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Back to SchoolClassroom ManagementDigital CitizenshipLeadershipLibrariesPlanning and PreparationSocial-Emotional LearningSTEM/STEAMWeb 2.0 Tool

Back-to-School Roundup

by Sara Qualls
written by Sara Qualls

Where did the summer go? With the start of a new year, I’ve gathered back-to-school resources from our amazing PD team and staff here at TCEA. Check out this categorized list full of ideas to create a successful school year.

Icebreakers

Bellringers

Leadership

  • The New Tool Belt for Superintendents
    Superintendents in all sizes of school districts need to find tools to offer increased value without breaking the bank. Technology can help.
  • Back to School Ideas for Leaders
    With a little effort and some creativity, you can provide a memorable “welcome back to school” message for your staff, teachers, or students!

In the Library

STEM

  • Prepping for a STEM/STEAM Year
    STEM/STEAM activities are a powerful way to engage students. Here are a few resources to help you prepare for a stem-rific school year.
  • Back to School with STEM
    STEM activities are a powerful way to engage students. Here are a few resources to kick off your school year in the STEM direction.
  • We Have to Save Fred!
    Always a favorite, The Save Fred Challenge is great for team building. Plus, check out extension ideas to create a perfect day of learning.
  • Solo Cup Engineering Challenge
    The Solo Cup Engineering Challenge is perfect for team-building. Students and adults love this activity for fun and learning.
  • Starting a Robotics Program
    Running a robotics program can be a challenge, especially at the start. But fear not; we’re exploring everything that goes into a successful program.

Social Emotional Learning

Activities

  • Email Writing for Students
    In today’s digital world, teaching your students the art of writing an email is a must. This blog has lesson ideas, videos, and resources to help.

Templates

Tools

Ideas to Try

Coaching

  • Ten Ideas for Tech Coaches to Help Their Teachers Grow
    Explore creative and fun ways for tech coaches to encourage teachers in their growth with technology integration. Ready, set, ed tech!
  • Conference for Educational Coaches
    Sign up for the Conference for Educational Coaches (CEC) to discover the latest in professional development, best practices for coaching, and even more ideas for supporting educators. Attend in person in Austin, Texas from October 12-13, 2022, or online.

I hope these strategies, activities, templates, and more get the brain flowing with ideas to create a successful start. Have a wonderful 2022-2023 school year!

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Back to SchoolEnglish/Language ArtsWeb 2.0 Tool

Five Creative Back-to-School Activities with Book Creator

by Dr. Monica Burns
written by Dr. Monica Burns

Are you heading back to school? Use Book Creator this school year to take a creative spin on your back-to-school activities! It’s a powerful creative tool for students of all ages. Students can record their voices, capture video, and add text, emojis, shapes, and images to the pages of an interactive book.

What’s New in Book Creator?

This school year, you are in for a treat. There are lots of exciting new updates in Book Creator. If you checked out this recent post on Book Creator’s blog, you already know some of the fantastic features you can access this school year.

In addition to a newly updated certification program, when you open up Book Creator, you’ll find a great new commenting option this summer. If you’re committed to giving feedback to students, you can add comments directly to student pages. 

How does commenting in Book Creator work? You’ll now see a talk bubble with a + sign on each page in a student’s book. When you tap this button, you can add feedback to a student’s page. The options include using video, voice, text, and more!

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Five Back-to-School Activities

Book Creator is a favorite creation tool for all parts of the school year, but as you head back to school, these five activities are perfect for the first few weeks.

#1 – Set up a portfolio.

Students can use this remixable template or start from scratch to make their portfolios. Although their portfolio will grow over the school year, they can set it up during the first few weeks of school and design a cover. Simply hit the remix button and a copy will be added straight into your Book Creator library.

#2 – Share a favorite place.

When I introduce teachers to Book Creator, this prompt is one of my favorites for helping educators get to know this powerful tool. Of course, you can use this prompt to introduce students to Book Creator, too. It’s an excellent way to share a place they love and get to know their classmates. Book Creator has a great Travel Guide (which you can remix), and you can also add a Google Map to showcase where in the world their favorite place is!

Postcard Travel Guide

#3 – Set goals.

The beginning of the school year is the perfect time to set goals. Have students create a book highlighting three goals they have for the fall. You might make an example with three of your own goals to share with students and revisit the books during the first few months of the school year. How about adding a Canva Book Cover straight in? Book Creator integrated Canva as well as other apps like Giphy, Bitmoji, 3D Models, and more earlier this year.

Book Creator and Canva

#4 – Work together.

Introduce collaboration to students at the start of the school year. You can start small with just two students working on a book together. This activity provides an opportunity to discuss digital citizenship skills and expectations for navigating digital spaces.

Book Creator Collaboration

#5 – Share a passion.

Learners of all ages like to talk about their interests and passions. Encourage students to share something they love like a favorite activity, book, sport, animal, or other topic they can write about. You might give students an outline or table of contents for this creation. Try out one of the 18 templates and themes that are integrated into Book Creator to provide choice and enhance creativity. 

Book Creator Templates

Ready to get started with Book Creator? To kick off the school year, use one of the ideas in this post or remix this ready-to-use template designed with back to school in mind. Make sure to share your student creations, teacher examples, and ideas for using Book Creator on social media! Tag @TCEA, @BookCreatorApp, and @ClassTechTips in your posts.

Upcoming Webinar

August 11: Join Monica Burns for a special webinar with Book Creator, 9 Creative Back-to–School Activities. Use this link to grab your free spot.

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Back to SchoolCulturally ResponsiveSocial-Emotional Learning

10 First Day of School Activities Shared by Teachers

by Emily Horn
written by Emily Horn

I recently came across a post by @Teacher2Teacher on Twitter that I just HAD to bookmark. They asked a simple question: “Do you have any back to school rituals that you just LOVE?” Boy was I excited to explore the answers and activities shared! Here are some of my favorites.

Name Pronunciation

Renee Dawson (@APSITSdawson) had a fantastic idea to share. She has her students record the correct pronunciation of their names using Microsoft Flip (formerly Flipgrid) so that everyone can pronounce names correctly from the start of the year.

What’s Your Name Story?

Stevie Frank (@steviefrank23) uses a ball of yarn to complete an ice breaker with students. She asks the question, “What’s your name story?” and tosses the yarn to a student. The recipient answers, holds on to the yarn, and then throws the ball of yarn to another student who answers. This continues until the whole class has participated. A web of yarn is created between all the students. “By the end, we all see how we’re connected, and we get to learn parts of identity,” says Stevie. You can do this activity with all kinds of questions!

Student Superheroes

I absolutely love this idea from Mark Holt (@Holteacher). He calls his 5th grade students superheroes. On the first day of school, they decorate capes with a superhero name and symbol they create for themselves. Mark says, “Some of the students wear their capes all year long.”

Letter to the Teacher

@PamAmendola has students write her a letter. In the letter, they tell her about their lives, their families, their likes/dislikes, and anything else they’d like to share about themselves. “I get an authentic, low stakes writing sample where I hear their voice,” she says.

Team Building with Puzzles

@lberrelez32 buys some 24-piece children’s puzzles from Dollar Tree. She partners up students with one partner blindfolded. Only the blindfolded student can touch the puzzle. “Their partner has to talk them through putting it together. Great team building activity,” she says.

My First Day

Mrs. Moore (@BookDragon_Kat) works with a lot of military kids. She says that reading “My First Day” is a great way for them to share about where they’ve lived, build connections, and learn about how people in different parts of the world go to school.

Plastic Cup Challenge

@Riverart9 puts students in groups of four to five and gives them an equal number of cups of varied sizes and made of different materials. Then she challenges the groups to build the tallest tower of cups. She likes this as a first day of school activity because it encourages teamwork and resilience.

The Name Juggle

Tyle Pelletier (@TPelletierG5) named his favorite activity as being “The Name Juggle.” In this game, students take a ball and say the name of the person they’re tossing it to. Increase the complexity and fun by adding more balls and speeding up the game as students get to know each other’s names.

“Where I’m From” Poems

One activity suggested by @Creative_Ink16 is writing “Where I’m From” poems. Here’s an example with a template based on “Where I’m From” by poet George Ella Lyons. This site also includes a video of students performing their poems. “The students decorate their final drafts, and we hang them up on the classroom wall,” adds Creative_Ink16. I absolutely love this idea.

Letters from Last Year

If you had students write letters at the end of last school year, it’s a great way to introduce incoming students to their new environment. @Kwillmann suggests “reading letters written by last year’s students about how to succeed in class.” It also gives students something to look forward to doing at the end of the year.

Do you have any favorites to add to the list? Tell us about them in the comments, and let’s all have a great first day of school!

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