The EduGals Podcast: Recent Episodes
Rachel Johnson & Katie Attwell
The EduGals podcast is all about current challenges in education, and how teachers in K-12 can leverage educational technology (EdTech) in the classroom. Hosted by Rachel Johnson and Katie Attwell.
This week, we are starting our book study with chapter 1 of Grading for Equity: What It Is, Why It Matters, and How It Can Transform Schools and Classrooms by Joe Feldman. Specifically, we will dive into what makes grading so difficult to talk about and even harder to change.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
We would love to hear from you – leave a comment on our website OR check out our FLIPGRID!
Featured Content
For detailed show notes, please visit our website at https://edugals.com/130****
- Grading for Equity by Joe Feldman
- Find a buddy to talk about the ideas in this book!
- Structure of the book:
- Get comfortable with being uncomfortable - try to stay open-minded
- Teaching is challenging - grades are one of the only places where we still have autonomy
- Grades and grading practices are highly personal
- Changing grades by admin
- Grading is not really something that is taught in teacher education programs
- Most grading practices are based on prior experience
- We hate grading! and grade grubbing!
- Stress around grading
- Mastery grading and specs grading and other equitable grading practices reduces stress around grades and grading
- Web of belief:
- Discussion question: What is your why?
In this episode, we delve back into our discussion about the book 'Grading for Equity' by Joe Feldman. The third chapter which we are exploring is titled 'How Traditional Grading Stifles Risk Taking and Supports the Commodity of Grades' and opens up the conversation about belief systems and the prevailing view on student achievement. We discuss the stark differences between the Industrial Revolution beliefs and 21st-century beliefs regarding education, and raise questions about how grading methods should shift in light of these changes. We particularly focus on the harm that a heavy focus on extrinsic motivation can cause and the negative implications of traditional grading practices on the trust and relationship between teachers and students. Furthermore, we scrutinize how grades have become a commodity leading to competition rather than collaboration and debate whether traditional grading serves the purpose of preparing students for post-secondary education or not. Towards the end, we suggest potential solutions that look beyond punitive grading policies and value both the learning process and the students' individual expressions of learning.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
We would love to hear from you – leave a comment on our website OR check out our FLIPGRID!
Featured ContentFor detailed show notes, please visit our website at https://edugals.com/138****
- 00:00 Introduction to Grading for Equity
- 00:37 Exploring Belief Systems in Education
- 01:42 The Shift in Education Systems and Beliefs
- 04:56 The Impact of Traditional Grading on Risk Taking and Trust
- 07:09 The Negative Consequences of Traditional Grading
- 13:48 The Commodity of Grades and Extrinsic Motivation
- 24:16 The Illusion of Engagement and Motivation
- 25:11 Conclusion and Future Discussions
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Connect with EduGals:
- Twitter @EduGals
- Rachel @dr_r_johnson
- Katie @KatieAttwell
- EduGals Website
- Support the show
In this episode, we delve deeper into the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles, examining the pillar of 'action and expression'. We review the importance of different methods and accommodations that allow students to demonstrate their learning in the most effective manner. We'll also highlight potential barriers, such as physical impairments and language difficulties, while emphasizing the value of alternative strategies and physical interaction with materials.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
We would love to hear from you – leave a comment on our website OR check out our FLIPGRID!
Featured ContentFor detailed show notes, please visit our website at https://edugals.com/137****
- 00:00 Introduction to Universal Design for Learning
- 00:33 Understanding the Pillar of Action and Expression
- 01:35 Personal Experiences with Organizational Abilities
- 03:51 Exploring the Physical Action Guideline
- 04:27 Addressing Barriers in Physical Action
- 09:59 Optimizing Access to Tools and Assistive Technologies
- 11:44 Expression and Communication: A New Pillar
- 13:20 Exploring Multiple Media for Communication
- 13:26 Using Multiple Tools for Construction and Composition
- 13:37 Building Fluencies with Graduated Levels of Support
- 21:45 Conclusion and Reflections
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Connect with EduGals:
- Twitter @EduGals
- Rachel @dr_r_johnson
- Katie @KatieAttwell
- EduGals Website
- Support the show
In this episode, we are discussing the challenges and successes that we have experienced with destreaming in our classrooms. Specifically, we'll chat about the new grade 9 English curriculum, continuing efforts with other destreaming program areas, and how to best support teachers that are implementing destreaming.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
We would love to hear from you – leave a comment on our website OR check out our FLIPGRID!
Featured ContentFor detailed show notes, please visit our website at https://edugals.com/136****
- Challenges and experiences we have had with implementing destreaming in our schools, specifically in grade 9 English, science, and math
- The importance of providing support and resources for teachers during the implementation process
- Challenges include lack of time and resources given to educators
- Need for additional support in grade 10 courses to ensure a smooth transition from destreaming to academic streams
- Additional pressures with teaching a new grade 11 curriculum (NBE course)
- Other episodes on destreaming:
- Getting Ready for Destreaming - E081
- Destreaming Education: Our Two Cents - E048
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Connect with EduGals:
- Twitter @EduGals
- Rachel @dr_r_johnson
- Katie @KatieAttwell
- EduGals Website
- Support the show
This week, we are talking all about how we start out using various opening routines in our mastery-based classrooms. Specifically, we will share how we set up our courses and some daily activities you can use with your students to get them ready for learning.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
We would love to hear from you – leave a comment on our website OR check out our FLIPGRID!
Featured ContentFor detailed show notes, please visit our website at https://edugals.com/135****
Opening Routines For The Semester/School Year:
- Unit Zero - 2 to 3 lessons long to learn about the logistics of a mastery-based classroom and learning
- Diagnostics - first 2 to 3 weeks, works well for ELL learners (oral, reading, writing skill levels)
- Focus on getting to know you activities and building classroom community as the premise to learn about the mastery-based learning model
- Use mastery-based learning terminology: lesson classifications, guided notes, etc
- Google Slides and YouTube for getting to know you activities, lessons etc
- Use of conferencing with students
- Lots of opening, whole class activities throughout the first few weeks of school
- Thinking classrooms, game-based learning (GimKit for example) are great ideas to engage students in whole class activities and build classroom community
Daily Opening Routines For The Classroom:
- Regular conferencing
- Group-based work based on STEP levels (ELL learners)
- Whole class lessons with all levels modelled (helps to set high expectations for all learners and builds motivation)
- Thinking Classrooms model (but not in a traditional sense) - use randomized groups of 3 (Flippity Random Name Picker), at the whiteboards, solving 1-2 problems related to on pace lessons, use mastery as checks for understanding
- Mix approaches up - other collaborative activities, demos, thinking classrooms, other whole group activities to set the tone, etc
- Do Now or Check-In (goal setting and/or SEL check-in) - can be done daily, weekly, more sporadic (end of unit/module)
- Weekly agenda slide deck
- Progress Tracker for informal check-in and goal-setting
- Modern Classroom Project: Guide to Opening and Closing Routines
- Accountability groups
- Tell me something good - students can share announcements and good news
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Connect with EduGals:
- Twitter @EduGals
- Rachel @dr_r_johnson
- Katie @KatieAttwell
- EduGals Website
- Support the show
This week, we are continuing our book study with chapter 2 of Grading for Equity: What It Is, Why It Matters, and How It Can Transform Schools and Classrooms by Joe Feldman. Specifically, we will dive into the history of schools and grading and examine what's changed and what's not changed (which is a lot!).
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
We would love to hear from you – leave a comment on our website OR check out our FLIPGRID!
Featured ContentFor detailed show notes, please visit our website at https://edugals.com/134****
- Chapter 1 - E130
- Changes in society that affected our model of school
- Manufacturing - need for factory workers, prepare students to be good employees, critical thinking is highly valued now
- Migration and Immigration - assimilation, movement from rural to urban, FNMI, history repeats itself
- Intelligence Testing and Categorization - IQ tests used for streaming purposes, IQ tests not equitable, created barriers to pathways for students, de-streaming is beginning to address these inequities, college vs university pathway (college is much more career-focused which is great)
- Progressive Educators - John Dewey was ahead of his time, he saw the inequities that existed and saw school as a way to improve position in society, other behaviourists (BF Skinner, Pavlov) - operant conditioning applied to our education system
- How did this impact schools?
- Quiet vs noisy classrooms - humans are social, quiet is no longer as valued, mastery-based learning supports active and collaborative classrooms where all students are on task
- Learning skills - not a lot of change, skills like following directions, punctuality are still highly valued
- History of Grading
- Very descriptive and individualized and shifted to letter grades for efficiency reasons
- Now we are returning to more descriptive and individualized feedback
- Bell Curves - if grades fit within a bell curve, it means that the approach taken had no impact on student learning; instead, we want to see skews towards higher achievement to show a positive impact
Support the show
Connect with EduGals:
- Twitter @EduGals
- Rachel @dr_r_johnson
- Katie @KatieAttwell
- EduGals Website
- Support the show
This week, we are chatting all about station-based learning. This instructional model is frequently used at the elementary level, so our focus for this conversation is how to implement station-based learning in the secondary classroom.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
We would love to hear from you – leave a comment on our website OR check out our FLIPGRID!
Featured ContentFor detailed show notes, please visit our website at https://edugals.com/102****
- There are many different ways to set up stations - by activity, by curriculum strand
- Can be done over a day, several days, or even a week
- Catlin Tucker - Blended Learning in Action book and Balance with Blended Learning book
- Station Rotation Model:
- Teacher-led, small group work, individual practice, online learning, collaborative stations
- Doesn't need to be physical locations in your room although this can help your students stay on task!
- Other ideas for stations: makerspace, research, project-based learning, design & create, virtual field trips, role playing &/or performance, feedback
- Feedback station suggestions:
- Peer review, teacher led, self assessment
- Provide sentence starters and/or frameworks to guide peer and self assessment
- Behind the scenes:
- Lots of upfront work with a big payoff
- Consider approaching the topic using different modalities
- Think about those topics that students often struggle with to target for stations
- Help students learn the model by starting with low stakes stations (getting to know you activities for example)
- Consider interactions: teacher-student, student-student, student-content
- Have clear objectives, tasks, instructions
- Works well with mastery-based learning
- Mix up the activities you use
- Look at UDL framework for inspiration
- Logistics in the classroom:
- Limit the number of students per station
- Use a timer and project it to keep students on task
- It's ok not to finish all tasks
- Consider lesson classifications from Modern Classrooms framework
- Add in a fun station (curriculum-related board games, etc.)
- Tech vs no-tech - not all stations need tech!
- If using tech, consider all aspects - headphones, headphone splitters, chromebooks, adapters
- Expect a learning curve - try, fail, learn!
Support the show
Connect with EduGals:
- Twitter @EduGals
- Rachel @dr_r_johnson
- Katie @KatieAttwell
- EduGals Website
- Support the show
This week, we are chatting about how Rachel's grading approach is shifting this year. Specifically, we will chat about standards-based grading, how Rachel is applying standards-based grading in her classroom, and where she hopes to be with her grading approaches in this school year.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
We would love to hear from you – leave a comment on our website OR check out our FLIPGRID!
Featured ContentFor detailed show notes, please visit our website at https://edugals.com/133****
- What is standards-based grading (SBG)? It's a system of grading that is closely tied to mastery of the standards in the curriculum
- Disclaimer: we don't have all of the answers!
- Rethinking Your Grading Scale - E122
- Specifications Grading - E107
- Standards-based grading vs specifications (specs) grading
- ChemEd talk on Standards-Referenced Grading in Chemistry Classrooms
- SBG - 4 levels vs 7 levels (IB)
- Mastery Scales (example 1 and example 2)
- Building up skills from basic, to simple, to target, to complex
- Putting specific expectations into a hierarchical order
- Evaluations still don't have points grades - mastery scales are dependent on demonstration of mastery of those skills within each level
- Learning is broken down into modules (smaller than units)
- Overlap of skills between modules is possible
- Still doing multiple opportunities to demonstrate mastery of skills (2-3 attempts)
- Due dates are the same as any other school year
- Consistent test day each week
- Conferencing at midterm and final reporting periods to collaborate on grades
- Feedback practices remain the same, lots of 1-1 support
- Mastery - defined as 80% or greater (can be individual for each teacher)
- A slight step away from UnGrading
- Do you show the level conversions or not?
- How will students react?
- Mastery-based learning works for content retention!
Support the show
Connect with EduGals:
- Twitter @EduGals
- Rachel @dr_r_johnson
- Katie @KatieAttwell
- EduGals Website
- Support the show
This week, we are chatting about technology use with students and how parents can best support that at home. We will share a little bit of our own struggles as parents and also some ideas that we have as educators to help support families.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
We would love to hear from you – leave a comment on our website OR check out our FLIPGRID!
Featured ContentFor detailed show notes, please visit our website at https://edugals.com/132****
- How Technology Influences Student Thinking - E125
- This Week In Ontario EduBlogs - Stephen Hurley and Doug Peterson
- Technology use has exploded - how much should kids be using it?
- Limiting screen time (focus on educational apps, limited time/devices, TV time, require activity before screens, get outdoors)
- Getting off task while on technology (virtual or remote learning, YouTube, lack of focus)
- Canadian Paediatric Society screen time recommendations
- TV watching time as a family activity
- Too much screen time can affect mood, sleep, etc - decide how much time is right for you, your kids, and your family
- Parental controls (chromebooks, e-readers, iPads)
- Teaching digital citizenship skills (share weekly resources in your classroom newsletter)
- Balance screen time, social activities
- Cell phones - when do you start? Safety, maturity
- Smart watches for kids - Apple Watch, other brands
- Educator Tips:
- Tech breaks (25 min focus, 5 min tech break)
- Open lines of communication home with parents
Support the show
Connect with EduGals:
- Twitter @EduGals
- Rachel @dr_r_johnson
- Katie @KatieAttwell
- EduGals Website
- Support the show
This week, we are sharing our podcasting process. We'll get into our past and current podcasting practices, as well as the apps and tools that we use and love! Whether you are interested in podcasting for yourself or with your students, this episode is packed full of great tips and tricks to get you started.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
We would love to hear from you – leave a comment on our website OR check out our FLIPGRID!
Featured ContentFor detailed show notes, please visit our website at https://edugals.com/131****
- Nerves, giggles, bloopers, and more
- Started with easily accessible tools - GarageBand, Audacity
- Recording tools - GarageBand, Hindenberg Pro ($, great for editing too with voice profiles)
- Editing tools - Hindenberg Pro, Descript ($, creates transcripts, uses AI for editing, decreases editing time, voice regeneration)
- Transcripts - Descript, can hack with Google Read and Write, etc
- Remote recording now built into Descript with SquadCast
- Other remote recording tools - Zencastr (free option), Riverside.fm, SquadCast, Zoom
- End-to-end recording - Google Meet and individual recording
- Microphones - Samson Q2U, condenser vs dynamic mic, Rode PodMic (XLR, requires interface)
- Cloud Lifter to amplify sound
- Interface - Rodecaster Pro
- Just starting out? Find royalty-free music, dynamic USB microphone
- Hosting - Buzzsprout ($, Ads, magic mastering, cohost AI), Anchor/Spotify (free)
- Posting to social media, newsletter - using Chat GPT for idea generation
- Website - Wordpress ($) for blog post "shnotes"
Support the show
Connect with EduGals:
- Twitter @EduGals
- Rachel @dr_r_johnson
- Katie @KatieAttwell
- EduGals Website
- Support the show
This week, we are starting our book study with chapter 1 of Grading for Equity: What It Is, Why It Matters, and How It Can Transform Schools and Classrooms by Joe Feldman. Specifically, we will dive into what makes grading so difficult to talk about and even harder to change.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
We would love to hear from you – leave a comment on our website OR check out our FLIPGRID!
Featured ContentFor detailed show notes, please visit our website at https://edugals.com/130****
- Grading for Equity by Joe Feldman
- Find a buddy to talk about the ideas in this book!
- Structure of the book:
- 14 chapters
- 3 parts - foundations, a case for change, equitable grading practices
- Get comfortable with being uncomfortable - try to stay open-minded
- Teaching is challenging - grades are one of the only places where we still have autonomy
- Grades and grading practices are highly personal
- Changing grades by admin
- Grading is not really something that is taught in teacher education programs
- Most grading practices are based on prior experience
- We hate grading! and grade grubbing!
- Stress around grading
- Mastery grading and specs grading and other equitable grading practices reduces stress around grades and grading
- Web of belief:
- Shapes our teaching and grading practices
- What is your starting position?
- When we learn new info - we either dismiss or accept it (depends on how it fits)
- Question your reactions
- What barriers are we creating with our grading practices?
- Acknowledge guilt around past grading practices and then let it go
- Discussion question: What is your why?
- Part of our UnGrading journey - Jesse Stommel
- Building equity lens
- Build on learning and justify changes to grading practices (where is the evidence?)
- Entry points for grading conversations with colleagues
Support the showConnect with EduGals:
- Twitter @EduGals
- Rachel @dr_r_johnson
- Katie @KatieAttwell
- EduGals Website
- Support the show
This week, we are chatting about providing options for comprehension in the classroom. Using the UDL (Universal Design for Learning) framework and representation pillar, we're going to share some different strategies on how we can help students make information accessible, but also how to transform that into knowledge they can use.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
We would love to hear from you – leave a comment on our website OR check out our FLIPGRID!
Featured ContentFor detailed show notes, please visit our website at https://edugals.com/129****
- CAST.org - Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework
- Representation pillar - Comprehension guideline
- It's all about teaching learners HOW to transform accessible information into useable knowledge
- Why Don't Student's Like School? by Daniel Willingham
- Checkpoint #1: Activate or supply background knowledge
- Value prior knowledge
- Get to know your learners and their background knowledge
- Consider using visual imagery, concept anchoring and mastery, KWL chart and other organizers, concept maps (whiteboards), pre-teaching with demos/models, analogies and metaphors, cross-curricular connections
- Learning That Transfers by Julie Stern et al. (ACT model)
- Checkpoint #2: Highlight patterns, critical features, big ideas, and relationships
- Difference between experts and novices
- Use explicit prompts or cues to point to important material
- Consider using graphic organizers, examples/non-examples (Frayer model), highlight previous skills (conceptual learning can be helpful)
- Checkpoint #3: Guide information processing and visualization
- Transform information into useable knowledge
- Consider using explicit prompts for sequential processes, organizational methods (tables), multiple entry points, "chunk" information, progressive release (Modern Classrooms and mastery-based learning), and ditch the distractions!
- Checkpoint #4: Maximize transfer and generalization
- Generalizing and transferring learning to new contexts
- Students need multiple representations and differing levels of scaffolding
- Consider using checklists, organizers, mnemonic devices (decrease cognitive load), explicit review, new ideas in familiar contexts
Support the showConnect with EduGals:
- Twitter @EduGals
- Rachel @dr_r_johnson
- Katie @KatieAttwell
- EduGals Website
- Support the show
In this episode, we are exploring asset vs deficit mindsets in education. We'll go over our observations as well as some of our ideas to shift away from a deficit mindset in our classrooms.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
We would love to hear from you – leave a comment on our website OR check out our FLIPGRID!
Featured ContentFor detailed show notes, please visit our website at https://edugals.com/80****
- Asset mindset - what are the strengths that our students bring to the classroom and how you can embrace that with high expectations
- Deficit mindset - what are students lacking and focusing on their weaknesses
- CRRP - High expectations, Cultural competence, Critical consciousness
- Grades contribute to a deficit mindset and don't give the full picture of the strengths of a student
- Ideas and Strategies:
- Get to know students and don't look at past grades
- Embrace first language
- Google Sheets auto-translate words EduGIF from Jake Miller
- Involve parents/families in school community - builds a positive school culture
- Watch your language and avoid placing students into buckets (struggling vs striving, harmful language)
- Destreaming is coming in Ontario for Grade 9 next year and needs asset mindset
- Book: Going Gradeless, Grades 6-12 by Elise Burns and David Frangiosa
- Becoming aware and speaking up against deficit language
- Need PD on asset-based mindsets and language (peer conversations and dialogue, active learning, voluntary, accessing when ready, multiple opportunities, reflection)
- Video: Asset vs Deficit Mindset Definitions
- Recognize that our brains are wired for negativity to protect ourselves
- Rachel's grading Twitter rant
- Community and relationship building - conversations and conferencing with students, get curious about behaviours, collaborate with other staff
- Avoid the silo and utilize the whole school team
- Question your assessment practices, focus on personalized and descriptive feedback (tests = deficit, portfolios = asset for example), varied types, focus on skills
Support the showConnect with EduGals:
- Twitter @EduGals
- Rachel @dr_r_johnson
- Katie @KatieAttwell
- EduGals Website
- Support the show
This week, we are setting our goals for the upcoming school year. We'll chat about both our professional and our personal goals, from mastery-based learning to leadership goals and maintaining a good work-life balance this year.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
We would love to hear from you – leave a comment on our website OR check out our FLIPGRID!
Featured ContentFor detailed show notes, please visit our website at https://edugals.com/128****
Professional Goals:
- Mastery-based learning - building more whole class activities
- ChemEd Conference 2023
- Conferencing with students - try roster checklists
- Data collection - what is the impact of mastery-based learning?
- Tweaks to grading practices
- New SERT role (special education)
- Other PBL projects in ESL (podcast, video, something else?)
Leadership Goals:
- Supporting implementation of de-streaming in grade 9 and new courses in grade 11
- Political landscape might cause a lot of challenges to our roles
- Avoid social media to avoid negativity
- Leading Grading for Equity and Street Data book studies with leadership team
Personal Goals:
- Try to leave the building at a reasonable time each day
- No email at night
- Complete prep at work to avoid working at home (leave work at work)
- Explore opportunities in academia (M.Ed. program, conferences, collaborations, etc)
- Continuing hobbies (violin lessons, strength training)
- Maintaining balance - being ok to say no when something doesn't align with our goals
Support the showConnect with EduGals:
- Twitter @EduGals
- Rachel @dr_r_johnson
- Katie @KatieAttwell
- EduGals Website
- Support the show
This week, we are talking all about how to build buy-in for ungrading in your school community. We'll discuss ungrading buy-in strategies for various different stakeholders such as teachers, admin, parents, and most importantly, students. Let's start talking about ungrading!
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
We would love to hear from you – leave a comment on our website OR check out our FLIPGRID!
Featured ContentFor detailed show notes, please visit our website at https://edugals.com/97****
Teachers/Admin:
- Start with conversations about grading and grading practices
- Why aren't traditional grading practices working?
- Leverage opportunities informally in your workroom, more formally in department meetings
- Keep in mind - slow and deliberate changes towards ungrading (it's a spectrum)
- Many ways to ungrade (mastery, standards-based, feedback, etc)
- Focus on the feedback and learning over grades
- Look at printouts of marks for students, rubrics we're using (single point vs 4-level), success criteria, moderated marking
- Try to find common ground, team dynamics matter
- Rethinking Letter Grades - Conversation Cards
- Grades are very personal - Grading for Equity by Joe Feldman
- Share your own vulnerability
- Open your classroom space, share your ungrading practices
- Honour professional judgement
- Invite colleagues and admin into your classroom
- Keep your admin in the loop - let them know what you are doing with ungrading and be prepared with a plan
Parents:
- Parents are allies - need transparency, clear communication of grading practices
- Pitch/justify your why of ungrading - send out a newsletter early in the school year
- Mastery can start a strong parent-teacher relationship
- Start an FAQ document to share with parents, teachers, admin, etc - post on website, LMS, etc
Students:
- This is the trickiest group to build buy-in!
- Consider the language you use to talk about grading, assessment, and feedback
- Expect pushback - this takes a bit of time to learn
- Involve students in the grading practices
- Start with having a conversation in general about grading
- Have them track their progress with a portfolio
- Build in reflection opportunities
- Know that emotions can be high - some students might feel anxiety and stress
Support the showConnect with EduGals:
- Twitter @EduGals
- Rachel @dr_r_johnson
- Katie @KatieAttwell
- EduGals Website
- Support the show
In this episode, we are exploring ways to set up your Learning Management System (LMS) effectively and efficiently to optimize course organization and learning for your students. We'll go over tips, strategies, and ideas for setting up your LMS, whether it is Brightspace, Canvas, Schoology, Google Classroom, or something else.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
We would love to hear from you – leave a comment on our website OR check out our FLIPGRID!
Featured ContentFor detailed show notes, please visit our website at https://edugals.com/56****
- Use your LMS, even if you are fully face-to-face
- Layout and Homepage:
- This is your doorway into your virtual classroom
- Easy navigation - minimize the links to the essentials
- Link all of your other tools within the content area
- Include contact info on homepage
- Announcements
- Brightspace Part 1 and Brightspace Part 2 episodes
- Organization:
- Embed third party tools (EdPuzzle, Google Slides, YouTube videos, etc) into your content area
- Link in Google Docs when it makes sense
- Use consistent naming & numbering systems (reduces cognitive load)
- Folders - units, weeks, whatever works best for you
- Use your announcements to lay out weekly expectations
- Include student voice in planning and organization
- Include visuals and make it look pretty - design is important (consistent fonts, icons, emojis, etc to reduce cognitive load and increase engagement)
- It's okay to set up your LMS to meet your needs, just make sure you create an intro video to help your students navigate it - Screencastify is great!
- Canva is a great tool for design - Canvas Banner, Canvas Button, Google Classroom Header (also a Style Your LMS category available)
- Inclusion Ideas:
- Include important cultural celebrations
- Add your personality - Bitmoji or GIPHY is great and integrated into Canva
- Have students design your classroom banners - include languages represented in your classroom too
- Design With Canva YouTube channel
- A Scary Suggestion:
- A little bit of basic coding (HTML and CSS) goes a long way!
- Code Academy (look under Web Development)
- This helps with interactive elements in your LMS - buttons, flipcards, etc.
- Final Advice:
- Use student-friendly language to increase accessibility
Support the showConnect with EduGals:
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- Rachel @dr_r_johnson
- Katie @KatieAttwell
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In this episode, we are talking all about an amazing, and easy-to-use tool called Canva. We will be diving into the how-tos, ideas for using Canva with your students, features within Canva, and the differences between the types of accounts (free, pro, and education).
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
We would love to hear from you – leave a comment on our website OR check out our FLIPGRID!
News and Updates
- Our 10 most popular EduGals podcast episodes of 2020
Featured Content
- Canva is a great and easy-to-use graphic design tool
- Canva website
- Canva for Education account sign up - a bit intense! For K-12 teachers only
- Canva Pricing Chart - gives you some idea about features in each type of account
- Getting Started with Canva Tutorials
- Canva for Education Tutorials - setting up classes and using Canva with students
- Canva Templates
- Font Combinations Tool from Canva
- Canva Colour Palette Generator
- MOOC's (Massive Open Online Courses) - Coursera, edX and many more
- Canva Design Types - so many options available!
- SVG file types + Cricut/Silhouette - for classroom decorations, manipulatives, etc
- Canva Distance Education Resources
- Ways to use it in the classroom:
- Design lesson plans, worksheets, etc for your classroom
- App smash with Google Tools like Slides or Jamboard
- Bitmoji Classroom Templates
- Classroom Kits Templates
- Flashcard Templates
- Customize your LMS - headers, navigation bar icons
- Newsletters to communicate with home/parents
- Resume templates
- Social Media accounts linked to your school
- Infographic Templates for Education
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This week, we are discussing the why and how of creating effective instructional videos for your classroom. We'll share some considerations for creating videos, as well as tools you might want to use and tips and tricks to help you along the way.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
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Featured ContentFor detailed show notes, please visit our website at https://edugals.com/67****
- Personal not professional!
- Why?
- Learning in a mastery-based classroom
- Create a clone of yourself
- Frees up your time in the classroom to help your students
- Access to videos anytime, anywhere
- Helps with absences
- Considerations
- Determine your learning goal BEFORE hitting record
- Keep it targeted to a single learning goal
- Use your curriculum docs to help with planning - Unit Planning Template
- Use lots of purposeful visuals and minimize text on your slides
- Add interactivity - questions, pause and connect - Screencastify interactive questions in E064
- Notes - differentiated for support levels needed (freehand, scaffolds, sentence starters, sentence frames, cloze, etc)
- Provide guiding questions BEFORE watching the video
- Retrieval practice for note taking
- Make it personal, include your face and your personality
- Keep recording time short, 6-9 minutes is ideal and less for elementary
- Try out animations to control the flow of information
- Include the big picture and progression
- Recording Process
- Create your slides, docs, and plan it all out
- Collaborate with others and create slide decks as a course team
- Create an outline for your recording (use speaker notes in Slides)
- Go for done, not perfect - mistakes are okay!
- EdTech Tools
- Presentation Tools: Google Slides, Explain Everything, Prezi, Powerpoint, Keynote, Genial.ly
- Recording Tools: Meet, Teams, Zoom, Screencastify, Screencast-o-matic, Loom, Flipgrid Shorts (use your screen as your virtual background), Explain Everything, OBS Studio, Quick Time Player
- Learn the keyboard shortcuts!
- iPad & Apple pencil - use an external microphone or headset with microphone
- Above all else, use tools that meet your specific needs!
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In this episode, we are getting into the debate of which tool we think is better - Google Slides or Google Jamboard. We'll do comparisons of different features and give you our overall impressions and preferences for these two tools. So stay tuned and make sure you listen right to the end!
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
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News and Updates
- Set up Google Meet breakout rooms ahead of meetings in Google Calendar
- Version history now available for Jamboard on web
Featured Content
- Google Slides: slides.google.com
- Google Jamboard: jamboard.google.com
- What features do we compare?
- Template Gallery in Slides
- Background Images in Slides vs Jamboard
- Tools for interactivity - Toolbar in Jamboard - esp. Sticky Notes
- Collaborators in Jamboard vs. Slides
- Software vs. Hardware for Jamboard
- Add an image into Slides vs Jamboard
- Explore Feature in Slides
- Different versions of Jamboard - web vs devices
- Number of slides vs number of frames
- The adjacent possible - Jake Miller, Educational Duct Tape
- Version History in Slides vs Jamboard
- Adding hyperlinks in Slides
- Adding audio and video files in Slides
- Simplicity of the user interface of Jamboard for littles
- Workspace in Slides - esp when changing slide dimensions
- Zoom tools in Slides
- Adding items to the grey space outside of the canvas in Slides
- Editing the Master in Google Slides
- Comments in Slides
- Different backgrounds in Jamboard
- Adding diagrams via Insert > Diagram in Slides and smash it with Jamboard
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This week, we are talking about the use of digital portfolios in the classroom. We'll explore why you would want to use portfolios, how to assess or evaluate portfolios, and our best tips and suggestions to make portfolios a success in your classroom.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
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Featured ContentFor detailed show notes, please visit our website at https://edugals.com/74****
- Why Use Portfolios?
- Fits well with ungrading or mastery-based grading
- Demonstrates the learning journey by student-selected work
- Great as a final performance task
- Works best as a semester or year-long project
- Focus on reflection, student voice & choice, ownership
- Any grade, any subject
- Rachel's blogging assignment
- UDL - buffet of multimedia options (Katie Novak)
- Curriculum
- Select work from each strand (ESL)
- Explaining misconceptions (Science) or lab notebooks
- Regardless, it develops thinking, metacognition, problem solving skills
- Useful EdTech Tools
- Google Sites
- Google Slides (Templates from Slides Mania)
- Book Creator
- Wakelet
- LMS (Brightspace portfolio tool)
- Notion
- Screencasting/Curation tools (Screencastify) - see E068 for curation ideas
- Audio tools (Mote, Vocaroo, Google Read&Write) - see E050 for other audio ideas
- Tips/Strategies for Implementation
- Limit the number of pieces of work to highlight (adds creative constraints)
- Include a list of possible reflection prompts
- Include conferences/interviews at regular intervals
- Focus on the process not on the product
- Grade it only when needed (midterm, final)
- Conferencing prep example - Evidence Journals from the Human Restoration Project
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This week, we are talking all about grading in a mastery-based learning classroom. We'll share our learning as well as guiding principles to keep in mind as you consider grading practices in your mastery-based structured classroom.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
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Featured ContentFor detailed show notes, please visit our website at https://edugals.com/66****
- There is no one right answer... flexibility and knowing your students is key!
- Modern Classrooms Project
- Grades will depend on your style, curriculum, goals, colleagues, reporting guidelines
- Progress reports - mastery can be helpful for this
- Still need pacing and structure; target dates are needed
- What are we including for grades?
- Use soft zeroes where students have not yet mastered the skill
- Include other evaluations in your gradebook as well, not just mastery checks
- Summative Tests
- Set goal date, all students write on the same day
- Set a window (3 days) and students can choose which day to write on
- What do you do with grading categories? This is tricky!
- Only grade what has been specifically taught
- Backwards design - start with the mastery check, and work backwards to create your supporting/learning materials
- Ask your students for feedback
- Mid-unit and end of unit are good times
- Use Google forms
- Add in metacognition - reflection questions in mastery checks
- Grading Principles:
- Be intentional
- Focus on growth and revision
- Focus on feedback
- Ungrading - Jesse Stommel: @Jessifer on Twitter
- Book: Ungrading: Why Rating Students Undermines Learning and What To Do Instead by Susan D. Blum
- Tracking:
- Google Sheets (Auto-Updating Tracker and Grid System Tracker)
- Display in classroom for collaboration (consider using code names)
- No grades!
- Rubrics:
- Standards-Based Grading (4, 3, 2, 1 levels OR mastered, getting there, not yet)
- Single Point Rubrics
- Add to your mastery checks
- Use "I can..." statements
- Make sure the language is clear and easy for students to understand
- Leverage tech - Google Docs/Slides with Mote/Screencastify
Support the showConnect with EduGals:
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- Rachel @dr_r_johnson
- Katie @KatieAttwell
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In this episode, we are sharing our summer reading list for teachers. We'll go over what we are currently reading, recommendations for reading, as well as what we want to read ourselves this summer.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
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Featured ContentFor detailed show notes, please visit our website at https://edugals.com/54****
Currently Reading:
- Cultivating Genius: An Equity Framework for Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacy - Gholdy Muhammad
- Ungrading: Why Rating Students Undermines Learning (and What to Do Instead) - Edited by Susan D. Blum
- Free Ungrading Workshop - Jesse Stommel
Recommendations:
- Unlocking English Learners' Potential: Strategies for Making Content Accessible - Diane Staehr Fenner & Sydney Snyder
- Powerful Teaching: Unleash the Science of Learning - Pooja Agarwal & Patrice Bain
- When Kids Can't Read: What Teachers Can Do: A Guide for Teachers, 6-12 - Kylene Beers
- Flip Your Classroom: Reaching Every Student in Every Class Every Day - Jonathan Bergmann & Aaron Sams
- Modern Classrooms Project
Rachel's Summer Reading:
- The Impact Cycle - Jim Knight
- Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain - Zaretta Hammond
- Fair Isn’t Always Equal - Rick Wormeli
- The Power of Making Thinking Visible - Ron Ritchhart & Mark Church
- Harvard's Project Zero and the Thinking Routines Toolbox
- The Design Thinking Playbook - Michael Lewrick, Patrick Link, & Larry Leifer
Katie's Summer Reading:
- This Place: 150 Years Retold - Multiple Authors/Contributors
- Podcast by CBC
- Culturally Responsive Teaching for Multilingual Learners - Sydney Snyder & Diane Staehr Fenner
- Come On In: 15 Stories about Immigration and Finding Home - Adi Alsaid
- 21 Things You May Now Know About The Indian Act - Bob Joseph
- Indigenous Canada Course on Coursera (by University of Alberta)
Other Recommendations - see our detailed show notes at edugals.com/54
Support the showConnect with EduGals:
- Twitter @EduGals
- Rachel @dr_r_johnson
- Katie @KatieAttwell
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This week, we are helping you harness the power of cognitive principles to elevate your teaching practice. In this final instalment of our book study, we'll explore how we can leverage all of our learning from Daniel Willingham's book "Why Don't Students Like School" to help us become the best teachers that we can be.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
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Featured ContentFor detailed show notes, please visit our website at https://edugals.com/127****
- Why Don't Students Like School by Daniel Willingham
- How To Get Students Thinking - E110
- Strategies for Enhancing Memory & Critical Thinking - E113
- Learning That Transfers - E117
- Supporting Different Types of Learners - E121
- How Technology Influences Student Thinking - E125
- Chapter 10 key ideas:
- We're taking a break for the summer and we'll be back August 15th
- New book study coming up in the 2023-2024 school year: Grading for Equity by Joe Feldman
- Let's apply all of the cognitive principles in this book to our teaching practices!
- Guiding Principle: “Teaching, like any complex cognitive skill, must be practiced to be improved"
- Teaching is very demanding of working memory
- New teachers - learning factual knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, procedures etc and it takes time!
- Experienced teachers also go through growth and learning with new courses
- Deliberate practice:
- Pick one small skill, select a specific goal
- Get feedback
- Push yourself outside of your comfort zone
- It's mentally demanding... and not fun
- Practice indirect skills
- Lots of great resources: Jim Knight, Google Certified Coach
- Try a teaching sprint - based off the book Sprint by Jake Knapp
- Make space for relaxation & down time as you go through changes
- Getting & giving feedback:
- Record and watch yourself teaching
- Watch other teacher videos together
- Watch each others videos & give feedback
- Bring it back to the classroom
- Improvement takes time & change needs to be done purposefully
- Goal setting needs follow up
- Take care of yourself as you work on teaching practices!
Support the showConnect with EduGals:
- Twitter @EduGals
- Rachel @dr_r_johnson
- Katie @KatieAttwell
- EduGals Website
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This week, we are chatting about how to help students to make the most sense of language and symbols in the classroom. Using the UDL (Universal Design for Learning) framework and representation pillar, we are exploring ways to provide support and reduce barriers to language and symbols.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
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Featured ContentFor detailed show notes, please visit our website at https://edugals.com/126****
- CAST.org - Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework
- Representation pillar - Language and Symbols guideline
- Avoid single forms of representation
- Checkpoint #1: Clarify vocabulary and symbols
- Everyday vs academic language
- Shorthand notation
- Start a class crowdsourced glossary
- Beware of idioms
- Pre-teach vocabulary and symbols
- Embed vocabulary and symbols through hyperlinks
- Practice Sets in Google Classroom
- Checkpoint #2: Clarify syntax & structure
- Combining symbols and words change context
- Make it explicit!
- Checkpoint #3: Support decoding of text, mathematical notation, and symbols
- Text-to-speech
- Not everyone reads with fluency and comprehension
- Decoding increases cognitive load, uses working memory
- Scaffold skills - lab reports
- Audio paired with text
- Checkpoint #4: Promote understanding across languages
- Make resources available in other languages
- Allow the use of first languages
- Google Translate - doesn't always translate 100% but is useful for key concepts
- Multi-lingual glossaries - use pre-made or make one with your class
- Multiple modalities
- Checkpoint #5: Illustrate through multiple media
- Text is not always the best - use alternatives to support
- Images, simulations, video, graphs, etc
- Very useful for complex concepts
- Key Takeaway: Don't just use text, include multiple representations to best support learners
Support the showConnect with EduGals:
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- Rachel @dr_r_johnson
- Katie @KatieAttwell
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This week, we are chatting about how technology has (or hasn't really) impacted student learning. We're talking about how technology affects the learning and cognitive processes of our students, as well as the pros and cons of new technology and adopting these in the classroom.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
We would love to hear from you – leave a comment on our website OR check out our FLIPGRID!
Featured ContentFor detailed show notes, please visit our website at https://edugals.com/125****
- Why Don't Students Like School by Daniel Willingham
- How To Get Students Thinking - E110
- Strategies for Enhancing Memory & Critical Thinking - E113
- Learning That Transfers - E117
- Supporting Different Types of Learners - E121
- Chapter 9 key ideas:
- Guiding Principle: “Technology changes everything… but not the way you think”
- Will Chat GPT change everything in the classroom?
- Digital native vs digital immigrant
- "Comfort with technology comes from your context, not your generation"
- Myth of multitasking (or task switching)
- Impact of music & headphones on independent work
- Working memory capacity goes downhill after 20s
- PD for technology is needed with new tools
- Instructional tech coaches play a big role
- Train the trainer models
- Tools that improve learning work to improve cognitive processes
- Best tools are the simple tools (Screencastify for example)
- Start with the problems, then select the tech tool to support it
- Reading comprehension on screens vs paper
- Digital textbooks
- Memorization vs Googling it
- Note-taking - digital vs paper
- Time spent on devices
- Parenting with devices (tech addiction)
- Classroom implications - equity (avoid the digital divide), questions to consider when adopting tech, assistive technology, offer practice in sustained attention
Support the showConnect with EduGals:
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- Katie @KatieAttwell
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This week, we are sharing our favourite formative assessment tools. Formative assessment is essentially how we are assessing students for what they know while they are learning it in an ongoing format. There are so many great EdTech tools available to provide feedback to your students while they are learning, so we are sharing our favourites for inspiration!
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
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Featured ContentFor detailed show notes, please visit our website at https://edugals.com/101****
- Formative assessment = assessment for learning = assessment as learning
Our favourite tools:
- Screencastify - use prompts, problem solving explanations, pictures, visuals, retrieval practice
- Mote - great Google integrations, Mote Loops, MoteCon 2022 sessions
- Google Forms - self-grading quizzes, flipped classroom
- Kahoot, Quizizz, Gimkit, Blooket - great game apps for assessment, spreadsheets for Q uploads
- All things Google - collaborative, slides, comments, emoji reactions
- Low tech - paper or whiteboards are great!
- Digital whiteboards - Jamboard, Miro, etc
- EdPuzzle, PlayPosit, Nearpod, Screencastify - interactive questions for assessment
- Interactive presentation tools - Nearpod, Pear Deck - try self-paced mode!
- Padlet - online collaborative bulletin board, digital word walls, collaborative sharing, Q&A
- Plickers - combo of low and high tech using QR codes
- Polling tools - Poll Everywhere, Mentimeter, Answer Garden
- Portfolios - check out E074 to learn more - Google Sites or Drive works well
- Interviews & Conversations - have students prep ahead of time with audio or video tools mentioned above
- Podcasting - reflective, works well for problem solving
Support the showConnect with EduGals:
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- Katie @KatieAttwell
- EduGals Website
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In this episode, we are joined by a special guest from the Vancouver School Board, Jessica Liew, to chat about shifting our grading practices in the classroom. We'll get into all things assessment, focusing on standards-based grading, growth mindsets, and proficiency scales. Get ready to get nerdy about assessment!
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
We would love to hear from you – leave a comment on our website OR check out our FLIPGRID!
Featured ContentFor detailed show notes, please visit our website at https://edugals.com/84****
- Jessica Liew:
- Vancouver School Board
- Secondary Technology Support Teacher
- Social Studies Teacher
- Contact: jliew@vsb.bc.ca
- Resources Mentioned:
- Grading for Equity by Joe Feldman
- Grading Smarter, Not Harder by Myron Dueck
- Going Gradeless, Grades 6-12 by Elise Burns & David Frangiosa
- Tom Schimmer and Katie White
- Key Takeaways:
- Focus on the skills, using content as the vehicle to practice (skills matter more than content) - performance vs rehearsal
- Feedback first
- Focus on student learning and growth not grades and points
- Organizing your gradebook based on skills not tasks
- What are the outcomes of your course? What are the transferrable skills?
- Avoid the omnibus grade, assessment should only focus on the learning and understanding
- Ditch late marks, bonus marks, zeroes, 100-point scale, participation marks
- Carrot and stick approaches to grading don't work to support learning
- Is homework necessary or equitable?
- If you stop putting marks on everything, students stop asking what their grade is
- Changing your language around assessment can change student language as well
- Organizing gradebooks by standards helps provide focus on where students need to improve
- Standards-based grading is not a one size, fits all
- 4 point scale:
- 1 - Beginning (just starting to work with the skill, needs lots of support)
- 2 - Developing (partial understanding, lacks consistency)
- 3 - Applying (proficiency, complete understanding)
- 4 - Extending (work is exemplary, NOT beyond grade level)
Support the showConnect with EduGals:
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- Katie @KatieAttwell
- EduGals Website
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This week, we are chatting about why teachers are feeling so tired as well as identifying some strategies to cope and survive the rest of this school year. The exhaustion this school year is real so we are sharing different approaches we are taking to make it to summer in one piece!
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
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Featured ContentFor detailed show notes, please visit our website at https://edugals.com/124****
- The exhaustion is real this year!
- More sunlight is helping
- It's been rough with student behaviour in both of our buildings
- Lots of evening events
- Strategy #1: It's ok to say no! Don't stretch yourself too thin
- Strategy #2: Take mental health days as needed to take care of your own health
- Don't feel guilty about saying no
- Take naps as needed
- Strategy #3: Give yourself permission to not be the best teacher (don't take on extras, keep going with what you are doing and try to rely on your team)
- Work-life balance is off - commuting more takes away from planning time
- Resignations are up and, in some boards, bigger than retirements
- Politics and contract negotiations
- Strategy #4: Avoid the news and social media (blissful ignorance)
- Strategy #5: Spend time connecting with friends and family to refill your bucket
- Strategy #6: Create boundaries (check emails only in school hours)
- Strategy #7: COFFEE!
- Strategy #8: Take care of your health (eating well, exercising, listen to your body)
- Strategy #9: Hobbies (knitting, piano, violin)
- Strategy #10: Vent with critical friends (avoid bottling things up!)
- Strategy #11: Planning forward (camping, puppy)
Support the showConnect with EduGals:
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- Rachel @dr_r_johnson
- Katie @KatieAttwell
- EduGals Website
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This week, we are getting an update on Katie's project with Living Hyphen. She will be sharing updates on her dual language book project-based learning. The book has printed and officially launched!
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
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Featured ContentFor detailed show notes, please visit our website at https://edugals.com/123****
- Identity Texts & Project-Based Learning - E119
- Living Hyphen website
- ESL classes with a project-based learning lens (creating a book about immigration and settlement challenges)
- Dual language writing pieces
- Teams: events, graphic design, publicity, presentation, podcasting, sales, production managers
- Oakville News Article
- Lots of due dates, quick turnaround time (less than 1 month!)
- Book launch - reached out to classes, board members, local media
- Presentation - process of creating the book, sharing some entries
- Tools used - Canva (needs auto-generating page numbers!), used anonymized accounts to protect student privacy
- Big wins: courage to share their journey (some were not happy)
- Roadblocks: low proficiency ELLs and/or new arrivals (how to get them involved to help build language)
- Going Forward: Give yourself more time, let the students take ownership (give up control), make the role expectations explicit, connect with feeder schools
- Find those opportunities for elementary and secondary schools to overlap to build relationships
- If you are in the Oakville, ON area and are interested in getting a copy of the book, reach out to us!
Support the showConnect with EduGals:
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- Katie @KatieAttwell
- EduGals Website
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This week, we are chatting all about the 100-point scale, why it is biased towards failure, and what we can do instead to make our grading a bit more biased-resistant.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
We would love to hear from you – leave a comment on our website OR check out our FLIPGRID!
Featured ContentFor detailed show notes, please visit our website at https://edugals.com/122****
- Grading for Equity by Joe Feldman
- 100-pt scale is biased towards failure
- Zeroes disproportionately punishes students
- Too many transitions points between grades (judgement between grades is much harder)
- More inconsistencies of grading between teachers with 100-pt scale
- Try using a scale with fewer points (0-4, 0-3, 0-5 for example)
- Avoid marking everything - focus on summative tasks
- Most recent, most consistent
Minimal Scales:
- Decide how many transition points that you want
- 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 point scales are all possibilities
- Single point rubrics - criteria listed for level 3
- Mastery scales (yes, no) - criteria listed for level 4 (3 attempts allowed because expectations are high)
- Specifications Grading - E107
- This is NOT watering the curriculum or grading down!
- Multiple attempts or replacing grades as skills progress
Other suggestions:
- Setting a minimum grade (40 or 50%) - essentially equalizes the grade bands to make grading more equitable
- Using a 4 pt scale (or something similar), you will eventually need a grade conversion chart
- Specific grades - 95, 85, 75, 65, etc. - pick specific values for each level
- Think about your zeroes - is it compliance or comprehension?
- Keep students accountable instead of using a zero
Determining Final Grades:
- Eventually you will likely need to convert back to a 100-pt scale
- Automatic conversions in gradebook software
- Conferencing with students (along with reflections)
- Most recent, most consistent - look for trends
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This week, we are tackling the topic of our different types of learners and how we can support our learners who are a little bit more slow in the classroom. We'll go over the difference between cognitive ability and cognitive styles, as well as intelligence and how all of our students can build their intelligence in our classes.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
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Featured ContentFor detailed show notes, please visit our website at https://edugals.com/121****
- Why Don't Students Like School by Daniel Willingham
- How To Get Students Thinking - E110
- Strategies for Enhancing Memory & Critical Thinking - E113
- Learning That Transfers - E117
- Chapter 7 key ideas:
- Guiding principle: Children are more alike than different in terms of how they think and learn
- Cognitive Ability: Capacity for or success in certain types of thought
Cognitive Styles: Biases or tendencies to think in a particular way - Abilities differ but no style is better than the other
- When learning has meaning, learning styles don't matter
- Theory of multiple intelligences - Howard Gardner (8 intelligences)
- Watch your vocabulary when describing these intelligences (not abilities or talents!)
- Classroom implications: know your students, growth mindset, learning styles for content and not student, language used around multiple intelligences
- Chapter 8 key ideas:
- Guiding principle: Children do differ in intelligence, but intelligence can be changed through sustained hard work
- Nature vs Nurture
- Intelligence is malleable; it can be improved
- Build knowledge, convince students that intelligence can be improved
- Carol Dweck - fixed vs growth mindset
- Great connections to mastery-based learning and UnGrading
- Feedback for improvement
- Slow learners - can be changed! They are not dumb!
- Classroom implications: talk about intelligence as growth mindset, hard work pays off, failure is a natural part of the learning process (mastery learning), study skills, catching up is a long-term goal
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This week, we are chatting about how to boost student perception using multiple modalities. Using the UDL (Universal Design for Learning) framework and representation pillar, we are exploring ways to provide options for perception in the classroom.
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- CAST.org - Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework
- Perception = how students access information (i.e. providing multiple modalities)
- UDL = planning ahead for barriers vs. differentiation = reactionary to student needs
- Representation - allows for different ways that learners learn; there is not one single way that is optimal for all learners!
- Lots of connection to our book study - "Why Don't Students Like School?" by Daniel Willingham
- Perception - adjustability (EdTech tools) and multiple modalities (see, hear, touch)
Checkpoint 1: Offering ways of customizing the display of information
- Check the adjustability of your EdTech tools (videos, text, etc)
- YouTube - great tool for adjustability (speed, auto-generated closed captioning - all languages, volume, etc)
- Screencastify is also great, with easy export to YouTube
- Size of text, images, graphs, etc as well as contrast (low vision, colour-blindness)
- Add words to go along with any colour-coding (red = must do)
- Fonts! Digital vs print, avoid cursive or "pretty" fonts, Poppins is great
Checkpoint 2: Offer alternatives for auditory information
- Closed captions - enable in Google Slides for live presentations, use with videos
- If giving oral instructions, pair it with written
- Lots of text, visuals to go along with the auditory
- Use emoticons
- Mote is a great tool for auditory comments in Google Docs
- Read & Write
Checkpoint 3: Offer alternatives for visual information
- Provide text to go along with all images, graphs etc
- Instructional videos - annotate along with images, CC in YouTube
- Add audio instructions in Google Slides using Mote
- Read & Write is also a great tool to use for text-to-speech
- Text is a special case of visual information!
Digital Toolbox:
- Google Slides
- YouTube
- Read & Write
- Mote
- Online Voice Recorder
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This week, we are chatting all about specifications (or specs) grading. This is an alternative grading strategy that focuses on mastery of learning by defining specific requirements for what students need to meet.
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- Specifications (specs) grading works well with mastery-based learning
- Create specifications for what students need to demonstrate mastery
- Divide up the course into small modules and each module is passed by scoring 80% (mastery) or better
- Final grades are determined by how many of these modules are mastered
- One possible way to do this is to create essential outcomes (absolutely must pass) and general outcomes (grade modifiers)
- Example - IB Chemistry Year 1 grade conversion chart
- Students need multiple opportunities to master the outcomes - create multiple versions (think larger mastery check) for each outcome
- Each week, students can attempt outcomes
- Students appreciate this model - focus on learning, less stress
- Linda Nilson - Specifications Grading Book
- Popular in post-secondary, not sure who else is doing this K-12?
- Benefits - students are not getting left behind, experiencing success, working hard
- General outcomes - can become your focus of the final exam for one extra attempt!
- Tokens - can trade them in for handing in an assignment late, getting another attempt, etc
- Sharing with colleagues - some curiosity and some pushback
- Practice for standardized tests - can happen outside of this and doesn't need to be high stakes
- Webinar on Specs Grading in Chemistry
- Labs are also included - passing each lab will have specific requirements
- Another benefit - giving a test back is way less stressful and no grade grubbing! Tests are seen as learning opportunities
- Can be used in any course area (works well with single point rubrics too)
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This week, we are chatting about Living Hyphen, an organization that explores the experiences of hyphenated Canadians. Katie is sharing how her work with this organization is being used in her ESL classroom, by creating identity texts using a project-based learning (PBL) approach.
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- Living Hyphen
- Hyphenated Canadians - Canadians between cultures
- Writing workshops through Living Hyphen
- Honours first language as well as English
- Magazine comes out quarterly
- Living Hyphen Podcast
- Identity Texts
- Workshop leads students through a series of prompts (5 in total) - for example, the story of your name
- In the ESL classroom, creating a book of identity texts that will be sold to support the school's Angel fund
- Marketing: multicultural event, book launch, podcast
- Students take on different project roles
- Great example of true project-based learning!
- Teaming up with an organization is a great way to design project-based learning in your curricular area
- Book - thematic with 5 different prompts, dual language highlighted
- Student-led, giving up control
- Possible tools: Book Creator, Google Slides, Canva, others?
- Partner with other teachers in the school (for example, Comm Tech)
- Book Launch - in library, invite admin and local newspapers, presentation, refreshments, etc.
- Students can choose roles that support their strengths
- Evaluation? Process is evaluated over product; editing for comprehension only not perfection (keep the essence of inter-language to show their living hyphen)
- Invite students into the conversation around evaluation with project-based learning with reflection - avoid any negative impacts to student motivation
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This week, we are chatting about leadership in schools. We discuss both formal and informal leadership opportunities that you can become involved in with your school community to begin your journey as a leader.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
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Formal leadership opportunities:
- Department head - oversee program area, budgets, staffing, etc
- Instructional coaches
- Program leads (board level)
- Service side program areas:
- ESL teachers
- Student Success
- Special Education
- Guidance
- Need to dabble in at least one of these areas (service side) to develop your leadership skills
Informal leadership opportunities:
- School committees related to your interests and passions (blended learning team, IT team) - leads to teaching others!
- Staff learning team - planning PD
- Present PD to your peers - you have expertise even if you're still on the journey!
- Mentor for new teachers (formal or informal) - answer questions, problem solving, etc.
- Student teachers - learning goes both ways!
- Teacher in charge - step into the admin role temporarily
- Attend PD opportunities - build your knowledge, then share it with others
- Take courses for your learning
- Podcast!
- Lead a project (within a course or cross-curricular) or be a course team lead
- Deliver PD - you don't have to be an expert!
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This week, we are diving further into the book "Why Don't Students Like School?" by Daniel Willingham. Specifically, we are exploring ideas of understanding abstract ideas, practice that works, and thinking like the experts.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
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Featured ContentFor detailed show notes, please visit our website at https://edugals.com/117****
- Why Don't Students Like School by Daniel Willingham
- How To Get Students Thinking - E110
- Strategies for Enhancing Memory & Critical Thinking - E113
- Chapter 4 key ideas:
- "We understand new things in the context of things we already know and most of what we know is concrete"
- Analogies and concrete examples (need to be familiar to students)
- Learning That Transfers book by Julie Stern
- ACT model (acquire, connect, transfer)
- Understanding is built on combining past knowledge in new ways
- Shallow (limited to specific contexts) vs Deep knowledge (connections and application to new contexts)
- Transfer - surface (scenario) vs deep (concept) structure
- Expectations for deep knowledge needs to be realistic
- Multiple examples
- Chapter 5 key ideas:
- "It is virtually impossible to become proficient at a metal task without extended practice"
- Working memory has limited space - it's the fundamental bottleneck of human cognition!
- Chunking is a great strategy
- Not all things need to be practiced - what needs to be automatized?
- Cramming vs spaced practice
- Overlearning offers protection against forgetting
- Practice helps transfer!
- Spaced practice with Retrieval Grids
- Chapter 6 key ideas:
- “Cognition early in training is fundamentally different from cognition late in training"
- Students are not experts!
- Experts have a large amount of knowledge (facts, procedural), more sensitive to subtle cues (classroom management), clustered thinking (functions or deep structures)
- Students are ready to comprehend but not to create knowledge
- Don't expect novices to learn by doing what experts do
- Just because student’s can’t create like experts doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t create (science fair projects) - great for motivation!
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This week, we are chatting about learner variability in the context of Universal Design for Learning (UDL). Learner variability is not just simply learning styles; we'll define what learner variability is as well as the various strategies that we can use in the classroom to support all of our learners.
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- Learner variability is not the same thing as learning styles!
- Learner variability is holistic and flexible to meet the needs of our students as their needs ebb and flow
- Learner Variability Navigator by Digital Promise
- Four key factors for learner variability: content, cognition, social-emotional learning, and student background
- UDL framework principles:
- Variability is the rule, not the exception
- All students can work towards the same firm goals and grade level standards when provided with conditions of nurture and adequate support
- All learners can become expert learners if barriers are removed
- UDL and CRRP go together!
- UDL Rising to Equity Initiative
- Factors are all interconnected, research-based, lots of strategies provided with each one
- Advice for getting started:
- Get to know your students to learn their strengths and needs
- Focus on one pillar or area of need
- Try some of the instructional strategies
- Be flexible - students needs will ebb and flow depending on many other factors
- Start small, try 1 strategy and see how it goes
- Focus on developing your mindset
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In this 50TH episode of the podcast, we'll be discussing podcasting in the classroom. We'll get into the why behind podcasting as well as the prep & tools you need to get started.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
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- Hosting (Buzzsprout, Anchor.fm, Soundcloud, YouTube, Google Drive)
- Recording (Audacity, GarageBand, Hindenburg, Zencastr, Screencastify)
- Equipment (USB Dynamic Mic)
- VoiceEd Radio
- Chris Nesi Podcasting Resources
- Diverse Scientist Database
- Podcasting with WeVideo
- The SHIFT Show EDU
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This week, we are chatting all about leading change in education. Whether you are in a formal leadership position or an informal role, change is uncomfortable and messy. We've got some great tips and strategies on what you can do to lead change in your school community.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
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Featured ContentFor detailed show notes, please visit our website at https://edugals.com/116****
- Natalie Vardabasso - Tweet
- Follow Natalie on Twitter @natabasso
- Examples of changes: equity, destreaming, mastery-based classrooms
- Quote: "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result"
- Change takes a lot of time and not everyone is at the same level of readiness
- More about Steven Katz
- First 50% - early adopters, early majority
- Second 50% - late majority, active resistors
- Grow the top 50% (early adopters, early majority), nudge late majority, mitigate the negative impact of active resistors
- Diffusion of Innovations by Everett Rogers
- Leading change starts in our school communities
- Hold the space for the struggle - don't give up too easily!
- Find your people! Modern Classrooms Project, Twitter communities (UnGrading)
- Tips for leading change:
- Baby steps - The ONE Thing by Gary Keller & Jay Papasan
- Know your staff (learners) - develop strategies and honour boundaries
- Watch each other teaching
- Open your classroom door to others
- Strategic staffing based on goals
- Mitigate the negative impacts of your active resistors - have conversations, investigate the why, compromise
- Where do you want consistency?
- Hold the space for the struggle
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This week, we are tackling the skill of self-regulation. As the third and final part of the engagement section of the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework, self-regulation is an area that doesn't get a lot of focus on in the classroom. We unpack this section of the UDL framework as well as chat about different ways that you can integrate explicit teaching of self-regulation skills in your classroom.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
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- CAST.org - Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework
- Self-regulation = modulating emotional states and reactions to cope with the environment
- Part of learning skills in Ontario report cards
- 3 checkpoints:
- Promote expectations and beliefs that optimize motivation
- Facilitate personal coping skills and strategies
- Develop self-assessment and reflection
- Promoting expectations & beliefs that optimize motivation:
- setting personal goals, ownership of learning
- provide prompts, reminders, checklists, etc
- done well at elementary level, less frequent in secondary
- self-reflection - daily, weekly
- big distractor = technology, lots of check-ins or "are we making good choices with our phone?"
- coaches/mentors for student goal-setting & reflection
- realistic goals - good question to add to beginning of year surveys (set a goal, brainstorm steps to reach their goals, planning, etc)
- Atomic Habits by James Clear
- fostering positive beliefs that goals can be achieved (growth mindset)
- Facilitate personal coping skills and strategies:
- language matters... the power of YET (growth mindset)
- fear of failure, not doing well, looking bad in front of peers etc
- mastery-based learning builds confidence
- checklists + mastery
- checklists for personal & social anxieties in classroom
- behaviour is the result from lack of coping skills or frustration
- Develop self-assessment and reflection:
- recognizing progress impacts motivation - mastery works!
- devices to help collect, chart behaviour and progress - progress trackers (both public and individual)
- build in reflection about distractors, what went well, re-setting their goal, what is going on in my life to impact learning, etc on a weekly basis
- feedback on progress
- curriculum vs emotional regulation
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This week, we are chatting all about Chat GPT, an AI (artificial intelligence) chatbot. We'll give you our initial thoughts and reactions to Chat GPT, as well as what this might mean for education and our classrooms.
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- Chat GPT by OpenAI (AI chatbot)
- A tool for teachers not students
- Top concern for teachers: cheating, plagiarism
- Jamie Mitchell - Chat GPT segment on CBC
- Need to shift the focus from product to process
- Beware: the information from Chat GPT is not always accurate, based on a 2021 database
- Daniel Willingham's book - Why Don't Students Like School?
- Twitter Thread - Prompting Chat GPT with PREP
- Prompting is a transferable skill
- It's a source that needs to be referenced
- Read the privacy policy before you sign up an account (requires a phone number)
- Use login button to sign up with your Google account
- Great teacher tool for idea generation, inspiration, or a first draft as a starting place
- Lesson plans can be hit or miss
- Activity - create something in Chat GPT and have students analyze it
- Might see a return to pen and paper or planners for process thinking
- Thinking requires time, creativity, inspiration - tools like Chat GPT can be helpful
- Media literacy is going to become even more important - analysis over general knowledge
- Accounts - allowed for over 13 but beware and check board policies first
- Beat the Bot "Bursday"
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This week, we are diving further into the book "Why Don't Students Like School?" by Daniel Willingham. Specifically, we are exploring ideas of critical thinking, memory, and the importance of background knowledge in remembering key ideas and concepts.
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Featured ContentFor detailed show notes, please visit our website at https://edugals.com/113****
- Why Don't Students Like School by Daniel Willingham
- How To Get Students Thinking - E110
- Chapter 2 key ideas:
- Thinking skills depend on factual knowledge (intertwined and need to be practiced in parallel)
- Working memory capacity is limited - chunking can "expand" it
- Knowledge gaps continue to grow steadily unless we focus on closing the gaps
- Thinking like a scientist needs background knowledge - unexplained results require expectations
- Chapter 3 key ideas:
- Memory is the residue of thought
- What is in your memory? What do you always need to review?
- What you are ACTUALLY thinking about is what is going to stick in your memory
- Lessons - what do we want students to focus on and think about? Need purposeful goals and design
- Hooks - what will students be focusing on? The flashy part or the concept?
- Knowledge needs to first go into working memory before going into long-term memory
- Effective teachers - nice (connections) and organized (interesting to learn, easy to understand)
- Four types of connections - jokes, empathy/caring, storyteller, show person
- Storytelling is important for memory
- 4 C's: Causality, Conflict, Complications, and Character
- Lessons can be structured using the 4 C's
- Storyworthy by Matthew Dicks
- Flipping perspectives can be interesting (from character and conflict)
- Mnemonics are great for memorizing concepts without meaning - cues the brain
- Sometimes rote memorization needs to happen and that's ok!
- Classroom Implications:
- Critical lens to lesson plans - where is the focus of thinking?
- Use discovery learning with care
- Organize a lesson plan around the conflict
- Be careful with attention grabbers
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This week, we are chatting all about change with mastery learning in our classrooms! Specifically, we'll reflect on where we are at in our implementation journey as well as what changes we are going to make moving forward into the new semester.
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- Semester turnaround! Fresh starts are awesome
- Lofty goals! Stress less about videos, more on differentiation
- Implementing Mastery Learning by Thomas Guskey
- Modern Classrooms Project
- Initial instruction can be anything - live is likely better than using someone else's video
- Specific corrective activities before re-assessment
- Formally define re-assessment policies
- Get a handle on mastery learning first before layering self-pacing and blended instruction
- Mastery learning can fit within traditional teaching
- Seating charts for self-pacing time, based on lessons (similar to station-based learning) and pull small groups right away
- Thinking Classrooms by Peter Liljedahl - incorporate daily whole class activities
- More UnGrading!
- Revamping grade 9 skills-based mastery rubrics to 4 levels from 3 levels with checklist criteria with percentage mastered
- Still loving Specifications Grading!
- Individual trackers with suggested due dates - paper and digital available
- "This Week" slide/agenda for each week
- Finding more time/support for struggling students
- Randomized groupings/seating plans - stick with it... it takes time!
- Nothing will be perfect - we're always growing and learning
- Change implementation takes a long time (about 3 years!)
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This week, we are exploring the sustaining effort and persistence aspect of the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework. We'll go over the four key checkpoints within effort and persistence as well as explain how you can start to implement some ideas in your classroom.
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Featured ContentFor detailed show notes, please visit our website at https://edugals.com/111****
- CAST.org - Universal Design for Learning framework
- How to get students thinking - E110
- Sparking Excitement and Curiosity for Learning - E108
- Four checkpoints:
- Heighten salience of goals and objectives
- Vary demands and resources to optimize challenge
- Foster collaboration and community
- Increase mastery-oriented feedback
- Goals and Objectives:
- I can statements are a great start, have students re-state objectives in their own words
- Big picture to small objectives - what steps can we take?
- Use planner documents, scaffolds
- Engage learners in assessment discussions, rubric creation, review of exemplars
- Vary Demands and Resources:
- Knowing that learners vary in abilities and skills
- Knowing your learners, background knowledge, learned experiences
- Differentiation!
- Implementing Mastery Learning by Thomas Guskey
- Lots of parallels with mastery-based learning - all students can succeed
- Lesson classifications - Modern Classrooms Project
- Collaboration & Community:
- Feeling safe in the classroom = engagement
- Self-pacing and ungrading helps!
- Peer interactions and support
- Provide prompts for asking questions, using ask 3 before me and other structures
- Group work norms - great 1st week activity
- School-wide programs that are differentiated?
- Mastery Feedback:
- Constructive, timely, specific, focus on learning and improvement
- Focus on the skills you want students to improve on
- Build strategies for future success
- Specifications Grading - E107
- Our Favourite Formative Assessment Tools - E101
- Descriptive Feedback to Boost Student Learning - E091
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This week, we are starting a new book talk series! We are chatting about our learning and reflections on chapter 1 from Daniel Willingham's book, Why Don't Students Like School? There are lots of great brain-based and scientifically-backed ideas for your classroom in this book!
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
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Featured ContentFor detailed show notes, please visit our website at https://edugals.com/110****
- Why Don't Students Like School by Daniel Willingham
- More Info about Daniel Willingham (cognitive scientist)
- Chapter 1: Why Don't Students Like School
- Guiding principle: "people are naturally curious, but we are not naturally good thinkers; unless the cognitive conditions are right, we will avoid thinking"
- We mostly do things on auto-pilot and relies on our memory; very little is true thinking
- What is thinking? It is taking information from the environment and long-term memory (facts and procedures) and bringing them together into working memory to combine the ideas in new ways
- Thinking tasks need to be challenging enough to engage but not so challenging that it causes frustration
- Connections to Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics by Peter Liljedahl
- Differentiation, mastery-based learning = engagement!
- Gaps in background knowledge (facts and procedures) can limit engagement in thinking tasks
- Background knowledge is key - Googling takes way too long and distracts from the problem-solving process
- Implications for the classroom:
- Be sure that there are problems to be solved
- Respect students' cognitive limits
- Clarifying the problems to be solved
- Reconsider when to puzzle students
- Accept and act on variation in student preparation
- Change the pace
- Keep a diary
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- Twitter @EduGals
- Rachel @dr_r_johnson
- Katie @KatieAttwell
- EduGals Website
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This week, we are back and reflecting on the 2022 year. We'll chat about what we've struggled with and what we've learned as well as what our goals are for the new year.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
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- We're back to our weekly schedule!
- 2022 has been a challenging year - personally and professionally
- Lots of change and transitions - admin changes, role changes
- Change can be mentally and physically exhausting
- Saying no and asking for help, when needed
- Work-life balance is important
- Checking email and notifications - switch off after work hours!
- It's just a job
- New iPad app: Freeform (similar to Jamboard)
- What we're reading
- Ride to Conquer Cancer
- Goals for EduGals - consistency, sharing our learning, book club episodes, hit 150 episodes
- Successes - 100 episodes, joining the Education Podcast Network, presenting at ISTE
- Modern Classrooms Project Podcast - E116 with Rachel
- Some favourite past episodes - mastery-based learning, ungrading
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This week, we are diving deeper into the UDL (Universal Design for Learning) framework by exploring multiple means of engagement in the classroom. Specifically, we are focusing our discussion on how to spark excitement and curiosity in the classroom.
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- UDL Guidelines from CAST.org
- Providing multiples means of engagement pillar (the WHY of learning):
- Recruiting Interest
- Providing options, different modalities
- information that you have, that your learners are not, engaged with or interested in is actually information that's inaccessible to them
- Sustaining effort and persistence
- Self-regulation
- Recruiting Interest
Recruiting Interest:
- Optimize individual choice and autonomy
- Curriculum is not a choice but we can build in opportunities for choice elsewhere
- Skills-based courses can provide more choice in terms of student interests
- Choice in how information is obtained
- Doesn't need to be a lot of choices
- Involve students in success criteria, themes, resources in projects
- Involve learners in setting their own goals
- Point-less by Sarah Zerwin book
- Optimize relevance, value and authenticity
- CRRP
- Resources that are socially relevant, age and ability appropriate, first languages
- Instructional videos on YouTube for auto-translated captioning
- Google Translate is useful too
- Active participation and participation - hands-on activities, whiteboards
- Authentic tasks
- Minimize threats and distractions
- Creating a safe learning space for students
- Maslow's hierarchy
- Language as a threat - shutdown, fear can happen
- Too much sensory stimulation can be a threat/distraction - minimize the fluff, use the same templates, routine is great for student learning
- Self-pacing with Modern Classrooms
- Whole class discussions - think about your extraverts and introverts, use backchannel tools (padlet, google chat), video presentations
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In this episode, we are exploring the ways that you can leverage technology to support the English language learners in your classroom. We'll cover tech tools such as Google Read&Write and Mote, as well as some general tips and strategies for designing an inclusive and safe learning environment for your students.
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Common Acronyms:
- ELL - English Language Learner
- ESL - English as a Second Language
- EAL - English as an Additional Language
- STEP - Steps to English Proficiency
- OLB - Observable Language Behaviours
- OLLB - Observable Language and Literacy Behaviours
Overall Tips and Strategies:
- Use first languages (these are a strength and asset for learning)
- Integrate culture where possible and use lived experiences when designing resources
- Understand the difference between conversational and academic language
- Just because speaking is strong, it doesn’t mean reading/writing are the same - survival
- Don't make assumptions! Not all multilingual learners can read/write in their first language or have that specific knowledge in their first language
- Learn how to pronounce student names properly (use tech tools to support your learning)
- Use images and student-friendly definitions to reduce cognitive load
- Differentiation is needed! Check out the Modern Classrooms Project framework
- Scaffolding using sentence stems and frames
Resources Mentioned:
- Ontario STEP Framework
- OLB and OLLB Continua
- Modern Classrooms Project
- E051 with Jake Miller
Recommended Tech Tools:
- Google Read&Write by TextHelp (Dictionaries, Translations, Voice-to-Text, Highlighters)
- Google Translate (Extension or Website)
- Word Reference (virtual dual-language dictionary - multilingual)
- Translate using formulae in Google Sheets (see Jake Miller's Translate in Sheets EduGIF for more details)
- Mote
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This week, we are chatting all about specifications (or specs) grading. This is an alternative grading strategy that focuses on mastery of learning by defining specific requirements for what students need to meet.
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- Specifications (specs) grading works well with mastery-based learning
- Create specifications for what students need to demonstrate mastery
- Divide up the course into small modules and each module is passed by scoring 80% (mastery) or better
- Final grades are determined by how many of these modules are mastered
- One possible way to do this is to create essential outcomes (absolutely must pass) and general outcomes (grade modifiers)
- Example - IB Chemistry Year 1 grade conversion chart
- Students need multiple opportunities to master the outcomes - create multiple versions (think larger mastery check) for each outcome
- Each week, students can attempt outcomes
- Students appreciate this model - focus on learning, less stress
- Linda Nilson - Specifications Grading Book
- Popular in post-secondary, not sure who else is doing this K-12?
- Benefits - students are not getting left behind, experiencing success, working hard
- General outcomes - can become your focus of the final exam for one extra attempt!
- Tokens - can trade them in for handing in an assignment late, getting another attempt, etc
- Sharing with colleagues - some curiosity and some pushback
- Practice for standardized tests - can happen outside of this and doesn't need to be high stakes
- Webinar on Specs Grading in Chemistry
- Labs are also included - passing each lab will have specific requirements
- Another benefit - giving a test back is way less stressful and no grade grubbing! Tests are seen as learning opportunities
- Can be used in any course area (works well with single point rubrics too)
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- Katie @KatieAttwell
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This week, we are reflecting on our experiences with de-streaming in our classrooms so far in this school year. We will share our progress, our wins and challenges, and, most importantly, resources to help guide you along with this journey!
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- Ontario is de-streaming or academic strand in grade 9 this year
- New Ontario grade 9 science curriculum
- Mastery-based learning using Modern Classrooms Project framework
- Thinking Classrooms (Book)
- Design Thinking
- Ungrading (FAQ doc from Jesse Stommel)
- Project Zero - Visible Thinking (Thinking Routines Toolbox)
- CRRP (Culturally Responsive and Relevant Pedagogy)
- UDL (Universal Design for Learning)
- Grade 9 De-streamed Science Facebook Group
- Progress over perfection
- Try, Fail, Learn
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This week, we are chatting about learner variability in the context of Universal Design for Learning (UDL). Learner variability is not just simply learning styles; we'll define what learner variability is as well as the various strategies that we can use in the classroom to support all of our learners.
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- Learner variability is not the same thing as learning styles!
- Learner variability is holistic and flexible to meet the needs of our students as their needs ebb and flow
- Learner Variability Navigator by Digital Promise
- Four key factors for learner variability: content, cognition, social-emotional learning, and student background
- UDL framework principles:
- Variability is the rule, not the exception
- All students can work towards the same firm goals and grade level standards when provided with conditions of nurture and adequate support
- All learners can become expert learners if barriers are removed
- UDL and CRRP go together!
- UDL Rising to Equity Initiative
- Factors are all interconnected, research-based, lots of strategies provided with each one
- Advice for getting started:
- Get to know your students to learn their strengths and needs
- Focus on one pillar or area of need
- Try some of the instructional strategies
- Be flexible - students needs will ebb and flow depending on many other factors
- Start small, try 1 strategy and see how it goes
- Focus on developing your mindset
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This week, we are chatting about how chaotic this school year has been so far. We will share some of the different things that are making it feel so crazy, and we'll also brainstorm some ways that we can improve our daily teaching lives.
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- Teacher tired is happening already and it's only October!
- Chaotic startup for both of us - new student information system, more newcomers as immigration reopens, large class sizes with greater learning needs, emotional needs and well-being
- Why we're tired - introverts!, re-organization of classroom materials, fixing the mess of the pandemic, lack of downtime, sickness, busy in our classroom with a self-pacing learning model (intentional chaos), de-streaming and lots of change
Our tips and strategies for moving forward:
- Lean on each other - collaborative planning
- Give yourself permission to slow down and do a little less
- Release time for course planning, if possible
- Give yourself time to plan mastery-based learning
- Re-package and re-chunk your current materials
- Go for done, not perfect (create videos in one take!, worry less about making all the transitions or making your slides pretty)
- Consider annotating over animating when creating videos
- Be okay to say no and be selective about additional opportunities outside of the classroom
- If you're struggling, reach out to your colleagues and ask for help
- Be flexible with timelines - it all gets done
- Consider creating and using a common template (see E103)
- SlidesMania
- Make effective use of planning time during the week so you have downtime on the weekend
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- Twitter @EduGals
- Rachel @dr_r_johnson
- Katie @KatieAttwell
- EduGals Website
- Support the show
This week, we are chatting all about why UDL (Universal Design For Learning) is a great approach to designing classrooms that make learning accessible for all students. We are focusing on the big picture in this episode by going over what UDL is and isn't, how it's different from choice or differentiation, and strategies/tips to begin thinking about UDL in your lesson design.
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What is UDL?
- Based on the premise that all students are capable of success when we provide pathways and empower them to determine what they need at any given point in time
- Goal of UDL - create expert learners (purposeful and motivated, resourceful and knowledgeable, and strategic and goal-directed)
- Different from choice (just a piece of UDL) or differentiation (reactionary)
- Learner variability is the rule - a single explanation or model will not address the range of skills, abilities, language proficiencies, etc in a classroom - variability changes according to context, opportunity, etc.
- Lots of overlap with mastery-based learning, culturally responsive and relevant pedagogy (esp. high academic expectations), ungrading, trauma-informed pedagogy, blended instructional models
- 3 main buckets/pillars:
- Multiple means of engagement - student choice, lesson relevance, motivation, self-assessment, feedback
- Multiple means of representation - multiple modalities, scaffolds, visuals, cross-curricular connections, note-taking skills
- Multiple means of action & expression - EdTech tools, choice for demonstrating learning, feedback, reflection (portfolios, conferencing, entrance/exit tickets)
- It's okay to let go of control in your classroom; focus on de-centring yourself and shifting the focus onto students
Resources:
- UDL Infographic from Katie Novak
- Learner Variability Project - Digital Promise
- Learner Variability Navigator
- Universal Design for Learning (UDL): A teacher's guide
- UDL Guidelines from CAST
- UDL Progression Rubric from Katie Novak
- Chemix
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This week, we are back with an update on how mastery-based learning is going in our classrooms. We'll chat about our successes and challenges with mastery-based learning and provide some helpful tips and tricks along the way!
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- Mastery-based learning is a steep learning curve that is worth it!
- Grading conversations are minimized and students are focused on learning
- Getting to know students on a much deeper level this year
- Mastery gives you a lot of information quickly about students strengths and areas of need
- Routines need to be established early in the semester and this takes time!
- Seeing richer connections between students, especially between ELLs with different first languages
- Setting these high expectations is motivating for students
- Policies/procedures for reassessment of mastery checks - consider a verbal quiz before attempting version 3, for example
- Digital vs Paper mastery checks:
- Paper is better! Digital can create a bit of a tracking nightmare
- Consider printing each lesson on different coloured paper
- Paper adds a level of formality & seriousness, which builds accountability
- Paper is tangible, quick to assess
- Progress Trackers:
- Student-led Tracker example
- Auto-Updating Tracker from Modern Classrooms Project
- Public tracker provides another layer of motivation
- Building Resources:
- Approach this with a team, if possible
- This will get easier with time
- Templates:
- Rachel's lesson template
- Consider also using templates for mastery checks
- Overall, less focus on grades, more focus on learning
- Shifting the classroom culture, with more ownership on the students
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This week, we are chatting all about station-based learning. This instructional model is frequently used at the elementary level, so our focus for this conversation is how to implement station-based learning in the secondary classroom.
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- There are many different ways to set up stations - by activity, by curriculum strand
- Can be done over a day, several days, or even a week
- Catlin Tucker - Blended Learning in Action book and Balance with Blended Learning book
- Station Rotation Model:
- Teacher-led, small group work, individual practice, online learning, collaborative stations
- Doesn't need to be physical locations in your room although this can help your students stay on task!
- Other ideas for stations: makerspace, research, project-based learning, design & create, virtual field trips, role playing &/or performance, feedback
- Feedback station suggestions:
- Peer review, teacher led, self assessment
- Provide sentence starters and/or frameworks to guide peer and self assessment
- Behind the scenes:
- Lots of upfront work with a big payoff
- Consider approaching the topic using different modalities
- Think about those topics that students often struggle with to target for stations
- Help students learn the model by starting with low stakes stations (getting to know you activities for example)
- Consider interactions: teacher-student, student-student, student-content
- Have clear objectives, tasks, instructions
- Works well with mastery-based learning
- Mix up the activities you use
- Look at UDL framework for inspiration
- Logistics in the classroom:
- Limit the number of students per station
- Use a timer and project it to keep students on task
- It's ok not to finish all tasks
- Consider lesson classifications from Modern Classrooms framework
- Add in a fun station (curriculum-related board games, etc.)
- Tech vs no-tech - not all stations need tech!
- If using tech, consider all aspects - headphones, headphone splitters, chromebooks, adapters
- Expect a learning curve - try, fail, learn!
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This week, we are sharing our favourite formative assessment tools. Formative assessment is essentially how we are assessing students for what they know while they are learning it in an ongoing format. There are so many great EdTech tools available to provide feedback to your students while they are learning, so we are sharing our favourites for inspiration!
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- Formative assessment = assessment for learning = assessment as learning
Our favourite tools:
- Screencastify - use prompts, problem solving explanations, pictures, visuals, retrieval practice
- Mote - great Google integrations, Mote Loops, MoteCon 2022 sessions
- Google Forms - self-grading quizzes, flipped classroom
- Kahoot, Quizizz, Gimkit, Blooket - great game apps for assessment, spreadsheets for Q uploads
- All things Google - collaborative, slides, comments, emoji reactions
- Low tech - paper or whiteboards are great!
- Digital whiteboards - Jamboard, Miro, etc
- EdPuzzle, PlayPosit, Nearpod, Screencastify - interactive questions for assessment
- Interactive presentation tools - Nearpod, Pear Deck - try self-paced mode!
- Padlet - online collaborative bulletin board, digital word walls, collaborative sharing, Q&A
- Plickers - combo of low and high tech using QR codes
- Polling tools - Poll Everywhere, Mentimeter, Answer Garden
- Portfolios - check out E074 to learn more - Google Sites or Drive works well
- Interviews & Conversations - have students prep ahead of time with audio or video tools mentioned above
- Podcasting - reflective, works well for problem solving
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This week, we are celebrating the 100th episode of the EduGals podcast. We have handed over the reins to two amazing guests, Stephen Hurley and Doug Peterson, to interview us about our journey with podcasting and the future of EduGals!
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- Stephen Hurley (Twitter) @Stephen_Hurley
- Doug Peterson (Twitter) @dougpete
Topics covered in this episode:
- Welcome to Stephen Hurley and Doug Peterson
- How we got started with podcasting and blogging
- Why we podcast
- The topic of our second podcast - can you guess what it was?
- Do we listen to our oldest podcasts?
- Our recording process - from detailed outlines to what we do now (topic, separate research, just hit record and have a conversation)
- Our gear - started with USB mic and a rubbermaid container; now using Rode PodMics
- Our impact - greatest in our own professional growth; we see it in our classrooms
- Listener connections are important to us!
- Podcasting is a problem solving process for us
- MoteCon - check out Rachel's session
- PD sessions - EduGals is presenting at the ISTE Creative Constructor Lab in October 2022!
- Our vision and why we stay separate from our school board
- Four introverts walk into a Zencastr room!
- Podcasting with students - start small, think micro-podcasts, build scaffolds
- Staying fresh in the crowded podcasting space
- Upcoming topics for the EduGals podcast
- Our publishing process and division of labour
- Getting started with podcasting - equipment, ideas, just hit record!
- Episode 200 will be on Google Sheets
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This week, we are discussing various strategies, tips, and ideas for digital teacher organization. As we embark on a new school year, this is a great time for you to get organized and develop some systems to help keep you on track. We'll talk about digital planning, Google Drive, Google Calendar, Canva, Slides Mania, and Gmail.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
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Featured ContentFor detailed show notes, please visit our website at https://edugals.com/62****
- Paper planning - Happy Planner and Sharpie Pens
- Digital Planning
- Using the Google Calendar created by Google Classroom
- Canva planner templates, lesson plan templates, and desktop wallpapers
- Download as an image and add it to Google Slides as a background image
- Download as a PDF and use it with your iPad/tablet (Good Notes)
- Slides Mania - Weekly planners, Yearly planners, Notebook Style, and Morning Meeting Layouts
- The GRID Method webinar - Stephanie Howell
- Consider creating a slide deck/doc as an overview with all resources hyperlinked (helps with Classroom organization)
- Google Calendar
- Time blocking with Google Tasks, easy to move tasks/events but beware!
- Hyperlink resources into your event
- Google Keep
- Great for to-do lists, regular checklists
- Google Keep headers blog post
- Gmail
- Gmail tips for L1 exam blog post and Gmail podcast episode
- Multiple aliases
- Google Drive
- Naming conventions, starred folders, priority tab (workspaces), deal with orphaned docs
- Google Drive podcast episode
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This week, we are sharing our favourite new Google features. There have been so many great updates to Google tools over the past few months and we are excited to share new features that we are excited about in Google Classroom, Gmail, Calendar, Meet, Docs, Forms, and Drive.
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- Google Classroom - Add-Ons
- Gmail - New Integrated View
- Email Marketing Tools for Gmail (Layout and Multi-Send)
- Google Chat - Delete Chat Spaces & Content
- Google Calendar - Appointment Scheduling Sharing
- Google Meet - Picture-in-Picture
- Google Meet - Companion Mode
- Google Meet - Live Streaming to YouTube
- Google Docs - Table Templates
- Google Docs - Emoji Reactions
- Google Docs - New Notification Settings
- Google Forms - Fonts & Customization
- Google Drive - File Location
- For more Google Updates, check out the Google Workspace Updates Blog
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This week, we are sharing some tips and tricks to gear up for the new school year. We'll discuss reminders, considerations, and EdTech tools you might use as you get started with your planning.
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Start with big-picture or long-range planning:
- Prioritize your ambitions and goals - rein in your wild ideas!
- Long-range planning will help make the day-to-day planning easier
- Think about what your summative assessments will be
- The minutia of the daily planning will get done - it's ok to not have that ready yet because you need to get to know your students first
- Mastery-based learning - different way of thinking which gives you more flexibility in planning
- Growing pains will happen - expect them if you are trying something new!
EdTech Tools we recommend:
- Screencasting tools - Screencastify, Loom, Screencast-o-matic, Explain Everything, OBS Studio (stick to one only for students)
- Loom for Educators
- Check for privacy/data and board/district policies
- Google Slides - create HyperDocs for mastery-based learning (better than docs)
- Learning Management System (Google Classroom, Brightspace, Canvas, etc) - organization, consistent naming/numbering systems, personalization, minimize navigation
- Google Assignments in LMS for student submissions
Community Building:
- Super important over the first two weeks of school
- Hands-on learning in small, randomized groupings (inquiry, design thinking, etc)
- Diagnostics to figure out starting points
- Consider skills units at the beginning of the semester
- Help new students learn about their school community (tours)
- Use simple icebreaker activities to start off group work (this or that, would you rather, two truths and a lie, etc) - model this first as a teacher
- Colleague relationships matter too! Informal is better than forced icebreakers
Self-Care:
- Establish your routines now, prioritize yourself and your goals
- Figure out what works for you, self-care looks different for everyone
- Add habits to your to-do list (Todoist is great!)
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This week, we are talking all about how to build buy-in for ungrading in your school community. We'll discuss ungrading buy-in strategies for various different stakeholders such as teachers, admin, parents, and most importantly, students. Let's start talking about ungrading!
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
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Teachers/Admin:
- Start with conversations about grading and grading practices
- Why aren't traditional grading practices working?
- Leverage opportunities informally in your workroom, more formally in department meetings
- Keep in mind - slow and deliberate changes towards ungrading (it's a spectrum)
- Many ways to ungrade (mastery, standards-based, feedback, etc)
- Focus on the feedback and learning over grades
- Look at printouts of marks for students, rubrics we're using (single point vs 4-level), success criteria, moderated marking
- Try to find common ground, team dynamics matter
- Rethinking Letter Grades - Conversation Cards
- Grades are very personal - Grading for Equity by Joe Feldman
- Share your own vulnerability
- Open your classroom space, share your ungrading practices
- Honour professional judgement
- Invite colleagues and admin into your classroom
- Keep your admin in the loop - let them know what you are doing with ungrading and be prepared with a plan
Parents:
- Parents are allies - need transparency, clear communication of grading practices
- Pitch/justify your why of ungrading - send out a newsletter early in the school year
- Mastery can start a strong parent-teacher relationship
- Start an FAQ document to share with parents, teachers, admin, etc - post on website, LMS, etc
Students:
- This is the trickiest group to build buy-in!
- Consider the language you use to talk about grading, assessment, and feedback
- Expect pushback - this takes a bit of time to learn
- Involve students in the grading practices
- Start with having a conversation in general about grading
- Have them track their progress with a portfolio
- Build in reflection opportunities
- Know that emotions can be high - some students might feel anxiety and stress
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We are talking all about how to leverage tech tools to build community in your (hopefully) face-to-face classroom. We'll link different tools to our four whys of community building: collaboration, communication, social-emotional learning, and safe & inclusive environments.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
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Reasons for Building Community:
- Communication
- Screencastify - overviews, instructional videos, presentations, email responses, feedback
- Mote - use in slides, docs, gmail etc. for audio only
- Google Chat - individual or group chats, informal, easier for students than email (low risk)
- Google Meet - extra help sessions outside of class, drop in
- LMS - announcement tools, discussion boards
- Collaboration
- Google Jamboard (digital whiteboards) - small groups, breakout rooms, brainstorming, getting to know you activities, word walls, research, games
- Flipgrid - screen share behind your picture now!
- Google Slides, Docs, and Sheets - graphic organizer to get them started, collecting data as a class, crowdsourcing problem solving with Screencastify
- Social-Emotional Learning and Safe & Inclusive Environments
- Use a variety of tools, modes of communication
- Google Forms - gather info about your students, check ins, class song playlist, languages
- Involve your students in your classroom layout, whether it is physical or virtual (LMS) - custom banners, layout, unit vs week
- Check Ins - Google Form, Google Slides, etc. to see how students are doing
- Headspace
- Online games - Jamboard, Kahoot, Quizizz, Google Arts & Culture Puzzle Party - you can have students create these to save time!
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This week, we are chatting all about different classroom strategies that we can use to support our English language learners (or multilingual learners). We'll explore a variety of strategies to support learners at varying levels of language learning in our classrooms. Katie is super pumped for this episode since teaching English language learners is her wheelhouse!
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
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- What works for ELLs, (English language learners) also works for ALL learners
- Universal Design for Learning approach
Strategies:
- Use of images/visuals along with words (decreases reliability on translators) - dual coding theory
- Academic (content-specific, assessment words, etc) vs conversation/social language
- Requires explicit teaching
- Collaborative vocabulary lists (Frayer model, SEE-I model) - include word, translation, interaction opportunities, images
- Read&Write for Google Chrome and Google Slides to build class vocab lists
- Dual/single language vocab placemat for assessment language
- Incorporate student voice
- Asking questions - be specific (what questions do you have about x? etc)
- Demonstration of learning:
- Consider early language learners - how can they demonstrate what they know? Need to offer options!
- Make use of first language
- What are you assessing? Knowledge or language?
- Mastery-based learning (Modern Classrooms Project)
- Word banks, sentence stems, sentence frames - add scaffolds into assessments
- Model writing with your class (I do, we do, you do - groups then individual)
- Try fill-in-the-blanks as a scaffold and then pull back the scaffolds over the semester
- Graphic organizers:
- Teaching different note-taking methods (jot dots, Cornell notes, etc)
- Plagiarism happens because our language learners don't have the language to be able to put it into their own words
- Know that students come from a lot of different lived experiences - build relationships, cultural awareness, critical conciseness, and trauma-informed teaching and learning strategies
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This week, we are chatting all about mastery-based grading in skills-based curriculum areas. We've got a packed episode where Rachel is reflecting on her thought processes and Katie helps with problem-solving some challenges with mastery-based grading.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
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- Mastery-based scales for skills - easy to understand for students, teachers, and parents
- Proficiency scales from the book: Going Gradeless by Dave Frangiosa and Elise Burns
- Start by breaking it down:
- What are the key skills you want students developing in your course?
- Break it down - what does it look like for each level of the scale?
- Consider benchmarks
- How many levels do you want in your scale?
- How would this convert into grades? Consider a grade conversion scale
- Standards-based grading scales - for science it can be tricky because you value both background knowledge AND skills (see Jessica Liew's episode E084 to learn more)
- Teasing apart knowledge and skills is challenging - what are you actually assessing?
- Assessment plan:
- Mastery checks for background knowledge only
- Checkpoints (cumulative quizzes) - both knowledge and skills (problem solving, communication) with re-tests focused on knowledge only
- Inquiry, design thinking, projects - all skills based scales
- Skills scales have 3 levels - Got It, Almost, Not Yet
- Scaffold building of the skills within the assessments themselves
- Regardless of system, communication is going to be key!
- Final grades:
- Percentage of mastery demonstrated of knowledge and skills
- Skills can be most recent, most consistent - replacing grades in your gradebook
- Try group moderated grading as you try this out
- Expect grading conversations to take a long time!
- I can statements as a checklist for mastery-based grading with space for comments/feedback
- You don't have to have all the answers - try, fail, learn, and iterate!
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This week, we are chatting all about our why and what brings us joy in education. We'll reflect on our educational journeys and talk about how we've made decisions that have impacted our career pathways. Reminding ourselves of where we find joy is one way that we are preparing ourselves for new challenges in the next school year.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
We would love to hear from you – leave a comment on our website OR check out our FLIPGRID!
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Things that bring us joy:
- Students, relationships, and the classroom
- Focusing on joy can help you make career decisions
- Reality testing your assumptions - try ooching (from the book Decisive by Chip and Dan Heath)
- Staffing process, timetabling - a big, fun logic puzzle
- Problem-solving, collaborating, and socializing with colleagues
- Being part of a larger school community
- Learning - teaching is a challenge, how can I improve? M.Ed., other courses, reading
- Sharing our learning - presenting at conferences or staff meetings, podcasting, running PD
- School breaks especially summer - getting outside into nature, not working, spending quality time with family and friends
- Opportunities such as 3 over 4 - apply to work for 3 years with a year off (pay is spread out over the 4 years)
- System-level roles help to understand how decisions are made for the board
- School events - commencement, prom, grade 9 nights, etc.
- Being a part of a student's journey and growth over the high school years
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In this blast from the past, we are digging into the HOW of ungrading. In part 2 of this 2 part series, we are talking about different strategies and ideas to get started with ungrading in the classroom. It can feel pretty overwhelming to get started, so tune in to listen to some easy ways to dive into ungrading ideas.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
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Ideas/Strategies:
- Podcasting - listen to E050 for more info on Podcasting in the Classroom
- Focus on reflection of learning, process of learning
- Video - Screencastify/Screencastify Submit
- Feedback first before grades
- Involve students in grade determinations (conferencing, interviews)
- Student self-assessment of traditional tests
- Rubrics - consider single point rubrics, co-constructed with students
- Mastery-based grading or minimal grading scales - pass/fail, mastered/getting there/not yet, etc.
- Portfolio/Blogging - gathering the evidence of learning throughout a course
- Before each reporting period, consider process letters, conferences, interviews
- Seek admin support
- Balance between mastery-based grading and ungrading practices
- Start with your learning goal and choose strategies that support it
- Peer-to-peer feedback (scaffolded, sentence stems/frames, start with low stakes)
- Determining grades via self-, peer-, and teacher-feedback combined
- Grade-free zones (first 1/3 of your course)
- Contract grading
Links Mentioned:
- So You Wanna #Ungrade? The Practical Guide - Clarissa Sorensen-Unruh
- Grading Student Writing: Making It Simpler, Fairer, Clearer - Peter Elbow
- How To Ungrade: A Workshop (Jesse Stommel)
- Tweet: 12 alternatives to letter grades in education (Teach Thought)
- Peer Grade (useful tool for peer feedback)
- Sprint: Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas In Just 5 Days (Jake Knapp)
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In this blast from the past, Katie and I explore the ways to set up your Learning Management System (LMS) effectively and efficiently to optimize course organization and learning for your students. We reviewed tips, strategies, and ideas for setting up your LMS, whether it is Brightspace, Canvas, Schoology, Google Classroom, or something else.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
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- Use your LMS, even if you are fully face-to-face
- Layout and Homepage:
- This is your doorway into your virtual classroom
- Easy navigation - minimize the links to the essentials
- Link all of your other tools within the content area
- Include contact info on homepage
- Announcements
- Brightspace Part 1 and Brightspace Part 2 episodes
- Organization:
- Embed third party tools (EdPuzzle, Google Slides, YouTube videos, etc) into your content area
- Link in Google Docs when it makes sense
- Use consistent naming & numbering systems (reduces cognitive load)
- Folders - units, weeks, whatever works best for you
- Use your announcements to lay out weekly expectations
- Include student voice in planning and organization
- Include visuals and make it look pretty - design is important (consistent fonts, icons, emojis, etc to reduce cognitive load and increase engagement)
- It's okay to set up your LMS to meet your needs, just make sure you create an intro video to help your students navigate it - Screencastify is great!
- Canva is a great tool for design - Canvas Banner, Canvas Button, Google Classroom Header (also a Style Your LMS category available)
- Inclusion Ideas:
- Include important cultural celebrations
- Add your personality - Bitmoji or GIPHY is great and integrated into Canva
- Have students design your classroom banners - include languages represented in your classroom too
- Design With Canva YouTube channel
- A Scary Suggestion:
- A little bit of basic coding (HTML and CSS) goes a long way!
- Code Academy (look under Web Development)
- This helps with interactive elements in your LMS - buttons, flipcards, etc.
- Final Advice:
- Use student-friendly language to increase accessibility
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This week, we are chatting all about our reading, learning, and relaxing plans for the summer. It's been a tough year and we are ready for a break! We'll go over some great books to read, summer course that we might be taking (or not taking), and how we plan to recharge ourselves to get ready for the new school year.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
We would love to hear from you – leave a comment on our website OR check out our FLIPGRID!
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Learning/Working:
- Modern Classrooms Project Summer Institute
- Other professional learning courses (Rachel is taking her Principal's Qualifications... maybe)
- Building resources/lessons for de-streamed grade 9 science and ESL mastery (consider building templates as a team to reduce the workload)
- Footgolf in Hamilton, ON
- Katie is NOT working for the first time in quite a while
- ASM Materials Education Foundation - Materials Science Camp for Teachers
Reading:
- Leading for Equity and Social Justice
- Equity by Design
- Braiding Sweetgrass (audio is best)
- Is Everyone Really Equal?
- Classroom Assessment and Grading That Works
- Giving Students a Say
- Decisive
- Thanks for the Feedback
Relaxing:
- Camping, reading, walking, getting into the right mindset for Sept.
- Next episode: July 5th, bi-weekly schedule
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This week, it's all about cleaning up our digital lives to get organized and ready for summer (and the new school year)! We are chatting about tips and tricks to organize your Google Drive, learning management systems (LMS) such as Google Classroom, Brightspace, Canvas, or others, and your other digital and local file storage systems.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
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Featured ContentFor detailed show notes, please visit our website at https://edugals.com/92****
Google Drive:
- Create an archive folder for this past school year for meeting notes, etc
- NEW Keyboard shortcuts in Google Drive
- Start with organizing/purging the orphaned files (not associated with any folder)
- Beware of slides.new, docs.new, etc
- Try switching between list view to grid view to see a preview
- Move multiple files by holding down control/cmd or use shift while clicking to select
- Create folders for the new school year
- Add reflection docs and record your thoughts NOW while they are fresh
- Rename folders starting with numbers to give them priority
- Go through your starred folder - do you need everything still?
- Consider using priority workspaces - hide ones you don't need (no need to delete)
- Don't touch your shared with me folder - it's meant to be a hot mess
- Check sharing settings on your folders - remove people or set temporary access
Local Storage:
- Start with your downloads folder, move relevant files to the cloud
- Clean up your desktop - delete screenshots and old files that might be slowing down your device
- Screenshot shortcut for clipboard on Mac = cmd + ctrl + shift + 4
- iCloud drive (similar suggestions to Google drive) or other cloud storage drives
Learning Management System (LMS)
- Google Classroom - return student work, archive old classes, set up new classes
- Brightspace, Canvas etc - not as much to do here, make sure student work is returned, pin/unpin relevant courses, consider organizing template course shell
Final Advice:
- Organizing your workspace/desk can help you get started
- Pick 1-2 areas to focus on and just start there
- Consider setting a 10 min timer each day to work on digital organization
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This week, we are chatting about all things descriptive feedback. We're exploring what descriptive feedback is, how you can tailor descriptive feedback to boost student learning, and general tips and strategies to make descriptive feedback easy and manageable to implement in your classroom.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
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- Descriptive Feedback - What do you notice, where are the gaps, and what specifically can you do to improve
- Not fair to students to give feedback without giving opportunities for putting it into practice
- Feedback is a constant cycle between student and teacher
- Time is a big barrier to providing descriptive feedback - digital tools, peer feedback, self-reflection, audio/video feedback are all ways to help
- Consider including a checklist or success criteria in student-friendly language with task/assignment submissions
- Book: How To Give Effective Feedback to Your Students by Susan M. Brookhart
- Feedback strategies:
- Timing - throughout skill development, immediate or slightly delayed, put the feedback into practice, short mastery checks are quick to grade!
- Amount - avoid fixing everything (cognitive load), focus on 1-2 key ideas to give feedback, focus on usable feedback that moves the student learning forward
- Mode - written, verbal, most effective as a conversation; try audio/video feedback for larger projects
- Audience - knowing your students, gearing feedback with appropriate language, try group/whole class feedback
- Word choice/language in feedback matters:
- Mastery-based language (almost there!)
- Focus on the strengths/weaknesses of the work itself
- Avoid any type of judgement of the student themselves
- I notice..., I wonder..., consider...
- Referencing success criteria and making comparisons
- Reflective questions
- Positive, asset vs deficit-based mindsets
- Digital Tool Recommendations and Ideas:
- Mote
- Screencastify
- Notability or Good Notes (great on an iPad)
- Explain Everything
- Dropdown Chips in Google Docs (E090)
- Save your common feedback notes in Google Docs or Keep or Classroom
- Consider creating videos for common mistakes
- EdPuzzle
- Branched Google Forms
- Google docs/slides with all levels of feedback with links (can help scaffold peer feedback)
- Choice boards for peer feedback
- Resources:
- Descriptive Feedback Techniques Part 1 with Rick Wormeli
- Descriptive Feedback Techniques Part 2 with Rick Wormeli
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This week, we are sharing a short reflection on the latest edition to Google Docs - dropdown chips! This new feature has a lot of great applications for the classrooms, including rubrics, student-facing pacing trackers, and so much more.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
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- Google Workspace Updates: Dropdown Chips
- Looks and feels similar to Notion tools
- Uses: Mastery-based rubrics, digital grading, tracking ordering, student-facing pacing trackers
- Dropdown chips are a part of the new Google smart chips
- Can copy and paste dropdown chips within a doc or between docs
- Supports Universal Design for Learning - especially for providing options for executive functions
- Colours (text and background) can both be customized with hex codes
- Consider creating a template doc to store all of your custom dropdown chips
- Add your template doc to your priority tab workspace or starred folder in Google Drive
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This week, we are reflecting on our excitements, challenges, and worries as we think forward to the new school year in September. We're chatting all about our latest projects and how we're implementing them into our classrooms in the fall as well as some of the struggles we have had so far with this process.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
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Featured ContentFor detailed show notes, please visit our website at https://edugals.com/89****
- Rachel is heading back to the classroom in September!
- New Ontario Grade 9 de-streamed science curriculum
- The students are what makes the job - we both love the classroom and building relationships with our students
- Katie - Building a mastery-based and de-streamed approach to the ESL program at her school with a project-based learning focus
- Rachel - Grade 9 science with a mastery-based, gradeless, and project-based approach (engineering, sustainability, and interdependence lenses)
- Transparency and developing the why is key!
- Building a team that is all in helps to build the momentum (look for folks who want to try new things and are willing to put in a bit of extra time)
- Big struggle currently - lack of time and release time, common lunches can help
- Balance between being innovative and not burning out
- Our worries - not being properly prepared, ensuring student success in de-streaming, burning out with change or emotions, returning to past role (Rachel), PD after school hours will continue, no release time, no collaboration
- Summer PD opportunity: Material Sciences Camp from ASM (lots of locations)
- Summer - Katie is going on a big camping trip, Rachel is looking at day trips to do
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This week, we are discussing the NEW format of the Google Certified Educator exams (Level 1 and Level 2), as well as Google's other certification programs (Trainer, Coach, Innovator). We'll get into some great ideas on how to prepare yourself for the certifications, as well as our best advice on which of the other Google certification programs might be right for you.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
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There have been lots of changes to the Google Certified Educator Level 1 and Level 2 exams, so be sure to check out all of the great resources here to get prepared!
Exam Format (Level 1 and Level 2):
- No more scenario based questions
- 35 "active" multiple choice, drag and drop questions
- 180 minutes total allowed
- No incognito window or separate exam account needed
- Beware about your Google account settings before signing up
Resources Mentioned:
- Google Certified Educator - What To Expect On The Exams
- Google Certified Educator - L1 and L2 Exam FAQs
- Google Educator Level 1 Task Cards
- Google Educator Level 2 Task Cards
- Fundamentals Course Outline.pdf
- Advanced Course Outline.pdf
- Google Certified Educator Registration Guide.pdf
- Google Teacher Center
- Google Certified Trainer Video Example from Rachel
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This week, we are chatting all about why UDL (Universal Design For Learning) is a great approach to designing classrooms that make learning accessible for all students. We are focusing on the big picture in this episode by going over what UDL is and isn't, how it's different from choice or differentiation, and strategies/tips to begin thinking about UDL in your lesson design.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
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What is UDL?
- Based on the premise that all students are capable of success when we provide pathways and empower them to determine what they need at any given point in time
- Goal of UDL - create expert learners (purposeful and motivated, resourceful and knowledgeable, and strategic and goal-directed)
- Different from choice (just a piece of UDL) or differentiation (reactionary)
- Learner variability is the rule - a single explanation or model will not address the range of skills, abilities, language proficiencies, etc in a classroom - variability changes according to context, opportunity, etc.
- Lots of overlap with mastery-based learning, culturally responsive and relevant pedagogy (esp. high academic expectations), ungrading, trauma-informed pedagogy, blended instructional models
- 3 main buckets/pillars:
- Multiple means of engagement - student choice, lesson relevance, motivation, self-assessment, feedback
- Multiple means of representation - multiple modalities, scaffolds, visuals, cross-curricular connections, note-taking skills
- Multiple means of action & expression - EdTech tools, choice for demonstrating learning, feedback, reflection (portfolios, conferencing, entrance/exit tickets)
- It's okay to let go of control in your classroom; focus on de-centring yourself and shifting the focus onto students
Resources:
- UDL Infographic from Katie Novak
- Learner Variability Project - Digital Promise
- Learner Variability Navigator
- Universal Design for Learning (UDL): A teacher's guide
- UDL Guidelines from CAST
- UDL Progression Rubric from Katie Novak
- Chemix
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This week, we are bringing you our 10 favourite approaches to get started with ungrading. We are focusing on those strategies that are easy to adapt to the needs of your classroom so that it is easy for you to get started! Just keep in mind that there is no right or wrong way to ungrade, so find the strategies that will work best for you.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
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Our top 10 Ungrading strategies:
- Feedback/Critiques - use positive, growth mindset language and continuous feedback loops
- Voice & Choice - let students choose a specific focus for you to concentrate on/assess
- Create a supportive classroom environment for authentic peer feedback - try using sentence stems/starters and frameworks for peer feedback
- Reflections - entrance/exit tickets, Google Forms, goal-setting
- Minimizing your scale - single point rubrics (minimizing your scale - ditching the 100-pt scale (biased towards failure), checklist of skills, standards-based grading/learning progressions)
- A Shift in language (grade vs assess; What did I get wrong vs What did I learn?, invite/ask vs required etc.)
- Practice of self-assessment
- Ditch zeros/late marks (this is behaviour not learning/understanding)
- Portfolios
- Conferencing - can be time consuming!
Resources:
- How To Give Effective Feedback to Your Students - Susan Brookhart
- Dylan Wiliam
- Trauma-Informed Strategies for the Classroom - E085
- Asset vs Deficit Mindset - E080
- Using Portfolios in the Classroom - E074
- The WHY of Ungrading - E070
- The HOW of Ungrading - E071
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In this episode, we are chatting all about trauma-informed pedagogy. While we are not trauma certified ourselves, we have picked up several strategies and tips along the way to help support students who have experienced trauma.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
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Featured ContentFor detailed show notes, please visit our website at https://edugals.com/85****
Trauma is not an event itself, but the body's protective response to an event or series of events that is experienced as harmful or life-threatening.Resources Mentioned:
- Definition of Trauma
- Trauma-informed Pedagogy: What It Is and How It Can Help Now
- Understanding Trauma: Learning Brain vs. Survival Brain (YouTube)
- Simon Sinek's Why Video - Long version and Short version
- Asset vs Deficit mindset - E080
- Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
- Fierce Conversations by Susan Scott
Advice/Tips/Strategies:
- Getting to know ALL of your students
- Daily journals (ongoing dialogue between student and teacher)
- Google Chat thread with each of your students
- Exit or Entrance tickets - What's on your mind? Anything bothering you? How can I support?
- Mastery-based teaching and learning approaches free up your time to connect with students
- Behaviour usually has a reason behind it (it's not about defiance)
- Provide materials for class ahead of time (allows students to process on their own time)
- Current events can be triggering for students
- Lots of parallels with UDL (Universal Design for Learning)
- Don't have pity on your students - slippery slope away from high expectations, not culturally responsive
- Make sure pity is not affecting your grading
- Explain your why of your lesson (why to how to what instead of what to how to why)
- There are lots of great lessons from the business world
- Involve parents in your school community
- Connecting face-to-face is more powerful than a Google meet or email
- Use the professionals in the building (social workers, youth settlement workers, other services and supports)
- Beware of teacher burnout and find strategies for self-care
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In this episode, we are joined by a special guest from the Vancouver School Board, Jessica Liew, to chat about shifting our grading practices in the classroom. We'll get into all things assessment, focusing on standards-based grading, growth mindsets, and proficiency scales. Get ready to get nerdy about assessment!
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
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Featured ContentFor detailed show notes, please visit our website at https://edugals.com/84****
- Jessica Liew:
- Vancouver School Board
- Secondary Technology Support Teacher
- Social Studies Teacher
- Contact: jliew@vsb.bc.ca
- Resources Mentioned:
- Grading for Equity by Joe Feldman
- Grading Smarter, Not Harder by Myron Dueck
- Going Gradeless, Grades 6-12 by Elise Burns & David Frangiosa
- Tom Schimmer and Katie White
- Key Takeaways:
- Focus on the skills, using content as the vehicle to practice (skills matter more than content) - performance vs rehearsal
- Feedback first
- Focus on student learning and growth not grades and points
- Organizing your gradebook based on skills not tasks
- What are the outcomes of your course? What are the transferrable skills?
- Avoid the omnibus grade, assessment should only focus on the learning and understanding
- Ditch late marks, bonus marks, zeroes, 100-point scale, participation marks
- Carrot and stick approaches to grading don't work to support learning
- Is homework necessary or equitable?
- If you stop putting marks on everything, students stop asking what their grade is
- Changing your language around assessment can change student language as well
- Organizing gradebooks by standards helps provide focus on where students need to improve
- Standards-based grading is not a one size, fits all
- 4 point scale:
- 1 - Beginning (just starting to work with the skill, needs lots of support)
- 2 - Developing (partial understanding, lacks consistency)
- 3 - Applying (proficiency, complete understanding)
- 4 - Extending (work is exemplary, NOT beyond grade level)
- Try to avoid relating this 4-point scale back to a 100-point scale, this will only undermine the learning
- Try grading conferences with your students
- Grading using learning standards drives better feedback for our students (create a master rubric of your standards)
- Start small, you don't need to change everything at once!
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In this episode, we are talking all about how to leverage audio in the classroom. We'll cover podcasting (of course!) and also so many other ways that we can use audio with our students. Topics include word walls, feedback, audio instructions and more!
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
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Featured ContentFor detailed show notes, please visit our website at https://edugals.com/83****
- Podcasting or Micro Podcasting:
- Our presentation slides from VSB: http://bit.ly/podcastVSB
- Use simple web-based audio tools
- Go for done, not perfect
- Scaffold skills over the course of a semester/year
- Tools: Online Voice Recorder (from 123 Apps), Vocaroo, Mote, voice memo apps on devices
- Word Walls:
- Create QR codes on a wall with audio linking in Google Drive
- Digital options - Google Slides or Google Sheets with auto-translate
- Instructions:
- Include audio in digital handouts
- Adding audio to Google Slides vs Microsoft Powerpoint - both use insert audio, need to upload to Google Drive first
- Feedback:
- Benefits - students can hear your tone, levels up buy-in, takes less time than written
- Goal-Setting, Reflection, Portfolios:
- Students can create audio to set goals, reflect on feedback
- Can be a great accommodation for ELLs
- Written vs Spoken Assignments:
- Why do we always need to use written? Why not consider adding audio as an option?
- Scaffold writing - record audio, use voice dictation in Google docs, then revise
- Peer feedback:
- Pair it with sentence stems like 2 wishes and 1 star, 3-2-1, etc
- 1-1 Conferencing:
- Record for student review
- Provides evidence of learning
- Can be a bit awkward at first, but stick with it!
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In this episode, we are tackling a difficult topic - how to collaborate and deal with those challenging colleagues. Let's address the elephant in the room, while we share some tips and strategies to help you move forward. The struggle is real, so let's work on making the most of the situation and find the positive!
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
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Featured ContentFor detailed show notes, please visit our website at https://edugals.com/82****
- Reality: There will always be people who you don't agree with and can be challenging to work with
- Listening and keeping an open mind - stay in the open or positive space
- Note-taking strategy - reframe your thinking into "how might we" questions
- Avoid the shutdown and work on finding solutions
- Value voice of all of your teammates
- Asset vs deficit mindset - also applies to staff relationships (E080)
- Get to know each other and build community with staff
- Take time to develop norms for discussions/co-planning time/course teams
- Communication is key - meeting regularly can help
- Avoid emails, just go talk to the person (tone can be misinterpreted)
- Try to understand the behaviour behind the action
- You can only control your actions and reactions
- Anger is a choice - Tik Tok video
- Reticular Activating System (RAS) - filter for incoming data; choose to filter for the positive instead of the negative (Focus on the positive)
- You can't control your initial reactions, but take a second to get curious and move forward
- Self-care - find something just for you that brings you joy (cardio kickboxing, read a book, go for a walk, cleaning, meditation)
- Headspace - meditation can help give you a bit of breathing room
- Find a critical friend - someone you can be totally free to vent without judgement
- Avoid:
- Bad mouthing your colleagues
- Allowing it to impact future interactions
- Being passive aggressive
- Set clear boundaries for yourself
- Crucial Conversations (book)
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In this episode, we are talking about how to get ready for destreaming. In Ontario, all grade 9 courses will be destreamed next year. This is top of our minds in thinking about our planning for the upcoming school year, so we're going to share our best tips, strategies, and ideas to get ready!
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
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Featured ContentFor detailed show notes, please visit our website at https://edugals.com/81****
- Change can be scary and cause fear - we need time to "get used to this idea" and get excited to try new things
- Ontario's Policy Paper on Destreaming
- Grade 8 to Grade 9 is a big leap, so destreaming makes sense
- Start by revisiting your curriculum
- It's ok if initial implementation is not perfect, it takes time!
- Ideas:
- Collaborate with others - reach out to colleagues, cross-panel connections, other schools, board contacts, Twitter
- Go visit elementary classrooms if you can
- TDSB Destreaming Resources
- Use a menu of pedagogical choices to promote teacher autonomy (Modern Classrooms, Thinking Classrooms, UDL, Design Thinking, Gradeless/Ungrading practices, CRRP)
- Learn strategies and pick a focus for next year
- Incorporating student choice and voice in both content and assessment
- Alternative assessment formats
- Focus on descriptive feedback
- Focus on skills and use the content as a vehicle to develop the skills
- Class sizes are a real concern
- Is any timing good timing? Probably not! Do your best and give yourself grace
- Resources:
- Modern Classrooms Project
- Book: Going Gradeless, Grades 6 - 12 by Elise Burns & David Frangiosa
- Station-based learning - Edutopia and Hacking Learning Centers, Grades 6-12 by Starr Sackstein
- Universal Design for Learning (UDL) - Katie Novak
- Learning for All (Ont Ed Policy Doc)
- Building Thinking Classrooms by Peter Liljedahl
- CRRP (Culturally Relevant & Responsive Pedagogy)
- Design Thinking (Stanford d school, IDEO)
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In this episode, we are exploring asset vs deficit mindsets in education. We'll go over our observations as well as some of our ideas to shift away from a deficit mindset in our classrooms.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
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Featured ContentFor detailed show notes, please visit our website at https://edugals.com/80****
- Asset mindset - what are the strengths that our students bring to the classroom and how you can embrace that with high expectations
- Deficit mindset - what are students lacking and focusing on their weaknesses
- CRRP - High expectations, Cultural competence, Critical consciousness
- Grades contribute to a deficit mindset and don't give the full picture of the strengths of a student
- Ideas and Strategies:
- Get to know students and don't look at past grades
- Embrace first language
- Google Sheets auto-translate words EduGIF from Jake Miller
- Involve parents/families in school community - builds a positive school culture
- Watch your language and avoid placing students into buckets (struggling vs striving, harmful language)
- Destreaming is coming in Ontario for Grade 9 next year and needs asset mindset
- Book: Going Gradeless, Grades 6-12 by Elise Burns and David Frangiosa
- Becoming aware and speaking up against deficit language
- Need PD on asset-based mindsets and language (peer conversations and dialogue, active learning, voluntary, accessing when ready, multiple opportunities, reflection)
- Video: Asset vs Deficit Mindset Definitions
- Recognize that our brains are wired for negativity to protect ourselves
- Rachel's grading Twitter rant
- Community and relationship building - conversations and conferencing with students, get curious about behaviours, collaborate with other staff
- Avoid the silo and utilize the whole school team
- Question your assessment practices, focus on personalized and descriptive feedback (tests = deficit, portfolios = asset for example), varied types, focus on skills
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This week, we are getting reflective and talking about the current state of education during this crazy school year. We're covering a range of topics including pandemic teaching and surviving the year, looking at careers outside of education, and the political climate of teaching.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
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Featured ContentFor detailed show notes, please visit our website at https://edugals.com/79****
- Tweet #1 from Ebony Thornton - @EThorntonGHS
- Tweet #2 from Nicholas Ferroni - @NicholasFerroni
- Are you thinking of leaving education? What brings you joy in teaching?
- Everyone has the thoughts of "what if I wasn't in education"
- We need to remove pressure to be perfect, it's ok to be just okay this year
- Failure is okay and it's ok to be in survival mode
- Pressure to continue as business as usual this year
- Shifting learning models, lack of control, and uncertainty about the future contributes to stress and anxiety
- Mercedes vs Corolla - It's ok to be a Corolla! It's durable and gets you from point A to B
- Pandemic has forced us to reconsider our priorities - teaching is just a job and teaching doesn't define who you are
- Building tiny habits outside of education can help - Atomic Habits by James Clear
- Education will never be the same - we need to recognize and embrace this
- Balance between technology and paper activities is needed
- Politics - teachers are often vilified (absenteeism, summers off, hours in the classroom)
- OntEd - contract negotiations before the pandemic has contributed to our stress levels
- Is the grass really greener on the other side? Or is it just different?
- Students are the reason why we stay in the classroom
- You are not alone! Take care of yourself this year! Be the Corolla!
Thanks for the comments and feedback @FrankFerraiuolo!
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This week, we are diving into microlearning and how you can leverage this corporate learning strategy in the classroom. We've got a lot of great ideas and tools that you can use to start thinking about microlearning applications in your classroom.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
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Featured ContentFor detailed show notes, please visit our website at https://edugals.com/78****
- Microlearning is a strategy to break down learning into small pieces (can be skills, concepts). Historically used in corporate, e-learning
- Chris Nesi - House of EdTech
- Benefits:
- Reduces cognitive overload - Visual from Twitter
- Flexible & allows for self-pacing
- Engaging
- Short bursts of information (matches current content consumption patterns)
- Provides focus & gets rid of the fluff
- Identifies skills (going back to curriculum docs)
- Frees the teacher up to provide small group support
- The Top 11 Types Of Microlearning For Your Employees (Blog Post)
- Supports UDL (choose your own adventure)
- EdTech Tools:
- Google Forms (branching)
- Google Slides (publish to web)
- Wanda Terral - Make Your Own Chrome Extension
- 7Taps (mobile first approach)
- Genial.ly & Google Slides (change dimensions to roughly 400px wide x 750px high)
- Tips:
- 14 Microlearning Tips to Enhance Your Training Content - Capytech (Blog Post)
- Optimize for mobile devices
- Focus on improving skills
- Know your learners - simplify language, add visuals & multimedia resources (videos with CC)
- Stay rigid to the topic (single topic, don't deviate)
- Include real world examples and culturally-relevant stories
- Add social elements/collaboration opportunities
- Modern Classrooms Project
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This week, we are diving into the Google Workspace to discuss how you can leverage Google tools for your mastery-based classroom. We've got a lot of great ideas and examples for ways that you can start using Google apps to support mastery learning in your classroom.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
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Featured ContentFor detailed show notes, please visit our website at https://edugals.com/77****
Google Workspace Tools:
- Docs
- Hyperdocs
- Creating assignments, practice etc
- Smart Chips - Type @ for lots of options
- New Google Smart Chips To Level Up Your Hyperdocs (Blog Post)
- Planning - Unit Planner Template Doc
- Slides/Drawings
- Student-facing resources
- Great to embed media such as videos, audio
- Provides a way to chunk learning over docs
- Individual pacing trackers - consider using the theme builder (master) to lock background images/text in place
- Gameboard style pacing tracker
- Shapegrams
- Jamboard
- Whiteboarding app for annotations during video recording
- Collaboration activities for your students
- How To Add a Custom Background in Jamboard (Blog Post)
- Consider using it as a pacing tracker
- Sheets
- Teacher tool for tracking
- Auto updating tracker from Modern Classrooms Project
- Grid Method tracker from Stephanie Howell
- Great for planning (more smart chips needed!)
- Start by trusting your students - consider giving students ownership of tracking
- Calendar
- Planning and hyperlinking your resources to calendar events
- Use it for creating a pacing guide
- Forms
- Good for SOME of your mastery checks - definitions, knowledge recognition, etc. to leverage self-grading
- Use as a dropbox with file upload option
- Consider pulling in all responses into one spreadsheet
- Reflection and feedback
- Sites/Classroom
- Organize your lessons/resources for your students
- Use individually OR use them both together
- YouTube
- Video curation
- Frees up storage in your Google Drive
- Not a tool for under 13
- Embed videos into slides or use Safe Tube
- Gmail/Chat
- Backchannel for your classroom
- Integrate with mail merge add ons for weekly communication with families
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This week, we are talking about the idea of having multiple opportunities for students to demonstrate learning. We're curious as to why the one-and-done mentality still persists in education these days and how we might begin to address resistance and shift mindsets and culture to a system that values learning over grades.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
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- One-and-done vs multiple chances mentality
- Mastery-based grading and MCP needs the opportunity for multiple attempts to demonstrate learning
- We still see a lot of "I teach it once, then we move on" or "you only get one chance"
- Our job is to educate/teach - it's about learning and the learning process
- All students CAN succeed and everyone learns at different paces
- Disconnect between reality of learning and the real world - in the real world, there are plenty of examples of multiple opportunities
- Focus on student learning and try, fail, learn mentality (not all students are university-bound)
- This year is tough, lots of stress around academics, grading, safety, etc
- This year will teach us the lessons that we need to take forward
- Grading is one of the areas of teaching that we still have control over; this is why conversations around grading practices are challenging
- Strategies/Ideas to shift mindsets and culture:
- Begin with conversations
- Have a clear idea of your WHY
- Don't take things personally
- Reach out to those willing and open to new ideas (focus on your innovators & early adopters first)
- Give space for thinking and processing
- Answer questions (consider an FAQ doc for yourself)
- Keep in mind - lots of people need proof of concept FIRST
- Lead by example and get in the weeds!
- Have a game plan/big picture idea
Resources Mentioned:
- Ten Principles of Mastery-Based Learning (#8 is our focus in this episode)
- Dr. Brad Johnson Quote (Relationships over Rigour, Grace over Grades, ...)
- Modern Classrooms Project
- Diffusion of Innovation Adoption Curve
- Grading for Equity by Joe Feldman
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This week, we are joined by three amazing guests from the Modern Classrooms Project (MCP). Toni Rose Deanon, Debbie Menard, and Lisa Doty are all project managers at MCP and are sharing their experiences with implementing the model, their favourite edtech tools, and some really great tips and strategies to get started with self-paced, mastery-based learning.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
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Featured ContentFor detailed show notes, please visit our website at https://edugals.com/75****
- Highlights:
- MCP is made up of 3 components: blended learning, self-pacing structures, and mastery-based grading
- MCP is not flipped learning - everything is done IN the classroom
- Learning is transparent and removes inequities in grading
- Advice for those getting started with MCP:
- Start small, don't do everything at once
- Manageable chunks
- Progress Tracker is a good place to start
- Find a teacher bestie to share the work and be there for support
- Instructional videos are not the main focus
- Try just one unit only to start
- Lesson classifications (must do, should do, aspire to do) is also a good entry point and highly customizable to your needs
- Try an overarching aspire to do task OR include student voice for your should do/aspire to do tasks (saves YOU time)
- Recommended EdTech Tools:
- Flipgrid (Flipgrid Shorts are great!)
- Explain Everything
- Screencastify or Screencast-o-matic
- EdPuzzle
- Parlay Ideas
- Loom
- Microsoft Powerpoint and Sharepoint
- Takeaways:
- Allows you to reach ALL of your students regardless of need/background etc.
- MCP wants to support you as you learn the model
- Relationships and connections with both students and teachers is richer and more authentic
- Connect with our guests on Twitter:
- Toni Rose Deanon
- Debbie Menard
- Lisa Doty
- Modern Classrooms Project
- Modern Classrooms Project website
- Facebook Group - Modern Classrooms Project - Teacher Discussion
- Modern Classrooms Project Podcast
- Other related episodes to MCP:
- Building Mastery-Based Structures In Your Classroom - E065
- Grading In A Mastery-Based Classroom - E066
- Creating Effective Instructional Videos For The Classroom - E067
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This week, we are talking about the use of digital portfolios in the classroom. We'll explore why you would want to use portfolios, how to assess or evaluate portfolios, and our best tips and suggestions to make portfolios a success in your classroom.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
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Featured ContentFor detailed show notes, please visit our website at https://edugals.com/74****
- Why Use Portfolios?
- Fits well with ungrading or mastery-based grading
- Demonstrates the learning journey by student-selected work
- Great as a final performance task
- Works best as a semester or year-long project
- Focus on reflection, student voice & choice, ownership
- Any grade, any subject
- Rachel's blogging assignment
- UDL - buffet of multimedia options (Katie Novak)
- Curriculum
- Select work from each strand (ESL)
- Explaining misconceptions (Science) or lab notebooks
- Regardless, it develops thinking, metacognition, problem solving skills
- Useful EdTech Tools
- Google Sites
- Google Slides (Templates from Slides Mania)
- Book Creator
- Wakelet
- LMS (Brightspace portfolio tool)
- Notion
- Screencasting/Curation tools (Screencastify) - see E068 for curation ideas
- Audio tools (Mote, Vocaroo, Google Read&Write) - see E050 for other audio ideas
- Tips/Strategies for Implementation
- Limit the number of pieces of work to highlight (adds creative constraints)
- Include a list of possible reflection prompts
- Include conferences/interviews at regular intervals
- Focus on the process not on the product
- Grade it only when needed (midterm, final)
- Conferencing prep example - Evidence Journals from the Human Restoration Project
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This week, we are sharing our reflections and our goals for the new year. We'll go over both personal and professional goal setting as well as our personal reflections on the past year.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
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- Reflections:
- "Quite the year"
- Work-life balance is better when teaching virtually
- A LOT has happened this past year
- Coaching/relationship building is better in person
- Connections are richer with staff and students this school year
- Work-life balance in person has been challenging
- Accessibility may be key to balance - social vs personal space
- Introverts - being in person is draining even though we do enjoy being social
- Relationships and building empathy are important and changes your approach and outlook
- Pandemic has highlighted so many issues in education and pushed our learning
- Our approach to teaching has changed drastically - ungrading, self-pacing, mastery-based grading
- Recognize that both teachers and students have experienced trauma
- Work Goals:
- Work-life balance
- Implementing a skills-based, mastery-based classroom or PD
- Leadership skills - emotions vs growing a thicker skin
- Meditation using Headspace
- Personal Goals:
- Focusing on our own learning - courses, music, coding, secret courses :)
- Taking weekends off! Boredom is great for creativity and embrace the shutdown
- Spend time with family - play, camping
- EduGals Goals:
- Continue the slow growth - 100th episode coming up!
- Sharing more via blog, webinars, conferences, articles, with colleagues
- Follow through with blogging - go for done, not perfect!
- Self-promotion via social media, buy us a coffee page
- Continue talking about our "creative non-compliance"
- Resources Mentioned:
- Grading for Equity by Joe Feldman
- Equity -Centered Trauma-Informed Education by Alex Shevrin Venet
- Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics by Peter Liljedahl
- Tweet about Ted Lasso
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This week, we are discussing how to incorporate voice and choice in EdTech in our classrooms and how to avoid the silo. We'll get into voice and choice of EdTech tools for both teachers AND students as well as share some ideas around collaborating with colleagues to learn new EdTech tools.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
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- Feedback from Frank Ferraiuolo, Assistive Technology TOSA on E069 - Alternative Approaches to Professional Learning
- Job-embedded PD within the teaching day
- What's good for one is good for all - assistive tech is beneficial for all students
- Coaches can help!
- Chris Nesi - House of EdTech Podcast
- We're taking a break and we'll be back with a new episode on Jan 4th, 2022!
- Tech is changing all the time - avoid the silo and keep your options open
- Learning about new options:
- Collaboration and sharing via PLCs
- Communication around student privacy and usage
- Consider a blended learning team
- Teacher-created and teacher-led PD (unconference format)
- Curate tech tools, host learning & create mini-courses via your school library
- Collaborative database (create via Google Data Studio using Forms & Sheets)
- Student Choice in EdTech:
- Suggest tools but also be open to other tools suggested by students
- Check out E067 for screencasting tool suggestions
- Keep in mind, students might be using different browsers
- Use a choice board
- Keep choices to a minimum. Avoid the overwhelm!
- Conferencing with students about choices (mastery-based learning)
- When selecting tools, think about the goal first!
- Possible presentation tools: Google Slides, Genial.ly, Prezi, Canva and many, many more
- Curation of EdTech tools (software catalogues):
- Should be done based on goal and not by tool (think choose your own adventure) to find your options more easily
- Would reduce overwhelm
- Possible Whiteboard tools: Google Jamboard, Microsoft Whiteboard, whiteboard.fi, whiteboard.chat, Explain Everything and many more
- Perhaps try rotating through 2-3 different tools within each category
- Possible Gamification tools: Kahoot!, Blooket, Quizizz, Quizlet Live, Gimkit (Free plan is now better!)
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This week, we are digging into the HOW of ungrading. In part 2 of this 2 part series, we are talking about different strategies and ideas to get started with ungrading in the classroom. It can feel pretty overwhelming to get started, so tune in to listen to some easy ways to dive into ungrading ideas.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
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Ideas/Strategies:
- Podcasting - listen to E050 for more info on Podcasting in the Classroom
- Focus on reflection of learning, process of learning
- Video - Screencastify/Screencastify Submit
- Feedback first before grades
- Involve students in grade determinations (conferencing, interviews)
- Student self-assessment of traditional tests
- Rubrics - consider single point rubrics, co-constructed with students
- Mastery-based grading or minimal grading scales - pass/fail, mastered/getting there/not yet, etc.
- Portfolio/Blogging - gathering the evidence of learning throughout a course
- Before each reporting period, consider process letters, conferences, interviews
- Seek admin support
- Balance between mastery-based grading and ungrading practices
- Start with your learning goal and choose strategies that support it
- Peer-to-peer feedback (scaffolded, sentence stems/frames, start with low stakes)
- Determining grades via self-, peer-, and teacher-feedback combined
- Grade-free zones (first 1/3 of your course)
- Contract grading
Links Mentioned:
- So You Wanna #Ungrade? The Practical Guide - Clarissa Sorensen-Unruh
- Grading Student Writing: Making It Simpler, Fairer, Clearer - Peter Elbow
- How To Ungrade: A Workshop (Jesse Stommel)
- Tweet: 12 alternatives to letter grades in education (Teach Thought)
- Peer Grade (useful tool for peer feedback)
- Sprint: Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas In Just 5 Days (Jake Knapp)
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This week, we are digging into the WHY of ungrading. In part 1 of this 2 part series, we are talking about our observations around assessment and evaluation as well as why we think ungrading is a conversation that needs to happen in education.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
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Our Big Why:
- Grades close down conversations and feedback - feels too final
- Shifting the focus away from grades towards learning
- Emotion is tied to grades
- Grades are not good feedback, they are just a single number and doesn’t reflect the entire learning process
- Grades encourage competitiveness over collaboration
- Can negatively affect your classroom community
- Looking at previous grades can change your perspective and builds in bias
- Previous grades can be affected by so many extenuating circumstances
- Previous grades can make you highly suspicious of your students
- Get to know your students first, don’t look at previous grades
- Ungrading helps students to be more open to feedback and improving
- Consider a feedback first approach with reflection via Google Forms BEFORE releasing grades
- Grades provide finality. Without grades, the learning continues
- Language matters - how are you talking about your students?
- Students who learn how to play the game of school well are rewarded with good grades but are they actually learning?
- Self-paced, mastery-based grading approaches work well with ungrading by minimizing the grading scale
- Needs to begin with a shift in mindset - you want your students to succeed and get good grades
- What is the purpose of a unit test? What does it achieve?
- Start by trusting your students
- Talk to your admin to make sure they are onboard
- Promotes student metacognition - more reflective about their own learning
- Podcasting is great for reflection and learning!
- How equitable are grades and grading policies?
- Learning skills in Ontario are Eurocentric - how equitable are they for all of our students?
- Learning skills are a good place for self-assessment (Google Forms is helpful here)
- Learning skills leak into grades - are you grading compliance or learning?
- Start by learning, reading and sharing about ungrading
Resources Mentioned:
- Jesse Stommel - How to Ungrade: A Workshop
- When Report Cards Go Out On Fridays
- Ungrading: Why Rating Undermines Learning (and What To Do Instead) - Susan D. Blum
- Alfie Kohn
- Peter Elbow
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This week, we are discussing new and innovative approaches to professional learning. During COVID, professional learning has taken quite a backseat. So we'll go over our current struggles we're experiencing as well as possible ideas and solutions to bring back and reimagine what professional learning could look like going forward.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
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Featured ContentFor detailed show notes, please visit our website at https://edugals.com/69****
Struggles:
- TIME! Everything is outside of school hours or during lunch
- Availability of supply teachers is an issue
- Lunches are taken up by so many meetings, other commitments
- Modified semester format is not helping - everyone is exhausted!
- Teaching Loss is real - Tom Schimmer Podcast episode with Pav Wander
- Equity of access to professional learning
- Balance between work and life (our time is valuable)
Ideas/Solutions:
- Use your board staff - coaches, instructional program leaders, itinerant teachers, etc
- Ask for release time from your admin (most schools have $$ for PD)
- Keep learning sessions short, 30 minutes maximum
- Sharing resources online such as community building activities
- Timing of learning sessions - finding a time that works for everyone is tough!
- Record the sessions as an option (be careful with this if you want discussion)
- Record a recap/summary video after the session instead as a workaround
- Rachel's bite-sized learning plan with Katie's input:
- Create one-pagers with an instructional video, exemplars, practice, extra resources, optional feedback/collaborative database
- Modern Classrooms Project approach
- Must Do's - Learn and Explore; Should Do's - Try and Share; and Aspire To Do's - Dive Deeper
- Lots of choice and entry points for educators
- Tracking & Collaboration - EdPuzzle open class, Google Form, Interactive Questions in Screencastify
- Interactive questions in EdPuzzle - audio responses for open-ended responses, keep questions to a minimum
- Google Form submission - add a teaching resource to our database, get feedback, optional further support
- Add lots of options for feedback, collaboration, support for teachers
- Open office hours drop in sessions or Twitter chats (Tweet from @ESL_Fairy)
- Connect educators with each other (Tweet from Brian Aspinall)
- Optional Teaching Sprints
- Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days Book
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This week, we are exploring 10 EdTech tools for curating any instructional videos that you might have created for the classroom. We'll go through pros and cons of each tool as well as the variety of ways that you can use the tools to get your instructional videos organized.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
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Featured ContentFor detailed show notes, please visit our website at https://edugals.com/68****
-
- YouTube
- Easy to use, linked to your Google account
- Can't be used for students under 13
- Changes to under 18 education accounts
- Students under 18 can no longer embed videos from YouTube in Slides?
- Students can no longer create a channel and upload videos
- Access to playlists? Can they be embedded and still work?
- Help Center
-
- EdPuzzle
- Search YouTube, use YouTube link, use Chrome extension to add
- Upload your own video, record videos with extension
- Direct connection with Screencastify
- Share preview link with students to protect privacy or assign it to an open class
- Consider different open classes for each unit
- Freemium tool - share your referral link!
-
- Wakelet
- E036 - Riding the Wakelet Wave
- Add all your links here, not just videos to create HyperDoc lessons
- Organization of lessons can be tricky! Consider spaces, embedding wakes inside wakes
-
- Google Slides and 5. Google Docs
- Embed videos directly into slides or use smart chips in Docs
-
- Genial.ly
- Interactive presentation tool, embed videos into various places
- Freemium tool, lots of options available in free account
-
- Learning Management System (LMS)
- Embed directly into your LMS
- Brightspace - direct embed of Screencastify can have issues, works best with YouTube
- Google sites does not embed into most LMS platforms
-
- Google Sites
- Organize and embed videos into various lessons
-
- Google Drive
- Create nested folders, use consistent naming convention for videos (00, 01, etc.)
- Use shortcuts from Screencastify folder
- Use Google doc as a table of contents
-
- Google Forms
- Each lesson is a separate form, directly embed video in there along with a few questions for understanding, reflection
- Embed in sites or LMS
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This week, we are discussing the why and how of creating effective instructional videos for your classroom. We'll share some considerations for creating videos, as well as tools you might want to use and tips and tricks to help you along the way.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
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- Personal not professional!
- Why?
- Learning in a mastery-based classroom
- Create a clone of yourself
- Frees up your time in the classroom to help your students
- Access to videos anytime, anywhere
- Helps with absences
- Considerations
- Determine your learning goal BEFORE hitting record
- Keep it targeted to a single learning goal
- Use your curriculum docs to help with planning - Unit Planning Template
- Use lots of purposeful visuals and minimize text on your slides
- Add interactivity - questions, pause and connect - Screencastify interactive questions in E064
- Notes - differentiated for support levels needed (freehand, scaffolds, sentence starters, sentence frames, cloze, etc)
- Provide guiding questions BEFORE watching the video
- Retrieval practice for note taking
- Make it personal, include your face and your personality
- Keep recording time short, 6-9 minutes is ideal and less for elementary
- Try out animations to control the flow of information
- Include the big picture and progression
- Recording Process
- Create your slides, docs, and plan it all out
- Collaborate with others and create slide decks as a course team
- Create an outline for your recording (use speaker notes in Slides)
- Go for done, not perfect - mistakes are okay!
- EdTech Tools
- Presentation Tools: Google Slides, Explain Everything, Prezi, Powerpoint, Keynote, Genial.ly
- Recording Tools: Meet, Teams, Zoom, Screencastify, Screencast-o-matic, Loom, Flipgrid Shorts (use your screen as your virtual background), Explain Everything, OBS Studio, Quick Time Player
- Learn the keyboard shortcuts!
- iPad & Apple pencil - use an external microphone or headset with microphone
- Above all else, use tools that meet your specific needs!
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This week, we are talking all about grading in a mastery-based learning classroom. We'll share our learning as well as guiding principles to keep in mind as you consider grading practices in your mastery-based structured classroom.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
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- There is no one right answer... flexibility and knowing your students is key!
- Modern Classrooms Project
- Grades will depend on your style, curriculum, goals, colleagues, reporting guidelines
- Progress reports - mastery can be helpful for this
- Still need pacing and structure; target dates are needed
- What are we including for grades?
- Use soft zeroes where students have not yet mastered the skill
- Include other evaluations in your gradebook as well, not just mastery checks
- Summative Tests
- Set goal date, all students write on the same day
- Set a window (3 days) and students can choose which day to write on
- What do you do with grading categories? This is tricky!
- Only grade what has been specifically taught
- Backwards design - start with the mastery check, and work backwards to create your supporting/learning materials
- Ask your students for feedback
- Mid-unit and end of unit are good times
- Use Google forms
- Add in metacognition - reflection questions in mastery checks
- Grading Principles:
- Be intentional
- Focus on growth and revision
- Focus on feedback
- Ungrading - Jesse Stommel: @Jessifer on Twitter
- Book: Ungrading: Why Rating Students Undermines Learning and What To Do Instead by Susan D. Blum
- Tracking:
- Google Sheets (Auto-Updating Tracker and Grid System Tracker)
- Display in classroom for collaboration (consider using code names)
- No grades!
- Rubrics:
- Standards-Based Grading (4, 3, 2, 1 levels OR mastered, getting there, not yet)
- Single Point Rubrics
- Add to your mastery checks
- Use "I can..." statements
- Make sure the language is clear and easy for students to understand
- Leverage tech - Google Docs/Slides with Mote/Screencastify
- Mastery is not just for content, consider other skills etc. too
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This week, we are talking all about mastery-based grading and structures in your classroom. We'll go over what mastery-based learning can look like, how to implement it, and challenges you might experience along the way.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
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Featured ContentFor detailed show notes, please visit our website at https://edugals.com/65****
- Maya Angelou Quote: "Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better."
- Webinar: Beyond the Bohr Model (for all the chemistry teachers!)
- Mastery-Based Learning:
- Students work on one small concept/skill at a time.
- Students are working at the pace they need to and only moving onto the next concept or skill once they have demonstrated mastery.
- Mastery can be defined by you - is it 75%, 100%, something else?
- Self-pacing structures and using instructional videos are needed
- Can be prep heavy at the beginning but totally worth it!
- Getting Started:
- Start small
- Try one unit, one week, one assignment/project
- Decide on what your mastery checks will be first, and plan backwards from there
- Mastery Checks:
- Skill based - do the skill and iterate until mastery is achieved
- Knowledge based - short 1-2 question "quizzes"
- Grading = Mastered or Not Yet Mastered
- Consider creating a mastery check area in your classroom
- Use different coloured paper for each lesson
- Keep a tracker for pacing and collaboration
- Works well with station-based learning
- Some simple ideas:
- Create short quizzes in your LMS with random question pools and unlimited attempts, open for a certain time period
- Unit or week with stations with flexibility
- Specific lesson or skill (for example, chemical nomenclature)
- EdTech Tools:
- Google Forms
- Formative
- Quizizz, Kahoot!, Blooket, Gimkit, etc in homework/solo mode
- Other considerations:
- Strategic grouping - team up those ahead of pace with those behind
- Grading will be more frequent, focus on feedback (written, oral, video) not grades
- Multiple versions of mastery checks
- Revision policy is needed
- How might you incorporate mastery-based learning into traditional grading structures?
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This week, we are looking at the latest updates to Screencastify. We’ll cover the newest features of interactive questions, analytics, and the brand new watch page. We’ll also get into some ideas of how you might use these new features in your classroom.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
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- Screencastify new features announcement blog post
- Interactive Questions
- Analytics
- New watch page
- Previous episodes on Screencastify:
- E034 - Amplifying Student Learning With Screencastify
- E002 - Remote Learning With Screencastify
- Interactive Questions:
- Navigate to time stamp, click on add question
- Limited to multiple choice only - only one correct answer
- Answers are limited to 25 characters each
- Can have 2, 3, or 4 choices
- Access/Edit your questions via the list view menu
- Share your video with questions from the video management screen OR via the interactive questions page sharing tab
- Nice integration with Google Classroom
- Video Management Page:
- Watch page sharing options - default is different based on whether you added questions or not
- Check sharing settings to ensure you are collecting the correct analytics data
- Original video file - doesn’t include interactive questions or capture analytics
- Cannot embed videos with interactive questions in LMS
- Analytics:
- Access directly above the interactive questions button
- Email, name, most recent view, number of views
- Can access interactive questions responses from here
- Interactive questions responses show email, responses, score
- Two other tabs coming soon: Students, Questions
- Workshop from Jesse Stommel: Start By Trusting Students, Start By Trusting Teachers
- Ideas for Classroom Use:
- Instructional Videos
- Student feedback
- Professional learning
- Staff meeting information videos (reduces need for other tools)
- Escape rooms or digital scavenger hunts
- Virtual events for parents, families
- Polling staff for feedback and input
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This week, we are discussing various types of negativity found in the education setting. We'll dive into the different sources of negativity and how to recognize them in your school and classroom communities. We reflect on our experiences and discuss some strategies and ways to deal with this type of negativity.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
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Sources of negativity and tips:
- Staff relationships
- Tensions in course teams, workrooms etc
- How full is your cup this year?
- Be transparent, honest, and open
- Go slowly with change, small steps are okay
- Find ways to build community - eg: sharing funny jokes weekly
- Admin pressures
- Running extracurriculars, not acknowledging struggles this year with COVID protocols
- Get better at the art of saying NO (see this tweet from Amanda Hargreaves)
- Beware of burnout, learn to recognize the signals
- Recognize that admin are also under pressure too from higher ups, families, teachers etc
- Government/Societal Pressure/Opinions
- Show the value of public education via social media
- Shine a spotlight on what is going on in your classroom (both positive and negative)
- Hybrid is tough! Find colleagues to collaborate with and consider the Modern Classrooms Project (MCP) framework
- Collaboration is good - take the risk, it's totally worth it
- Feedback and sharing is where the learning happens; push through and keep going
- Students and Parents
- Tik Tok challenges are causing a lot of stress, mistrust
- Virtual vs face-to-face learning - how do you make your course accessible for all?
- Instructional videos can help - best if it's personal but use other videos if you don't have the time/capacity
- Go for done, not perfect! Mistakes are okay!
- Social Media
- Katie's best tip: log out
- Curate a list of educators you find value from (your people who challenge your thinking and that you learn from) and set that list as your home screen
- It can be healthy to vent and know that you aren't alone
- Toxic positivity
- Gratitude Journal Search on Twitter
- Gratitude Journal Article (Toronto Star)
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This week, we are discussing various strategies, tips, and ideas for digital teacher organization. As we embark on a new school year, this is a great time for you to get organized and develop some systems to help keep you on track. We'll talk about digital planning, Google Drive, Google Calendar, Canva, Slides Mania, and Gmail.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
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- Paper planning - Happy Planner and Sharpie Pens
- Digital Planning
- Using the Google Calendar created by Google Classroom
- Canva planner templates, lesson plan templates, and desktop wallpapers
- Download as an image and add it to Google Slides as a background image
- Download as a PDF and use it with your iPad/tablet (Good Notes)
- Slides Mania - Weekly planners, Yearly planners, Notebook Style, and Morning Meeting Layouts
- The GRID Method webinar - Stephanie Howell
- Consider creating a slide deck/doc as an overview with all resources hyperlinked (helps with Classroom organization)
- Google Calendar
- Time blocking with Google Tasks, easy to move tasks/events but beware!
- Hyperlink resources into your event
- Google Keep
- Great for to-do lists, regular checklists
- Google Keep headers blog post
- Gmail
- Gmail tips for L1 exam blog post and Gmail podcast episode
- Multiple aliases
- Google Drive
- Naming conventions, starred folders, priority tab (workspaces), deal with orphaned docs
- Google Drive podcast episode
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We are talking with a special guest this week, Caitlin Kemp, all about what to keep and what to ditch from virtual learning. Caitlin is an Ontario secondary educator with a wealth of experience from virtual teaching last year, and is starting this school year face-to-face again.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
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- Caitlin Kemp: ON Educator, Virtual Teacher last year
- What to keep from virtual learning:
- Chunking
- Google Jamboard activities
- Connect with students (possible with larger time blocks) via mindfulness, fun Kahoots etc.
- Headspace is great for mindfulness - free for educators!
- Focus on key learnings, big ideas and relationships
- Minds On: polls, check ins, with Google Forms, Jamboards etc.
- Modern Classrooms Project mentorship program
- Advice to new teachers:
- Ask for help, don't be afraid to ask! Share resources #BetterTogether
- Find a mentor willing to help you
- Learn how to best leverage your technology - figure out what works best for you or your learners
- Fill your toolbox with your core set of tech tools and stick with routines
- Building connections virtually:
- Provide help as much as possible
- Make yourself visible
- Check in often, provide opportunities for drop ins
- Recommended Tech Tools:
- Google Jamboard as well as other Google Workspace tools
- Kahoot
- Breakout EDU
- What to ditch from virtual learning:
- Go from virtual back to paper when it makes sense
- What do you do with small group collaboration in person? Google Meet with breakout rooms solved this in virtual
- Possible solutions: turn and talk, Google Chat, go outside
- Virtual schools going forward?
- Yes - provides a safe space, alternative learning model
- Need to consider accessibility, physical building, virtual learning hub for hands on learning
- Biggest Takeaway:
- Make space for building community and wellness
- Be a place and a safe person for your students
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We are talking all about how to leverage tech tools to build community in your (hopefully) face-to-face classroom. We'll link different tools to our four whys of community building: collaboration, communication, social-emotional learning, and safe & inclusive environments.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
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Featured ContentFor detailed show notes, please visit our website at https://edugals.com/60****
Reasons for Building Community:
- Communication
- Screencastify - overviews, instructional videos, presentations, email responses, feedback
- Mote - use in slides, docs, gmail etc. for audio only
- Google Chat - individual or group chats, informal, easier for students than email (low risk)
- Google Meet - extra help sessions outside of class, drop in
- LMS - announcement tools, discussion boards
- Collaboration
- Google Jamboard (digital whiteboards) - small groups, breakout rooms, brainstorming, getting to know you activities, word walls, research, games
- Flipgrid - screen share behind your picture now!
- Google Slides, Docs, and Sheets - graphic organizer to get them started, collecting data as a class, crowdsourcing problem solving with Screencastify
- Social-Emotional Learning and Safe & Inclusive Environments
- Use a variety of tools, modes of communication
- Google Forms - gather info about your students, check ins, class song playlist, languages
- Involve your students in your classroom layout, whether it is physical or virtual (LMS) - custom banners, layout, unit vs week
- Check Ins - Google Form, Google Slides, etc. to see how students are doing
- Headspace
- Online games - Jamboard, Kahoot, Quizizz, Google Arts & Culture Puzzle Party - you can have students create these to save time!
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In part 2 of this 2 part series, we are going over our EdTech Toolkit from A to Z. We'll cover apps starting with N to Z this week. We've got lots of great ideas and uses for these tools as you are thinking about the new school year!
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
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Featured ContentFor detailed show notes, please visit our website at https://edugals.com/59****
Our top EdTech Apps:
- N - Nearpod
- O - OBS Studio
- P - Pear Deck & Padlet
- Canva Templates for Pear Deck
- Q - Quizizz
- E008 - Using Game Apps For Student Engagement
- R - Read&Write
- E039 - Enhancing Learning With Google Read&Write
- S - Screencastify
- Amplifying Student Learning With Screencastify - E034
- Remote Learning With Screencastify - E002
- Honourable Mentions: Sheets, Streamyard, Spark, Scratch
- T - Twitter
- Rachel @dr_r_johnson
- Katie @KatieAttwell
- EduGals @EduGals
- U - YouTube
- Rachel's Chemistry Channel and Personal Channel (Brightspace)
- EduGals YouTube Channel
- V - Vocaroo
- NEW: Vocaroo Tutorial from EduGals
- W - Wakelet
- Riding The Wakelet Wave - E036
- X - Explain Everything
- Certifications
- Y - Yo Teach!
- Z - Zoom
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In part 1 of this 2 part series, we are going over our EdTech Toolkit from A to Z. We'll cover apps starting with A to M this week followed by N to Z next week. We've got lots of great ideas and uses for these tools as you are thinking about the new school year!
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
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Featured ContentFor detailed show notes, please visit our website at https://edugals.com/58****
Our top EdTech Apps:
- A - Arts & Culture
- E040 - Exploring the World of Google Arts & Culture
- Jigsaw Puzzle Party
- B - Bitmoji
- Creating Bitmoji Stickers for feedback - Blog Post
- C - Canva
- YouTube Playlist
- https://www.canva.com/colors/
- E032 - Designing Classroom Resources With Canva
- D - Drawings
- E049 - A Creative Approach To Technology With Tony Vincent
- Shapegrams
- E - EdPuzzle
- E029 - Creating Engaging Lessons with EdPuzzle
- EdPuzzle new features coming soon
- Certifications
- F - Flipgrid
- G - Google Workspace
- Google Teacher Center
- H - Headspace for Educators
- I - IXL - Math and ELA
- J - Jamboard
- E022, E042
- Custom Background and Canva blog posts
- K - Kahoot
- L - Loom - free for educators
- M - Mote
- Mote Certified Educator
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In this episode, we are talking all about teacher burnout and how to find your motivation when you are still exhausted from the last school year. We were inspired by a tweet by Pernille Ripp, and will talk about how we can reset for the new school year. We will talk about our experiences, and will share some ideas and strategies.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
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Featured ContentFor detailed show notes, please visit our website at https://edugals.com/57****
- Link to Tweet from Pernille Ripp
- Organization with planners or within your home, life, etc. (gain a sense of control)
- Happy Planner
- Slides Mania - Digital Planner templates
- Also check out Canva for planning templates
- Google Calendar is also a great option for planning
- A little bit of productive procrastination goes a long way
- Get outdoors! Camping, going to a park etc.
- Define your limits & boundaries for the upcoming school year
- Plan using Parkinson's Law
- Innovation in the classroom - using student interests with skills-based courses, self-paced, mastery-based PD
- Setting personal goals for yourself in school, life:
- Podcasting & Writing
- Yousician - Gamified music learning
- Exercise - Kickboxing, strength training, push up challenge
- Reading - education, personal, etc.
- Reading List - Check out E054 for some great recommendations!
- Kobo is great for digital reading
- Final thoughts: You do you - do what you need to decompress and find your mojo to get ready for the new school year
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In this episode, we are exploring ways to set up your Learning Management System (LMS) effectively and efficiently to optimize course organization and learning for your students. We'll go over tips, strategies, and ideas for setting up your LMS, whether it is Brightspace, Canvas, Schoology, Google Classroom, or something else.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
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Featured ContentFor detailed show notes, please visit our website at https://edugals.com/56****
- Use your LMS, even if you are fully face-to-face
- Layout and Homepage:
- This is your doorway into your virtual classroom
- Easy navigation - minimize the links to the essentials
- Link all of your other tools within the content area
- Include contact info on homepage
- Announcements
- Brightspace Part 1 and Brightspace Part 2 episodes
- Organization:
- Embed third party tools (EdPuzzle, Google Slides, YouTube videos, etc) into your content area
- Link in Google Docs when it makes sense
- Use consistent naming & numbering systems (reduces cognitive load)
- Folders - units, weeks, whatever works best for you
- Use your announcements to lay out weekly expectations
- Include student voice in planning and organization
- Include visuals and make it look pretty - design is important (consistent fonts, icons, emojis, etc to reduce cognitive load and increase engagement)
- It's okay to set up your LMS to meet your needs, just make sure you create an intro video to help your students navigate it - Screencastify is great!
- Canva is a great tool for design - Canvas Banner, Canvas Button, Google Classroom Header (also a Style Your LMS category available)
- Inclusion Ideas:
- Include important cultural celebrations
- Add your personality - Bitmoji or GIPHY is great and integrated into Canva
- Have students design your classroom banners - include languages represented in your classroom too
- Design With Canva YouTube channel
- A Scary Suggestion:
- A little bit of basic coding (HTML and CSS) goes a long way!
- Code Academy (look under Web Development)
- This helps with interactive elements in your LMS - buttons, flipcards, etc.
- Final Advice:
- Use student-friendly language to increase accessibility
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In this episode, we are exploring the ways that you can leverage technology to support the English language learners in your classroom. We'll cover tech tools such as Google Read&Write and Mote, as well as some general tips and strategies for designing an inclusive and safe learning environment for your students.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
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Featured ContentFor detailed show notes, please visit our website at https://edugals.com/55****
Common Acronyms:
- ELL - English Language Learner
- ESL - English as a Second Language
- EAL - English as an Additional Language
- STEP - STeps to English Proficiency
- OLB - Observable Language Behaviours
- OLLB - Observable Language and Literacy Behaviours
Overall Tips and Strategies:
- Use first languages (these are a strength and asset for learning)
- Integrate culture where possible and use lived experiences when designing resources
- Understand the difference between conversational and academic language
- Just because speaking is strong, it doesn’t mean reading/writing are the same - survival
- Don't make assumptions! Not all multilingual learners can read/write in their first language or have that specific knowledge in their first language
- Learn how to pronounce student names properly (use tech tools to support your learning)
- Use images and student-friendly definitions to reduce cognitive load
- Differentiation is needed! Check out the Modern Classrooms Project framework
- Scaffolding using sentence stems and frames
Resources Mentioned:
- Ontario STEP Framework
- OLB and OLLB Continua
- Modern Classrooms Project
- E051 with Jake Miller
Recommended Tech Tools:
- Google Read&Write by TextHelp (Dictionaries, Translations, Voice-to-Text, Highlighters)
- Google Translate (Extension or Website)
- Word Reference (virtual dual-language dictionary - multilingual - though not all languages are represented)
- Translate using formulae in Google Sheets (see Jake Miller's Translate in Sheets EduGIF for more details)
- Mote (great in Google Slides, Forms, for vocabulary and name pronunciation)
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In this episode, we are sharing our summer reading list for teachers. We'll go over what we are currently reading, recommendations for reading, as well as what we want to read ourselves this summer.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
We would love to hear from you – leave a comment on our website OR check out our FLIPGRID!
Featured ContentFor detailed show notes, please visit our website at https://edugals.com/54****
Currently Reading:
- Cultivating Genius: An Equity Framework for Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacy - Gholdy Muhammad
- Ungrading: Why Rating Students Undermines Learning (and What to Do Instead) - Edited by Susan D. Blum
- Free Ungrading Workshop - Jesse Stommel
Recommendations:
- Unlocking English Learners' Potential: Strategies for Making Content Accessible - Diane Staehr Fenner & Sydney Snyder
- Powerful Teaching: Unleash the Science of Learning - Pooja Agarwal & Patrice Bain
- When Kids Can't Read: What Teachers Can Do: A Guide for Teachers, 6-12 - Kylene Beers
- Flip Your Classroom: Reaching Every Student in Every Class Every Day - Jonathan Bergmann & Aaron Sams
- Modern Classrooms Project
Rachel's Summer Reading:
- The Impact Cycle - Jim Knight
- Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain - Zaretta Hammond
- Fair Isn’t Always Equal - Rick Wormeli
- The Power of Making Thinking Visible - Ron Ritchhart & Mark Church
- Harvard's Project Zero and the Thinking Routines Toolbox
- The Design Thinking Playbook - Michael Lewrick, Patrick Link, & Larry Leifer
Katie's Summer Reading:
- This Place: 150 Years Retold - Multiple Authors/Contributors
- Podcast by CBC
- Culturally Responsive Teaching for Multilingual Learners - Sydney Snyder & Diane Staehr Fenner
- Come On In: 15 Stories about Immigration and Finding Home - Adi Alsaid
- 21 Things You May Now Know About The Indian Act - Bob Joseph
- Indigenous Canada Course on Coursera (by University of Alberta)
Other Recommendations - see our detailed show notes at edugals.com/54
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This has certainly been a tough year in education, so this week, we wanted to talk about learning opportunities for the summer to help get you rejuvenated, excited, and prepared for the upcoming school year. We'll share learning around Google certifications, Modern Classrooms Project, other EdTech certifications, and so much more!
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
We would love to hear from you – leave a comment on our website OR check out our FLIPGRID!
Featured ContentFor detailed show notes, please visit our website at https://edugals.com/53****
- We're taking a break for a few weeks - next episode will be released on July 6th
- Google Certified Educator, Level 1 and Level 2
- Google Teacher Center
- Global GEG Bootcamp
- Level 1 Task Cards and Level 2 Task Cards from Google
- Done level 1 and 2? Go for Google Certified Trainer or Google Certified Coach
- Consequences for Katie? Add them to our flipgrid!
- Modern Classrooms Project:
- Free Course
- Summer Institute
- Virtual Mentorship
- Other EdTech Certifications:
- Screencastify Courses
- Book Creator Certified Author
- Book Creator Ambassador Program
- Adobe Creative Educator
- Adobe Education Exchange
- Adobe Spark
- Adobe Fresco
- Shapegrams
- Conferences - check on Twitter
- ISTELive 21 Conference
Our final advice: Don't overdo it! Focus your learning on one or two major things and balance that with plenty of rest.
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In this episode, we are exploring how to prepare ourselves for the Google Certified Educator Level 2 Exam. Both of us need to complete our recertification this month so we're reflecting about our past experiences with this exam as well as our strategy for preparation.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
We would love to hear from you – leave a comment on our website OR check out our FLIPGRID!
Featured ContentFor detailed show notes, please visit our website at edugals.com/52****
Key Information:
- Cost of the exam: $25 USD
- Time: 180 minutes
- Certification is valid for 3 years
- Suggested time to spend on the curriculum: approx. 15 hours
- 11 units total in the curriculum
- Exam is comprised of two sections: A multiple choice, matching, etc section and a task based section
- The majority of the exam is focused on the tasks/scenarios... don't spend too much time on the first section!
- Recertification exams are scenario-based only
- Don't stress... you've got this!
- Don't over analyze the questions - it's not as complicated as you think
Strategies:
- Start with the unit reviews in the curriculum to test your current knowledge
- Try out the tasks in the task cards linked below to test your skills
- Google Sheets + YouTube = Pivot Tables :)
- Focus on the tools that you are unfamiliar with - Maps, Earth, Blogger, Groups, Add-ons, Books, Scholar, etc.
Resources:
- Google Teacher Center
- Google Certified Educator Level 1 Exam Episode
- Google's Advanced Curriculum Training for Level 2
- Mockaroo Random Data Generator
- Level 2 Task Cards
- Google Workspace Skills Checklist
- Fundamentals and Advanced Course Outlines
- Eric Curts Level 2 Checklist
- Global GEG Bootcamp is coming!
- Google Arts & Culture Episode
- Teaching Resources in Google Arts & Culture
- EduGals YouTube Channel - Subscribe!
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In this episode, we are joined by a special guest, Jake Miller, the host of the Educational DuctTape Podcast. We'll discuss his experiences as a tech coach as well as an educator back in the classroom during this crazy school year. We've got lots of great tips and ideas for building community and relationships with your students as well as some great advice to how to choose EdTech tools to meet your classroom learning goals and needs.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
We would love to hear from you – leave a comment on our website OR check out our FLIPGRID!
Featured ContentFor detailed show notes, please visit our website at edugals.com/51****
Connect with Jake Miller:
- Twitter @JakeMillerTech (also on all the major socials)
- Website jakemiller.net
- The Educational DuctTape Podcast
"EdTech is best when it is used as a tool to solve a problem or meet a goal"
Resources:
- Jake's new book - Educational DuctTape is coming out soon!
- The Suite Talk Episode with Jake Miller (with Kim Mattina)
- Jim Knight - Instructional Coaching Book
Recommended Tools:
- Pear Deck or Nearpod (MVP)
- Allows you to see student engagement
- Add in community building activities/check ins (complete the squiggle, weekend highlights, draw a turtle named Stacy)
- ClassFlow or Classkick
- Whiteboard.fi or Whiteboard.chat
- PhET Simulations
- Gizmos by ExploreLearning
- EdPuzzle
- eMindWeb - Virtual Dissections
- Labster
- Google Jamboard (include digital citizenship learning here!)
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In this 50TH episode of the podcast, we'll be discussing podcasting in the classroom. We'll get into the why behind podcasting as well as the prep & tools you need to get started.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
We would love to hear from you – leave a comment on our website OR check out our FLIPGRID!
Featured ContentFor detailed show notes, please visit our website at https://edugals.com/50****
- Hosting (Buzzsprout, Anchor.fm, Soundcloud, YouTube, Google Drive)
- Recording (Audacity, GarageBand, Hindenburg, Zencastr, Screencastify)
- Equipment (USB Dynamic Mic)
- VoiceEd Radio
- Chris Nesi Podcasting Resources
- Diverse Scientist Database
- Podcasting with WeVideo
- The SHIFT Show EDU
Support the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/edugals)
In this episode, we are joined by an amazing guest, Tony Vincent. We'll chat about digital drawing skills and creativity in the classroom using Shapegrams. We'll also go over some tips and tricks to using Google Drawings effectively and efficiently.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
We would love to hear from you – leave a comment on our website OR check out our FLIPGRID!
Featured ContentFor detailed show notes, please visit our website at https://edugals.com/49****
Connect with Tony:
- Twitter: @tonyvincent
- Websites: Learning in Hand and Shapegrams
- Self-employed educational consultant
Resources, Tips, and Ideas:
- Timex Sinclair (in case you're curious)
- Podcasting/video creation in the classroom with students
- Classy Graphics Workshop
- Shapegrams (first 4 are free!)
- Teaches students patient, perseverance, and growth mindset
- Includes instructional videos, activities for early finishers
- Also includes some fantastic puns :)
- Scope and sequence - easy to advanced
- Cost: $35 per year membership
- Tie them into other areas such as writing prompts, math, reflections
- Fun for teachers too!
- Book: Math Curse by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith
- Tony's favourite: White House
- Google Drawings Tips and Tricks:
- Start a new drawing with drawings.new
- Get rid of the checkerboard pattern by right clicking, select background and change it to white (or another colour)
- Page setup or just grab the bottom right corner "grippy" and drag it out to stretch or lengthen your canvas
- Shapes menu - circle = oval, square = rectangle; to get a perfect circle/square, hold down the shift key as you draw out the shape
- Shift + Control/Option + dragging on the shape - resizes from the centre
- Version history is available here too - copy/paste from a previous version or restore previous versions
- Use the grey space around the drawing for instructions, videos, activities for early finishers, drag and drop activities, gifs (make them using Screencastify), etc.
- Upcoming workshop: Classy Creations
- Five weeks
- Focused on Google Slides
- Topics: Great Graphics, Pixels to Paper, Legendary Logos, Captivating Comics, Awesome Animations
- Biggest Takeaway: Infusing creativity with technology to express yourself, affect change, and make a difference
Support the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/edugals)
In this episode, we are talking all about destreaming education. We'll get into why academic streaming needs to go, as well as share out some potential solutions and approaches on how to successfully destream your courses.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
We would love to hear from you – leave a comment on our website OR check out our FLIPGRID!
Featured ContentFor detailed show notes, please visit our website at https://edugals.com/48****
- Ontario destreaming - starting with grade 9 math next year
- Streaming contributes to systemic discrimination in our system
- What does UDL and differentiation look like in your classroom?
- Now is a great time for reflection around streaming and teaching approaches
- Big Takeaway: Meet your students where they are at! And collaborate with SPED & ESL teams
- Instructional Videos - upload to YouTube to take advantage of CC translation tools
- Consider creating content in multiple modalities - video with chapter links, audio, written to provide student choice
- Tip: Create transcripts for your videos using voice typing in Google docs while playing your video
- Try Mote with transcripts
- Culturally Relevant and Responsive Pedagogy
- Use lived experiences and prior knowledge of your students
- Question your thoughts - use brain science (think... yes, AND...)
- Don't use past marks to judge a student's ability to achieve
- Strong relationships support student achievement
- Consider getting SPED/ESL qualifications
Useful Resources
- Choice Board on Destreaming from TDSB
- Jason To's 3 part series on destreaming - Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3
- Modern Classrooms Podcast - Q&A Episode
- OnEdMentors Podcast - Grade 9 Destreaming Episode
- 10 Things About Childhood Trauma Every Teacher Needs To Know (Article)
- Destreaming in Ontario High Schools Should Be Expanded to All Core Subjects in Grades 9 and 10
- How Ontario Can Get Destreaming Right
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In this episode, we are diving into the topic of what virtual schools could be post-pandemic. We'll share some ideas on how virtual schools could work going forward and how we should plan for it effectively. This stemmed from a post on Twitter where the Ontario Government is proposing that virtual models are here to stay.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
We would love to hear from you – leave a comment on our website OR check out our FLIPGRID!
Featured ContentFor detailed show notes, please visit our website at https://edugals.com/47****
- Twitter - Virtual Schools announcement/rumours
- Current Model - too much synchronous time, no flexibility/options
- Needs - purposeful staffing, models of feedback/coaching/mentoring
- Beware of imposter syndrome
- Effective planning/learning is needed to support virtual learning models and de-streaming
- Start it small to build effectively and leads to questions around the student selection process
- Course offerings - there are some interesting ideas to approach schools
- Build a Credit - Student Success (WRSDB)
- Possibility of partial credits - currently done in Section Schools in Ontario
- UN Sustainable Development Goals
- Modern Classrooms Project - PBL Webinar
- HEADRUSH Learning Management System - supports PBL, partial credits, mastery based grading
- Self-Paced/Mastery Based learning model would support virtual learning very well
- Modern Classrooms Project (MCP) - Free Course and Virtual Mentorship
- How to Create and Use Labels in Gmail - Rachel's Video submission for MCP (made with OBS Studio)
- Should Rachel teach summer school?
- OBS Studio (Open Broadcaster Software) - record videos, stream, or use a virtual camera; available for MacOS, Windows, and Linux
- Steven Fotheringham - Blog Post on OBS Studio
- Studio booths for teachers with green screens, tech, sit/stand desks
- Community is still important and needed - a place for students and staff to gather, complete hands on learning, etc.
- Flexibility in schedule
- Combined/co-taught courses and team teaching
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In this episode, we are featuring a special guest, Fonz Mendoza, from My EdTech Life. Fonz is an Instructional Technologist from South Texas. Fonz is sharing his Google Innovator journey with us as well as his goals around his show. We were guests on Fonz's show almost a year ago and we really wanted to highlight this amazing educator.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
We would love to hear from you – leave a comment on our website OR check out our FLIPGRID!
Featured ContentFor detailed show notes, please visit our website at https://edugals.com/46****
Connect with Fonz Mendoza (Instructional Tech, South Texas)
- Twitter @TechTeacher1381 & @MyEdTechLife
- YouTube - My EdTech Life
- Website
Highlights and Resources:
- "It all started with a cup of coffee"
- Caffeinated Tech on Anchor.fm - Technology and Coffee Roasting Episode
- Reserva Coffee Roasters
- Google Certified Educator Level 1 and Level 2
- Google Certified Trainer
- Google Certified Innovator
Tips for the Google Innovator Application:
- It's a huge undertaking! Start early & get lots of feedback
- It's very competitive; you might need to apply several times before being accepted
- Connect with other Innovators using the #GoogleEI hashtag
- Need a project idea - think of "how might we..."
- You want to do something that makes an impact on many people - "Shoot for the moon"
- Pay close attention to word counts
- Beware of Imposter Syndrome
- Connect with your "like-minded wacko's" - Luis Pertuz
- Ringing the fail bell is a good thing - fail forward and celebrate! Get ready to pivot!
- Al Thomas - "there is always somebody waiting for you to do that one thing that will change that person's path in a positive way"
People Mentioned:
- Micah Shippee
- Luis Pertuz
- Lesleigh Altmann
- Stephanie Rothstein
- Fredrick Ballow
- Shantel Scott
- Al Thomas
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In this episode, we are discussing the challenges of asynchronous learning in this crazy virtual/hybrid teaching world. We'll dive into our thoughts about what asynchronous learning should look like ideally as well as the reality that we are facing here in Ontario this year. Thanks so much to @DougPete and @Stephen_Hurley for inspiring us to record this episode!
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
We would love to hear from you – leave a comment on our website OR check out our FLIPGRID!
Did you notice? Our podcast artwork has changed! Let us know what you think!
Featured ContentFor detailed show notes, please visit our website at https://edugals.com/45****
- Balance between synchronous and asynchronous learning is needed
- Reality in Ontario - way too much synchronous learning!
- Asynchronous needed to engage with material and develop a depth of understanding
- Learning skills needed for asynchronous learning - not all students will thrive
- Expectations around asynchronous learning - different for pandemic vs. post-pandemic
- Education will never be the same - lessons learned from COVID are important
- Building in learning skills
- Flexibility in the school day - location, time, etc.
- Blended learning flex days pilot project - our reflections
- Student-centred classrooms
- Learning Skills being developed this year:
- Students watching an instructional video on their own time
- Time management - do you really need to assign HW?
- Self-paced structures are needed - it doesn't mean no pace! Set suggested deadlines, conference 1:1 with students, etc.
- Modern Classrooms Project - pacing trackers, mastery based grading
- De-streaming is coming to Ontario next year!
- Every teacher is a language teacher
- Allow students to stay on Google Meet while working asynchronously
- Tracking student engagement asynchronously:
- Google Workspace collaboration tools
- HyperDocs
- Padlet
- Google Forms
- EdPuzzle
- Need to be proactive!
- Ideas for asynchronous learning with Screencastify:
- Student check ins
- Exit tickets/reflections
- Problem solving process (modelling needed)
- Test reflection
- Asynchronous learning will look different in different subjects, differentiation is key
- Relationships and knowing your learner will support student engagement and buy in with asynchronous learning
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In this episode, we are ramping up your productivity with our favourite keyboard shortcuts. Keyboard shortcuts can save you so much time, especially as they add up over days, weeks, and months. We'll go over the keyboard shortcuts that we know and love to help you save some of your precious time and sanity!
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
We would love to hear from you – leave a comment on our website OR check out our FLIPGRID!
News and Updates
- Screencastify - New recording toolbar
- Creating optimal environments to develop literacy - Valentina Gonzalez
Featured Content
- Google Workspace Keyboard Shortcuts - includes shortcuts for Gmail, Chrome, Calendar, Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Meet
- Screencastify Keyboard Shortcuts - master list
- How to Customize Keyboard Shortcuts in Screencastify - Blog Post
- Keyboard Shortcuts covered in this episode:
- Keyboard shortcuts menu in Google - cmd/ctrl + /
- New tab - cmd/ctrl + T (Chrome)
- Open up last closed tab - cmd/ctrl + shift + T (Chrome)
- Adding a hyperlink - cmd/ctrl + K
- Screenshot copied to clipboard (mac) - cmd + opt + shift + 4
- Screenshot (PC) - windows key + shift + S
- Find - cmd/ctrl + F
- Find and replace - cmd/ctrl + shift + H
- Undo - cmd/ctrl + Z
- Redo - cmd/ctrl + Y
- Add a comment - cmd /ctrl+ option/alt + M (esp in Slides) - use in conjunction with Mote
- Superscript - cmd/ctrl + . (you need to do this one again to exit)
- Subscript - cmd/ctrl + , (you need to do this one again to exit)
- Paste and match formatting - cmd/ctrl + shift + V (maybe don't share this one with your students?)
- Start a bulleted list - cmd/ctrl + shift + 8
- Start a numbered list - cmd/ctrl + shift + 7
- Slides/Drawings specific
- Send forward - cmd/ctrl + arrow up
- Send backwards - cmd/ctrl + arrow down
- Send it to front - cmd/ctrl + shift + arrow up
- Sends it to back- cmd/ctrl + shift + arrow down
- Zoom in - cmd/ctrl + option/alt + +
- Zoom out - cmd/ctrl + option/alt + -
- Select the next shape - tab
- Select the previous shape - shift + tab
- Selecting multiple options - shift + click
- Grouping - cmd/ctrl + option/alt + G (add shift to ungroup)
- Shapegrams - Tony Vincent
- Screencastify specific
- Pause/resume recording - option + shift + P (Mac), alt + shift + P (PC)
- Show/Hide the annotation toolbar - option + T (Mac), alt + T (PC)
- Bonus Tip - Google Docs > Tools > Preferences > Substitutions tab - great for quick comments
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This week we are talking all about Google Drive. We are going to share strategies on how you can organize and clean up your Google Drive, especially with the new storage updates with Google Workspace!
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
We would love to hear from you – leave a comment on our website OR check out our FLIPGRID!
News and Updates
- Improved presenter toolbar in Google Slides
- Screencastify Edit now has title clips
Featured Content
- Changes to Google Workspace Storage Policies starting June 1, 2021
- Google Workspace for Education - Changes to Storage starting July 2022
- Google Workspace for Education - Compare Editions
- Overall Organization Tips and Ideas - Google Drive Training & Help
- Use Storage in the menu to find your largest files
- Screencastify backup to Google Drive - Fainting Goats
- Return ALL assignments back to students in Google Classroom
- Deal with orphaned docs - beware of docs.new, slides.new etc (sort 10-15 a day)
- Use a numbering system for your folders (00, 01, 02, etc)
- Colour code important folders
- Adding descriptions to folders, docs etc
- Add a description to your doc or file, improving the search process and differentiating the file to others in the same folder or with a similar subject
- Starring folders or important docs - do this sparingly
- Leave special folders alone: Assignments, Classroom, Meet Recordings, Meeting Reports, Fluency Tutor, Screencastify, Screencastify Submit etc.
- You can add folders inside these - consider creating an Archive folder to keep only the relevant folders easier to access
- Priority tab and WORKSPACES
- Don't organize your Shared With Me folder!
- Recent folder can help you find files
- Grid view vs list view - which one are you?
- Use the Search toolbar - try the advanced search to find files by type, ownership, date range, etc.
- Find older files using the custom date range
- Use named versions instead of creating copies of files in the version history
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In this episode, we are getting into the debate of which tool we think is better - Google Slides or Google Jamboard. We'll do comparisons of different features and give you our overall impressions and preferences for these two tools. So stay tuned and make sure you listen right to the end!
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
We would love to hear from you – leave a comment on our website OR check out our FLIPGRID!
News and Updates
- Set up Google Meet breakout rooms ahead of meetings in Google Calendar
- Version history now available for Jamboard on web
Featured Content
- Google Slides: slides.google.com
- Google Jamboard: jamboard.google.com
- What features do we compare?
- Template Gallery in Slides
- Background Images in Slides vs Jamboard
- Tools for interactivity - Toolbar in Jamboard - esp. Sticky Notes
- Collaborators in Jamboard vs. Slides
- Software vs. Hardware for Jamboard
- Add an image into Slides vs Jamboard
- Explore Feature in Slides
- Different versions of Jamboard - web vs devices
- Number of slides vs number of frames
- The adjacent possible - Jake Miller, Educational Duct Tape
- Version History in Slides vs Jamboard
- Adding hyperlinks in Slides
- Adding audio and video files in Slides
- Simplicity of the user interface of Jamboard for littles
- Workspace in Slides - esp when changing slide dimensions
- Zoom tools in Slides
- Adding items to the grey space outside of the canvas in Slides
- Editing the Master in Google Slides
- Comments in Slides
- Different backgrounds in Jamboard
- Adding diagrams via Insert > Diagram in Slides and smash it with Jamboard
- Always start with the why when deciding on which tool to use!
- Want to weigh in on the debate? Contribute your thoughts to our FLIPGRID
Support the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/edugals)
In this episode, we are discussing how to effectively collaborate with your colleagues using a variety of virtual tools. Collaboration is key in education, so we want to make sure that you have some great ideas and strategies to help you collaborate with other educators in this crazy school year. We'll dive into video conferencing and communication tools, whiteboard tools, resource curation and storage, and sharing and finding new ideas and tools.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
We would love to hear from you – leave a comment on our website OR check out our FLIPGRID!
News and Updates
- Bitmoji and Flipgrid Integration announcement
- Setting up Friendmoji in the Bitmoji app
- NEW Blur Tool in Screencastify Edit announcement
Featured Content
- Video Conferencing/Communication Tools
- Gather.town - PD, social events, unconferences and Pricing
- Google Meet, Zoom and other video conferencing tools
- Google Chat, Slack, WhatsApp, and other text messaging apps
- Google Groups - check out our Imposter Syndrome Episode
- Streamyard (more one-way but chat in YouTube is good)
- Whiteboard Tools
- Padlet
- Google Jamboard
- Mindomo or other mind-mapping tools
- Whiteboard.chat or whiteboard in Gather Town
- Resource Curation/Storage
- Book Creator
- Wakelet - Spaces are great for collaboration!
- Shared Drives vs Traditional Drives
- Google Site (course teams)
- Data Studio (a little more involved)
- Global GEG tutorial on Data Studio
- Sharing/Finding New Ideas/Tools
- Twitter or other social media platforms
- Katie's profile
- Rachel's profile
- EduGals' profile
- Facebook Groups
- MCP Teacher Collaboration Group
- Google Groups or Google Currents
- Wakelet
- Twitter or other social media platforms
Support the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/edugals)
This week we are exploring the world of Google Arts and Culture, a hidden gem created by Google that often gets forgotten. We will share what you can find on this app, and how you can use it with your students.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
We would love to hear from you – leave a comment on our website OR check out our FLIPGRID!
News and Updates
- Mote now integrated into Gmail
- Answer to a listener's question - YouTube Screencast
Featured Content
- Google Arts & Culture Website
- Also available on mobile devices - Google Play or Apple App Store
- Blob Opera
- Interactive Experiences change each time you visit the site!
- What do you want to explore? Places, Museums, Artworks and Games
- Games are fun! Check out Puzzle Party, Visual Crosswords, Cultural Crosswords, What Came First?, and Art Colouring Book
- Mobile App - Art Selfie and many other options!
- Incredible views from the top
- Sharing options - social media, Google Classroom, by link
- Favourites/Profile - they mean the same thing!
- Nearby - explore in your community
- Other menu options include collections, themes, experiments, etc.
- Experiments - all kinds of things down this rabbit hole, try exploring through the collections
- Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego?
- Viewing options - artists, mediums, art movements, historical events & figures
- Achievements - 13 different badges to collect
- Best Advice: Just dive in and explore!
Support the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/edugals)
In this episode, we are diving into Google Read&Write, an amazing Chrome extension that enhances accessible learning for all students. We'll go over the features and share some ideas on how you can use this incredible tool with your students.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
We would love to hear from you – leave a comment on our website OR check out our FLIPGRID!
News and Updates
- Learning with Google Event - Announcements Collection
- Google Meet - Mute All is here!
**Featured Content
Detailed show notes are available on our website at edugals.com/39**
- Read&Write for Google Chrome Extension by TextHelp
- Register and activate your FREE teacher account at texthelp.com/en-gb/products/read-write/free-for-teachers/ after installing the Read&Write for Google Chrome trial
- Our Top 10 EdTech Certification Recommendations for 2021 - Episode 35
- Read&Write for Google Chrome - Quick Reference Guide - this is a great guide that goes over all of the features that we discuss in this episode
- Discussion about using tools like Read&Write - think about what you are evaluating and what your learning goals are for your students
- Picture Dictionary - consider using the icons across your course materials and evaluations for consistency or just even to grab quick icons
- Create a evaluation tool with words used typically in evaluations with translations
- Screenshot Reader - Standalone Chrome Extension (also built into Read&Write)
- Talk & Type - you can use this tool in multiple languages; great for second language courses and pronunciation practice; it's best to have students go back and put punctuation in later
- Translator - default setting is for Spanish, can be changed in the settings menu
- Highlighters - have a consistent colour scheme based on your course/student needs
- Collect Highlights - create multilingual dictionaries
- Voice Note - super short (1 min); similar to Mote Chrome extension
- Practice Read Aloud - pared down version of Fluency Tutor
- TextHelp Certification Program
- On websites, simplify page is a great option for printing, if needed
- Pricing for TextHelp Products
Support the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/edugals)
In this episode, we are bringing you part 2 of our two-part series all about how to use Google Meet effectively for synchronous learning in your classroom. This week, we'll go over some awesome ideas and strategies for you to really leverage the power of Google Meet to engage all of your learners in synchronous lessons.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
We would love to hear from you – leave a comment on our website OR check out our FLIPGRID!
News and Updates
- Learning with Google Event - Feb 17 & 18, 2021
- Tips to Stop Overthinking via @unlearn_com
Featured Content
- Did you miss Part 1? Check out Part 1 - E037 first!
- Building Relationships/Community:
- Have students change Google profile picture - favourite food, check-in, curricular themes, etc.
- Change Background - student grouping, storytelling, check-ins
- Tile View - Guess Who? game (builds vocab too!)
- Google Jamboard:
- Create templates using Custom Backgrounds (blog post)
- Try app-smashing with Canva - Online Whiteboard examples
- Get Jamming with Jamboard - E022
- Try adding audio to your Slides for individual/independent work time - Happy Music YouTube Channel
- Breakout Rooms:
- Small group activities with Google Jamboard
- Templates from @MrsParkShine
- Structuring class time:
- Break up large time blocks with breaks
- Find a flow between large and small group activities
- Build in checks via Slides, screenshots, pics, etc
- Whiteboard.chat
- 1:1 check-ins via breakout rooms
- Hand Raising:
- YouTube video is done, attendance, quick check-ins, this or that game
- Does put it in order in the people tab
- Use it as a buzzer!
- Backchannels:
- Google Chat or the chat in Google Meet - this is still participation and engagement!
- Try a Waterfall chat
- Polls/Q&A:
- Check-ins (scale of ...) - use Screencastify to create a scale of YOU gifs
- Use remove.bg to remove backgrounds
- Capture data with Q&A
Support the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/edugals)
In this episode, we are diving into Google Meet and how to leverage the power of video conferencing with synchronous learning. In part 1 of this 2-part series, we'll go over the basics of Google Meet as well as share some handy tips and tricks to help make the most of your synchronous learning time.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
We would love to hear from you – leave a comment on our website OR check out our FLIPGRID!
News and Updates
- NEW Mote Certified Educator and Ambassador Programs (learn more about Mote in our Chrome Extensions episode)
- Chrome 88 Update - Security and built-in QR code generator
Featured Content
- Google Meet - Help Center and What's New in Google Meet
- Features Table
- Our best advice - set up your Google Meet in Google Calendar
- Event organizer ALWAYS has host controls even if others enter first
- Co-teaching? You can transfer your events
- Linked docs to calendar event will show up in the Meet - need to RSVP YES to view
- Stragglers? Try "add people" under the people tab - it will email them directly!
- Host controls - turn on/off quick access, share screen, and chat messages
- GSEFE (Enterprise) Features - Breakout rooms (doesn't work on mobile), polls, and Q&A
- Example - Scale of Cat Check-in to use with polls
- Useful Keyboard Shortcuts:
- Ctrl/Cmd + D = Mic on/off
- Ctrl/Cmd + E = Video on/off
- Raise Hand - puts your students in order!
- CC - each person has to enable it on their own device
- Screen sharing - Tab (audio/video), Window, or Full Screen
- Three dot menu:
- Cast this meeting
- Whiteboard (i.e. Jamboard - Custom Backgrounds Blog Post and Jamboard Episode)
- Record meeting
- Layout
- Change Background - use for presentations/storytelling or grouping
- Report Abuse
- Troubleshooting
- Settings - audio/video, noise cancellation
Support the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/edugals)
In this episode, we are bringing you an overview of all the amazing features and uses of Wakelet, a powerful curation tool. We will go over how to get started as well as how to maximize use of Wakelet in the classroom.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
We would love to hear from you – leave a comment on our website OR check out our FLIPGRID!
News and Updates
- EquatIO and Jamboard = AMAZING!
Featured Content
- Website: wakelet.com
- Connect with EduGals on Wakelet
- Wakelet Collection of Resources for this episode
- Consider creating header images using Canva - Image Size Guide
- Adding sections to your profile
- Creating and editing your collections
- App-smashing with Screencastify
- Guest Post: Casting and Curating | The #1 Screen Recorder for Chrome
- Using Screencastify with Wakelet
- Inviting collaborators to your collections
- Wakelet Chrome Extension
- Apps (iOS and Android) also available
- Wakelet spaces! Great for course/grade teams
- Wakelet Training Center
- Surf School
- Wakelet Community Programs - Member, Leader, and Ambassador
- Wakelet for Educators Resources
- The Educator's Guide to Wakelet eBook – Wakelet Blog
- Wakelet Remote Learning Guide and Remote Learning Resources Page
- Ideas for use:
- Newsletters (try embedding in Google Sites or Brightspace!)
- Lesson planning
- Choice boards
- Hyperdocs
- Group project resource collections
- Annotated bibliographies
Support the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/edugals)
In this episode, we are bringing you our top 10 EdTech certification recommendations for the 2021 school year. Certifications are great for you to pursue self-directed professional learning, and it doesn't hurt that you usually get a pretty awesome badge to go along with it!
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
We would love to hear from you – leave a comment on our website OR check out our FLIPGRID!
News and Updates
- Create Google Classroom assignments directly in Screencastify Submit
- Jamboard Animated Backgrounds with Canva from Katie Fielding
- Animated Stickers using the Giphy Chrome extension
- Learning With Google Registration - Feb 17 & 18, 2021
Featured Content
- Our Top 10 List
-
10 - Adobe Creative Educator, Level 1 & 2
-
9 - Apple Teacher
-
8 - Kahoot! Certifications
-
7 - Canva Courses and our Canva Episode
-
6 - Modern Classrooms Project Distinguished Educator program
-
5 - TextHelp Certification program
-
4 - Book Creator Certified Author Level 1 and our Book Creator Episode
-
3 - EdPuzzle Certifications (esp. level 1, level 2, and coach)
-
2 - Screencastify Certification Courses and E034 and E002 Screencastify Episodes
-
1 - Google Certified Educator, Levels 1 and 2 and our related Episode E012
- Google for Education Teacher Center
-
- Honourable Mentions
- BadgEdTech Website by Rachel Coathup
- Microsoft Certified Educator
- Wakelet Programs
- Nearpod Certified Educator
- WeVideo Certifications
- ISTE Certified Educator
Support the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/edugals)
This week, we are bringing you a second episode all about Screencastify. A lot has changed since remote learning first started last spring, so we wanted to revisit this tool, share some updated features, and explore some ways to use this tool with your students.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
We would love to hear from you – leave a comment on our website OR check out our FLIPGRID!
News and Updates
- Slowing Down for Ourselves and Our Students blog post
Featured Content
- Remote Learning with Screencastify Episode (E002)
- Website: Screencastify.com to get the Chrome extension
- Three pancakes menu then Options (cog wheel) for lots of setup options; also access your recordings as well as submit and editor apps, configure keyboard shortcuts here too!
- Blog Post - How to Customize Keyboard Shortcuts in Screencastify to Maximize Your Productivity
- Pricing Guidelines: https://www.screencastify.com/buy
Screencastify Recorder
- Browser Tab, Desktop, Webcam Only options
- Drawing Tools keyboard shortcut: PC: Alt + T, Mac: Option + T
- Consider using the webcam only recording option as a document camera
Screencastify Editor
- Access via 3 pancakes menu or via the editor button within a video
- Can edit a screencastify recording OR your own videos - smash video clips together
- Options: cut, crop, and add text (not many font options)
- Text - can choose how long to show up on the screen by dragging in/out the ends
- Overall, a simple editor and very user-friendly esp. for students
Screencastify Submit
- Create assignments and students don't need the extension or an account
- Great for protecting student privacy! And easy to use
- Format Choices: Screen and Webcam, Webcam only, or Screen only
- It creates a link that you can then share with students
- Sharing choices available too
- Email notifications - Check out our Gmail episode to help you set up filters
Teaching Ideas
- Leave comments on videos via Google Drive - feedback
- Caption tracks via Google Drive options
- Screencastify Education Resources
- Create training videos
- Dub over YouTube videos with MuteTab extension
- Single image for language, critical analysis etc.
- Virtual Art Show
- Google Arts & Culture - Blob Opera
- Smash it with other apps!
- Not just video - mp3, gifs also!
Support the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/edugals)
In this episode, we are exploring the integration of Google Assignments into the Brightspace Learning Management System (LMS). Google Assignments helps you to easily distribute and grade student work with the same look and feel of Google Classroom. With Google Assignments, you can distribute templates to your students, integrate rubrics, check plagiarism, and grade all within one easy-to-use platform.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
We would love to hear from you – leave a comment on our website OR check out our FLIPGRID!
News and Updates
- Join a meeting with new options on the Google Meet landing page
- Resources re: US Capitol Event:
- Pear Deck Resource 1
- Pear Deck Resource 2
- Facing History and Ourselves - Responding to the Insurrection at the US Capitol
- Newsela Article and Resources
Featured Content
- Google Assignments website, resources, and info from Google
- LMS supported: Brightspace, Canvas, Schoology, Blackboard, Moodle, Sakai
- Great alternative to the dropbox in Brightspace! And if you are used to using Google Classroom, this has the same look and feel bringing some familiarity into your LMS
- In Brightspace, it's best to create your assignments in the content area NOT the dropbox
- Consider simplifying your navigation to create a "Google Classroom" experience and then link everything in your content area
- YouTube Video Tutorials:
- Google Assignments Overview in Brightspace
- Student Overview of Google Assignments in Brightspace
- Adding Google Assignments to Other Areas Using Quick Links in Brightspace (Advanced Features)
- To create an assignment in content, click on the Add Existing, Go to Third-Party Integrations, then select Google Assignments
- Drive folder is created once linked to your account called Assignments
- Unmarked option not available yet so you do need to include a points value
- Rubrics can be integrated - reuse, create new, or import from Sheets
- Originality reports available - unlimited for Enterprise users
- Only option right now: each student will get a copy - it would be great if they had all the same options as classroom - give feedback!
- Ideas to use Assignments:
- Create an assignment
- Sharing activity templates
- Guided note templates for watching videos
- Distributing hyperdocs
- Feedback loops
- Self-paced learning trackers or Checklists for goal-setting
Support the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/edugals)
In this episode, we are talking all about an amazing, and easy-to-use tool called Canva. We will be diving into the how-tos, ideas for using Canva with your students, features within Canva, and the differences between the types of accounts (free, pro, and education).
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
We would love to hear from you – leave a comment on our website OR check out our FLIPGRID!
News and Updates
- Our 10 most popular EduGals podcast episodes of 2020
Featured Content
- Canva is a great and easy-to-use graphic design tool
- Canva website
- Canva for Education account sign up - a bit intense! For K-12 teachers only
- Canva Pricing Chart - gives you some idea about features in each type of account
- Getting Started with Canva Tutorials
- Canva for Education Tutorials - setting up classes and using Canva with students
- Canva Templates
- Font Combinations Tool from Canva
- Canva Colour Palette Generator
- MOOC's (Massive Open Online Courses) - Coursera, edX and many more
- Canva Design Types - so many options available!
- SVG file types + Cricut/Silhouette - for classroom decorations, manipulatives, etc
- Canva Distance Education Resources
- Ways to use it in the classroom:
- Design lesson plans, worksheets, etc for your classroom
- App smash with Google Tools like Slides or Jamboard
- Bitmoji Classroom Templates
- Classroom Kits Templates
- Flashcard Templates
- Customize your LMS - headers, navigation bar icons
- Newsletters to communicate with home/parents
- Resume templates
- Social Media accounts linked to your school
- Infographic Templates for Education
Support the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/edugals)
In this episode, we are diving into the idea of building self-paced tech professional development (PD) programs designed for teachers. We are diving into set up options, buy in, and tools to support the development of these professional learning programs.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! And consider supporting the show by buying us a coffee or two!
We would love to hear from you – leave a comment on our website OR check out our FLIPGRID!
News and Updates
- Mixed page orientations in Google docs
- Sticky settings in Google Meet
- Customize text style and appearance in Google sites
- Improvements to PDF imports into Google docs
Featured Content
- Getting Started:
- Start small! It doesn't need to be perfect and should be focused on staff needs
- Screencastify is great to create how-to screencasts
- Focus on the tools educators are using - Google, other tools, LMS
- Use already created resources - Google certifications, Screencastify, EdPuzzle
- Platform:
- Google Sites, Google Classroom, LMS such as Brightspace, Wakelet
- Consider app-smashing to fit your needs
- Content:
- Screencasts, posters, tip sheets, etc.
- Modern Classrooms Project - self-paced, mastery based learning model
- Post screencasts on YouTube to allow choice for pacing
- Google slides with video embedded along with screenshots
- Book Creator - see E028
- Mastery Demonstration:
- Google Classroom assignments to demo learning
- Check in sessions - virtual or in person
- Google Forms (embed in Sites)
- Quizzes tool in LMS
- Staff Motivation:
- Buy in, swag, admin support, etc
- Badge system with public tracker - create badges with Canva, Google drawings, Google slides
- Distribute using Forms, Autocrat, LMS
- Linking Modules:
- Different levels, honour prior knowledge
- Learning styles are a MYTH
- Google Form with Autocrat, FormMule, or in response message
Support the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/edugals)
This week, we are talking all about how to mark and grade in a paperless world. With no-touch and no-share policies this year, we have to get creative about how we do our assessments using digital formats instead of paper. We are going to talk about related hardware, as well as tools such as annotation in Brightspace, Google Classroom, and automation.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content!
We would love to hear from you – leave a comment on our website OR check out our FLIPGRID!
News and Updates
- YouT-ube Hack via https://www.yout-ube.com/
- Google Jamboard Updates
- Book Creator Updates
Featured Content
- Hardware recommendations:
- iPad with apple pencil
- touchscreen Chromebook (even better with Google Play store access)
- Wacom tablet
- iPad app recommendations:
- Notability or GoodNotes - both sync great with Google Drive!
- Great for marking up assignments, including rubrics, and sharing back with students
- Notability also includes the ability to record an audio note
- GoodNotes is great for direct instruction
- Brightspace:
- We are not fans of the annotation tool with the dropbox in Brightspace - don't forget to save the draft if you are using it!
- Rubrics are clunky and we're not fans of this tool in here either!
- We do LOVE the quizzes in Brightspace
- Alternatives/Solutions:
- Doctopus - Google Sheets Add-on
- Goobric - Chrome Extension
- Google Drive folder shared between teacher and student along with URL hacks with Google Docs in Brightspace
- TemplateTab Template from Alice Keeler
- Create rubrics as a background image in Google Slides or use the paint roller for quick formatting
- Use in conjunction with Google Classroom as your dropbox
- Mastery-based approaches can be helpful
- Tip: incorporate reflection via Google Forms BEFORE releasing a grade
- Other useful assessment tools:
- Google Read and Write Chrome extension
- Mote - audio feedback, Chrome extension
- Screencastify - audio/video feedback
- Auto-grading in Google Forms or Brightspace Quizzes
- Breakout rooms for 1:1 check-ins/feedback in Meet, Zoom, Teams, etc.
Support the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/edugals)
In this episode, we are talking all about EdPuzzle. We will go over the basics, and then we will share how you can use this tool to create engaging lessons for your students.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content!
We would love to hear from you – leave a comment on our website OR check out our FLIPGRID!
News and Updates
- New URL shortcuts from Google - try either jam.new or meet.new!
- More great updates for GSEFE users of breakout rooms in Google Meet
Featured Content
- EdPuzzle is a super valuable tool for hybrid and distance learning - lots of tracking data and a great way to add interactivity to your videos - questions, notes and audio
- Access EdPuzzle: https://edpuzzle.com/ and make sure you login or sign up as a teacher - if you use Google Classsroom, consider signing in with your Google account
- Curriculum area is a great place to get started - lots of ready made videos with questions that are available to copy and assign to your classes
- When you sign up, make sure you select the correct School so that you can collaborate easily with your colleagues
- Content area is where you will find your videos - you can organize into folders too
- EdPuzzle Pricing Plans
- Rachel's referral code and Katie's referral code (you get 3 extra video storage spaces when you sign up with this link)
- Getting Started with EdPuzzle Resource - all kinds of helpful articles here to help you with adding videos, adding questions, notes, audio, voiceovers, etc.
- EdPuzzle Chrome extension - Adds a save to EdPuzzle button to your YouTube page so it's easy to add!
- Types of classes - Classic (extra features in the Gradebook & can import from Google Classroom) and Open (no need for students to login - consider assigned nicknames here for easier tracking) OR use public links
- EdPuzzle videos embed nicely with most LMS like Brightspace, Canvas, Schoology etc.
- Live Mode in EdPuzzle
- Grades can be downloaded and imported in Sheets - Global GEG webinar
- Screencastify now integrates seamlessly with EdPuzzle
- Student Projects in EdPuzzle
- Present to your school or district about EdPuzzle
- EdPuzzle Certification courses - Teachers AND Students
- Need further help? Check out the EdPuzzle Help Centre
Support the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/edugals)
This week we are talking all about a fun, creative and educational tool called Book Creator. We will go over the various features of the tool, as well as some different ways that you can use it with your students.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content!
We would love to hear from you – leave a comment on our website OR check out our FLIPGRID!
News and Updates
- Template from Slides Mania and Tweet from Jake Miller
- Modern Classrooms Project Free Course
- EdPuzzle Self-Paced Classroom Badge/Course
- Self-Paced Classrooms article from Jennifer Gonzalez - Cult of Pedagogy
Featured Content
- Accessing Book Creator - https://bookcreator.com/
- Account Subscription Levels Note that this has been updated since the time of recording
- Students can use anonymous accounts - help article
- Features in Book Creator
- Two types: regular and comic, each has 3 different layouts (portrait, landscape, square)
- Comic books have more features including stickers, panels, different text tools
- Import media: Google image search, maps, files, Google drive, embed code, camera (image OR video), record (audio)
- The Ultimate Guide to Embedding Content on Book Creator - Book by the Book Creator team
- Integrates with a variety of LMS
- Pen tool - check out the autodraw feature!
- Accessibility features - Speech to text and text to speech, add transcripts to audio (in i button)
- Other features: backgrounds, different paper types, borders
- Publishing options: share a link, download as a pdf, publish as an epub file
- Ideas for Use:
- Digital Portfolio
- Podcasting Project
- Meet the Teacher/Meet the Student
- Staff Guides
- Interactive Maps
- Lab Reports
- Resources for Teachers - divided by age level and subject areas
- Book Creator Certified Author, Level 1 Certification
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This week, we are talking all about how to approach assessment and evaluation in hybrid learning. There are so many challenges that we face, including how to manage multiple cohorts and ensure academic integrity when students are completing assessments at home. So we will go over some suggestions for how to get away from the traditional test and design effective and engaging evaluations for your remote learning students.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content!
We would love to hear from you – leave a comment on our website OR check out our FLIPGRID!
News and Updates
- Google Meet Replace Background - New Feature
- Flipped Learning with Jon Bergmann (hosted by Global GEG)
Featured Content
- Shift the questions we are asking to something not Google-able! Thinking and application are crucial
- There is a time/place for knowledge and understanding; we need to think outside the box for ways that students can demonstrate their learning
- Quizzes:
- Brightspace (or most LMS platforms) is a powerful tool for quizzes
- Try using question pools, multiple attempts to move towards mastery-based learning and reduces stress, anxiety and pressure on students
- Other tools you can use: Google forms, Kahoot!, Quizizz, etc.
- Feedback loops/Revisions:
- Multiple versions with feedback
- Great for skills-based courses
- Feedback via video conferencing, audio and/or video (Mote, Screencastify)
- What do you do when students don't want to engage this way? Leave us feedback on our FLIPGRID
- Automating A&E - Tools:
- Quizzing apps (Kahoot!, Quizizz, etc.), EdPuzzle (integrate with Screencastify), Nearpod and/or Pear Deck, Flipgrid, Screencastify (combine with peer feedback)
- Alternatives to a traditional test:
- Interviews - practice with screencasts/peer feedback
- Portfolios/Blogs - lots of tools to use: Google docs, slides, sites, LMS tools, Wakelet
- Project - setup/structure is important! Format choice with a common goal or mimic real-world experiences
- Debate/small group - book/journal clubs, controversial topics
- Student choice/options - let students have an opportunity to demonstrate their learning in a way that they are comfortable!
- Build community and get to know your students! Everything else will fall into place.
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This week, we are talking all about how to balance hybrid learning. It's been such a challenging year so far to engage both cohorts of students, both face-to-face and online, at the same time. So we will go over some suggestions for how to structure large learning blocks, flipped learning, and differentiation for your students.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content!
We would love to hear from you – leave a comment on our website OR check out our FLIPGRID!
*NOTE: We'll be taking a one-week break from our podcast*
News and Updates
- Tweet from Matt Miller - 3 Free Halloween Digital Escape Rooms
- Canadian Legion Poppy Store
Featured Content
- Large learning blocks of time (2 - 3 hour learning blocks) - Structure suggestions:
- Challenges: engaging for the whole time, group work, physical limitations
- Going back and forth between whole group and small group sessions to break things up
- Use breakout rooms - tools like Zoom, Adobe Connect, or Google Meet can be used
- If using Google Meet - hack breakout rooms by having them all open with closed captions on and use the Mute Tab chrome extension (listen to E024 for more info!)
- If you're lucky enough to have an Enterprise account, check out the new breakout rooms feature in Google Meet!
- Digital citizenship discussions need to continue ALL year - See E021 for more details
- Student autonomy requires scaffolding!
- Continuously work on community building/building peer-to-peer relationships - it will help with conversation in breakout rooms
- No conversation? Check in with them! Make sure they understand the instructions/task that they are working on
- Wellness checks are so important! Try a poll!
- If you're hybrid, try doing grouping with your face-to-face students, and have your online students in breakout rooms
- Create Google Chat rooms for breakouts instead of using Meet - use it to create community between cohorts
- Consider having students join the class synchronously for the whole time (include breaks)
- Flipped Learning
- Video/Written content for knowledge building and in class time is used for collaborative practice
- Could be done by engaging all of the class together or stagger content so that those at home would be working asynchronously on flipped content
- Consider whole class connection at beginning/end of class for wellness check-ins
- Start small!
- Tech Tool Tip: Keep it simple. Use the tools you are already familiar with and save learning the other ones for quads where you have the time.
- Differentiation
- Use appointment slots (Google Calendar) to meet 1:1 with students
- Culture shift: It's okay to ask questions and seek help
- Google Chat (individual chats or rooms) - opens up conversation, social connections, and helping each other out
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This week we are going to talk about that feeling you get as a teacher sometimes. That feeling that you don’t know enough, or that you just aren’t good enough. This feeling is actually something called “imposter syndrome,” and it is far more common in education than you think!
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content!
We would love to hear from you – leave a comment on our website OR check out our FLIPGRID!
News and Updates
- Screencastify Submit - Now includes webcam & screencast together option!
- Explain Everything & EdPuzzle Integration
- We hit 25 episodes! Thanks so much for listening!
**Featured Content
Detailed Show Notes Available on Our Website: https://edugals.com/25**Imposter Syndrome Resources
- Overcoming Imposter Syndrome
- 5 Types of Imposter Syndrome and How to Stop Them
- Perfectionist
- Superperson
- Natural Genius
- Soloist
- Expert
- The Reality of Imposter Syndrome
- Imposter Syndrome
- 7 ways teachers can overcome imposter syndrome
- Five Ways Teachers and Trainers Can Manage Imposter Syndrome
- Newly Qualified Teachers And Impostor Syndrome
- How to Overcome Imposter Syndrome in Teaching
Other Resources
- No Wifi, No Problem! 4 tips to help you keep your sanity when the wifi goes down at school
Support the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/edugals)
This week we talk about our top 10 productivity Chrome extensions for educators. We also give some honourable mentions and include our favourite fun extensions as a bonus!
Please make sure that if you are recommending any extensions to students that you verify the privacy policies and data that these extensions collect. The last thing that we want to do is to give away student information.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content!
We would love to hear from you – leave a comment on our website OR check out our FLIPGRID!
News and Updates
- Google Meet Updates - Attendance reports, polls, Q&A, breakout rooms (note that these updates are for Enterprise accounts only)
Featured ContentOur top 10 Chrome extensions for productivity:
- Bitly | Powerful Short Links
- Extensity
- Google Keep Chrome Extension
- Google Translate
- Mote: Voice Notes & Feedback
- Mute Tab
- OneTab
- Screencastify - Screen Video Recorder
- Tab Resize - Split Screen Layouts
- Wakelet
Our honourable mentions:
- Read&Write for Google Chrome
- EquatIO - Math Made Digital
- BeeLine Reader
- Other Google Meet Extensions
And our favourite fun Chrome extensions:
- Bitmoji
- ColorPick Eyedropper
- Custom Cursor for Chrome
- LMGTFY Generator
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This week, we are talking all about the Google Sites, and how this tool can be used in the classroom, both virtually and in-person. We will go through all of the awesome ways that you can insert content and build pages into your site, as well as some great uses for Google sites with your students in the classroom.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content!
We would love to hear from you – leave a comment on our website OR check out our FLIPGRID!
News and Updates
- Student-selected Breakout Rooms - Tweet and Template
- Slides Mania - Morning Meeting Template and example YouTube Music video
Featured Content
- Accessing Google Sites - sites.google.com OR try sites.new
- Template Gallery
- Google Sites Help Centre
- Settings available for your website:
- Adding collaborators - access to editing the site itself vs. who can view your site
- Settings cog wheel - navigation, brand images, viewer tools, analytics, announcement banner
- Insert - LOTS of options here including layouts, Google tools, and other elements OR try double clicking anywhere on your site to add items fast
- TIP: You need to change your sharing settings in Google Drive for any docs/slides/etc embedded into your site to "anyone can view"!
- Pages - add pages or links here and create sub-pages for dropdown menus, drag and drop to change the order
- Themes - each option includes 3 different font styles, paint can option allows you to choose your own accent colour
- Preview - you can see what your site will look like for web, tablet, and mobile
- Publish - create web address here, manage viewing settings, and use the dropdown menu to review and publish changes to your site OR unpublish
- Ideas for use in the classroom:
- School, Class, Library website
- Doesn't need to be teacher-driven! Get students collaborating on the tool - discussion boards, class wiki
- Blogging for reflection - try the collapsible text feature (you can determine the level of sharing!)
- Portfolios - track learning, progress, insert media
- Group work collaborative space
- Interactive Notebooks
- Use it in conjunction with Google Classroom to help keep your Classwork tab under control (grab links from each assignment and then try creating a button)
- Do you have any other ways that you use Google Sites? Let us know on our Flipgrid!
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This week, we are talking all about the Google Jamboard app, and how this tool can be used in the classroom, both virtually and in-person. We will go through the features available on the Jamboard frame, and how it differs based on the device you are using.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content!
We would love to hear from you – leave a comment on our website OR check out our FLIPGRID!
News and Updates
- Citations in Google docs
- Shared Folders in Shared Drives
Featured Content
- Jamboard.google.com to access the Jamboard app
- Comparison of features in Jamboard on web, iOS, and Android
- Backgrounds - plain, dots, lines, grids, white, blue and black
- Frames navigation (max # of frames per Jam = 20)
- Great for small groups! Max # of people per Jam= 50 (have you experienced less?)
- Web-based version includes pen tool, eraser, select tool, sticky notes, add images, shapes, text boxes, and laser pointer
- Mobiles versions (iOS and Android) include assistive drawing tools (under the pen tool), eraser double click to clear the frame, drive content, camera, image library, and STICKERS!
Uses for Jamboard
- Characterization in stories or novels - direct vs. indirect
- General question board - great if you can't use Padlet
- Tip: create backgrounds/templates in slides, download as image and insert into Jamboard
- Interactive maps, diagrams, labelling etc.
- Use it for explaining your thinking. Combine it with Screencastify for a powerful app smash!
- Four corners, thumbs up/thumbs down and other types of assessment tools
- Getting to know you activities
- Sketchnoting
- Combine it with Equatio for a powerful math tool and interactive math manipulatives
- Combine it with Screencastify to record your lesson with a touch screen device or a Wacom tablet
Some Jamboard Resources
- Jamboard Tools Reference and Glossary
- Jamboard Help Center and Community
- Jamboard Templates from Ditch That Textbook
- Jamboard Example and Resources from Rachel Coathup
- Jamboard Presentation from LaWanda Ca'stle
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This week we are talking about Digital Citizenship and how we, as educators, can protect our students’ data and privacy as we head into a new school year. We are often so quick to accept permissions on any/all apps that we add to our phones, tablets, etc. It is time that we start to really think about what we are signing up for, how much time we are spending on screens, and how we can better model digital citizenship for our students and children.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content!
We would love to hear from you – leave a comment on our website OR check out our FLIPGRID!
News and Updates
- Google Meet Updates - Host controls, blurred backgrounds, tiled layout
- Congrats for making it through the first week(s) of school #OntEd and other educators! You did it!
Featured Content
- Digital Citizenship - Common Sense Education resource
- Six main topics:
- Media balance and wellbeing
- Balance between online and offline activities
- Try shutting off all of your notifications on your device!
- Privacy and security
- Chromebook shortcut to logout quickly! Control + Shift + Q + Q
- Use codenames linked to curriculum!
- Digital footprint and identity
- Social media practice - instagram stories and Tik Tok templates
- Google yourself!
- Relationships and communication
- Google tools are great for modelling appropriate behaviour
- Snooze emails or wait before sending a response
- Stranger danger!
- Cyberbullying, digital drama, and hate speech
- Building relationships is key
- Modelling appropriate online interactions
- Screenshots can be helpful for tracking
- News and media literacy
- Collaborate with your Teacher Librarian
- Media balance and wellbeing
- Free lessons divided by grade level: K-2, 3-5, 6-8, 9-12
- EdTech Reviews tool from Common Sense Education
- Other resources here include classroom posters and student games!
- Six main topics:
- Other Resources mentioned:
- EdPuzzle Student Certifications
- Google's Be Internet Awesome
- Applied Digital Skills by Google - Digital Citizenship activities
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In this episode, we talk about choice boards. Choice boards are a great option for those in a hybrid or remote learning/teaching environment. Differentiation is built right into this format, which give students more options, and allowing them to demonstrate their learning in way in which they feel the most comfortable and can show their strengths.We recognize that we are all starting the school year differently – face to face, remote, or even a hybrid model that involves both!
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content!
We would love to hear from you – leave a comment on our website OR check out our FLIPGRID!
News and Updates
- Screencastify - Submit is finally out of beta! Pricing list here (we're not affiliates, just love their product!)
- Appsmash Google Jamboard with Screencastify - see Tweet here
- Brad Johnson - Twitter Profile
Featured Content
- Choice boards are great for differentiation, student voice and choice
- Combine with flipped classroom and EdPuzzle
- Direct Instruction choices: video, article, podcast, etc.
- Demonstrate learning: presentation, screencast, brochure, etc.
- Template links for choice boards, checklists, and playlists
- Consider keeping the language simple, including visuals, and creating screencasts for instructions
- Google Slides is great for choice boards (docs is a second best)
- Google Docs - comments force copy hack: delete from "edit to end" and replace it with "copy?copyComments=true"
- SlidesMania Choice boards or Games templates - be sure to check out others under the education tab too!
- @mrshowell24 - Personalized Learning - The Grid Method webinar
- Tools to use:
- Screencastify! We love it :) Can also export audio or gif too or share videos to other platforms
- Common Sense Education - EdTech Tools Review
- Loom or Flipgrid are also great options for screencasting
- YouTube - create or collaborate on playlists
- Pear Deck, Nearpod and Kahoot for interactive presentations
- Wakelet for creating choice boards and curating your resources
- Game apps (Kahoot, Quizizz, Gimkit) for assessment data
- Allow for student choice!
- Creation > Consumption
- Simple can be better!
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In this episode, we talk about some great digital activities to start off a new school year. We recognize that we are all starting the school year differently – face to face, remote, or even a hybrid model that involves both!
These activities will help you to get to know your students, build community and get your students comfortable with however they will be learning for the year.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content!
We would love to hear from you – leave a comment on our website OR check out our FLIPGRID! Also, access detailed show notes here.
News and Updates
- Wakelet Spaces
- Jamboard - shapes and text boxes have arrived! Also integration with Meet is being rolled out!
Featured Content
- Are you starting fully remote, hybrid, fully in class? We'd love to hear how your district is approaching this new school year
- Planning for hybrid learning - allow for student choice of path and place, embrace the blended learning approach!
Start with Relationships & Community Building
- Getting to know the tools with scavenger hunts, escape rooms
- Slides - students create a slide show about themselves
- Adding a personalized profile picture to Google account - have this as a conversation starter with community building discussions
- Identity Chart activity from Facing History - try out this template
- Getting to know you survey with Google Forms - George Couros questions
- Two truths and a lie in a synchronous Meet - Jamboard template here
- This or That - Would you rather type questions in Jamboard
- Virtual meet the teacher event - invite student/parents/guardians etc.; consider flipping it too
- Newsletter via Google Slides (download as a PDF) or Wakelet
- Face-to-Face learning for collaborative activities, flip your direct instruction to video/EdPuzzle
- Explain your why to students & parents
- John Meehan - Edrenaline Rush website & Gamifying your class syllabus - Class is Lava and setup with various Google Meet rooms
- Ditch That Textbook - 10 Jamboard Templates for Distance Learning
- Erica Taylor - see pages 3 - 17 for both chemistry games
- Scavenger Hunt - Think big and take it school wide!
- Informal spaces for discussion - Google Chat Rooms
- Check Ins - Google Form templates to try out
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As we gear up for a new school year, we thought it was a good idea to go back and talk about all things Google Classroom. Whether you are remote, in-person, or a hybrid version of the two, there are ways that you can set up Google Classroom so that it is optimized for whatever comes your way.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! Check out our website for more detailed show notes.
We would love to hear from you – leave a comment on our website, OR check out our FLIPGRID!
**Show Notes
News and Updates**
- Blog Post for all Google Updates announced at the Anywhere School event
- Google Classroom Updates:
- To-do list on the classes page
- Join via a link
- Available in 54 languages now
- 5 originality reports for free accounts and slides coming soon
- Google Assignments - incorporate into your LMS (Brightspace, Canvas, Schoology and others)
Featured Content
- Map out your plan first before setting up your classroom - uses for stream, classwork tab, topic setup (weekly vs unit), assignments, multiple vs single classroom
- Idea - Use classrooms as mastery-based modules; inspired by EdPuzzle certifications
- System of naming can help with Google drive folder organization
- Settings:
- Stream - do you want students to post and comment, comment only, or only teacher; play with the settings
- Classwork on the stream - hide notifications to declutter your stream
- Turn on guardian summaries - super useful to keep parents/guardians in the loop!
- Google Meet - turn the link on or off or regenerate new codes in the settings panel
- Grades - can be set up in the settings panel for categories, overall mark calculation, show overall mark to students
Tips
- Template classes - take some time to set one up to save you team each year. Everything copies in draft form which can be easily scheduled
- Reuse posts, assignments etc. from old classes
- Explicitly teach students how to use classroom - some students lack language or experience
- Google calendar linked to your classroom - linked to your classwork page; use if for your topics & lesson planning to keep your students organized
- Materials under each topic - unit overview doc to organize/hyperlink resources; use "anyone with the link can comment" to turn it into a Q&A board
- People tab
- Clicking on a student name shows a summary of work for that student
- Can also filter for handed in, returned, or missing in the left-hand panel
- Use the mail symbol to email the student, guardian, or both & attach a work summary here too
- To-do list - review all work here; bookmark each class to navigate here easier
- Assignment submission - turn in or submit vs. mark as done
- Create a sandbox with your colleagues!
- Customize your settings for email notifications - access via three lines > settings
- Differentiation - assignments & announcements to specific students; works better than email!
- Customize your banner
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This episode is Part 2 of our Brightspace Series. If you haven't had a chance to listen to part 1, where we talk about the basics of Brightspace, and how teachers can start out with this program, click here to listen!
Today, we are speaking with Tanya Williamson, who is knowledgable about all things Brightspace. She will take us through some more advanced features and tools within Brightspace, and she will also give educators some advice as they begin to plan and prepare for a new school year.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don't miss out on any new content! Check out our website for more detailed show notes!
We would love to hear from you - leave a comment here, OR check out our FLIPGRID!
Show Notes
- Brightspace Tutorials
Community Building
- Strong teacher presence is essential! First impressions are crucial to establishing this.
- Activity vs news feed - Depends on needs! Or use both!
- Virtual learning spaces can be modified! Make it your own - meet the needs of all students
- Video Note Tool - available anywhere HTML editor is available. Great for building community, differentiation.
- Discussion Tool - use text, video and audio. Also create a cafe/lounge for non-curricular related discussions
- Other tips - post clear expectations, co-construct class/discussion norms
- Virtual Classroom
- polling features, chat pod feature, whiteboard available
- Different subscription levels; check with your Brightspace contact for more info
Learning Brightspace
- Learning Curve - Advice: start with one unit first, you don't need the entire course ready to go!
- Streamline/Simplify
- Start with news/activity, content, dropbox and discussions; dive into quizzes when you're ready!
- Customize your homepage - get rid of anything you're not using
- Create your own widgets
Advanced Tools
- Quiz Tool: Special access, Question library
- Portfolio Tool:
- Showcase progress over time, expectations for use should be clear
- Visible only between teacher and student (no other students can access)
- Accessibility: No specific features within Brightspace, however extensions such as Read&Write do interact with Brightspace!
Prep for Sept: Big Advice for Teachers
- Welcome email to students
- Welcome Message posted!
- First week: Online icebreakers, focus on COMMUNITY!
- Incorporate student voice/choice
- Include different ways to learn (text, simulations, videos, etc.)
Tanya’s one piece of advice as they are navigating BS and trying to get ready for a new school year:
- Keep your students’ needs, interests, etc. at the forefront; Build your course from the perspective of the student - easy to access? do they see themselves? is it accessible? how will i be supporting how they learn? It might take them longer to learn the curriculum - 2-3x longer than you might think! They are on their own during eLearning, so pare down content and provide rich, authentic learning tasks
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In this episode we are talking all about Brightspace by D2L, a Learning Management System (LMS) that many Boards or Districts will be using this coming school year. This week will be all about the basics: how to access your courses, how to sync your G Suite account (or One Drive account), and some useful features to get you started.
Stay tuned for next week’s episode, as we will have a guest speaker with us who will explain some of the more advanced features of Brightspace!
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content! Check out our website for more detailed show notes.
We would love to hear from you – leave a comment on our website, OR check out our FLIPGRID!
**Show Notes
News and Updates**
- Google Junior Training Series
- Global GEG – Google Jr Training Series
- YouTube – Google Jr Training Series Playlist
- Google Meet Updates
- Updating the interface
- Moderator – Require the moderator to log in first
- Blocking anonymous users for education accounts
- If you kick someone out, they can’t automatically join right away
- More controls for teachers – disable chat; mute all students at once; end meeting for all;
- Larger tiled view (up to 49 participants)
- Custom and blurred backgrounds
- Hand raising – icon so that students can raise their hand
- Jamboard integration
- Blog Post for all Google Updates announced at the Anywhere School event
Featured Content
- Brightspace/D2L official website
- Topics covered:
- System landing page
- Linking to G Suite or One Drive
- Adding teachers to a course
- Using old course shells to begin your prep
- Content area - create new and add existing
- Activity feed vs. News feed
- Discussion boards (and terminology)
- Dropbox (and terminology)
- Rubric builder
- Quizzes and the question library
- Brightspace Resources
- YouTube Playlist of training videos
- Brightspace Help
Support the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/edugals)
This week is Part 2 of our series on Assistive Technology and supporting all learners. Our guest, Judy, has returned to speak a little more about some awesome tools that will benefit all students, particularly those with learning difficulties.
In this episode we speak about Fluency Tutor, Book Creator, Screencastify, Reader Pens, and more. These apps and/or tools are all forms of assistive technology, and while they are particularly ideal for our students with IEPs, the rest of our students would benefit from these tools as well.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content!
We would love to hear from you – leave a comment here, OR check out our FLIPGRID!
Show NotesOur guest today is Judy Sackville, an assistive technology lead. Connect with Judy on Twitter. Did you miss part 1? Listen here.
Assistive Technology Tools
- Fluency Tutor - TextHelp product; Reading Assessments - you can assign levelled text and have students record their reading; paid version provides ability to track progress with running records
- Interactive Games via Google Slides - great for motivation and engagement
- Book Creator - great for students with early literacy needs as support for them at their developmental level. Ability to add images, text, audio, and video to a page.
- Screencastify - we love it and so does Judy!
- Have students create tutorials or training resources for others.
- Check out Episode 2 for more details.
- Have students create problem-solving videos to explain their thinking.
- Use it as an overview video to connect with your students.
- Use it as a presentation tool for students to record themselves.
- Make screencasts of your lessons - use the webcam feature to humanize it!
- Screencastify Submit - still in beta. No prices on their website yet but they do say they will have a free plan as well as an unlimited paid plan.
- C-Pen Reader Pen by Scanning Pens - scan across text and the pen will read it out loud! Also includes audio note feature, scan to file to upload to computer later or connect via USB for immediate transfer, and dictionary. No wifi needed! Also great for ELLs.
- Bitmojis
- Create a bitmoji classroom to provide a humanizing aspect to the classroom. Increases engagement too.
- Check out the bitmoji classroom facebook group.
- Create feedback stickers using Google Drawings and your Bitmoji!
- Create custom banners for Google Classroom or your LMS
- Play peek-a-boo in your slide decks
- EquatIO - TextHelp product; it's like Read & Write for math, speech-to-text, equation predictor, science tools incorporated too!
Final Takeaway: We're in this together, don't be afraid to reach out! It truly is a team-based approach. #BetterTogether
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In this episode, we are talking with Judy Sackville, an Assistive Technology Lead in Ontario, all about Special Education and Assistive Technology. She helps to break down what a learner profile is, and how we can approach each profile with practical tips and suggestions. Whether it be differentiation, or assistive technology, Judy has so much to share with us about how to become better and more inclusive educators.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content!
We would love to hear from you – leave a comment, OR check out our FLIPGRID!
News and Updates
- Anywhere School Event by Google - August 11/12; note that you must register to access all the content!
- D2L/Brightspace - Portfolio Tool updates
Featured Content
- Learner Profile
- How do students learn, strengths, needs, etc.
- Gives us the information to better understand our students and their individual learning characteristics
- IEPs (Individual Education Plans)
- How can teachers leverage the data provided in practical ways?
- Examine the assessment info and baseline data
- Intention of the IEP is to give teachers and students the licence to make the accommodations to help that student be successful
- Team-based approach - collaborate with SERT (special education resource teacher) and outside professionals responsible for the assessment
- Make the IEP as specific as possible!
- Self Advocacy
- Consider through all lenses - parent, teacher, student
- Modelling done by parents & teachers to allow students to see what advocacy can look like
- We also need to keep in mind the age and maturity of our students
- “We can’t assume silence means they understand!” No news is NOT good news for all students
- We need to reach out, ask specific questions based on where they are not doing as well, and find out how we can help them to stand up for themselves
- Teacher Support
- Look for signs/patterns that are unusual and trust your instincts!
- Change/differentiate based on what you are noticing - for example, video/audio notes in Slides/Docs
- Google Read & Write by TextHelp
- Read, Talk, Voice dictation, audio notes, websites can be read aloud or summarized
- Normalizes assistive technology. All students can use and benefit from this tool
- Swiss army knife of special education!
- Boardmaker Online
- Symbols that provide a visual way for students to communicate
- Online templates and activities for teachers to use to help make content accessible
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This week was totally unplanned! We did not anticipate or plan to talk about the return to school, but since it is sounding more and more like a full/normal return to school, we thought it would be a good idea to share our thoughts, reflections and also some of our ideas for how to prepare for the school year.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content!
We would love to hear from you – leave us a message on our FLIPGRID!
**Featured Content
We share some thoughts on:**
- Exposure for students to tech/building community first
- Using Jamboard for getting to know you activities
- Devices - 1:1 vs BYOD, ensuring all students have one
- No share policies - no common supplies can be shared
- Chromebooks - reshuffling/inventory
- Tech tools for staff - wacom tablets for example
- Common spaces issues - cafeteria, library, etc
- Library spaces - engage kids online; online tutorials for staff and students; centre for school community; badge system for learning - students, and perhaps staff as well! Students: google search, plagiarism, databases; THEN tools (GSuite) - prizes (swag? badges?)
- Google Certification for teachers
- Pandemic paralysis - the struggle is real!
- Use your PLN!
Do you run a badging system to train teachers, students or that you use in your library/school community? Would you like to hear an episode on BreakOutEDU? We'd love to hear from you on our FLIPGRID!
Our Best Tips for Preparing For the New School Year
- Tip 1: Flipped Classroom regardless of format
- Tip 2: Intro Unit on your LMS
- Tip 3: Teachers are people, too!
- Tip 4: BreakOutEDU for Brightspace
- Tip 5: Self Care is Important
Resources
- BreakOutEDU
- EdPuzzle - Flipped Classroom Certification
- Flip Learning - A community resource
- Ontario Teacher's Federation - Teacher Wellbeing resource
- 10 Mental Health Tips for Teachers During COVID-19
- Check out even more resources on our website: EduGals.com/13
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In this episode, we discuss the Google Certified Educator program. We'll go over some of the benefits of the program and give you some tips to help you be successful on the Level 1 exam.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content!
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News and Updates
- Google Currents - new for G Suite for Education and G Suite Enterprise for Education accounts
Featured ContentGoogle Certified Educator, Level 1
- Benefits:
- How to use the Google tools effectively and efficiently
- Curriculum focuses on practices and applications
- Boosts your confidence using the tools
- Don't waste your time trying to figure out the tech stuff; focus on what matters in your classroom
- Saves you time!
- How to get started:
- New curriculum Center - Educator Level 1 is under the Certifications tab
- Old curriculum Center
- 3 main sections and 13 units in total
- Review curriculum first then register for the exam ($10 USD)
- Exam details - 3 hours (180 minutes) - mostly task-oriented
- Our best tips:
- Go through the curriculum provided by Google carefully - click on all the hyperlinks even if you know the tool/skill already - Example
- Focus on the skills, not the knowledge - practice using the tools!
- Use checklists to make sure you’ve covered all the skills
- Shake Up Learning
- Eric Curts
- Find ways to use the tools efficiently - get to know your keyboard shortcuts!
- When writing the exam, don’t worry about making things pretty! They are not looking for pretty, just that you know the skills and can do the tasks - don't be a font snob :)
- Try out the exam practice questions - there are some MC/Matching/Ranking types of questions and the practice Qs that Google provides in the Sample Exam as well as throughout the curriculum is good for practice
- Exam is divided into a short MC/Matching/Ranking section and a task-oriented section. Spend the majority of your time on the tasks!
- Don’t spend too much time looking up things during your exam - time is tight so if you do this, you’re likely to run out of time
- Use a personal email instead of your work email in case you switch districts/jobs etc.
- Choose the right exam provider for you! Kryterion/WebAssessor vs ProctorU. Doesn't matter which one your choose for now but Google is transitioning to ProctorU. Pay close attention to the instructions from your provider
- Recertification every 36 months in the last 60 days
- Believe in yourself! You’ve got this!
- S
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In the second of this two-part podcast, we will be diving deeper into how we as educators can prepare for a new school year, not knowing what it will look like. We will be discussing various blended learning models and how we can apply these models to face-to-face as well as distance learning scenarios. We also talk about various EdTech tools that can support blended learning.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content!
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News and Updates:
- We’re taking a short break to recharge! New episode is coming in July and we’ll return to our regular weekly schedule in mid-August.
- Statement From EduGals About Events Unfolding In The U.S.A.
- Do you have any resources to share with us? Share on Flipgrid or on Twitter
Featured Content:
Blended Learning Models Resources
- Models - Blended Learning
- 12 Different Types of Blended Learning
- Blended Learning - Edutopia Resources
- Blended Learning Universe
- Blended Learning: Making It Work In Your Classroom Video
Station-Based Learning
- Works great in all panels from K-12
- Breakout rooms using Google Meet for stations
- Choice boards for organization - Slides Mania templates!
Flipped Classroom
- Books
- Flip Your Classroom: Reaching Every Student in Every Class Every Day
- Flipped Learning: Gateway to Student Engagement
- Video recording apps: EduCreations or Explain EDU (iPad), Screencastify (Chrome extension)
Project-Based Learning
- PBL Works Resources
Individual Rotation Model
- Differentiated stations for students
- Fluency Tutor is a great tool to use for ESL students
Tool Recommendations For Blended Learning
- Screencastify
- Explain EDU
- Google Slides
- Jamboard - limitations: 20 frames max and 50 collaborators
- Google Keep
- ESL - Newsela
- Science & Math - PhET simulations
- Advice: define your goal first, then select the tool to help you achieve your goal
Final Advice for September: Become comfortable with the uncomfortable; flexibility will be key moving forward in these unknown times.
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In the first of this two-part podcast, we will be discussing how we as educators can prepare for a new school year, not knowing what it will look like. A pandemic is unpredictable, so it is important to consider the various options for what school could look like in September (or whenever it starts in your district) so that everyone is more prepared.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content!
We would love to hear from you – leave us a message on our FLIPGRID!
News and Updates:
- EquatIO updates - new science and math tools
- Wakelet - Wakelet Live on June 1st (lots of updates)
- Join the Wakelet Community
- Zoom fatigue resources
Featured Content:
Tips for Teachers:
- Get Certified!
- Google Certification
- Global GEG Level 1 bootcamp
- Kasey Bell - Shake Up Learning
- Google for Education Teacher Center
- Level 1 - $10, Level 2 - $25 USD
- Other certifications:
- Apple Teacher
- Microsoft Certified Educator
- EdTech tools: Screencastify, EdPuzzle, Kahoot!
- Google Certification
- Learn about your LMS (Learning Management System) and collaborate with a colleague!
- Brightspace Training Resources
- Create a training resource library for teachers AND students
- Build community - have teachers and students contribute to this library and create multilingual resources
- Community Building - create a Wakelet collection to share with others!
- Example teacher intro video
- Check out previous episodes for lots of other ideas
Tips for Students:
- Explicit teaching on tech tools
- Start your course with skills needed to be successful online instead of with curriculum
- Intro unit for your LMS
- Practice the skills!
- Self-paced
- Instructions for parents on different tech tools you’ll be using
- Use Wakelet for curating your resources!
- Use simplified language
- Great for ELLs (and the rest of your students)
- Studying and Learning Skills
- Watching a video and taking notes
- Minimizing distractions from social media
- Creating a quiet study space
- Classroom Culture and Mindset
- Mastery-based approaches to move away from grades focus
- Be prepared to be comfortable with the uncomfortable!
- Add communication to students and parents about the why
- Practice the online community contributions, norms and expectations
- Focus on digital citizenship
- Social media templates - see E007
- Check out privacy policies of tools with student
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In this episode, we talk about how you can use Google Forms with your students. We discuss the various question types, how to use sections in Forms, as well as how to really take advantage of the features present to increase student learning.
If you like what you hear, we would love it if you could share this episode with a colleague or friend. And make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new content!
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News and Updates
- Google Groups is getting a new updated interface!
- Google Meet - Noise cancellation is coming soon!
- Global GEG Level 1 Training Bootcamp - June 12, 19, 26, 2020 - FREE! Sign up here
Featured Content
Main options
- Question types - short answer, paragraph, multiple choice, checkboxes, drop down, grids, upload a file, linear scale, date, time
- Import questions from other created forms - create a question bank to import from as a time-saving tool
- Add a title and description - breaks up the questions/content
- Insert image and video - look for the three dots for alignment options, show captions in video, hover text for image; double click to change its size
- Use images for multiple choice answers too; great for math/science or use EquatIO
- Add a section - use for “go to section based on answer”; differentiate learning, review concepts with video/activity/link etc.; plan, plan, PLAN before diving in!
- Three dots at the bottom of the question - description, shuffle order, go to section options
Settings
- General - collect email addresses, limit to 1 response, restrict to domain, edit after submit, see summary charts/text responses
- Presentation - show progress bar, shuffle question order, show link to submit another response, customize confirmation message (links next activity, Classroom assignment, video, etc here)
- Quizzes - toggle on, locked mode for managed Chromebooks (update Chrome!), release marks (immediately or later), assign point values
- Answer key options (answers, feedback - incorrect and correct, add link and video)
- Multiple choice and short answer can be set up for self-marking
Themes
- Access via the paint palette
- Change image, theme colours, four font options
- Check out the new fonts from Google - Lexand (great for accessibility)
- Upload your own custom header - Slides Mania template
Three Dots beside SEND
- Add collaborators and make a copy of a form
- Get a pre-filled link - fill in any of the answer fields you want to be pre-populated, then click on get link; great for avoiding the common errors
Some Uses of Forms
- Quizzes, flipped classroom, formative assessments
- Feedback from students on your teaching
- Reflections on learning and goal-setting
- Escape Rooms (using data validation)
- Lots of other ways to process your data in Sheets too! We recommend Form Mule and Autocrat
The Send Button
- Send via email, link (URL), embed html on Google Sites (takes the background away)
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In this episode, we are talking about different game or quizzing apps that educators can use to engage their students. The specific platforms we are discussing are: Kahoot, Gimkit, Quizizz and Quizlet Live.
Please share this episode with others and subscribe to our podcast using your favourite podcast app. Also be sure to visit our EduGals website for more detailed show notes.
Leave us feedback on our FLIPGRID!
News and Updates:
- Google Chrome TABS on The Keyword Blog from Google!
Featured Content:
- Our summer reading recommendations:
- Powerful Teaching: Unleashing the Science of Learning - Pooja Agrawal & Patrice Bain
- Teaching Science to English Learners - Stephen Fleenor
- Teaching Social Studies to ELLs - Tina Beene
- Pathways to Greatness for ELL Newcomer - Michelle Yzquierdo
- Talk, Read, Talk, Write - Nancy Motley
- Kahoot! An oldie but a goodie!
- Kahoot Resources - question types, templates, spreadsheet template for import, live vs. assignment mode; lots of helpful resources here
- Question bank available - great time saver!
- Flashcard mode on iOS or Android devices
- Premium account for free until June 17th - info on all available plans
- Event on June 17th - Registration
- Gimkit - Lots of fun and created by a high school student!
- Gimkit Guide to Remote Learning
- The Help Center is full of useful articles and resources on the various features, such as assignments (anonymous possible here!), question bank, template spreadsheet for import, play modes, etc.
- Free upgrade for educators - info on pricing plans for premium
- Our suggestion: use it as a full review of your course (1 Kit per course)
- Quizlet/Quizlet Live - Fantastic for collaboration!
- Awesome for in-class collaboration (Live)
- New Teacher Guide
- Help Center - excellent resource for all of your questions
- Upgrade information - 30 day free trial
- Quizizz - Memes make this one super engaging!
- Teacher Resources
- Help Center - find answers to your questions here
- Cognitive Science/Sticky Learning Tips:
- Mix it up with different types of questions and topics in your quizzes
- Create a “Kit” in Gimkit with all the questions from your subject area for the whole year - helps with spacing and interleaving
- Use flashcard modes
- More o
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In this episode, we discuss the many ways that Google slides can be used with students. We talk about the use of custom slide dimensions, insert audio, themes, and so much more!
Please share this episode with others and subscribe to our podcast using your favourite podcast app. Also be sure to visit our EduGals website for more detailed show notes.
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Show Notes
News and Updates:
- Tony Vincent - URL Hack: Copy all comments (copy?copyComments=true)
- Fluency Tutor by TextHelp and Extension - currently free!
- Lets students record themselves reading and share with the teacher
Featured Content: Google Slides
- Slide dimensions - any dimension is possible!
- Uses: Bitmoji stickers, custom icons (Background = transparent, download as png)
- Clipboard Keyboard Shortcut - Mac: cmd + control + shift + 4
- Digital worksheets - Upload as background image (jpg or png), and add text boxes
- Advanced: Master View
- Create backgrounds that cannot be edited. Insert image, use text placeholders (dropdown arrow - title, subtitle, or body placeholder)
- Create your own theme if you dare!
- Change ALL the fonts at once
- Paint Roller - Copy formats
- Insert audio
- Format options - start playing on click vs automatic, volume on presenting, hide icon, loop audio, stop on slide change
- Uses - audio instructions for differentiation, listening exercises for language classes, student created items such as narrated eBooks, comics etc, student created podcasts
- Use Screencastify to download audio only
- Audio file need to be in your Google Drive folder and sharing settings to “anyone can view” and mp3 format
- Slides order
- Link to “Slides in this presentation” in links menu
- Uses: Choose your own adventure - eBook with audio, table of contents slide for crowdsourced materials, study guides
- Digital planners - from Slides Mania! Types: student/teacher or weekly planners
- Themes: Slides Mania, Slides Carnival, etc.
- Save all your themes to a templates folder in Google Drive
- Themes > Import Theme - find your theme to add it to your presentation
- Import slides
- Find it under File > Import Slides, choose the slides you want to import
- Great for sharing resources with other teachers or recreating PD
- Publish to the web
- Embed slide deck to sites using File > Publish to Web
- Lots of settings here - time, start automatically or on click, password setup etc.
- Use: stop motion animation (change time to 250 ms in URL or embed code)
- URL hack - change edit to present in the sharing link to force presentation mode
- Manipulatives - Drag and Drop activities
- Social media experiences
- Matt Miller - Instagram Stories and Tik Tok templates
- Teach social media skills without needing the app
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In this episode we discuss tips and strategies to help you achieve inbox zero with Gmail. We discuss the use of inbox types, filters, integration with Google Calendar, Google Tasks, and Google Keep, and so much more!
Please share this episode with others and subscribe to our podcast using your favourite podcast app. Also be sure to visit our EduGals website for more detailed show notes.
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**Show Notes
News and Updates**
- Global Google Educator Group (GEG) - Social Media and Website
- Screencastify - New app-smashing library (EdPuzzle, Wakelet, and Remind) and form for suggestions
Featured ContentGmail is a powerful beast! There are lots of great ways to tame the beast and take control of your inbox.
- How to get to your main settings panel in Gmail
- Inbox types - Default, Unread First, Important First, Starred First, Priority Inbox, and Multiple Inboxes
- Hover over the Inbox tab and click on the drop down menu for easy access to inbox types!
- Default Tabs - Primary, Social, Promotions, Updates, Forums, Starred
- Priority inbox settings - Important and Unread, Starred, Empty, Everything Else
- Configure each with the drop down arrows
- Filters setup and suggestions:
- Use for sorting emails like notifications into labels so that they skip your inbox
- Filter options: Skip the inbox, (Mark as read), Apply a label, and Apply filter to matching conversations
- Use Delete it if you dare!
- Nudges - annoyingly good reminders
- Turn on in Settings > General - also turn on your Send and Archive button here!
- Templates (aka Canned Responses)
- Save: Three dots > Templates (Compose window)
- Delete your signature before saving to avoid doubles!
- Enable templates under Settings > Advanced (also custom keyboard shortcuts, unread icon, and right-side chat here too)
- Other options in the compose window - Three Dots > Label emails and Request Read Receipt
- Integration with other Google Tools
- Google Calendar - create an event from an email
- Google Tasks and Google Keep - add as a task
- Snooze button for emails and your well-being - hover over an email to access the snooze button
- Starred emails - use sparingly for the most important messages!
- Desktop notifications - turn it on/off in Settings > General
Shoutout to Lisa
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In this episode we discuss tips and strategies for using Google tools to get organized and, more importantly, stay organized! We focus on three main tools in G Suite: Google Drive, Google Calendar, and Gmail. We will give you a variety of tips and tricks with these tools to help you manage your time during remote learning.
Please share this episode with others and subscribe to our podcast using your favourite podcast app. Also be sure to visit our EduGals website for more detailed show notes.
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**Show Notes
News and Updates**
- Screencastify - Upload a screen recording directly to EdPuzzle; new app-smashing opportunities awaits!
- Teach from Home from Google - a hub with various synchronous and asynchronous online or remote learning
- Google Arts and Culture app-smash with Google's Applied Digital Skills - no accounts or logins needed!
Featured Content
Are you struggling with staying organized online? There are a million things going on right now so we're here to give you some tips and strategies to get yourself more organized going forward.
- Google Drive - Organization Tips
- Starred folders - put your most important files and folders here to reduce the number of clicks you are doing
- Priority tab - top bar contains frequently accessed files, based on machine-learning
- Workspaces - set up for courses or areas of your job to put the most important files in this space; max 25 files per workspace
- Colour coding your folders - creates an easy visual organization system
- Numbering folders - so they show up at the top of your Google Drive (i.e. 00, 01, 02, etc.)
- Google Calendar
- Check off only calendars you want to view; turn off the ones you aren't using or, better yet, hide them from your list
- Change the colour of your calendars - again, for a nice visualization of your events
- Notifications in events in your calendar - you can choose between notification or email here
- Global notifications - choices are off, desktop notifications, or alerts
- Pin your calendar (and all your most important tabs) in Google Chrome
- If all else fails, set alarms for yourself on your personal device!
- Gmail
- Labels - add labels to your emails to help keep them organized into various categories. Labels also help you find your emails quicker!
- Keyboard shortcuts (l for label and e for archive) can save you a ton of time
- Archive your emails - treat your inbox like a to do list
- Search in Gmail - make use
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In this episode we share some ideas of how to build community with your students in remote learning and online learning environments using digital tools such as Google Meet, Gimkit, Hangouts Chat, G Suite, and more!
Please share this episode with others and subscribe to our podcast using your favourite podcast app. Also be sure to visit our EduGals website for more detailed show notes.
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**Show Notes
News and Updates**
- Google Meet - Grid View aka Tile View
- Recently updated to include a tile view; you can now see up to 16 participants on a screen
- Access via 3 vertical dots (aka snowman or timbits) > Change Layout > Tiled
- Google Sites - New templates available
- Access the template gallery at sites.google.com
- Templates available for education include: class, club, and student portfolio
- Bitmoji Headers for Classroom
- Create Bitmoji Headers for your Google Classroom
- Design a Custom Google Classroom Header (Alice Keeler)
- Bitmoji Banner Tutorial (Lisa Mazariego)
Featured ContentThis week, we discussed various ways to build community in our online classrooms:
1. Social Time (Synchronous and Asynchronous)
- Use Google Meet (or Zoom, Microsoft Teams, etc.) to provide a synchronous social hour; no expectations around course work here!
- Play a collaborative game such as Kahoot or Gimkit during meets.
- Use Hangouts Chat (or Hangouts if you are not a G Suite board) for asynchronous discussions (texting is better than traditional discussion boards!) - tips here to get started.
- Use Google Classroom stream to post discussion questions, i.e. what is your favourite...? or would you rather... or ... and why?
2. Create Roles or Groups For StudentsAn engagement strategy to use with students by assigning roles such as creating flashcards, short videos to explain a new concept, or even study groups. Some digital tools to use:
- Screencastify Submit: careful of sharing settings!
- Shared Docs or Slides: collaborative tools
- Flipgrid: Video discussion platform
- Padlet: Discussion board, word wall, etc.
- Jamboard - Similar to Padlet
- Course Blogs: Make sure you protect student privacy here!
Listener Feedback
- From Aleks TJ
- Adding topics to the classwork page in Classroom
- Setup for Google Classroom during remote learning (J. Sowash)
Additional Resources
Support the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/edugals)
In this episode we are talking about helpful strategies to simplify and streamline instruction during remote learning.
Please share this episode with others and subscribe to our podcast using your favourite podcast app. Also be sure to visit our EduGals website for more detailed show notes.
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Show NotesRemote learning is not something that any of us were prepared for. And yet here we are. With limited time to prepare for the shift to remote teaching, educators have been scrambling to put together the best learning opportunities that they can for their students, and this has not been an easy task.
We have compiled a variety of strategies and/or best practices that we feel will help you through this difficult and challenging time:
- News
- Google Meet Updates
- Quizizz Question Types
- Hyperdocs
- Learning is all contained in one document
- Pedagogy links:
- Hyperdocs website
- Samples of Hyperdocs
- Hyperdocs Handbook by Lisa Highfill, Kelly Hilton & Sarah Landis
- Force copy, template view etc.
- Our advice: keep it simple, avoid hyperlink rabbit holes, schedule/differentiate, slides is better than docs, and keep accessibility in mind!
- Quick tip: Keyboard shortcut for adding a hyperlink (PC: control + K, Mac: command + K)
- Scheduling feature in Google Classroom & Gmail
- Schedule send in Gmail
- Schedule posts in Google Classroom
- Wakelet
- Educator's Guide to Wakelet
- Pam Hubler's Wakelet Lesson Planning Template
- Google Drive organization
- Create new folders for your distance learning resources (name them something like "Pandemic Planning" if you want to be like Katie!)
- In those folders, create other folders labelled "Week 1", "Week 2", and so on
- Add all resources for that week in your folder to keep yourself organized!
- Google Classroom tips
- Get Emoji website
- Adding Emojis to topics in Google Classroom
- Other useful Google Classroom tips
- Google Sites
- One stop shop for all things: embed videos, images, webpages, etc., can also use collapsible text boxes to help with visual clutter, accessible to students and parents, better accessibility and viewable on mobile devices (responsive design)
- Alice Keeler - Google Sites and Google Classroom work together
- Parent Communication
- Collaborate with colleagues to create a newsletter with all subjects for your students in a single place
Above all else, remember to use the tools that your kids a
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In this episode we are talking about how you can use Screencastify, a chrome extension that captures the screen and audio, for remote learning. Please share this episode with others and subscribe to our podcast using your favourite podcast app so you don’t miss out on any of our new content.
Please visit the EduGals Website for detailed Show Notes
Show NotesScreencastify is an extension for Chrome and interacts with you within your Chrome browser. It can be used to create videos of your screen as well as your voice, and can also embed your webcam in the video as well.
Getting Started With Screencastify
- Get the extension! Add it to your Chrome by clicking here.
- Once you’ve added it to Chrome, you'll need to give Screencastify permission to access your mic and camera, and access to your Google Drive (for saving your videos).
- During the pandemic, Screencastify is offering a free upgrade to unlimited recording times, etc. Click HERE for the company’s COVID-19 response.
- Here is how you take advantage of this offer:
Step 1: Go to this website, and click “Redeem coupon” under next billing date.
Step 2: Entre code CAST_COVID
Step 3: Click “Activate License”
- Here is how you take advantage of this offer:
Practical Tips For Use
- Keyboard shortcuts - The one for starting/stopping your recording is super useful to learn (Alt + Shift + R on PC or Option + Shift + R on Mac)
- Countdown setting - 3, 5, or 10 seconds; find it under Show More Options!
- Have a plan - create an outline BEFORE you hit record to avoid the sugar plum fairies!
- Know what type of recording to choose - tab, whole desktop, webcam? Determine the goal of your message to make your choice.
- Drawing Tools - use these to create focus in your video, enable them under the Show More Options menu - you'll find it right above the blue record button.
Practical Teaching Tips
- Virtual lessons (try app-smashing with Jamboard, Awwapp, and Google Slides)
- Explainer videos - student-created videos; take it further by integrating with Google Slides
- Lesson intro - record an overview for the week
- Feedback for assessment/eval - save yourself some time and typing pain
- Record with Google Slides and turn on Closed Captions - increases accessibility
- In place of presentations - individual or group
Additional Resources
- 50 ways to use Screencastify in the classroom
- 25 ways to use Screencastify with Google apps
- Screencastify Submit Beta program application
- Screencastify Teacher and Student Courses
- Master the Screencast
- Genius!
- Master the Screencast Jr. (for students!)
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In this episode, we discuss the use of Google Classroom for remote learning. We also introduce ourselves and tell you a bit about who we are as educators. It is our hope that this podcast can help you learn amazing and useful ways to bring technology into your classroom.
We'll be honest... we were pretty nervous about hitting the record button and putting ourselves out there! So if you have any feedback for us, we'd love to hear it. Please leave us a rating or review in your favourite podcast app or visit our website at edugals.com to leave us a message.
Show Notes
Reasons why we love Google Classroom:
- Students know it and are comfortable with it
- For the most part, teachers are comfortable with the platform too
- It is easy to use and, while it may not be as robust as other online tools, it does a great job of creating a central online space for teachers to communicate and post materials for students.
Sections in Google Classroom:4 different tabs or sections of a google classroom - Stream, Classwork, People and Marks:
- Stream - Great for posting announcements, fun activities, discussions, etc., can turn off classwork notifications using the settings/cog wheel
- Classwork - section with the most helpful features/use during remote learning. Can create
- assignments
- materials (lessons - slide decks, handouts, websites, etc.)
- quizzes
- questions for students to answer
- topics (sort by topic, unit, week)
- People - can email all students, groups of students or individual students; single guardian or all guardians; click on a student and it will pull up a page showing all of their assignments, contact info, et
Tips for remote learning:
- Class settings – Here you can find guardian emails, notification settings and you can set up whether or not students can post or comment (or neither)
- Start fresh! Create a new classroom, and post this new code in your OLD classroom. This will help students as they are starting this new process of learning, and they won’t feel overwhelmed or be distracted by previous material posted during face to face instruction.
- Topics: Organize by week instead of unit!
- When creating or posting new material, there is a section where it says “Topic” – default is no topic, but if you click on the arrow, you can create a new topic, or use another topic that exists – Create new, and label according to the week.
- Stream – This is the first page/screen that students see when they enter their classroom
- Change settings to get rid of classwork posts: Default will be a post every time that you create material or assignments, and this will really clutter up the Stream. So change the settings so that it doesn’t post every time you add a lesson, etc.
- Consider allowing students to post/comment on the Stream. This can also be changed in the settings. It will allow for more interaction and a feeling of community, despite the lack of face to face interactions.
- Ask questions not related to the curriculum! Sometimes a simple question about what they are doing, their favourite activity while being at home right now, etc. will create a sense of community and belonging, and helps to engage some of the students that are quick to get lost in this type of learning.
- Make sure feedback is happening quickly using private comments – include voice notes and bitmojis whenever possible, as it helps the students feel like you are still there, and that they aren’t just interacting with a screen.
- Keep it simple, keep your expectations low, and really consider the length of you
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