents stay in the loop with Google Classroom?

Google Classroom has options for teachers to send out updates about students' classwork, but it doesn't offer the level of communication you'll find in tools like Seesaw, ClassDojo, or Remind. Google refers to parents and families as "guardians" who can opt in to receive email summaries about missing work, upcoming work, and other class activity. However, it doesn't include direct-messaging features for families or allow families to comment on their children's work.

What's new in Google Classroom?

The platform has been updated quite a bit since its launch, and Google continues to introduce new features regularly, often based on feedback from teachers.

*Please note that there are different membership tiers with Google Education tools, which may impact which new features you and your school district have access to in Google Classroom.

Mix up the types of resources you share with students in Google Classroom. In addition to Google Workspace tools like Docs and Slides, teachers and students can share other types of media, including images, links to websites, YouTube videos, and screencasts.

Provide students with a variety of options for submitting work. For example, you might offer students the choice to respond to a reading assignment with a comment, video clip, or drawing that shows their thinking (see our section on differentiation above).

Use Google Classroom's stream page to create an interactive hub. Within Google Classroom, the Stream is a feed where everyone in the class can find daily agendas, announcements, and upcoming assignments, and it's the first thing students see when they log in. You can also set up class discussion boards on Stream, where students can interact online by asking questions or commenting on each other's posts. These discussion boards can help increase class participation and offer students more equity in having their voices heard (or read) by the class.

Integrate digital citizenship lessons. You can use the Stream as a closed social network of sorts, and it can be a great way to help kids practice using all kinds of different digital citizenship skills like engaging in civil discourse or deescalating digital drama in a "walled garden" setting.

How can I make Google Classroom more engaging and interactive for my students?

Check out the following tips to make the Google Classroom experience as engaging as it can be:

What other apps and websites integrate with Google Classroom?

There are now hundreds of external apps and websites that integrate with Google Classroom, and the App Hub is a great place to explore your options. Some of these apps may partner with Google, while others create and publish their own third-party add-ons as Chrome extensions. If you're using Google Classroom extensively, integrating other edtech tools can be a way to streamline your instruction.

For example, say you want your students to study some vocabulary words using Quizlet; you can use the Google Classroom integration to directly share and assign a particular flash card set to your class. Or if you're looking for other learning content online, there are integrations with publishers like Newsela, Khan Academy, and BrainPop, among others-you'll find all kinds of articles, videos, and other educational content to share with your students.

What is Google doing with my students' data? Should I be worried about privacy?

As an educator, protecting your students' privacy and data should definitely be a consideration whenever you're choosing a digital tool for your classroom. Anytime a tool might collect data from students, it's essential to ask questions about how the companies involved are securing, using, or storing student data. For more information, be sure to read our full privacy review of Google Classroom.

Google says that data privacy and security are high priorities for all Google Workspace for Education products. However, educators should keep in mind that parents and families have a right to opt out if they don't want their children to use Google products in school. Before launching Google Classroom, school administrators and teachers might want to have an alternative plan in place for students who may opt out.

In the past, some educators, families, and advocates have expressed doubts about Google's ability to deliver on promises about privacy and data protection. What's more, the prominence of Google branding and products in schools has raised questions about the trade-offs of allowing Google to build its brand in schools. Whether you use Google Classroom or not, it's important to get students thinking critically about data privacy and the commercialization we see in different aspects of our lives-including our classrooms.

Where can I find more ideas about using Google Classroom?

If you're looking for official information about Google Classroom, check out Google for Education's X (formerly Twitter) feed for product updates, ideas for teachers, videos, and even a newsletter about Google Workspace for Education products. Many Google Classroom fans are also posting and even podcasting about all the ways they're using the platform with students. With millions of teachers and edtech specialists field-testing, experimenting, and innovating with Google Classroom, it's easy to find tips and inspiration from fellow educators online.
Image courtesy of Allison Shelley/The Verbatim Agency for American Education: Images of Teachers and Students in Action.
As you're using Google Classroom, don't be afraid to get creative with your own strategies, hacks, and innovative uses for the platform. Like most edtech tools, Google Classroom is what you make of it, and how it works will probably look very different from classroom to classroom. What's most important is to find the strategies and tools within Google Classroom that work best for you and your students. Feel free to share the ways you're using Google Classroom with your students by adding a Community Rating to our review!

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Teachers' Essential Guide to Google Classroom | Common Sense Education

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What is Google Classroom? And how are teachers using it? Learn more about this popular platform and how to use it with your students.

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Everything you need to know about making, revising, and using rubrics!

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The role of rubrics in schools continues to grow and change. This guide is intended to help you stay up to date on the best practices. Including both the newest thoughts and timeless staples, the content comes from The Graide Network plus third party experts - all carefully curated for you.

Table of Contents
> Additional Tools & Resources

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The role of rubrics in schools continues to grow and change. This guide is intended to help you stay up to date on the best practices. Including both the newest thoughts and timeless staples, the content comes from The Graide Network plus third party experts - all carefully curated for you.

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https://open.spotify.com/episode/7IaYbNEIQfFcvJJnfbJF5f?si=5edcafb0484349b9

A podcast episode on using Check-ins to cultivate caring learning environments.

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[Blog] Project-based Learning in a Pandemic

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[Blog] Project-based Learning in a Pandemic

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How might we keep doing authentic projects in a pandemic? This is a blog entry from one of Habi's LXDs on using PBL in higher education.

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It's been 2 years since I wrote my first where I shared my personal journey of finding how PBL might work in higher education settings. Since then, my students have continued to do inspiring (Whoops, call me biased!) projects in our education classes - from organizing campaigns to inspire more high school students to consider teaching as a career, to facilitating conversations with parents of young children about trends and issues in early childhood education.

I've always been a believer in going for the most authentic projects that directly impact the local community. In the first few weeks of classes, I would encourage my students to think about the school community and its stakeholders. When possible, I would also organize community visits so they could understand the realities of people outside our comfortable, private-school setting. When news of the pandemic and our emergency remote learning setup broke, I kept asking myself, how might we keep doing authentic projects in the middle of a pandemic? It's been a year of trying PBL during this extremely unique time and here are some of the things I learned.

1. Check on your students' bandwidth for empathy

Borba (2016) wrote in that stress affects empathy. There are seasons of our lives when we are generally stressed and go on "survival mode," which makes it more difficult to feel for others. I saw this in my students in the past year; their plates are full with non-school concerns and personal matters. When you're struggling to meet your own needs, how can you work to meet the needs of others?

I realized that their bandwidth for empathy at this time might be at a low and that it might be challenging to make a project that serves others. That's why in the past year, we focused on projects that use real-world tools on topics that are personally meaningful to them. Let your students build something for themselves if that's all they can afford to do right now.

Projects can still be authentic even if they don't change the world, as long as they impact the world of your students.

2. Make it relevant to their current selves, not only to their future selves

As a student, did you have classes and lessons where you couldn't help but ask, "Para saan ba 'to?" It can be a pain to go through difficult lessons without understanding what they are for. "Balang araw maiintindihan niyo rin kung bakit natin 'to kailangan" is not the easiest thing to hold on to these days when "the future" is a blur and too many things are uncertain. I realized that for projects to work, they have to be relevant to the current pandemic context of our students.

In my class of in-service teachers, they made projects around their own students' challenges during remote learning. One actually helped their students get their printed modules without the fear of having their parents regularly leave their homes. Another made completing end-of-year requirements a delightful experience by gamifying to-do lists. The urgency and real impact of these challenges on their own students kept them motivated to build meaningful projects.

3. Set them up for success

I think this tip is a given in any teaching context but it's even more important during the pandemic. Projects are not easy to do especially when students are apart and finding it difficult to have moments for collaboration. As teachers, we must map out an experience that enables our students to succeed. By treating myself not just as a facilitator of learning, but as an actual collaborator and ally in their project-making, I am able to think ahead to determine what resources and techniques I can share to help students do great work. In the past year, I worked extra hard to make myself available to give timely feedback on students' working projects. GSuite tools help a lot since I can see the current versions of their work without having to wait for them to let me know when they have updated their outputs, or how far along they are in completing tasks. We've developed the habit of tagging one another in comments to ask for feedback on specific portions of their projects. For students who thrive in collaborative work, I demonstrate how they can do self-facilitated breakout rooms and pseudo-study dates online. Every week, I try to come up with new approaches that will help them understand different ways of working that can actually work for them in a remote learning setup.

4. Invite them to do regular self-checks

Asking these as Check-ins/Check-outs or entrance/exit tickets each week helps students pause, celebrate small wins, and regulate themselves. Aside from the perennial "How are you?" which rarely gets meaningful answers, you can try inserting a self-check prompt or two in your regular correspondences with students. And remember to stay curious and listen to stories. Metacognition is a key element of PBL. What new thing did I learn while doing my project? What new thing did I discover about myself? What part of my project process am I proudest of so far? What was challenging for me this week? What went right this week which I am determined to replicate next week? We're looking to know what they think of their performance and genuine answers are given only to those who genuinely want to know.

Pandemic or not, using PBL always feels rewarding for me as a teacher, and even more for students who constantly surprise themselves with the great work they didn't know they are capable of doing. Yes, great work even at this time. What's next? In my upcoming classes, I'm planning to take collaborations more seriously by sitting down with my students' other teachers. I know this will help students do less, but equally meaningful work. I also want to get creative with linking my students to collaborators for their projects especially since technologies link us to more experts and people in the field now. No need to fly them in - just send them the meeting link or record a chat, or a podcast-esque episode with them.

When fellow educators ask me how to do PBL, I always say it's a journey. I thought I already learned a lot which I shared with you in my first lab note, but look at where we are now! There's still so much to learn about PBL and, honestly, especially in a time of pandemic, these are the moments that keep me feeling alive as a teacher.

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It's been 2 years since I wrote my first where I shared my personal journey of finding how PBL might work in higher education settings. Since then, my students have continued to do inspiring (Whoops, call me biased!)

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UP Open University Webinar on using gamification as a teaching tool.

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OPEN Talk - Innovative Teaching Solution: Gamification as a Teaching Tool

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Welcome to the Teachers' Community Pantry!

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Welcome to the Teachers' Community Pantry!

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One of the things we learned after a year in remote learning is that we're stronger together. So this pantry is an invitation for all of us to take what we need, and to give what we can to our community of teachers.

Click the "+" button under each column to add links to resources that you want to share! To learn more about the categories, check out the card below. Happy National Teachers' Month, mga 'cher!

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bit.ly/thehabishop

This book is a guide for educators, students, professionals, and anybody who wants to start gatherings with self-reflection, empathy, and delight for everyone in attendance.

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https://fb.watch/7U8zEhlIFd/

This is a webinar about identifying strengths and areas for improvement as Teacher-Designers, setting goals for continuing professional development, and cultivating a professional learning community in schools.

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Here some insights we have gained from a workshop: Design Thinking as a Teaching Strategy.

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"When one teaches, two learn."

This quote, commonly attributed to science fiction writer Robert Heinlein, is a staple in teacher motivational posters. And rightfully so-they inspire teachers to become better. Whenever teachers also learn from their students, they are able to get to know the students better, they can make more sense and meaning out of the ideas they are teaching. Perhaps, they also learn something new about the world.

It is this dialogue, this two-way learning relationship, that also motivates us as teacher-educators. In our numerous Design Thinking workshops for teachers, not only do we teach, but we also learn. The discussions, activities, and worksheets are learning opportunities, not just for the participants, but for ourselves too.

Let us share with you some insights we have gained from a recent workshop: Design Thinking as a Teaching Strategy. We were curious about the teachers' perceptions of Design Thinking, so we asked them to compare their current learning environments, with what a "Design Thinking environment" looks like. What are the students doing? What does the space look like? What is the teacher's role? Teachers sketched these scenes in the worksheet provided. After performing contextual analysis of the 67 sketches, here's what we learned:

Students were perceived as having more negative feelings towards learning

When we compared how students were depicted, we saw more negative feelings such as confused (43%), sleepy / tired (31%), and sad (19%). Positive feelings such as happy (27%) and curious (15%) were visualized less in the worksheets.

This seems like the Negativity Bias in effect, that says people tend to recall negative feelings more than positive ones. But we wonder, could this also be a reflection of how teachers feel about their students? What are the implications of negativity bias when empathizing with our students?

Technology defines this generation of students

In scenes of current learning environments, the second most apparent pattern (after confused students) was students depicted with some sort of technology tool. 4 out of 10 sketches showed students using smartphones, computers, games, and social media. Many sketches were neutral in nature, depicting technology as the norm for these students, while a few worksheets had clear opinions about technology being a nuisance or distraction. This is consistent with the common opinion we hear from teachers about students being "digital natives", and a great starting point to encourage deeper empathy for our students. Before putting value judgments on the benefits or dangers of technology to our learners, we encourage teachers to take the student's perspective. What exactly are they doing with these tools and platforms? Why do they continue using them? What value does it add to their lives? What learning experiences can they get from them?

The physical space defines our perception of what traditional learning is

Around 36% of sketches showed their physical spaces, which were all typical classroom setups: a blackboard, with tables and chairs all facing the front. Almost all sketches also included having a teacher in front, either doing a lecture or pointing to a concept. And when compared with the scenes of Design Thinking environments, this typical classroom setup was practically gone. Interesting. While the physical environment indeed influences the learning process, there seems to be a general idea that innovative teaching has to happen in a non-typical classroom setup. We wonder, is it necessary to transform the physical environment in order to effectively integrate Design Thinking in teaching? Is it possible to still have a traditional classroom and yet allow students to build prototypes and collaborate well?

Collaboration was the big take-away from the design thinking process

In the sketches depicting scenes of a Design Thinking environment, collaboration was the most apparent theme. 58% visualized students working together, in different forms. We compared it to sketches of current learning environments, where only 28% showed some sort of collaboration or group work. This holds true to what many students and teachers commonly share as the biggest pain point in classroom activities: group work. This shows that Design Thinking is primarily seen as a way to enhance collaboration among students.

Technology took a backseat in design thinking

Surprisingly, technology was almost absent in Design Thinking scenes, with a mere 3% of the sketches showing a technology tool or app. 16% had an element of nature (trees, outdoors, animals) while 22% depicted hands-on tools ranging from paper scissors to hammers. This was an interesting shift in teachers' perspectives about innovation, which is that it isn't purely reliant on technology itself. As an innovation process, Design Thinking is accessible. Of course technology tools can always enhance it, but students can still empathize and prototype even without access to the internet. That's a powerful idea.

Design thinking was perceived as a mix of thinking and doing, less of feeling

We think of Design Thinking as a process that spans all domains: cognitive (thinking), psychomotor (doing), and affective (feeling). But based on the sketches from the worksheets, feeling was only visualized by 6% of the participants. Both thinking and doing were equally visible in the sketches at 39%. We can look at this data as feedback for our workshop design-are we undermining the affective side of design thinking? Should we provide more examples, or emphasize the importance of feelings, values, and empathy in learning through design thinking? Or perhaps, we can also look at this is as a reflection of how the affective domain is often overlooked by educators.

Final thoughts

These simple insights are mere snapshots of the wealth of stories that our teachers have. But we have learned a lot, which can inform our future workshops and projects. Through more inquiry and empathy, we can understand them deeper, and find more creative ways to support them in their day-to-day work.

By sharing this process of our reflection, we also invite more educators to engage in more two-way teaching and learning. You might be surprised with what you learn from your students. Take a moment to look at your student work, beyond the rubrics and scores and competencies. What are they trying to tell you? What do you wonder about? Share your learnings. Let's become better teachers together.
Illustrations were from the recent Design Thinking as a Teaching Strategy workshop, last February 2020 at Diliman Preparatory School with 100 teachers. Photo composition and editing by Mitzi Bajet.

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"When one teaches, two learn." This quote, commonly attributed to science fiction writer Robert Heinlein, is a staple in teacher motivational posters. And rightfully so-they inspire teachers to become better. Whenever teachers also learn from their students, they are able to get to know the students better, they can make more sense and meaning out of the ideas they are teaching.

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https://fb.watch/7U87qCoo_I/

This webinar is all about discovering your teacher strengths, and the value of approaching teaching and learning with a strengths-based mindset.

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[Webinar] Habi Live: Strong Start Series

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[Webinar] Habi Live: Strong Start Series

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https://www.facebook.com/watch/1497108803834566/960858744438546

A free webinar series for teachers who want to start their school year strong through a week of guided introspection.

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[Podcast] Habi Hour: Designing for Teacher Wellbeing

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[Podcast] Habi Hour: Designing for Teacher Wellbeing

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https://open.spotify.com/episode/0J0E40NTlCrKGCmUV22CC7?si=eb6a031a23e2411c

We talk to Raqs of Malayang Diwa on the power of stories, narratives, and communities in keeping one's teaching spark alive.

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[Playlist] A compilation of podcasts on different subjects

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[Playlist] A compilation of podcasts on different subjects

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This Padlet compiles podcasts on subjects like English, Math, Science, and more!