Last month, I wrote a blog post on my favorite game-based learning platforms which inspired me to create a PD presentation for a conference within my district. When I was asked to present at this conference, I figured that many educators may be overwhelmed with SO many things right now that I wanted to create something easy, fun, and enjoyable for my attendees. While it may not be the deepest or pedagogically based presentation, it was fun and introduced educators to new tools that they could use in the classroom to introduce and review academic content.

The presentation is broken into three sections:

• The Pedagogy
  • While these tools are fun to use, it is always important to start out with the “why”. Why are these tools beneficial and how do they support students?
• The Tools
  • A quick list of my favorite game-based learning tools.
• The Tutorials
  • These slides are built for educators to view during AND after the presentation. While I was presenting these slides, I introduced the tools and started games for attendees to experience.

If you are looking to introduce educators at your site and/or district to game-based learning, here is a free presentation for you to use! Feel free to use, edit, and modify in whatever way will most support your educators.

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Happy November! It is hard to believe that we are almost through the first semester of school! I hope you are doing well and surviving these crazy times – because it really is SO crazy right now.

In fun news, I am starting a new series of blog posts that will come out at the beginning of each month – the Rundown! This is a simple post with a TON of links to Google Workspace Updates, helpful videos, blog posts, and a variety of instructional and educational resources that I have discovered over the last month. It is a short post this month but I plan on growing it over the next few months to contain more categories, blog posts, videos, and resources.

I hope that you enjoy these easy, quick blog posts and find something useful to use in your classroom and/or school!

Google Workspace Updates:

• Replacing a Background in Google Meet
• Slideshow Button in Google Slides
• Making Google Classroom Video Meetings Easier and More Secure
• Google Classroom Unenrollment Features
• Create Meeting Notes in Google Calendar
• Easily Add to Google Docs with the @ Menu
• Page Break Before Paragraphs in Google Docs
• New Google Meet Host Features for Audio and Video

Instructional & Educational Technology:

• PearDeck: Reflect & Review
• 11 Things Coaches Should Look For in Classroom Observations
• Slides Mania Cardtegories!
• Top 5 Game-Based Learning Platforms

Inspirational:

• Don’t Let the Tough Things Keep You from the GREAT Things! (Video)

Going forward, I hope to add many more links and sections to this blog posts. Particularly, I would like to share some leadership blog posts and videos to help support education leaders and, selfishly, help me to grow, too!

Stay tuned for the next rundown!

With the start of a new school year, there are a TON of new updates coming to Google Workspace. If you have a chance, I encourage you to check out of the Google Workspace Updates blog for all sorts of updates that could benefit you in the classroom this year.

One update that I am personally excited about is image placeholders in Google Slides. In this update, users can create placeholders that allow pictures to be easily added to the presentation while maintaining the size of the placeholder. As an A-type personality, I love this ability to add some organization to shared slides with students!

Below, I will share a YouTube video and GIF of how to use this new feature:

Using Image Placeholders Step-by-Step

Step #1: Setting it Up

• Create a Presentation.
• Go to “Slide”.
• Select “Slide Theme”.
  • Note: This section used to be titled “Edit Master” but has recently been updated to “Slide Theme”.

Step #2: Selecting the Placeholder

• Select a Slide Layout.
• Go to “Insert”.
• Select “Placeholder” then “Image Placeholder”.

Step #3: Edit, as Needed

• Add more placeholders and/or edit the current one.

Step #4: Add Slide & Image

• Go to the Main Presentation.
• Select the Slide Layout.
• Add Images.

If you would like to hear me walk you through this process, step-by-step, please watch the YouTube video below:

As always, feel free to drop any questions, comments, or thoughts in the comment section below!

Recently, Google has begun launching Smart Chips which allows users to quickly hyperlink and preview Google Docs, Slides, Drawings, Calendar Events, and email addresses within Google Docs. I know what you are thinking – I can already hyperlink in a Google Doc! Well, Smart Chips are a bit different than the classic hyperlink. To be honest, I just couldn’t think of a better word than hyperlink to describe how Smart Chips operate.

To create a Smart Chip in Google Docs, it is super simple:

• Type the “@” symbol into the Google Doc.
• Start typing the name of the Doc, Slide, Drawing, calendar event, or email address.
• Select the appropriate item and you’re done!

Below, you will find a GIF and short video on how to create a Smart Chip in Google Docs. As you will see, it is super simple to create and can be a great way to organize materials in a Google Doc. The OCD person in me absolutely loves the organizational possibilities for the future!

Now that I have shared what I love about Smart Chips, I feel that I must share a disclaimer about this new feature that I will also reference in the video. Currently, I am struggling to get Smart Chips to work with all the documents that I would like to attach. I’m not sure if this is just a bug that needs to be worked out or a user error on my part, however, I cannot find some of the documents (whether Docs, Slides, Drawings, etc) that I want to link within my document. I have tried it every which way but it only gives me the top four options and sometimes these are not the options that I need to attach. Hopefully, Google will update this to increase the number of options you can select from or better refine their search algorithm for users.

GIF Tutorial:

Video Tutorial:

Have you used Smart Chips? What do you think and did you run into the same issues as I did? Share in the comments below!

As our school site continues on our journey of evaluating our grading practices (see my previous blog post for more details), I am excited to share more interactive resources that can be used for professional development at your site! In the previous blog post, I shared an activity that challenged teachers to evaluate their grading practices through a self-assessment. Now that teachers have gone through this process, it is important to begin the hard work of trying to brainstorm and establish common goals. To start this process, our school site leadership team met and determined three areas of importance when establishing common grading practices:

• Grading Scale
  • Example: 0-100, A-F, 4 Point Scale, Etc.
• Late Work
  • Example: Is late work allowed? What’s your policy?
• Categories & Weights
  • Example: What is more important – the task or learning? Do you weight your grades?

As a school site, our goal is to try to create common goals for grading practices across our PLC’s and, in some areas, on a schoolwide level. We are trying to start small by focusing on these three areas and PLC’s and, hopefully, growing them over time. As an example, starting with PLC’s or departments is already a huge task. Trying to establish all of these goals on a sitewide level could be a much larger task that may take some time. Overall, our goal is to allow our leadership team to help guide the focus of these conversations and where they hope that we should go as we deep dive into our grading practices.

To help us understand our common goals across PLC’s, we developed two activities that I will share below. As mentioned above, we are starting in PLC’s and that is how I will reference our process. However, you could certainly replace PLC’s with department, grade level, or even schoolwide. It is totally up to you and your site to decide what is best!

1.) Brainstorming Common Goals

In this activity, PLC’s will meet together to simply start brainstorming and thinking about these three categories and where they hope to go in the future. Think of it like a brain dump. There is no need to have all your questions answered or decisions made. Simply take the time to have a discussion with your PLC and record your thoughts. After the PLC’s record their thoughts and ideas, challenge them to view the other slides (based on subject area) to view other ideas and/or add comments and questions.

We have already completed this activity with our PLC’s and I absolutely loved the conversations that we observed and the ideas that were recorded. I was so impressed with the time and deep-dive our teachers took into evaluating their grading practices and attempting to start the process of establishing common goals.

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2.) Establishing Common Goals

After PLC’s have had the opportunity to brainstorm, challenge them to begin the hard work of narrowing their focus and establishing common goals. This is the real meat and potatoes of creating cohesive grading process across PLC’s (or departments, grade level, etc).

In this activity, you will once again see our three focus areas. Each slide represents one focus area and asks several questions to help PLC’s narrow down their common goals for their grading practices. By the end of this activity, the goal is for PLC’s to have a strong idea of what their PLC-wide focus will be for grading.

If you choose to make a copy of this activity and want to include all of your PLC’s, simply make a copy of the three slides multiple times and assign certain slides to certain PLC’s.

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I am going to be 100% transparent that this is a huge undertaking for our school site and the end goals are still being determined as we go through this process. Hopefully, if you find yourself in similar conversations at your school site, these activities can help frame and guide your conversations.

As always, drop any comments and/or questions below!

Hello EDU Friends! I hope you are surviving this crazy world that we are living in right now. Whether you are in distance learning, hybrid, or fully back in the classroom, I hope you and yours are safe, healthy, and happy.

Today, I will be sharing a simple, easy, and interactive presentation that can be given during professional development. The district in which I work is huge with the 4 C’s which, eventually, morphed into a personal passion through my Google Innovator project. I truly believe the 4 C’s in an excellent way to evaluate the depth of teacher lessons and improve these lessons for the future.

Recently, I delivered some PD to our new teachers breaking down the 4 C’s into a simple, short presentation. The 4 C’s can be a really deep and complex concept, so I tried to break it down to its simplest form, while also providing more depth for the future. In this presentation, you will find that it is broken into three parts:

1. What are the 4 C’s?
   • In this section, teachers are introduced to the lowest level and highest level of the 4 C’s, as well as provided rubrics for breaking down each C.
2. How Can I Assess the 4 C’s in my Lessons?
   • In this section, teachers are challenged to evaluate the current depth of 4 C’s in their own lessons and find next steps for improving their lessons.
3. Resources for Lesson Design
   • In the last section, teachers are provided links to lesson design ideas, websites, and resources.

Below, you will find a preview of the presentation, the view access, and a link to make your own copy:

(View) (Make Your Own Copy!)

I hope you find this presentation beneficial and feel free to drop any comments, ideas, or suggestions below!

One of my favorite ways to get students talking in my classes was an AVID strategy called Philosophical Chairs. Philosophical Chairs is a student-centered format for classroom discussion that promotes analytical reading, respectful dialogue, and personal reflection. You could equate it to a debate, however, there is a much richer focus on text and mutual understanding. It’s an amazing strategy to get students talking to one another – whether you are teaching in person or online!

In the post below, I will share the steps for setting up and running a Philosophical Chair in your classroom, as well as a useful Google Slide Template! Let’s get started!

The first step of any successful Philosophical Chair is a relevant prompt for students to discuss. If it isn’t relevant to the students, then they won’t be interested in participating. In the past, I’ve had students discuss whether college athletes should be paid, if video games made people violent, and if social media should be limited to people over the age of 14. All of these topics immediately had my student’s interest because it was relevant to them.

Here is a list of possible Philosophical Chair topics I found online: Philosophical Chair Topics. The reason I said possible is that you should always reflect on the appropriateness of the topic based upon the age of your students.

Step #2: Find a Text to Read

Once you create your prompt, it is important to find a relevant text (or two!) for students to read to reflect on the prompt. Sometimes I would pick one article for them to read that was less biased, then allow students time to conduct their own research to find their additional texts. With my students, I always stressed the importance that their opinions were based on facts. They had to be able to prove why they chose the side they eventually sided on.

Step #3: Read & Annotate

After you select your text, I encourage you to teach your students to read, annotate, and reflect on the text that they have read. If you are unfamiliar with annotating the text, I encourage you to check out this student-centered template to use with your text:

Annotating the Text Student Template (View) (Copy)

As you can see in the template, this will guide your students through the pre-reading, reading, and post-reading of the text. By using these strategies, students were more likely to engage in deep levels of thinking with the text they were reading.

Step #4: Choose a Side!

After students spent time reflecting on the text they had read, the fun part begins – choosing a side! In the classroom, I would split the room in half to represent an “agree” and “disagree” side. I would ask students to stand on the side that reflected their opinion. If they were still unsure, they could stay in the middle. I’ve seen Philosophical Chairs done with more structure during this part, such as setting up chairs on each side and having students sit down. Personally, I would have my students push the furniture to opposite ends of the class so that they could move around during the discussion if their opinions started to change.

If you want a digital option with less movement, check out this template:

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Share this template with students and enable access to everyone. Each student takes a “tag” and replaces “Student” with their name. During the discussion, students can virtually move their name to the “agree” or “disagree” side – or even somewhere in the middle!

Step #5: Discuss

Once students have selected a side, the discussion beings! Here are a few rules I had during the discussion:

• Equal speaking time for each side.
• No interrupting each other – only talk when you are holding the “speaking object”.
• Refer to evidence in your text at least once while you are speaking.
• Reference what other students have said by saying, “I agree with John because…” or “I disagree with John because…”

Usually, we would spend the majority of the class discussing the topic because it’s just so fun!

Step #6: Repeat 4-5!

Throughout the discussion,  I would give students time to repeat the last two steps. They would have the opportunity to move sides after a few students talked and then the discussion would continue and repeat!

As you can see, this is a really fun (and super easy) instructional strategy that you can use in your classroom. I hope you give it a try out and, if you do, feel free to share how it went and/or how you modified it for your students!

]]> https://www.i-heart-edu.com/philosophical-chairs/feed/ 4 2558 https://www.i-heart-edu.com/google-slide-calendars-2020-2021-version/ https://www.i-heart-edu.com/google-slide-calendars-2020-2021-version/#comments Tue, 21 Jul 2020 00:40:51 +0000 https://www.i-heart-edu.com/?p=2417 A few years, I shared a set of calendars that I created for my school site to help students say organized. Well, back by popular demand…Here are the 2020/2021 calendars! As many schools will be in distance learning this school year, I hope that these calendars can provide some structure for both students and teachers.… Read More Google Slide Calendars: 2020/2021 Version]]>

A few years, I shared a set of calendars that I created for my school site to help students say organized. Well, back by popular demand…Here are the 2020/2021 calendars!

As many schools will be in distance learning this school year, I hope that these calendars can provide some structure for both students and teachers. Below you will find a description of the calendars, preview and a link to make your own copy. Feel free to steal and use during the upcoming school year! Enjoy!

Academic Calendars for Students

At one of my previous school sites, our students were given a year-long, physical agenda to track their daily assignments.  As a school policy, our students were required to fill this out and teachers would sign/stamp that students had filled out the daily agenda at the beginning of class.  It was a great system for students and taught them how to be organized.  As our district went 1-1, our site did not purchase these agendas since there was technology that could replace them at no cost.  Unfortunately, I have noticed that using Google Calendar is not exactly what the teachers are looking to use in their classrooms and/or they are not comfortable using it themselves.  Although I am a big Google Calendar user and have had success with my students, I can see their concern.  The calendar isn’t broken up by subject type and all of the information a student writes does not show up on the calendar view.  For my students, they were used to navigating Google Calendar but I decided to create something that more teachers would want to use with their students.

2019/2020 Weekly Academic Calendar (Link)

• Students can use this Slide Deck to track assignments, plan for projects, and more!
• Students can quickly navigate by clicking on the months at the beginning of the Slide Deck or in the “Timeline” at the bottom of each slide.
• Students/Teachers can delete any unused months from the template.

Click HERE to make your own copy.

2019/2020 Monthly Academic Calendar (Link)

• Students can use this Slide Deck to track assignments, plan for projects, and more!
• Students can quickly navigate by clicking on the months at the beginning of the Slide Deck or in the “Timeline” at the bottom of each slide.
• Students/Teachers can delete any unused months from the template.

Click HERE to make your own copy.

When I was in the classroom, I loved creating my lesson plans in Google Docs. It was a great living document that I could easily manipulate and add comments for future years. It’s also a great way to create plans across a department, collaborate and assign tasks!

Lesson Plan Calendar (Link)

• Teachers can use this Slide Deck to create lesson plans for their classes.
• Teachers can add comments as reminders for future planning.
• Teachers can share with other teachers, collaborate and assign tasks to others.

Click HERE to make a copy.

Student Project Planning Goals & Objectives

The calendars above were primarily created to help students track assignments.  Once I started building those calendars, I started thinking about how I could create something for the 20Time Projects that my students would be doing in my AVID and Tech classes next year.  Immediately, I realized I had already created something useful while working on my Google Innovator Project.  For my project, I created a monthly planning process with new goals, ongoing goals, questions/comments/ideas, and status check.

Below are some “project planning” Slide Decks:

Weekly Project Planning Goals (Link)

• Students can use this Slide Deck when planning weekly goals for 20 Time Projects, Genius Hour, and PBL.
• Students can duplicate the following slide for the number of weeks of the project.
• When students complete tasks on the “New” and “Ongoing Goals”, students can right click and change to check marks.

Click HERE to make your own copy.

Monthly Project Planning Goals (Link)

• Students can use this Slide Deck when planning weekly goals for 20 Time Projects, Genius Hour, and PBL.
• Students can duplicate the following slide for the number of weeks of the project.
• When students complete tasks on the “New” and “Ongoing Goals”, students can right click and change to check marks.

Click HERE to make your own copy.

Finally, below you will find a mindfulness calendar which would be a great support for SEL during distance learning or even the regular school year.

Mindfulness Calendar (Link)

• • Students can use this Slide Deck when planning weekly goals for 20 Time Projects, Genius Hour, and PBL.
  • Students can duplicate the following slide for the number of weeks of the project.
  • When students complete tasks on the “New” and “Ongoing Goals”, students can right click and change to check marks.

Click HERE for your own copy.

Feel free to use these with your class.  If you do, I would love your feedback and any ideas that you have to improve these resources!

When I was in the classroom, I was a HUGE fan of the flipped classroom instructional. In this webinar, I will walk you through the “how” of creating a flipped classroom but also the “why” – which is actually the most important part!

In this webinar, I covered the following topics:

• Recording a Google Slides presentation with Screencastify
• Uploading and editing in YouTube
• Sharing to your LMS
• Instructional strategies for successful implementation

Below, you will find some of the resources that were provided during the presentation:

• Presentation
• Screencastify
• EdPuzzle

Have you tried flipping the classroom? If so, share your tips and tricks below!

HyperDocs have become one of my favorite tools for creating lessons that promote the 4 C’s. If you are unfamiliar with HyperDocs, I highly encourage you to visit the HyperDoc website for their AMAZING resources. In a nutshell, HyperDocs are “a transformative, interactive Google Doc replacing the worksheet method of delivering instruction and is the ultimate change a

gent in the blended learning classroom.” Many people think that a HyperDoc is a Google Doc that has hyperlinks – but it’s not that at all. It’s so much more!

HyperDocs are a digital document – yes – but they are also a completely packaged lesson that promotes deep learning. In most HyperDocs, the lesson design will follow this model: Engage, explore, explain, apply, share, reflect and extend. Within each of these parts, students are challenged to learn about the topic and/or demonstrate their knowledge. Within the HyperDoc, the teachers will design the learning experience for the students. The students will use the document to complete the tasks given by the teacher. A HyperDoc can be self-directed or could be completed in small or large groups. There is a lot of flexibility in how these documents are created and delivered. However, the most important part of HypDocs is creating a lesson that is engaging, challenging and promotes the 4 C’s.

In the sections below, I have shared three templates that I have created for the HyperDoc model, as well as examples to help support you. These are totally FREE resources that you can use in your classroom.

Enjoy!

Template #1: Google Slide

Below, you will find a simple HyperDoc template with clickable links for teachers or students to quickly jump to other sections. A written explanation of each section is included to guide you through the process. When you are done reading the explanations, delete the box and add your own content.

Recently, I used this template to create a “Defining Fears” SEL HyperDoc. View it here –> Defining Fears HyperDoc.

Click HERE for your own copy.

Template #2: Google Slide

Below, you will find a simple HyperDoc template with clickable links for teachers or students to quickly jump to other sections. A written explanation of each section is included to guide you through the process. When you are done reading the explanations, delete the box and add your own content.

Recently, I used this template to create a “This Is Me” HyperDoc based on the Greatest Showman. View it here –> This Is Me Hyperdoc.

Click HERE to make your own copy.

Template #3: Google Forms

Below, you will find a complex HyperDoc that has been built in Google Forms. A written explanation is included within this template, as well as visuals and examples of what could go in each section. When you are done reading the explanations and viewing the examples, delete the content and add your own.

Click HERE to make your own copy.

Do you use HyperDocs in your classroom and/or with your teachers? If so, share in the comments below!