Breaking Out Shakespeare Style

Our English IV classrooms turned into asylums last week. When the learners from three different classes entered the library they were greeted with an escape room challenge. Taking place in the digital world with the help of Google Sites and Google Forms, learners searched for clues and solved puzzles to open the locks that would lead to freedom.

Each class read a different Shakespearean tragedy and combined their knowledge of tragic heroes in order to break out of the asylum. The challenge was masterfully designed by the educators. It required learners to discuss the content in order to solve the puzzles. Sound easy? Click here and experience the challenge for yourself.

Stephanie Ball, English IV educator, was pleasantly surprised at the high level of learner engagement during the activity. She shared with us during our reflection interview, that “the learners talked about how much fun they had in class and really enjoyed how challenging it was." Check out the video below to see the breakout in action. The learner reactions are priceless!

"I think the coolest part of the digital breakout was seeing the students be collaborative and competitive in finding new ways to learn the content. They were impressed by how much thought and effort went in to planning the activity. I think they realized how much fun it could be when your teachers are passionate about your learning and willing to put in the extra time and effort for them to enjoy the lesson-- made them feel special and proud. They wanted to figure things out for themselves. I was amazed how some of the learners who never did ANY work for class were some of the BEST at unlocking the clues and even finishing FIRST in the class! It was awesome how everyone no matter their learning style could find themselves valuable and able to contribute to their team in one way or another. I am thankful to our DLCs who met with us weekly to show us the ropes on the technology end and our librarians for being excited with us to exhibit the outbreak on a large scale combining all three classes in the library-- they were on board to shut down the library for us, display our logo, and even turn out the lights to set the ambiance and tone of the activity. Overall we had a blast and I am so proud of my team and my students!" -Courtney Orloff, English IV Educator



Educator Advice Before Jumping In


 “Come in with a plan and understand what you want your kids to get out of the lesson before attempting to build a breakout.” -Kristen Davis, English IV Educator







Interesting in Building Your Own?

Besides the high level of engagement, digital breakouts highlight the use of the 4Cs in the classroom. Learners demonstrate their knowledge of content through collaboration, communication, critical thinking and creativity. If you are interested in building a digital breakout for your learners, we would love to design with you. Comment below or send us an email for support.

Region 10 Video Storytellers Contest

Learners are capturing their own stories daily thanks to easily accessible technology. Take advantage of this opportunity to motivate learners to tell the stories of your content.

 We would love to see their submissions, too. Post links in the comments below.

Computer Science Education Week

Computer Science Education Week and #HourOfCode are right around the corner. This year we will be celebrating the week of December 3rd. If you would like your learners to join in this district-wide coding challenge, you will find all of the resources you need for a stress-free Hour of Code on this CISD Hour of Code website that our Digital Learning Coach team has worked to create.

Your learners can complete a self-directed Hour of Code with Learner Choice Menus. On the choice menus, learners may select any of the four topics. Each topic has a learn, do, and reflect portion to complete.

The reflection piece will be done district-wide through Flipgrid! Learners may dive deep into one topic, or explore all four.

Once your learners have participated in the Hour of Code, we encourage you to celebrate and award them their Hour of Code Certificate of Completion. A digital version of this certificate is available through the Flipgrid reflection topics. These could be easily added as a celebration to Bulb. We also want to encourage you to participate and reflect in the Hour of Code along with your learners!

Please use #HourOfCode #CISDCode2Learn & #CISDOurStory in your Tweets!

Want to extend your learning during Computer Science Education Week? Join our Twitter Chat, Critical Thinking for 21st Century Learners! See the invitation below for more details.

Let us know if you would like help designing or implementing Hour of Code activities.

Redefining Digital Portfolios

So, we all set up our Bulb digital portfolios. Now what? How can this tool benefit the learners in your class? I challenge you to think about digital portfolios as more than just a place for learners to showcase their best work to a broader audience, but also as a place to document the history of the student’s learning journey by accompany those artifacts with reflection, self-assessment, and future goal setting.

Coppell Digital Learning Coaches, Alli, Brad, Kelly, and Kasey recently hosted a webinar that explored critical thinking through Bulb.



What I loved about the webinar was how the discussions focused on teaching learners to think critically about their own learning process. If you missed it, click on the host’s Bitmoji image above to access all of their curated resources.

Blog Trick or Treating

This week we would like to share a few Digital Learning Coaches Blog treats. Weekly, we share our learning with you and provide helpful resources through our blog. Today we are playing “Blog Trick or Treating”, so that you can also learn from other members of our team just like we do everyday. Check out a few “treats” highlighted below:

Alli Pryor

Learn about Innerput and how digital tools can support learner internalization of information. Thinking Outside of the Box Blog Post

Trisha Goins

Learn about the benefits of the speak selection iPad accessibility feature. The Power of Voice

Sam Neal

Read about recent changes to Flipgrid.  Flipgrid for the Win

Megan Kozar

Find out how Schoology's Completion Rules can support student self-paced learning.  Fostering Independent Learning with Schoology

DianaLyn Perkins

Read more about iPad accessibility features and drawing in Notes  Accessibility Features and Drawing in Notes

Kasey Kemp

Blog post sharing more Schoology features you may have missed.  Schoology Tips and Tricks

Redefining Success through Digital Portfolios

How is success defined in your classroom? How much of your assessment is done to learners instead of with learners? Digital portfolios can be a way to celebrate learning and growth for all.

Some of the Reasons We Love Digital Portfolios:

• An opportunity to capture the process of learning, not just the end result.
• Provides a picture of the whole child as a unique individual and personality beyond a test score.
• Serves as a reflection space for learners and an opportunity to justify their own grades and develop their academic voice.
• Improves the home-school connection by giving parents a broader window into the learning process.
• Teaches digital citizenship skills in a world where learners are already developing online reputations.

Getting Started

Our district has adopted Bulb as our digital portfolio platform with easy to copy templates for learners and educators. If you are ready to get started, here are some instructions to get you on your way.

Learner Set Up Instructions 

Educator Set Up Instructions

Need more support?

Comment below or send us an email for one-on-one or whole team support.

Code Your Escape

Should our kids learn to code, or should they code to learn?  When coding, learners are developing transferable, life skills. Coding and computational thinking enhance problem solving skills that transfer to all content areas. The Turning Point educators at Victory Place @Coppell embrace this understanding and are using coding to inspire unlimited creative freedom, promote teamwork, elevate computational thinking skills, and develop leaders.

THE PLAYD8

High school learners at Victory Place learners were first exposed to the coding toys available to them through a “coding playd8”. We set up several different coding toys around the room and gave them free exploration “play” time with each toy.

THE ESCAPE ROOM PROJECT

Using the coding toys they experimented with in the PlayD8, the high schoolers designed and implemented escape rooms for the Denton Creek 4th grade learners. Each “room” had its own theme and several puzzles to solve. At least one of each room’s puzzles required a coding challenge for participants. Denton Creek 4th graders collaborated in teams to solve all puzzles in order to collect the clues needed to “escape” from the room.

Scooby-Doo Themed Code-A-Pillar Disco and Ozobot Maze Challenges

Lauren Billingsley - Victory Place Math Educator

EDUCATOR REFLECTION

What surprised you most about this project? 

How quickly they can pull their escape room designs together. Particularly, because the learners at first are a little unsure about how others will take their ideas and are very protective of their feelings. Once they start to weigh the options of having their idea shot down verses not being ready, they start to realize they need to communicate with each other. Ideas start coming and things get pulled together very quickly.

What did you notice most when you observed the high school learners interacting with the fourth graders? 

I think what I observed the most is that they severely underestimate the curiosity, tenacity, and intelligence of the fourth graders. We told them that “these are some smart fourth graders and we need to make this hard”. Getting our learners to challenge them in a real way is probably the most difficult part. I think that speaks to their character a little bit. They want to be nice and be helpful and then they realize it takes a little bit of coaching. It is ok for them to struggle. It is ok for them to fail.

What are the biggest take-away you see for your learners?

The elevation of computational thinking skills. It is severely underestimated how much of your day-to-day life encompasses computational thinking. To be able to take a problem, decompose into its smallest parts, look for patterns in both digital and life problems, and see where it is going haywire. Where can I make a change? What is a change that I can make that will affect several things? Computational thinking is not only good for their academic brain, but it is also good for their social emotional brain.

Designing the Escape Room

DESIGN YOUR OWN PLAYD8 

Interested in incorporating coding lessons into your curriculum? Want to set up a Coding PlayD8 with your PLC team or the learners in your class? Comment below or drop us an email. We would be happy to design an experience with you.

Changing Your Outlook of Outlook

Many of us keep track of our to-dos and events with Outlook’s calendar reminders feature. Did you know that you can customize when and how often you receive those reminders and how the organizer receives your response? 

Customize Calendar Categories and Reminders

Edit reminders to events created by someone else...

Simply open the event in your calendar and edit the reminder time.

Use the Outlook app on your mobile devices and customize invite responses

Learn More

Revisit one of our previous, most popular posts featuring email overload tips and changing your Reply All settings here.

For everything you ever wanted to know about Outlook, visit the Outlook for Windows Training page.

Global Collaboration Week

It’s not too late to connect your classroom with the world. Global Collaboration Week is still going on today and tomorrow. This event provides a one stop shop of opportunities for educators and learners looking to make connections around the globe. Participants from all over can collaborate on projects, make plans for future projects, or simply connect with one another to share information and resources. For links to events happening in Central Daylight Time Zone, click here.

On this planet we are all interdependent and ultimately already connected. Why not parallel that reality in your classrooms. Check out his video from the UN that really sums this up from the learner’s perspective.

Why Global Collaboration: 

Authentic & Experiential Learning

Preparing our learners to contribute in an ever increasing globally connected society

Connect with Industry Experts

Newly Possible Virtual Experiences

Cultural Awareness & Empathy

Celebrate differences

Provide different perspectives

Collaboration

Real-world communication skills

Communicating and creating products despite time and space

Connecting

Building your PLN 

Share Learning and resources

Find like-minded thought partners

Who's Connected?

Connecting learners with educators

Michael Yakubovsky’s learners are currently working on a project where they interview educators from other campuses to discover needs. Learners are designing solutions through 3-D printing inventions. Keep following to hear more about this as it develops.

Connecting learners across schools and grade levels

Pillar Castro-Zena’s learners connected with Kindergarteners through Flipgrid to get feedback on the toys they created during their design thinking unit. Read more about it here.

Connecting current learners with former learners

Ian Vanderschee hosted a Skype session with over 40 of his learners that have already graduated. He included a Q/A session for his current learners to hear what graduates said about college and preparing for college. 

Connecting with other districts

Sr. Mares challenged his learners to create Earth Day children's books with a target audience of Spanish speaking fourth graders in mind. Sr. Mares connected with a fourth grade dual language educator in another city. Her learners read the books, and then met with his learners through Google Hangouts. The high schoolers were able to practice authentic conversations in Spanish and received feedback on their books from the fourth graders. Read more about it here.

Connecting with parents

Suzanne Paylor uses Flipgrid to bring parents into the conversations happening in her classroom. 

Connecting through social media

Tracy Henson’s learners kept blogs related to causes that are dear to their hearts. The public blog tracks the learners’ journeys through research to fund raising. Example

We know so many more of you are making global connections, too! Inspire others. Tell you story below.

Intervene and Extend with Schoology

Hello Differentiation. Meet the individually assign feature in Schoology. At times, learners or groups of learners may need alternate assignments or individualized content. Or, maybe the educator just needs to differentiate learning experiences to accommodate varied learning styles. Did you know that in Schoology, your Discussion Boards, Assignments, Quizzes, and Assessments can be individually assigned to learners or groups of learners? Check out this 1 minute video on how to individually assign.




Besides individually assigning, this feature has the ability to turn your Schoology course into a platform for group collaboration. Want to see how Schoology can help deliver materials to groups of learners? Visit this link for step-by-step instructions.


Interested in exploring this feature more? Contact Monica Champagne and Kelly Skillingberg.

“Grading Groups and Individually Assign.” DoDEA ELearning Portal, Department of Defense Education Agency, 22 Jan. 2015, learn.dodea.edu/.

Managing the Device Rich Classroom

As educators, we understand the importance of upholding expectations for classroom management. Through the reflection of particularly rough days, we strategize and calculate the changes we will make to ensure things will go better “next time”. Recently, we have been exploring how this process is just as important to the digital aspects of your classroom as it is the analog and wanted to share three of our favorite resources with you.


Last night, we had the privilege of hearing from our district’s secondary teacher of the year, Mel Mollick. Mel, shared some of her tried and true classroom management strategies, specifically focusing on those related to a 1:1 learner to device environment. Click here to access Mel's slide deck.


A second resource we would love for every educator to experience is Classroom Management in the Digital Age, Effective Practices for Technology Rich Learning Spaces by Heather Dowd and Patrick Green. Classroom Management in the Digital Age guides and supports established and transitioning device-rich classrooms, providing practical strategy to novice and expert educators K-12. You’ll learn how to…

• Increase attention and decrease distraction
• Cultivate a culture of student ownership and responsibility
• Communicate with parents to establish consistent school-to-home behaviors
• Maximize the power of today’s technology even if you’re not an expert”

Twenty of our educators will have the opportunity to collaborate on the ideas in this book through a collaborative book study lead by Trisha Goins. 

Your third resource...US! Want a thought partner for finding the best digital classroom management solutions? Comment below or send us an email.

The Balancing Act - Using Schoology Workload Planning Tool to Decrease Learner Stress

Have your grade level teams or campuses struggled to find the perfect testing calendar? I have witnessed many versions of this challenge play out, as educators make it a priority to relieve stress from overloaded learners.  In our district, we are fortunate to use Schoology as our Learning Management System. Schoology has a built in tool to support educators in this balancing act. The Workload Planning tool can give educators an idea of their learners’ overall workload. Here are a few tips for using the Workload Planning tool effectively. 

Locating Workload Planning tool 

(Web version only. Not available on the Schoology App)

↑

Navigating the Workload Planning Tool

Workload Planning Tool Best Practices

Create an assignment in Schoology for all labs, major projects, test, or quizzes that you would like to show up in the Planner, even if they are not going to be submitted through Schoology. You can turn off submissions. This way the assignment will still show up on your learners’ calendar and Workload Planner, but not show up as past due for your learners when nothing has been submitted online. It is a great place to include assignment details and submission instructions where learners will not lose them.

       
Use your best judgment on what to do with Workload Planner data. It could be helpful in making more informed decision about deadline dates for exams, projects, or papers. You might even allow your learners choice when scheduling deadlines. Choice can be a stress reducer and show learners that we are collaborating and advocating for their best interest. Reducing learner stress can mean higher scores on your assignments.

If several learners have a large number of assignments due on a specific day, click into the assignments to see how demanding those assignments may be and possibly contact other educators for more details.

Consider designing a consistent, campus-wide system for assignment titles. This could include subject, project, type, and weight.

Not ready to go all in? Consider starting small. Perhaps start by incorporating Workload Planner with learners that need extended time as a modification. Meeting with those learners individually could help give them ownership in their learning by deciding an extended due date for assessments that fall on a busy workflow day.
Educator Advice

“I think the biggest thing for me is that you have to investigate a little when you use this feature. Sometimes it will look like they have 5-6 things going on at once, but it is all in one class. Or you click on it and it says something like Exit Ticket or In-Class Discussion or something like that where there isn’t really a whole lot of time or out of class effort required. So, if you just look at the numbers it can be deceiving. Secondly, it only works if teachers are using Schoology as a place to indicate assignment deadlines.” - Tracey Henson, high school English teacher

Are you using Workload Planner with your campus/grade level team? Please share below helpful tips that are working for you.

Your Questions, Answered

It's official! The 2018-2019 school year is underway. Educators have welcomed learners not only into their physical classrooms, but also their digital ones. During this process, I have had some reoccurring questions from educators and thought others could benefit from the answers.

Click for larger/more detailed instructions

My favorites are Notability, PicCollage, and Markup in the Photos app.

Photo Markup

Notability

PicCollage

Click here to make your own copy.

Join the CISD Respondus Preparation and Resources Schoology Group:

ZQ73H-W3NBT.

Have any digital classroom beginning of the year tips of your own? Share with me and other readers by leaving a comment below.