This week we held a meeting to touch base with student leaders on our campus.  At the beginning of the meeting we opened it up and asked students how everything was going?  We received some solid feedback about online learning and the challenges and successes that students were experiencing. 

Communication came up a few times and specifically the challenge they were facing with email. This was something that I had not even thought about.  Prior to COVID email was not a system we used across the school to routinely communicate with students.  Our student email addresses are formatted with a string of numbers and at a domain that has been hard for students to remember. Students did use personal gmail or other domain specific addresses but we did not utilize our district addresses. Not having a centralized email system was one of the first things we realized we needed to use when we transitioned to distance learning.  As we prepared to reopen in September virtually, we made sure that students were aware of their district emails and taught them how to find and sign into their accounts.  And that's where we stopped. We assumed that accessing their email account was all that they needed to learn. ​

At the meeting, one student leader brought up the challenge of managing their email account. The student talked about the many notifications and assignments that they received from our learning management system as well as other platforms.  As he was speaking I was thinking, we haven't introduced them at all to the tools that are available in their Outlook account to help them manage email and stay organized.  (I know as an adult and experienced user of Outlook, I struggle to stay up to date and organized.) I explained that there was a way to set up rules in Outlook to filter emails into different folders as they arrived. Students' hands went up from across the meeting asking to be taught how to utilize this feature. I told them I would send out a screencast showing them how to create rules. Following the student meeting, I retold this story to a colleague. They looked at me and asked if I would send the screencast to them because they did not know how to create rules. Reminder, we don't know what we don't know.  ​

While COVID has slowed learning in some ways, it has accelerated the learning in other areas that are not necessarily a part of the standards and course content.  Many of these skills I am realizing we just assume students/adults know because they have had access to them on their device. ​ I am going to continue to look for the nuggets of learning that are happening in spite of the pandemic.

If you haven't met with your students or solicited feedback, I highly recommend it. This is one of a handful of things we learned from one brief meeting.

• It’s important to remember that learners enter online spaces looking for what they need to learn. You do not want the design of your page to interfere with or distract from that goal in any way.  Write concisely. Use images or other media only if it supports the intent of the page. Use no more than two fonts: one for headings and one for body text. (Top 10 Beautiful Google Font Combinations.) Adjectives you DON’T want to describe your pages are “crowded,” “busy,” or “overwhelming.”
• Use the time outside of asynchronous tasks to connect one to one, or one to a few. Sometimes the feedback that you need to give students needs to be face to face.  You can use Google Calendar's appointment slot feature to have students sign up for small group times to meet with you during office hours or tutorial times. This video will show you how.
• Establish a system for students to self advocate and assess their learning and request specific follow up help.  Click here to see a form that a student can complete to request additional support. (A plus for using a form is it also helps the teacher keep track of requests and have a record of who has asked for help and the resources that were shared.)
• As you move through your course ask questions specifically about your role as the teacher, examples:
  • ​Is the timeliness of my responses helpful?
  • Are the types of responses you are getting helpful?
  • Is there anything else I could be doing to help you?
  • Were the directions clear, or were there points you didn't understand what you should be doing?​

​These are a few of the key take aways that I have gathered as I have looked more closely at designing asynchronous learning experiences. The more I read and learn, the more I realize how much work it is to do it well.  If you have additional ideas and resources, please share them below! 
​​

As we move through our Covid 19 distance learning experience, my focus of inquiry has turned to what role instructional design and assessment play during distance learning.  When you take away the carrot and the stick of earning a grade for engaging in learning, how do we motivate students to show up and engage in learning?  

• Focus on the critical learning targets - scale way back
• Make the learning intention clear.
• Make the learning relevant.  Students should be able to answer the question "Why do I need to know this?"
• Articulate the success criteria that will be used to determine when students meet a learning goal. 
• Provide examples or good models for students to reference.
• Offer choice in how it can be learned
• Focus on feedback
• Be clear about how you will know if students "get it" and not worry about quantifying their performance on a scale of 0 -100

By making student learning our primary focus and helping students share that same focus, the learning experience moves from knowledge transmission to active learning.  Teachers are the authors of their instructional design and should take into account the different ingredients when designing instructional experiences.  Think about something that you are good at.  More than likely, you were not always good at it. How did you get good at it? Look at the graphic below, were all or most of the elements below a part of your learning pathway to achieve the level of proficiency you now have now?

Learning should be assessed formatively using digital tools in small checks for understanding along the way. These are low or no stakes experiences or practice assessments that yield feedback to students.  Check-out Retrieval Roulettes developed by Adam Boxer as a tool to use. The brain science behind retrieval practice is solid and this is an excellent tool to empower students. It allows them to spiral back through content knowledge.  

Generating opportunities for students to give you "summative output" can be done by student created products or student performance within an online testing environment. Check out 100 Things Students Can Create to Demonstrate What They Know or the website Exam.net.   Exam.net is free to use right now if your school is outside Sweden.  An additional resource for math teachers to look at is a post by Alice Keeler, From @mathdiana: Have Students Talk About Math.  (I prefer to call it a task not a test” – @mathdiana) 

During these difficult times, we will learn new and better ways to guide students along a learning pathway than placing a number on a paper.  I believe that growing and getting stronger in instructional design and assessment practices will transfer to improved learning experiences for students once we are back in our brick and mortar classrooms.  And this goes without saying, but if you have a solid relationship formed with students this is all going to be a lot easier!

If you have additional resources and ideas on instructional design, assessment and feedback practices, please share them! I know that I have only scratched the surface in my own learning. 
​

Key take aways from week one:

• There are many benefits to starting slow. There is less stress for teachers and students as everyone is given additional time to get used to the new normal.
• Creating a schedule that is flexible and allows for students to work and connect at times that work for them is critical. 
• Allow for time for teachers to connect with students and just normalize what their online space will look like.  Check-out the fun themes that math teacher Julie Burnside put in place in her live sessions. 
• While a teacher may not be physically present in a classroom, there are many ways to make oneself known in a digital space. Achieving connection online means utilizing a range of different communication methods and ensuring that you check in on them daily or hourly if needed. Discussion boards, emails, announcements, and data forms, are just some of the ways you can be present each day in your online classroom. 
  
• ​Establishing and teaching routines, systems, and expectations clearly and consistently. Fewer “How do I…” or “Where can I…” questions and a smoother transition to distance learning.   The two infographics below are good resources to use with students regarding netiquette. 

And the last take away I'll share is this....extend grace and follow that with empathy and repeat. Everyone is doing the best that they can.  

As we begin our transition to distance learning having students submit hand written or created material will be something we need to make simple.  It's easy to snap a picture and send or upload, but now on the iPhone it's SO easy to actually scan it into a note and upload it directly to Google Classroom or Microsoft.  The quality is much better than an actual photo too!

In the past I have used the Office Lens app by Microsoft. It's a good alternative, but using the Notes scan feature is just faster. 

 Check-out the short screencast below to see how it works.

This is just one more tip that might help a student or teacher's workflow be more efficient!  

Whew.....what a week! We are off and running organizing what distance learning will look like at my high school.  I want to share a quick tip that I learned this week around creating a folder in my bookmarks bar in Chrome and adding classes in one place from Google Classroom.

• First make sure that your Bookmarks Bar is visible. 

Tricks like this save time and increase efficiency.  Let me know how it works for you!

This weekend I was creating a new course in Google Classroom and wanted to use my own image. Experimenting with the right size and placement of images took me a bit of time.  Have you had the same header for awhile or are you creating a new class?  Make your own custom header fast using this template. l

• Click on this link
• Go to file
• Select make a copy to edit you own file

Watch a quick screencast to see how to use the template below.

Students will notice that you have made a change!  Use this template to quickly create new headers and keep your Google Classroom page updated throughout the year. 

I would love to see examples of headers that you create! 

This Voice Recorder is a convenient and very simple online tool that can be used right from your browser. It allows you to record your voice using the built-in microphone on your device and save it as an mp3 file. Just click the mic on the landing screen and you are on your way to recording your audio file.

Additional features;

• it's free (FREE),
• the tool auto trims the beginning and end of recordings for you
• allows the user to crop the recording and share just what is needed 
• all of your recordings are secure, accessible only to you

Student voice is powerful.  An audio file is a product that a student can create as a product of their learning.  When might you use voice to enhance or show learning? Check out this Voice Recorder to make the process simple. 

​In the book Checking for Understanding: Formative Assessment Techniques in Your Classroom, Fisher and Frey paint a picture of an ineffective learning experience for a student.

Socrative Quick Question is a dependable efficient way to check students understanding. While multiple choice and true false questions can give quick feedback, the short answer option creates an opportunity for teachers to receive a lot more information from students.  Quick Question requires no preparation time on the part of the content teacher. The use of Socrative also allows for every student in the room to contribute and share their thinking in a safe space. Many students would rather sit in silence than share a thought that they are unsure about. 

Response cards are a quick, no tech strategy that supports active student participation.  This strategy allows the teacher a quick check of understanding by visually seeing each student’s level of understanding by the scanning the student response cards by color. Response cards can be used in groups, as Dr. Waller did in the video above. (Dr. Waller is an amazing AP English 3 teacher at Bellaire High School in the Houston ISD). Response cards can also be used by individuals as @FastCrayon (Amy Fast) shared in this tweet.  The use of student response cards is also demonstrated in this Teaching Channel Video.  

Plickers is a blended tool that allows teachers to use technology while eliminating the need for students to have a device in hand.  Students just need to rotate a card to show their answer. Teachers use the Plicker's App to scan and to project answers. Questions can be loaded previously or posed in the moment.  It is simple to use, simple to set up, and only requires one electronic smart device which reduces risk of failure or technical difficulties. All students have to do is pull out their Plicker Card and they are ready for the questions. You can download a set of cards here. 

@BurnsideMath shared the idea of having students glue their Plicker Card on the back of their interactive notebook.  When she wants to ask a quick question, students just pick up their notebook to answer. This eliminates the need to have any device out to respond. 

These are just three of a countless number of strategies that can be used in classrooms. If you are looking for additional strategies, check out these resources:

• Checking for Understanding: Formative Assessment Techniques in Your Classroom by Fisher and Frey.
• 56 Examples of Formative Assessment ( A crowd sourced slide deck by David Wess.)

Do you have some "go to" strategies that you like to use to check for understanding?  I would love to hear more ideas of which strategies you have found to be effective.

​Winter break brings time to rest, relax, and reflect on 2019. For the 5th year in a row I decided to embark on selecting "one word" or "three words" to be a guide or north star during the upcoming year.  While this post is not about how my three words, ARENA, MOMENTS, and FAITH impacted 2019, I will share that each word drove either a significant decision or a reaction to an experience that I had during 2019. I find these moments of reflection incredibly powerful in that they allow time to evaluate and measure growth while taking notes on how I have changed. 

What I have discovered about myself is that "my comfortable place", the place where I have things under control and figured out,  is not a place that I can stay for very long without beginning to feel stagnant.  I haven't always operated in this zone. There have definitely been "seasons" of my life where staying comfortable was all that I wanted.  

My three words for 2020 were selected to help push me forward, both personally and professionally. And I hate to say it, but they will hopefully move me into that space where I am unsure, uncomfortable and a little scared of failing and not accomplishing what I had hoped.  #my3words

Consistent - showing steady conformity to character, profession, belief, or custom*
"Getting an audience is hard. Sustaining an audience is hard. It demands a consistency of thought, of purpose and of action over a long period of time." ~Bruce Springsteen

I picked this quote because an "audience" can be a crowd, a staff, a small group or an individual. Investing in small things daily, consistently will compound with time. Small actions over and over create something bigger.  In 2019, I had a brief encounter with the power of consistency when I worked towards doing the swimming leg on a relay team for the Half Ironman Texas.

Hands down, the strongest leaders that I have worked with have been consistent. Consistent in their expectations, actions, and support. Consistency builds trust. It's an area that I want to grow in and be held accountable in by others. ​

Intentional - done by intention or design*
"Good intentions will never take you anywhere you want to go. Only intentional actions will get you to the things you want in life" ~ John Maxwell

Success is uphill all the way. It doesn't happen automatically. Striving towards excellence has to be intentional.  

​I commit to pausing and making intentional decisions. One area this will happen in is professional learning. Intentional decisions will be made around the learning that I engage in throughout the year. Many times my learning moves in directions organically with no clear path. This is an example of having good intentions but no specific goal being accomplished. I commit to continuing to learn about improving authentic engagement in classrooms, strengthening the cores of PLC's and about how leadership can empower and supercharge the culture in ways that amplify teacher leadership and autonomy.  (I am sure that I will add to this list.)

Ship - to be sent for delivery*.  (When one "ships" to publish and put a project out in the world.)
"Amazing ideas and incredible projects die at the hands of people who think just one more tweak, one more proofread, one more change is needed before putting that project out into the world. These people are paralyzed by the resistance and can’t ship." ~Seth Godin
  
I often assume that what I have to create and share everyone already knows. At a conference a few years ago Aaron Hogan shared this video: Obvious to you. Amazing to others. - by Derek Sivers

I find that most of my better work is often paired with some fear, or at least a feeling of less than total confidence. Ironically, I am learning that if I'm afraid people won’t like what I’ve done, that’s often a good sign. It means I care, and it means there are stakes. Creating things is often about risk, intimacy and vulnerability. I want to get better at shipping.  Not everything is going to be substantial or even good for that matter. But if done "consistently" I will change. And when it's not good, or I just miss it....I will remind myself that in my heart I had good intentions.

​There you have them. Three words intentionally selected to push me into uncomfortable spots, uggh.....and ultimately help move me forward! #my3words

​A shout out to Chris Brogan for authoring the idea of "My Three Words" and to Jennifer Hogan for being the conduit to the idea for me! I am counting on my PLN, my family and friends to hold me accountable.  

I would love to know what your "word(s)" are or in what ways you have  committed to improvement in 2020?

*Definitions are from the Merriam-Webster International Dictionary.