Pages

Wednesday, January 30, 2019

Communicating Your Story Through Bulb

Last night’s Communicating Your Story Through Bulb webinar was a great opportunity for participants to gain a deeper understanding of digital portfolios for our CISD learners. If you missed it, you can still benefit from the resources and conversations shared. Check out the entire presentation or keep reading as we highlight some of our favorite parts.

Inspiration From Educators 

Explore some of the ideas below that were shared by educators during the webinar.


Made with Padlet

Inspiration from Bulb

Subscribe to Bulb's 10-Minute Tuesdays for weekly inspiration.

Bulb in CISD
Digital Portfolios in CISD
CHS Learner Portfolio Entry Example

If you would like support in implementing Bulb with your learners please do not hesitate to reach out. We would love to partner with you!





Thursday, January 24, 2019

February 15th Professional Learning

Our CISD February 15th professional learning day is robust with choice sessions. There are many excellent offerings focusing on data and assessment, but we would like to use this opportunity to highlight some of the sessions being offered that center around Schoology.

If you are looking for secondary Schoology sessions (including turnitin) look for these sessions below on Sched.



How to search for these sessions in Sched: 


Locate the search bar on the right hand side of the page. Type the title of the session and click Search. A list of all the times offered for that session should appear.

Comment below with the session you are most excited about. We look forward to a great day of learning. 

Wednesday, January 16, 2019

Foster Academic Integrity with turnitin

What does it mean to plagiarize? How are you helping your learners answer this question and avoid the pitfalls of plagiarism? We would get many different excellent answers if we surveyed the educators at our campus, but for this post, we will share a specific tool that our district has recently purchased. Have you heard of turnitin? Turnitin integrates with Schoology and provides tools to prevent plagiarism, to engage students in the writing process, and to provide personalized feedback. A few of the program’s main features include:
  • Similarity report - generate a similarity report that cross checks your learners submission across websites, and other turnitin repositories and provides details of the potentially plagiarized sources.
  • The Feedback Studio - allows for feedback in the form of quickmarks and voice comments. 
  • The E-rater option - scaffold levels of grammar and writing suggestions for your learners’ work. 
  • Rubrics - grade submission with the use of customizable rubrics. 
  • PeerMark™ - peer review assignment tool that allows learners to read, review, and evaluate one or many papers submitted by their classmates. Educators can choose whether the reviews are anonymous or attributed.
Interested in learning how to use this tool? Let’s get together and explore how turnitin can:
  • support redefining success for all learners?
  • provide actionable feedback and encourage growth?
  • leverage teachable moments and foster academic integrity?
  • increase the efficiency of the feedback loop?


View this infographic for step by step instructions on how to set up turnitin, best practices, and examples for your content area. 



Interested in one-on-one or collaborative team support? Contact your campus Digital Learning Coaches, Instructional Coaches, or Librarians for support with Turnitin or lessons on Plagiarism. 

Wednesday, January 9, 2019

Flex Your Mind While Flexing Your Muscles

I love it when I leave a conference with an idea or strategy that I can barely wait to try. In October, I attended the Region 10 IDCC conference and have been sitting on this idea waiting for the New Year. January always brings resolutions and commitments to healthier habits, making it the perfect time to implement this new choice PL strategy I learned about from Ashley Gilliam, Region 10 Digital Learning Coordinator. No more sit and get PL, welcome to Podcasts and Pedometers!

Details for our Podcast and Pedometers PL

Earn flex while working on your New Year Resolution to move more!

Participants will choose a podcast or two from a provided list of educational podcasts. As a group, we will walk and listen to our individually chosen Podcast for 20 minutes. Then, for the last 10 minutes of the walk, participants will partner up to jigsaw their favorite podcast takeaways.

When are we walking? See DLC's weekly emails for upcoming dates and times.

Where do we meet? Meet early in the ROC to set up your device, choose a podcast, and find your walking partner.  We will walk indoor or out, depending on the weather.

How do I sign up? Just show up. No pre-sign up or commitment required.

What do I bring? Walking shoes, earbuds, and a device to access the podcasts.

How do I earn Flex? After each walk you attend, submit a short form reflecting on your Podcast takeaways. Each walk is worth ½ hour of flex. You can participate in as many sessions as you like, but may only request Flex for up to six hours.

What kind of podcasts will we listen to? Podcasts that share strategies for teaching and learning will be selected. Participants will also have the opportunity to suggest Podcasts. See Podcasts examples below.






Using Podcasts in Your Classroom

Ashley’s session also included resources related to using Podcasts with your learners.


  • Listenwise contains a searchable database for Social Studies, Science, and ELA Lessons and includes listening comprehension questions and discussion themes. Check out this Cult of Pedagogy podcast by Jennifer Gonzalas to hear more.

  • And THIS… a podcast list for AP classes by subject!
Do you have educational podcast suggestions for our walks? Please share in the comments below.


Credit: Inspired by this post from Meredith Akers and Ashley Gilliam’s 2018 IDCC Region 10 presentation, Podcasts for Learning.