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Allowing students to use their phones to complete quizzes and use it as a means to take attendance. Writing prompts at the beginning of the session to increase student engagement.

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I was able to log onto zoom from both my laptop and my tablet and the tablet allowed me to be mobile.

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Using breakout rooms to pair students together during Zoom sessions and have them practice specific actions; flip roles and discuss the outcomes with me.  It demonstrated that techniques illustrated in text or videos are not as simple with used in actual practice.

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"EC Students should have equal access and be exposed to the all of the material being taught and participate in to greatest extent possible. They should only be accountable for knowing what is appropriate for their individual needs."
Source: "CMS Best Practices for EC Students in Career and Technical Education Classrooms" Tracy Hales, EC Transition Coordinator     tracy.hales@cms.12.nc.us

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Best Practices for EC Students in Career and Technical Education sept9

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Different music depending on the mood or lesson for the day

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To facilitate group feedback and knowledge share

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I often have a "ticket out the door" that is a bit more involved than can be posted in chat. In these cases, I have students show me their work on camera. They hold up the work to the camera, but do not have to show their faces or environment.

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Check out all of the resources found in The PACE Toolkit's Three Moments of a Lesson. It includes a lot of ways to support interaction/engagement with others and text!

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I've enjoyed asking my students what story they liked best or which animal they like.  I've also asked how each one is feeling which helps to identify emotions.

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I may use a riddle of the day or joke of the day to draw in those students who tend to come in late. It also gets their minds thinking of better answers to the riddles.

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Teaching Spreadsheets in a Hybrid Environment

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Teaching Spreadsheets in a Hybrid Environment

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It is amazing how much engagement you can muster when working collaboratively with students in Google Sheets. Start with the activity posted (for example an assignment from The Office Specialist). The teacher will type it in as it appears in the textbook and label the tab with the Name of the Assignment. Add a second sheet and name it Assignment Instructions. Share the link with students with edit rights. Have them each add a sheet and rename the sheet to show their name. Instruct them to copy and paste the assignment to their sheet tab. To complete the assignment students will have to navigate between their sheet tab and the assignment instructions to complete the spreadsheet activity. The teacher pops in on each student tab to see where they are struggling to provide support. Continue to speak with all students in the hybrid classroom, as you explain steps to struggling students. It demonstrates concept mastery and supports student knowledge and skill development. On spot grading too. It works so well. This contribution is by Sandra Staton, CTE Business Teacher, Charlotte Mecklenburg School, Charlotte, North Carolina.

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Teaching Spreadsheets Using Breakout Rooms

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Teaching Spreadsheets Using Breakout Rooms

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My takeaway from the Marshall Memo:
"• Provide sentence stems. “Often, students just don’t know where to begin,” says Rothstein. Open-ended sentence beginnings clarify expectations and get conversations going."
Providing an open-ended question related to the activity can serve as an ice breaker when pairing students in breakout rooms. As for accountability, this type strategy will serve to encourage peer engagement and provide a less intimidating experience with completing the activity. Wherein in the main group setting, students are far less likely to ask questions for fear of being embarrassed of asking or speaking up. This contribution is by Sandra Staton, CTE Business Teacher, Charlotte Mecklenburg School, Charlotte, North Carolina.

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1. Thomas Guskey on effective PD for new programs

2. Dealing with controversial issues in the classroom

3. Racial disparities in Chicago's teacher-evaluation process

4. Getting students to turn on their cameras

5. Making the most of breakout rooms

6. Thriving in the profession, despite the challenges

7. Resources for critical thinking about science

"Optimism shouldn't be seen as opposed to pessimism, but in conversation with it. Your optimism will never be as powerful as it is in that exact moment when you want to give it up. The way we can all be hopeful is to not negate the feelings of fear or doubt, but to ask: What led to this darkness? And what can lead us out of the shadows?"

Amanda Gorman in "Unity with Purpose," interviewed by Michelle Obama, in

Time, February 15 & 22, 2021 (Vol. 197, 5-6, pp. 74-80)

"Any discussion about 'equity' in education that is not first and foremost a discussion about literacy is unserious."

Robert Pondiscio in "Literacy Is Equity" in Education Gadfly, February 22, 2021

"The time and energy teachers invest is too valuable to waste on efforts supported only by blogs, Twitter chats, or the opinions of charismatic consultants."

Thomas Guskey (see item #1)

"Don't worry about sounding rehearsed or making your space look Instagram-perfect. Embrace the fun and silly moments when pets and family members make guest appearances. Create an environment where students recognize that turning cameras on means laughter, making silly faces at friends, and being seen for who they are."

Shevrin Venet (quoted in item #4)

"It turns out, most of us are social nincompoops. We're friends with whoever happens to be seated next to us at work or school. We go to happy hours to meet new people but end up talking to the three people we already know. We ghost our friends rather than face difficult conversations. And these seemingly small choices, taken together, have a huge impact on our life outcomes."

Priya Parker in "Groupthink," a review of Social Chemistry: Decoding the Patterns of

Human Connection by Marissa King in The New York Times, January 31, 2021

"Professional Learning with Staying Power" by Thomas Guskey in Educational Leadership, February 2021 (Vol. 78, #5, pp. 54-59); Guskey can be reached at guskey@uky.edu.

In this Kappan article, Wayne Journell (University of North Carolina/Greensboro) says controversial issues have always been tricky for teachers because:

In this article in Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, Matthew Steinberg (George Mason University) and Lauren Sartain (University of North Carolina/Chapel Hill) report on their analysis of the classroom observation ratings of elementary teachers in the Chicago Public Schools. The study looked at ratings from 2013-2015, the first two years of Chicago's REACH teacher-evaluation process, with administrators making four classroom visits to non-tenured teachers (fewer for tenured) and rating teachers on a modified Danielson rubric. Teachers' scores, along with value-added ratings (where applicable), carried significant weight: lower-rated teachers were required to attend professional development sessions and were more likely to be denied tenure or dismissed.

Steinberg and Sartain found a significant racial gap, with black teachers, on average, scoring significantly lower than white teachers (0.63 standard deviations; the Latino/white gap for the same time period was 0.10 standard deviations). What explains the black/white gap? Steinberg and Sartain found that teachers' assignments to schools across the city were not random. Specifically :

"What Explains the Race Gap in Teacher Performance Ratings? Evidence from Chicago Public Schools" by Matthew Steinberg and Lauren Sartain in Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, March 2021 (Vol. 43, #1, pp. 60-82); the authors can be reached at msteinb6@gmu.edu and lsartain@unc.edu.

In this Edutopia article, Youki Terada reports that at the beginning of the pandemic, some K-12 and college instructors had an "optional but encouraged" policy with cameras during synchronous instruction. There were concerns that students might be anxious, even traumatized, if they were embarrassed about the appearance of their homes or couldn't find a private space for remote classes.

But teachers who have found themselves talking to a grid of blank screens are having second thoughts as they struggle to engage students and check for understanding. "Instructors benefit from receiving nonverbal cues from their students, such as smiles, frowns, head nods, looks of confusion, and looks of boredom," say Frank Castelli and Mark Sarvary of Cornell University, "so that they can evaluate their teaching in real time and adjust accordingly to improve student learning." For students, they say, being able to see and hear classmates is important to building trust, rapport, and a sense of community.

Castelli and Sarvary surveyed hundreds of students and were surprised by what students said about having cameras off:

"The Camera-On/Camera-Off Dilemma" by Youki Terada in Edutopia, February 5, 2021

In this Edutopia article, California English teacher Stephanie Rothstein says that sending a class into breakout rooms can foster connections and communication that aren't possible with the full class. But for teachers, she says, "it can be a scary moment to release control and trust the space." She's had the sinking feeling of popping into a breakout room and hearing crickets. Rothstein offers these tips for productive breakouts:

* Keep them short. She suggests under five minutes so students focus on the one thing they need to accomplish - conclusions, findings, questions.

* Provide sentence stems. "Often, students just don't know where to begin," says Rothstein. Open-ended sentence beginnings clarify expectations and get conversations going.

* Create separate digital room links. "When I'm using Google Meet and need longer group work time," she says, "I make separate meetings for each group and reuse these links throughout the project/class. This allows me to open all the rooms and have them available on one computer by resizing the window." She can mute all but one meeting and focus on it, and also record meetings, keeping them within her domain for privacy.

* Ask for volunteers. Rothstein is delighted at how many people want to help out - students' family members, college students, teacher candidates, former students. She puts them to work in breakout rooms, either facilitating conversations or being interviewed as an expert for a project.

* Use shared gray space. Rothstein creates a shared document by reducing a Jamboard or Google Slide by 50 percent, making a gray area around the edge. "That's usable space!" she says. "It just doesn't appear when you present, but I think of it as being like scratch paper, a great area for notes, or a place to put images or icons for student use. Students can use a shared slide or Jamboard with draggable icons or sentence stems to express their thoughts or contributions in a discussion.

* Use a project progress tracker. If she "owns" all the trackers, Rothstein can have them up while students are in breakout rooms and students report on their progress - To-do, In progress, Needs feedback, Done - keeping her up to date and letting her know who needs help.

* Assign jobs. Having students take on specific roles helps groups stay on task, and rotating roles gives students different experiences and keeps them on their toes. Possible jobs:

-Leader - Make sure everyone is participating.

-Timekeeper - Keep track of time.

-Scribe - Write the answers in the shared product.

-Technician - Share screen so your group can see what they're working on.

-Presenter - Present findings to the whole class.

-Other team members - Unmute your microphone, work together.

Reflecting on contributions and group cohesiveness is a worthwhile after-breakout activity. "My favorite part of a reflection," says Rothstein, "is asking students to give shout-outs to other students on their team for things they did that were helpful or that they learned from. I then share these with each of the students when we meet to review, or in an e-mail."

In this online article, Dave Stuart Jr. says that even in the midst of the pandemic, many teachers are experiencing rewarding careers and making a difference. He counts himself as one of them, and would be glad if his own children decided to become teachers. But Stuart points to two "career bottlenecks" on the path to a rewarding teaching career:

* Reaching the autonomous stage - That requires solid pre-service preparation (in self-management, classroom management, student motivation, understanding what kids are like and how they learn), effective onboarding and mentoring in one's first school assignment, and then a couple of years of experience. Because of wide variations in teacher preparation and support for rookies, many teachers never reach the point where they've figured out how to do the job well without going crazy.

* Demoralizing factors - Having become reasonably self-sufficient, teachers can't help but notice flaws around them. Stuart reached out to colleagues via Twitter and compiled a list:

© Copyright 2021 Marshall Memo LLC, all rights reserved; permission is granted to clip and share individual article summaries with colleagues for educational purposes, being sure to include the author/publication citation and mention that it's a Marshall Memo summary.

If you have feedback or suggestions, please e-mail kim.marshall48@gmail.com
About the Marshall Memo Mission and focus:
This weekly memo is designed to keep principals, teachers, superintendents, and other educators very well-informed on current research and effective practices in K-12 education. Kim Marshall, drawing on 50 years' experience as a teacher, principal, central office administrator, writer, and consultant lightens the load of busy educators by serving as their "designated reader."

To produce the Marshall Memo, Kim subscribes to 60 carefully-chosen publications (see list to the right), sifts through more than a hundred articles each week, and selects 5-10 that have the greatest potential to improve teaching, leadership, and learning. He then writes a brief summary of each article, pulls out several striking quotes, provides e-links to full articles when available, and e-mails the Memo to subscribers every Monday evening (with occasional breaks; there are 50 issues a year). Every week there's a podcast and HTML version as well.

Individual subscriptions are $50 for a year. Rates decline steeply for multiple readers within the same organization. See the website for these rates and how to pay by check, credit card, or purchase order.
Website:
* How to subscribe or renew

* A detailed rationale for the Marshall Memo

* Publications (with a count of articles from each)

* Article selection criteria

* Topics (with a running count of articles)

* Headlines for all issues

* Reader opinions

* About Kim Marshall (bio, writings, consulting)

* A free sample issue

Subscribers have access to the Members' Area of the website, which has:

* The current issue (in Word and PDF)

* All back issues (Word and PDF) and podcasts

* An easily searchable archive of all articles so far

* The "classic" articles from all 16+ years
Core list of publications covered
Those read this week are underlined.

All Things PLC
American Educational Research Journal
American Educator

American Journal of Education

AMLE Magazine

ASCA School Counselor

Cult of Pedagogy

District Management Journal

Ed. Magazine
Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis
Educational Horizons
Educational Leadership
Elementary School Journal

English Journal

Exceptional Children

Harvard Business Review

Harvard Educational Review

Independent School

Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy
Journal of Education for Students Placed At Risk (JESPAR)
Kappa Delta Pi Record

Knowledge Quest

Language Arts

Literacy Today (formerly Reading Today)

Mathematics Teacher: Learning & Teaching PK-12

Middle School Journal

Peabody Journal of Education

Psychology Today

Reading Research Quarterly

Rethinking Schools

Review of Educational Research
School Library Journal
Social Education

Social Studies and the Young Learner

Teaching Exceptional Children

The Atlantic

The Chronicle of Higher Education

The Journal of the Learning Sciences

The Language Educator

The Learning Professional (formerly Journal of Staff Development)

The Reading Teacher

Theory Into Practice

Urban Education

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1. Thomas Guskey on effective PD for new programs 2. Dealing with controversial issues in the classroom 3. Racial disparities in Chicago's teacher-evaluation process 4. Getting students to turn on their cameras 5. Making the most of breakout rooms 6. Thriving in the profession, despite the challenges 7.

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One thing that I love to do is to log into my zoom to offer my students an opportunity to share what they did during their weekends, how the day is going or even what they plan to do after school. This eliminates the time to stop class to have students sharing  and it still offers students the opportunity to share before class

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One thing that I love to do is to log into my zoom to offer my students an opportunity to share what they did during their weekends, how the day is going or even what they plan to do after school. This eliminates the time to stop class to have students sharing  and it still offers students the opportunity to share before class

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Breakout sessions and private chats allow the students to speak freely and directly to me without any outside interfernce from fellow classmates.

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Have students lead different activities throughout the lessons. Use popsicle sticks/ducks to call on students. Use whiteboard fi to help students show their own work and stay engaged.

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I leave an impression on my zoom class to try and make them feel as close to the classroom as possible. I build relationships with all students by speaking and greeting them all by name even when I don't receive
a response.

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Taking time out to allow students to introduce family members, pets, show us their favorite things/places at home. Opening up the curriculum to allow for students to get to really know the teacher and peers

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Breakout rooms allows me to individual support my students and it give them the comfortability to talk to me one on one.

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Breakout rooms allows me to individual support my students and it give them the comfortability to talk to me one on one.

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Breakout rooms allow support staff to meet with students to better support the lesson in a more specific manner to meet individual needs.

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Breakout rooms allow support staff to meet with students to better support the lesson in a more specific manner to meet individual needs.

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Have this playing while you wait for everyone to log on.

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https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/online-education/using-social-media-to-retain-and-connect-with-students-in-the-shift-to-online-education/

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Using Nearpod for interactive lessons with students makes the lessons fun. It's easy to use and integrates with Google Slides.

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I've seen teachers who use their bitmoji background as their zoom background.  They can update it with anchor charts for the week. Then they snip it and set it as the background.  It also brings their canvas page to life for the kids.

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Get 'em moving!! Incorporating movement will increase engagement and stimulate cognitive function.  Try some of the quick & simple Energizers.  

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Get 'em moving!! Incorporating movement will increase engagement and stimulate cognitive function.  Try some of the quick & simple Energizers.  

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Jamboard on Main Room, Whiteboard.fi for Check for Understanding, 2-3 options for assignments. Changing the support technology periodically.  

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Jamboard on Main Room, Whiteboard.fi for Check for Understanding, 2-3 options for assignments. Changing the support technology periodically.  

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Interactive tools, like Pear Deck, keep students engaged. Teacher collaboration has been PHENOMENAL! Explicit technology instruction (from Google Apps and Zoom to Edgenuity and Canvas), coupled with real-time coaching and feedback, has helped my students excel in the remote learning environment.

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creative ways to engage students one on one

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Virtual Labs

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Teachers sharing resources and supporting each other.

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Teachers sharing resources and supporting each other.

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Breakout sessions with interactive collaborative activities

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Breakout sessions with interactive collaborative activities

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Way more communication with parents and families

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Way more communication with parents and families

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The various creative strategies teachers are using to engage students remotely!  

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The various creative strategies teachers are using to engage students remotely!  

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Students having fun while applying new concepts

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Inquiry Based through technology

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Providing students the opportunity to collaborate in Zoom breakout rooms on a focused topic or questions. Teacher pops in to each room and when bringing the students back together, she highlights success.