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Speaking helps us reinforce our thoughts. If we can communicate what we’re thinking, we open up possibilities to challenge our schema and solidify ideas.

Our students are inundated with information in school, especially as iPads make their way into student hands. Intentional lesson design can help students focus on learning and open up opportunities for feedback between the teacher and student in the moment. Feedback in the Moment Quick feedback on learning (formative assessment) is the flow of information between students and teachers. This information should help the student assess their own learning and inform the teacher’s future instruction. This is important for two reasons: If a student can assess their own position, they can more effectively plan for next stems (metacognition). The teacher ensures...

Gmail is great for creating lists of email addresses for mass mailings. But, if you have dozens of students, it’s tedious to either, A) type every email into the list one by one, or B) go through the directory of thousands of students to add them to your group. I wrote up a Google Sheets template which will add emails right from the Sheet using a custom script. You put the name of the group into the input box and it does the rest. Take a look at the video below for how it works. You can jump into your...

You could consider this part 2 of using Outcomes in Canvas. Missed part 1? Go back and look at how to find them. Learning Outcomes can help students understand why they’re doing an assignment or quiz. It connects to the bigger picture and helps you articulate the learning behind the coursework. Attaching Outcomes to assignments also opens up a different form of the grade book called “Learning Mastery.” In this post, I’ll go through how to attach Outcomes and navigate the Learning Mastery view of the grade book. Attaching Outcomes to Assignments Attaching an Outcome to an Assignment requires that...

As many elementary teachers would agree, ReadWorks.org is an awesome resource.  I never thought that it could get much better, but it has!  ReadWorks has now gone digital!  Using the new website http://digital.readworks.org/ you can use all of the great articles and quizzes only not worry about the grading and copies because the grading will be done for you. You do have to set up a new username and password, if you already have an account with them, you can use the same information, just sign up as a first time user the first time 🙂 I used this resource for the...

Identifying learning objectives in assignments can help make the process more transparent for students learning and for you as you assess their learning. Canvas gives you the option to add custom learning outcomes to assignments. You can then take those and use the Learning Mastery gradebook as students complete multiple assignments on the same objectives (more on that in another post). But, creating custom objectives can take a long time. Did you know that our Information Technology department has already loaded most of the Indiana state standards for us? Open up a course in Canvas and click on Outcomes in...

Running a discussion when students have access to technology can be a challenge because many teachers feel they have to control what happens in both spaces. Using tech, you can actually have students hold two discussions – one out loud in the room and one in the chat space. Google Hangouts is open and available to Elkhart staff and students. If you’ve not used it before, check out our overview post. The concept is simple – two groups of people discussing the same thing in different media. One group of students is in the “fishbowl” having a discussion verbally. You...

If you’re using Canvas in your class, you’ve probably noticed that adding assignment due dates for upcoming work displays the entire assignment when you publish it. Some students like to claim they’ve worked ahead, which may be true, but keeping a general pace through the course helps with dialogue in class and with your own assessment of their learning. One method of preventing speeding through material for the sake of doing it is to just not publish the assignment until you’re ready to. But, this can lead to problems if you get tied up with life or if you’re not...

The featured image is a flickr photo by Joe The Goat Farmer shared under a Creative Commons (BY) license. Email. That word alone may make you break out into a cold sweat for one of two reasons: A) you’re always aware of it, or B) you’re behind on it. Some studies are showing that email is one of the highest producers of anxiety in the workplace, and it has been since the early 2000’s. So, how do we curb our email? This year, Elkhart teachers and students have access to Google Hangouts. It’s a video and text chat service linked...

After a couple months of writing, we decided the Elkhart EdTech blog was a little…limited. The platform wasn’t working and it turned into a project for Wes, Kat, and me to manage. Rather than limit the blog to our collective brains, we’ve decided to open up the EET blog with a new look and a new purpose. In the true spirit of picking the tool that’s best for the purpose, we’ve moved from Blogger to WordPress. It’s infinitely more flexible and allows us to do some really cool things as we work to highlight the great stuff happening in Elkhart...

One of the goals of the Instructional Technology Team is to be visible and as available as possible whenever you need help. To achieve that goal, we’re hitting the road. Kat, Wes, and I (Brian) will be spending some time each week in just about every school in the district. We’ve got a calendar set up with appointment blocks laid out for each day of the week. If you run into trouble, but we’re not in your school, we’re also running help sessions via Google Hangout (more on that later). Remember, you can always request help with the Google Form...

Welcome back to school! We’re incredibly excited to welcome all teachers and students back for the new school year. To help you get started, we wanted to share some easy things you can do to work smarter (and more efficiently) in Chrome.   Stop Forgetting Passwords Elkhart teachers can now use password management extensions in Chrome. This is a really powerful way to free up some brain power during the day. Introducing: LastPass. LastPass is a secure way to manage your passwords in Chrome. Follow the steps below to get started: Download the LastPass extension from the Chrome Web Store....