Tech Tip Tuesday

💰EXCITING NEWS FOR EDUCATORS! 💰 $30/HR

PD Opportunity! All PDs will be 3:30-4:30.

LOCATION: UCHS Testing Room across from the Tech Office

Tuesday, November 29, 3:30-4:30 - PD with Monica - Google Worktime - No new topic, just get paid to work!

Tuesday, December 13, 3:30-4:30 - Responsible Decision-Making CLICK HERE

Tuesday, January 17, 3:30-4:30 - Blended Learning Workshop #1

Tuesday, January 31, 3:30-4:30 - PD with Monica

Tuesday, February 14, 3:30-4:30 - Blended Learning Workshop #2

Tuesday, February 28th, 3:30-4:30 PD with Monica

Tuesday, March 14, 3:30-4:30 - Blended Learning Workshop #3

Tuesday, April 11, 3:30-4:30 - Blended Learning Workshop #4

Tuesday, April 25, 3:30-4:30 - PD with Monica

Tuesday, May 9, 3:30-4:30 - Blended Learning Workshop #5

Tuesday, May 23, 3:30-4:30 - PD with Monica

ON-DEMAND WEBINARS

NWEA has some great webinars to help you understand reports to supercharge growth.

These videos will help deepen your understanding of NWEA scores and reports to help better plan for students.

Webinar for administrators to help use data to plan for your school.

Khan Academy’s MAP Recommended Practice allows teachers to enter their students’ NWEA MAP Growth test scores to generate a customized playlist of math skills. Students can also enter their own scores.

Check it out at khanacademy.org/mappers

Who should use MAP Recommended Practice?

Teachers who administer the NWEA MAP Growth test for math.

Do I need a Khan Academy account to use this?

Yes. In order to input your students’ scores and monitor their progress on their recommended playlists, you will need to create an account, create a class, and add your students to your class.

How do I get started?

Try MAP Recommended Practice with your students.

When students engage in academic discourse, they have an opportunity to exchange ideas, ask questions, and make meaning as part of a learning community. However, the whole group, teacher-led discussions are not equitable. They do not allow all students a voice in the class dialogue. Instead, I would encourage teachers to explore small group, student-led discussions, and online asynchronous discussions.

The benefits of discussion include:

• Connection to a learning community.
• Exposure to different perspectives.
• Opportunity to make connections between ideas shared.
• Drive deeper thinking around topics, texts, and issues.
• Improve understanding and retention.
• Practice in-person and online communication skills.
• Shifts students from consumers of other people’s ideas to producers of their own ideas.

4 Corner Conversations

Teachers can use a “4 Corner Conversations” strategy for in-class small group discussions. As the name suggests, each of the four corners of the classroom has a small group of 6-9 students engaged in a conversation. The teacher can supply the discussion questions or ask students to write a couple of questions they would like to discuss in the small group. When they join their discussion group, the expectation is that students will:

• Sit in a circle
• Bring materials, annotations, and notes (if needed)
• Take turns asking questions
• Spend time discussing each question
• Finish with a short self-assessment of their participation

4 Corner Conversations give every student a chance to participate in the discussion without each idea being filtered through the teacher. This helps students develop their communication skills while also improving their grasp of the topics they are studying.

Online Discussions

Online asynchronous discussions can be text-based in a learning management system (LMS) or video-based with a platform like Flip. Online discussions, unlike in-person conversations, allow everyone an equal opportunity to participate. Students who are shy, need more time to process, or are managing social anxiety may find it easier to respond thoughtfully to a discussion prompt and reply to peers online.

Collaboration and teamwork are critical relationship skills. Students need regular opportunities to work together around shared tasks that require creative problem-solving, social negotiation, and clear communication. As pictured in the table below, there are several strategies teachers can use to engage students in collaborative tasks designed to position them at the center of the learning experience.

Jigsaw Activities

Reciprocal Teaching

Building Background

Students work collaboratively to make sense of the information they are finding online and create an artifact to share their learning (e.g., digital document, slide deck, infographic, or artistic timeline).

Real-world Challenges

For example, a quirky website called YummyMath.com has a huge collection of bizarre math problems. They are perfect for encouraging students to apply their mathematical thinking to real-world situations.

Role-playing exercises position the students as active agents in the learning process and provide them with the opportunity to be creative. Role-playing also encourages students to evaluate situations and consider how they might respond.

Step 1: Group students and have each group write a scenario where two or more students encounter conflict. What is the situation? Who is involved?

Step 2: Ask groups to exchange scenarios and practice performing a short skit or scene acting the scenario out.

Step 3: After each group performs their skit or scene, encourage each group to huddle up and discuss the scene. What was causing the conflict? What information did the different people involved need to understand the other perspectives? What misconceptions or assumptions were causing the conflict to escalate? What would have helped the people involved to understand and empathize with each other?

Step 4: Allow each group to share their thoughts about the scene and what was really happening. Then brainstorm a list of strategies the participants could have used to avoid the conflict or work through it in a kind and constructive way.

Step 5: Encourage students to spend a few minutes reflecting on the exercise and what they learned.