Apps and Tools

Seesaw has just released some amazing improvements that will make your teacher life so much easier! Students can’t delete teacher-created activity pages anymore Smarter pen vs move tool selection Accidental page reordering and creation fixed No more accidental unlocking Be sure your app (and your students’ app) is updated to fully enjoy these five new changes. Keep reading to learn more! Prevented Page Deletion by Students Before: Students could delete pages from Activity templates.  After: When responding to an Activity, students cannot delete pages that are part of the Activity template created by teachers. Tapping on the 3 dots will only...

If you have yet to open flipgrid, here is your friendly reminder and gentle nudge to give it a try this school year. While there is no substitute for students speaking directly to a teacher or peer, flipgrid can be an amazing way to encourage students’ communication and dialogue. This is especially true for our English Language Learners who may benefit from extra time and practice before speaking.   Wait, what is Flipgrid? Flipgrid is a video discussion platform that allows all student voices to be heard. Students respond to prompts posted by their teacher by recording a video response....

PLC productivity and organization is crucial to help save time, energy, and simply make things easier. Below are 5 google apps that can help improve your PLC process. Google Keep Keeping files and thoughts organized and digital is essential for PLC. Google keep doesn’t just store notes. You can add reminders, collaborators, and store links all in one place. For PLC, google keep is helpful with Keeping track of notes about your PLC goals Copying and pasting links to your documents Linking emails to google keeps to stay organized (Read more below)  Adding labels to your google keep so you...

Formative assessment is the piece of the teaching puzzle that allows us to quickly gauge how well our students are understanding the material we’ve taught. From there, we make the important decisions about where our lesson will go next. Do we need to reteach, or are our students ready to progress? Do some students need additional practice? And which students need to be pushed to achieve the next level? The best formative assessments will not only answer these questions but will also engage students in their own learning. Seesaw has a set of ready-to-go Check for Understanding Activities that make...

Classroom Screen has been around for a long time, and I thought it could be helpful in the classroom, but I never realized what a game changer it truly was.  I’ve now been using Classroom Screen for a week – that’s right, only a week – and I can already tell you that it makes a difference for my students.  I am a type B teacher.  Organization is not my strong suit and consistency doesn’t come naturally. Despite this, I know that is what students need in the classroom, so I try my hardest to find ways to be organized and...

Canvas has regular updates and from time to time, we’ll write about those here on the blog so you’re aware of some of the more important changes. This month, there are three small, but helpful, updates we wanted to make you aware of. Gradebook labels As you know, Canvas adds labels to the gradebook automatically. Starting this month, the “Missing” label will automatically be removed when you add a score. This is nice because before, you had to manually change the label. Saved mouse clicks for the win! Splitting First and Last Names There is a new setting available in...

What is PBL? Project Based Learning (PBL) actively engages students in authentic and meaningful tasks throughout the learning process. Instead of the famous poster board project at the end of the project, PBL takes students through a journey that they care about. The goal is motivating students to take ownership of their learning. Below are 5 powerful websites and tools that can help your PBL adventure. Jay McTighe one of the authors of the book, The Understanding by Design, has compiled a list of websites that has ideas and resources. Note, this document was last updated in 2018 so some...

For some teachers, bringing technology into an elementary classroom can be overwhelming. What tools should you use? How much is too much? Or enough? What if the kids break their iPad? While these are all valid concerns, you’d be amazed at how seamless the experience of integrating edtech into your class can be. First of all, the kids are already used to using technology in their daily lives, so you don’t have to worry about going through that awkward learning curve (unless it’s for you!). Secondly, rather than turning kids into zoned-out zombies, when used correctly, technology will actually stimulate...

Canvas is full of tools you can use to provide rich, timely feedback to students. In this post, we want to break down the three most impactful methods of giving feedback to students through their work. Goal After reading, your goal is to provide feedback that is actionable, specific, and accessible using tools in Canvas. Rubrics Yes, the “R” word again. Rubrics are flexible and powerful in giving students feedback on their work. They break down individual elements of the assignment and give you a chance to score and give feedback on each element individually. Instead of a single score...

I was able to work with some awesome 7th and 8th graders from North Side to build this Jammin’ SEL resource that is easy to edit and simple to use. This isn’t limited to just middle schoolers though! Anyone can use Jamboards to connect to SEL! Why SEL We are learning the importance of social and emotional learning and the impact it has on students’ learning. Creating opportunities where students can thoughtfully reflect on their own emotions can help them process through some of the more difficult ones. A student was helping me build this jamboard and she said, “doing...

All secondary teachers and students have free access to Explain Basics on their self service app store on the iPad. If you haven’t used this iPad app it can be a little challenging, but below are 3 easy ways to start utilizing all of the amazing features this app has to offer. A lot of teachers use this to record lessons so they can post it and the voice, movement, and whatever you are doing on the whiteboard will be recorded. This makes it easy for students to go back and review past lessons or catch up on lessons they...

When looking for a new program to use with students, my first question is always “Can they log in with google?” instantly followed by “Can I just give kids a class code?”. The last thing I want to worry about is creating a class, inputting student information, creating usernames and passwords, managing those usernames, and the list goes on. Well, Clever is the solution to that problem. It not only gives students ONE website to log into, instead of needing to log into different websites all day, but will also automatically create classes, enroll students into those classes, and give...

Apple Classroom is a tool that every teacher can find useful. Need to quickly navigate all students to one location on Safari or navigate to an app? Want to project a students iPad on through your projector? Want to airdrop your students a document at the same time? Apple Classroom can help solve all of those needs, plus much more! Take a look at our resource below to see all that Apple Classroom can do for you. The resource above was adapted from a resource created by April Requard out of Austin, Texas. April is an Instructional Technology Specialist. A...