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Diana Benner

Diana specializes in leadership development and all things Google. She has served as an instructional technologist, instructional designer, and online learning specialist, supporting districts all over Texas and in state government. Diana earned a Masters of Education in Educational Technology from Texas State University- San Marcos. She also holds two bachelor’s degrees, one in Spanish and the other in Political Science, from Texas State.

Learn strategies for keeping students engaged at the end of the year. The image shows students with hands raised in a classroom with a teacher at the front.
End of Year

Student Engagement Strategies for the End of the School Year

by Diana Benner
written by Diana Benner

As the school year draws to a close, maintaining student engagement can become increasingly difficult. With warmer weather, impending vacations, and the excitement of summer break, students may find it difficult to stay focused in the classroom. However, with intentional strategies and creative approaches, teachers can keep students engaged and motivated until the very last day. Here are some strategies to help you finish the school year strong:

Incorporate Hands-On Activities

Engage students by incorporating hands-on, interactive activities into your lessons. From scavenger hunts and digital breakouts to creating memory books, there are many fun activities students can do at the end of the school year. You could also have students write thank-you letters or cards to those people they are thankful for. In addition, you could incorporate project-based learning or STEM/STEAM activities.

Image of a thank you card.
Image by Diana Benner; Created by 24 Creative Canva Thank You Card Templates

Celebrate Achievements

Recognize and celebrate what students have accomplished during the school year. One way to do this is to create awards and host end-of-year classroom awards ceremonies. Recognize accomplishments such as achieving good grades, exhibiting positive character traits, or demonstrating leadership qualities. In addition, verbally praise students in front of their peers, highlighting their strengths and accomplishments. This will boost their confidence and leave them with good memories of the school year.

Incorporate Brain Breaks

Lots of research suggests that brain breaks improve academic performance, motivation, and attitude. At the end of the year, it’s necessary to break up long periods of instruction with movement breaks and brain-boosting activities. You can incorporate short physical exercises, stretching routines, or mindfulness activities to help students reenergize and refocus their attention. If you are looking to create a brain break, AI chatbots can help you quickly create one specific to your subject area.

Image of 6 children doing mindfulness activites.
Image by Diana Benner; Created by Emily Horn; Six Simple Mindfulness Activities for Your Classroom

Invite a Guest Speaker

Guest speakers can provide a change of pace, offering students a chance to interact with someone other than you. Guest speakers can show students how the concepts and skills they are learning in the classroom are applied in real-world settings, making the content more relevant and engaging for students. In addition, they can engage students through interactive activities, demonstrations, or hands-on experiences related to their expertise, creating memorable learning moments.

Go on a Virtual Field Trip

There’s nothing more engaging than going on a virtual field trip. Virtual field trips can help students explore the world from home, and even engage in different types of learning with audio, visual, and video media. There are many world-class virtual field trips. Students could even explore the great state of Texas or the state in which they live. In addition, there are many field trips that offer a virtual reality experience.

Image of a Google Doc that contains links to Texas Virtual Field Trips.
Image by Diana Benner of Texas Virtual Field Trips Google Document

Maintain Consistent Routines and Expectations

Keep the basic classroom routine consistent, as students will behave better if they know classroom expectations are still in place. Review classroom procedures if necessary and be consistent with follow-through to maintain a positive learning environment.

Reflect with Your Students

Take time to reflect on the successes and challenges of the school year with your students. Encourage them to share their thoughts, feedback, and suggestions for improvement. Use this feedback to inform your teaching practices and plan for the year ahead.

As the school year winds down, it’s important to keep students engaged and motivated to finish strong. By implementing these strategies and fostering a positive and supportive learning environment, you can help students stay focused, inspired, and eager to learn until the very end. Remember, every moment counts, and the impact you make on your students’ lives extends far beyond the classroom. So, let’s finish the school year with enthusiasm, positivity, and a sense of accomplishment!

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Wisdolia, Otter.ai, Magicschool, and Goblin Tools can make learning more accessible with AI.
AccessibilityArtificial Intelligence

Four AI Tools Make Learning More Accessible

by Diana Benner
written by Diana Benner

AI tools have the potential to make learning more accessible for diverse learners. Making learning more accessible involves creating an environment where all students, regardless of their abilities or learning styles, can effectively engage with the content and succeed in their learning endeavors. Below are some strategies and AI tools for making learning more accessible.

1. Break Down Tasks with Goblin Tools

Breaking down tasks into smaller, more manageable steps can help students better understand and complete assignments. Some students might find tasks assigned to them overwhelming or difficult, so breaking them down into chunks will greatly benefit them. Teachers must provide clear instruction, scaffolded support, and opportunities for practice at each stage of the task. This will help promote comprehension.

The Magic ToDo portion of Goblin Tools helps to break down tasks. Students or teachers can put in any task they need broken down and this tool will output steps to complete the task. You’ll see it in the form of a checklist. You can change the level of “spiciness” that you need by clicking on the red chili peppers. The “spiciness level” determines how much of a breakdown you need. Once you have your breakdown, you can estimate how long the whole task or individual steps will take. Not only can you edit the steps and add subtasks but you can break the tasks down even further if you need to.

Here is an example of directions: “Your task is to carefully study the diagram and identify at least three examples of each type of organism. Then, write a brief description of the role each organism plays in the ecosystem and how they interact with one another. See how Goblin Tools broke these directions down in the image below.

Image of Magic ToDo breaking down tasks into a checklist.
Author Screenshot of Magic ToDo breaking down tasks | Goblin Tools

2. Provide Reinforcement with Jungle (formerly Wisdolia)

Flashcards are a versatile tool for promoting active learning and reinforcing concepts. They are very effective for retrieval practice, which is essential for memory retention and long-term learning. By repeatedly reviewing and quizzing themselves with flashcards, students can strengthen their recall abilities and reinforce key concepts, leading to improved retention and understanding.

With Jungle (formerly Wisdolia), generating flashcards becomes easier and smarter. This AI tool works on PDFs, articles on the web, or even YouTube videos. After a link is entered or a document is uploaded, Jungle analyzes it. It then uses the content to generate smart flashcards. Learners can use these to better learn and understand various topics. When you answer the flash card, you will get instant feedback to help you understand what you got right and what you need to improve on.

On the free plan, users can generate up to 15 flashcards every month. You also get limited pages and minutes for videos (10 pages and 10 minutes). This tool is for ages 13 and up, and here are the privacy policies.

3. Transcribe Lessons with Otter.ai

Transcribing lessons can significantly contribute to creating an accessible learning environment by providing multiple benefits for students with diverse learning needs and preferences. Transcribing lessons ensures that students with hearing impairments have equal access to instructional content by providing written transcripts of spoken information. Written transcripts allow students to read at their own pace, review complex concepts, and clarify information, leading to improved understanding and retention. Transcribing lessons can also help English Language Learners (ELLs). ELLs may have difficulty understanding rapid speech or unfamiliar vocabulary, but written transcripts allow them to follow along, look up unfamiliar words, and reinforce their language skills through reading and comprehension.

Otter.ai is an AI-powered transcription and note-taking platform. It utilizes speech recognition technology to automatically transcribe audio recordings into written text in real time. Teachers can use Otter.ai to record lessons as they teach them. Otter.ai will create a transcript and summarize it. You can then edit or summarize the transcript before sharing it with students. Some features include highlighting what is being said, leaving reactions, and adding comments. This tool is for ages 13 and up, and here are their Privacy Policies.

4. Meet Diverse Needs with Magic School AI

Magic School AI provides a lot of features designed to accommodate various learning styles and tools to customize instruction and meet individual student needs. It offers a comprehensive suite of functionalities, including a text leveler, summarizer, text rewriter, accommodation suggestion generator, and more. Magic School AI even has a dedicated resource page specifically tailored for special education teachers.  

By implementing these strategies and using these AI tools, you can create a more inclusive and accessible learning environment where all students can thrive. Is there on you’re planning to try? Do you know a tool that should be added to the list? Let us know in the comments.

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There are many ways to use story dice to promote creativity, writing skills, and more in the classroom.
ELAREnglish Language ArtsWriting

Spark Creativity in the Classroom with Story Dice

by Diana Benner
written by Diana Benner

As educators, we constantly strive to foster creativity and imagination in our students. But how do we inspire them to think outside the box and craft compelling stories? Enter story dice – a fun and effective tool for sparking creativity in the classroom.

About Story Dice

Davidbirss.com featured 5 dice or 9 dice options for story dice.
Screenshot by Emily Horn | Davebirss.com | Story Dice, 5 Dice Version

Dave Birss created a digital story dice generator. The dice feature different images, with over 50 options for each dice. You have the option of choosing five dice or nine dice. This is a handy tool if you are looking for inspiration to create fun story ideas. The more it is used, the better the storytelling will become.

How to Use Story Dice

Roll the dice, and random images will appear. Your job is quite simple: turn the images into a story! It is recommended that you work with the order they appear on the screen, but if you’re finding it tough, you can mix them up.

According to Birss, you also don’t need to take the image literally. You can use the dice metaphorically or as representations of other concepts. For example, a slice of pizza could represent food in general, cutting a slice out of something, Italy, gooiness, or a chef. The job of the dice is not necessarily to provide you with literal objects to work with but concepts to nudge your thinking in fresh directions.

When writing your story, you can work from beginning to end as you try to incorporate each image. Or you may want to be more strategic and work out the ending first. Try different strategies to see what works best for you!

Two Sample Stories Using Story Dice

Below are two sample stories inspired by story dice written by TCEA Directors of Professional Development, Peggy Reimers and Miguel Guhlin.

Story by Peggy Reimers, Director of Professional Development, TCEA:
Image generated by Peggy Reimers from the Story Dice website. The image contains a picture of reading glasses, a newspaper, a ladder, a cactus, and a vacuum cleaner.
Image generated by Peggy Reimers from the Story Dice website.

Startled from a nap by a BIG BANG, I reached for my glasses. Looking around, I noticed my dog Boo was trying to climb the ladder to get to those pesky squirrels. He must have misstepped because he was out cold on the ground. Good thing he didn’t fall into the Saguaro cactus I just planted. Boo is okay! He shook it off and now is wagging his tail. His tumble will not make the daily news. Well, I guess I better get to my chore of the day: vacuuming.

Story by Miguel Guhlin, Director of Professional Development, TCEA:
Image generated by Miguel Guhlin from the Story Dice website. The image contains a picture of a newspaper, a chair, a plate with a fork and knife, pliers, and a mouse trap.
Image generated by Miguel Guhlin from the Story Dice website.

It was a humid Saturday morning in the summer of 1978 in Los Rios, Canal Zone. Seven-year-old Juan raced barefoot through the dew-soaked grass, chasing his energetic beagle Adgu around the yard. The rising sun painted the sky in vibrant oranges and pinks as flocks of parakeets chattered noisily in the sprawling mango tree that dominated the landscape. Bright green iguanas darted to and from, startled by the boy and dog’s antics.

Juan’s father stepped out onto the porch, a steaming mug of coffee in one hand and the Daily News newspaper in the other. “Juan! Breakfast is ready!” he called out. The boy reluctantly abandoned his pursuit and bounded inside, Adgu yapping at his heels.

In the kitchen, Juan plopped down on the squeaky swivel office chair his dad had rescued from the Canal Zone administrative offices. His mom set down a plate heaped with pancakes, a knife and fork nestled invitingly on either side. “Hurry up and eat, mi hijo. We need to go into town for groceries,” she said, ruffling his sleep-tousled hair.

As Juan shoveled forkfuls of syrup-drenched pancake into his mouth, his eye was drawn to his father’s toolbox sitting on the counter. The shiny needle-nose pliers peeked out, and Juan remembered his plan to fix his broken toy car. “Papi, can I borrow your pliers after breakfast?”

His father nodded absentmindedly, engrossed in an article about the ongoing Panama Canal treaty negotiations between President Carter and General Torrijos.

Juan wolfed down the rest of his pancakes, eager to get to work. As he brought his empty plate to the sink, he spotted a mousetrap tucked behind the breadbox. The family had been battling a clan of clever mice that kept raiding their pantry. Juan shuddered, hoping he wouldn’t encounter any of the furry bandits while retrieving his toy car from under his bed.

Grabbing the pliers, Juan dashed off to begin his repair project, Adgu close behind. It was shaping up to be another ordinary, extraordinary day in the life of a young Zonian amidst the political upheaval and natural wonders of the Panama Canal Zone.

12 Ideas for Using Story Dice in the Classroom

Teachers can use story dice in various ways to promote creativity, critical thinking, and communication skills among students. Here are some ideas for incorporating story dice into classroom activities.

Storytelling Sessions

Roll the story dice and have students use the dice images to create a cohesive, verbal story. This activity promotes narrative development, imagination, and oral communication skills.

Writing Prompts

Roll the story dice to generate writing prompts for creative writing exercises. Students can use images as inspiration to write short stories, poems, or journal entries.

Character Development

Use the story dice to inspire character development activities. Roll the dice and ask students to determine traits, backgrounds, and motivations for characters in their stories or role-playing scenarios.

Plot Development

Guide students in using the story dice to develop plots for their narratives. They can roll the dice multiple times to determine key plot points, conflicts, and resolutions.

Genre Exploration

Roll the story dice and challenge students to create stories within specific genres, such as fantasy, mystery, science fiction, or historical fiction. This encourages students to explore different literary styles and conventions.

Group Collaborations

Divide students into small groups. Have them roll the dice collectively and collaborate on building a story together. They could even do a chain story, where a student writes the first sentence with the first dice, and then the second student has to add a sentence incorporating the second dice, and so forth. This fosters teamwork, negotiation skills, and creative problem-solving.

Critical Thinking Challenges

Use the story dice to pose critical thinking challenges. For example, roll the dice and then ask students to identify the main conflict, climax, and resolution in a story based on the images they land on.

Vocabulary Expansion

Use story dice with younger students to introduce new vocabulary words. Roll the dice and then incorporate the words they land on into sentences or short stories.

Story Sequencing

Roll the story dice and ask students to sequence the images or words in the order they were rolled. This activity helps students practice sequencing skills and logical thinking.

Assessment Tool

Story dice can be used as an informal assessment tool to gauge students’ understanding of literary elements such as setting, characters, plot, and theme. Roll the dice and explain how they would incorporate the elements into a story.

Cross-Curricular Connections

Integrate story dice into cross-curricular activities by combining storytelling with other subjects, such as science, social studies, or art. Students can create stories that incorporate concepts from multiple subjects.

Interactive Presentations

Incorporate story dice into interactive presentations or classroom discussions to engage students and facilitate participation. Roll the dice to introduce topics or spark conversations related to the lesson.

By incorporating story dice into your classroom activities, you can ignite your students’ imagination, foster creativity, and promote storytelling skills in a fun and engaging way. So roll the dice, let the story unfold, and watch as your students embark on unforgettable storytelling journeys.

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Discover 23 strategies to check for understanding in the classroom. From kinesthetic to verbal, these strategies cover a range of learning styles.
Good Teaching

23 Ways to Check for Understanding

by Diana Benner
written by Diana Benner

As educators, we strive to ensure our students grasp the material we present. But how can we be sure our students are understanding the material? Checking for understanding throughout class is crucial for both teachers and students. It allows us to identify areas needing reinforcement, adapt our instruction in real time, and empower students to take ownership of their learning. Here are 23 strategies to gauge student understanding and keep your classroom buzzing with interactive learning.

Verbal Strategies

Open-Ended Questions

Instead of asking yes/no questions, ask questions that prompt students to explain concepts in their own words. For example, “Can you elaborate on the main idea?” or “How does this concept connect to what we learned yesterday?”

Think-Pair-Share

After doing a small bit of teaching, give your students a little time to think about a question related to the learning. This gives students time to formulate their thinking and process the information individually. Then, have each student turn to their neighbor and share their thoughts. Students should be encouraged to ask questions and give feedback to each other in the process. This not only fosters collaboration it also helps clarify understanding.

“Who doesn’t understand?”

When a student expresses confusion, ask if others feel the same. This normalizes asking for help and encourages open participation. It also shows students that it’s ok not to understand a concept.

Sentence Starters

Provide sentence starters like “In my own words, the key takeaway is…” or “I found it interesting that…” to guide student explanations.

Fishbowl Discussions

How to Face History and Ourselves has a Fishbowl Discussion procedure that works well for checking for understanding.
Screenshot by Emily Horn | Facing History and Ourselves | Fishbowl Discussion Procedure

Arrange a small group of students in a circle for a fishbowl discussion while the rest observe. This will allow for a more focused assessment of participation and comprehension.

Peer Explanations

After explaining a concept, pair students up and have them explain the concept to each other. This reinforces understanding and identifies areas needing individual attention.

Interactive Strategies

Exit Tickets

Briefly ask students to summarize a key point, answer a question, or reflect on their learning at the end of class. This provides valuable insights into their comprehension.

Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down

Pose a true/false statement or ask a question. Then, have students use thumbs up/down to respond. Follow up with discussions for incorrect responses.

Give Me Five

Establish a scale (1 = not clear, 5 = crystal clear) and ask students to hold up their fingers to indicate their understanding level. This provides quick feedback and allows you to address common concerns.

One-Minute Essays

Give students a minute to write a quick lesson summary or answer a specific question. This assesses their ability to understand the information.

Gallery Walk

Have students create posters or short presentations on key concepts and post them around the class. Students then rotate and write down key takeaways gained from each other’s work.

Kinesthetic Strategies

Four Corners

Divide the room into sections representing different answers or options to a question. Have students go to the corner they agree with or are interested in. Students in each corner can then discuss their position or perspective. This will help reveal an understanding of the topic.

Human Bingo

Canva Bingo Templates are good tools to check for understanding on specific topics or concepts.
Screenshot by Emily Horn | Canva Bingo Templates

Create bingo cards with learning objectives, questions, or tasks written in the squares. Have students rotate around the room and find peers to complete the tasks on the bingo cards. Once a peer has completed a task on the card, they can mark it off. For example, tasks might include finding someone who can name four colors, list the planets in the solar system, etc. This activity not only promotes active listening but is also a great way to check for understanding. Check out this sample ESL Human Bingo lesson by Teach This. In addition, if you are looking for an editable template, Canva has a lot of Bingo Card templates.

Traffic Light Check

Place red, yellow, and green cards around the room. Red can stand for “I’m confused” or “I need more help.” Yellow can stand for “I somewhat understand” or “I’m kind of getting it.” Green can stand for “It’s clear” or “I understood it.” Students can signal their understanding by moving to different cards around the room or placing clothespins on the appropriate card as demonstrated by Emma Willis.

Move and Match

Write key terms or concepts on cards and scatter them around the room. Students move and find the definition or example that matches each term, promoting movement and collaboration.

Role-Play

Assign students scenarios or situations related to the lesson. Then, ask your students to act them out. This will allow them to demonstrate their understanding through application.

Creative Strategies

Muddiest Point

Ask students to write down the part of the lesson they found most confusing (the “muddiest point”). This helps identify areas needing clarification.

Concept Maps

Have students create visual representations of the relationships between concepts and ideas they learned. This will help promote critical thinking and organization.

Draw It

Talk Drawings can be a great way to check understanding in the classroom.
Screenshot by Emily Horn | Talk Drawings Template

Challenge students to draw a concept or process they learned. One way to do this is by incorporating Talking Drawings into your classroom. In addition, there are several online tools and applications that students can use, such as Google Canvas, AutoDraw, Google Drawings, or iPad apps.

Digital Strategies

Online Quizzes and Polls

Utilize online platforms to create quick quizzes or polls to assess comprehension and adjust instruction accordingly. There are many tools you can use, such as Poll Everywhere, Google Classroom, Quizizz, Quizlet, and more.

Word Clouds

Have students use online word clouds to collectively generate keywords or key ideas from the lesson. This will offer a visual representation of understanding. Mentimeter is a great tool for creating word clouds.

Digital Exit Tickets

Use online forms, such as Google Forms, for students to submit exit ticket responses. Getting the data back in a Google Sheet will make it easy to analyze the data.

Short Video Recordings

Allow students to record a short video recording. They can summarize key takeaways from the day’s lesson. Students can use Flip to record their videos.

Integrating various strategies to check for understanding will provide comprehensive knowledge of your students’ grasp of the material and keep the assessment process engaging and dynamic. Which strategies will you use? Have others to add to the list? Leave a comment to share with us!

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Explore tools for creating quizzes from YouTube videos in seconds. Save time, collect assessment data, and differentiate with ease!
Artificial IntelligenceAssessment

Create AI-Powered YouTube Quizzes in Seconds

by Diana Benner
written by Diana Benner

In today’s digital age, videos grab the interest and attention of our students. One way teachers can significantly enhance the learning experience is by incorporating educational YouTube videos into lessons. Including interactive quizzes in these videos adds an interactive element to lessons and promotes active learning to boost student engagement. But creating quizzes on YouTube doesn’t have to be time-consuming! What if you could create quiz questions automatically from these videos?

AI-Powered YouTube Quiz Generators

Below are some tools to create quizzes from YouTube videos effortlessly.

Quizizz AI

Quizizz offers an AI-powered feature that can transform any YouTube video with captions into an interactive quiz. Here’s how to do it:

  1. Log in to Quizizz. You’ll need to create an account if you don’t have one.
  2. Under the Create with Quizizz AI section, click the ‘Upload Link’ button in the ‘Create with YouTube’ box.
  3. Paste the YouTube URL, and select the grade, subject, and number of questions.
  4. You can enable the option to allow your students to watch the video while answering the questions if you want to.
  5. Click Generate Questions (with Video).
Quizziz offers a tool to teachers that will auto-generate quiz questions to go along with a YouTube video!
Screenshot by Diana Benner | Quizizz AI Published Quiz and YouTube Video

MagicSchool AI

MagicSchool AI offers the YouTube Video Question Generator. The tool aligns guiding questions with video content. Here’s how it works:

  1. Log in to MagicSchool AI. You’ll need to create an account if you don’t have one.
  2. Click on YouTube Video Questions.
  3. Enter grade level, number of questions, and question type.
  4. Then, paste the YouTube URL.
  5. Click Generate. The AI analyzes the video transcript and generates questions.
MagicSchoolAI offers a tool to teachers that will auto-generate quiz questions from a YouTube video!
Screenshot by Diana Benner | MagicSchool’s Magic Tools Page

QuestionWell

Question Well is another AI tool that generates questions based on YouTube videos. In addition, you can create an interactive video puzzle based on a YouTube video. Here’s how:

  1. Log in to QuestionWell. You’ll need to create an account if you don’t have one.
  2. Click on the YouTube tab.
  3. Select Choose under Question Set or Interactive Video, depending on which you want to create.
  4. Enter the URL to the YouTube video and click Search.
  5. Click Generate Question Set
QuestionWell is an AI tool that provides teachers the chance to generate questions from a YouTube video.
Screenshot by Diana Benner | QuestionWell’s Create Set Page

 Quiz Wizard

Quiz Wizard is another AI question generator platform. The process is straightforward for creating questions from a YouTube video. Here’s how:

  1. Log in to Quiz Wizard. You’ll need to create an account if you don’t have one.
  2. Under ‘From which source would you like to create to generate questions?,’ click on YouTube.
  3. Enter the URL of the YouTube video and click Continue.
  4. Select Multiple Choice Questions and enter the number of questions you want. Note that you can also create open-ended questions or flashcards.
  5. Click Generate Content.
Quiz Wizard is an AI tool that lets teachers create quiz questions from audio/video.
Screenshot by Diana Benner | Quiz Wizard’s Create Content Page

Three Ways to Use Video Quizzes

There are several ways to use video quizzes in the classroom. Let’s take a look at a few.

1. Introduce New Content

Video quizzes work well when you’re introducing new content in class. They can be used for any grade level or subject area. A video is a great way to introduce students to a new topic they’ll be studying and pique their interest from the start.

2. Gauge Student Understanding

Video quizzes can be used for formative assessment. They can provide you with detailed insight into what your students have already learned and what they still need more help with. If you are looking for more formative assessment strategies, here is some additional reading you may find useful.

3. Differentiate Instruction

If one or a few students need additional support during a lesson, assign a video that reviews a concept. Students can watch the video over and over while answering the questions if they need to. It allows them to revisit concepts and content at their own pace.

Creating YouTube quizzes with Quizziz, Magicschool, and Quiz Wizard’s AI tools enhances learning, saves time, and boosts engagement. These tools empower you to create interactive assessments effortlessly. So, go ahead! Turn those educational videos into engaging quizzes and elevate the learning experience!

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Basketball goal with an arena in the background and the title "March Madness in the Classroom".
Announcements/Important Dates

March Madness Activities for Your Classroom

by Diana Benner
written by Diana Benner

March Madness, the NCAA college basketball tournament, is an exciting time. While you might not be able to take your students to the Final Four, you can bring the excitement of the tournament into your classroom with some fun and educational activities. Even if your students aren’t die-hard basketball fans, you can still tap into the energy and excitement of March Madness by incorporating engaging classroom activities into your lessons. Let’s look at some ideas.

1. Have a Book Tournament

Instead of picking favorite teams to advance, why not set up a book bracket and have your students pick their favorite books? Ask your school librarian to run a list of the top 16 most commonly checked-out titles. Place the books into a bracket starting at the sweet 16 and ask kids to vote. As part of the voting, students are only allowed to participate in the vote if they’ve read the two books facing off. Make sure everyone has access to the books. For younger students, share each book as a read aloud. In addition to voting for the best books, students can also fill out their own brackets predicting the winners. Check out how you can set up your own tournament of books!

2. Design a Jersey

Allow students to get creative by designing their own jerseys. You can use this Google Drawing template, and students can create their jerseys digitally. Alternatively, you can print the template and let students draw their designs by hand. Then, students can cut them out to be displayed around your room during the month of March.  

3. Incorporate Fast Break Writing Prompts

Writing is just as important as reading. So, why not incorporate writing with some prompts inspired by March Madness. Some example prompts include:

  • If I were a famous basketball player…
  • If I won the championship…
  • Argue why your favorite upset team will win it all.
  • Craft a poem eulogizing the agony of a team’s defeat.
  • Write a letter consoling a star player after a tough loss.

4. Build a Basketball Catapult

Screenshot by Emily Horn: Choices for Children | March Madness STEM Activity

Allow students to use their creativity and problem-solving skills with a March Madness STEM activity. Gather random supplies, like paper, tape, index cards, popsicle sticks, cups, rubber bands, string, and more. Challenge students to build a catapult and a basketball goal that must be the correct size to allow a ping pong ball to pass through the hoop. Take a look at some step-by-step instructions. Ask your students to document the steps in the engineering design process as they build their catapult. You can find an example of this on pages 5-8 of this document.

5. Embrace Math Mania

One math activity could involve students applying concepts like probabilities, ratios, percentages, and graphing to predict tournament outcomes. They can keep updated tournament brackets. In addition, they can compete to see who can forecast winners most accurately based on statistical analysis. Another math activity could include designing brackets with math problems of varying difficulty levels. Students solve problems to advance to the next round, ending in a championship problem.

March Madness offers a unique opportunity to blend your lesson content with the excitement of sports. Have you incorporated March Madness classroom activities into your lessons? If so, we would love to hear your ideas in the comments below.

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Colorful people leap through the air with yellow and orange balloons.
Announcements/Important Dates

Five Classroom Activities to Celebrate Leap Day

by Diana Benner
written by Diana Benner

Leap Year comes just once every four years, making February 29 a particularly special date. While the added calendar day helps sync up our timekeeping with the actual astronomical year, it’s also a perfect opportunity for teachers to engage students in some learning activities.

About Leap Day

February is the shortest month. It usually has 28 days. But every four years, an extra day is added to the calendar. It takes 365¼ days for the Earth to orbit the sun. A typical year only has 365 days. It would throw off our seasons if we didn’t observe leap years.

The history of adding an extra day to February dates back to Julius Caesar. At that time, the calendar was based on the Roman Calendar and only had 355 days in a year. Over time, this caused the seasons to be out of sync. Julius Caesar decided to simplify things and added days to different months of the year to create the 365-day calendar, which included a leap year system.

Leap Day Activities

Here are some activities to celebrate the extra day in our calendar.

1. Create a Time Capsule

Creating a Leap Year time capsule with your students can be a fun and memorable project that captures their experiences, thoughts, and aspirations during this unique year. Time capsules are usually made by getting containers and allowing students to decorate them. Students would then add a mix of personal and academic items representing the year. Time capsules can also be done digitally. Have students create digital presentations, videos, or audio recordings about their favorite memories, achievements, and hopes for the future. They can also write letters to their future selves. Encourage them to reflect on their hopes, dreams, and predictions for the future. Students can use tools like Flip, Adobe Spark, or Google Slides for this. In addition, Canva has several Time Capsule templates that can be used.

2. Build a Frog Catapult

Frogs are typically the animal most associated with leap year. Why not do some activities that center around them? Building a frog catapult not only adds an element of fun but it also helps students learn STEM skills. To build the catapult, you will need:

  • popsicle sticks
  • rubber bands
  • spoons
  • a frog cut out

Step-by-step directions can be found at Live, Laugh, Love to Learn. Another variation can be done by using marshmallows and skewers instead.

3. Leap Year Math

Turn the Leap Year into a math bonanza! Create math puzzles and challenges that revolve around the number 29, the extra day in February. Students can solve problems, work on equations, and explore mathematical patterns associated with Leap Year. For example, challenge students to calculate the probability of being born on February 29 (Leap Day). Provide them with the current population and birth rates and guide them through the steps to determine the likelihood of someone having a Leap Day birthday. Discuss the results as a class. Here is a Leap Year math problem set from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology.

4. Have Leaping Contests

Add some active motion to the leap year festivities. Have several contests to see who can leap or jump the farthest. This is a great way to incorporate physical activity into your lesson plans while also celebrating Leap Day! Another idea is to document how far everyone jumps by recording it on a table. You can then have students make different graphs and charts to represent that data visually. Don’t forget to award prizes for the longest jumps or most creative leap moves. Here are some additional ideas for games and activities that involve hopping and jumping.

5. Leap into Writing

Get your students excited about having a “bonus” or extra day in the year. Ask them to write about what they will do with their extra day. Guide them toward making the most of their day by spreading kindness. Students can also write about what they think their lives will look like four years from now when there’s another leap year. If you’d like to push students’ creativity, consider giving them a prompt where they can do anything they want on Leap Day, discover they have a superpower only for the day, etc.

As the Leap Year brings an extra day to our calendars, let’s make the most of it in the classroom. These activities not only celebrate Leap Year’s uniqueness but also offer students valuable learning experiences.

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5 Ways to Make ChatGPT Your Time-Saving AI Assistant (1)
Artificial Intelligence

Five Ways to Make ChatGPT Your Time-Saving AI Assistant

by Diana Benner
written by Diana Benner

Teachers are some of the most hardworking people in the world. They juggle lesson planning, grading papers, responding to emails, and attending meetings, all while trying to provide a quality education for students. It’s no wonder that many teachers feel overwhelmed. But what if there was a way to save teachers time and make their lives a little bit easier? That’s where ChatGPT comes in. ChatGPT can be a teacher’s time-saving AI assistant.

What Is ChatGPT?

ChatGPT is a conversational AI system created by the company OpenAI. It’s designed to understand natural language prompts and provide helpful, detailed responses on demand for a wide range of topics. While it has some limitations in generating fully reliable output, ChatGPT can be an amazing productivity booster.

Let’s explore how ChatGPT can support teachers in various aspects of their work, ultimately enhancing their productivity and effectiveness in the classroom.

1. Lesson Planning and Resource Gathering

Preparing engaging and effective lesson plans requires significant time and effort. ChatGPT can assist teachers by suggesting relevant resources and providing lesson plan templates. In addition, it can generate creative classroom activities for your students. By leveraging its vast knowledge base, ChatGPT can quickly find and curate educational materials, saving teachers hours of research and preparation time. Give it a try by giving ChatGPT a content area and learning objective, and watch it generate a customized draft lesson plan that you can adapt. In addition, check out these ChatGPT lesson planning prompts.

The text for a prompt template to create a lesson plan with ChatGPT. The link to text is just below the image.
Get an Editable Copy

2. Assessment Creation

ChatGPT can be a valuable assistant for teachers when it comes to creating assessments. For example, ChatGPT can help generate a variety of questions for assessments, including multiple-choice, short answer, essay questions, and more. Teachers can provide prompts or topics, and ChatGPT will create questions. In addition, ChatGPT can assist in creating questions of varying difficulty levels. Teachers can specify the complexity they want, and ChatGPT can generate questions suitable for different skill levels within the same assessment.

3. Grading and Feedback Assistance

Screenshot by Emily Horn: Ditch That Textbook Blog | Here’s How I Used ChatGPT to Assess Student Writing

Providing timely and constructive feedback to students is crucial for their growth and learning. ChatGPT can help teachers streamline the grading process by automating certain aspects. ChatGPT can analyze student responses, highlight common errors, and provide initial feedback. For example, teachers can paste a student’s writing into ChatGPT and ask it to find grammatical errors. Check out these sample interactions with ChatGPT when grading writing. While it doesn’t replace the teacher’s expertise, it can help speed up the grading process. Additionally, it is a great tool for creating standards-based rubrics to assist teachers with grading assignments and students with understanding assignment expectations.

4. Personalized Student Support

Every student has unique learning needs, and addressing them individually can be challenging for teachers. ChatGPT can serve as a personalized assistant, offering additional support to students. For example, it can generate additional practice sets, challenge problems, quiz questions, and take-home assignments – all customized precisely to the level of your students. You can also use ChatGPT to differentiate content. For example, you can use it as a tool to differentiate text to support student reading or language levels.

Screenshot by Emily Horn | TCEA’s TechNotes | How to Differentiate Texts with ChatGPT

5. Parent Communication

Maintaining effective communication with parents is essential for fostering a supportive learning environment. ChatGPT can assist teachers by automating routine communication tasks. It can generate emails or messages to provide updates on student progress, share important information, or respond to frequently asked questions. This enables teachers to build stronger relationships with parents without sacrificing precious time.

As teachers face increasing demands and limited time, AI tools like ChatGPT can be a game-changer. By serving as an AI time-saving assistant, ChatGPT streamlines various aspects of a teacher’s work, from lesson planning and grading to personalized support.

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6 AI tools to use to transform the way you check for understanding through formative assessment.
Artificial IntelligenceAssessment

Revolutionize Formative Assessments with AI-Powered Tools

by Diana Benner
written by Diana Benner

Formative assessments play a vital role in understanding student progress and adapting teaching strategies for better learning outcomes. With the advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI), educators now have access to a wide array of tools that can transform the way they create and use formative assessments in the classroom. Let’s explore some AI-powered tools that help teachers develop effective formative assessments:

What Is Formative Assessment?

Formative assessment is an ongoing way for teachers to check student understanding of what’s being taught. It gives the teacher information about how students are doing while they are still learning new material. Formative assessments can help identify concepts students are struggling with so teachers can adjust instruction, review, and reteach if needed. Examples of formative assessment include questioning during class discussions, quick writing or drawing assignments to show what they learned, practice quizzes, exit tickets, and more.

Six Tools for Creating Formative Assessments

1. ChatGPT

You can always ask ChatGPT or your favorite AI chatbot to create a formative assessment. An example prompt you could use is, “Generate a list of [number] formative assessment ideas related to [insert topic] for my [grade level and subject] students.” Just replace each bracket with the information for each prompt. You can also ask ChatGPT to align your formative assessments with specific learning objectives. In addition, differentiate your formative assessments by asking ChatGPT to give you five assessment ideas using a variety of modalities like exit tickets, quizzes, graphic organizers, etc.  

2. Conker

Conker is an AI tool that permits teachers to generate formative assessments in the form of multiple choice, mixed, read & respond, or fill-in-the-blank questions.
Screenshot by Emily Horn | Conker Create Page

Conker lets you create fast quizzes and formative assessments that can be differentiated by question type, grade level, and more. It will also allow you to copy/paste reading material to generate quizzes. All you have to do is open Conker and provide details about the quiz you want to create. Conker will then create a short formative assessment you can assign to students with a code or export it to Google Forms. You can even create a printable question sheet and answer sheet. There is a limited free plan, and teacher registration is required.

3. Magic School AI

MagicSchool is an AI with many tools available to teachers. Explore everything from lesson plan generation to formative assessment creation.
Screenshot taken by Emily Horn | MagicSchool’s Magic Tools Page

Magic School AI offers several tools and features that can be valuable for creating and implementing formative assessments in your classroom. This tool allows you to quickly build multiple-choice quizzes tailored to specific topics or standards. You can customize difficulty levels, question types, and answer keys to assess students’ base knowledge and readiness for new learning. In addition, you can generate quick reflection prompts or questions to collect student understanding at the end of a lesson. Then, you can quickly analyze the responses to identify areas for further clarification or address common misconceptions before moving on. There are both free and paid versions of the program. Learn even more about Magic School AI here.

4. QuestionWell

QuestionWell is an AI that provides teachers the chance to input topic, choose question type, and generate questions from text, YourTube, URL, uploaded documents, or imported questions.
Screenshot by Emily Horn | QuestionWell’s Create Set Page

QuestionWell generates questions so teachers can focus on what matters. Start by identifying the topic, content, and grade level. If you have text you want your formative assessment based on, you can provide it, but it isn’t necessary. Then, the AI will write questions. In the free version of QuestionWell, you can create a multiple-choice quiz with 20 questions. Once the questions are generated, select which ones you want to include in the quiz. Then, you can export the questions to tools like Google Forms, Kahoot, Canvas, Microsoft Word, and more.

5. Quiz Wizard

Quiz Wizard is an AI tool that lets teachers create formative assessments from topics, documents, texts, links, or audio/video.
Screenshot by Emily Horn | Quiz Wizard’s Create Content Page

Quiz Wizard is an AI-powered tool that generates multiple-choice questions and flashcards that can be used for formative assessments within seconds. The process is straightforward and involves you entering the topic of your choice into the tool, and Quiz Wizard takes care of the rest by generating unique questions and answers. The content can be exported to other platforms, like Microsoft Word.

6. Quizizz AI

Quizziz AI offers searchable quizzes by topic and provides the opportunity to create your own formative assessments.
Screenshot by Emily Horn | Quizziz AI’s Create Page

Quizizz AI is an artificial intelligence-powered tool that can generate multiple-choice questions with four answer options. The tool can also automatically determine the appropriate number of questions to generate for a formative assessment from the content provided. You can create a quiz by uploading a document, entering text, or pasting a link to a webpage. Quizizz AI offers free and paid premium versions.

These AI-powered tools offer not only instant feedback but also insights into individual student needs, allowing you to tailor your instruction effectively. By leveraging these AI tools, you can create a dynamic and adaptive learning environment, fostering student engagement and growth.

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2023 Google Resource Roundup
Google Tips and Tricks

2023 Google Resource Roundup

by Diana Benner
written by Diana Benner

Every year, I gather all the fabulous Google resources from our TechNotes blog and put them all in one place for you. This year, we’ve had some amazing posts on everything from Google’s new AI tools to Google experiments. Check out this incredible list of Google articles from 2023 categorized by topic/tool.

Google Add-Ons

You Can Do That with Autocrat blog detailing the Autocrat add-on as a Google resource.

AI

Blog outlining three tools to use with Sheets to help write formulas.

Announcements

Calendar

Blog article outlining how to teach students to use Google Calendar.

Cybersecurity

Google Docs

12 Google Docs Features to Try blog article

Google Drive

Experiments

10 Google Experiments to Explore

Sheets

8 More Google Sheets Tips

Various Google Topics and Tools

Article outlining how to organize and clean up your Drive.

In addition, don’t forget to check out our Google resource roundups from previous years. Happy New Year, everyone!

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