Track Progress with Digital Lesson Planning

Districts around the country are adopting 1:1 programs and tapping into the collaborative tools that Google offers for education, but is that collaboration among staff members? Teachers often reference how easy it is to have the students work collaboratively, yet rarely emphasize how joint efforts have increased among staff and administrators. Administrators can use online tools to monitor curriculum progress as well as view lesson plans. Some of those tools include:

Google Drive

Administrators can create folders for departments to add weekly lesson plans. Instead of referencing a notebook or a folder outside the door, administrators can create folders for each staff member to add content to. Folders can also be shared among department heads and team members. In addition to lesson plans and curriculum resources, this is also a great way to share important documents that everyone references often.

Chalk.com

Chalk.com has several tools including lesson plan sharing. There are fields for pacing guides and standards. Teachers can also upload support documents and activities that support the lesson. There's even a field for attendance and notes. The finished plan is just as detailed as traditional lesson plan. The app is available on iOS and Android.

Don't just get your kids collaborating, model what that looks like by connecting your staff also.

Tech Tools for Centers in the Secondary Classroom

           Teachers are tasked with accomplishing so much in so little time. Elementary teachers have mastered the art of using stations and centers to complete a number of tasks in a restricted amount of time. Station activities can range from review and reteaching to practicing a new skill. Technology further extends these options by proving a means for direct instruction to take place while the teacher is working with a struggling group. Try these resources out to assist with planning station activities:

Seesaw

Seesaw is a free app that is web based and has an app available on Chromebooks and iPads. Seesaw can be used for students to demonstrate, reflect, draw, or record themselves at an assigned station.

Recap

Recap is created by Swivl. Teachers can add specific questions for students to verbally respond to. Students record their responses and those responses are available for teacher review. It's free, easy to set up, and easy to use.

Youtube's Video Editor 

Often times teachers look for videos that are created by other teachers instead of making their own. Creating your own lecture snippet will not only force you hone in on the  most important parts of your lesson, but it allows students to have a reference outside of class. Take 5 minutes to highlight the most important points in a lesson, upload the video to YouTube, and use the editor to add titles or annotations. Take the link and share it in Google classroom or simply pull it up at a station for students to use.

EDPuzzle

Free resource that has a number of video platforms built in. Teachers can add questions, annotations, and their voice to any video that is available. This is a great ways to introduce or review a topic.

Adobe Spark

Infuse a spark of creativity into your stations and allow students to create a short video summarizing what they've learned. Teachers can extend this activity to allow students to view and reflect on each other's videos.

Each resource is free and is easily adaptable to different grade levels. When planning stations consider what task aligns to your desired outcome.