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How Self-Directed Learning Can Engage and Empower Your Students

Written by HES Marketing on . Posted in Instruction & Classroom Practice.

Can students really decide how they learn best? That’s a question many schools are wondering as self-directed learning gains popularity across the country. The concept is not new. In fact, its roots trace back to Socrates and Aristotle, but today’s teachers are embracing this instructional strategy as technology offers more opportunities for students to explore topics they find interesting and seek information easily and independently.

Essentially, self-directed learning allows students to take ownership for their learning, deciding what they will learn, and how they will learn it. This empowers students, giving them a primary role in their education. Furthermore, research has emerged to indicate that this method is not only a highly effective way to increase retention, but has many additional positive side effects for students.

How Does This Work in a Classroom?

Allowing your students to choose what they are going to learn based on their own personal interests and strengths sounds nice, but how does this look in a classroom? Well, it’s different for every teacher and every student.

The truth is, there are many different paths to learning and some students will prefer one method over another. Certain students will learn best reading books or websites, while others prefer to watch videos or listen to podcasts. Kinesthetic learners may enjoy physical and virtual field trips. Teachers can help introduce students to these alternative paths to learning and guide students to find what works best for them.

You might give your students a general goal, like learning about marine life. Students would then work with you to determine a topic which interests them and how they will demonstrate their learning. An artistic student may be fascinated by colorful nudibranchs and create an informational pamphlet. Another student may decide to learn about the effects of pollution on beluga whales and write a persuasive letter to the editor of a newspaper. A third student may select to study the marine life in tide pools of their local area, creating a video teaching about the formation of the pools. Each student may have a different learning outcome, but each is deeply invested in the learning process because it is specifically tailored to his/her interests.

What Role do Teachers Play in Self-Directed Learning?

Self-directed learning requires a skill set that must be carefully taught and modeled by their teachers. To build and support self-directed learners, you will need to cover topics like:

  • Functional computer skills
  • Digital literacy
  • Library and research skills
  • Finding credible information
  • Finding resources to assist in the learning process
  • Introducing students to different types of learning outcomes

As students follow their individual pursuits, teachers act like a guide, monitoring progress, helping students find resources, and offering feedback, paving the way for learner independence.

Harnessing Technology to Create Self-Directed Learners 

Technology plays a key role in supporting self-directed learners. You probably use it yourself all the time. Let’s say your dishwasher is leaking. Before you call for repairs, what do you do? You might type “leaky dishwasher“ into a search engine and see what comes up. After watching a DIY video or reading a blog post, you attempt to fix it, based on what you learned. That’s self-directed learning! Some tools self-directed learners use are:

  • Video-conferencing tools
  • Self-publishing
  • Personal Learning Networks
  • ePortfolios
  • Self-Assessment
  • Video-streaming platforms

Today, there is an abundance of online resources available at students’ fingertips, making self-directed learning easy to conduct in the classroom. Using various resources such as Castle Learning and eDoctrina, teachers can reduce the workload of customizing assignments and personalize learning experiences, easily giving students different topics depending on their chosen area of interest. There is really no limit to how technology can develop and support self-directed learners.

Why is Self-Directed Learning So Effective?

The best part about developing self-directed learners is that these skills carry over to different classes and can also be applied in other areas besides school. It helps build skills which develop students into lifelong learners. Here are a few of the biggest ways.

It Cultivates Curiosity

Allowing students the freedom to choose learning objectives based on their own interests helps them enjoy learning. It creates the opportunity for students to follow “rabbit holes” which spawn new topics for discovery.

It Increases Student Motivation

Since students are actively engaged in setting their own learning goals, they are more motivated to participate and dig deeper into hard topics.

It Boosts Understanding and Retention

When students play a role in selecting their focus, they are better able to absorb and retain new information.

Benefits of Self-Directed Learning

As students become the independent architects of their own knowledge, they experience other benefits as well, such as:

Building Digital Literacy Skills

Technology is now firmly entrenched in our schools and classrooms. With more schools integrating a wide variety of online learning components, students need to have competence using digital resources to find and consolidate information.

Developing a Passion to Learn

Self-directed learning is all about creating a passion for learning. Allowing students to choose their learning path actively engages them in activities that they find relevant, interesting and, most of all, fun. It’s not a stretch to realize that active engagement allows students to retain more information than passively listening to or reading about topics. It also encourages deeper learning as students are more motivated to enrich their own learning.

Learning to Take Initiative

Self-directed learners are able to understand what they want to know and determine how best to achieve their learning goals. They are able to take initiative to build their own knowledge.

Building Skills for College and Career Readiness

As self-directed learners diagnose their own learning gaps and build knowledge in specific areas, they also build other important skills. Since they are responsible for their own learning, they develop intrinsic motivation and integrity. Self-directed learners become comfortable asking questions, and aren’t afraid to seek help when they need it. These are important life skills that will serve them well across classrooms, as well as college and career goals.

Here are just some of the life skills that self-directed learners develop and exhibit:

  • Perseverance
  • Setting goals
  • Problem solving
  • Time Management

Self-directed learning provides a feeling of empowerment and is an amazing tool to develop essential life skills and lifelong learners. It encourages deeper learning and supports students to set higher learning goals. The more interested and invested your students are in what they are learning, the more willing and able they will be to do the hard work to achieve their learning goals. You may be surprised at the enthusiasm students exhibit when they are truly invested in their work.

At Harris Education Solutions, we provide solutions that help support educators and encourage students to take ownership of their learning.

Five Ideas for Creating a Strong Learning Community During the Pandemic (and Other Transitions)

Written by HES Marketing on . Posted in Instruction & Classroom Practice.

An engaging, strong learning community helps ignite a spark for lifelong learning. Watching the movies “Spare Parts” and “October Sky” are inspirational for many teachers because they highlight the amazing growth and intellectual curiosity possible with an engaged, positive learning community.

Members of a strong learning community who feel safe and valued are likely to have enough confidence to participate, collaborate, explore new ideas, and persevere with challenging work. However, even in the best of times, uniting individuals into a team of learners means integrating bonding activities throughout your lessons. These activities foster a sense of belonging to the classroom learning community.

Of course, creating a supportive and enthusiastic class culture during the instability from Covid-19 requires more planning than usual. Quarantines negatively affect attendance and interrupt the flow. Stress impacts interpersonal interactions and behavior. Divisions from broader society may trickle down into classroom interactions.

Additionally, some students are adjusting to the traditional classroom after working from home. Many teachers echo the sentiments of this middle school teacher who remarked, “my seventh graders this year act more like sixth graders of previous years.”

  1. Help Students Integrate and Adjust

Students who learned at home last year missed many shared bonding experiences. Try these ideas to include returning students into an existing learning community.

Help classmates get to know each other with introductory activities. Students will feel more comfortable engaging in academic conversations knowing each other’s names and feeling a connection. “Two Lies and a Truth” invites everyone to tell fun stories and facts about themselves. “Four Corners” is another great activity to help students find commonalities.

Adapt fun end-of-the-year activities to the beginning of the year by changing the focus from a learning review to a preview of learning. These lively, memorable learning activities give students events to talk about outside the classroom.

A friend makes a new environment much less stressful. Pair new students with a friendly peer to help navigate the school cafeteria and other social situations.

Learn about students’ educational backgrounds to make sure everyone knows how different systems work. For example, students who did not have virtual instruction last year may not be as familiar with EdTech tools that are second nature to other students. You can assign tech mentors to students who want them.

  1. Prepare for Virtual Community Building

Switching between face-to-face instruction to remote requires many adjustments with different norms, hours, and responsibilities. Anything you can do to build unity and consistency between the two modalities will make the transitions less stressful. You might want to supplement your in-person community-building activities with ones that also work virtually to prepare for the possibility of remote or hybrid instruction.

Your favorite strong learning community-building apps are great for any learning environment. Popular community-building EdTech tools include social media, Bitmoji, and communication apps.

Incorporating simple traditions creates a sense of belonging and unites everyone in the goal of learning. For example, start the session with a quick warm-up activity that engages everyone. Some group warm-up activities that work in both modalities are online quiz games, polls, and brainteasers. Likewise, close with an interactive chant, song, or phrase. You can choose something as simple as saying, “Now, go learn something fun!” and students replying, “Off we go!”

  1. Maintain Relationships with Absent Students and Welcome them Back

Including quarantining students in classroom activities whenever possible reminds everyone that absent students are valued community members. EdTech tools such as video-conferencing and digital whiteboards allow all learners to participate from any location with an internet connection. Reading aloud is a favorite activity for sharing virtually, and even high school students gain value from it.

Acknowledge students who have been absent for more than a few days and celebrate their return. Having everyone sign a card or banner only takes 5 minutes, yet it goes a long way towards strengthening bonds. Such gestures reassure students that people remember them and care about their well-being.

Missing a lot of information is stressful. Ask face-to-face students to write changes and events in a “while you were out” binder. The binder could include details such as schedule changes, new rules, and essential vocabulary. Recording this information serves a dual purpose. It empowers in-person community members to help quarantined students in a meaningful way and reduces returning students’ anxiety about missing details.

  1. Teach Communication Skills

Effective communication is a pillar to participating in any community. That is why reading, writing, listening, and speaking are standards included in every subject. Group work provides many valuable opportunities to teach communication skills. Collaborating and cooperating help students connect on a deeper level.

Part of effective communication includes knowing how to disagree respectfully and value various perspectives. Show students that those different opinions need not disrupt relationships and class harmony. Show them the power of listening and responding calmly.  They might try, “I see where you are coming from, and yet I still disagree because …”

  1. Support Mental and Emotional Health

The emotional temperature of a class permeates every aspect of the learning community. Academic and social pressures make school stressful for many students. Provide a few minutes for students to journal, do a wellness check-in, or use mindfulness apps.

Students experiencing intense emotions will need avenues to express themselves appropriately. The early warning system in edInsight from the Harris Education Solutions’ ecosystem helps alert potential trouble spots for individual learners. Please refer students in crisis to an administrator or mental health professional.

We are Stronger Together

At Harris Education Solutions, we commend educators’ remarkable resilience for building learning communities throughout disruptions from the pandemic. Some of these ideas will help develop a learning community in different situations too. Other events that require extra effort to promote a positive learning culture include:

  • welcoming a large influx of international newcomers
  • rebuilding after a severe weather event or other trauma
  • adapting to a changing financial landscape

Whatever your situation, we are here to partner with you every step of the way.

Staying Engaged Through the Last Day of School

Written by HES Marketing on . Posted in Instruction & Classroom Practice.

Thoughts of summer vacation are filling your students’ heads (and probably yours too). To maximize instructional minutes, you may be thinking about end-of-the-year engagement strategies. While the basic tenets of engagement hold, the spring offers unique opportunities to reflect on learning and stimulate new ideas. The engagement strategies in this blog review knowledge without adding much pressure on you and the students.

Many teachers use the last few weeks of school for a big project or reviewing for a final exam. Reviewing for a summative assessment helps find instructional gaps, explore conceptual misunderstandings, and apply information and skills creatively. However, the strain of these high-stakes assessments may inhibit students’ brains from processing the information on a deeper level. Plus, after the summative assessment, you will likely have a few days where everyone feels relaxed, and you will want to culminate their progress in a rewarding way.

Science backs up the idea that the inherent good mood before summer vacation enhances students’ abilities to create strong memories of information.

Cognitive Neuroscience Explains why a Relaxed Mood and Fun Activities Improve Learning

Cognitive neuroscience is the study of the brain’s physical and chemical make-up to understand emotions and thinking. It blends psychology and neuroscience, and the findings have important implications for educators. We use cognitive neuroscience to explain why the end of the school year is the perfect time to reinforce what students learned during the year.

Long-term memory, which is any memory lasting more than a few seconds, is critical for learning. Scientists categorize memories in a variety of ways, with three memory types being especially relevant to education. Episodic memories are of events, procedural memories are how to do something, and semantic memories are general knowledge. Learning a new skill, like the steps to long division, uses procedural memory. Learning new information uses semantic memory. Of course, memory types overlap, and the duration and strength of memories vary widely.

When a semantic memory corresponds with an episodic memory, it creates a stronger ability to recall the associated knowledge. For example, students who make an explosion in science class will remember the cause and effect of enzymes better than those who just read about it.  Neurotransmitters are also crucial to retaining information. Cognitive neuroscientists theorize that the right balance of neurotransmitters influence the strength and duration of memories.

Neurotransmitters are chemical messengers that travel among the neurons via synapses. Different neurotransmitters get released depending on emotions and other stimuli. Our brains release the neurotransmitters cortisol and adrenaline with stress. Too much cortisol and adrenaline inhibit learning. That is one reason why stress negatively impacts our ability to make and recall procedural and semantic memories.

Conversely, our brains release serotonin and dopamine when we feel relaxed and happy. Serotonin primes the brain for understanding new information and creating new memories, and dopamine helps the brain imprint information into long-term memory.

All this science confirms what teachers already know. Students learn best when they feel alert, happy, and not stressed. Students are likely to have the right neurotransmitter balance at the end of the year because they have less stress about grades and are happy anticipating long summer days. Additionally, the final days may give you more freedom for experiential lessons that enhance episodic memories related to the content. Therefore, cognitive neuroscience justifies using the last few days to improve learning outcomes with fun academic activities.

Fun Activities for Reviewing and Applying Previous Learning

This list of low-prep activities includes enjoyable ways to keep students academically engaged until the end. The ideas take advantage of the power of neurotransmitters and episodic memories to strengthen recall of everything students learned throughout the year. Some students may even create new episodic memories related to content. Use these ideas after completing final tests and projects or expand them into larger projects. The ideas are general enough to adapt to fit most subjects and levels.

  1. Each student or small group creates a cartoon drawing and caption representing a unit or concept. Then, assemble the pages to make a book covering the whole year and share the book with the class.
  2. Students prepare a lesson about anything related to this year’s content and teach it to the class. Allow for two or three questions per presentation. If you have the temperament for it, allow students to mimic your teaching style and dress like you when they teach their lesson. As you all laugh together, know that they are creating memories that will help them remember the content.
  3. Student groups create a performance related to any of the content. Performances could include skits, dances, music, monologues, or stand-up comedy routines.
  4. Students create questions for quiz games to try to stump their friends or even the teacher. Apps such as Kahoot and Quizlet make it easy to play remotely and in person.
  5. Take a virtual field trip. Many museums, zoos, and cultural centers have abundant resources.
  6. Students create an audio-visual presentation for future students with helpful hints about the content and the class.
  7. Students help you evaluate which lessons were best and worst and why. As they discuss their favorite lessons, they will recall the learning they experienced. As they discuss ones that confused them, you might be able to clear up misunderstandings. You can use their feedback for your professional growth.
  8. Inspire intellectual curiosity by asking students what lingering questions they have and what they want to learn about next.
  9. Write a book as a class patterned after a favorite children’s book, such as The Very Hungry Caterpillar or If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. Encourage students to use humor and keep the ideas factual.
  10. Do a “snowstorm” where everyone writes down one fact that they learned, crumples the paper into a “snowball” and throws it. Everyone picks up someone else’s snowball and reads it aloud. You can repeat this activity with multiple themes, such as questions, reflections, and what they want to learn next.
  11. Students imagine an invention that would solve a problem talked about in class. They then create an elevator pitch to sell their invention to their classroom.  Auction the creations with monopoly money.
  12. Write open-ended reflective questions on a beach ball and have kids toss it around the room. Students answer the question their hand is touching when they catch the ball. Then, they throw it to the next person.
  13. Create an awards ceremony for the best and worst topics from the year. Students nominate and vote on which topics win titles such as, “Most Confusing,” “Easiest to Learn,” “Most Fun,” and “Most Boring.” Use the conversations about nominations to clear up misunderstandings and celebrate learning.
  14. Students make and share posters of their “Top Ten Favorite Class Moments.”
  15. Have students write letters to their future selves about what they learned this year. Put the letters in envelopes that students address to themselves and put a Forever stamp on them. Mail the letters to them in one year.
Concluding the Year

We hope these ideas help you keep students engaged in learning, help students remember what they learned in your class, and close the year on a positive note.

Remember that while cognitive growth is important, celebrating the journey and growth you made together is also essential. Provide time for students to say goodbye, sign yearbooks, and enjoy a treat. As you close out your school year, we hope you get the refreshing break you deserve.

When you return, whether for summer school or in the fall, remember that our solution, Castle Learning, is available to support you and student learning.

Nine Ideas to Keep the Learning Going All Summer Long

Written by HES Marketing on . Posted in Instruction & Classroom Practice.

If you are like many school administrators, spring is when you start feeling pressure to help students maintain their learning during the summer months. Considering the recent educational interruptions and hardships from COVID, preventing summer learning loss is more important than ever. So how can you persuade students to continue learning during the summer months? It’s tricky, but some districts are trying some creative problem-solving. Here are a few ideas.

Most districts offer summer school as part of the solution. Summer school has various forms and goes by many names, such as extended school year, credit recovery program, academic camp, and summer academy. Whatever you call summer school, it translates to more days learning, building relationships, and engaging minds. While the potential benefits are clear, attendance is typically low. Families don’t prioritize summer school at the same priority level as they do during the regular school year. It may be tempting to hold back promoting unless they regularly attend, but this approach would result in unpleasant backlash from families.

To promote learning without threatening negative consequences, try some of these ideas:

  1. Ask families ahead of time what barriers they might have for student attendance and try to remove those barriers.
  2. Encourage “Self-Study” on Castle Learning so students can keep practicing their skills even if they miss a few days of class. You can also suggest Self-Study to make up for missing assignments or extra credit. Self-Study allows students to learn and progress at their own pace in many subjects and levels. The questions come from the bank of questions that teachers can select. The questions have all the same great features you have come to expect from Castle Learning, such as hints and instant feedback. Teachers can track student progress so they can give credit or incentives to students who learn with it.
  3. Lengthen summer school sessions to accommodate poor attendance.
  4. Offer a remote school option, so students learn from grandma’s house or wherever they happen to be.
  5. Try to make summer school enjoyable with fun activities and themes.
  6. Offer summer school right before school starts or right after the school year ends so it doesn’t feel like as much of an interruption to vacation.
  7. Offer incentives for good attendance.
  8. Incorporate other services and perks such as using a community garden, meals, and special events into the summer school program.
  9. Despite all your efforts, some of your students will be unable to attend summer school. Suggest that they use “Self-Study.” You may even offer an incentive program to increase participation. Students can choose “Rocket Mode” or “Expert Mode.” Rocket Mode is the default choice because it has a more straightforward user interface, and we generally recommend it. The expert mode works well for high school students who have specific topics they want to review for a test. Students can use this guide for navigating self-study.

Like students, most teachers would rather be relaxing in the summer. Ask teachers how you can entice them to teach during the summer and try to provide those things. Think beyond pay (which is also important) to make teaching during the summer more enjoyable. Teachers agreeing to teach summer school appreciate the resources on Castle Learning for reducing the time they spend on prepping and grading assignments. The platform is easy for teaching remotely, in person, or a combination.

At Harris Education Solutions, we want students to feel prepared in the fall. To aid in that goal, Castle Learning provides courtesy access for existing customers over the summer months.

Six Ways to Develop Strong Work Habits with Young Remote Learners

Written by HES Marketing on . Posted in Instruction & Classroom Practice.

Educators agree that virtual instruction is not optimal in any grade, but especially in the early years. Grades kindergarten through second grade lay the foundation for future academic success. Yet, as of early December 2020,  63% of US students in grades K-2 received some of their schooling virtually this school year. Their teachers are under pressure to help them develop strong academic habits. 

Challenges with Remote Instruction Particular to Primary Students 

Children in primary grades lack experience with basic school tasks. Every assignment requires step-by-step direct instruction and constant feedback. Delivering this level of detailed guidance virtually takes more time to plan and implement. Children’s inexperience with technology also often means that teachers need to allocate extra time for troubleshooting technological issues. 

Young children have short attention spans and easily get distracted. In a typical classroom, a teacher quickly identifies and redirects when a child gets off task. In a remote environment, keeping children focused on their work often requires help from older family members. Adults in the house also need to remind young students to do their work off-line because children under the age of eight rarely have time management skills.  

Young children also have not yet developed effective coping methods for stress.  Yet, they feel the stress from changes in their lives and because they pick up on adults’ tension. Many youngsters struggled to make sense of it all. Powerless and frustrated, a lot of young children struggle to regulate their biorhythms and behavior. Instilling academic responsibility is a monumental task in the best of times. When the whole world feels disrupted, the task is incredibly arduous. 

Success Despite the Odds 

Even in the face of these obstacles, teachers are helping students learn to do their work during virtual instruction. Children as young as five come to class, participate, do their work, and learn. To accomplish this impressive feat, teachers and families work together. Teachers are adjusting these six time-tested methods for teaching work habits to fit remote and hybrid models:

  • Communicating with Families 

Teachers of primary students repeatedly emphasize that families are pivotal in cultivating successful learning habits. Teaming up with guardians is doubly vital during remote learning because they remind children to get work done and log in to remote class meetings. However, even the most dedicated parents don’t always know how to best support their child. Communicating frequently and clearly is perhaps the most important action a primary teacher does. Luckily, technology makes communicating easier than ever. If you are interested in streamlining communication, read An Educators Guide to Great Communication with Families. 

  • Building Relationships  

Young children like pleasing their teacher, and this motivates them to finish assignments. Research backs up the incredible importance of teacher-student relationships. An article in Education Week says:  

A Review of Educational Research analysis of 46 studies found that strong teacher-student relationships were associated in both the short- and long-term with improvements on practically every measure schools care about: higher student academic engagement, attendance, grades, fewer disruptive behaviors and suspensions, and lower school dropout rates. 

However, teachers trying to build a relationship over a computer screen requires added bonding activities and creativity. Virtual home visits are a favorite technique to get to know more about students’ interests. Get more ideas about building relationships in the article, Applying Progressive Teaching Practices to the Post Pandemic Era. 

  • Providing Emotional Support 

Emotional stress inhibits students’ ability to reason and do schoolwork. To overcome that barrier, teachers help their young students learn to cope with big emotions. Daily emotional check-ins and teaching students self-calming methods help students focus academically. For more details read, Three Steps to Emotionally Support Students to Promote Academic Success.  

Transitioning back into the classroom will again create stress for some students. Refer to the Help Students Returning to the Classroom Navigate their Emotions for some tips. 

  • Encouraging Ownership and Engagement  

Students in primary grades rarely care about their grades. They care about learning and having fun. To motivate them during remote instruction, teachers encourage students to take ownership of their progress. Computer-based learning apps work well virtually. The apps also give immediate feedback and micro-rewards that students like.   

Teachers also use EdTech to create social, fun, and engaging lessons. Even the youngest students have learned to use EdTech to learn and interact with their friends. For more ideas about engagement and ownership read, How to Embrace the New Frontier of Engaging Students Virtually. 

  • Setting Routines and Expectations 

Predictable routines help children make sense of their lives and feel more in control. The more they can rely on the stability of virtual school patterns, the better. Reliable routines and guidelines help students show up and find a rhythm. Students attending school remotely may need different rules than those in person. Different expectations can be especially confusing to young students in a hybrid situation. Setting up clear behavioral standards helps students feel confident about what they are supposed to do. For a sample set of norms, refer to How to Set Expectations for Virtual Class Meetings 

Students know when to show up for class when teachers keep the schedules consistent for small group and whole group meetings. If parents or students forget what or when they were supposed to do something, they can refer to visual schedules and assignments posted on the LMS.  

  • Providing Mental and Physical Breaks 

Students learn more when they are calm and enjoying themselves. Many K-2 teachers begin lessons with silly songs, yoga, and other activities that make students move or laugh. These light-hearted breaks become even more important when students experience “Zoom fatigue.” Once a teacher is ready for calmness, reading aloud is perfect because students relax while listening. The read-aloud also exposes emerging readers to new vocabulary, stories, and ideas. The article Ideas for Reading Aloud in Multiple Environments describes some helpful tips for modifying a read-aloud for remote and hybrid learners. 

Developing Academic Responsibility is a Team Effort 

Teachers and families are cooperating to make remote learning enjoyable for many young children. As a result, they are establishing strong work habits that will serve them well for the rest of their school career. 

At Harris Education Solutions, we provide solutions that help support educators during remote and face-to-face learning. 

Applying Progressive Teaching Practices to the Post-Pandemic Era

Written by HES Marketing on . Posted in Instruction & Classroom Practice.

The most important professional lessons often come at a price. If you are like most educators, this school year you shed tears of frustration and spent endless hours adapting your methods to provide a quality education to your students. You persevered despite overwhelming challenges. Educators are reflecting on the changes they made during COVID-19. They realize that although they prefer teaching face-to-face, they learned a lot from blended and remote teaching.

We asked teachers what practices they adjusted for the pandemic that they plan to continue next year. Their responses indicate three significant shifts:

1. Increasing the frequency of doing bonding activities
2. Aggressively mitigating contagions
3. Embracing more technological tools

Doing Bonding Activities Frequently

In a pre-pandemic classroom, some teachers relied on spontaneous interactions to build community. They planned few activities to create bonds among the students. In pre-pandemic times, teachers didn’t have to work as hard to build relationships with students and their families. Remote and blended learning decreased spontaneous interactions. To make up for that loss, teachers added more bonding exercises into their lesson plans. They also devoted more time to get to know their students and their families.

They discovered that these bonding activities made a dramatic difference to the culture of the class. Even though returning to face-to-face instruction will increase spontaneous interactions, teachers want to continue intentionally providing ample opportunities for bonding. They figure that if they successfully built a strong learning community remotely, the rapport will be incredible when they see each other daily and plan bonding activities.

Some favorite bonding activities include:

  • Daily emotional check-ins
  • Doing “show-and-tell” activities even at the high school level
  • Writing personalized emails and notes to students and families
  • Starting lessons with ice-breaker activities
  • Incorporating calming community activities such as stretching, listening to music, and manipulating playdough at regular intervals
  • Teaching skills for improved inter-personal relationships
  • Providing time for students to chat
  • Doing virtual home visits
  • Using Bitmojis to get to know each other
Mitigating Contagions

Teachers would like to focus more on promoting a healthy environment. In pre-pandemic classrooms, contagions such as lice, strep throat, pink eye, the flu, stomach bugs, and the common cold ran rampant through classes. Teachers said that common ailments decreased dramatically this year because they were so vigilant about keeping germs at bay. Several teachers reported only going through one box of tissue!

Students with mild illnesses may be asked to stay home to prevent spreading contagious bugs to others. Individual differences in immune systems and access to healthcare repeatedly made the headlines this year. No one wants to see a child in the ER because another child came to school with mild symptoms. Many teachers plan to continue aggressively mitigating contagion by sanitizing desks, enforcing frequent handwashing, and changing their attendance policies.

Embracing Technology

Up until March 2020, teachers could teach incredible lessons using minimal technology. However, not using technology stopped being a viable choice with distance and blended learning. More teachers are much more technologically savvy than before the pandemic and will continue embracing EdTech tools.

They discovered that EdTech tools helped overcome obstacles such as access, logistics, differentiation, engagement, and data gathering. Responding teachers plan to continue using video conferencing, learning management systems, and assessment and curriculum platforms.

Using so many digital resources significantly reduced the amount of paper students used. Teachers found that they preferred fewer papers because they didn’t have to carry and keep track of so many things. These teachers also appreciated spending less time at the copy machine creating packets. Students, though, are a little sad that “the dog ate my homework” is less believable when the homework was digital.

Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and other Video Conferencing Apps

Video conferencing solves many logistical issues and allows for a mix of in-person and remote participants. Few teachers want to teach remotely all the time, but they like that students can attend virtually when circumstances prevent them from attending in person. On the other hand, many people are less pleased with the development of districts canceling snow days in favor of “remote learning days.”

Teachers mentioned how they prefer video conferencing for parent-teacher conferences, back-to-school nights, and staff meetings. It reduced transition time, allowing teachers to keep a tighter schedule. Transportation, childcare, and mild health problems are no longer barriers to participating.

Pear Deck, NearPod, and other Interactive Apps

Teachers noticed that interactive apps improved collaboration and engagement. They said that the relative anonymity enhanced the quality of several students’ work. Class clowns spent less time distracting their peers, introverted students felt more comfortable sharing, and struggling students asked for help more. Some favorite interactive apps include digital whiteboards, quiz games, video sharing, Bitmoji, and social media.

Google Classroom, Schoology, Canvas, and other Learning Management Systems

Many more teachers started using Learning Management Systems during the pandemic. They liked that students had increased access to the curriculum and content. Some teachers even plan to continue videoing their lessons so absent students and those wanting a review can access them. Teachers found that posting content on an LMS reduced their time of tracking who did what when. They liked that the LMS allowed motivated students to find what they need without teacher assistance.

Curriculum and Assessment Platforms such as Castle Learning, edInsight, and eDoctrina

Knowing that teachers were overwhelmed during the pandemic, many more districts signed up for robust curriculum and assessment platforms. Teachers cherished the ease of creating great computer-based assignments and assessments. They especially appreciated the ability to deliver differentiated assignments without other students knowing. Castle Learning and eDoctrina integrate with Canvas and Google Classroom so students can access everything from one place. Students liked getting immediate feedback, and teachers liked saving hours of grading time. Faster feedback is an important element for improving student learning.

Having a bank of pre-made questions available made it easier for teachers to give frequent formative assessments. Using the available Engage New York summative assessments gave educators an excellent barometer of student achievement. These testing platforms and data reports help district leaders make data-driven decisions whether or not state testing occurs. 

Data reports about student needs are also a key element of fidelity to the Multi-Tiered Support System or MTSS. The ecosystem of products at Harris Education Solution focuses on making data easy to access and use. 

Revolutionary Changes Never Come Easy 

The pandemic left scars. However, returning education to pre-pandemic practices would be a mistake because it would eliminate the lessons that adversity taught us. Planning bonding activities, limiting the spread of germs, and welcoming more technology into the classroom are three of many practices that teachers expressed interest in maintaining.

Applying lessons from the pandemic will take some effort, but students need it now more than ever. At Harris Education Solutions, we supply EdTech tools that offer valuable insights and save time to support educators and drive student growth.

Help Students Succeed with Group Work (Even Virtually)

Written by HES Marketing on . Posted in Instruction & Classroom Practice.

Chelsea remembers the moment when her group’s presentation tumbled off the cliff from being a mediocre summary and into the abyss of unsubstantiated gibberish. The poorly made slides were out of order, and the speaker used fancy vocabulary that he did not understand. Chelsea was not even surprised.  During the few planning sessions they had, they got distracted by a puppy. This was a group of highly motivated graduate students. Clearly, group work is not easy. Maybe stories like these make you wary of assigning group work. Yet, group work is crucial for teaching students to cooperate and collaborate.  

When group work is successful, it creates a synergy where each member does better than they would as individuals. Students engage emotionally, cognitively, and behaviorally. Stimulating each other increases their self-value. Group members question each other critically, generate a divergent pool of ideas, think from different perspectives, and solve problems creatively. Frequently incorporating group work will help your students build 21st century skills. 

 So how do you provide students what they need to succeed with group work?

  1. Teach students communication strategies.
  2. Scaffold the activities. 
  3. Decide on the details. 

Teach Students Communication Strategies 

Learning to communicate effectively is critical to success in life and group work. Introduce the seven norms of effective group communication. 1) Pause after questions, so everyone has time to think. 2) Paraphrase to provide clarity. 3) Pose questions to explore topics. 4) Put out ideas to generate discussion. 5) Provide evidence for your thoughts. 6) Pay attention to everyone. 7) Presume positive intentions. 

After teaching the norms, try different activities to give them practice with them. Two popular ones with all age groups and subjects are think-pair-share and jigsaw. In think-pair-share, the teacher starts by asking the whole group to ponder an open-ended question. Students think (and sometimes write or draw) independently about their answers. Then they tell their ideas to a partner. Finally, they share their own or their partner’s ideas with the whole group.

The jigsaw strategy is where each student in the group independently becomes an expert in a sub-topic. They then teach their group mates what they learned and learn the sub-topics of their group members. Finally, the group creates a presentation to the whole group. Start with narrow topics of focus, especially for younger kids.

There are many other collaborative learning strategies that will help develop their communication skills. These strategies include peer reviews, brainwriting, fishbowl debates, stump your partner, and more. If you are teaching remotely, use a digital whiteboard to help your students organize and share ideas. Many YouTube tutorials describe how to do these strategies virtually.  

Scaffolding for Success 

Scaffolding provides support, so everyone feels successful.

Provide sentence frames for students to use when discussing the topic. Organize the frames into categories of clarifying, paraphrasing, agreeing, disagreeing, building on, and summarizing. Sample sentence frames include, “I like your idea because _______. I wonder what would happen if _______. Are you saying ___? I see things differently because _____.”

Post sentence frames as an anchor chart where all students can see them. If you are working remotely, Google Slides and Flipgrid provide a solution for digital anchor charts.

Walk around (or go into their virtual chat rooms) to assess how they are using the sentence frames. When you reconvene as a whole group, describe the great discussions you heard so other groups can learn. 

Provide graphic organizers for students to record their discussions. Choose the graphic organizer that matches the type of activity you are doing. You can find a variety of pre-made digital graphic organizers on teacherspayteachers.com. 

Decide on the Details 

The success of group work hinges on the details. Below are some of the details to consider before assigning group work.  

  • Type of Group Work 

Group work doesn’t always have to culminate with a final project. You may decide to stick with group work that never gets presented to the whole class. When some or all students are learning remotely, it may be more practical to choose small, less intense types of group work. If you choose to assign a final project, give groups choices about how to present to allow for a variety of skills to shine.

  •  Logistics 

Finding time to meet is challenging for many groups. To ease that hurdle, provide class time for small group meetings. If teaching remotely, use virtual chat rooms. Online asynchronous meeting spaces help too so students can interact even if their schedules don’t match up. Look into GroupTweet and other safe social media platforms for asynchronous conversations.    

  • Grading 

Some people feel that grading group work, especially when teaching virtually, is not fair. If you decide to grade, use a rubric that reflects the communication strategies you teach. Part of the rubric should include a place for students to hold fellow group members accountable.

  • Group Dynamics 

Create groups, or help students create groups, with diverse personalities. Teach students how different styles and perspectives bring value to the group. Consider assigning roles beyond the typical administrative ones. Branch out into behavioral roles that support the norms such as supporter, questioner, and evidence gatherer. Give students opportunities to try different ones.

  • Amount of Teacher Structure 

Most group work is either a cooperative or collaborative approach. They are both based on Lev Vygotsky’s time-tested theories of social learning. In cooperative learning, the teacher maintains more control of various aspects. The structure allows groups to dive into fulfilling the heart of the work. Students do a significant amount of work independently and then put the parts together. Individual accountability is critical to success. Like a play, the cast must use an understudy or postpone the performance if one actor is absent.  

In collaborative learning, students have more control over roles and other aspects. It often feels messy because students need to establish relationships and make decisions. The benefits of ambiguity are an increase in problem-solving skills and agility. If one member fails to deliver, other members learn to adapt. Like a team sport, if an athlete is absent, it puts the team at a disadvantage but, the game can proceed without a replacement. 

Final Words of Inspiration

As a culture, we often celebrate individualism and forget that cooperation and collaboration are crucial to progress. We learn the stories of heroes, but the role of their supporting groups rarely gets the same attention. For example, schoolchildren learn much more about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. than they do of his group, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. 

Teachers at Lakeside School probably never guessed that their students Bill Gates and Paul Allen would work with IBM to revolutionize computing. You cannot predict the potential contributions of the brilliant young minds you teach, but you know that they will need to work with others to achieve them.

At Harris Education Solutions, we salute teachers as heroes who cooperate and collaborate for your students’ success. We are here to support you because you make a difference. 

Ideas for Reading Aloud in Multiple Learning Environments

Written by HES Marketing on . Posted in Instruction & Classroom Practice.

“Education is not the filling of a bucket but the lighting of a fire.” 

Jim Trelease, author of Jim Trelease’s Read-Aloud Handbook

Reading aloud to children is a treasured time-honored practice, widely promoted by researchers and teachers. It improves literacy and language abilities, develops social-emotional skills, strengthens the learning community, and expands content knowledge. Many students, even those in high school, say that listening to their teacher read aloud is their favorite academic activity.

With all those benefits, you want to continue doing it even though reading aloud to remote learners takes some extra technology and planning. We asked some teachers for ideas about managing reading aloud in various situations.

Showing the Book

Most teachers suggest using a document camera to show the book to remote learners. Teachers like having a hands-free way to show the text, taking pictures of the book’s pages, and then embedding the photos into a Google Slides presentation. Teachers with both face-to-face and remote learners project the book on an interactive whiteboard or another screen for everyone to see.

Live Readings for Synchronous Teaching

Many teachers instructing in-person and remote-learners simultaneously read aloud in real-time rather than making a recording. They do not want to use valuable prep time making a recording.

Remote learners join via their video conferencing platform, such as Zoom. To do live readings to both groups, set up your technology so remote students see projected images and can interact with you and their classmates. You may be able to do it without extra audiovisual equipment, but a Bluetooth microphone and camera give you more configurations. Having another adult present helps coordinate the technology and student interaction.

Recordings for Synchronous and Asynchronous Access

Many teachers pre-record themselves reading aloud instead of reading the book in real-time. To lessen the amount of work of creating recordings, teams often assign members to read and record different books or chapters. This method also benefits students because they get to hear a variety of voices and styles.

Teachers with limited synchronous contact time often decide reading aloud works as an asynchronous activity. A lot of teachers pre-record themselves reading aloud even for synchronous learning. When possible, they make the recording without wearing masks, making it easier for students to listen. Teachers say using a recording gives them a much-needed opportunity to rest their voices during the school day. Using a recording enables teachers to focus on students better too. When using the recording synchronously, pause the recording as needed for class discussion.

Recording software, such as Screencastify, is useful for recording and creating a link to it. Some document cameras come with this ability too. Then you upload the link onto your LMS platform for synchronous or asynchronous access.

You do not want to violate copyright laws. Typically, you would need express permission from the publishers to make and distribute an audio recording of their book. This year many publishers, including Penguin, Penguin Random House Scholastic, Simon & Schuster, Macmillan, and HarperCollins, have given teachers and librarians permission through December 31, 2020. You do need to follow specific requirements, though. Begin the recording by saying, “I am reading (title of book) by (author) with permission of (publisher).” If you upload the video to youtube.com, use the unlisted sharing setting.

To record a book from other publishers, or in 2021, go to the publisher’s website for copyright information.

Choosing Books

You have a wide variety of great books to choose from for reading to your class. Part of the selection process includes finding books with premade support materials available. Efficiency is especially important these days because prep time is at a premium. The following synopses are a sampling of elementary books supported by Castle Learning’s curriculum. Secondary teachers will also find plenty of support materials.

James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl is the fantastical story of James Henry Trotter, who lives with his mean aunts after a rhinoceros eats his parents. Magic crystals make a peach grow as big as a house, offering James a place to escape. Inside the peach, James meets giant bug friends, and they go on an amazing adventure. Your class will laugh at the interactions of the boy, the bugs, and the outside world. They will even learn some interesting facts.

Stone Fox by John Reynolds Gardiner comes from a legend in the Rocky Mountain area. Little Willy lives with his grandpa. They struggle financially when his grandpa gets too sick to work. Little Willy sets a goal to help by winning prize money from a dogsled race. The only problem is that his opponent, Stone Fox, has never lost. Teachers who have read this book aloud rave about the love, lessons, and action but warn that you should have a box of tissues at the end.

Teachers of young children are wise to include an easy readers section as part of their read-aloud selection. Children will feel more familiar with characters and storylines when you introduce them through a read aloud. Familiarity gives young readers confidence to try reading these books independently. Little Bear by Else Holmelund Minarik and illustrated by Maurice Sendak is a classic series of stories about the adventures of a bear. Frog and Toad by Arnold Nobel are humorous stories about the friendship of Frog and Toad.

Non-fiction books are a great way to support and expand your lessons. Choose award-winning books like Horses by Seymour Simon. Its beautiful photographs and detailed descriptions are sure to ignite new interests.

My Librarian is a Camel: How Books Are Brought to Children Around the Worldby Margriet Ruurs shows how children in different parts of the world access books. Your students will gain insight into peers’ lives in other places. They will also see there are many ways to solve the same problem.

For more descriptions of great books, consult Jim Trelease’s Read-Aloud Handbook. Among the books listed are James and the Giant Peach, Stone Fox, and Charlotte’s Web, all supported by Castle Learning.

Ideas for Fun and Expanding the Learning

Students especially enjoy listening to books when readers dramatize them with costumes, voices, and gestures. Perhaps enlist a thespian guest speaker for unique recordings. By using technology, guest speakers could hail from across the globe as easily as down the hall. You might also use the free books currently available to students on Audible.com. The voice actors do a great job animating the story.

Build on the reading aloud experience with pre-reading and post-reading activities. Students could write or draw about connections from other literature or their own life. One teacher successfully used virtual conferencing for a readers-theater activity.

Castle Learning’s large bank of standards-aligned questions makes it easy to integrate a read-aloud into a lesson on language, comprehension, or other content areas. To find the appropriate questions, enter the book’s title into the keyword search tool and select the questions that fit the learning objective. You can print assignments and use them virtually. At Castle Learning, we help teachers work smarter, not harder.

Make the Most of Every Minute of Class

Written by HES Marketing on . Posted in Instruction & Classroom Practice.

COVID-19 Puts a Strain on an Already Scarce Resource – Time

Every instructional minute is precious. You have diverse learners needing to learn a lot of material in a short time. Hybrid and remote learning has amplified the challenge of optimizing instructional time. Routines such as taking attendance, cleaning, and checking for understanding take a bigger bite out of instructional time than usual.

To make the most of every instructional minute, try these three steps:

  1. Analyze contact minutes to identify time spent on administrative and custodial tasks.
  2. Increase the time you spend on actions that promote learning.
  3. Improve the effectiveness of instruction.
Analyze Contact Minutes to Identify Time Spent on Administrative and Custodial Tasks

Think about each minute you are with students. You want to streamline everything you do that is not tied to students learning. Use a simple accounting method to code your daily tasks by whether or not it advances student learning.

Use these notations for each routine task – PL for Promotes Learning, and AC for Administrative and Custodial. For example, taking attendance and approving bathroom visits are Administrative and Custodial, whereas Promote Learning would be for direct instruction and facilitating a class discussion.

Next, use the PL and AC codes to track how many minutes per hour you spend on tasks not tied to student learning. Simultaneously tracking and teaching would be challenging, if not impossible. Enlist the help of your colleagues. You and a colleague could use planning periods to help each other, or you could request an instructional coach to observe and track.

You may even ask students to observe and track. If you have young remote learners, their caregivers could help. Remote learners and their caregivers will have a different perspective on how much time is devoted to non-learning activities than you do. Asking for their observations will give you a more robust understanding of what you do not see.

Using eWalk would make gathering and analyzing the information manageable. eWalk is a flexible cloud-based app designed to help educators improve instruction by organizing observational data.

Increase the Time you Spend on Actions that Promote Learning

After getting a clear understanding of how you spend your contact minutes, try to streamline AC tasks. Every minute that you convert from an AC to a PL helps students stay engaged and learn more. Even modest improvements add up. Assuming 180 days of instruction, if you convert five minutes per day from AC to PC, your students receive 15 hours more hours of instruction in a year. Think of what your students could learn in 15 extra hours!

To take your spirit of improvement to the next level, involve the whole school. Ask school leaders to create an eWalk survey of the staff. This second survey will gather ideas about what other teachers do to reduce time spent on administrative and custodial tasks. These surveys act to solidify a culture of collaboration, valuing time, and data-driven instruction.

You probably won’t be able to convert all your administrative and custodial minutes. Set up ways for students to engage in independent learning during these times. When you must complete administrative and custodial duties, try one of these independent activities: reading, writing, completing emotional check-ins, doing warm-up exercises, and taking quick formative assessments. Castle Learning, eDoctrina, and edInsight offer easy cloud-based assessment tools that work equally well for remote and in-person learners.

Improve the Effectiveness of Instructional Time

After increasing instructional minutes, you will want to make the most of those minutes. The following ideas will help you improve the effectiveness of each instructional minute.

  • Plan your lessons to address specific learning outcomes using the district curriculum and state standards. A curriculum that is hard to access and transfer into planning makes identifying the desired learning outcomes challenging. Administrators can help teachers by providing easy to use curriculum and planning tools. edInsight software makes the curriculum more accessible and user friendly to facilitate setting goals, lesson planning, and collaborating.
  • Assess frequently to use data-driven instruction. Computer-based assessments make monitoring students’ progress easier. Not only are computer-based assessments easier to create and administer, but the data organization is also far superior to paper and pencil tests. You will have a better understanding of students’ level of mastery. You will then know how to differentiate instruction and choose lessons that address student needs. Targeted instruction advances your students toward meeting and exceeding the standards.
  • Use a dashboard to create groups for remediation and acceleration. Students get more value from their class time when instruction targets their specific needs. Student dashboards, like those from edInsight and eDoctrina, make differentiating instruction easier because you see at a glance where each student needs support.
  • Use individualized learning apps to take advantage of downtime. Students who work faster than their peers often get bored waiting for the next learning opportunity. Apps such as Castle Learning, edInsight’s Kandoolu, and others allow students to work on the specific skill they are ready to practice.
  • Communicate with caregivers of remote students about how students are responding to remote lessons. Remote instruction adds several layers of complexity to getting feedback about student understanding. Many remote students fail to alert the teacher when they don’t understand. Teachers then lose the opportunity to address the problem at the moment.

Sometimes the caregiver attempts to help and has various levels of success. Other times, students wait for the teacher to notice that they are struggling. Asking caregivers for their feedback and suggestions will go a long way to solve this problem. Once again, eWalk would be a valuable tool for gathering and organizing information.

Putting it All Together

While making the most out of every contact moment takes some effort, the rewards are worth it. Consider a science teacher who has 180 student contact hours per student per year. First,  streamlining her administrative and custodial tasks increases instructional minutes by five minutes per class. This change gives her students 15 more hours of instruction per year. Then, improving the effectiveness of every instructional minute by 10% is equivalent to adding six minutes to every hour of class. The students effectively get another 1080 minutes or 18 hours to the school year.  15 hours + 18 hours =  33 more hours of science.

That is an increase of almost 20% and enough time for students to learn a lot more science!

How to Set Expectations for Virtual Class Meetings

Written by HES Marketing on . Posted in Instruction & Classroom Practice.

Discussions about appropriate student norms for class meetings are taking Twitter by storm. It is one of the most controversial conversations related to remote learning. Many teachers require students to be in front of their cameras during class meetings. These teachers feel that they can better monitor student engagement when they can see every face in attendance. However, requiring students to show themselves on their camera presents challenges. Teachers ask:

  • Should we allow kids to show up to class in pajamas?
  • Can we allow students to participate while eating a snack in bed and cuddling with Fido?
  • How will we enforce rules?
  • What can we do to help all your students and their families feel emotionally safe on camera?

Students and families have many valid reasons for not wanting to appear on camera. If you allow students to stay off camera, that brings up other questions. Teachers ask:

  • How will we encourage students to be prepared for class?
  • How will we monitor engagement?

Methods Change but Your Goal Stays the Same

It is tempting to re-create the same expectations that work best for face-to-face learning in remote situations. However, experts caution that the vast differences between face-to-face class meetings and virtual ones mean that you cannot apply the same rules across different environments. While your general approach still applies, the methods must match the platform.

Think of this analogy. Across the US, teachers want students to get outside and play at recess. Being safe outside requires students to dress appropriately for the weather. However, students dressed appropriately in Arizona will look completely different than students dressed appropriately in Alaska.

In virtual and face-to-face environments, you want evidence that your students are present, prepared, and participating. In both situations, your expectations set students up for success and give you feedback about their engagement. However, the method for observing your virtual participants looks different than it does for your face-to-face participants. The way you help your remote students feel safe also looks different.

Monitoring Engagement

You cannot rely on body language to monitor the engagement of students who choose not to be on camera. Instead, you will need to teach your remote students to show involvement with other cues. As Mr. Rogers said, “We speak with more than our mouths. We listen with more than our ears.”

Technology offers many tools to assist in monitoring engagement virtually. Here are two simple ideas.

  1. Ask students to use the chat feature for quick responses, such as a thumbs-up emoji.
  2. Students can put colored pieces of paper in front of the camera. Each color can indicate something different. Perhaps use green for “I am here and learning,” yellow for “I have a question or comment,” red for “I’m stuck,” and so on.

Frame Expectations as Guidelines Rather than Rules

Many teachers say that students are most prepared for learning when sitting in a quiet location, dressed, and not distracted by food. If so, consider phrasing your expectations as guidelines rather than rules. Guidelines put you in the role of a helpful guide rather than as a controlling dictator. Giving students a choice about being in front of the camera reduces the feeling of violating privacy or emotional safety. Consider how you would feel if your boss sent you the following rules.

Rules for Virtual Meetings

  1. Log in a few minutes early and wait for the class meeting to begin.
  2. Dress according to the school dress code.
  3. Sit upright at a desk or table.
  4. Stay in full view of the camera at all times.

Would you feel trusted and respected? Now consider how you would feel if your boss sent these guidelines.

Guidelines for a Successful Virtual Meeting

People learn best when they feel ready to focus. Please use these guidelines when joining a meeting.

  1. We want to start the meeting with full attendance. Please log in a few minutes before the session begins to allow time for remote troubleshooting any technical issues.
  2. Turn your video on if you feel comfortable. We enjoy seeing you. If your camera is on, please dress as you would in public.
  3. Use a place with limited distractions so you can listen and participate.
  4. Please take care of your personal needs before the meeting, such as using the bathroom and getting a snack. If you need a snack or drink, please remember to mute your microphone first.
  5. If you need to leave for a moment, please indicate when you leave and when you return.

Everyone is Still Learning

Many educators and families report that the instruction in the spring of 2020 occurred in crisis mode. Educators made enormous efforts to teach with limited resources, planning, or knowledge. Fisher, Frey, and Hattie, authors of The Distance Learning Playbook, say, “Now we have time to be more purposeful and intentional with distance learning.”

As you approach distance learning with more purpose and understanding, you may find that some of your previous expectations do not serve your remote learners. Luckily, expectations are easy to change. Start by asking your distance learners and their families about their experiences. As Maya Angelou famously said, “Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.”

We commend your efforts to set class meeting expectations that help your students grow and learn. We continue to support educators in improving their craft, whether in person or virtually.

How Castle Learning Helps Create Tests and Assignments When Teaching Virtually

Written by HES Marketing on . Posted in Instruction & Classroom Practice.

While school districts are still working on instructional plans for the fall, many leaders project that some virtual teaching will continue through the 2020-2021 school year. The ability to be flexible requires educators to evaluate educational tools for their utility and ease-of-use for remote teaching.

Many teachers say that assigning and grading work and tests has been one of the most challenging aspects of teaching virtually. Every digital assignment or test that teachers give to students requires the teacher to complete five steps before uploading it to the learning management system.

  1. Create questions aligned to the curriculum.
  2. Add relevant resources for students to use.
  3. Ensure legal rights to use the content.
  4. Provide accommodations and differentiation.
  5. Preview the assignment from the students’ perspective.

Castle Learning’s cloud-based system makes all five steps simple. Its flexibility makes it a useful tool for in-person, remote, and hybrid learning environments. Giving teachers the tools they need to “work smarter, not harder,” improves instruction and prevents burnout.

How Castle Learning Helps Teachers Create Questions Aligned to the Curriculum

Castle Learning has a question bank of over 170,000 questions searchable by standard, level, topic, skill, keyword, and question type. The Castle Learning questions come in several formats including multiple-choice, drag and drop, matching, choose all that apply, extended reply/short essay, (constructed response), and fill in the blank. There is also a large selection of reading sets which are lexile leveled.

There will be times when teachers want to create unique questions based on a unit of study. That is easy to do, and the software walks the user through each step. The cloud-based system facilitates collaboration with team members to share the workload.

Once an assignment is created, teachers save it to use for multiple classes, year after year – just like they do with paper assignments.

How Castle Learning Helps Teachers Add Relevant Resources for Students

After creating the assignment or test, it is easy to add resources and notes for students to access. Uploading a PDF, video, or website link takes mere seconds.

How Castle Learning Helps Teachers Not Violate Copyright Laws

Many teachers new to teaching virtually feel insecure about their right to use some digital resources. Subscribers like the confidence that they have an extensive library of Castle Learning reading sets and questions that they can use legally. As always, any assignment teachers create themselves will not violate copyright laws. Many open resources are available on the internet. Please ask teachers to refrain from using material they do not have the license to use or are unsure of the origin.

How Castle Learning Helps Teachers Provide Accommodations, Scaffolding, and Differentiation

Teaching virtually with outdated technology makes providing accommodations, scaffolding, and differentiation unnecessarily challenging. Luckily, our technology solves many of the most common problems. Students can use text to speech, and Google Translate with most questions. Teachers can allow some students extra time to take a test. Teachers can issue an auto retake of an assignment if the student doesn’t meet a set mastery level.

The software makes scaffolding intuitive by providing students instant feedback in the form of hints, related vocabulary and answer reasons. Modifying assignments is so quick that teachers can create several versions to differentiate for various levels and needs.

How Castle Learning Helps Teachers Preview the Assignment from a Student Perspective

Previewing assignments and tests as students will see them reduces errors and miscommunications common with remote instruction. Click the “assign to self” button, and the teacher can go through the assignment as a student. The layout and robust tools available aids student learning and feedback. If, after reviewing an assignment, the teacher decides to change any aspect of the assignment, it is easy to edit.

How Castle Learning Helps Teachers Troubleshoot

While robust virtual technology is key to successful remote teaching, any new tool requires that a teacher learn how to use it. Castle Learning guides the user to create the first class and assignments quickly. Written instructions, short video tutorials, and webinars are easily accessible so even a novice will quickly take advantage of the great features. If the content still doesn’t answer a question, customer support is a click away.

If you are trying to ease the burden of virtual teaching and improve instruction, providing teachers with appropriate technological tools will make a big impact.

Of course, creating assignments is only half of the equation. In the next blog, see how Castle Learning helps with delivering and grading assignments.