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How to Make Drag & Drop Text Annotation Interactive Google Slides for Distance Learning

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How to Make Personalized Digital Feedback Stickers with Your Real Self [FREE STICKER TEMPLATE 👇]

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almost anything Translate Bridging the Gap for English Language Learners and families http://esl-bits.net/ Amanda Sandoval - Roosevelt HS - CNUSD with help from the amazing Carrie Smith copy of this presentation bit.ly/saywhatcnusd

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Brain break videos for the classroom will be much needed this year. We've heard many teachers say that their students will not be allowed to leave the classroom this year. Teachers will be rotating to them, recess is a big question mark, and all meals will be eaten at their desks.

We all know that our young students need to move around in order for learning to occur. We've done some research for you and come up with 25 brain break videos that you can use in your classroom. (Students will not be moving all around the room in these videos, so they are perfect for maintaining social distancing rules.) 😉

🌟 Go the little bit extra and create "squares" around the classroom that students can go to during "movement time", just to get a different view of the room. 🌟

Jack Hartmann's "Get Up to Get Down" Video

The Learning Station's "I Am the Music Man"

Music Express Choreography "Can't Stop the Feeling"

Jack Hartmann's "Boom Chicka Boom"

Barefoot Books' "If You're Happy and You Know It"

Patty Shukla's "Simon Says" Video

The Learning Station's "Body Boogie"

Debbie Doo's "The Hokey Pokey"

Pink Fong's "Jungle Boogie Dance"

Barefoot Books' " Dinosaur Rap" Video

Bounce Patrol's "If Animals Danced"

Pancake Manor's "Shake Break"

Patty Shukla's "Bouncing Up and Down"

The Learning Station's "Move With Me" Video

Debbie Doo's "Let's Star Jump"

Jack Hartmann's "I Can Move my Body Like Anything"

The Kiboomer's "Freeze Dance" Video

Super Simple Songs' "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes"

Mr. Woodland's "Walk, Run, and Jump"

The Learning Station's "Shake Our Sillies Out"

KIDZ BOP Kids "Make Some Noise"

GoNoodle's "Do the Yeti" Video

The Body Coach's "5 Minute Move"

Azukita Zumba Kids

GoNoodle's "Clap It Out Syllables" Video

Use these brain break videos for the classroom to help your students "get up and move"! We all know that their little brains work better when they've had time to shake their wiggles out. By using brain break videos in the classroom, you are allowing them time to let their brains rest and bodies move, giving them a break between curriculum, and hopefully causing less behavioral issues in the classroom. (We all know that the last one is the most important!!) 😉

If you have any favorite brain break videos for the classroom, please post the link(s) in the comments below. We all could use as many great videos as we can! ❤️
-Written by Janessa Fletcher
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25 Brain Break Videos for the Classroom | Education to the Core

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Brain break videos for the classroom will be much needed this year. We've heard many teachers say that their students will not be allowed to leave the classroom this year. Teachers will be rotating to them, recess is a big question mark, and all meals will be eaten at their desks.

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Distance Learning Resources | PBIS Rewards

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PBIS Rewards has compiled a number of distance learning resources help you make your virtual classroom effective and fun.

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SEL is a hot acronym in my district right now. If you haven't heard of it yet, it stands for Social Emotional Learning. What is SEL? Social and emotional learning (SEL) is a process that allows students to learn and apply knowledge, skills, and attitudes that are needed to manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, create positive relationships and make good decisions (summarized from Cascel.org). I personally love that we are starting to focus more on teaching emotions and basic social skills to students. It is often true that parents may not have the time or skills to be able to teach their students these basic SEL competencies. The 5 core competencies are Self-awareness, self-management, Social Awareness, Relationship Skills, and Responsible Decision-Making.

Students need to know that they MATTER. That they are CARED FOR. That they are LISTENED TO. Showing students that we care about their emotional well-being is often what builds respect and relationships with them. And research shows that they will also perform better in school by an average of 11 percentile points overall have less behavior issues. Now, I'm not trying to pretend like I am some SEL expert. I am still trying to figure out all of the ins and outs of what it means. I encourage you to do your own research on the topic. Our district required each teacher to attend an SEL workshop this past summer, but there are also great resources online. Edutopia.org has a lot of great information, like this video.

Now, all of this philosophy on emotional intelligence sounds inspiring and WONDERFUL, and then sometimes it can be hard to apply it in your own classroom. Especially if you teach a Specials subject. Because a lot of ideas I've looked up are SO AMAZING if you have just one or two homeroom classes, but don't work if you see 600 kids throughout the course of the week. And I only see each class for 45 minutes per week. So, I'd like to show you some ways I've been incorporating SEL into my classroom that have proved to be successful for the Special's classroom.

1.Large "Feelings Wheel" poster
I'm not gonna lie. I'm not above capitalizing on what kids think is popular to get their attention (as long as it's appropriate!). This year, the popular song is "In My Feelings" by Drake, and the title of the song happens to fit in so well with the SEL movement. I put this outside of my room, so before they walk in they can be conscious of how they feel. I'm also going to include a song of the month which they can think about the feelings associated with it. This month's is "Lean on Me" by Bill Withers. Here is the feelings wheel I used to make mine. If you want to make it easier on yourself, just go to office max and get the image blown up and printed out! I decided, for once, to be all crafty and make it myself.
2. Feelings Meter
I created this feelings meter specifically for Pre-K through 5th grade students. If you teach only 4th or only 5th or a higher grade level, you may be able to use a "Mood Meter" which has more complicated emotions on it. And you could personalize the magnets with their names on them. What I do is stand right by the feelings meter,which is at the front of the classroom. When the students walk in at the beginning of every class, I watch them put their magnet on the emoji they are feeling, acknowledge it, and formally greet them. That might be a high five, fist bump, hand shake, or hug. Whichever they choose. This really sets the tone for the classroom. I always tell them it's ok if they are sad or upset when they come to music, but that they still need to try their best. Having a positive attitude doesn't always mean they have to fake being happy.

How to make-
3.Zen Zone
A Zen Zone is a calming area for your classroom. You could call it whatever you want. "Calming Center", "Cool down corner", or whatever works for you. In the future, I'd like to have more comfortable seating with a bean bag and add other things to it. But ya girl's on a budget. I created a feelings journal, that has questions for them to answer, breathing techniques, a feelings wheel, and drawings to create. I put the papers into sheet covers, so that they could use washable vis-a-vi pens and I can just wipe it off for the next class. There are also books, stuffed animals, and sensory items. I also have a tablet with headphones, so that they can listen to a classical music playlist I created on Spotify.

I usually send students to this center if they are feeling overwhelmed, need to cool off or calm down. Then after about 5-10 minutes, I will eventually ask them to join the class again.

4.Songs/Youtube videos

This is my SEL songs playlist on Youtube. A lot of the songs are great for Pre-K through 2nd grade, or students with Autism.
5.Circle Dialogue with a Talking Piece
This usually works better for 3rd-5th grade students, and even middle/high schoolers. The students all get into a circle, and will pass around a "Talking Piece". You can use whatever you want for a talking piece. Since I am the music teacher, I like to pass around a drum I got while I was in Guatemala. Each student has to play a specific rhythm that I hold up, and then answer the question that is posed. The student can pass to the next student if they don't want to answer the question. The point is to make the students feel safe and comfortable in your classroom. Help them to understand that whoever has the talking piece cannot be interrupted and they have the floor. One thing I love about this, is that you can make the question and talking piece SUBJECT-SPECIFIC. So if you are a librarian, pass around your favorite book. Or for art, pass around an art piece or art supply. For gym, you could have the class standing and bounce the ball to each other.

Some Questions you could ask in the Circle Dialogue:

If you could be a superhero, which
superpower would you choose and
why?

How would your best friend describe
you?

What would you NOT want to change
about your life? Why?

If you were an animal, what type would
you be and why?

What is it like for you when someone is angry at you?

Who do you respect, and why?

6.Staying in the present
I know teaching can be so demanding and sometimes you just want to check out. You need to constantly remind yourself of the important work that you're doing. Kids are always looking up to us as examples and role models. So when one class is leaving and the other is lined up outside your door, instead of checking your phone, ask the students a question. "How is your family doing?" "What do you want to be when you grow up?" "What is your favorite hobby?" Or whatever else is relevant to ask. In order to be present, you HAVE to take care of yourself. Maybe wake up 30 minutes earlier to have some time to yourself, start doing yoga before you go to bed, read an encouraging quote before work, listen to an inspiring podcast while you get ready in the morning. It could only take 5 minutes every day to make a difference in your life. You are amazing. You wake up every morning to do life-changing work that will affect your student's lives forever. Never forget to take care of yourself. Stay present to your needs so that you can be present to others!

Hope you are having a great week with your students! Keep up the amazing work.

Respectfully,

Paige

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SEL Strategies for Specials teachers - Simple Music Teaching

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SEL is a hot acronym in my district right now. If you haven't heard of it yet, it stands for Social Emotional Learning. What is SEL? Social and emotional learning (SEL) is a process that allows students to learn and apply knowledge, skills, and attitudes that are needed to manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, create positive relationships and make good decisions (summarized from Cascel.org).

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Within these pages, you will find months of hard work by some of the most amazing, dedicated, and creative educators that I know. They have volunteered to share their expertise with you through videos, text, and images. Please be respectful, and cite the individual authors when you reference their work.

We hope this guide will be a "go-to" resource for you as you integrate technology in your classroom, to empower your students to become thought leaders and change makers. The future is in their hands!

With gratitude, Kristina A. Holzweiss

Why "The Epic Book of Web Tools & Apps"?

Email me at
lieberrian@yahoo.com:

- to connect with me
- to suggest an edit or an update
- to contribute to
this and future
books/projects

MEET
THE...

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Within these pages, you will find months of hard work by some of the most amazing, dedicated, and creative educators that I know. They have volunteered to share their expertise with you through videos, text, and images. Please be respectful, and cite the individual authors when you reference their work.

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Many of us are using Google Slides to build interactive student activities. You can link to another slide in the Google Slides to help students navigate.

Titles are the Slide Name

When hyperlinking to a slide (Control K) you want to select "Slides in this presentation."

From the drop down you can choose the particular slide number you want to link to, but notice it says the name of the slide based on the title placeholder.

Default Title Layouts

Click on the tiny triangle next to the plus icon in the toolbar to see the layout options. Notice the placeholders for "title." Whatever you put in the spot that says "Click here to add title" will be the name of the slide.

Google Slides Table of Contents

I have coded an Add-on to automatically add a Google Slides Table of Contents to your Google Slides. You need to start with my template and then build the Slides. The table of contents creates a hyperlink to each of the slides in your Google Slides, automatically creating the page navigation for you. However, the default title it will put in the hyperlinked text is the title of the slide. You can not control what the slide is named. (Note: you can edit the hyperlink to rename it however you want). The name of the slide is the title of the slide. If you did not use the title placeholder to name the slide then the slide name will be blank or the text you did put into the title.

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Many of us are using Google Slides to build interactive student activities. You can link to another slide in the Google Slides to help students navigate.

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In order to add an audio file to a Google Slides you need an MP3 in Google Drive. How do you make an MP3??? ONE way is Screencastify.

Record Your Screen

An MP3 is audio only. Use the Screencastify Chrome extension to record. Do not worry about what is being recorded with video, that will be stripped.

Download

After doing the screen recording, choose the download option "Export audio only." This converts the file to MP3.

Automatically in Google Drive

You need your audio files in Google Drive to add to Google Slides. Screencastify takes care of this for you. Your exported audio file exported to Google Drive. No need to "Download" to your desktop.

Insert Menu

In Google Slides, use the Insert menu to add audio. Select the MP3 file from your Google Drive.

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Google Slides: Add Audio Recording with @screencastify - Teacher Tech

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In order to add an audio file to a Google Slides you need an MP3 in Google Drive. How do you make an MP3??? ONE way is Screencastify. An MP3 is audio only. Use the Screencastify Chrome extension to record. Do not worry about what is being recorded with video, that will be stripped.

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In order to add an audio file to a Google Slides you need an MP3 in Google Drive. How do you make an MP3??? ONE way is Screencastify.

Record Your Screen

An MP3 is audio only. Use the Screencastify Chrome extension to record. Do not worry about what is being recorded with video, that will be stripped.

Download

After doing the screen recording, choose the download option "Export audio only." This converts the file to MP3.

Automatically in Google Drive

You need your audio files in Google Drive to add to Google Slides. Screencastify takes care of this for you. Your exported audio file exported to Google Drive. No need to "Download" to your desktop.

Insert Menu

In Google Slides, use the Insert menu to add audio. Select the MP3 file from your Google Drive.

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Google Slides: Add Audio Recording with @screencastify - Teacher Tech

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In order to add an audio file to a Google Slides you need an MP3 in Google Drive. How do you make an MP3??? ONE way is Screencastify. An MP3 is audio only. Use the Screencastify Chrome extension to record. Do not worry about what is being recorded with video, that will be stripped.

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Flipgrid has added some amazing new features! I am most excited about the new split screen option when recording a response.

Video Assessment

As a math teacher, show your work is obsolete. Photomath will do that! I want “Show your thinking.” “Demonstrate mathematical reasoning.” “Explain your answer.” I can use Flipgrid to assess students understanding of a concept and hear them explain their reasoning.

Create a Group

Flipgrid has changed the interface and some of the terminology. You now create a GROUP instead of a Grid. If I am wanting to create an assessment say for Unit 1 I would create a “Unit 1 Assessment” group.

Add Topics

For each concept I want to assess I will create a topic. Think more “question” than “topic.”

Flipgrid allows you to share directly to Google Classroom or Microsoft Teams. You can also simply copy the link and share it with your students. Super easy!

Students Use Split Screen

When in their response students can click on “Effects” and “Board” to get a whiteboard. Note: Students can write on the whiteboard before they start recording to allow for sharing their thinking rather than watching them write things out.

Clicking on “Board” students can choose from a variety of paper types. Once the paper is selected they can use the split screen slider to divide the screen between their face and the board.

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Flipgrid has added some amazing new features! I am most excited about the new split screen option when recording a response. flipgrid.com Video Assessment

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The default when creating an assignment in Google Classroom or Microsoft Teams is that it is assigned to all students. However you can differentiate assignments by deselecting certain students. When I have a student who needs modified directions I will create an assignment for the class and NOT assign it to the particular student(s). Then I COPY the assignment and assign the copy to the students I excluded. This allows me to modify the directions without starting over from scratch. Also, the assignment titles are the same so other students do not notice that the person next to them has different directions.

All Students

When creating an assignment look for the words "All students."

Online Workshop Teaching Math with Desmos starts February 3rd

Google Classroom

In the upper left when creating an assignment, next to the classes you are assigning the assignment to you can find "All students." Notice the tiny arrow next to "All students." Click on this to change from all.

Microsoft Teams

In Teams you will find this in the bottom right of the assignment creation box. Click either on the words "All students" or the person icon.

Select Students

Google Classroom and Microsoft Teams have a different approach to selecting students.

Classroom defaults to "Select All." Click on "Select All" to select none. Notice in the animation below it starts at "All students." When I click on the checkbox next to "All students' the grey box at the top now says zero. Notice the assigned number change as I click on the checkboxes.

Teams defaults to none. Click on the student names you wish to assign the assignment to. Notice as you click green checkmarks appear to the right of their name and the count of students assigned is in the students box in the assignment.

Copy Assignment

Copying the assignment allows you to make a similar assignment but with modified directions. Assign the copied assignment to the students removed from the original assignment.

Google Classroom

In Google Classroom click on the Create button at the top and choose "Reuse post." On the copied assignment, click on "All students" checkbox to quickly deselect all students. Now selectively click who to assign to.

There is a checkbox when reusing an assignment (post) to "Copy all attachments." NOOOOOOO Do not check this checkbox! It copies all your videos, screenshots, etc... and makes a giant mess of your Google Drive. In this instance you may want a copy of the directions document so you can modify it. Just be aware that it copies ALL the attachments. I prefer to NOT check the copies checkbox. When it reuses, I click on the document I want a copy of and it launches in a new tab. I can then use the File menu to make a copy and click the Drive icon back in the assignment to quickly and easily add it back.

Microsoft Teams

In Microsoft Teams click on the "Create" button at the bottom. Choose "From existing."

By default, if you click on "All students" the student list is cleared. You can go straight to selecting which students you want to assign to.

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Assigning to SOME Students - Teacher Tech

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The default when creating an assignment in Google Classroom or Microsoft Teams is that it is assigned to all students. However you can differentiate assignments by deselecting certain students. When I have a student who needs modified directions I will create an assignment for the class and NOT assign it to the particular student(s).

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Using the Stream on Google Classroom allows you to make better connections with students. Consider how you will intentionally take advantage of this feature. Using the Stream in Google Classrom.

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Keep Track of Students Completing Work in Google Sheets

You've asked students to complete several things digitally. Digital, unlike paper, can be completed at different times. This can make it challenging to keep track of what students have and have not done. Google Sheets can help with keeping track.

Template

Google Sheets

If you want to make your own from scratch, go to sheets.new and create a new spreadsheet. Paste your class roster into Column A. I like to freeze the first column and the first row. To the left of column indicator A notice the thick bar. Hover your mouse over this and you will see your mouse turns into a hand. Hold down your mouse and drag the freeze bar to the right. Or, use the View menu to freeze rows and columns.

Set Column Headers

For each thing you want to check off, type this in row 1. I number all of my assignments so this makes it easy to find assignments in a list of assignments.

Highlight Check Off Area

Highlight where you want the checkboxes to go and use the Insert menu to insert "Checkbox."

Get Fancy

You can certainly get fancier with your checkoff spreadsheet. You could build it into a full on gradebook, but you probably have a gradebook. Not everything we have students do is, or should be, graded. You need to keep track of who turned in permissions slips, formative assessment that is not graded, etc..

Distance Learning

If you are suddenly in a situation where the students are not at school you will need a system for keeping track of any work you ask students to complete from home. Google Classroom or Microsoft Teams can help you with this reducing the need for a checkoff spreadsheet, but again not everything is an assignment. If you're asking students to send you a chat message or an email to check in each day you will want to mark that off. Many tasks we want to keep track of but are not needing to grade them or add as an assignment in Google Classroom or Microsoft Teams. It may just be needing to mark off sub tasks. On the essay, which is an assignment in Classroom or Teams, did they submit the topic sentence for feedback? Did they make updates you requested? Did they add 5 sources to the bottom before they started the paper?

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CHECK OFF Student Participation - Teacher Tech

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Keep Track of Students Completing Work in Google Sheets You've asked students to complete several things digitally. Digital, unlike paper, can be completed at different times. This can make it challenging to keep track of what students have and have not done. Google Sheets can help with keeping track.

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FREE!! Make a Pile of Google Slides for Students and Update Them

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By establishing routines that address the challenges of online learning, teachers can help students in grades 3 to 8 feel a sense of belonging.

Creating a strong classroom culture is priority number one during the first weeks of school. This year should not be any different-in fact, creating connections and a sense of belonging has never been more important. And yet, as coronavirus numbers soar, many schools are opting to return at least partly to remote learning in the fall. So, how can we create a positive classroom culture when we can't even see our students face-to-face?

It's going to take a mixture of adapting the old tried-and-true beginning-of-the-year traditions to digital media and creating whole new practices and activities.

Cyber Icebreakers

Instead of the usual round-robin name-learning games, we can ask students to share a drawing or an object that represents their personality or interests. As you move around your virtual classroom from student to student, they will hold their item or drawing offscreen while the rest of us try to remember. Students can also complete one-pagers or a Frayer Square on themselves on a shared Google Slides deck and then present to the class.

Other ideas for online icebreakers include favorite pastimes such as word games, interviewing partners in breakout rooms, and Flipgrid introductions. For the first several weeks of class, continue short get-acquainted activities. Often students enjoy a round of thumbs up/down with slide shows of foods, sports, and other images. Instead of (or in addition to) the "two truths and a lie" game, try "two objects and a lie." That calls for students to show two objects that belong to them and one that doesn't. After completing these activities, a fun way to cement these impressions is by playing a Kahoot! or Quizizz game about the members of your class.

Creating Classroom Rules and Expectations

Another culture-building activity is collaborating on a list of classroom rules. Since most students just had their first taste of digital learning in the spring, this is the perfect opportunity for them to use their own experiences to create a vision of how we can set up a virtual classroom that supports learning and community.

Use a plus-delta chart, so that students can indicate what worked well in remote learning in the spring and what they would like to change this school year. You can use a digital idea-sharing platform such as Mural or Google Jamboard to collaborate. This will give each student a chance to voice the positives of remote learning and to make suggestions for how we can improve it for the new year. This list of rules and expectations will then be displayed on the class's virtual classroom wall or resource page.

Creating Class Traditions

As with in-person teaching, we can establish traditions that bind our classes together as a community in a virtual setting. Begin with a bell-ringer or a short journal-writing assignment and then ask students to share their answers. Assign students different roles such as question-asker, connection-maker, or participation-encourager.

During the spring, my students enjoyed closing class with one or two acts from a semester-long talent show or show-and-tell. I also posed a sign-off question for students to answer before disappearing from our computer screens. Examples include: What is a kind of food you like that most people don't? Or, which superhero power would you choose? In the new school year, I plan to assign different students to create and pose their own sign-off questions.

Collaborative Projects

As we move further into the year, collaborative projects involving student voice and choice put classroom culture into practice. Service projects such as a climate change awareness campaign can work well in a virtual format. Students can also work to solve community problems, such as by creating a canned-food drive to help alleviate food insecurity.

Art projects also work well in a collaborative format. Students can create whole-class or small-group books on Google Slides on any subject or create an anthology of short fiction or poetry. They can work with a partner to create digital notebooks or reading journals that are partly written conversations among peers. Students can even work in small groups or as a class to write their own reader's theater scripts. They can compose on a shared Google Doc and then perform virtually or create short dramatic videos that stitch together different characters' monologues.

Forging Individual Connections

Getting to know our students as individuals in a remote setting can be challenging. One way is to facilitate individual conferences through Google Meet or Zoom. We can also take care to respond individually to students' work through comments on Google Doc assignments or through personalized video responses to Flipgrids.

We should remember, though, that remote learning does not have to be exclusively digital. Nothing makes a student feel more valued than a teacher going out of his or her way to connect with them. Driveway visits, phone calls, letters in the mail, and drive-by celebrations are just a few of the possibilities. As an added bonus, seeing students' faces in real life boosts teacher joy.

Even before the pandemic, young people were increasingly feeling disconnected and isolated as a result of social media and other digital distractions. This global crisis has only made the isolation worse-much worse in some cases. However, with a little creativity and willingness to adapt to new media, we can create a vital and very real sense of community in our classrooms-in any format.

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How to Create Community in a Virtual Classroom

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By establishing routines that address the challenges of online learning, teachers can help students in grades 3 to 8 feel a sense of belonging.

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Explore museums, galleries, aquariums, zoos and more around the world with virtual tours.

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👨‍🚀Astronaut Myself: I am a Kinder Rocket!

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1) Watch the 📺 2) Clcik :add: 3) Select the :photo: tool 4) Take a selfie 5) Select the :drawing: tool 6) Add a space background, an astronaut helmet and suit 7) Press :check:

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1. Click on :add: 2. Click on the :move: tool 3. Click on :mic: to record 3. Move the magnifier around to find the hidden items and say them outloud 5. Click on :check: to turn in your work

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With the birthday of Dr. Seuss coming up this week (March 2nd) millions of children will be doing activities related to many of his wonderful books. I have always been a fan of Dr. Seuss' work, having read his books more times than I can remember to my kids.

At one of our school they are highlighting one book each day, with projects tied to the book of the day. In preparation for the week, they asked if I could help out with some technology ideas for some of the activities.

I was more than happy to connect my love of Dr. Seuss with technology! For the first day this week the book will be " One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish." As we thought about the book, we decided a fun related activity may be using a graphic organizer to sort fish based on their characteristics.

To do this we created a Google Slides template. Some of the slides have students dragging fish into Venn Diagram bubbles based on characteristics, and other slides have the fish already in the bubbles so that the students need to figure out what rules have been used.

See below to get your own copy of the " One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish Sorting Template", as well as detailed directions on how it can be used.

Get a Copy of the Template

This activity is created with Google Slides. To get your own copy of the template simple click the link below.

Your students can click this link to get their own copy, or you can use Google Classroom to push out a copy of the template to each of your students.

What's in the Template

The Google Slide template has multiple parts for the activity. These include:

Slide 1 - The title slide

Slide 2 - A brief set of directions

Slides 3 through 11 - Venn Diagrams with descriptions. Students drag fish into the correct parts of the diagram.

Slides 12 through 18 - Venn Diagrams without descriptions. Fish are already in the diagram, so the students need to determine the rule for each.

Slides 19 and 20 - Blank Venn Diagrams for the students to create their own activities.

Slide 21 - A bunch of extra fish students can use to make their own diagrams.

Directions

This activity is designed to help students work on sorting items based on multiple characteristics, and to look for characteristics that are true for different groups of items. On each slide you will find fish of different colors, sizes, and numbers. You will also find bubbles for grouping the fish.

There are three main activities your students can do with the slides:

Activity #1

On some slides the bubbles will have descriptions. Drag the fish into the bubbles that describe them. If a fish fits in more than one bubble, put it where the bubbles overlap.

On other slides, the fish will already be sorted in the bubbles. On those slides you need to figure out the rules for each bubble and type the descriptions in the boxes.

Finally, there are blank slides where you can add your own images to make new sorting puzzles. To add items, students can copy and paste the extra fish from the final slide, or they can add totally new pictures by clicking " Insert", then " Image", then " Search".

When creating your own new sorting puzzles, think of all the creative ways you can categorize the fish. This might include:

Color (red, blue, green, yellow, etc.)

Size (small or big)

Quantity (1 fish or 2 fish)

Number of eyes (1 eye or 2 eyes)

Teeth (teeth or no teeth)

Direction (facing left or facing right)

Or come up with your own!

Student-created puzzles should be shared with classmates or shown on the projector for everyone to solve.
As you celebrate Dr. Seuss' birthday, or anytime throughout the year, please feel free to make copies of the "One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish Sorting Template" for use with your students. It can be a fun way to develop skills with sorting, determining rules, problem solving, creativity, and computer proficiency.

If your students come up with their own Venn Diagram puzzles, I would love to see them. Feel free to share them below or through social media.

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"One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish" Sorting with Google Slides

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With the birthday of Dr. Seuss coming up this week (March 2nd) millions of children will be doing activities related to many of his wond...

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For those who have been forced from the classroom into online instruction, it's important to get a better sense of how different kinds of learning activities can happen at different levels. Susan and Rushton spend a half hour helping you with tools and resources to take learning to the next level, whether you're in person or online.

Susan Stewart ( on Twitter, the #K2CanToo sharing on Twitter)

Rushton Hurley ( on Twitter, his challenge for teachers to improve what they do)

Upcoming

Activities Across Grade Levels, Episode 33

In this half-hour episode of Activities Across Grade Levels, the team looks at resources and activities for edtech tools and resources for K-2, 3rd-5th, middle school, and high school. Join in for good ideas across grade levels, whether teaching in-person, online, or both!

Register for free: Thursday, January 21st, at 3:30p Pacific / 6:30p Eastern

Previously

Episode 32: Hello, Hyperdocs!

In this half-hour episode of Activities Across Grade Levels, the team is joined by one of the people who started the hyperdocs movement: Lisa Highfill! Click below for the recording, or for the slides, and here for the links we mentioned.

Episode 31: Cool Strategies for the Visually Impaired

In this extended-length (60-minute) episode of Activities Across Grade Levels, Susan and Rushton are joined by acessibility guru Robbin Clark for ideas that will work well for your VI students (and everyone else)! Click below for the recording, or for the slides, and here for the links we mentioned.

Episode 30: Celebrating Holidays

In this half-hour episode of Activities Across Grade Levels, the team looks at resources and activities for your upcoming holidays. Join in with your questions and whatever holiday (that's appropriate) you like to celebrate!. Click below for the recording, or for the slides, and here for the links we mentioned.

Episode 29: Gamified Learning

In this half-hour episode of Activities Across Grade Levels, Rushton and Susan are joined by Kas Pereira of the Krause Center for Innovation at Foothill College and look at gamified learning. Click below for the recording, or for the slides, and here for the links we mentioned.

* K-2 (ABCya!) from 4:44
* Grade 3-5 (Breakout EDU, Quizizz) from 8:54
* Middle & High School (Classcraft) from 13:44

Episode 28: Service to Others

In this half-hour episode of Activities Across Grade Levels, the team looks at possibilities for having students do projects, even if you're doing so at a distance, that can bring smiles and hope to others. Click below for the recording, or for the slides, and here for the links we mentioned.

Episode 27: International Connection

In this half-hour episode of Activities Across Grade Levels, the team looks at the power of international connections for students' sense of their possibilities in the world. Click below for the recording, or for the slides, and here for the links we mentioned.

Episode 26: Sharing a Message

In this half-hour episode of Activities Across Grade Levels, the team looks at ways of delivering content, including through graphic design, short videos, and more. Click below for the recording, or for the slides, and here for the links we mentioned.

Episode 25: Arts & Culture

In this half-hour episode of Activities Across Grade Levels, Susan and Rushton look at the many possibilities of Google Arts & Culture for helping kids at all levels raise their game academically. Click below for the recording, or for the slides, and here for the links we mentioned.

Episode 24: Synchronous Engagement

In this half-hour episode of Activities Across Grade Levels, Susan and Rushton look at teacher-created resource libraries, tips for Zoom, and much more! Click below for the recording, or for the slides, and here for the links we mentioned.

Episode 23: Save Time, Remove Headaches

In this half-hour episode of Activities Across Grade Levels, Susan and Rushton look at teacher-created resource libraries, tips for Zoom, and much more! Click below for the recording, or here for the slides, and here for the links we mentioned.

Episode 22: Jamboard

In this half-hour episode of Activities Across Grade Levels, Susan and Rushton were joined by Tom Mullaney (@TomEMullaney) to look at the many possibilities of Jamboard, Google's collaborative online whiteboard tool. Click below for the recording, or here for the slides, and here for the links we mentioned.

Episode 21: Eduprotocols

In this half-hour episode of Activities Across Grade Levels, Susan and Rushton were joined by Jon Corippo (@jcorippo), who wrote The Eduprotocol Field Guide with Marlena Hebern. Click below for the recording, or here for the slides, and here for the links we mentioned.

* K-5 from 6:44
* Middle and high school from 15:00

Episode 20: Compare and Contrast

In this half-hour episode of Activities Across Grade Levels, Susan and Rushton share their takes on how online instruction (or even the in-person kind) can use compare and contrast activities to engage students. Click below for the recording, or here for the slides, and here for the links we mentioned.

Episode 19: Fake News

In this half-hour episode of Activities Across Grade Levels, Susan and Rushton welcomed Fact vs Fiction co-author Darren Hudgins (@dhudgins), who will walk us through the rather timely topic of fake news. Click below for the recording, or here for the slides, and here for the links we mentioned.

* K-5 (books on perspective) from 6:00
* Middle School (digital detectives) from 10:05
* High School (infodemic) from 17:00

Episode 18: First Day of School

In this episode, Susan and Rushton look at how you can shape getting the school year going under distance learning. At the end, they also heard how Susan's district has created an online school option for families that don't want to send kids back, even if school is open. Click below for the recording, or here for the slides, and here for the links we mentioned.

* K-2 (introducing tools and expectations) from 5:11
* Grade 3-5 (joining Classroom and video norms) from 9:05
* Middle School (icebreakers and Flipgrid) from 12:29
* High School (Two-Slide and Breakout Rooms) from 14:57
* Susan's district's new online school option from 21:14

Episode 17: Performance Assessment

In this episode, Susan and Rushton work with both the forest and the trees in terms of how to prepare for the fall. What do you do to be ready to roll, no matter the medium? Click below for the recording, or here for the slides, and here for the links we mentioned.

* K-2 (using Seesaw) from 4:12
* Grade 3-5 (using Flipgrid) from 7:39
* zooming in on the screen 10:28
* Middle School (using screencasting) from 12:33
* High School (approaches to presentations) from 20:16

Episode 16: Returning to School

In this episode, Susan and Rushton work with both the forest and the trees in terms of how to prepare for the fall. What do you do to be ready to roll, no matter the medium?. Click below for the recording, or here for the slides, and here for the links from the chat transcript.

Episode 15: Tips and Tricks for Zoom and Stuff Like It

This week, Ben Cogswell (@cogsell_ben) sits in for Susan, and he and Rushton look at ways you can use video chat tools like Zoom effectively with your students. Click below for the recording, or here for the slides, and here for the links from the chat transcript.

Episode 14: Simple Video Editing

This week, Susan and Rushton are joined by Jon Corippo, and the team discusses ways to use a variety of video tools for a variety of purposes with your kiddos! Click below for the recording, or here for the slides, and here for the links from the chat transcript.

Episode 13: The Cool of Digital Citizenship

This week, Susan and Rushton look at resources and tools under the very broad umbrella that is digital citizenship. Click below for the recording, or here for the slides, and here for the links from the chat transcript.

Episode 12: Cool Ways Teachers Can Use the Summer

This week, Susan and Rushton are joined by Donnie Piercey to explore ways teachers can find fun and powerful possibilities for getting ready for an uncertain fall. Click below for the recording, or here for the slides, and here for the links from the chat transcript.

Episode 11: Engaging Science Lessons

In this half-hour episode, Rushton and Susan are joined by Kim Calderon and Tara Mann to look at possibilities for cool science learning online. Click below for the recording, or here for the slides, and here for the links from the chat transcript.

Episode 10: Building Rapport

In this half-hour episode, Rushton and Susan look at ideas for helping students in a class connect, even when they have to do so online! Thinking ahead to the fall, you may need to start the year online, and this webinar will help you prepare for that possibility. Click below for the recording, or here for the slides, and here for the links from the chat transcript.

Episode 9: Engaging Your History Students

In this half-hour episode, we are joined by the willing-to-wake-early Nate Gildart of Nagoya International School in Japan to talk about possibilities for online learning with history lessons. Click below for the recording, or here for the slides, and here for the links from the chat transcript.

Episode 8: Engaging Your Math Students

In this half-hour episode, we are joined by the seriously cool and talented Ed Campos, Jr., to talk about possibilities for online learning in math classes online. Click below for the recording, or here for the slides, and here for the links from the chat transcript.

Episode 7: Guest Speakers

In this half-hour episode, we looked at what can be especially powerful moments for any class - bringing in guest speakers! Watch and get advice on how to connect with and prepare for those who will visit your online class. Click below for the recording, or here for the slides, and here for the links from the chat transcript.

Episode 6: Learning Language

In this half-hour episode, we looked at learning activities for any language, with tools and techniques useful at all levels. Click below for the recording, or here for the slides, and here for the links from the chat transcript.

Episode 5: Explore the World

In this episode, we looked at hordes of tools and resources for learning about other places and integrating geo-tools into learning at all levels. Click below for the recording, or here for the slides, and here for the links from the chat transcript.

Episode 4: Digital Reading Strategies and Resources

In this episode, we looked at a dozen-ish tools for engaging reading and activities teachers can do with them. Click below for the recording, or here for the slides, and here for the links from the chat transcript.

Episode 3: The Power of Voice

In this episode, Susan and I looked at a simple voice recording tool (and several like it) for taking learning to the next level, whether in person or online. Click below for the recording, or here for the slides, and here for the links from the chat transcript.

Episode 2: The Power of an Image

In Episode 2, we looked at using images as a simple way to launch great online activities. Susan Stewart (@TechCoachSusan), who has extensive experience with tech's possibilities for younger students, and I discussed activities for all grade levels, and added some thoughts on a few other promising tools, too. Click below for the recording, or here for the slides, and here for the links from the chat transcript.

Episode 1: Levels for Digital Learning

In this first episode on March 18th and 20th, we looked at activities for identifying cool stories of learning, and then stories of service to others. What can little, elementary, middle, and high school students do as a part of their online learning? Click below for the recording, or here for the slides, and here for the links from the chat transcript.

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Activities Across Grade Levels: Webinars

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For those who have been forced from the classroom into online instruction, it's important to get a better sense of how different kinds of learning activities can happen at different levels. Susan and Rushton spend a half hour helping you with tools and resources to take learning to the next level, whether you're in person or online.

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1) Watch the 📺 2) Select :add: 3) 👀 at each of the pictures 4) :move: the pictures to 😍 Choices or 😭 Choices 5) :rec: yourself explaining your 🧠 6) Press ▶️ and 👂 to your recording 7) Press :check:

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So happy to be apart of this class - All About Me

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1. Select :pen: or :label: to write with. 2. Complete "About Me" slide and add a :photo:. 3. Complete "My Favorite Things" slide and add a :photo:. 4. Complete "My Family" slide and add a :photo:. 5. Complete "My Home" slide and add a :photo:. 6. Complete "My Friends" slide and add a :photo:.

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Did you have lots of feelings on the first day of school? Think about 4 emoji feelings that you had. 1. Click the :add: button. 2. Use the :label: tool to put 4 emojis into the Jitter Juice bubbles. 3. Use the :mic: to read the poem and share about your creation.

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We want to know all about you! Get ready for some fun! 1. Click the :add: button. 2. Use the :photo: tool to put your selfie inside the iPad. 3. Use the :label: tool or any of the creative tools to fill in the word clouds with fun things about yourself.

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Link Seesaw activities to Google Classroom

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This video briefly describes a few of the new updates recently released by Seesaw.

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Compress and Embed Longer Videos for Seesaw

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1. Click on :add: 2. Watch the video on page 1 3. Use a :pen: to draw 2 things you like to do. 4. Watch the video on page 3 4. Use the :label: to write 1-2 sentence(s) about yourself. 5. Click on :check: to turn in your work

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I was thrilled at the opportunity, but as I began writing I realized that the information within this book is needed now in order to prepare teachers for the upcoming school year in a COVID world. Whereas the publication date of an expanded version of this book is planned for

That is why I am providing an abridged version of my book FREE as a PDF download, in hopes that:

1. It can reach and help as many teachers as possible.

Also, sending your friends and colleagues to this website, https:// , rather than forwarding them the PDF, will help me accurately collect information on how many people are downloading the book and get in touch once the published version is available.

Wishing you all the best in your upcoming school year!

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I was thrilled at the opportunity, but as I began writing I realized that the information within this book is needed now in order to prepare teachers for the upcoming school year in a COVID world.

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The way a lesson is laid out online can make all the difference in whether a student can follow along and execute it successfully.

When our classrooms moved online this year, many of us scrambled to find ways to engage students with lessons remotely, only to find that it was no simple task. Many of us, myself included, didn't know where to start.

Even the most basic communications, like the daily lessons that I posted for students, were trickier than I anticipated; my posts careened from being too wordy to too vague, from too content-heavy to too task-heavy. Students felt overwhelmed by their new, independent workload, and I wasn't streamlining our learning effectively. It just wasn't easy to transform a 50-minute lesson into a clear, pithy post that would serve my high school students.

Fortunately, my students weren't shy about giving feedback that helped me hone my daily posts, and over time, I was able to make my lessons more navigable, readable, and engaging.

7 Guidelines to Set the Stage for Online Learning

1. Same time, same place: Post your lessons in the same place every day. Once students know where you'll be posting your materials for the day-whether it's on a certain page of a learning management system or via email-be consistent and encourage kids to bookmark the landing page. Be sure to publish at the same time every day, too. If other teachers in your school can align and post in the same way, all the better.

2. Remind and reinforce: Your first few posts should begin with reiterating where and when students should check for lessons. I always posted my daily lessons in the announcements section of our learning management system at 8:00 a.m., and my first week of posts included a reminder that students should always check that space at or after that time. When students or parents emailed with questions, including a stock phrase about when and where to locate lessons helped keep everyone in the know.

3. Emphasize the date: Title your posts the day of the week and date. Because some students may fall behind and others may want to refer back to lessons, organizing with the date keeps your posts immutably anchored and sequenced. Students won't always see the continuity implied in posts that are labeled with the lesson's focus (such as a thesis statement lesson that precedes the lesson on quotation selection), but they'll definitely know that Tuesday, September 1, comes before Wednesday, September 2.

4. 1-2-3: Use numbers to drive students through your lessons. For me, the first item listed was always attendance, and after that, I listed content for the lesson, relevant documents, and links for submissions. I got positive feedback from students when I kept my posts light on language, organized by simple numerical signposts. This was also a helpful way for me to see when my lesson was getting out of hand; once I got to number five, I knew that I was probably at the outer limits of what most students could reasonably tolerate from me in a day.

5. Link everything: During online learning, students are already in a tough spot (just like we are), and any little roadblock-like being unable to locate a rubric-is going to feel insurmountable. It takes an extra minute to link a document, a helpful website, or an assignment submission, but if you don't have links in the post, you'll spend a lot more time answering emails and chasing after kids who didn't do the work or didn't do the work properly.

6. Remember when...? At the end of most posts, I included a summary of the previous day's post, cut down to the most important points and links. This was usually just a few sentences long, harvested from the previous post in a simple cut-and-paste, but students appreciated the convenience of being able to access refresher materials easily. I found this was also helpful for kids who tended to access the course inconsistently; if they tried to jump into a day's lesson, this brief review was helpful in orienting them to the day's learning. And, because this is the last section of the post, students who didn't need it became acclimated to skipping it, which was easier to do at the end of the post than if it had been inserted elsewhere.

7. Include a video overview: Lastly, create a short screen cast with a voice-over that walks students through the day's post. This was a step I skipped for the first few weeks of remote learning, and when my students asked for it, it felt a little silly-why do they want a two-minute video of me reading the post to them? But once I did it, I saw that it helped knit together all of the seemingly disparate pieces of the day's lesson, giving students a more holistic view of their "in class" time that day. This also turned out to be a helpful way to proofread my own work, ensuring that none of those typos or dead links made it to my final publication. Once I made a video overview, I inserted it at the top of my post, above the first element in my list.

Online learning will never replicate our time in the classroom, but following these simple steps can help keep learning accessible, which is a pretty good place to start.

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7 Guidelines for Setting Up Clear Online Lessons

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The way a lesson is laid out online can make all the difference in whether a student can follow along and execute it successfully. When our classrooms moved online this year, many of us scrambled to find ways to engage students with lessons remotely, only to find that it was no simple task.

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Distance learning can feel impersonal and inaccessible, but there are ways to help students feel a sense of connection and access academic material.

As education adapted to the pandemic, teachers scrambled to create sustainable virtual spaces. Online instruction may never feel quite the same as live instruction, but it's likely we'll be doing it in the fall, and there are many simple ways we can create virtual classrooms that inspire and accommodate all learners.

Create a Welcoming Virtual Space

We can't high-five our kids on their way into virtual classrooms, but there are other things we can do to give our virtual spaces some personality.

Start class with a greeting: And let students see your face. It adds a personal touch that makes students feel good about coming to your class.

Pose a question: Try asking, "How are you feeling today?" before jumping into content for the day. If you notice that a student has submitted a concerning response, send them a message to show you care.

Set an agenda: Include a learning target so that students know what to expect from the lesson. (I always provide at least one opportunity to take a break.)

Develop a Reward System

Believe it or not, there are viable reward systems you can use in your virtual space.

Develop goals that respond specifically to your students' struggles: For instance, one struggle I've had since switching to virtual learning is getting my students to attend my optional office hours. To address this, I developed a system: Each day that a student comes to office hours and completes the assignment, they get a raffle ticket. Then, at the end of the week, I collect all the tickets, draw a name, and send a pizza to that student's house. They love it, and I consistently have great attendance at my office hours.

Other rewards might include unlocking a fun extra credit opportunity, mailing a certificate home, sending a positive message to parents, giving virtual homework passes, or earning a virtual dance party.

Maintain High Expectations

As always, the first step to preventing distracting behavior is setting clear expectations.

Create a procedure for each virtual feature of your classroom: When are students allowed to be in these virtual spaces? Does an adult need to be present? When should students use the chat feature? Should the microphone be muted? Should they use the chat to ask questions?

Communicate your expectations before starting the lesson every day: Focus on behaviors that directly impact your virtual learning space, like "Only use the chat to type questions related to the lesson" or "Make sure your microphone is muted during the video."

Remember that you control the virtual learning space: When students intentionally defy expectations in a way that disrupts learning (such as using profanity in the chat, repeatedly yelling, or playing loud music when their mic should be muted), remove them from the virtual learning environment if you can, and contact their parent or guardian to ensure that everyone is clear on the expectations.

Reach Out to and Support Families

Consider the challenges that students and their families face. Is the student home alone while the parent works, perhaps taking care of other siblings in the home? Does the student have reliable access to technology? Does the student have a quiet space available where they can go to focus?

Reach out to families at least once a week: Learn what their struggles are, offer solutions when you can, and update them on student progress. Some students may need more frequent check-ins at first to stay accountable, so set aside time each day to make these contacts. Share accommodations that parents can try at home, such as using timers and allowing frequent breaks.

You will likely have to provide tech support to parents and students, so be patient and prepared to answer tech questions about your learning platform. You might make a Frequently Asked Questions flyer available.

Always reach out from a place of support: Phrase your communication positively and offer support. For example: "I noticed that Jasmine has not submitted her assignment today-what can I do to support her? Do you have everything you need for virtual learning?"

Offer Scaffolds Throughout the Lesson

If students are typing a free response, offer sentence starters beneath the prompt.

If you teach a class that requires students to read, record yourself reading the chapter and offer a read-along option.

If your class requires students to solve problems, provide extra video examples.

Offer exemplar answers after giving students a chance to try on their own. It might seem counterintuitive to give kids the answers, but unless you're assessing their understanding, it will do more good than harm.

Expect that each activity may have students who need extra guidance. Provide a scaffold for each part of your lesson:

Use Engagement Techniques

Prompt students to respond to a classmate's thinking over chat.

Call on students to read out loud to each other.

Share your screen to highlight exemplary answers, shout out to students, or play videos.

Allow students to share their screen to show their thinking.

Explore the features of your learning platform, and consider how they could be used to engage students:

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Distance learning can feel impersonal and inaccessible, but there are ways to help students feel a sense of connection and access academic material.

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Hammond distinguishes the differences between culturally responsive education, multicultural education and social justice education. Each is important, but without a focus on building students' brain power, they will experience learning loss.

When it comes to distance learning, applying culturally responsive teaching requires "remixing" education by borrowing from the best practices in how kids learn (Montessori, project-based learning, etc.) in a way that repositions the student as the leader of his own learning. By giving students more agency, the idea is to disrupt old routines around teaching and learning that make the student dependent on the teacher for receiving knowledge.

"It's going to stretch us a little out of our own comfort zones, but it's worth it in the long run if we can get students to continue to do that thinking," said Hammond.

She advises three strategies to help students gain that independence:

1. Deepen background knowledge

Many educators are understandably wondering whether they should teach new content or review familiar material. Hammond encourages educators to do the latter because cognitively dependent learners often have gaps in their background knowledge . "A lot of our students are compliant learners," she said. "They're having a hard time shifting right now [because] they're used to the worksheet, but that doesn't mean they're always processing information."

She advises teachers to help students connect new things they're learning to their brain's existing schema - also known as background knowledge - that comes from home, their community, their interests. Teachers can then give them authentic tasks that help them make meaning and connections. This helps turn new inert information into usable knowledge. "You cannot give another person background knowledge," she explained. "They have to acquire it, but as teachers we can help guide the process." This can be done by building upon student interest.

"Survey your students if you don't know what they like," said Hammond. Ask them what books they enjoy reading or what topics get them super excited. She said It doesn't matter if their interests are broad or narrow; it's important to learn what interests them so that you can use that information to:

Assign non-fiction books that build on student interests.

Create a "Netflix" playlist of documentaries, nature shows, historical events, etc.

Encourage kids and parents to do a walk-about, if that's possible in their community, following social distancing guidelines. Encourage parents and students to seek out community curiosities (landmarks or interesting sights) relevant to students' interest.

With each of these activities, it's important to give the students direction so they know what to look out for. "You have to tell the brain what to pay attention to," Hammond explains. She suggested questions like, "What was your biggest surprise from this book/show?" or thinking routine sentences like "I Used to Think ___. But, now I think ____."

She said to always make sure that students do something with the knowledge as well. She suggested having them share interesting facts they learned either during video conferences or via an audio/video clip. For those students with limited internet access, encourage them to share what they learned with their parents.

2. Cultivate cognitive routines

Growing students' brain power during distance learning starts with building cognitive routines. These routines are essential to processing and hardwiring information in the brain.

"Be the personal trainer of their cognitive development," Hammond said. To do this, she suggested having a routine set of prompts in each packet that become a regular part of the way students think. That way, students begin to think that way even when you're not in the classroom to reinforce that way of thinking.

One example is to ask students to connect the "unknown to the known" or across concepts by asking questions like, " What's the relationship or connection between these things?" or "How does this part fit into the whole? What are the parts of this whole?" These may seem simple, but these questions are critical when it comes to processing information so that students internalize these prompts until they become almost instinctual.

She said students should also be encouraged to sketchnote or doodle to actively process what they're learning as an alternative to note-taking. Sketchnoting can encourage people to make deeper connections to what they're hearing.

3. Build word wealth

Building a student's vocabulary is a key tool in equity strategies for schools. "Kids have different interests in words so find out where their energy is. You can have a differentiated assignment around word collecting, but the idea is to get them actively involved in word consciousness," said Hammond. She said there are many small but high-leverage ways to do this, such as introducing robust word study. A teacher can help students engage in wordplay, word consciousness and word knowledge. This should not happen through a worksheet assignment, but rather begin with building word consciousness of words in their community, home and home language.

Word games like Scrabble, Heads Up, Taboo or even word searches are small familiar but high-leverage activities because they're fun but also require a high cognitive load. You can create your own versions of these games and have students do this in any language. Students can also do word collecting activities like scavenger hunts, or make poetry using magnetic poetry. Students can also do a contrastive analysis, by comparing words they might find in Urban Dictionary to those they might find in a standard dictionary.

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How to Develop Culturally Responsive Teaching for Distance Learning | KQED

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Culturally responsive teaching is a powerful way to help students become independent learners, and it can be especially valuable during distance learning.

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Rethinking Family Engagement During School Closures

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Taking time to check assumptions about family engagement can make a huge difference in the lives of your students and their caregivers.

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20 add-ons and extensions to supercharge your Google Slides presentations

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Google Slides is an extremely useful app in and out of the classroom. You can make it even more powerful with these 20 add-ons and extensions! Google

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Strategies for parental involvement and synchronous and asynchronous activities can help students with individualized education programs.

Distance learning isn't easy for most students, but it is particularly difficult for those with learning differences that require individualized education programs (IEPs).

This year, at the request of Merrimack College Institute for New Teacher Support (MINTS), I provided professional development for K-12 schools on teaching children with IEPs remotely. Quickly, I reached out to a handful of highly qualified teachers, administrators, and therapists working remotely with students who had been diagnosed with learning challenges. Through a quick survey, educators provided best practices and passed on the survey to their colleagues. Within five days, more than 90 educators had responded from more than 30 school districts across the Northeast.

The survey results can be broken down into three overarching themes: parent engagement along with synchronous and asynchronous strategies. The responses uncovered the following best practices to address the needs of students with learning differences.

Parent Engagement

Parents with children diagnosed with disabilities are an essential part of the IEP team, now more than ever. I list some strategies for parent engagement here.

Initial remote IEP meeting: Meeting with the parents to go over the IEP is critical. Present Levels of Educational Performance A (PLEP A) outlines accommodations that are useful in the classroom; such accommodations could include frequent breaks, flexible seating, sensory tools, fidgets to focus, reduced distractions, motor breaks, and chewing gum while working independently. Educators note the benefits of working with parents to replicate some of these accommodations at home.

Weekly check-ins: Once a mutual understanding among the IEP team is recognized and replications of accommodations are established, a weekly check-in has been useful in modifying the accommodation needs.

Goal setting: Pick an IEP objective or two each week to focus on with your students. Having too many goals, assignments, and expectations has led to failure and diminished student motivation.

Service delivery participation: Occupational therapists, physical therapists, and speech and language therapists shared that the most significant benefit to providing services remotely is parent involvement. Many are re-creating services to involve fun activities that parents can participate in while the therapist is watching virtually and making suggestions. The benefits have increased the reinforcement of IEP goals and parent engagement at home.

"Parents seem to be more invested as they take part in their child's programming," said Aimee Johnson, an occupational therapist in Auburn, New Hampshire. "It's a perfect opportunity for parent education and collaboration. Parents can see the skills their children are working on and can carry them over more effectively."

Synchronous Strategies

Another common theme of the survey is the importance of increasing engagement during live, virtual, synchronous meetings. My respondents shared the following specific ideas.

Mixing up preferred and nonpreferred activities: IEP goals and objectives may not be the student's preferred virtual learning activity. Mixing preferred and nonpreferred activities increases engagement. Individually tailoring the preferred activities to each student's interests has led to an increase in productivity.

For example, create Popsicle sticks with specific activities. Each Popsicle stick has either an activity to address an IEP objective or a preferred activity such as "Do a cartwheel" or "Show me your pet." During each virtual meeting, the educator blindly chooses a Popsicle stick until all of the activities are done. When you add some fun, students are more willing to do the nonpreferred activities. There are also websites to replicate this, such as Wheel Decide.

Virtual book clubs: Create book clubs based on students' reading levels and similar IEP goals. Treat the book clubs as a social event and suggest that students come to these meetings with snacks. Have students dress in character or act out parts while engaging in comprehension activities in addition to working on yearly IEP goals.

Start virtual meetings with a fun, engaging activity: Start each virtual meeting with an engaging event to motivate students to join before starting academics. For example, on Mondays have students wear a costume, on Tuesdays schedule a household scavenger hunt, on Wednesdays allow students to bring their favorite stuffed animal to class. Such activities have students looking forward to attending, boost engagement, and tend to increase participation.

Asynchronous Strategies

The third theme of the survey results is the importance of engagement during independent, asynchronous assignments and activities. Respondents shared the following ideas.

Visuals, routines, schedules: Provide students with daily visual schedules, and educate them on the use of timers to promote independence. Any deviations from the routine can create an opportunity to lose students and can cause frustration. Keep the day predictable.

"I create individualized weekly schedules for my students," said Kelli Alessandro, a special education teacher in Methuen, Massachusetts. "Included in these schedules are their assignments and expectations with links to documents, websites, or other materials in a centrally located document. These schedules assist the students and caregivers with pacing, planning, organization, and task completion, among other functional skills."

Movement breaks: Within the schedule, built-in movement breaks have been useful. Replicating the school's sensory paths with a DIY sensory motor path or creating one outside on a sidewalk or driveway with chalk is an excellent way to incorporate multiple movement breaks within the day.

Recorded videos: When providing students with asynchronous learning programs, recorded video instructions for students and parents to refer to have helped to reinforce IEP goals.

Accept all completed work: Students come from different environments, and not all students have equal access to computers and tablets. Learning what works best for the family and accepting completed work through various methods, such as electronic media, picture texts, and paper copies, has increased the frequency of completed work.

Be Yourself

In addition to the discussed themes, a reoccurring and nonspecific idea was the importance of having fun, acting silly, and creating a supportive environment in which to learn. When your students look back on the months of remote learning, they won't remember the incredible math lesson you spent hours preparing. They will remember the relationship you established with them. They will remember the silly hats you wore, the fun games you played, and the way you made them forget the scary realities of the world. Your students will remember you and your ability to make them feel safe and happy through this horrible global pandemic.

Thank you to all the educators who took time out of their hectic schedules to respond to the survey to help others. Educators are a selfless community of superstars. I can't thank you enough!

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How to Improve Distance Learning for Students With IEPs

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Strategies for parental involvement and synchronous and asynchronous activities can help students with individualized education programs. Distance learning isn't easy for most students, but it is particularly difficult for those with learning differences that require individualized education programs (IEPs).

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An online book club organized by a teacher or school librarian can be a good way to foster social interactions during the pandemic.

For a long while, I've held a deep belief that reading, both solitary and communal, has an impact on who we are and how we interact with the world. No matter the students' ages, or whether they're in a small group setting or a large seminar discussion, conversations about books tend to turn into conversations about being human.

When schools moved to a distance learning model in March 2020, I immediately began running virtual book clubs for students of all ages, and students that I teach signed up right away. Because of word of mouth and social media, soon I had book groups for children of all ages and children from all over the country. The impetus for the reading groups is my belief that a sense of belonging supports a student's social and emotional health, and book clubs provide connection in myriad ways.

Just as I do for my traditional classes, I bring a lesson plan to the online book chat. And, just as I would during my in-person classes, I always anticipate that my plans will change. My role in a virtual book club is most often determined by the group participating, and I meet students where they are. If the group needs more support, I pose questions and encourage them to discuss. If the discussion takes turns I hadn't expected, I welcome the circuitous direction while also guiding the group toward a meaningful experience.

I aim for each book club to run for about two weeks, and ideally, each group consists of six to eight students. I provide a reading guide ahead of time. Students all begin reading on the same day, and generally read the same amount each day; if students fall behind or read ahead, that's OK. My goal is to design a positive, affirming experience. I send video messages to the students before and during the two weeks, and we meet online every two to three days for an age-appropriate amount of time (more on that below).

5 Tips for Guiding a Virtual Book Club

1. Begin with an icebreaker: One gift of online reading groups is that often the students don't know everyone in the group. Without peer pressure, many students gain confidence and participate freely. Keep in mind that it's important for everyone to know each other's name. Sharing other information-not too personal, like a favorite book or board game-goes a long way to creating community online.

2. Let students take the lead: Student-to-student conversation is better than student-to-teacher discussion, and the less the teacher chimes in, the better. That said, meet students where they are. I ask each student to bring a pencil, a piece of paper, and the book to each class. With a shyer group, having students answer a reading question in writing before sharing gives them the chance to process their ideas and become confident contributors.

3. Optimize for time: A few days before we begin our book club, I send a video message. I use the Google extension BombBomb (which is currently free for teachers), but there are other apps for this as well. Students watch the video ahead of time and come to the first meeting with a common understanding about details like what to bring.

BombBomb allows me to track who has watched the video ahead of time. With that information, it's easy to plan how to start the first few minutes of the reading group. I really like using video messages to emphasize connection, and these videos also help us spend our time effectively and keep our conversations focused.

I try to keep book meetings for elementary and middle schoolers to 30 minutes or less. Older students can handle longer meetings, but I suggest under an hour.

4. Ask text-to-self questions: Reading with a teacher and other students enhances students' understanding of the story-and also their own experiences. As we ask questions about the story, we ask questions about ourselves, and ideally this self-reflection leads to self-discovery.

Which character do you think you might be friends with?

Which character do you think you're most like?

Would you like to live in the story's setting? Why?

What are you learning from the story?

With that in mind, I encourage intentional text-to-self connections. Here are some examples of questions a teacher can apply to just about any story:

5. Underscore preparation as a means of participation: As I run online book groups, I work hard to both ensure that everyone participates and acknowledge that participation can take many different forms. Intentionally creating space for each student is paramount. Ensuring that quieter students feel included might mean having students show a drawing or character chart, asking them to read a line from the story, or giving them the chance to show their annotations on a certain section. Because the groups are small and low stakes (but high reward) learning experiences, the close-knit setting also encourages students to take healthy risks, practice self-reflection, and empower themselves as learners.

The overarching goal of an online reading group is to promote a love of literature in a positive, supportive environment. Of course, the online learning space is different from the classroom, but with the right approach, teachers can use stories to cultivate connections and empathy.

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How to Set Up a Virtual Book Club for Students

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An online book club organized by a teacher or school librarian can be a good way to foster social interactions during the pandemic.

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Five ways to build a community of learners online

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Relationships are the foundation of learning. When students feel connected to their teacher and their peers, they're more likely to thrive. How can teachers forge these connections within a remote ...

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With a little creativity, students can still take part in science experiments and discussions while learning at home.

Shawn Sutton demonstrates how he records himself doing an experiment for his students.

In a traditional, face-to-face classroom setting, teachers have the ability to interact with students, flexibly spot-check understanding, and present learning material in an engaging manner. Our new normal of science teaching, the distance-learning model, has severely compromised these good instructional practices. In all likelihood, remote teaching will take up a meaningful part of the upcoming academic year. In this impersonal teaching environment, how might we maintain quality learning experiences for our students?

During distance learning, teachers may feel the need to focus on broader concepts rather than march through a typical curriculum. Educators are likely asking themselves, "What are the most essential skills that I want my kids to gain?" I would argue that memorization of fact-based content that students can easily search for online is low on the essential-skills spectrum. Substantive learning in the science classroom involves dynamic critical thinking and the ability to communicate and evaluate arguments.

I'd like to offer some tips on keeping two significant elements of science teaching alive during the remote-learning experience: phenomenon-based instruction and purposeful scientific discourse.

Presenting Scientific Phenomena

Covering scientific phenomena is the mainstay of Next Generation Science Standards-aligned instruction. Phenomenon-based learning is framed around a science mystery, or a discrepant event, to engage and motivate the student. For example, students may be asked to determine if adding six ice cubes to a drink makes it cooler than adding three. Rather than recalling discrete facts, students are tasked with applying novel information and using transferable problem-solving skills to explain a natural scientific event.

Unfortunately, we no longer have access to lab materials that would allow us to demonstrate most discrepant events to our students. Similarly, the sheer volume of science-themed video content online is downright overwhelming. Where would we even begin if we wanted to inspire a remote science lesson with a natural phenomenon?

Whether we're trying to create demos at home or sift through videos of scientific phenomena online, the event we share must be relatable and accessible. If we're asking students to perform mini-experiments at home, exceedingly basic materials would create an experience that was accessible to all learners. In a demonstration illustrating the properties of a cell membrane, for example, I asked my learners to use a cup, dinner plate, and dish soap to create a bubble. If we wish to share a video of a science demonstration, it would be more relatable for students to see their own science teacher perform the experiment rather than offering a YouTube video of an anonymous scientist.

I've had success making remote content both relatable and accessible by interjecting storytelling into my presentation of natural phenomena. When we dramatize the science mystery with captivating, student-friendly language, we can add suspense to an otherwise mundane natural phenomenon. During a recent task relating to osmosis, I replicated my typical live labs by asking students to evaluate some scenarios in which the scientific process has taken place. In one mystery, I brought out celery as a healthy snack and wondered what would happen if I placed one stalk in a beaker of salt water. The mystery here: Why did the celery become wilted and shriveled? In another scenario, a young boy won a goldfish on the boardwalk and almost released the fish in the ocean. Students are asked to consider: Why can't a goldfish survive in salt water?

Science mysteries prime students for the learning experience. Instructional materials such as articles, interactive websites, and informative videos can now serve as evidentiary sources as students strive to describe the science behind the mystery.

Furthering Scientific Discussion

The fundamental job of a scientist is to offer, critique, and refine explanations of the natural world within a community of informed peers. In remote learning, it's important to provide students the opportunity to share prior experiences, offer informed insights, and clarify their thinking with the help of their classmates. Such discourse allows learners to vet explanations given by others as they arrive at a shared understanding.

Video recording and screencast tools, such as Screencastify and Screencast-O-Matic, can be utilized by the science teacher to promote peer interaction. Students can use screencast software to explain a relatable science mystery through a narration of a slideshow presentation. Live meet-up tools, such as Zoom and Google Meet, are certainly useful in helping the class connect from home, but they can be a bit awkward. Many students are at a loss as to what to say. Some kids turn their cameras off and participate sparingly. Encouraging students to vocalize their ideas through a screencast allows for more structured and purposeful communication.

Responsive feedback from others is another important component of student discourse. This can be achieved by linking student screencasts to a shared Google Doc that all members of the class can access. Learners can be prompted to view a peer's explanation of a natural phenomenon and reply to that student's work. Guiding questions like "What is the best point this person made?" "What aspect of this argument surprised you?" and "What would you like to know more about?" drive a conversation with substance. While the experience is not nearly as immediate as face-to-face discussion, learners are still able to hone communication skills while evaluating peer arguments.

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Adapting Science Lessons for Distance Learning

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With a little creativity, students can still take part in science experiments and discussions while learning at home. Shawn Sutton demonstrates how he records himself doing an experiment for his students. In a traditional, face-to-face classroom setting, teachers have the ability to interact with students, flexibly spot-check understanding, and present learning material in an engaging manner.

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by Jennifer Serravallo

I'm hearing of teachers spending 14-16 hour days managing it all, and I am really really concerned about burnout. In a lot of cases, it's probably already happening. I'm reading stories out of Los Angeles, San Antonio, and other districts where a large percentages of kids are not logging in for anything, and have just disappeared. I'm hearing from parents who are at their wits end because of how much they are trying to manage so they are just throwing up their hands and giving up altogether.

I worked on a post in response to all of this, but as someone who is not in the classroom actually doing the work, I reached out to teachers in NY, FL, CT, TX, and CA for a reality check and received feedback before I shared anything. I also read many blog posts from educators who I trust that are sharing how they are managing it all.

The post that follows aims to answer the question, "How do I fit it all in?" with sample daily weekday schedules for teachers and kids.

Here's what I'm prioritizing:

Keeping a teacher's day to 6 hours all-in

Keeping a child's day to a max of 2 hours (with potential additional support for kids with IEPs, 504s or those who work with an ESL teacher)

Balance, flexibility, connection, and priority given to emotional wellbeing

I know that each teacher's reality is unique. Every community is going to have a unique set of challenges (from availability of tech and books to the number of community members facing illness and death, and more). In some places, districts and unions will be dictating what can and must happen, and in other places, teachers might be left to figure it out on their own.

Despite all this, I wanted to try to put something out there that might help everyone do good work, focus on things that matter, all while taking care of themselves and their families. Excellent teaching and support looks different for every learner, and what is just right for each teacher will be different, too. For what it's worth, what follows is what I think I would be doing right now (though I am sure I'd be revising as weeks go by). I hope it helps.

Teacher's Schedule: Planning, Prepping, Posting, and Meeting (Approximately 6 hours/Day)

Part I: Prep and Recording Lessons

One hour per day: plan and record lessons for reading, writing, math (ideally each is around 3 minutes long, maybe up to 5 minutes) and post recordings on platform (i.e. Google Classroom). Plan and post text, video, and assignment for content studies. Watch my video on this topic here.

2-3 hours per week: planning and collaborating with grade-level colleagues and/or instructional coaches.

Part II: Feedback, Individual Instruction, and Support for Students and Caregivers

1-2 hours per day: open "office hours" for student-initiated response time and to support adults at home who are helping children. Students (and/or their caregivers) might ask questions, connect with the teacher, and check in about assignments. Teachers might conduct spontaneous conferences** as students request them, engage in quick video conversations, email, and send very short spontaneous recorded videos in response to questions, etc. (via Google Hangouts, Zoom, WebEx, Meet, email, phone). Assuming each child (or adult helper) seeking help might take 10-15 min, a teacher could provide personal support to 4-8 families during this time each day.

2-3 hours per day: feedback and individualized instruction time for emailing, commenting, posting to offer feedback on assignments that have been turned in. For about half the time, teachers might schedule conferences and/or small groups** via video conferencing and/or phone. To keep this manageable, pick one subject a day to focus on, ask students to indicate a portion of their writing they want feedback on, and/or schedule different children on different days of the week. (via email, Google Hangout/Meet/Classroom, Zoom, WebEx). Watch my video on this topic here.

Assuming each child (or adult helper) seeking help might take 10-15 min, a teacher could support 8-12 families during this time each day.

The purpose of these is to offer individualized feedback and to be responsive. Depending on the population you work with, the age of your students, the level of involvement of parents as partners, etc., you may find that some of this works better than others and you may change the balance of how much time is spent on each.

Part III: Community Time

15-30 min per day: read aloud and community conversation. Live/synchronous option** if possible (i.e. "join via this link at this time") plus save recording somewhere for those who aren't able to join (via Zoom, Google Hangout, Microsoft Teams, WebEx, or whatever is approved by your district).
**Synchronous options can be challenging when students work with multiple teachers, when there are multiple children in the home, and/or when devices are scarce. While they can be beneficial for community-building and to providing meaningful guided practice and feedback, it's important to be flexible, and to offer a recorded, asynchronous option for those who aren't available to attend live.
A Student's Schedule:
(Approximately 2 hrs/day, Spread Out Across the Day with Breaks)

Reading: Watch a recorded video made by their teacher and read independently. Ideally reading is an actual book of their choice. Where texts are scarce, tap into online options ( Epic, Capstone, Reading A to Z). As students read, they may be asked to practice what the teacher introduced in the video and/or what they are working on as an individual goal. Depending on the age, they may be asked to do some minimal jotting. Students can jot on paper and then upload a photo of their work when possible or jot on screen when photos aren't possible. For those without devices, they can jot on paper and be ready to share with the teacher during a check-in. Once a week, have a video or phone conference or small group with the teacher if possible. Once a week, check in with a classmate or group for a partner or club conversation.

Writing: Watch a recorded video made by their teacher and write independently. Ideally writing is based on a topic of choice, and may or may not be within a genre-focused unit of study. Writing is best done on paper up to late elementary school (and then scanned or photographed to upload) and may be done on paper or screen in late elementary and middle school. During writing time, students work through the writing process and read and respond to teacher comments. Once a week, teachers have a video or phone conference or small group if possible.

Math: Watch a recorded video made by their teacher and then practice. Practice might be done on paper packets mailed home, with games (if someone at home is available to play with them and they have materials necessary such as counters, dice, etc.), or on-screen (via Khan Academy, Greg Tang Math, or similar). Once a week, teachers have a video or phone conference or small group if possible.

Content Studies: Read a text and watch a video (i.e. something from National Geographic or Brain Pop, or a very short mini-lecture recorded by the teacher), and/or study a document posted by their teacher. Engage in conversations with peers about the topic, come up with their own questions, explore more about the topic, create a presentation to share with others (and leave commenting open to have conversation about the topic).

Art, Music, Physical Education: spend 30 min on activities provided by a specialist.

SpEd/ESL Teachers work with students per IEPs, 504s, or English learning plans and requirements.

To hear more from Jennifer Serravallo and to continue the conversation on this topic with other teachers, be sure to join the Reading and Writing Strategies Community Facebook Group.

Jennifer Serravallo is the author of New York Times' bestseller The Reading Strategies Book as well as other popular Heinemann professional books, The Writing Strategies Book; Teaching Reading in Small Groups; and The Literacy Teacher's Playbook, Grades K-2 and Grades 3-6. Her newest books are Understanding Texts & Readers, and A Teacher's Guide to Reading Conferences.

In Spring 2019, Jen's new Complete Comprehension: Fiction and Complete Comprehension: Nonfiction were released. These assessment and teaching resources expands upon the comprehension skill progressions from Understanding Texts & Readers and offer hundreds more strategies like those in The Reading Strategies Book.

Additionally, Jen is the author of the On-Demand Courses Strategies in Action: Reading and Writing Methods and Content and Teaching Reading in Small Groups: Matching Methods to Purposes, where you can watch dozens of videos of Jen teaching in real classrooms and engage with other educators in a self-guided course.

Learn more about Jen and her work at https://www.heinemann.com/jenniferserravallo/, on Twitter @jserravallo, on Instagram @jenniferserravallo, or by joining The Reading and Writing Strategies Facebook Community.

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Making Remote Learning Manageable For Teachers and Students

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by Jennifer Serravallo I'm hearing of teachers spending 14-16 hour days managing it all, and I am really really concerned about burnout. In a lot of cases, it's probably already happening. I'm reading stories out of Los Angeles, San Antonio, and other districts where a large percentages of kids are not logging in for anything, and have just disappeared.

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Formative Assessment in Distance Learning

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The pandemic has closed schools, but schooling goes on—and it remains crucial that teachers find ways to see what students are learning.

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In response to the upheaval of the pandemic, researchers and the leaders of over 100 schools focused on three fundamental areas of education, whether it's in person or virtual.

The pandemic precipitated a historic education disruption. In response, my colleagues at Baylor University and I gathered educators from around the world in virtual learning communities to determine how best to respond. Leaders from 112 schools met in virtual communities in May, June, and July to identify what is most important in education, regardless of delivery method.

In general, we decided that the three most fundamental emphases should be on well-being, engagement, and feedback. We imagined a pyramid in which well-being is the largest section, at the pyramid's base; engagement is the middle layer; and feedback is at the pyramid's peak.

Well-Being

Well-being is the base of the pyramid because Maslow's hierarchy takes priority over Bloom's taxonomy. Maslow's hierarchy categorizes basic human needs, and Bloom's taxonomy identifies different levels of learning. If students' and teachers' physical, mental, emotional, social, and spiritual well-being are not intact, then nothing else really matters.

Before they began addressing academics, the most successful schools ensured that they cared for teachers and students' well-being. To that end, administrators set up multiple connection points each week to check in with teachers at their convenience. They asked teachers two simple questions: "How are you doing?" and "What do you need?"

Teachers and administrators also made weekly well-being phone calls to every student's home. Some homes received three calls a week, particularly if there were concerns about family well-being. Several schools used mentor groups of students and faculty to generate ideas for service learning projects for their families and communities. These projects helped students think beyond themselves and reduced isolation. At one school, for instance, a team of five students created a tech support hotline for students or families struggling with technology issues that arose through distance learning.

Engagement

The second level in the pyramid is engagement. Students don't learn if they're not engaged. Whether learning occurs virtually or in person, we came up with what we called the 4 Cs of Engagement: content, competition, collaboration, and creation.

Content: Through the spring, teachers discovered innovative ways to deliver content. Schools already using robust learning management systems like Schoology and Canvas made the transition to online content delivery relatively smoothly. For teachers of pre-K through second grade, Seesaw proved an invaluable tool because of its ease of use and the ability it provides to give and receive feedback. Tools like Edpuzzle and Pear Deck allow teachers to incorporate questions and interaction into videos and Google Slide presentations.

Competition: Friendly competition, particularly for reviewing surface-level knowledge, has always been an excellent way to engage students. Quizlet has long been an excellent review tool for almost any subject area because of its large number of quizzes that have already been created by teachers and students. Also, its format enables students to receive immediate feedback on what they do and don't know. Kahoot! has been a favorite for a number of years now and allows students to interact with each other in a game format, whether in person or over distance. Gimkit, developed by a high school student who liked Kahoot! but thought he could improve on it, is a great tool for review: It's fast-paced but allows students to repeatedly review questions and also records how many questions each student answers correctly.

Collaboration: With the move to distance learning, teachers shifted the tools they were using to facilitate virtual student collaboration. Three tools I was not aware of at the beginning of the school year that have proved to be invaluable are Parlay, Mentimeter, and Mural. Parlay allows teachers to track discussions virtually as students discuss meaningful texts. Mentimeter allows students and teachers to collect real-time data on students' questions in the form of word clouds, rankings, and multiple-choice quizzes. Mural is a digital workspace for virtual collaboration that allows teachers and students to post, group, and reorganize ideas in real time.

Creation: Student content creation allows for autonomy and significantly boosts engagement. Tools like Canva, Piktochart, and Padlet allow students to create digital images and content. Screencastify, GoFormative, and Loom allow students to annotate and explain complex problems. Flipgrid enables students to submit pictures and videos for feedback from teachers and students. Apple Clips and iMovie give students the opportunity to tell their own stories.

Feedback

We get better through forms of deliberate practice that also provide opportunities to receive feedback. All of the tools we used for engagement offer opportunities for both deep and immediate feedback.

Whatever tool they use, great teachers know that they need to establish the criteria for success with students. Effective success criteria include answers to the following questions: (1) What does a good example look like?, and (2) What's in it for the student? Students need examples and a reason to improve. With clear success criteria, students can self- and peer-review work. Instead of thinking in terms of the content they will cover next year, great teachers think about the skills and knowledge that students will be able to demonstrate and how they can provide feedback to help them get there.

With the uncertainty ahead for 2020-21, clarity in these three areas is more important than ever. The good news is that well-being, engagement, and feedback are not new-they have always been the key to a good education. We just need to leverage resources to implement them well in 2020-21.

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In response to the upheaval of the pandemic, researchers and the leaders of over 100 schools focused on three fundamental areas of education, whether it's in person or virtual. The pandemic precipitated a historic education disruption. In response, my colleagues at Baylor University and I gathered educators from around the world in virtual learning communities to determine how best to respond.

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Icebreaker Idea: Fun with the Frayer Model

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Hello, In its truest format a Frayer Model is meant to be used to help define a word, idea or...with the following words in the 4 quadrants: Definitions Characteristics Examples Non Examples With the word or idea in the center... Just thought I would share.

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I have seen so many educators on twitter, facebook, and instagram working on and sharing bitmoji classrooms. I love this! Teachers know that at least some of their students and families will choose to learn online this year due to the pandemic and they are working to make their online learning spaces just as warm, welcoming, and easy to navigate as their real-life classrooms! This is such a great place to start - but we can't stop there. We've got to plan for great, engaging, research-proven strategies for learning - and we've got to come up with new ways for our content to be delivered ONLINE.

One strategy I love using to get students to think about ANY content at high levels and really explain their thinking is the Rank & Justify strategy. This is when you provide students with parts of your content and ask them to rank them in order of preference or importance and then justify their choices with a written explanation. Following this up with partner or group discussions is even MORE powerful as students explain their reasoning to one another. The truth is - (ususally) there is no right answer of what is most important, but students will show HUGE engagement as they passionately defend THEIR choices and ranks.

How can we incorporate this strategy into online only, hybrid, or face-to-face learning? A Google Slides template, of course!!!

Ideas for use:

Math: Rank different strategies that can be used to solve a given math problem - rank which you think is most useful/your favorite way and why

Science: Rank which science safety rules are most important and justify your thinking

Reading: Rank which character you personally like the best, or rank which supporting character most impacts the main character

Writing: Rank which "hook" is best to use draw readers in

Social Studies: Rank which event had the greatest impact on culture

Staff: Rank which teaching strategy you are most excited to try out in your classroom

Love it as is and ready to modify just the answers of the Rank & Justify template for YOUR content? GO FOR IT!

Want to edit the directions and/or how many items students should rank? (More or less than the 3 I have?) READ ON for more info!

In order to make this template EASY for students to use and NOT accidentally mess up I've utilized the SLIDE MASTER. It is almost as if there are TWO LAYERS - one for only the TEACHER to edit (on the Slide Master), and one on top for STUDENTS to edit and add their answers.

This template utilizes the Slide Master so that everything on the main part of the slide is immovable - it seems that it is all just a picture in the background, but if you go to View, Master, those background items may be edited!! EVERYTHING is EDITABLE, but only if you go to View, Master. Think of everything on the Slide Master as the bottom layer. The bottom layer (slide master) is editable by the teacher, but not the student.

The template on the main part of the slide (title, directions, numbers, placemarkers for the answers, and rectangles for students to put their justification) is all in the background as part of the Slide Master - and can only be edited by going to View, Master.

The items on the sides (the answer choices) and text boxes for students to type their justification are ON TOP (on the regular part of the slide - not the Slide Master) so students can drag, drop, and type their answers!

Check out the full template below - with the TEACHER INSTRUCTIONS to learn more:

How will you utilize the Rank & Justify Template? What content will you use? Please share your implementation ideas in the comments so we all benefit!

Ready to plan more online instructional activities? Another research-proven strategy that yields great results (according to John Hattie's research) is the Jigsaw Method. Check out THIS BLOG POST for an online template you can adapt to have students use the jigsaw method to teach each other and retain more information! You can also utilize this Brain Dump template to help students stretch to remember as much as they can about a topic.

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I have seen so many educators on twitter, facebook, and instagram working on and sharing bitmoji classrooms. I love this! Teachers know that at least some of their students and families will choose to learn online this year due to the pandemic and they are working to make their online learning spaces just as warm,...

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I have created a few digital resources I thought I would share in case anyone else was wanting something similar. All of these digital resources will be great for face to face or distance learning!

My school district offers our students many digital texts, so I created a digital library. I wanted a place to "house" those and other reading related items like our school library, reading graffiti padlet, and what I am currently reading. From the digital library students can click and access digital texts and help sheets as well. If you would to grab a copy click here!

My school district is switching to Schoology learning platform this school year. Like everyone else, I wanted to create a cute banner. I also wanted it to look like my classroom and have my buttons linked in. I ended up using Google Drawing over Slides because I liked the look better. Feel free to grab a copy of mine here if you want something to start with.

My school district is also going to 1-1. I wanted to create something students could easily assess with information that might need on a daily basis. I created a Student App using Google Slides and linking my icons to the slides with in and back to the home page. Students can save this "app" on their phone/iPad home screen or on their desktop. They do not have to login into any platform first to access these materials. I see it being a time saver! You can view and make a copy here.

After creating my student app, I decided to make one for my parents too. Again, the idea is that they can save to the homepage of their phones and have important information all in one place right at their fingertips. As of right now this is what mine includes, but I may make some modifications. Take a look and grab a copy here!

If you're not sure how to save these "apps" do your homepage, here is a short tutorial for you.

Hope these resources spark some ideas for you too!

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I have created a few digital resources I thought I would share in case anyone else was wanting something similar. All of these digital resources will be great for face to face or distance learning! My school district offers our students many digital texts, so I created a digital library.

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Back to school is a special time of year. Sure, it means the end of summer break, but it's also a time for new beginnings. It's a time to get back into the regular cadence of the school schedule.

This is a crucial time of year for setting expectations -- for students, for teachers, for everyone in the school setting.

It's a time to set routine -- to get some repetitions with how the class will run day by day, week by week.

And, of course, it's relationship-building time! We want to get to know our students. They want to know more about us. And they need to get to know each other to build the classroom community.

Below we have curated over 80 back to school activities for any classroom. Scroll down for tons of ready-to-use lessons along with tutorials, templates, and examples to make planning this year a little easier.
What are your back to school ideas? Please share them in a comment at the bottom of the post!

80 back to school activities for any classroom
Click on any picture below to jump directly to that section or use the drop down menu to browse the table of contents.

Scroll down orclick here to see our ideas for welcoming students back from break or starting a new semester.

Make learning memorable!

Take your teaching to the next level by transforming your lessons into a memorable learning experience.

What are your back to school ideas for remote learning? Please share them in a comment below!

For notifications of new Ditch That Textbook content and helpful links:

Are you looking for quality, meaningful professional learning that both equips and inspires teachers?

Matt provides in-person and virtual keynotes, workshops and breakout sessions that equip, inspire and encourage teachers to create change in their classrooms. Teachers leave with loads of resources. They participate. They laugh. They see tech use and teaching in a new light. Click the link below to contact us and learn how you can bring Matt to your school or district!

Do More with Google Classroom

Teach better. Save time. Make a difference.

The short how-to tutorials on Google Classroom are EVERYWHERE. But how do we teach well with it? In this book, you'll find practical ideas to do great teaching with Google Classroom and thrive.

FREE teaching ideas and templates in your inbox every week!

Subscribe to Ditch That Textbook

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©2023 Ditch That Textbook by Matt Miller.

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Back to school is a special time of year. Sure, it means the end of summer break, but it's also a time for new beginnings. It's a time to get back into

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Distance Learning Edtech Basics Guide to Get You Started Parent Support for Google HyperDoc Templates Make anything a link Google Classroom Structure Flipgrid for connecting & more Teaching with Screencastify Student- paced lessons with PearDeck Structure for littles EXTRAS Edpuzzle & videos Quiz...

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G Suite

This post is written by Kris Szajner, a tech integration specialist and former kindergarten teacher Prior Lake, Minnesota. You can follow him on Twitter @kszajner and check out his website kszajner.com.

Have you heard of Jamboard? It creates whiteboards that are a lot like slides. Looking for more collaborative activities to complete during distance learning? Look no further!

This free Google tool isn't just about expensive interactive displays.
Don't I need an expensive interactive display board to use it?
Nope! You can use the app for free on any device! It works with Google Drive and allows you to present your whiteboard to people viewing remotely. Which makes it a great online whiteboard option for distance learning.

What is Jamboard?

With Jamboard you can:

Add sticky notes, drawings, images, text and more.

Search Google and insert images or webpages.

Move images, texts, notes and drawings around on the screen easily.

Drag and resize text and images with your fingers.

Share your "jams" with others and let them collaborate.

Getting started with Jamboard

The Google Teacher Cente r has some great resources for educators looking to get started using Jamboard in your classroom.

Resources include:

a video library or tutorials

tips and trick from teachers

PDF guides

lesson plans and more

10 Jamboard Templates for Distance Learning

Pro Tip - Be sure students are not signed into Google and you have the permissions set to "anyone with the link is an Editor". This will ensure that each student is anonymous!

The Do More with Google Jamboard Online Course!

This course will introduce you to Jamboard features you might not know. It will give you dozens of ideas for using it in the classroom.

Plus, it provides you with:
- A collection of more than 100 templates.
- 40 activity ideas you can use immediately
- Tutorial slide s to use as a quick visual review.
- I nteractive infographics you can give your students
- Video playlists, posts, and extra resources.

Pro tip: Be sure students zoom into the canvas. This will make writing or drawing WAY easier!

Pro tip: Be sure students zoom into the canvas. This will make writing or drawing WAY easier!

For notifications of new Ditch That Textbook content and helpful links:

Are you looking for quality, meaningful professional learning that both equips and inspires teachers?

Matt provides in-person and virtual keynotes, workshops and breakout sessions that equip, inspire and encourage teachers to create change in their classrooms. Teachers leave with loads of resources. They participate. They laugh. They see tech use and teaching in a new light. Click the link below to contact us and learn how you can bring Matt to your school or district!

FREE teaching ideas and templates in your inbox every week!

Subscribe to Ditch That Textbook

©2023 Ditch That Textbook by Matt Miller.

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10 Jamboard templates for distance learning

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This post has 10 engaging ideas for using Jamboard in your class that will get your students working together, even though they may not be face to face.

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Katie Martin | Informed by Research, Inspired by Practice

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How Can We Make the Most of Synchronous and Asynchronous Time in Distance Learning?

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As we look forward to the fall in which many schools will continue in a distance learning model to begin the year, we know that the Herculean effort that has be

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English Language Learners

Providing English learners-and all students-with examples of how to do learning tasks is particularly useful during distance learning.

Despite the huge shifts in pedagogical practice caused by the move to online learning, some tried-and-true strategies, such as modeling for English learners, remain crucial. Since teachers often can't intervene in real time these days, effective modeling-in which the teacher's expectations for student performance are made explicit through an example-is a lifeline for English learners because of the clarity they provide.

In our experience observing K-12 classrooms-including classrooms with only English learners as well as classrooms that contain a mix of ELs and fluent English speakers-modeling is consistently underutilized despite being an easy, high-leverage strategy. It's helpful to remember that providing effective models saves time in the end, since it both provides clear examples of expectations for a given assignment and reduces the verbiage a teacher needs to explain a task.

5 Types of Effective Models

Effective modeling can take many different forms. In all cases, modeling should clarify the expectations of the task without giving away the answer, and should remain available for students to access throughout the task. The following are examples of effective models.

1. Completing the first one in a set as an example: This is the simplest form of modeling, yet we've found that it's not used enough. Click here to see an example. In any kind of exercise in which students are working through multiple examples of the same type of question or problem, it's helpful to model one or two examples so students see exactly what is expected of them.

2. Providing explicit guidance on the expectations of the assignment through visual models: Click here for a humanities example and here for a math one. These embedded models clearly show the teacher's expectations for performance with visuals instead of many words, without giving away the answers.

3. Using language frames as models for conversational moves: Providing sentence frames models the kinds of conversations students should be having. ELs can engage in conversations more fluidly when they can focus on what they want to express instead of how to express it. See a See Think Wonder activity with language frames and contrast it with a standard version of this same activity.

4. Demonstrating how to complete the steps of the task through video: This video example by Megan Berdugo at Brooklyn International High School models how to solve an equation by showing students each step with an analogous problem. Students can rewatch it as many times as they want and pause where necessary to catch words and ideas they missed.

5. Chunking the steps of a complex process and using a corresponding template for students to complete: ELs can easily get overwhelmed by models of a paragraph, essay, or solution when there is a lot of language to wade through and it's unclear which part of the model corresponds to which part of the assignment. Breaking the model into smaller chunks, and providing space next to each chunk, enables students to focus on one aspect at a time, reducing the cognitive and linguistic loads. Click here for a writing example and here for a math example.

We've heard concerns that providing a model reduces the rigor of an assignment. We would counter that while demystifying a teacher's expectations does make the task less difficult for a student, it in no way makes it less complex as long as the model cannot be copied. In fact, great models enable students to jump to the heart of the work instead of spending precious mental energy and time on figuring out what a teacher is asking them to do.

Effective modeling is arguably the most straightforward of scaffolds and requires the least amount of customization for individual students. And like many scaffolds, effective modeling helps all students-not just ELs. For any students who struggle, it provides crucial access that can make the difference between frustration and success.

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5 Effective Modeling Strategies for English Learners

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Providing English learners-and all students-with examples of how to do learning tasks is particularly useful during distance learning.

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So you're starting the school year as a distance educator and you have no idea how to build strong relationships with students you've never met in person. Before the hyperventilation kicks in, let's center on a few grounding principles.

Grounding Principle 1: You know things that work for building relationships in normal circumstances.

First, you know a lot about building relationships with students at the start of the school year. Grab a notebook and write down a few go-to practices you would use if you were going to be starting the school year normally this year.

My list would include:

Memorizing all student names by the first Friday of school, specifically using this method. (And no, that method wouldn't work remotely as it currently is. But focus on the task! We're brainstorming what we'd normally do!)

Challenging myself to create a moment of genuine connection with each of my students by that first Friday of school.

Having my students tell me about the kinds of people they want to become using this simple index card activity.

Having my students complete a simple survey or activity about their interests outside of school.

Doing all that I can to project a warm, authoritative, trustworthy presence to my students - in other words, to demonstrate for them that I am a credible teacher.

Working through my roster with positive parent phone calls as I observe students doing or demonstrating things that I appreciate about them.

Nothing crazy. Few bells, few whistles. Efficient. No savior-level efforts required. I get to see my family each night.

Grounding Principle 2: Relationships aren't the point of school, but they are one of its highest rewards and strongest currencies.

I've written before about how it bothers me when professional educators say, "It's all about relationships," because it's actually not.

But with that said, we still want and need strong relationships with our students because these relationships 1) will stoke the fires that keep us going and 2) will be helpful as we help our students stoke the fires that keep them going. Relationships are fun and affirming and surprising and beautiful. So, we want them.

And finally, good news:

Grounding Principle 3: Just as relationships are not automatically created when we're in-person with someone, they are not automatically hampered when we're not in-person with someone.

That one could use shortening, but you see the point. The work we're used to doing will be different remotely - and in some ways harder - but it won't be impossible. And the sanest place to start, in my opinion, is by thinking about how we might remote-ify what we know works in-person.

After thinking through and planning for that, then we can go searching on the Internet or perusing excellent books on the topic (e.g., Hattie, Fisher, Frey's new one). Just don't miss that "after" part - it's important for your sanity and your sense of efficacy to begin with what you already know, pushing for clarity and adaptation from the place of your current expertise. Then go for added support, holding specific questions in mind as you do. This is a way of training yourself to become a pro in a way of teaching (remotely) that you're currently a novice at.

Before we move to practices, a pause for clarity: what are we after when we say teacher-student relationship?

The United States teaching profession is (by my observation) more driven by values than it is by research. That's not a totally bad thing, so long as we're clear on the difference between statements/objectives/strategies that are values-driven and statements/objectives/strategies that are research-driven.

So I think I need to upfront my values here and clearly define what I'm after when I seek to build strong teacher-student relationships in my work. I'm after building the kind of interpersonal circumstances that promote motivation, engagement, and productivity.

By motivation, I mean the internal beliefs that naturally lead a person to want to engage in a given kind of work (e.g., reading, writing, studying, etc.).

By engagement, I mean the during-work conditions that allow a student to get lost in the joy or thrill or peace or fulfillment of learning.

By productivity, I mean optimizing the cognitive and noncognitive outcomes of whichever course I'm assigned to work in with my students.

In general, I find that the interpersonal circumstances that promote these things are professional (e.g., they are distinctly teacher-student rather than friend-friend or peer-peer), amicable (i.e., they are built on a warm, mutual regard), and earnest (i.e., there is passion in the relationship to see the learner grow).

So there we go: interpersonal circumstances that are professional, amicable, earnest, and that promote motivation, engagement, and productivity.

With that all sounding rosy, let's get to brass tacks. How do we do it?

Practice 1: Build your knowledge of your students by memorizing their names and interests rapidly. To do this, quiz yourself.

Knowledge has a way of begetting relationship. If you and I meet and I learn your name, that's a start - we've gone from stranger to shallow acquaintance. But if we do a bit of digging and we learn we both have children, or we both like to read books on practical theology, or we both like running, or we both teach high school... now we're finding little platforms upon which to build a relationship.

At the start of your remote teaching year, do three things right away:

Get a stack of index cards.

Place the name of each student on one side of the cards.

Place information about the child on the other side. This could include:

Data you collect from a start-of-year survey (just make sure that it's information that differentiates and humanizes the student to you)

Photo or drawings that the child creates or that your school attendance software gives you

Information the child shares about who they'd like to be (this is my tried-and-true start of the year index card prompt)

As soon as these are done, start carrying around class stacks of the cards and quizzing yourself on their contents. This is a good activity to pair with a walk break or some other physical task that takes you away from the computer. The more you quiz yourself on the cards, the quicker you'll memorize the students and some information about them.

Now, memorizing trivia about children isn't the whole of building relationships, obviously. So let's move into remote-ifying our core relationships-building practice here on the blog: moments of genuine connection.

Practice 2: Create a tracking mechanism for moments of genuine connection, then decide on a pace and format that makes sense given your constraints.

Here's a sweet video I made for you while writing this post.

Moments of genuine connection (or MGCs as card-carrying, long-time readers tend to call them) are the core of my relationship-building strategy with students. They are:

Brief - usually no more than 30 to 60 seconds.

Within the time I'm normally scheduled to be with students - just before or right after class, or during independent work segments of my lessons.

Balanced between personal and academic - I want to connect with students around their personal lives or their academic lives, being sure to connect with all students in both ways.

Tracked - meaning that I literally record MGCs on a clipboard to see whether I'm actually attempting them.

Inclusive - before I can switch to a fresh MGC page on my clipboard, I must attempt an MGC with every child on my roster.

Aimed at specific feelings - I want students to walk away feeling valued, known, or respected (and that is language I stole directly from Gregory Walton at Stanford whose work on belonging informs my practice).

Attempted - meaning that I can't omnipotently force a child to feel valued, known, or respected, but I can ensure that I attempt to do this.

Authentic - meaning that I allow my MGCs regimen to force me to detect when I do not desire to connect with a child and to work through that into liking the child again.

That sounds like a lot - and it is. MGCs are very deep. But they are also very simple. Stupidly so, honestly.

So if we've got to remote-ify MGCs:

How in the world do we efficiently build MGCs if we're starting the year remotely?

This doesn't need to be complicated.

When Stacey from Wisconsin held her class Zoom sessions in Spring 2020, she used the Waiting Room feature to slowly bring students into the main class session. As she brought students in, she'd attempt an MGC with each one - 30 seconds apiece. She was the first to admit that this wasn't perfect - it's easiest to do MGCs when you're one-on-one with a child - but it was the best fit for her remote teaching situation at the time.

In Fall 2020, if I end up remote teaching, I will assign certain parts of the alphabet to my required office hours for each week, and I will ask students to attend at least one office hour per month in person. I will teach them to use the office hours time as study time, but to be ready when I take them from the Waiting Room into the main session. For safety purposes, I'll do this with several students at a time - again, not as ideal as a personal interaction in the hallway outside of my classroom, but better than nothing.

Other teachers plan to create brief, personal videos for each student each month - quick check-ins on something academic and/or personal. When doing something like this, I encourage you to keep the goal in mind: you want your students to feel valued, known, or respected.

For my students with technology access issues, I will attempt MGCs using phone calls - brief, targeted calls for checking in and letting them know that they matter to me.

Feedback to student work is another area ripe for MGCs - after you give feedback on a piece of remotely submitted student writing, many learning management systems will allow you to attach a brief audio or video file. These attachments can solidify the MGC and make it stick for students.

The key with these remote-ifications of moments of genuine connection is keeping them brief - they are moments - because that keeps them sustainable. Recall Grounding Principle #2.

Practice 3, for *extra credit*: Make positive phone calls to 3-5 parents per weekday (adjust frequency as needed for your sanity, but note that doing this for your roster is a long-term sanity aid).

I know - this one feels like one more thing, and that tightening in your chest, "I'm about to hyperventilate" feeling may be threatening again. If so, crank it down - all the way to one per week if you have to.

What you're after are positive interactions with parents - sort of like MGCs, except what you want to communicate to the parent is that you value, know, and appreciate their child. Almost always, such calls will have you hanging up the phone happy; almost always, when you do this for a whole roster of students, you'll have people in the community singing your praises and building your credibility without you doing a thing. But like MGCs, you're not making these calls from an inauthentic place - you're doing this from a place of genuinely valuing, knowing, and appreciating their child. Don't try to manipulate your feelings to get there; rather, inspect your heart to figure out what's getting in the way if you don't feel like this toward a child on your roster.

Too often we teachers are blinded to the reality that our fearfully, wonderfully wrought students are not only individuals - they are also human beings influenced by their social contexts. Taking five or ten minutes per day to call the parents of the children on your roster is a small effort that reinforces to children that they are valued, known, and respected. Some parents won't share with their child that they spoke with you on the phone that day, but most will.

Don't underestimate the power of this action, even for older students. Here's some practical guidance I wrote years ago regarding positive parent phone calls home.

Bonus: Tips I appreciated from Hattie, Fisher, and Frey's Distance Learning Playbook

This article has been my attempt to answer, "How can we build strong teacher-student relationships when we start the school year at a distance?" But the idea for the article came when I read John Hattie, Doug Fisher, and Nancy Frey's chapter on the topic in their Distance Learning Playbook*. These are a few more tips they shared that I intend to incorporate in the fall, from p. 51:

Dress and groom professionally.

Project an optimistic demeanor about them and you.

Weave into lessons what you have learned about students' pursuits through interest surveys.

Begin synchronous and asynchronous lessons with a positive affirmation (e.g., favorite quotes, a silly joke, short video messages).

Ask questions that mediate the student's thinking, rather than asking leading questions.

I hope this article helped. Share your own expertise in the comments, or let me know where else you'd like help. Best to you.
*During July and August 2020, you can get their book and mine for 30% off by heading to Corwin.com and using coupon code 30FOR30 at checkout.

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How to Build Strong Relationships with Students if You're Starting the Year Online: Principles and Practices - Dave Stuart Jr.

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So you're starting the school year as a distance educator and you have no idea how to build strong relationships with students you've never met.

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In a previous blog post, I laid out an entire step-by-step guide for an easy and successful Meet the Teacher Open House Night. You can read more about that HERE. However, if your district closed your school building or limits the number of visitors, you don't need to throw out your Meet the Teacher Night. I'm happy to report that you can do absolutely everything with a Virtual Meet the Teacher Open House.

A Virtual Meet the Teacher Open House checks all the same boxes as a traditional open house night. In this post, I will discuss how to:

1.) Meet and connect with families and students virtually

2.) Communicate important information to families virtually

3.) Collect information and forms in a way that's convenient for you and families

4.) Engage students in activities that introduce them to your online learning platform.

The Importance of Meet the Teacher Night

Don't completely throw out your Meet the Teacher night just because of a building closure or limited social gatherings. It's still a very important time for students and families. It gives you a chance to gain parents' support, create a personal connection with them, and establish ways for continued communication throughout the school year.

Also, both parents and families want to know what to expect when they return. It means a lot to students as well. Most students are nervous to start a new school year. A Meet the Teacher or Back to School night is a great way to provide them with a warm introduction and make a personal connection with them. Take advantage of this. You may not be seeing students' faces every day. Your opportunities to make personal connections with students may be limited this year.

Getting Started

Things to Prep Before Your Meet the Teacher Night

The Documents

At a typical Meet the Teacher Open House night, you can pass out forms or have parents complete them during their visit. For a Virtual Meet the Teacher, you need to make them digital so you can you can deliver them to parents via email or via your online classroom. I have done all that work for you.
No te: If you previously purchased my Meet the Teacherresource, I have done all that work for you. Just re-download the file, and you can access all of the digital documents.
A Sign-In Sheet: The very first step of a traditional Meet the Teacher is a sign-in sheet, and it shouldn't be any different in a virtual Meet the Teacher night. This is typically the first stop so that you can gather names and email addresses to use throughout the year. After families access the virtual sign-in sheet, they can access the documents outlined below.

A Digital Meet the Teacher Letter: This letter is a great way to introduce yourself and share some of your personal information. It's also an icebreaker because it shares a lot of details that make great conversation starters. Parents and students love to talk about personal details like what college you went to, your family, children, etc. I think it's really important to include a picture, too. Remember, your students may not be stepping foot in your classroom and they may not know what you look like before school starts. You can see an example of the Meet the Teacher letter that is included in this resource. The work is done for you and this is something you can easily edit in your school's online learning platform.

A Parent Letter: I provide parents with a detailed parent letter outlining my classroom policies and expectations. In addition, I always like to include some helpful tips for parents that they can use to get their child prepared for school each day.

Parent Questionnaire: In order to learn more about your students, send your parents a questionnaire. This digital questionnaire will provide you with a lot of great information and show parents that you care and appreciate their input.

Classroom Rules, Procedures, and Expectations: It's extremely important to provide parents and students with your classroom rules, procedures, and expectations before the start of class. I've delivered this to parents using both a flip book and a brochure that puts everything right at their fingertips. Since you won't be seeing parents in-person, you should prepare a digital version. In my Meet the Teacher Editable Templateresource, I provide you with both an editable brochure and an editable flip book template with clickable navigation links.

With this flip book, I have provided you with sample policies for each section as a reference. However, the text is editable, so you can customize it to fit your needs.

Transportation and Volunteer Forms: Even though your school building may not be open at the start of the year, it's likely that it will be at some point. When that day comes, make sure you have transportation and volunteer forms. These forms will help you manage your class effectively when your building re-ops. Getting this info before the year starts will prevent you from scrambling to get this information at the last minute.

Supply Donation: One thing I like to have during a Meet the Teacher Night is an area in my classroom devoted to supply donation. It's set up similar to a Giving Tree in which parents can choose items to donate to our class. You can make this digital so that parents can help support your classroom when your building reopens. Allow parents to access the supply donation and sign up for items they'd like to provide.

Here is a quick screencast video to show you how easy it is to edit and set up your digital supply donation.

Fun Games for Students to Interact With Your Online Classroom: It's important to not leave out students during this virtual Meet the Teacher night! Some of your students may have experience in Google Classroom, Seesaw, Teams, etc., but some may not. Assigning a fun activity for them to do for your Meet the Teacher will get them comfortable with your online platform. I provide a Technology Scavenger Hunt, and a fun Create-a-Monsteractivity that requires students to perform various tasks in Google Slides.

You can grab all of the above documents by clicking HERE.

Send or Assign Parents the Information

Once you've prepared all of your documents, pick a day to send or assign the information to families. I have created an editable invitation form that you can send to families either via email or through snail mail to let them know this day is coming. Click HERE to grab it.

I recommend assigning the documents through your online classroom for several reasons:

Introducing Your Platform: The biggest benefit to planning your Meet the Teacher via your online classroom platform is that you get to introduce it to students and parents so that they get comfortable logging in and using it before the first day of school.

Saving Paper: You will need a lot of information from parents. You could email all of the paperwork, expect families to print them, complete them, and mail all of them back, but that will lead to frustration on many levels. With digital forms, all paperwork can be assigned, filled out, and returned digitally.

Easy Accountability: It takes a lot of mental energy to determine which students still need to complete and return back-to-school forms. Every online classroom I've ever used allows you to quickly see who has accessed the forms and who has completed the forms in a single place.

Schedule a Video Chat

After your families have had the chance to access all of the forms, send out an email to schedule a quick video chat.

I highly recommend scheduling this video chat via SignUp Genius. With SignUp Genius, you create a free account and have access to unlimited online sign ups.

This video chat can be held on Zoom, and can last a total of 3-5 minutes per family. I recommend using Zoom because it is very user-friendly, most people are now familiar with it, and it's free for the type of meetings that you'll need. The purpose of this meeting is to allow families to ask any questions about the forms or the school year before they are due. In addition, this is a great opportunity for you to introduce yourself and "meet" families and students.

A few days before the Zoom call, login to your video chat account, use your sign-in sheet to schedule meetings with your families and email them the link and password so they can connect with you.

I created this invitation that you can access HERE. You can type directly on this PowerPoint slide, save it as a PDF, and send it to your families via email before their meeting.

Video Chat with Students and Families

Remember, your video chat doesn't need to be anything over-the-top. Make it fun!

Some appropriate topics to discuss during your video chat:
Your students might be a little nervous or shy. Introduce yourself and do your best to connect with your students and families. In addition, remember to open it up for questions about any of the forms they received.

What are you most excited about for this year?

Did you do anything fun this summer?

Have you had any virtual classes or birthday drive-bys?

Did you read any fun books over the summer?

If you have a pet, let them see your pet on the screen.

Also, make sure you end the video chat on a positive note. Remind students that, "We are going to have such a great year {student name}! When you show up to school on the first day, your name tag will be sitting at your desk. I can't wait to see you!"

Virtual Classroom Tour

Another nice touch for families is a virtual classroom tour. By doing this, your students can get a good idea about the space they will be walking into when school resumes. It will provide students with a sense of safety and comfort.

You can use your smart phone to record a video or take pictures of your classroom. Show them your library, reading area, the desk layout, message board, where homework is collected, lunch choice, etc. You can upload the video to Google Classroom or simply share it with students and parents via email.

There are so many amazing classroom tours on YouTube to get an idea! This one is from Teaching the Tinies on YouTube.

The Benefits of a Virtual Meet the Teacher or Open House

A virtual Meet the Teacher Night is a perfect solution when your school building is not open to large gatherings. In many ways organizing your Meet the Teacher Night this way has many benefits.

More personal time with each family: On a normal night with 60+ parents and 30+ students, you can't walk to everyone. Families, staff, tasks, etc. are all competing for your attention. However, through the power of a quick, informal Zoom Meeting, you can now give families some quality individualized attention.

It's convenient for families: Every year, a number of parents would comment or email me that they wanted to attend, but couldn't make it because they work nights, work across town, have a newborn, etc. With this virtual option, students can access the materials at their leisure and schedule a zoom meeting (only if they want to!) at their convenience.

Increased participation: For a typical Meet the Teacher night, many families may not attend for a number of different reasons. Perhaps they are intimidated by a school setting. They they may work or have other children that they don't want to bring or have schedule conflicts, etc. I know that having 100% of parent participation is rare for most typical in-person Meet the Teacher nights around the country. However, with this format, parents pick the time and access the material at their convenience. The chances of having 100% participation is greatly increased.

It's convenient for the teacher: A typical Meet the Teacher night follows a full day at school. You may not have the chance to eat, you may not get home in time for dinner or be with your own family. With this option, you can choose the day and time that your families have access to you.

Introduces parents and students to your online learning platform: The biggest benefit to planning your Meet the Teacher via your online classroom platform is that you get to introduce it to students and parents so that they get comfortable logging in and using it before the first day of school.

All of the resources about can be found HERE.

Are you interested in hosting a traditional Meet the Teacher or Open House? Click HEREto check out this blog post.

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How to Plan a Virtual Meet the Teacher Open House - In the Classroom with Kristine Nannini

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Learn how do a Virtual Meet the Teacher Open House with ideas, printables, and free digital invitations for students and families.

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Remote teaching: how to build relationships

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As a teacher teaching remotely, how do you get to know a new student from behind a screen? One international teacher explains how he managed to build a relationship with a class he'd never met

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Getting ready for learning at home with little ones means more than charging your computer. While screen time may be a necessary part of communicating and documenting learning experiences, hands-on experiences away from the screen are critical for proper child-development. In this post we will share ideas for helping families to prepare for what remote learning looks like away from the screen. You will also find that we are offering you a language you can use with families, consisting of purpose-filled descriptions so that big picture ideas we have as educators can be articulated and communicated to families.

Daily Schedule for Remote Learning

While there will most likely be some kind of framework for timing that works with the school day, learning at home will look a little different for each family. No matter what the situation, all children (and families) will benefit from a clear schedule that defines what the day will look like when learning at home. A visual schedule provides young children with a sense of security, understanding of the flow for the day, and accountability for participation in each part. This is also a wonderful opportunity to develop independence and self-help skills in young children.

This Daily Schedule for Remote Learning template is intended to empower and support children and families in developing a routine in order to engage in effective learning at home. Text boxes containing words and visuals for activities may be edited and moved around to reflect the schedule on any given day. The schedule on the slide may be shared with families through the platform of your choice. Options for sharing include: downloading the slide as an image and uploading to a communication tool (i.e. Seesaw, Remind, Class Dojo, etc.), attaching to a Google Classroom assignment, embedding on a Google Site, or including this slide within a different Google Slide deck for sharing. This resource may be used in conjunction with the printable Family Schedule Cards.

Family Schedule Cards

Creating a Learning Space

In the classroom, teachers put lots of time into creating learning spaces that will work for children. Encourage families to help children to take ownership of their learning by allowing them to contribute to decisions about the look, feel, and organization of the space. Below are some ideas you can share with families to consider when setting up a learning space at home:

Independent access to materials organized ahead of time

Visual references - this may include things such an alphabet, word, or number charts. These do not need to be fancy and can be created together!

Good lighting and options for seating - While a table or desk will work beautifully for some activities, also consider soft and cozy spots for reading or working. Having options such as attaching a paper to a wall for writing or drawing, or using a clipboard or hard surface to complete an activity laying on their belly on the floor are both great strategies for proper physical development.

Post a weekly goal - In our classrooms, children set independent goals at the beginning of each week. Each goal is selected by the child, and is based on something that they feel is tricky now, but they would like to practice so that they can improve. When we moved to remote learning in the spring, children continued goal setting and shifted their focus to goals that matched their challenges for learning at home. Ideas included focuses such as: cooperating with grown-ups, making healthy choices, getting enough sleep, completing all school work. Goal recording sheets offer children a space to reflect on their progress each day. Photos/video reflections were completed through Seesaw, offering the opportunity for teacher feedback and support.

Preparing a Space for Intentional, Open-Ended Play

Many early childhood educators have some type of open-ended playtime included as part of the school day. Why? For us, it goes beyond rewarding kids for working hard on academic tasks. There are a myriad of reasons for prioritizing play. For the purpose of supporting families at home, we want to highlight that open-ended play offers opportunities for children to explore, discover, create, and imagine new possibilities. During quality play experiences, children become problem solvers and storytellers - which nurtures brain development and supports them in making learning connections. All of this is to say that we want NEED our kids to be making purposeful, independent play choices as part of their remote learning experience.

Communicating Play Types to Families

In some cases, there may be overlap in the materials and toys children would access at school and at home. At home, there may even be more options for kids to engage in during play. We want to maximize the quality of play opportunities and to help families to navigate these options. In doing so, we can work together to support children in making purposeful, independent play choices. Below we are sharing play choice cards children can use and some ideas you can offer your families for open-ended play at home.

Water Play: A sink filled with water, or buckets of water outdoors open up wonderful opportunities for sensory exploration. Children can explore properties of water as they fill containers, develop life skills as they wash materials in soapy water, explore writing with paintbrushes and on the driveway or sidewalk, investigate changes in water when soap is added, etc. Water play provides endless possibilities for exploration and discovery.

Outdoor Play: One of the wonderful benefits of learning at home may be the ability to engage in more time outdoors. Daily walks, nature collections, outdoor investigation, gross-motor movement, investigation of seasonal changes, are all part of nurturing curiosity and a sense of wonder in the world. Remember that you could begin outdoor exploration time with the same question every day and come up with a new answer every time - no fancy lesson or materials required! "What will we discover about the world today?"

Blocks and Building: Block play is critical in the early years as it provides endless opportunities to support mathematical and spatial reasoning, problem-solving, creation, imagination, balance, as well as fine and motor skills. Children should have access to open-ended building materials. This could mean anything from Legos (open-ended collections offer more possibilities than pre-made kits) to collections of boxes from around the house. Outdoor building materials can include rocks, sticks, or other natural materials. The point is that building materials can be found anywhere if you open up your imaginations together!

Art and Creation: Keeping a variety of simple, open-ended art materials on hand will support children in completing academic activities, and offer access to options for free exploration. Including time for creation and imagination through art is an important part of nurturing children's sense of self and confidence in expression.

Pretend Play and Storytelling: When children engage in pretend play, they are engaging in the important experience of processing their world. They are solidifying their understanding of the world they are in, at the same time they are imagining possibilities and wondering about things that make them curious. They are developing oral language skills, vocabulary, sequencing, observation, and expression. They are asserting their independence as capable creators and thinkers. Pretend play is not taking away from their learning time, it is recognizing the very essence of their learning. Allowing for storytelling and pretend play at home establishes a sense of value and recognizes the importance of this key element of childhood. This can also help to balance the academic expectations of the day, and will go a long way in supporting cooperation between children and caregivers when navigating learning at home.

The Play Choice Cards template also includes cards with sentence starters have been provided and may be used to support oral language and vocabulary development. We are encouraging our children reflect and share about their play experience on Flipgrid or with someone at home as closure to their open-ended playtime.

Redefining Learning Communities

As we redefine possibilities for educational models, children and families will need support in any number of ways. Just as we must be transparent in the process of using technology effectively and thoughtfully, we also have the opportunity to support family understanding of the valuable aspects of childhood and child development that remain the same. It is a chance to empower families as contributors and creators of rich learning spaces in new ways. We have the chance to shift from learning in classrooms to learning in communities. Together, we can establish the valuable contributions made by each member of the community as we move forward in growing and learning together.

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Supporting Families with Remote Learning

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Getting ready for learning at home with little ones means more than charging your computer. While screen time may be a necessary part of communicating and documenting learning experiences, hands-on experiences away from the screen are critical for proper child-development.

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Sponsored by PowerSchool and ISTE U

It's a pretty safe bet that most teachers will be doing some form of online teaching in the coming year. Maybe you'll do it full-time, maybe it will be some kind of hybrid model, but one thing is for sure: This time around you won't be dropped into it without warning.

So with this chance to take a breath and do more thoughtful, intentional planning, the next question is What do we do differently? What shifts do we need to make in our face-to-face teaching practices to make the most of online learning?

To find out, I sought the help of Melanie Kitchen, a Coordinator of Instructional Technology and Staff Development serving 19 school districts in Western New York state. Melanie has years of experience working with teachers on developing blended learning and has now shifted to helping teachers develop best practices for remote learning.

Melanie Kitchen

I asked Melanie to share some ways online teaching should be different from face-to-face teaching. She came up with nine: three that are specific to community building and communication, and six that focus on instructional design. Along with these differences, she also shared a few things that should stay exactly the same.

Community Building & Communication

1. The first weeks of school should be devoted to community building and digital competency.

Resist the temptation to dive right into curriculum at the start of the school year. Things will go more smoothly if you devote the early weeks to building community so students feel connected. Social emotional skills can be woven in during this time. On top of that, students need practice with whatever digital tools you'll be using. So focus your lessons on those things, intertwining the two when possible.

"If you are explicitly teaching persistence," Kitchen says, "maybe I'm going to give you a challenge that's not content-related, but something that you might have to kind of grapple with. But when I assign that, if I'm using Google Classroom, then I'm going to assign that through Google Classroom and teach you how you're going to open an assignment, how you're going to submit it, how you'll be receiving feedback. So you are teaching these skills all at once, and it's not something separate or extra. It's just all done together."

Other good resources that can guide and inform the conversations you have in these early weeks are:

2. Communication with parents needs to be more thorough, streamlined, and predictable.

Parents are also adjusting to this new way of doing school. Because they are sometimes expected to play an even more prominent role in supporting student learning, they need more support from you. "We really need parents to be our partners in this learning community," Kitchen says.

Here are some guidelines:

Establish a consistent location and predictable schedule for sharing information. When parents know where and when to look for information from you, they'll do a better job of keeping up with it and following through on their end. Weekly updates are a good way to keep everyone informed about what's going on in your class. And rather than toggling around between emails, text alerts, blog posts, website announcements, and newsletters, choose one platform for outgoing information and stick to it; if your whole school can do the same you'll see even better results.

Set clear expectations and boundaries for communication. When can students and parents expect to hear from you? How and when can they get in touch with you when needed? If you don't set boundaries you'll end up feeling like you have to be available 24/7, which will quickly lead to burnout. Establish regular office hours and advertise them in an easy-to-find place so parents know when you'll be most accessible.

Create a backup plan for off-hours and tech support. If parents or students need help outside of your regular office hours or they need help with technology, who can they contact? Make this information clearly available.

Make communication multimodal. Although it's important to consistently post through one platform, it's also helpful to provide the information in more than one mode. For example, you might offer written announcements and record the same announcements in a short video each week so students and parents can choose the format that works best for them.

Provide parent tech training. Parents will be better able to support students if they understand how to use the technology, so provide them with tutorials on the tech you use, including whatever platform you use to disseminate information.

3. Community and connection need to be a priority for teachers, too.

"Teachers need to connect with each other now more than ever," Kitchen says. Your school leadership should be building in regular opportunities for you to stay connected to your colleagues during this time. If they are not, create those opportunities for yourself.

Staff meetings should still be held regularly-even if it's through a videoconferencing platform-to keep staff connected.

During these meetings, some time and attention should be given to teacher well-being and emotional health.

Smaller groups like teaching teams or content-area PLCs can offer even more support.

If you're not getting the support you need, seek it out through platforms like Twitter.

This article offers a more in-depth look at teacher well-being: How to Support Teachers' Emotional Needs Right Now.

Instructional Design

4. Teacher collaboration is even more important.

Meeting the challenges of online learning gets easier when we work together. "As we're all trying to get to know these students better," Kitchen says, "we need to be working together to do that." That means working more closely with specialists to make sure our lessons and materials meet the needs of all students, partnering with others in our content area to plan instruction, working together on cross-curricular projects, and dividing up the things all students need (like technology instruction) among teachers on a team or grade level so students aren't doing the same lessons over and over and our work isn't duplicated.

Fortunately, collaborating online can be even easier than trying to do it when we all teach in the same physical building. "This virtual environment has provided us the opportunity to break down those walls, to break down those silos," Kitchen says. "Our schedules and time constraints that we may have had before will come down. We may have more opportunity to partner with people that we didn't have the time or the space to be able to do that before."

5. "Face-to-face" time should be used for active learning.

Online instruction is made up largely of asynchronous instruction, which students can access at any time. This is ideal, because requiring attendance for synchronous instruction puts some students at an immediate disadvantage if they don't have the same access to technology, reliable internet, or a flexible home schedule.

But you're likely to offer "face-to-face" or synchronous opportunities at some point, and one way to make them happen more easily is to have students meet in small groups. While it's nearly impossible to arrange for 30 students to attend a meeting at once, assigning four students to meet is much more manageable. Kitchen likes "campfire groups," which are permanent groups of about four that stay together for long periods of time. This arrangement allows students to get to know each other better and establish more trust. Students might be rearranged for other activities to provide some variety, but the campfire groups would provide a stable base throughout the school term.

So what kind of instructional activities should be used for these different formats?

What works best, Kitchen says, is to keep direct instruction-things like brief video lectures and readings-in asynchronous form, using checks for understanding like embedded questions or exit slips.

You can then use synchronous meetings for more interactive, engaging work. "If we want students showing up, if we want them to know that this is worth their time," Kitchen explains, "it really needs to be something active and engaging for them. Any time they can work with the material, categorize it, organize it, share further thoughts on it, have a discussion, all of those are great things to do in small groups."

Small group strategies she strongly recommends:

6. Content needs to be simplified and slowed down.

Online instruction is not conducive to covering large amounts of content, so you have to choose wisely, teaching the most important things at a slower pace. To make those choices, Kitchen recommends asking some key questions:

What really holds leverage for the students? What has endurance? What knowledge is essential?

What knowledge and skills do students need to have before they move to the next grade level or the next class?

What practices can be emphasized that transfer across many content areas? Skills like analyzing, constructing arguments, building a strong knowledge base through texts, and speaking can all be taught through many different subjects.

What tools can serve multiple purposes? Teaching students to use something like Padlet gives them opportunities to use audio, drawing, writing, and video. Non-digital tools can also work: Students can use things they find around the house, like toilet paper rolls, to fulfill other assignments, and then submit their work with a photo.

7. Instructions should be easy to find, explicit, and multimodal.

Because you are not in the same room with students, your instructions have to work a lot harder than they do in a brick-and-mortar setting.

Provide instructions in a consistent location and at a consistent time. This advice was already given for parents, but it's worth repeating here through the lens of instructional design: Set up lessons so that students know where to find instructions every time.

Make instructions explicit. Read and re-read to make sure these are as clear as possible. Make dogfooding your lessons a regular practice to root out problem areas.

Offer multimodal instructions. If possible, provide both written and video instructions for assignments, so students can choose the format that works best for them. You might also offer a synchronous weekly or daily meeting; what's great about doing these online is that even if you teach several sections of the same class per day, students are no longer restricted to class times and can attend whatever meeting works best for them.

8. Traditional grading practices should take a backseat to feedback.

"We saw a transition during emergency remote teaching where each of us had different requirements about grades or no grades, pass and fail," Kitchen says. "This whole environment really needs to be supported by communication and connection. If I'm to receive an A or a 95 or a 65, that doesn't necessarily tell me as much as verbal feedback or print feedback to what I'm doing right, what I can improve on."

So when teaching remotely, put the emphasis on formative feedback as students work through assignments and tasks, rather than simply grading them at the end.

Most learning management platforms, like Google Classroom, have built-in features for giving feedback. Use these as your primary method.

Tools like Floop offer other ways to provide on-the-spot feedback and can be especially good for math.

Feedback should be frequent and specific. Consider some of the methods shared by Matthew Johnson in Flash Feedback.

Provide a pathway for students and parents to give YOU feedback on assignments as well.

9. Summative assessment should focus on creation.

In online learning, Kitchen says, "There are so many ways that students can cheat, so if we're giving them just the traditional quiz or test, it's really easy for them to be able to just look up that information."

A great solution to this problem is to have students create things. These can be videos, podcasts, digital or physical art, writing pieces, comics, and so on. "It's a lot more difficult to cheat when you have to make something or do something. And it also integrates all of the areas and it builds up, all of that learning builds up into this creation that they will do."

For assessment, use a detailed rubric that highlights the learning goals the end product will demonstrate. A single-point rubric works well for this.

To help students discover tools to work with, this list of tools is organized by the type of product each one creates. Another great source of ideas is the Teacher's Guide to Tech.

When developing the assignment, rather than focusing on the end product, start by getting clear on what you want students to DO with that product. This list from Bill Ferriter explores the difference:

Image Credit: Bill Ferriter (CC BY-NC-ND)

What Stays the Same

Not everything in online teaching is different. Some aspects of good teaching should definitely stay the same.

Clear and consistent communication

Creating explicit and consistent rituals and routines

Using research-based instructional strategies

Determining whether to use digital or non-digital tools for an assignment

A focus on authentic learning, where authentic products are created and students have voice and choice in assignments

The teaching environment may not be the same as we're used to, but it's important to remember that good teaching is still good teaching. "All of those things that we know are really good practices can still be done virtually," Kitchen says. "It just might look a little bit different."

You can find Melanie on her website, creativecuriosity.org, or on Twitter at @MelKitchenEDU.

Come back for more.
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9 Ways Online Teaching Should be Different from Face-to-Face

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What shifts do we need to make in our face-to-face teaching practices to make the most of online learning? What can stay exactly the same?

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After spending more than a quarter of the school year distance learning during the 2019-2020 school year, we can count on depending on technology in the classroom, even more, moving forward. So much is unknown, but one thing we know is that there will be a hybrid of in-class and distance learning, in some way, shape, or form.

Starting the school year using technology will look a lot different than ending the school year using technology.

I recommend the following tips for Google Classroom ™ , but you can adapt them to meet other learning platforms as well.

1 - Model Digital Assignments

From the very first week of school, I highly recommend modeling how to complete digital assignments with your students using a projector, if in class, or a screen recording, if distance learning. As you model, be sure to vocalize each step along the way.

Here are some tips about digital modeling:

- Highlight which buttons you are selecting using a pointer stick or laser pen, if in person, or a highlighted cursor, if distance learning.

- Use descriptive words to share what buttons you're selecting on the screen. Think color, size, memorable icons, etc.

- Remember that kids may not know words like "rewind" or "fast-forward" because they've never used VHS or cassette tapes. Instead, use "go back" or "move forward."

- Set expectations regarding the length of written responses and how to restate the question before answering. If your students need practice restating questions and using text evidence, I have a blog post on how to use the RACE strategy.

Click here to check it out!

- Emphasize the importance of the red and blue squiggly lines. I learned very quickly that some students do not know that these indicator lines mean FIX ME. Share with students how to select the misspelled word or grammatical error and how to use logical steps in choosing which word or phrase fits best into the sentence.

If you're looking for a fun way to model an assignment for your students and an engaging way to get to know each other, I recommend my Digital Back to School Activities for Google Classroom ™ which include:

- doodle themed get to know you activities

- icebreakers

- social-emotional learning activities

- resources to develop procedures and routines

- back to school writing and math activities

- best of all, it's NO PREP!

Click here to learn more about my Back to School Activities Print & Digital Unit!

2 - Submitting Assignments

Model for your students how to enter Google Classroom ™ and submit an assignment. Be sure also to highlight that when an assignment has been turned in, it can no longer be edited. I promise you, emphasizing this several times during the beginning of the school year will save your sanity as the year goes on.

Be sure to also:

- Show students how to access their Google Drive and explain that Google Drive is the equivalent of a folder where all their work is saved.

- Show students how to make a copy of an assignment.

- Model how to make a copy of a document and how to rename it. You may want to show students how to access Google Apps like Docs, Slides, and Drive on the Safari browser on the iPad. There are a few more functions available when using the browser. I would not recommend using the Chrome browser for this as it will auto-open the Google Apps if installed on the iPad.

- Model how to add an attachment to Google Classroom for submission.

I highly suggest doing a screen recording for this step. The screen recording can be posted within Google Classroom ™ as a reminder resource for students or emailed out to parents who may be helping their child at home. If you're using an iPad, there is screen recording built-in! Click here to learn how. If on a PC or Mac, you can use a free tool like Screencast-O-Matic.

3 - Show students how to access their revision history

If on an iPad, show students how to access their revision history through the Safari app. This will save you lots of questions from panicked students who have mysteriously lost all of their work. Best yet, they'll think you're some magical wizard with this tool!

4 - Model how to write an email

Anyone else losing their mind during distance learning with 300+ emails from students that were filled with one-word answers or "hhhiiiiiiiiii" messages? Me too.

Model email communication from the get-go. Many teachers, including myself, were reluctant to show students Gmail ™ . However, it became a necessary tool very quickly.

Practice drafting an email with students. Write one to the principal, to another teacher in the school, or the bus driver.

Be sure to model:

- appropriate email greetings

- using complete sentences

- how to ask politely for something

- how to share a quick anecdote or piece of friendly information

- sending well wishes or wishing the recipient a good day

- how to wrap up an email

- email signatures

- the appropriate use of emojis (because we know they're going to use them anyway, so we might as well give them norms on how to use them correctly)

5 - Add video instructions

This last tip is something I wish I would have started sooner. I began adding video instructions to my assignments. Video instructions helped tremendously. Not only did the videos help me build rapport with my students, but they also freed me up from questions so I could work with my small groups without interuption.

Here's are the benefits of video instructions:

-For my students, they were able to go back and listen to instructions again if they had a question.

-For my students' parents, they were able to see the language I used with my students, how I directed them, and what I expected from them.

-For my SPED and ELL students, they were able to play and pause directions at their pace. They were also able to use my video instructions as a verbal checklist prior to submitting their work.

-For my co-teachers and support staff, they were able to know what was expected from my students without needing to touch base with me while moving in and out of my classroom throughout the day.

To add video instructions, I used my webcam or my phone and shot a quick 30-second to 1-minute video. I uploaded this video to YouTube and selected "unlisted," so it could not be found within search results. (Alternatively, you can upload the video directly to you Google Drive ™ .) Then, I selected "Insert" and then Video. From here, I inserted the video and resized it to fit the page.

I always made the first slide the video slide with very short written instructions; this became routine for my students.

Video is also a great way to hold a digital morning meeting. If Zoom ™ or Google Hangouts ™ isn't working for you or your students, try adding a quick video morning meeting to your morning work.

Need digital morning work? I have a full YEAR LONG DIGITAL SET for 3rd - 6th grades in my TPT store.

Here are the benefits of this digital morning work resource:

- It includes EVERY Common Core standard for reading, language, and math, as well as social studies and science (NGSS) too!

- The paperless version for Google Classroom™ can be completed online and graded together.

- The standards spiral the entire year to keep skills fresh!

Click here to check out the YEAR LONG Digital Morning Work resource available for your grade level!

Here's what people are saying:

- "This is FANTASTIC and in my opinion PERFECT morning work. It touches on reading, math and content skills. It is just enough to be meaningful without being overwhelming! Brilliant resource!" - Beth

- "I absolutely love this! I love how they also include science and History! Well done! Thank you!" - Danielle

- "This is honestly one of the best things I have gotten on TPT! I absolutely love how thorough everything is. Thank you so much!" - Upper Elementary Educator

Thank so much for stopping by!

If you liked this blog post and you'd like to learn more about digital learning, check out the following:

- How to Support ALL Students Using Google ™ Slides

- Google ™ Classroom FAQ

- What You Need to Know About Google Forms ™

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common core standards english language arts

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After spending more than a quarter of the school year distance learning during the 2019-2020 school year, we can count on depending on technology in the classroom, even more, moving forward. So much is unknown, but one thing we know is that there will be a hybrid of in-class and distance learning, in some way, shape, or form.

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Many teachers find it difficult to gauge how well students understand a lesson in an online classroom. A technique common among award-winning online instructors should help.

In the early 1900s, scientists were baffled by a horse that could seemingly perform arithmetic. Using his hoof, Clever Hans would tap out answers to simple math problems, and could even tell time and keep track of the days in a calendar. Having ruled out fraud-Clever Hans could answer questions even if his trainer was out of sight-a reporter from The New York Times declared Hans an "expert in numbers" whose abilities were verified by "eminent scientific and military authorities."

It wasn't until several years later that a scientist, after conducting several experiments, realized that the animal was able to read nonverbal cues from the audience: facial expressions, eye contact, posture, even the release of a held breath. When a question was asked, Clever Hans was able to tell who in the audience knew the correct answer, and by tapping on the floor, what the correct answer was based on subtle changes in body language. He couldn't do math-but what he could do was still pretty amazing.

What happened to Clever Hans remains a mystery: He was largely forgotten for decades, until scientists began to study the richness of nonverbal communication.

Clever Hans possessed a skill that's unusual in a horse but fairly common in a teacher. Whether they see a confused look on a student's face or a furtive glance that confesses, "I don't know what we're doing right now," teachers effectively read the room to gauge how well their students are following a lesson. A sea of blank stares is a clear signal that the teacher needs to explain a concept further.

"Some people read books. I read people," writes Vicki Davis, a teacher and IT director in Albany, Georgia. "I read the thousand tiny microexpressions that reveal the little things that make a big difference in our bondedness of being teacher and student."

Reading the Virtual Room

In a virtual classroom, much of this information is lost. Does a student look confused because they don't understand the material or because they can't figure out how to unmute themselves in Zoom? Is eye contact meaningful when there's no way to tell if the student is watching funny videos instead? If a student can't hear the teacher, a simple, "speak up" won't solve anything unless a few seconds are spent determining the source of the problem.

There are additional limitations to online environments. Teachers can't pace around the room to glance at student work and check progress. If a student is experiencing network or video lag, they may not feel comfortable asking the teacher to pause while they resolve their technical issues. And there's little that a teacher can do if students are distracted by their siblings or a TV playing in the background.

Teachers are typically familiar with using student feedback to improve instruction-commonly known as formative assessment. But they tend to focus on how well students understand the material, not how well they can access the material. The distinction is important, according to the authors of a 2019 study, who interviewed eight award-winning instructors of online courses and found that they frequently gathered data on how well their courses were administered "to identify what was working or not."

"An important element in the development of an award-winning course was the way in which instructors had collected data on the course or engaged with existing evaluation data, reflected on how to improve the course, and made improvements," explain the authors of the study.

Teachers of high-performing online classes, in other words, read the virtual room and collect feedback not just to gauge how well students understand the subject matter but also to identify any obstacles that may be preventing them from being able to fully participate.

Importantly, the researchers noted that the instructors they interviewed "emphasized their use of data for continuous improvement" as well as their use of surveys as a "helpful feedback tool, and the usefulness of such data for immediate and remedial action, unlike the end-of-semester data." The researchers cite a 2019 study, among others, to highlight the importance of using ongoing feedback to improve teaching.

The Making Caring Common Project at Harvard University has a 5-question Covid-19 Check-in Survey focused on student wellness.

EduCause, a technology-focused nonprofit, developed a longer survey on the transition to remote learning. It's geared toward higher ed but can be adapted for K-12 schools.

In May, the Hawaii Department of Education administered a 29-question survey-and published survey results that provide insight into what supports students need.

The Center on Reinventing Public Education at the University of Washington, Bothell, analyzed seven national K-12 student surveys and identified key areas that teachers should be aware of, from students feeling concerned about falling behind to "distractions, lack of motivation, and lack of social connections" as major challenges to online learning.

You don't have to build a student survey from scratch to gather this kind of data. Here are a few examples that cover technology access, student participation, and ways to support students during the pandemic:

How comfortable do you feel using technology for our virtual classroom? (You can use a Likert scale here, with a score of 1 being "not at all comfortable" and a 5 being "very comfortable.")

Have you encountered any technical issues, such as not being able to connect to the internet or not being able to hear me or other students talking?

Are assignments clear? Are you able to access them?

Are you having any trouble finding assignments, links to articles, or other documents online? Is the virtual space well organized?

Do you feel like your voice is heard?

Do you feel like you belong in our virtual classroom?

What can I do to improve our online classroom?

Reviewing these surveys, I've identified a set of questions that are commonly asked:

It may help to clearly identify that the purpose of the survey is to collect feedback on how well students are able to participate in online learning so that they understand that they won't be graded or suffer consequences if they point out any problems. Questions around technology access should be asked regularly, to ensure that any issues are quickly addressed. Ask the broader questions, such as those around voice and participation, early enough in the school year-within the first month or two-to be able to help any students who may be falling through the cracks.

Survey Tools

For real-time feedback while on a video conference (like Zoom), you can do a quick check-in to see if students have any questions or problems. A handy feature is nonverbal feedback. When enabled, it lets participants display an icon-such as "raise hand" or "thumbs up"-next to their name. Before you launch into a lesson, you can ask your students to give a thumbs up if they're ready to start, letting you quickly gauge if they need more time to get their audio set up or log into the learning management system (LMS), for example.

Turning to formative assessment of content, Laura Thomas, who directs the Antioch University New England Center for School Renewal, suggests using tools like Padlet or Google Forms to create exit slips to quickly collect student feedback at the end of class. A low-stakes approach keeps the workload manageable for teachers while giving concise, actionable feedback that can identify which students need extra support.

If you're working within an LMS, Sarah Schroeder, an instructional designer and professor at the University of Cincinnati, recommends using built-in tools like discussion boards to field questions. Apps like Edpuzzle, Pear Deck, and Seesaw can integrate seamlessly into most LMSs, making it easier to collect feedback within a lesson-a key consideration that puts students' learning experiences front-and-center. "Empathy in design is crucial. Put yourself in the shoes of your learners and you will put them first in your design," writes Shroeder.

"Flipgrid is a fantastic oral communication application that is easy to use," writes high school English teacher Kyleen Gray. The popular video-sharing platform lets teachers pose a prompt that students can respond to through a short video-making it a valuable tool to collect feedback in an informal, interactive way. Research suggests that Flipgrid can boost students' feelings of connectedness in an online classroom, increasing their willingness to ask for help.

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Reading the Virtual Classroom Is Hard, but It Can Be Done

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Many teachers find it difficult to gauge how well students understand a lesson in an online classroom. A technique common among award-winning online instructors should help.

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