Apps and Tools

We’re big fans of being as productive as possible in our work. If you’re able to work efficiently, you can put more energy into the why of what you’re doing, not the how. In any organization, figuring when and how to meet with other people can often become an overwhelming task, especially if you’re trying to pull a large group together. In this post, we’ll explain why the calendar is the best productivity tool for any team or organization. We’re a Google district, so our examples will be from Google Calendar, but just about every platform has the same tools...

Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools are nearly unavoidable now – and we’ve mentioned them more than once in stuff we’ve published. We want to make sure that we’re talking about what these tools are and not just how you can use them in the classroom. I’m hoping this post can be a resource for you, dear reader, to help you make informed decisions about how – or even if – you want to start using AI in your work. Listen instead Holly and Brian recorded the content of this blog post as a podcast. If you’d prefer to listen to the...

The iPad has some awesome features you may didn’t know even existed! Annotating within safari reader, powerful accessibility features, Apple Classroom hidden features, the split screen superpower, and upgrading your home screen with widgets.

Podcasting is increasingly becoming popular for all ages due to the ease and free approach of access. It’s not surprising there are podcasts for every topic under the sun. Flip makes it easy to provide opportunities for students to record, edit, share, and listen to their classmates.

We talk about accessible learning in our department possibly daily. It comes up in almost every conversation we have. Despite this, the one thing we’ve never said about accessible learning is that it’s easy because frankly, it isn’t. Ensuring that all of your students, regardless of ability and language, have the same level of access to content is a huge challenge for a teacher. One free tool for teachers that can help to bridge that gap is Epic.  Epic is a freemium tool (keep an eye out for the “🔒Unlimited” books that are not available with the free account) that...

Did you know that February is Digital Learning Month? We have some fun choice boards with helpful links and resources for you to use to help you become a Digital Learning Superstar! ⭐️✨ 🍎 Elkhart Teachers: Choose 5 of the options and send us your pictures to be entered into our giveaway! Just click on the image and it will open in a new tab so you can use the links. 👇🔗 Elementary Teachers Secondary Teachers Elementary Administrators Secondary Administrators

Need a fun way to do a quick formative assessment? Try out Blooket as a fun way to check what your students know in the moment! Blooket is a game-based, freemium program (meaning you can pay for premium, but the free version is still amazing) that keeps kids begging to play “one more round!”  How to start a Blooket: Create or Discover a Set When looking to start with Blooket, you first need to decide if you want to create your own set or discover a set that has already been created. I recommend taking a peek at already created...

Videos don’t need to be full-blown edited masterpieces. We have a great app on all iPads called Clips which allows you to string together video segments to make short movies. The added bonus is that there are pre-made animations and annotations students can use to spruce up the video even more. 🍎 Elkhart Teachers: Find the App on your Self-service app If you’ve never tried the app or seen a video, here’s an example: Why not use iMovie? The main benefit of Clips is that the videos are easy. You don’t fuss with a timeline-based editor to make changes. You...

I have curated some fun and engaging activities that you can do with your students in this cold and dreary month. Also If you haven’t heard we have started a podcast!

Even without an IXL paid account, you can still support students while they’re using IXL. Use the resources below and make sure to check out the videos linked at the bottom of the page!

We have made assignments that you can import into your canvas or seesaw class that helps guide students through IXL. We also made a Youtube video (Scroll all the way down) specifically for students to help navigate finding assigned skills & the resources / tools they have available to them.

“If you don’t use the results of the common formative assessment to make a difference in student learning, the assessment is summative” (Bailey and Jakicic).

The quote from above is one of the best descriptions for both formative and summative assessments. We are all familiar with the classic definitions but the reason & why are more important than the characterization.

One way to use NWEA data to drive instruction is to use skill plans within IXL. With IXL’s skill plans, students can turn their pinpointed NWEA results into skill plans to quickly grow their math knowledge. Skill plans are available for math, reading, and language assessments.  Creating a personalized MAP skill plan 🎉 Elkhart teachers, this step has already been completed for you for all students that completed NWEA within the testing window! Skip ahead to the bottom of this section to learn how to manually enter data for students that missed our testing window! If you are an IXL...