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https://www.edutopia.org/article/5-questions-help-you-make-edtech-decisions

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Too many tech options? Here's how to ensure that the ones you're using are really working for you and your students.

Malin Rosenqvist / Ikon Images

Are things feeling heavy this year? Specifically, is your edtech tool belt-or list of favorite edtech tools-growing longer week by week? Are you feeling like it's getting a bit out of control, or are you supporting colleagues who seem overwhelmed with technology tools?

I have a few ideas to consider, including five general questions to help make sure that these tools truly have you covered or to facilitate a discussion with a group of colleagues. The ideas and questions are meant to spark discussion, get your wheels spinning, and hopefully help you and the educators you work with make decisions about thoughtful technology integration.

Expanding Your Foundation

I love sharing edtech tools-and my blog and podcast are often overflowing with options. My intent is not to overwhelm you or make a case that every classroom and every teacher needs to use all of these tools in order to be successful. The reality is just the opposite. You want to have a core set of tools you can use over and over again in a variety of contexts. At times, you might introduce a new resource to your students, but your normal operating procedure should include a set of tools you turn to regularly.

At the top of the list is a learning management system (LMS), or hub, that your students use to access content you've shared with them. Students typically use this space to send content they've created back to you. Often chosen by a school or district, these platforms include Google Classroom, Schoology Learning, or Seesaw, which might not be considered a true LMS but is popular in early-elementary classrooms for performing a similar function.

The platform you choose as the hub for the distribution and organization of content can set a foundation and influence some of your edtech tool choices. I encourage you to embrace this part of your edtech tool belt and make sure any additional tools you introduce work well with the platform.

5 Questions to Ask

Your edtech tool belt includes the go-to digital tools you use for teaching and learning. The following five questions can help you review what you've already identified as a necessity and determine if something is missing. The needs of your students and the specific content you teach might lead you to add to the questions on this list:

Is there a tool to help check for understanding so that all students can share their learning?

Have I identified open-ended creation tools that give students a space to create a product that demonstrates their learning?

Will students be able to collaborate with their peers and work toward a common goal?

Do these tools help students build transferable skills they can apply in a variety of contexts?

Will these apps or websites work in the environment my students currently use (home, school, hybrid), and do they take connectivity, accessibility, and hardware into account?

What's Next for Your Tool Belt

If you've joined me for a webinar or workshop this year, you've probably heard me say something like "Don't do all of the things or use all of the tools I just shared." Keeping your tool belt light is essential. It's important to know what's out there and available, but the next step-deciding what you'll actually use-is crucial.

The five questions in the list above are designed to help guide you to the answers that are right for you and your colleagues, and ultimately the students you all support. You might find that your tool belt includes multiple tools that address each question and there's room to remove a few with overlapping features. Or you might find that you haven't considered one of the questions and you'll need a new tool to join the list of approved or encouraged classroom tools.

Although these questions are great for starting the school year, you may want to revisit them once a quarter and at the beginning of a new unit of study, or whenever your list of edtech tools starts to feel overwhelming.

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5 Questions to Help You Make Edtech Decisions

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Too many tech options? Here's how to ensure that the ones you're using are really working for you and your students. Malin Rosenqvist / Ikon Images Are things feeling heavy this year? Specifically, is your edtech tool belt-or list of favorite edtech tools-growing longer week by week?

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As educators, we are inundated with options when it comes to educational technology, and new tools are appearing on the scene all the time. Recently, I led an interactive keynote for a school district to help teachers explore how they could sift through the sea of options and determine which tools would be best. We discussed a set of "Cs" that are important to consider when making edtech decisions, and below, I share a brief summary of six of the factors.

6 Cs to Guide Your Edtech Decisions

1. Content. A common temptation with edtech is to focus on the technology first. We may want to use a tool simply because it's new or exciting without first considering how it will help us meet our learning goals. One helpful technology integration framework is the TPACK model, by Matthew J. Koehler and Punya Mishra. This framework identifies three bodies of knowledge that are critical for educators: technological, pedagogical, and content.

Although it's tempting to start with technology, the content we are teaching should be our guide, followed by the pedagogical strategies we will use to teach the content. Finally, we should consider which technology (if any) will be used. Thinking about technology in this order will help you ensure that the tools you choose are in the service of student learning.

2. Context. Each educator has a specific and unique context that should be taken into consideration when determining which edtech to use. It's important to reflect on who your students are, the tools that are provided or restricted by your school/district, your current capacity to incorporate new tools, and other contextual factors.

For example, are you teaching multilingual learners? Then you might choose to use tools like Flip (formerly Flipgrid) or Keynote, which allow students to easily practice their listening and speaking skills via the built-in video and audio recording tools.

Or, are you teaching in a district that has adopted specific devices or software (e.g., iPads, Chromebooks, Microsoft 365, or Google Workspace for Education)? Consider how you can leverage the embedded features of these tools for teaching and learning. Also, if planning to incorporate additional tools, consider how well they will integrate with the devices and software you and your students have.

3. Creed. As educators, our beliefs influence our actions in the classroom. They affect our classroom management approaches, our pedagogical strategies, the ways we engage with families, the content we emphasize, and much more. This applies to educational technology as well.

For example, if you believe in the importance of collaboration in the learning process, then you might choose tools like Google Docs, Google Slides, Jamboard, or Padlet, which allow students to work together to create documents, develop presentations, and brainstorm ideas. Take the time to examine your beliefs and consider how they shape the tools you utilize.

4. Channels. Just as a geographical channel provides access for ships and other vessels, it's important to select edtech tools that will provide access for all learners. One key factor to consider is accessibility.

For example, Google Docs has a dictation feature that turns speech into text and a feature that can translate documents from one language to another. Microsoft's Immersive Reader streamlines the text on a page, allows users to customize the display, and reads the text aloud. In addition, Apple's Clips has a built-in feature called Live Titles that makes it easy to create captioned videos, thus providing greater access for students who are deaf/hard of hearing and multilingual learners who would benefit from additional linguistic support.

Another important factor to consider with regard to access is representation. When choosing or designing e-learning materials, it's important to take stock of the content and images used in order to ensure that they are inclusive and representative and do not perpetuate negative stereotypes.

5. Choice. According to Universal Design for Learning, providing students with choices can be a powerful way to tap into their interests and, ultimately, foster greater engagement in the learning process. When choosing edtech, consider which tools you can use to provide students with options in how they learn about a concept or how they demonstrate their learning.

For example, at the conclusion of a unit of study, you may give students the option to create an infographic in Canva or Google Drawings; record a podcast in GarageBand; or record a video in Clips, Flip, Edpuzzle, or iMovie.

6. Cauliflower. Cauliflower is a vegetable that has been reimagined in many different ways in recent years. From pizza crusts to Buffalo wings, it seems that there is no limit to how cauliflower can be used. Similar to how society is tapping into the versatility of cauliflower, as educators we should consider how we can take the edtech tools we already have and use them in innovative ways.

Take Keynote, for example. You can use it to create presentations, animations, flash cards, infographics, animated GIFs, narrated slide shows, interactive notebooks, multimodal assessments, collaborative activities, and so much more. Or, take Flip. You can use it for introductions, reflection activities, read-alouds, presentations, skills assessments, virtual guest speaker visits, and more! This same concept applies to many other tools as well.

For example, I recently wrote a piece for Educause Review that explores eight ways QR codes can be used in college classrooms (and many of the ideas can be adapted for K-12 settings). Making wise edtech decisions is not always about figuring out which new tools to add, but sometimes is about maximizing the potential of the tools you already have.

As a faculty developer and speaker, I have the opportunity to partner with K-12 and higher education educators as we explore the intersection of content, pedagogy, and technology. One message I emphasize in my workshops is the importance of starting with just one new idea and building on it over time. My hope is that together these six Cs will help you make technology choices that promote student learning, reflect your unique context, align with your creed, promote equity, support student choice, and spark innovation.

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As educators, we are inundated with options when it comes to educational technology, and new tools are appearing on the scene all the time. Recently, I led an interactive keynote for a school district to help teachers explore how they could sift through the sea of options and determine which tools would be best.

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https://www.iste.org/standards/iste-standards-for-teachers

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The ISTE Educator Standards challenge educators to deepen their practice, empower students and rethink traditional approaches to education.

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Essential Apps for the Physical and Digital Classroom

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Teacher-recommended tools for promoting collaboration, communication, creativity, critical thinking, and equity whether students are in school or at home.

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Teachers and administrators from pre-K through 12th grade named these tools their top picks for this year and beyond.

If there was ever a year for teachers to beg, borrow, and steal good ideas, this is it. All good teachers know this is how we get better, and this is a curated list of tech tools that I have begged and borrowed from others-and I didn't have to steal any of these as there has never been a year when teachers were more generous.

Based on my own teaching of college students as well as the responses of 1,461 virtual learning academy participants-pre-K to 12 teachers and administrators-to survey questions on impactful tools that I conducted from May to December 2020, and over 70 webinars and virtual learning sessions I've conducted in that time, these are the top teacher-tested tech tools I have identified. My learning has happened with my own students and through my own mistakes, and I received great ideas from educators across the U.S. and around the world.

I will continue to use these tools and recommend their use regardless of student level or how we deliver education moving forward.

Top Tech Tools for Educators

10. Parlay: For those of us who like to discuss rich texts with students, Parlay lets us connect with students remotely, facilitate discussion, and track how the dialogue builds. As students respond, Parlay shows who is contributing and where the conversation is moving as the software visually tracks student responses in a discussion web. Teachers can use built-in tools to assess the frequency of students' answers in real time even when students are not in the same room. Teachers can then spend their time on deeper level assessment of the depth of student responses, which can also be recorded.

9. Flip: One of the most popular tech tools in schools, Flip won praise from teachers across the country because of the flexibility it gives students to submit digital projects and how it effectively supports peer and teacher feedback.

8. Edpuzzle: I've used Edpuzzle for a while, but it became much more vital as more of my content shifted online. Teachers use Edpuzzle to make video clips interactive by requiring student responses, which are easy to collect and assess.

7. Pear Deck: Pear Deck does to Google Slides what Edpuzzle does to videos. Slides become interactive, and teachers are able to collect feedback immediately.

6. Prezi: I've used the virtual presentation software Prezi for years, and I appreciate a recent update that allows me to be on the same screen with the graphics, creating a more engaging presentation. Prezi offers teachers another tool to capture short lectures, explanations, or other content in a more visually appealing and personal way than as a disembodied voice or thumbnail in the bottom corner of a screen.

5. Screencastify: Every student can be Sal Khan working out problems with explanations. This tool was first recommended to me by a teacher in Kenya, who explained how Screencastify transformed her math assessments by allowing students to show what they're thinking from wherever they happen to be working. Screencastify is also valuable for reducing cheating as teachers can observe students working and explaining problems instead of just recording answers.

This has been a lifesaver for virtual collaboration. Mural allows teachers, students, and other contributors to write on virtual sticky notes and then organize and reorganize them in real time. The best in-person meetings are always the ones where the collective expertise of the room can be captured visually, and if we can't be in the same room with students-or colleagues-Mural is the next best thing. Even better, there's no need to go back and summarize or clean up evidence from the meeting. The Mural is the artifact. Many teachers are now using Jamboard in a similar way.

Created by a high school student who thought he could improve upon Kahoot!, Gimkit allows teachers to create question sets that students can answer over and over again while competing against each other, which is great for surface learning and review. Because Gimkit allows for repetition of answers and has a variety of ways for students to earn points, students remain engaged as they work at their own pace.

2. Mentimeter and Slido: These are both excellent for collecting feedback from groups, so I've ranked them together. I use these almost weekly for professional learning and in my classes. Slido allows participants to ask questions and then upvote others. There are many similar tools, but Slido is easy and free. Mentimeter allows students and teachers to collect real-time data on questions they have, in the form of word clouds, rankings, and various scales. These are great discussion starters that allow everyone to contribute to the collective wisdom of the group.

1. Learning management system: A good LMS is key to reducing stress for teachers, students, and parents. A list like this one would be counterproductive if it left your educational delivery fragmented among disparate tools, and a good LMS helps you organize everything into a one-stop shop.

I personally love Canvas and Schoology, but I know many teachers have worked miracles with Google Classroom, which is "free." I use those quotes for a reason: Google Classroom is only truly free if it is not requiring significantly more human capital in the form of time and energy than a fee-for-service platform like Canvas or Schoology. The most significant asset for managing learning in the chaos of this school year has been staying organized, and Canvas has been a lifesaver for me.

I have taught virtually, led professional learning across many time zones, delivered content asynchronously, and taught students in masks with others Zooming in due to quarantine, Covid, or personal preference. For me, nothing will ever replace in-person teaching and learning, but like many other teachers and administrators, I now know how to effectively facilitate learning in a previously unimaginable set of circumstances. This school year's desperation has driven us to explore a wide range of tools, and we can be better because of the firehose learning we have done this year. We just need a few tools to create some space for us to breathe.

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Teachers and administrators from pre-K through 12th grade named these tools their top picks for this year and beyond.

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https://www.edutopia.org/article/7-clever-teacher-tested-tech-hacks

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From dropping a pin into online texts, to teaching students the art of checklists, here’s how teachers are upping their edtech game.

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https://www.edutopia.org/article/10-student-tested-chrome-extensions

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Teachers are always on the lookout for new ideas about teaching practices, classroom design and organization, and how best to reach students. They also need to keep up with the technology tools they provide to students. One tool that's often taken for granted is the browser students use to access the internet, but there's a lot that teachers can do to make a browser more effective. For the many schools using Google Chrome, extensions are an easy way to adapt students' browsers and equip them with personalized support they can use on assignments and classroom activities throughout the year.

When downloading a Chrome extension, it's important to ensure that the tool is appropriate for students, including evaluating its data and privacy regulations, age restrictions, and overall connection to learning goals. Since it's easy for anyone to get their self-created extension into the Chrome Web Store, one important consideration is whether or not the extension has an Established Publisher badge, which indicates that the extension publisher is verified and meets Google's developer program policies. Be sure to also check out the Privacy Practices section of each extension before downloading.

The following are the top 10 extensions that I recommend and use, and that support student learning in the classroom. These extensions do not require students to create an account before using. Each tool can be used immediately after downloading-and they're all free.

This extension has been around for years and is still very useful to students today.

Dark Reader allows users to darken their screen and customize the brightness, contrast, gray scale, and sepia tones. Users can further customize by specifying adjustments for individual websites. For students, especially in the secondary years when screen time is more prevalent, this extension can be a great option for some students who prefer the comfort of a darker view when reading digitally, especially in low-light environments.

Students can customize how frequently these break pop-ups appear and set a schedule for the extension to run on certain days of the week and between specific times. They can also adjust how they receive reminders.

When activated on a webpage, Postlight Reader immediately eliminates ads and distractions and places the text into a format that mirrors an e-reader. Students can customize the text size and font and whether the text appears in light or dark mode for viewing comfort. For students doing research online, this extension is helpful by providing an opportunity to focus on the text in front of them and not the distracting ads that fill so many webpages.

Students can customize the highlight color, text color, and link color based on personal preference. They can also opt to have the highlights start automatically when a page loads instead of having to manually start them each time they visit a new page.

Google Translate was created and is managed by Google, and if a student highlights and right-clicks a word, it immediately takes them to the Google Translate website, where they can translate the word into multiple languages and find out more information about it.

After the video is complete, the student can view all their notes, including returning to the time stamp of their note to review the video. They can edit their comments, annotate on top of video screenshots, and export their work. This extension makes it simpler for students to track their learning than if they used a split screen and took notes in an external document.

In addition to the concerns mentioned above-privacy, data collected, and age restrictions-it's important to remember that students should only download necessary extensions. Adding too many extensions or setting all extensions to automatically run on new webpages can cause the browser to slow down. To help limit the number of extensions that students download, you can present the options above to them based on needs you observe in your classroom or on their requests.

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Many teachers and students use the popular browser, and it's easy to customize with these extensions that really benefit students.

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https://www.edutopia.org/article/beginning-year-equity-survey

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Beginning the Year With an Equity Survey

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After a year fraught with inequities, a well-crafted survey can help teachers discover and plan how to meet students’ needs.

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https://www.techlearning.com/news/best-graphic-organizers-for-education

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These digital tools and apps make it easy to create beautiful and productive graphic organizers.

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What do highly effective teachers do in online classrooms? We combed through dozens of studies to find the best research-backed ideas.

When online classes exploded in popularity a decade ago, the U.S. Department of Education embarked on an ambitious project: Researchers pored through more than a thousand studies to determine whether students in online classrooms do worse, as well, or better than those receiving face-to-face instruction. They discovered that on average, "students in online learning conditions performed modestly better than those receiving face-to-face instruction."

But there was a significant caveat: It wasn't the technology that mattered. In fact, many studies have found that technology actually hinders learning when deployed in a way that doesn't take advantage of the medium. All too often, for example, teachers would take a face-to-face lesson and replicate it online, a costly though understandable approach that rarely led to improvements. The key question for the researchers from the Dept. of Education was whether an online activity served as "a replacement for face-to-face instruction or as an enhancement of the face-to-face learning experience."

"This finding suggests that the positive effects associated with blended learning should not be attributed to the medium," the researchers wrote. Online teaching required specialized knowledge, an understanding of the strategies that would allow teachers to adapt technology to suit their pedagogical needs-not the other way around.

Yet the large-scale disruption caused by the pandemic forced millions of teachers to quickly adapt to online teaching, often with little training and preparation. "I feel like a first-year teacher again, only worse," Justin Lopez-Cardoze, a seventh-grade science teacher told the Washington Post.

So how can teachers enhance the learning experience in online classrooms? We looked over all the research we've read about online learning to find seven high-impact, evidence-based strategies that every teacher should know.

1. Your Virtual Classroom is a Real Learning Space-Keep it Organized

"Students value strong course organization," explain Swapna Kumar and her colleagues in a 2019 study. They point out that teachers who are new to online instruction are often too focused on content-converting their lectures, presentations, and worksheets into digital format-leaving course design as a secondary consideration.

While "novice instructors have subject-matter expertise, it's the design that falls short," Kumar points out, explaining that novice teachers often "don't know how to organize their materials or set up a design that makes sense" to students.

When students see a well-organized virtual classroom, they're more engaged, more confident, and more autonomous, says Sarah Schroeder, an associate professor at the University of Cincinnati. And students who encounter messy online learning environments actually project that judgment onto the teacher; they conclude that the teacher is disorganized more generally.

Have a single, dedicated hub where students can go every day to find their assignments, and other crucial announcements.

Create and articulate the simplest communications plan you can. For example, it may be that students can reach you via text during working hours, and via email after school.

Consider holding "learn your technology" days with your class to walk through common-use cases, like submitting work or signing on to synchronous lessons.

Make an extra effort to be clear and concise in your directions, and consider making a short daily video summarizing the day's objectives. When writing, avoid the dreaded "wall of text" and use numbered lists and short paragraphs with subheadings.

Get rid of visual clutter. This includes hard-to-read fonts and unnecessary decorations or images.

Here are a few simple tips for organizing your virtual classroom:

2. Chunk Your Lessons Into Smaller, Digestible Pieces

In a 2010 study, researchers examined how well high school students learned from an online science curriculum and concluded that on average, online materials "require high mental effort" to process. "Working memory capacity is limited, and a learner can only deal with a few concepts simultaneously," the researchers explain.

What would normally be a 30-minute activity in a face-to-face classroom should be much shorter in the virtual one. Instead of recording an entire lecture, consider creating several smaller ones, each covering a single key idea. The ideal duration for an instructional video, according to a 2014 study, is about 6 minutes, and researchers recorded steep drop-offs in attention after 9 minutes.

In order to give students additional time to process the material, alternate high- and low-intensity activities, and incorporate brain breaks regularly throughout the school day.

3. The Best Online Teachers Solicit Lots of Feedback

When you're standing face-to-face with your students, you can usually tell when a lesson's working. If students are riveted, their eyes light up and their brains are in overdrive. But in a virtual classroom, much of that information is lost.

That's why the authors of a 2019 study which sought to identify the methods of the best online teachers say that you should regularly "gather student feedback on various aspects of...online courses" in order to identify "what was working or not."

Unlike formative assessment, which focuses on how well students understand the material, it's crucial that you also gauge how well students can access your virtual materials, according to the researchers. Most teachers and students are newbies in virtual classrooms, and serious communication and process-oriented issues can go undetected-and fester. Consider using student surveys administered via simple tools like Google Forms to ask questions such as: Are you having any technical problems? Are you able to quickly find and submit your work? Is this virtual classroom easy to navigate?

4. Annotate and Interject to Scaffold Learning

If you're standing in your classroom and you want students to pay attention to something-perhaps a location on a map or information on a slide-you can use gestures to direct students' attention. But that context can be hard to reproduce online.

To compensate, use simple annotations like arrows and text labels to provide "visual scaffolding and help direct the users' attention to those aspects that are important in learning materials and help guide learners' cognitive processes," say the authors of a 2020 study. The researchers demonstrated that students who were shown maps with visual and text cues, like arrows and labels identifying key locations, scored 35 percent higher on a recall test than those exposed to maps with no cues.

Also, strategically interject questions into an instructional video at key points to check for understanding. Questions that prompt critical thinking like "Can you think of any exceptions to this rule?" or that probe for comprehension like "How do you determine momentum from measures of mass and velocity?" not only keep the lesson lively but promote deeper engagement with the material and allow you to assess learning, according to a 2018 study.

5. Frequent, Low-Stakes Quizzes are Easy to Do, and Highly Effective

Low- and no-stakes practice tests enhance retention of the material-and students who struggle the most benefit the most from weekly practice quizzes, according to a recent meta-analysis. While online quizzes don't provide a greater benefit than paper ones, they can be automatically graded, saving hours of work.

You can use popular tools like Kahoot and Quizlet to create online quizzes that are not only fun, but also help students re-process and retain the material better. If you want to boost engagement even further, you can create a Jeopardy! board to gamify your quizzes.

6. Fight The Isolation of Remote Learning by Connecting With Your Students

You're not just physically separated from your students. As classrooms move online, the psychological and emotional distance also increases, eroding the critical social context that is fertile soil for learning, according to a 2016 study. You'll need to make special efforts to create a sense of community in your virtual classroom.

"To offset the isolating effects of an online class, teachers can strive to communicate more regularly and more informally with students," writes Jason Dockter, a professor of English at Lincoln Land Community College in the study. The goal isn't just to address academic issues, but to demonstrate "that the teacher is personally interested and invested in each student."

John Thomas, an elementary school teacher, uses daily morning meetings, which can be done both synchronously and asynchronously, to check in with his students. Using Seesaw, he records a greeting that students can respond to and builds in "interactive, engaging activities designed to help our students learn more about themselves and their classmates"-such as sharing a favorite book or the family pet.

Use unstructured time to chat at the beginning of class.

Try Zoom's "waiting room" feature to welcome kids to class one by one.

Use breakout rooms to split students into small groups for show-and-tell, two truths and a lie, or other relationship-building exercises.

At the end of the day, ask students to reflect on their learning with discussion prompts or a closing activity like appreciation, apology, or aha!

Pose fun questions like "What's your favorite movie?" in your all-class video tool, or on digital whiteboards like Jamboard or Padlet, and have students share out.

Beyond morning meetings, you can adapt many face-to-face activities to work in virtual classrooms:

7. Take Care of Yourself

You're not alone: teacher well-being has experienced a "steep decline" in recent months, with 71% of teachers reporting lower morale levels compared to pre-pandemic levels. As the adage goes, "You can't serve from an empty cup." If we want our students to succeed, we need to ensure that our teachers are taken care of. Not only is teacher stress contagious, resulting in higher stress levels for students, but it also passes through as poorer academic performance for students as well.

"In order for any of us to provide that safe, stable, and nurturing environment for the children that we serve, we have to practice self-care so that we can be available," said Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, a pediatrician and California's first surgeon general, in a recent interview with Edutopia. "Please make sure to put your own oxygen mask on and practice real care for yourself so that you can be there for the next generation."

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7 High-Impact, Evidence-Based Tips for Online Teaching

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What do highly effective teachers do in online classrooms? We combed through dozens of studies to find the best research-backed ideas.

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In every classroom, there are students who always have their hand raised to participate, and those who are hesitant to engage. Whether they're introverted, tend to think awhile before they contribute, or are just having a bad day, it can be hard to bring kids into discussions who are reluctant to add their voices.

The challenges of getting students to participate have intensified during remote learning, we've heard from many teachers. Digital platforms can create added communication barriers by making it hard to know when to talk, for example, or how to read subtle but important elements of discourse like a person's body language and facial expressions. Additionally, online discussions are often hindered by variability in students' access to technology and by privacy concerns, and consequently many teachers have had to rely on students' submitting work over isolated channels like email, which can leave back-and-forth between peers (and between students and the teacher) by the wayside.

Getting kids to contribute in virtual classrooms takes some work, it turns out. "We keep calling this generation digital natives as if they are simply whizzes at everything computerized. They aren't," wrote Tim O'Brien on Facebook. "They need personal support, scaffolding, and reassurance that technology does not provide. It is simply a tool, not a teacher."

To find out how to improve student discussions and participation in online learning, we culled through hundreds of comments on social media and followed up with more than 20 educators to see how they tackled the challenge last spring. Teachers offered a range of smart strategies, both synchronous and asynchronous, to integrate the values and the voices of all kids-even the quietest or those with disrupted schedules-into their classes this fall.

Synchronous Strategies

For synchronous learning, some teachers said they translated traditional discussion strategies from the classroom to live video chats, while others found that digital tools helped boost classroom participation.

1. Spider web discussion: During remote learning this spring, students in Shai Klima's high school class led their own discussions over Google Meet. Before the live class, students answered questions independently, and then shared their responses at the start of the meeting as a jumping-off point for a broader class discussion.

While students conversed on video, Klima listened and drew lines on a sheet of paper tracking the flow of the conversation, resulting in a spider web. At the end of the discussion, Klima shared the drawing over video, and then asked students to reflect on the experience and what they learned about who talked, who listened, and who built on the ideas of others.

"It has been successful as a means to get kids to credit their peers with helping them come up with new ideas, which helps build rapport," said Klima, who let students struggling with bandwidth call in to the meetings.

2. Using chat to check for understanding: After giving lessons last spring, Paul France had his third-grade students use the Google Chat feature to ask and answer questions or type in emojis, like a thumbs-up or thumbs-down, to show whether they understood a concept. To create structure around the responses, he guided his students in creating norms around using the chat feature-they decided as a group to use only one emoji at a time, for example. France said the practice helped him check for student understanding and pushed students to engage more with the content.

Kindergarten teacher Ruth Calkins, meanwhile, used Zoom chat when holding live lessons with her kindergarten students. She said they enjoyed typing "T" or "F" for true and false questions while answering math problems in the chat box, and some even attempted to write sentences in response to her questions. Typing responses also provided a lot of keyboard practice for her young students.

3. Flip your classroom to stimulate deeper discussion: Forrest Hinton, a high school math teacher, says he found that a blend of asynchronous and synchronous instruction worked well to stimulate student discussion during remote learning.

First, he taught new content asynchronously through recorded videos and online activities. At the start of his live class, students briefly summarized the concepts they had learned together and then divided into breakout rooms to solve related problems in small groups. Flipping his classroom allowed Hinton to spend less class time in direct instruction-and listening to students at the start of class and in small groups helped him identify, and then address, where his students were struggling. "This has allowed me to clarify concepts in a more targeted way and better assist students," said Hinton.

4. Adapting think-pair-share to Zoom: Ryan Tahmaseb, director of library services, says he found that giving more project-based learning activities to his elementary and middle school students-and allowing them more autonomy over assignments-naturally encouraged richer discussions in virtual learning. "If we give students as much freedom as possible to experiment, research, and pursue interests within our content area, then they inevitably have a lot more to say," said Tahmaseb.

When it came to class discussions, Tahmaseb adapted think-pair-share to Zoom. Students were given a prompt, broken into groups, and then placed into breakout rooms to discuss and record their answers on a shared Google doc, which allowed students to share their thinking in writing or read aloud. Since Tahmaseb wasn't in each breakout room to listen to the conversations, the Google doc kept students accountable. Once they returned to the whole class, volunteers from each group shared their answers with everyone.

5. A new twist on show-and-tell: To get students comfortable with online participation, Brittany Collins, the teaching and learning coordinator at Write the World, a global online writing community for middle and high school students, converted the familiar show-and-tell activity into "think, write, share."

In one activity, Collins asked middle and high school students to find a photo, painting, or drawing that represented intergenerational connection and independently respond by writing to the following questions from the Making Thinking Visible Framework before discussing them over video as a class: What are we looking at? What makes you say that? What do you notice (see, feel, know)? What more can we uncover? What do you wonder? "It helps to break the ice in a virtual learning setting where unplanned participation can prove challenging for some students," said Collins.

Asynchronous Strategies

Although some teachers-and students-said that synchronous discussions were more engaging because they resembled a traditional classroom, many educators found that asynchronous discussions were more equitable because they opened up participation to students with low bandwidth, who had schedule limitations, or who were uncomfortable engaging with the full class.

6. Online forums create back-and-forth dialogue: Angelina Murphy, a high school English teacher, said she used Google Classroom's question feature to get her class to respond to readings and discussion prompts during remote learning this past spring. When each student commented, Murphy replied with clarifying questions to create a back-and-forth dialogue and also asked every student to respond to at least two of their peers' comments to create a broader base of discussion.

Fifth-grade teacher Raquel Linares said she used Nearpod Collaborate (Apple, Android), a virtual collaboration board, to get students to share images or write a response to show what they had learned about an article they read. To inspire connection and reflection among classmates, Linares also used Flipgrid (Apple, Android), so that students could hear their peers' voices even though they were remote.

7. Seeing and critiquing peer work through virtual gallery walks: Virtual "gallery walks" give students an opportunity to view their classmates' projects while learning from each other, according to Joe Marangell, a high school social studies teacher. After his students presented their own projects through five-minute screencasts, they were then required to give feedback to at least two other students on theirs.

Using Google Sheets, students provided feedback to their peers by answering the following prompts: What's something new I learned about this topic?; What's something that surprised me about this topic?; What's something I liked about this presentation? The online format gave every student the opportunity to see their peers' work and their assessment on theirs for deeper reflection, Marangell said.

8. Moving station brainstorming online: When carousel or station brainstorming activities are conducted in traditional classroom environments, small groups of students rotate around the room to different stations to answer prompts-and view and add to each groups' responses.

To translate this online, Marangell divided his students into groups online and created shared Google docs-or a series of Google slides-for the prompts/questions. Each group left their thoughts under the questions by the assigned date and then followed up by commenting on the other groups' responses the next day. "The strategy still allows them to maintain a sense of classroom community [in a virtual setting]," said Marangell.

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8 Strategies to Improve Participation in Your Virtual Classroom

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Educators share their best synchronous and asynchronous strategies to boost student participation during online learning.

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Students using their favorite apps to learn

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Students using their favorite apps to learn

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https://www.edutopia.org/article/getting-students-to-use-their-favorite-apps-to-learn-and-create

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Students routinely use technology to express themselves, tweeting out snippets of their thoughts and opinions, creating and sharing short videos, posting photos they've taken or music they've composed.

New research argues they should probably be using their favorite digital platforms to demonstrate learning and construct meaning in school, too.

It's a vision of computer literacy espoused more than 40 years ago by renowned MIT professor Seymour Papert in his seminal book, Mindstorms: Children, Computers, And Powerful Ideas. "In many schools today, the phrase 'computer-aided instruction' means making the computer teach the child," Papert presciently wrote. "In my vision, the child programs the computer and, in doing so, both acquires a sense of mastery over a piece of the most modern and powerful technology and establishes an intimate contact with some of the deepest ideas from science, from mathematics, and from the art of intellectual model building."

Using applications like Instagram, TikTok, and Google Slides to produce materials to teach concepts to peers, for instance, gets students to dig deeper and reinforces learning and memory encoding, according to a 2022 meta-analysis from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. To adequately explain a concept to someone else, the researchers found, students need to ensure they understand it, surfacing gaps in their knowledge that they need to fill. Using widely-available digital tool to make meaning "outperforms creating textual materials," write study authors Jesús Ribosa and David Duran, despite being "one of the least frequent uses of media in education." In an earlier 2021 study, students who created video presentations instead of traditional in-person presentations explored a wider range of narrative techniques as they edited their thinking, took more risks, and demonstrated more creativity.

In classrooms, tools like TikTok and Twitter are often perceived as one-way streets for students, an oracle for delivering information, entertainment, and answers to questions-and teachers aren't eager to invite more distraction from cell phones or iPads into classrooms.

But using technology situationally to demonstrate knowledge is meeting students where they live: It takes the tools they know and challenges them to experiment and explore, provides a built-in method to publish and disseminate their learning, and converts technology into a canvas on which they can solve problems, rather than simply using tech to find quick answers. In the process, students start to see themselves as producers-not just consumers-of knowledge.

Here are some ideas for infusing students' favorite apps into your lessons:

Social media platforms are riddled with misinformation, but students can be agents of positive change and join a broader community in conversation-creating content that educates others on topics they've learned in class, while providing a quick glimpse into what they know and still need to learn.

In 280 Characters or Less: Twitter's character limit could be an interesting challenge for students tasked with summarizing what they've learned, writes educational consultant Jay McTighe. Ask "What is the big idea that you have learned about _____?" and have kids share their responses in the application. Utilizing a class hashtag, such as #DrSmithScienceClass, for each class or assignment will help you retrieve responses quickly.

Teacher For a Day: TikTok allows users to create videos ranging from 15 seconds to 10 minutes in length, plenty of time to summarize key points from a lesson, highlight important takeaways from assigned reading, or teach a concept to others. Perusing the hashtag #finalproject brings up a trove of student explainer videos on topics ranging from the danger of logical fallacies to the importance of accuracy and precision.

"I'm having students do TikToks or create memes-something of their choosing-where they can express a theoretical concept or speak to a question and then they might write up a little two-page response to what they've done, explaining their process and thinking," says Shauna Pomerantz, an associate professor of child and youth studies at Brock University in Southern Ontario, Canada.

Tweet Like a Historian: In a social studies or history class, students could create a Twitter account for a historical figure and "tweet about major events in that person's life as they think their historic figure would have tweeted," suggests former educator Dr. Matthew Lynch.

Asking students who their figure might be following on social media, as well as topics that might be "trending" on their feed at the time will provide deeper insight into how much students genuinely understand their chosen figure. This could also work in a science classroom, using prominent inventors and scientists, or in an ELA classroom using characters from the assigned reading.

ENGAGE WITH THE CONTENT

With sufficient guidance, technology can take students beyond merely googling "Effects of World War I on Europe" to helping them interrogate deep questions, clearing a path toward creating and sharing original, informed answers.

Reimagine the Essay: Allowing the option to occasionally create video essays analyzing a specific concept, topic, theme, or person flexes a lot of the same muscles as a written essay-and some new ones too, says Tanner Higgin, editorial director for learning content at Common Sense Education. The process requires that students juxtapose "video footage, images, audio, and text to make an argument much like a writer would do in a traditional essay," Higgin writes.

Beyond Written Expression: Some students can easily verbalize their thoughts aloud while others are more comfortable expressing themselves in writing. Exit ticket responses to open-ended prompts or questions at the end of a lesson-for example, "Today was hard because..." or "What are three things you learned, two things you're still curious about, and one thing you don't understand?"-can easily be completed using Flip (formerly Flipgrid) or another video-creation application.

Asking student to record a short video or voice memo on their phones for a quick misconception checks or to examine the lesson's muddiest point -the place where things got confusing or complicated-can benefit those who feel uncomfortable asking for help in front of classmates, or who need more time to process their learning.

ENERGIZE ACADEMIC DEBATES

Public speaking often strikes fear into the hearts of students, explains Megan Cooke, a high school theater and English teacher. "Consider that students don't want to feel judged," she writes. "They don't want to appear dumb, weak, or afraid in front of their classmates."

But on social media platforms, it's second nature for kids as young as 12 years old to bravely share their thoughts and opinions on a variety of topics with the world.

Digital Debate: In their spare time, many students are engaging in TikTok debate live-streams with hundreds, sometimes thousands of viewers. Users choose a topic, generally one that is polarizing, state their personal view-from the safety of Covid vaccines to the morality of abortions, for instance-and then ask viewers to change the user's mind in a real-time debate, while non-participants share their opinions in the chat.

This format can be replicated across subject areas using Flip, TikTok, or even podcasts. In social studies, students could discuss whether textbooks accurately reflect history, suggests educational consultant Michelle Blanchet, while in math class, students might debate the reliability of statistics. Even in science, classmates could argue whether recycling alone is enough to reduce plastic pollution.

Setting up ground rules regarding civility, objectivity, and forbidding personal attacks is important to ensure kids are clear about expectations. Students can then debate using any number of tech tools, like producing Flip or TikTok videos, which opponents can watch and respond to, or debating live on TikTok. They could also sit down together and record a podcast of their debate to be shared later, or create informative Twitter threads detailing their argument, which peers can rebut and respond to on the platform.

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Getting Students to Use their Favorite Apps to Learn and Create

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Students routinely use technology to express themselves, tweeting out snippets of their thoughts and opinions, creating and sharing short videos, posting photos they've taken or music they've composed. New research argues they should probably be using their favorite digital platforms to demonstrate learning and construct meaning in school, too.

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https://dredf.org/special-education/special-education-resources/special-education-acronyms-and-glossary/

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Common Acronyms Used in California Special Education

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https://drive.google.com/file/d/1agMQIaAD8CcyVkzgWCDM7f_m8fw4Di0X/view

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1. Home

2. Our Impact

3. About Universal Design for Learning

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a framework to improve and optimize teaching and learning for all people based on scientific insights into how humans learn.

UDL at a Glance

Find out how the UDL framework guides the design of instructional goals, assessments, methods, and materials that can be customized and adjusted to meet individual needs.

UDL to Change the World

CAST created the Universal Design for Learning framework, and it remains one of our core levers of change to help make learning inclusive and transformative for everyone.

Universal Design for Learning Guidelines

The UDL Guidelines are a tool used in the implementation of Universal Design for Learning. These guidelines offer a set of concrete suggestions that can be applied to any discipline or domain to ensure that all learners can access and participate in meaningful, challenging learning opportunities.

Visit the UDL Guidelines

Engagement

For purposeful, motivated learners, stimulate interest and motivation for learning.

Explore Engagement

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For resourceful, knowledgeable learners, present information and content in different ways.

Explore Representation

Action & Expression

For strategic, goal-directed learners, differentiate the ways that students can express what they know.

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About Universal Design for Learning - CAST

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Home Our Impact About Universal Design for Learning Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a framework to improve and optimize teaching and learning for all people based on scientific insights into how humans learn. Find out how the UDL framework guides the design of instructional goals, assessments, methods, and materials that can be customized and adjusted to meet individual needs.

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CNN 10 is an on-demand digital news show ideal for explanation seekers on the go or in the classroom.

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The latest video news, investigative reports, interviews and original series from NowThis. NowThis is the #1 video news brand in social media today.

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A Cell Phone Policy that Actually WORKS! — Mud and Ink Teaching

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Every school and every teacher has a different philosophy with student cell phones, but with classroom management as a whole.  Whether you are on the FORBIDDEN end of the spectrum or on the “do what you want, it’s your grade” end, I just might have a solution that will help in your classroo

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To pee or not to pee - that is the question. Bathroom pass philosophy runs deep and divides. Should you monitor and micromanage that magical pass? Or should students self-regulate by the time they reach high school? The answer is the same as many of life's questions - it depends.

Perhaps because teachers don't get to use the bathroom whenever they want or need to they feel it's necessary to pass on that pain to their students. Or maybe teachers do not want students - oftentimes the struggling ones - to miss one minute of the lesson. Maybe, just maybe, they don't believe that all the students who ask really have to use the bathroom (gasp). Could it be that teachers, who often have very little control over so many parts of their job, hold onto the last bastion of their fiefdom, the ubiquitous bathroom pass?

I'm guessing all of the above.

Every teacher must decide what their bathroom policy will be at the beginning of the school year and indoctrinate their students. This may seem like an inconsequential aspect of teaching, what with all the big stuff we need to decide and mange. It is, however, an integral part of who you are as a teacher.

A Few Bathroom Pass Teacher Personalities

Wendy Whiner has a Bathroom Log that includes time in and time out. She carefully studies the comings and goings, calculates average time and conferences with students who are a standard deviation from the norm. "Why did you take 6 ½ minutes when the average student only needs the pass for 5 minutes? You're not respecting my classroom rules. What other rules don't you follow? This habit can affect your future and maybe ruin your life."

Military Mike almost never lets anyone out of the class. He is making a statement, making it clear who is in charge. So you have to go to the bathroom really, really badly? Life's tough, get a helmet. "When I was a student there were no bathrooms in school, only outhouses. And you had to walk 5 miles uphill each way to get to them. So grow a pair."

Soft Suzy is afraid to say no. She might offend someone, so it's better to always say yes. "What if June has a urinary tract issue? Maybe Jose really does have to go to the bathroom every day exactly when it's time to answer the hard question. And Michelle would NEVER take the pass just to do a few laps around the halls; she's so sweet!"

So what is your bathroom pass personality?

First and foremost you have to follow your school's policies - or at least appear to (shhh). Our school has a mandate that there is no bathroom pass the first and last ten minutes of class, each student pass sign out in a bathroom log (hence the photo in this article) and they must carry the teacher's official pass. For a 45 minute class that is basically half the class that the pass is not available. Why did they institute this rule? Why are you asking me - I just work here! Seriously, I'm sure there's a very good reason.

So follow your school rules. And if you do break them do it with the upmost of ignorance. "Oh, it wasn't ten minutes yet and I allowed Jaden to use the pass? I'm sooo sorry; it will never happen again!" (Note to my administration if you're reading this: I, personally have never, ever done this. And I'm not giving this advice to any teacher at our school!)

As a veteran teacher this is my philosophy:

1. In a very short time after the start of the school year I know my students.

2. The bathroom pass is not where I want to wage my battles.

3. There are students that I know are not using the bathroom - they're just taking a lap around the floor or peaking in other classrooms. I'm okay with that for several reasons. One, ADHD kids need to move, and if a quick lap lets them release and come back to do some work, great. Others are complete pain-in-the-a*# students who continually disrupt the class. I am happy to allow them and the rest of the class a break.

4. Teenage girls really do suffer 25% of the month. They often have sudden-onset of their menstrual cycle, or are just miserable and need to stretch.

5. Unless a student proves themselves to be someone who completely abuses the pass I let them go. Every time.

I have been a bit cavalier and flippant so far in this article about bathroom pass policies. Let's do a reality check. It really depends on where you teach. A teacher in a suburban school district vs. one in an inner-city urban school may have very different policies and for good reason.

Actually, I want to take that back. Kids everywhere have commonalities. Some students, for a plethora of reasons, need a brief break from the classroom. Give it to them. What's the harm? Students will really appreciate a liberal bathroom pass policy. Those who abuse the policy will know it and understand when you conference with them and explain that they have lost pass privileges in your class for a prescribed amount of time.

I believe that high school students should be given autonomy as much as possible. There's a reason "they" say that 30 is the new 21. Helicopter parents and micromanaging high schools are part of the problem. Self-regulation is a necessary transition into adulthood. These small steps to independence allows young adults to make decisions and to reflect on bad decisions when applicable.

I want to add that, although I'm a "softie" when it comes to the pass, students are held accountable for completing their classwork and cannot use their time out of the room as an excuse.

Tips for managing the pass

I HATE this scenario: the class is having a discussion and someone raises their hand. I call on them, hoping for an analytical, awesome comment, only to hear, "Can I go to the bathroom?"

So in the first week of class I train students to give a hand signal. The sign language symbol for bathroom is the forefinger and the middle finger crossed or making a fist and placing your thumb through your middle and forefingers. You can use whatever you like, but I think that's kind of cool. I simply give them the signal back if it's okay for them to take the pass and leave.

I find that teachers feel very strongly about their bathroom pass rules and procedures. In some ways it is a microcosm of who they are as teachers. It is also one of the last bastions of control for many teachers. I don't know about you, but I am micromanaged in most facets of my job and it gets worse every year. There are school wide bathroom rules, but in my class I still have some latitude to employ my judgement.

You should think about this topic concretely and philosophically. Wherever you fall on the spectrum please communicate clearly to your students so that they know where you are coming from and what is expected of them.

Classroom management is all about the details. You SHOULD sweat the little stuff; it matters. You pass policy is an integral part of the classroom environment. If you want to read about other classroom management techniques check out this post.
Enjoy - your job, your students & your life!

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What Should My Bathroom Pass Policy Be as a High School Teacher? | Teach 'n Thrive

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To pee or not to pee - that is the question. Bathroom pass philosophy runs deep and divides. Should you monitor and micromanage that magical pass? Or should students self-regulate by the time they reach high school? The answer is the same as many of life's questions - it depends.

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Back to School Resources for Online & In-class Teachers

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Back to School resources to get you back in the teaching groove. For online teachers and in-class instructors. Curriculum, resilience, self-care, and more.

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Maslow's hierarchy of Needs in Despicable Me - Lottie & Jade

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In advance of this activity, consider sending your students an anonymous poll asking them the true/false questions below. (Alternatively, make this an informal poll during class.)

I have been somewhere where a land acknowledgment was made, and I have a vague idea what they are for.

I have been lots of places where land acknowledgements were made, and I know a lot about them.

I have never been somewhere where a land acknowledgement was made and don't know anything about them.

I have heard about people doing land acknowledgments and am interested in understanding what they are.

DAY 1: What is a Land Acknowledgment Statement?

Invite each student in turn to think about and then share one thing they love about the natural environment in your area.

If you live in a city, think about the trees; the birds; bugs; the moss that lives between the cracks in the concrete; parks with grass, plants, flowers; the sky, clouds, or light.

Share with students the results of the survey: What do we know of land acknowledgments?

Work with students to arrive at a working definition of what a "land acknowledgement statement" is and its purpose is. (For example: It is a formal statement that pays tribute to the original inhabitants of the land you are on. The purpose is to show respect for Indigenous peoples and recognize their enduring relationship to the land.)

Ask students:

Who lived on the land we are on before European colonizers arrived?

If we DO know, what do we know about those people?

If we DON'T know, why don't we?

Video & Discussion

Invite students to watch this 4-minute video about land acknowledgements:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETOhNzBsiKA&feature=emb_rel_pause
After watching the video, ask students:

What struck you most about this video?

What feelings did it bring up for you?

What did you learn?

What other thoughts and reactions do you have about the video?

Reading & Discussion

Invite students to read (either silently to themselves or out loud as a class) this short backgrounder on Indigenous peoples and the movement to acknowledge those who lived on the land we now inhabit.

After students have read the backgrounder, ask them to share their thoughts and reflections about the reading. This might involve the whole class, or could take place in smaller breakout groups, with time to share out from each group when the whole class reconvenes.

Backgrounder on Indigenous Peoples & Land Acknowledgment
In the United States today, there are more than five hundred federally recognized Indigenous nations comprising nearly three million people. These people are the descendants of the fifteen million Native people who once inhabited this land.

Indigenous people of the Americas shaped life in the Western Hemisphere for millennia. When European colonists arrived in North America in the 1600s, this land was filled with diverse, long-established societies.

Over the next three centuries, European settlers and their governments pursued a program of genocide and land theft against Native peoples across the continent, and denied them the right to govern themselves.

Throughout this history, and continuing today, Indigenous peoples have fought for their survival and their cultures. Historian Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz describes the "culture of resistance" that has allowed Native peoples to survive and create a legacy: "Native people continue to fight to maintain the integrity and viability of Indigenous societies," she writes. "American Indian history is one of cultural persistence, creative adaptation, renewal, and resilience."

Most non-Indigenous Americans know very little, and are taught very little, about those who originally lived and thrived on the lands we now occupy - or about Native lives and cultures today. Researchers have found that:

The majority of Americans know little to nothing about Native Americans.

Many Americans are not clear how many Native peoples still exist.

Invisibility is one of the biggest barriers Native peoples face in advocating for tribal sovereignty, equity, and social justice.

Invisibility, erasure of history, stereotypes and false narratives underlie the stories being told right now about Native people in the 21st century.

Fortunately, surveys also find that most Americans want to change: They want to learn more about Native cultures; they support Native positions on most issues; and they support significant changes to K-12 curricula to ensure accurate Native history and culture is taught in schools.

Historian Jack Forbes, of Powhatan-Renapé and Lenape descent, maintained that "while living persons are not responsible for what their ancestors did, they are responsible for the society they live in, which is a product of that past."

Learning about and acknowledging the people on whose land we live is one way we can begin to take responsibility for our country's ongoing injustices against Native peoples. And it is a step that can be mind-opening and enriching for us.

In Australia, New Zealand, and Canada, school days and meetings - and even sports games - often begin with a land acknowledgment: a formal statement that pays tribute to the original inhabitants of the land. The purpose of these land acknowledgment statements is to show respect for Indigenous peoples and recognize their enduring relationship to the land. Practicing acknowledgment - at events, in our writings, and elsewhere, can also raise awareness about the suppressed histories of Native peoples.

"There have always been Indigenous peoples in the spaces we call home, and there always will be," Kanyon Sayers-Roods, a Mutsun Ohlone activist in Northern California, told Teen Vogue. "The acknowledgment process is about asking, What does it mean to live in a post-colonial world? What did it take for us to get here? And how can we be accountable to our part in history?"

Land acknowledgment statements can be short, simply citing the name or names of the tribes that inhabited the land, or they can include more extensive information. Morningside Center for Teaching Responsibility adopted this land acknowledgment statement for the work it does in New York City.

Questions for discussion:

What struck you most about the reading? What questions do you have about it?

Why do you think most Americans know so little about Indigenous peoples?

1. Do you know less than you would like to about the people on whose land you are living? If so, what would you like to know and why?

2. Why do you think you or we as a class have so little information about this?

3. What is the purpose of a land acknowledgment statement?

What impact do you think it might have if gatherings regularly began with an acknowledgment of the people whose land we are on?

Next, ask students to consider:

Do we want to create a land acknowledgement statement for our class?

If students do want to create a statement, ask them to research the following questions as homework:

What Indigenous peoples originally lived in our area?

What is known about these peoples at the time of colonization?

What happened once white settlers arrived? How did the Indigenous people here respond?

Where are these peoples today, and what can we find out about them? Can we find writings or videos about them and their lives?

Ask students to write at least one paragraph about the people on whose land they now live to share with class in our next session.

This Interactive Lands map may be helpful: https://Native-land.ca/
Also see this guide to land acknowledgments: https://Nativegov.org/a-guide-to-Indigenous-land-acknowledgment/

Invite students to read this quote from Mary Lyons of the Leech Lake Bank of Ojiwe:

"When we talk about land, land is part of who we are. It's a mixture of our blood, our past, our current, and our future. We carry our ancestors in us, and they're around us."

DAY TWO: Creating a Land Acknowledgment Statement

Gathering

Ask students to imagine what the land in your area might have looked like before European colonists arrived. What is the natural look of the land? What is the terrain like? What are the natural features of the land? Ask volunteers to share a few images that come to them.

Activity: Who Lived Here?

Invite students to share what they learned and what they have written. Together as a class, consider:

What did we learn about the people whose land we occupy?

Have we come up with similar information? Conflicting information? Were there multiple peoples who lived in this area, perhaps in different periods?

What strikes you most about what you or others have learned?

What additional questions do you have?

How can we find out more?

Ask students what points would be important to include in a land acknowledgment statement by the class. Record their responses. Remember that their land acknowledgment statement might be just a couple of sentences, or several paragraphs.

Work with students to arrive at a land acknowledgment statement from your class.

Once you have created the statement, brainstorm with students about what the class might do with it. Possibilities include:

Read either the full statement or a short version of it at each class gathering. (Students might take turns reading the statement.)

Publicize the statement throughout the school.

Plan a presentation or workshop for fellow students about what they have learned.

Work to get the statement read before school gatherings, whether in person on online.

Reach out to the media to let them know about what the class has learned and what they are trying to do about it.

Students might also consider doing further research on the peoples who once inhabited this land - both what their lives were like before the arrival of Europeans, and what their lives and contributions are today.

Closing

Ask students:

What is one thing you would like to say personally to someone whose ancestors used to live on this land?

What is one thing you would like to DO to address the injustice that has occurred?

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Creating a Class Land Acknowledgment Statement

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In advance of this activity, consider sending your students an anonymous poll asking them the true/false questions below. (Alternatively, make this an informal poll during class.) I have been somewhere where a land acknowledgment was made, and I have a vague idea what they are for.