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remote learning
Good TeachingOnline Tools and Apps

Putting a Spark in Remote Learning

by Candice Sheridan, Guest Author
written by Candice Sheridan, Guest Author

How do you get feedback from your students during remote learning? Whether collecting responses from an assignment or gauging student well being, it can be a struggle to “hear” when your students aren’t in front of you. But Adobe Spark can significantly help teachers receive feedback from students through a post, video, or page. 

I teach Graphic Design, and it’s been a challenge to find meaningful projects for my students to do remotely. I have used Adobe Spark Post and Adobe Spark Video at least once a week since shifting to online education. My students have been exceptionally creative and have reported they’re actually having fun and enjoying the projects. 

Making Remote Learning Effective

In this unprecedented time of online learning, it’s important for students to have access to equitable tools. Adobe Spark can fill that need. It’s not only a free, online program, it also comes in three, separate, free apps for iOS or Android devices. Adobe Spark can be used in any subject and at any grade level, elementary to secondary and beyond. Spark allows you to create a post (static or animated), a video (with collaboration capabilities), or a page (similar to a web page). 

If you’ve never used Adobe Spark, don’t be intimidated; the learning curve is shallow. Your students will adapt to this new program much like they do when they get a new cell phone. I’ve never heard of a student reading the directions to a new cell phone BEFORE they started using it. I’ve actually seen younger students have the easiest time using Adobe Spark for the first time.  

Adobe Spark offers ease-of-use, allowing students to spend more time having choice, using their own voice, and taking ownership with an authentic learning experience. Choice allows students to pick how they want to present the information to show evidence of learning. This can come in the form of a Spark Post or Spark Video. Spark allows students to select colors, fonts, icons, images, music, and design elements that can be unique to that student. Spark offers an authentic learning experience and helps make the learning meaningful. 

Using Adobe Spark

Using Adobe Spark during online learning promotes critical thinking and allows students to collaborate. Similar to a traditional classroom setting, students can work in teams or partners, just online instead. Student collaboration maximizes productivity and creativity by equally sharing the workload. 

The next time you create an assignment, try tossing in an Adobe Spark option. 

Classroom Examples

  • Sophomore English: Tasked with a reflective writing once they finish reading Romeo and Juliet, consider assigning an Adobe Spark Video where the students add images and voiceovers to create a reflective piece.
  • Kindergarten: Start with a “What do you want to be when you grow up?” writing prompt. Instead of writing it on a pre-printed form, have students use an iPad to create a video about their future career.
  • Third-grade science: Students create flash cards explaining the workings of the solar system, and they can create an Adobe Spark Video or Page using text and images, then share it with other students, past and future.
  • Career Investigation: Students create an advertisement for a new product. They could use an Adobe Spark Post or Page to create the ad using a desktop computer, Chromebook, iPad, or cell phone.
  • Eighth-grade history: Students need to show understanding of the Civil War. They could use Adobe Spark Video to show their understanding of the narrative of the conflict. 

Sparking Energy

Remote learning is causing all students and teachers to step outside their comfort zones. Adobe Spark can bring energy back into education. Traditional classroom lessons can get an added jolt of newness and excitement. When you feel like adding something different to your curriculum or when you want to give your students a break from the norm, adding an Adobe Spark project to your lesson will surely ignite a spark in student learning. 

Adobe Spark Resources

Previous TechNotes blogs about Adobe Spark:

Main photo by Jez Timms on Unsplash. All other images are original and created by Candice Sheridan.

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Good TeachingOnline Tools and Apps

Create Interactive Lessons with Deck•Toys

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

Teaching anything online can be a challenge. How to make static resources and texts become interactive, able to be manipulated, and provide hands-on learning is at the heart of the problem. We learn because we interact with life around us. We engage when we touch and partake of the movable feast. How do you do that when so much of what we must learn is static? That’s where tools like Deck•Toys come in.

Before we jump into  Deck•Toys, let’s take a moment to revisit the value of interactivity in learning.

Deck•Toys

Valuing Interactivity

How do we know that interactive learning has value? Consider John Hattie’s assessment of classroom practices:

“There is no fixed recipe for ensuring that teaching has the maximum possible effect on student learning, and no set of principles apply to all learning for all students. But there are practices that we know are effective and many practices that we know are not.”

Hattie concludes that if teachers are using practices that have a less than 0.40 effect, then it “may mean that teachers need to modify or dramatically change their theories of action.” (Source)

New technologies lack the wealth of a long history of research into their effectiveness. For that reason, we must ask what is the cost of innovation? Change that does not speed up student growth is a time waster. Time is one of our most precious resources as teachers and learners.

Deck•Toys

When we seek to value interactive learning lessons, we must ask the question:

Do interactive lessons add value to the learning experience? That is, do they accelerate student growth?

Without direct research on a technology that creates interactivity, we can’t say. What we can do is place strategies that work in new technologies. Think of it as putting jewels into a crown. The jewels are the proven strategies; the crown is the technology. By doing so, we get both innovative value and improved functionality.

For Deck•Toys, one strategy I see that would work well is spaced vs massed practice (effect size of 0.65). Here’s what Visible Learning Meta X database has to say about it:

Students are better able to commit information to memory. This happens when they study that information in spaced (or distributed) intervals. Studying “massed” interval(s) does not work as well as spaced.

You can see the effect of research on simple topics like multiplication and spelling:

To test the hypothesis that expanded practice is superior to massed practice in a classroom situation, a test series with expanded intervals to teach multiplication facts and spelling lists to 44 Grade 3 students, formed into massed and expanded groups based on their spelling and mathematical abilities, was conducted.

Results show that, for multiplication facts, retention in the expanded series condition was almost twice that in the massed series condition; for spelling lists, a significant difference in the same direction was also obtained. These differences were obtained regardless of the level of ability of the Ss.

It is suggested that an expanded test series not only engenders effective retention but also maintains a feeling of success throughout (Source).

Studying information over shorter sessions in a longer period of time yields benefits. How can we structure student learning with a variety of interactive, distributed learning? The answer might be Deck•Toys.

Introducing Deck•Toys

Deck•Toys, which has an active Facebook group, makes it easy to space out learning. What’s more, the availability of structuring tools allows you use existing content. Notice the learning path of this mathematics activity:

Deck•Toys

You can see a variety of activities that can cover the same content, making it more interactive. Students begin with the Lesson and then proceed down a learning path that presents activities such as:

  • Sort Me
  • Match
  • Choose Your Path
  • Lines
  • Word Search
  • Choices
  • Crossword
  • Maze

As an example, under the Sort Me activity, students encounter an activity that requires them to sort 2D and 3D shapes into appropriate boxes. They do this through click-and-drag.

Deck•Toys

After completing the activities, they end up at the Finish line and receive quick feedback on their results. If students drag a 3D shape into a 2D box, Deck•Toys moves it to the correct location. The results screen shows how many they got right or wrong.

Deck•Toys

Deck•Toys works with Google Classroom. Students can login with their Google account or as a guest. It supports tracking of student progress as well.

Deck•Toys

You can see student names in blue next to each activity.

Types of Activities

Wondering what types of activities Deck•Toys enjoys? It has two major sets. The first is Slide Apps. Use it to get real-time responses from students. You can even put your own worksheets into it.

The second type of activity is Study Set Apps.

Again, one of the key ideas is that Deck•Toys makes it easy to take existing information and make it interactive. Now,  Deck•Toys also includes classroom tools, such as the ones shown below. I’ve adapted explanations from the website with a few edits.

  • Report. The Report app is where you can view and grade all student responses in a single view.
  • Lock Features. This includes two types of locks. Activity Lock provides an obstacle or extra challenge for the student to complete. They must do this before moving on to the next activity. The second type of lock is Lock in Slide. The Lock app in Slide App gets student’s answer to more questions in different modes.
  • Treasure Key Lock. Treasure Key lock requires students to collect a Treasure Key with a matching Key ID to unlock the lock. Watch the video tutorial.
  • Team. This allows you to assign students to up to four different colored teams. The goal is to turn your classroom into a positive competitive environment.

Feeling overwhelmed by everything  Deck•Toys can do? Be sure to explore their Knowledge Base and Frequently Asked Questions.

Deck•Toys Examples

There are a lot of examples of how you can use Deck•Toys across different. What are some of the ways you imagine yourself designing interactive learning experiences with your students?

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Good Teaching

Summer: A Time for Teachers to Relax and Rejuvenate

by Diana Benner
written by Diana Benner

I cannot think of a time more than this summer in which teachers need to relax and rejuvenate. Teaching can be a stressful profession. In addition, the sudden shift to remote learning might have contributed to additional stress. Therefore, it is important that teachers take summer break to relax and rejuvenate. Here are some ideas for doing just that.

Relax with a good book.

Read a book just for fun. Many times, during the school year, we have so much required reading. Therefore, it is important to read something you are interested in during the summer. Reading can be a wonderful escape from the stress of everyday life. By opening a book, you allow yourself to be transported to a world different from your own. So, find an author or genre that you love and make sure you read something just for fun.

Catch up on your sleep.

Summer is a perfect time to get some extra sleep. If you are exhausted from this past school year, allow yourself to sleep late by not setting your alarm. Also, enjoy an afternoon nap when you can.

Reflect on the past school year.

Think about the many things that went well or that may need improvement from this past school year. Reflection is a wonderful way to celebrate successes and to make plans for the following year.

Take on a do-it-yourself project.

Look at your wish list. See if there is a home improvement project that you have been wanting to do. Try out that favorite recipe that you happened upon a few months ago. Take a stab at an arts and crafts projects. Pinterest has a ton of them. Do-it-yourself projects can always be rewarding.

Rejuvenate with professional development.

Stay active by attending professional development. Summer is the perfect time to improve your skills and professional development is always a worthy investment. You are sure to learn something you can implement next school year.

Take care of yourself.

Whatever you do this summer, do something you love and take advantage of the weeks you do have to relax. As teachers, you give to your students all year long. Summer is the time to take care of yourself.

Leave a comment below and let us know how you plan to rest and rejuvenate this summer.

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post-covid
Good Teaching

Teaching and Learning Post-COVID

by Lori Gracey
written by Lori Gracey

While none of us have a crystal ball that will show exactly what school will look like in the fall, it’s safe to assume that it will be different from what we’ve known in the past. Whether we are doing remote learning, blended learning, or modified face-to-face learning, there are some things that will have changed. And, to be honest, there are some things that should be changed.

What We Teach

We can all secretly admit, I hope, that our curriculum standards attempt to embrace all knowledge at the inch-deep level. In the past, we have taught everything to everyone, whether they will really need that information in the future or not. And in doing so, we have left out some of the most critical skills that all our students need. I think it’s those skills that came forward during the quarantine and, I hope, it’s those skills that we need to make sure we are strengthening in our future teaching.

I hope that all of us in the education field, whether it’s as a teacher or administrator, a librarian or a technician, an ed tech company or a non-profit association, can take this huge opportunity to have some frank discussions and even some deep reflection on the parts of teaching and learning that are effective and working, as well as on those pieces that don’t fit our modern world. And part of this thought process should embrace the things that the coronavirus taught us.

What the Virus Taught Us

Here’s my list of the skills that we need to emphasize moving forward:

  • Resilience
  • Empathy
  • Flexibility
  • Being a self starter
  • Creativity
  • Critical thinking
  • Ability to keep myself on task
  • Compassionate communication (in lots of very different ways)
  • Maintaining positive relationships, even over a distance
  • Being comfortable learning new ideas and technologies
  • Joy in creation (whether that is starting a garden, making bread, or learning to crochet)
  • Pride in my work

By the way, I am not saying we don’t teach the critical components of our curriculum. That is a given. But if the virus taught us anything, it has taught us that it is our humanity that matters the most, our need to bond with others, our desire to feel that what we are doing has meaning, and our constant hope that the future will be better.

What Does Teaching Look Like for These Skills?

If the above list works for you, then let’s consider what teaching looks like when those skills are emphasized. (And if that list of skills doesn’t work for you, please share what skills you think we should emphasize moving forward. I would really love for this to be a dialogue.)

Whether we are teaching and learning at home, measuring off six-foot “bubbles” for kids to work in, teaching to fewer students at a time, or back in classrooms as we used to be, the important thing is what we learned about ourselves and our students during the virus and how that applies to future learning.

So, what did we learn? Did we discover that:

  • We learn better together?
  • We learn best by working independently?
  • We learn sometimes with technology?
  • We learn sometimes with active learning that involves touching and doing?
  • We need each other and what we can all contribute to the learning?
  • We all have individual strengths and knowledge and skills that should be recognized and shared?

What should our instructional strategies look like moving forward? How can we embrace everything that we learned during this terrible time and use it to truly create a better, brighter future for all of us? What will we do differently? What was so valuable that it should remain the same?

I realize that this is a lot of questions for a blog. But I think that’s where our opportunity lies right now, in asking the right questions and in frank discussions and even heated arguments about what we do. What do you think?

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civic education
Good Teaching

Understanding This Moment through Civic Education

by Andrew Roush
written by Andrew Roush

Educators of every kind work to equip their students with the knowledge and thinking skills they need to be happy, healthy, and to make positive contributions to the world. When we see the world changing around us, our students do, too. 

In times of social change, the role of the educator to provide context to events, build critical thinking skills, and even help students to process difficult thoughts or emotions, is especially vital. In the United States today, attention is being turned to questions of diversity, tolerance and bigotry, and freedom and equality, as ongoing protests have taken to the streets of cities in every state of the American union. Even more specific questions about American federalism, constitutional rights and duties, and economic conditions are being raised.

Teaching in Context

In the United States today, there is a nationwide movement for equity and justice for African Americans, particularly as regards incidents of police violence. This movement involves understanding many aspects of American culture, history, government, economics, and more, and has caught the attention of the world.

With a combination of a global health event, rapidly changing economic circumstances, and consequential follow-on results to work and life, many have begun considering whether we are living through a notable historic event, with echoes of the tumultuous summer of 1968. Not only do historic events touch on many lives and many academic subjects, but they also affect education itself, just as they did during the 20th century Civil Rights movement. 

For social studies teachers in particular, the history of civil rights in the U.S. is a vital place to start, a movement which itself traces back through American history. But that movement also connects directly to English/Language Arts, the fine arts and humanities, and more. 

Editor’s Note

TCEA believes in recognizing the historical and contemporary issues in our society. Educators must help their students process and understand current events that might directly effects those students and their communities. The purpose of education is to prepare people to understand and ultimately improve a shared world.

We must recognize inequities and prejudices, including our own, while also not shrinking from discussing those challenges. Only by standing with the oppressed and underrepresented, and doing our best to understand and improve, can we make the world we live in a better place for everyone.

The Centrality of Civic Education

While many American students are required to take civics courses that focus on political science in high school, civic education is a broadly defined term, and a kind of teaching nearly all educators can engage in.

In 1998, the nonprofit Center for Civic Education noted that not only is participation in civic society vital, but that such participation should be grounded in critical thinking, stating that “participation in a democratic society must be based on informed, critical reflection, and on the understanding and acceptance of the rights and responsibilities that go with that membership.”

Further, they define good civics education as recognizing one’s own opinions and beliefs in relation to others. This is particularly important, they note, in a society built on the premise of democratic governance.

“Sharing is essential in a democratic society — the sharing of power, of resources, and of responsibilities. In a democratic society the possibility of effecting social change is ever present, if citizens have the knowledge, the skills and the will to bring it about. That knowledge, those skills and the will or necessary traits of private and public character are the products of a good civic education.”

“The Role of Civic Education,” Margaret Stimmann Branson, 1998.

Civic education, however, is not confined to history and civics classes, just as civic participation is not limited to the voting booth. Scholars and educators have offered other ways to teach the foundations of American government and civic participation through concepts like service learning, simulation activities like mock trial or Model UN, and more. 

Understanding This Moment

Teachers understandably want to teach to this moment. Subject areas like social studies and civics are obvious places to lead discussions and activities centered on current events, though teachers of all kinds can use their classrooms to help students understand this moment.

With this in mind, we’ve collected and curated a number of sources on civic education, the history of race relations and civil rights in America, and even resources for building social-emotional learning in students. 

This is by no means a complete list, but rather a starting place. Help us keep the conversation going. Check out the resources below and add your own ideas and experiences in the comments. 

General Resources

Bearing Witness: The Death of George Floyd
Check out these resources for understanding America’s racial history and leading discussions with diverse learners in this post from Facing History Facing Ourselves, a group dedicated to using history to teach anti-bigotry.

Teaching Ideas and Resources to Help Students Make Sense of the George Floyd Protests
The New York Times has partnered with news and educational organizations to put the demonstrations into a larger context.

158 Resources to Understand Racism in America
This essay on race relations from Smithsonian includes a massive trove of links to multimedia resources.

Lesson Plans for Civic Education

For those looking for a blueprint to work from, some lesson plans are already available.

Teaching Tolerance
These lesson plans are divided up by grade level for K-12. Be sure to look at the What Can We Learn from a Box of Crayons activity for younger students.

Death of George Floyd Sets off Massive Protests
This lesson plan from the PBS Newshour includes a video, discussion guide, and extension activities covering the immediate circumstances of the protests, as well as their historical background.

Civil Rights or Human Rights?
Created by the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University, this lesson plan puts civil and political rights within the broader spectrum of cultural, social, and economic freedoms known as human rights. 

Civil Rights Teaching
This site, a project of Teaching for Change, includes “lessons, timelines, readings, quizzes and more” with a focus on community and grassroots action.

Student and Teacher Responses

It is important to recognize that events in the news do not exist in isolation. Communities across the U.S. are being affected by these events, including educators, schools, parents, students, and their communities at large. Here’s how schools, teachers, and students are reacting to the moment, as well as thoughts from parents and experts.

‘Moments like now are why we teach’: Educators tackle tough conversations about race and violence — this time virtually
Chalkbeat explores teachers’ reactions to teaching the news, all while teaching remotely. 

As a black high school teacher — and a mother of sons — this is my urgent message
This personal essay, also in Chalkbeat, shares the experience of African American educator and mother Nikia D. Garland. “One of our neighbors, a white male police officer, is friendly and kind,” she writes. “But my sons cannot count on such treatment in America.”

Oakland students organize protest of George Floyd death, pleading to be heard
In California’s Bay area, EdSource profiles students involved in protests and activism, as well as schools’ reactions to their involvement.

As Protests Erupt after George Floyd’s Death, Teachers Grieve with Students from a Distance
Education Week Teacher digs into how educators are trying to support their students right now. “It’s hard because as a teacher, you’re not a therapist, you’re not a social worker, you’re not a doctor or a nurse—but those are all roles we take on when you become a teacher,” says one teacher.

How to talk to kids about race, privilege amid George Floyd protests
In this piece from Good Morning America, both experts and everyday people give their thoughts on discussing the concepts of race and its effects on society with children.

The Importance of Teaching Tolerance: 9 Ways to Create an Inclusive Classroom For educators considering equity and diversity in their own classroom, check out #2: “Give your classroom a diversity audit.”

Teaching Civil Rights

Today’s protests exist in the context of American history, especially the history of African Americans, the history of racism in America, and the 20th century Civil Rights movement, a movement which also changed the course of education in America. Here are some resources to help contextualize contemporary events with the nation’s past.

Exploring Civil Rights History with Digital Resources
This post from TCEA’s TechNotes blog shares online resources for understanding the Civil Rights movement and the Civil Rights Act. 

A Better Way to Teach the Civil Rights Movement
Edutopia outlines reasons and ways to refresh Civil Rights education, with an emphasis on grassroots activists, churches, schools, and women.

Civil Rights Done Right
This document, from Tolerance.org, guides teachers through understanding the Civil Rights movement and equips them with essential practices.

Digital Resources for MLK Day
Originally compiled for the holiday, this TechNotes post includes videos, activities, and more to help students understand the Civil Rights hero, his message, and its meaning today.

StoryMap JS: Creating Immersive Social Studies Education
StoryMap is a powerful tool that allows teachers and learners to work on multimedia maps to document current or past events. Check out how it works in this TechNotes post.

Experiencing Early American History with Interactive Resources
The history of race in America reaches to its very foundations as a nation-state. Find online resources to explore the country’s colonial history in this TechNotes post.

A Time for Justice: The American Civil Rights Movement
This teachers’ guide (PDF) from Teaching Tolerance includes standards, resources, and lessons for teaching a civil rights unit.

Creating Social-Emotional Learning

The realities of violence, inequality, and unrest are complex topics for anyone to understand completely. When students are affected by these realities, encouraging positive social-emotional learning (SEL) is a vital part of helping students process both ideas and feelings. 

How Teachers Are Talking with Students about George Floyd, Protests, and Racism
We Are Teachers shares ideas directly from educators about supporting students right now.

Five Powerful Activities to Teach Tolerance These include analyzing the music of Peter, Paul, and Mary to sharing how unkind words can hurt us.

Helping Students with Social-Emotional Challenges
Mario De La Rosa and Lyn Torres write in TechNotes: “Knowing that students who are in crisis aren’t always going to share their fears and worries with an adult, we needed a student safety platform that would put our administrators, counselors, and teachers in closer touch with students.” Here’s how they did it.

Empowering Students Through Digital Citizenship and Social-Emotional Learning
Also in TechNotes, this post helps define SEL and put it into the context of civic education.

Photo by Stephen Nichols via Flickr

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online discussions
Educational TrendsGood Teaching

Making Online Discussions Meaningful

by Elaine Plybon, Guest Author
written by Elaine Plybon, Guest Author

As the education world continues to plan for digital learning options, online discussions may be one of the most important elements for maintaining a meaningful classroom environment through dialogue. Yet it is most often overlooked.

This is because, as generations of teachers who have taken online classes where the standard for discussions includes a “post your response and then reply to two of your peers” protocol, ineffective discussion practices continue to be perpetuated. The result is a group of students who believe that discussions are intended as “make-work” and a group of teachers who think discussions are not a valuable part of their online classroom.

Thinking Differently

This does not have to be the case. Studies have shown that online discussions can be extremely valuable as an instructional tool, but more importantly, as a way to even the playing field for English language learners, students with verbal processing disorders, and students who traditionally do not participate in a traditional classroom discussion due to anxiety or reluctance to speak in front of a group.

It can be difficult for an educator to make the transition from traditional classroom discussions to online class discussions. Fortunately, several online discussion protocols have been developed that can encourage quality online discussions. 

The Crux of the Matter

To keep discussion protocols from becoming mundane or irrelevant, it is important for an instructor to use a protocol that fits the objective for the discussion. For example, if an English teacher has asked her students to do a first read of a text, the teacher might use the Crux of the Matter protocol.

This protocol uses four threads where students post significant sentences, phrases, words, and insights from the reading including why they think it is significant. Student posts must be unique, so it encourages early reading and posting. During a second read of the same text, a teacher might use the Final Word Protocol, having students post a single phrase they believe is the most significant in the text without saying why.

All students discuss why the original poster may have believed that phrase was significant, whether they agree or disagree, and why. After a designated amount of time has passed to give all students an opportunity to respond, the original poster posts a reply to their own thread revealing why they originally thought the phrase was significant and how their thinking has changed or remained the same as a result of reading the posts from their peers. In this post, the student would be required to use evidence from their peers’ feedback.

When using more than one protocol in this way, students can see the logical transition of learning. They can view their original discussion as the beginning of their learning journey, then watch their own understanding progress to mastery.

Teachers may develop summative reflections which are driven by the student learning in the discussions of the course to determine whether students have achieved mastery of the desired objectives. In this manner, discussions become an integral part of the learning process, as well as having the possibility of being used for assessment.

The What If Protocol

In the interests of both valuable discussion and differentiation, another valuable protocol is the What If protocol. This harkens back to a time when our students were assigned to be the line leader in kindergarten.

For each discussion in an online class, one student is assigned to be the What If. This student is exempt from all the other requirements of that discussion. Their job is to read every post and add a “what if” or “yes, but” question or statement to each one. The original poster is required to respond to this prompt. Even though the What If student has been exempted from the requirements of the discussion prompt, they will get the benefit of learning as they read and think about each prompt. This can be especially empowering to students for whom the original discussion prompt may have been overwhelming, or who need fewer instructions to be successful.

Discussion protocols can be adapted from tried and true, familiar classroom protocols. When this happens, the benefits of longstanding best practices can be realized in the online classroom. As educators adjust to the increasing demand for digital learning, the first step toward being effective is to understand how many practices can be translated from the traditional classroom into the digital classroom. Discussion protocols are easy to plan, but reap great benefits when used effectively.

Getting Adjusted

It may take students some time to adjust to the new protocols. Being consistent and holding students to the standards required in the protocol is important. For example, if the Timely Discussion protocol is used and a student claims to be finished with it in one day, they obviously have not complied with the expectations of the protocol, which requires students to wait a period of time between posts so that their thinking can deepen their understanding of the content before they post their responses.

Next time you see “post your response, then thoughtfully respond to two of your peers,” think about a protocol that will work best for your objective and change the prompt. As you work with discussion protocols, you will find your own mastery of meaningful online discussions increasing as you think of new protocols on your own!

Do you use a valuable discussion protocol in your online class? Share it with us!

Resources

Discussion Protocols mentioned in this article:

Crux of the Matter

This protocol is a great way to introduce a new concept and activate prior knowledge. Because students are asked to choose unique concepts, larger classes may need to be divided into smaller groups and given their own group discussion board. If this is done, the Insights discussion thread should be a whole-group thread.

  1. Instructor sets up four new threads: Sentences, Phrases, Words, and Insights.
  2. Each student posts a sentence from the reading that they feel is significant. Each post has to be unique, so students are encouraged to post early.
  3. Each student posts a phrase that they feel is significant. Again, these should be unique.
  4. Each student posts the word they feel is significant. As with the other posts, these should be unique.
  5. The students all go to the Insights thread and post what they understand about the reading based on what everyone else in their group posted.

Final Word

With this protocol, students are able to explore their own thinking. It also helps students to feel more connected to the conversation. It shifts ownership of the discussion to the students involved, rather than the instructor. It encourages critical thinking skills as students develop the ability to consider feedback and develop strong, evidence-based arguments.

  1. Each student identifies what they think is a significant idea from a reading without saying why they think it is significant.
  2. Each student starts a new thread by posting the quote or excerpt from the text that represents the point.
  3. Other students in the class reply to the thread with their thoughts on the quote and why they might find it significant or not.
  4. The original student then posts a comment to reveal their initial thoughts on why the quote was significant and how their thoughts have been validated or changed because of the comments of their peers. The original student is not allowed to add their thoughts until after the commenting period has ended.

What If

This protocol should weave through the body of discussions throughout a course. In this protocol, a teacher assigns a specific student to be the “what-if” for a particular discussion. That student is exempt from the rest of the assigned protocol for that discussion and is solely tasked with commenting frequently with thought-provoking “what if” statements or “yes, but” statements.

Timely Discussion

Use of this protocol is best when approaching a topic that students may have initial thoughts about then develop different or deeper ideas after time/learning. It is similar to the Final Word Protocol, with a stronger emphasis on evidence and reasoning. This protocol strengthens student understanding of how to state a position and use evidence to support and defend it, as well as introducing the idea of changing one’s mind because of evidence provided by others. In some cases, this could result in new assignments or discussions about the quality and reliability of evidence.

  1. The instructor prepares a prompt for students to think about. 
  2. Students create a thread with their initial thoughts, including their reasoning and evidence to support their reasoning. In a science class, this may be an opportunity for students to make predictions.
  3. Students do not respond to any peers for a period of time (usually two-three days). It is important that the instructor have a deadline for everyone to post their initial post.
  4. After the initial posts are due, students return to the discussion and read ALL the posts of their peers.
  5. Students post a response to the peers they disagree with, including evidence and reasoning. (If the class size is large, determine a number of students they will need to post to. This may get tricky because what if there are not that many who they disagree with?) Again, the teacher needs to establish a deadline to get this step done.
  6. After the responses are due, students return to the discussion and read the posts that disagree with their position.
  7. Students post a new comment on their own, original post, that restates their position or introduces their new position, citing evidence from the comments they read on theirs (and other’s posts). Use of informal citation, such as “As George stated on Lucy’s post, “quote quote quote,” is encouraged.

For a curated list which includes these and others, download the Discussion Protocols document.

Photo by Volodymyr Hryshchenko on Unsplash

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Bitmoji
Educational TrendsGood Teaching

The Latest Educational Tool: Bitmoji Classrooms

by Lori Gracey
written by Lori Gracey

I was wandering around Facebook recently and was surprised to discover the interest that educators were expressing in creating virtual, Bitmoji classrooms (and office and libraries and so much more). I had not heard of this resource before, but was interested to see what it was all about. So I joined the Bitmoji Craze for Educators Facebook Group. Wow!!!!!

What’s a Bitmoji?

Bitmoji

Bitmoji of @GwynethJones, the Daring Librarian

A Bitmoji is a personalized cartoon avatar that can appear in your Facebook, Snapchat, Slack, or G Suite tools. You create a cartoon version of yourself that can add fun to your communications. Of course, with remote learning recently, this resource became even more valuable as dedicated educators created virtual worlds for their students and themselves to live and learn in.

You create your character using the free Bitmoji app, available for Android, Chrome, and iOS. Then you can go on to design your virtual space and furnish it with more choices available to download and use than you could ever possibly imagine.

Use of a Bitmoji in the Classroom

While having an avatar is certainly a lot of fun to create (I think of it as being similar to playing with paper dolls, but with technology!), it also has a TON of uses for learning in the classroom. You can decorate the classroom with virtual furnishings from rugs to bulletin boards to shelves of library books. Each item in the classroom can be linked to a video or audio recording or a website or activity. Thus, they become interactive centers for learning. Take a look at these examples below from WeAreTeachers:

Bitmoji

Learn How to Create Your Own Bitmoji Space

TCEA is pleased to offer a two-webinar series on creating your own virtual classroom, office, or library. The first webinar will be held on June 4, 2020 from 9:30 to 11:00 a.m. CST. (If one or both dates have already passed, you can still sign up to receive the full recordings from both sessions.) During this first webinar, participants will learn:

  • Uses of a virtual cartoon classroom (as a launchpad and for personalization)
  • How to create a Bitmoji of yourself using the free Bitmoji app
  • How to set up up your basic classroom with a background, furniture, your avatar, and more
  • Additional resources to use in your Bitmoji classroom

The second session will be held on June 18, 2020 from 9:30 to 10:30 am. CST and will help you to take your virtual classroom to the next level as you:

  • Add hyperlinks to key resources for student access
  • Add audio
  • Make an animated Google header
  • And more!

The cost for both webinars is just $25 for TCEA members and $74 for non-members, which includes a one-year membership in TCEA. Participants will get hands-on practice creating and will walk away with their own Bitmoji and a strong start to their virtual space. I urge you to register now for this fun adventure that will really add to any remote learning that you may do in the future!

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Content AreasEducational TrendsGood TeachingPodcasts

Blog, ‘Cast, Engage!

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

How are you showcasing student accomplishments in your classroom now? One great way to do so combines video, audio, and text in a simple interface. That interface? Blogs. At the TCEA 2020 Convention, I had the opportunity to share a few ideas and resources with educators. Let’s take a moment to revisit some of those ideas, even if you missed the TCEA 2020 Convention.

Make Conversations Happen

Blogs and podcasts make it easy to engage students. After all, who wouldn’t find their own voice and performance engaging? Here are few examples of educators sharing how they are making conversations happen or how to create conversations.

Ready to explore some specific ideas? Let’s begin!

Step 1: Select a Blogging Platform

castOne of the first steps you need to take is to select a blogging platform. This is an online space to share content. Avoid getting caught up in the strict definition of a blog (e.g. RSS feed or an online space with content you can subscribe to). Another point you need to consider is that you need something you can control as the teacher. Students are often blocked from using tools like Blogger because they are for students older than thirteen years old. As a teacher, you need an online platform that makes it easy for you to manage content online and student posting.

Fortunately, we have access to a wide range of tools. You are looking for something that’s easy to set up, maintain, and support. Here are a few blogging platforms that give you control over publication content and commenting:

  1. Wakelet
  2. KidBlog
  3. Write About
  4. Edublogs
  5. Seesaw Class Blog (View sample blog)

Items two through four above cost money, while blog platforms one and five are free. Although Wakelet isn’t a true blogging platform, several educators have chosen it. The ability to embed all sorts of content, including Flipgrid shorts videos, make it a choice worth exploring. You can see one example from Jon Forney’s Wakelet class blogs collection above.

Seesaw Class Blogs is a great free alternative, but your work does end up in a system that may cost money in the future. Another possibility not listed above is the new Google Sites. While Google Sites is a wiki rather than a blog, it is easy to maintain and update. Schools may also want to use G Suite EDU’s Blogger, which is full-featured and allows for close control.

Before you commit to any one solution, be sure to run it by your organization’s technology team.

Did You Know?

Sign up for one of our Google Certified Educator certifications. You’ll learn about more than Google Meet, as well as earn 12 CPE hours per course. Use these courses to get Google Educator certified. Find out more online.

Step #2: Select Podcasting Solution

castUnless you’re engaging in full-blown podcasting which involves scripts and audio editing, use Voxer to record interviews of less than 15 minutes and then post to social media (e.g. Instagram, Twitter). Be sure to combine your media shares online via Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr. In the meantime, here are some suggested tools for working with podcasts:

Need to Record on the Go?

If you are in a classroom situation, it may be prudent to set up a microphone on a desktop computer. This makes it easy to edit audio using a free program like Audacity Sound Editor. If you need recording on the go, then get a portable microphone for your smartphone or tablet.

Here are a few choices:

  • iRig Mic Cast for iOS/Android ($35) – Less expensive that the Mikey Digital, this offers solid audio recording. This is what I carry around with me for interviews. It also comes with iRig Recorder software. I like the fact that it plugs into your microphone jack on your device and includes another headphone jack for earbuds. You can also get a handheld microphone that plugs into your iPhone or iPad. As the website says, it features “unidirectional pickup pattern that minimizes background noise, making it ideal for single-source audio recording.” Learn more online.
  • Shure MV88+ (>$80) – While this version is iOS only, the MV88+ works with iOS and some USB-C enable Android devices.Learn more online.

Remember, you don’t have to have a microphone for your smartphone. But audio quality will improve if you decide to use one.

Quick Ideas for Podcasting in the Classroom

Wondering how you can use podcasting in the classroom? Here are a few.

  • Current Events Newscasts: Practice nonfiction reading skills by having your students do weekly or monthly podcasts on an interesting current event.
  • Reading Radio: Have your students make short radio broadcasts summarizing the books they are reading.
  • Roving Reporters: Send your students out into the “field” (a.k.a. the school) to interview key players in important school events.
  • Celebrate Culture: Have your students record podcasts about important cultural months like Black History Month or Hispanic Heritage Month and then present them to the school or parents to commemorate the events.
  • Podcasting Library: Have your students collaborate to create a library of podcasts from which future students can learn.
  • Music Casts: Have band or orchestra students create podcasts for each instrument, detailing specific notes, sounds, and characteristics of each instrument.

You can find more ideas online with a quick Google search. Start small and build up.

Step #3: Decide Where to Save Content

When podcasting, it can be difficult to find a reliable place to host your audio or video over the long term. Consider one of these locations:

  • Enhanced podcasts (video)
    • YouTube
    • Google Drive
    • OneDrive
    • Seesaw Class Blog (vidcasts)
    • Flipgrid
  • Audio only
    • Google Drive
    • OneDrive
    • Seesaw Class Blog (vidcasts)
    • Write About

My recommendation? Rely on YouTube for video-casts (vidcasts), if possible. Otherwise, take advantage of whatever cloud storage solution your school or district uses. For example, G Suite EDU provides unlimited storage, and Microsoft OneDrive for Schools is about the same. Need more inspiration? Check out the TCEA TechNotes podcast series.

Step #4: Make an App

Want to reach your audience, which includes students and parents? Appify your podcast using a tool like Glide. It is a service that lets you add information to a Google sheet, then quickly create an app from its contents, all without coding.

You can save your blog entry links (or links to audio/video) to a Google Sheet, then have Glide put it into an app. Just pick one of your sheets and Glide assembles it into a polished app that you can customize, share with a link, and even publish to the app store. You can view a tutorial online.

Showcasing student work has never been easier. With a few quick steps, you can publish your students’ creations online to a global audience. You can then appify that content and make it accessible for your local community.

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high-effect-size
Good Teaching

High-Effect-Size Instructional Strategies and Digital Tools

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

Did you see School Library Journals blog entry from February 11, 2020? Titled, 18 Tech Tools for Content Creation, Coding, VR, Audio, and Video, it offers a list of digital tools. While this is, no doubt, a fantastic list, it may send the message that all we’re doing in ed tech is gathering tools. Imagine that neighbor, who when you walk into their garage, has every tool imaginable. Each is shiny, pretty, and seldom used. That sends a message, right?

The message is that collecting digital tools, a dime a dozen now, is our sole purpose in educational technology. We all have digital tools in search of instructional activities. The question is, How could we do this better?

high-effect-size

Did You Know?

Only one of the SLJ’s tools, Microsoft Immersive Reader, has earned a research-based design product certification. The certification is new from ISTE’s EdSurge’s Digital Promise program. How are the digital tools you select for use in the classroom aligned to research?

Lesson Construction

Ready to drop a few digital tools and apps into your lesson and spice things up a bit? Before you do, however, consider whether “sprinkling” tools into popular lessons will actually add value to the learning or distract from our ultimate goal.

How Can You Tell If Digital Tools Add Value?

Does the technology we add to a lesson add value or subtract from it?  One way to focus curriculum and instruction teams as they are planning lessons is to ask some questions:

  1. Are the lesson plan components reflecting high-effect-size (HES)  instructional strategies?
  2. Are you focused on activities that are cool or evidence-based strategies that work?
  3. Do all lesson plans incorporate the teacher clarity goals strategy? How are those communicated to students?
  4. Which specific digital tool is proven to work best with a specific HES instructional strategy?

In my Coaching for Results series, I explore how to better answer these questions using high-effect-size instructional strategies.

Lesson Plan Components

Need an example? Let’s take a look at what is typically found in a lesson plan:

  • Grade
  • Subject
  • Topic
  • Description
  • TEKS
  • Technology TEKS
  • 4Cs
  • Resources (linked in G Suite EDU Drive document)
  • Device Type (e.g. Laptop, Chromebook)
  • Suggested Apps

As you can see from the list, there’s something missing, right? Let’s explore this in the context of a web-based lesson plan example.

high-effect-size

Sample Lesson Plan

Grade Level: 3rd grade

Subject: Language Arts

Topic: Understanding and Analyzing Text

Description: Students will use Google Drawing to create a book snap. Teachers can ask students various questions or use analysis tools in the snap. iPad users can use Book Creator or the simple drawing tool on iPad. They will do that after taking a picture of their book selection.

LA TEK: Figure 19: (A)  establish purposes for reading selected texts based upon own or others’ desired outcome to enhance comprehension; (B)  ask literal, interpretive, and evaluative questions of text; (C)  monitor and adjust comprehension (e.g., using background knowledge, creating sensory images, re-reading a portion aloud, generating questions); (D)  make inferences about text and use textual evidence to support understanding; (E)  summarize information  in text, maintaining meaning and logical order; (F)  make connections (e.g. thematic links, author analysis) between literary and informational texts with similar ideas and provide textual evidence

Technology TEK: (1)Creativity and innovation (A)  create original products using a variety of resources; (B)  analyze trends and forecast possibilities, developing steps for the creation of an innovative process or product; and (C)  use virtual environments to explore systems and issues. (2) Communication and collaboration (A)  draft, edit, and publish products in different media individually and collaboratively; (B)  use font attributes, color, white space, and graphics to ensure that products are appropriate for multiple communication media, including monitor display, web, and print; (C)  collaborate effectively through personal learning communities and social environments; (D)  select and use appropriate collaboration tools; (E)  evaluate the product for relevance to the assignment or task; and (F)  perform basic software application functions, including opening applications and creating, modifying, printing, and saving files.

4Cs: Critical Thinking, Collaboration, Creativity

Resources: How to make booksnaps,  Book Creator

Device Type: Laptop, Chromebook, IPAD

Let’s review this lesson in light of the questions asked earlier.

Focus on High-Effect-Size Instructional Strategies

1. Are the lesson plan components reflecting high-effect-size instructional strategies?

In the example, there is no high-effect-size instructional strategy recommended or evident. The purpose of the LA TEKS reference is to enhance comprehension. The suggested activity is a book snap. A book snap allows for a digital representation of text excerpted from a book or text. In other words, it is a way for students to summarize (0.74 effect size) a book. Visible Learning Meta X defines summarizing as relevant to reading comprehension.

Summarization can include any of the following behaviors:

  • Deleting unnecessary material
  • Getting rid of material that is repetitive
  • Substituting a subordinate term for a list of items or actions
  • Selecting a topic sentence
  • Constructing a topic if one is only suggested by the text

In a book snap, you focus on selecting sentences, then you bring the characters alive or share an opinion. Depending on the type of book snap, you can also engage in metacognition (0.58 effect size):

Meta-cognition is thinking about thinking. It includes methods used to help students understand the way they learn.

As you can see, having students make a book snap with Google Drawings implies a lot. But we miss the boat if we don’t address the high-effect-size strategy. Worse, this TA:TEKS connection could be more specific. Reference the TA:TEKS connection, but list the specific actions. That is, inserting images, cropping, using digital camera, font choice, and selecting text.

How could we change the description of this lesson? Change it in a way that better reflects the high-effect size instructional strategies.

A video tutorial of how to create a book snap:

Are you focused on activities that are cool or evidence-based strategies that work?

“Book snaps are cool because they are a way to express creativity through a book. You can share how you think about a character or part of a story,” says one student in this video. (That’s a great video to watch to learn how to make book snaps, by the way.)

How long does it take to make a book snap? Would the Reciprocal Teaching (0.84) strategy work better than summarization with book snaps? If yes, why not use that approach, even if there is no technology involved?

Teacher Clarity and Digital Tools

Do all lesson plans incorporate the teacher clarity goals strategy? How are those communicated to students?

How would you craft the Teacher Clarity learning outcomes? One way is shown below:

  • Today we will select sentences that best summarize a key concept in the text
  • So we can learn to identify important parts of the text and get rid of parts that are extra or repetitive
  • We will know we have it when we are able to briefly explain a text in a few sentences.

You may need to ask whether this lesson is surface, deep, or transfer learning oriented. Summarization and metacognition are surface learning. When you’re putting together a lesson, how could you specify the learning goal? That is, the intended goal of surface, deep, and/or transfer learning?

Which specific digital tool is proven to work best with a HES instructional strategy?

Although the HES instructional strategy is absent, the digital tool is Google Drawing. Google Slides would also work. There are many digital tools possible, but focusing on one is best practice.

The message isn’t to avoid book snaps. It’s to be intentional and up front about strategies that work. That is, explain which high-effect-size instructional strategy you are using and how that digital tool fits in. Otherwise, you may fall into the trap of chasing activities that are fun, cool, and use technology for technology’s sake. Avoid quoting entire swaths of TEKS and TA:TEKS. Instead, explain in brief what you are teaching and students are learning.

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Good Teaching

Closing Out Your Virtual Year

by Dr. Bruce Ellis
written by Dr. Bruce Ellis

I think it is safe to say that this has been a very different school year than what we are used to. Social distancing, sheltering in place, last-minute remote learning, it’s enough to make everyone ready for summer. Even amid the chaos, though, here are some ideas to help you provide a meaningful closure for this virtual year to your students.

Personal Appreciation and Recognition for This Virtual Year

In my traditional teaching, I like to end the year by writing a note to each student. Yes, it takes time, but it is a very personal way to help solidify what you’ve invested in them. It’s not so much about the content, but is more about the person you tried to help them become throughout the year. Speaking your appreciation is good, but writing it down for them so they can reflect upon it (even years later) is a much more powerful method.

I remember having 174 middle school students and found that I had to start the process several weeks in advance in order to get a note written and ready to give to each student the last week of school. For a few students who enjoyed getting on my last nerve, it took longer to wordsmith an honest but encouraging message to them.

No, I’m not suggesting that you take the next few weeks to do this. That would be adding a LOT more stress to an already stressful spring. What I am suggesting, though, is for you to consider how you might craft a message, even if it is to a class as a whole. Maybe you aren’t writing to each individual student, but are instead reflecting on what you enjoyed about the class, ways you’ve seen them grow over the year, some good times, and some struggles that they’ve had to come through.

Fortunately, there are probably things that are true to share with each class so you are just tweaking it a bit to make it more personalized for each different class period. Consider sharing your thoughts on what you’ll remember most about the class and possibly ways that you’ve grown as a teacher (and a person?) because of them. Emphasize the “people” portion of the year and not the virtual learning that had to take place.

Encouragement for the Summer

virtual year

We remember what it was like being out for the summer. We weren’t interested in avoiding the summer slide (the decline in learning that happens over the summer). But as a teacher, we definitely want to encourage students to be mentally active over the next few weeks.

Consider curating a list of YouTube videos, websites, or even books available at the public library that you can share with the parents. Hint: As you share this with the parents, you may need to start by saying how much you enjoyed their child in your class and you look forward to hearing great things about them (or however you need to word it) and then share the resources as some ideas to consider sharing with their child(ren).

Fortunately for us, you may have already started including unique learning activities through remote learning. If not, think about how your students can be creative, explore, and create over the summer.

Goals for the Future

Click the image above to copy the template to your Google Drive

Send the following template to your students and ask them to write down some ideas about their summer and future. Encourage students to keep the document and refer to it often. You might be surprised at how it pops up in a few years as students come back to you and share what they wrote down and how it has helped them. The four areas of the template include:

  • This summer, I’d like to do the following…
  • This summer, I’d like to help others by…
  • When I grow up, I think I would find the following jobs/careers satisfying…
  • When I am grown, I would like to have the following character traits…

For the section on jobs and careers, MyMajors has a nice tool to help narrow down what might be an interesting tool. For each career, MyMajor shares details of an overview, what education is required, schools where you can attend to get the training/certification/skills, what skills are typical for that career, and the median annual and hourly salary, and how many are employed nationally in that career. On the overview tab, you’ll even find a Holland Code chart to help you see if that career is a good fit for you. Holland Code refers to a theory of careers and vocational choice (based upon personality types) that was initially developed by American psychologist John L. Holland.

Students may have a tough time identifying character traits they admire most and want to develop. A link is provided to a list developed by TeacherVision. This list includes values, morals, and beliefs character traits (i.e.: honest, brave, compassionate, etc.), physical and emotional character traits (i.e.: imaginative, tireless, joyful, etc.), and personality character traits (i.e.: thoughtful, humorous, helpful, etc.).

Make an Impact

Think of closing out your virtual year as one last chance to make a big impact on your students. Which of the three ideas above have you done in the past with your learners? Is there another way that you close out your year with your students to make it special? Let us know in the comments and share it with others. We’d love to hear from you!

Photo by Frederick Tubiermont on Unsplash

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