Digital Whiteboards are a Fantastic Tool for Distance Learning!

For teachers, digital whiteboards can be a great way to flip a classroom. English teachers can diagram sentences, history teachers can show events on a timeline, math teachers can demonstrate how to work out a problem, and science teachers can explain a concept. App smash a with a screen casting tool such as Screencastify and you can record your digital whiteboard. 

Recording your lesson on a whiteboard is important in the distance learning environment. It allows students to view your lesson at time that’s convenient for the student. And, if they don’t quite get a concept, they can watch your lesson over and over again. I’ve mentioned three whiteboard apps to the left.

Explain Everything

Explain Everything allows you to create a direct web video link to your video. EE has a recording option in the app, so you don’t another screen recorder. Allowed 3 projects, but you can download your projects to make room. Explaineverything.com

Google Canvas

Google Canvas is web based so you can access it on the web at Canvas.apps.chrome. Use Screencastify to record your lesson and upload it to your classroom. 

Educreations

Like Google’s Canvas, you don’t need a third party recording app.  Educreations has a recording function. Easily share to you Google Classroom. Educreations.com

Microsoft Whiteboard

And let's not forget Microsodft.  Whiteboard.microsoft.com

Keep a Class Newsletter With This Google Tool (and no, it's not Docs)

There are Google tools that you can use to communicate with both students and parents. The backbone of your newsletter is Google Slides.  I've heard it referred to as the Swiss army knife of Google tools because it's able to handle so many tasks.  In this case, we'll use it to create the newsletter. By the way, this issue was made with Google Slides!

Why Google Slides?

There are a couple of reasons why Slides is a great choice for a newsletter.  First, it allows you to keep a running repository of all your newsletters. Second, you can copy each slide for the following issue, changing the date and content. Third, you have a few options when sharing your newsletter. You can share by copying the Slides link to your LMS (Google Classroom or whatever else you might be using). You can download each issue and post it to a classroom website. Or, you can give out the address to the students and parents.

How do I make a newsletter out of Slides?

The first thing you'll need to do to is to make your slides look like a newsletter. To do this, change the formatting. Open up a new Slides presentation. Then, go to File->Page Setup->Custom->Change to 8.5 x 11.  Now you're ready to put together the first issue of your newsletter!  Add text, pictures, and shapes to the newsletter. Once you're ready for your second issue, copy and paste the previous issue to the next slide.  Change the date and information for the second issue.

And there you have it! An accessible newsletter that's easy to create and easy to file and find for future reference.

Teaching Tips in the Age of Distance Learning

Thirteen Distance Learning Tools

It’s still possible to teach your class if you or your students are out of the classroom for a long period of time.  I’ve compiled a list of digital learning tools that can help in the event students or teachers are absent for long periods of time.

 

Screencastify: Record your lectures. Record your voice over your Google Slides or Powerpoint presentation. Create questions on a Google Doc which your students answer while watching your presentation.

Explain Everything: Digital whiteboard. Record explanations of key concepts and math problems. Upload your recording to Your Google Classroom.

Google Hangouts Meet: Meet with your class or individual students over a Google Hangout.

Nearpod or Peardeck: Create student paced lessons with assessments. Include videos, short answer questions, and a space for digital white boards.

Edpuzzle: Create an assignment out of a video.  EdPuzzle allows for the insertion of questions in the video. You can even record yourself explaining a concept and turn it into an EdPuzzle video. 

Flipgrid: Students can use Flipgrid to record what they’ve learned.  Students can give an oral book report, summarize events in history, comment on a classmates video and so much more!

Socrative: Easy to use assessment tool. Use Socrative to ask multiple choice or short essay questions.

Padlet: Use Padlet as a classroom backchannel.  Set up a Padlet for each of your Google Classrooms for student questions.

Book Creator: Have students create books based on their learning. Students can insert text, drawings, photos, and recordings of their voice.

Google Calendar: Post all daily activities and due dates.

Google Classroom: Use as the hub for student work and online discussions.

Google Drawings: Great for math.  Students can work out math problems and turn in using Google Classroom.

Google Forms: Use Forms for not only assessment, but for virtual worksheets as well. Forms is also great for a weekly/daily check in with students.  Ask how they’re feeling, goals for the week, etc.  Multiple choice check-in’s are easier to review because you can then use conditional formatting in a Google Sheet to flag certain answers.

One of the Most Important Digital Tools in Your Classroom

In light of current health concerns, many students are missing class. Because students are asked to stay home with the slightest symptoms of a cold or flu, it’s important to keep your students aware of what you’re doing in the classroom. With technology it’s even easier to keep your students up to date with the classroom activities. One of the most important tools you can use in your classroom is an online calendar. If you use Google Classroom, it’s already built in. If students are home sick, they can access the calendar and find out what their class did or is doing that day. In Google Classroom, assignments are populated on the class calendar (if there’s a due date for the assignment). But what about the day in day out activities of the class? Perhaps you had a discussion about a topic. That particular day you read a passage from a book or watched a video clip. These activities may not qualify as classroom assignments with due dates. This is why it’s important to get in the habit of posting daily activities on your classroom calendar.

Book Creator Gives Students Choice In Their Reading Logs

I was recently asked by a teacher how she could drop the traditional reading logs in her class. Her kids were doing it the old fashion way. They were talking out a piece of paper, writing the date, pages read, and a brief summary. After giving it some thought, I told her that Google tools could come to her rescue. She could use Google Sheets, Slides, Keep, and Drawings instead her paper reading logs. But the one tool that I focused on was Book Creator. Book Creator is a versatile tool that can be used in any discipline and for almost any classroom exercise. Book Creator allows the user to include pictures, videos, drawings, voice recordings, and of course, text. Book Creator is the ultimate in student choice when it comes to reading logs. I’ve found that when using Book Creator and giving students choice on how they’ll summarize what they’ve read, many students actually want to read! One of the downsides is that some students actually cut reading short in to get to their reading log. The teacher has flexibility too. On a certain day, the teacher can ask students to include a simple summary with a picture from the web. The next day, the teacher can ask them to record a video of them summarizing what they’re read. On yet another day, they can ask the students to draw a representation of what they’re read. They can also ask the kids to choose how they’d like to summarize their reading. The teacher has the ability to leave comments in a students book. Like creating a book, the teacher can leave comments in the same way, with text, audio, video, or by using a stylus to make comments.

Looking to give students choice in their class work? I highly recommend checking out Book Creator!

Start the New Semester With These Digital Tools

With a new semester comes a new beginning for both the student and teacher.  The student comes into your classroom with a clean slate.  You, the teacher, you have an opportunity to set the tone of your digital classroom by incorporating  tech tools into your teaching.  By using technology at the beginning of the year, your students will know that they’re in a 21st century classroom where you, by using technology, are going to prepare them for the world that awaits outside of class.

Below are a few tech tools you can use to get your semester off to an EdTech start:

Canva or Google Drawings:  Ask students to create a vision board about themselves.  With vision boards, students simply incorporate pictures that represent who they are, what they hope to learn, and what they want to be.  Students can browser the internet for the appropriate pictures and incorporate them into their board.  They can also use these tools to tell you about themselves by including pictures of family, favorite things, foods, places, and whatever else might be relevant to them.

Book Creator and Google Slides:  Ask students to write a short e-book about themselves.  Not only is Book Creator easy to use, but Google Slides can be fashioned to create e-books as well by changing a couple of settings, namely the aspect ration of the slides, making them look like pages in a book.  Students can include not only text, but pictures into their books as well.

Google Forms:  Create a student interest survey so you can learn more about what makes your students tick.  Ask students about their interests, hobby’s, favorite subjects, areas that they struggle in and so on.

Wakelet: Introduce students to Wakelet as a repository for their work.  Whether the teacher keeps one Wakelet for the entire class or each students keeps their own Wakelet, students can create digital portfolios as a place to keep copies of their work.  

Google Keep, Docs, and Slides:  Begin day one of the new semester by asking students to keep a daily journal.  This would be a great warm up activity or an exit ticket asking students to reflect on what they’ve learned that day.  All three Google tools are very good for students to keep a journal.  For example, in Google Slides, students write the date as the header and then use the rest of the slide for their journaling.  Each slide represents one entry.  

Again, begin the semester with the expectation that this will be a 21st century classroom.  You will be preparing students for life outside of your classroom walls and for their future careers.