If you have not done a physical box-based Breakout EDU game with your class yet, I HIGHLY recommend giving it a try. There are so many benefits, but the most timely reason is that it helps provide students practice with social-emotional learning. It's an awesome addition to ANY grade level!
Breakout EDU games transfer the ownership of learning from the instructor to the student, making it easy to observe how learners approach problem solving and apply their knowledge.
Students have many opportunities to fail forward during the process of gameplay. Every unsuccessful attempt to open a lock forces the player to try again. It's so interesting to watch this play out--as a teacher you want to help and guide, but it's actually best to take a step back and let students experience the struggle.
In addition to the content knowledge needed to succeed in a specific game, all Breakout EDU games require critical thinking, collaboration, creativity and communication.
Send me an email to jocelynn.buckentin@isd423.org with the following information:
Grade Level(s)
Content Area
Potential Topics/Game Themes
I will curate a list of 3-4 games that match your information, and you can select the option you like best!
Schedule the day and time for the breakout. We will need a minimum of 45 minutes to play the game.
I spent some time familiarizing myself with the building and grade level expectations for an eLearning day that would occur if school were cancelled due to weather. I had the building principals and district administration look it over to make sure that it aligned with their expectations as well. If you teach at Park, HMS, or HHS, please check out the documents below.
Step by Step Teacher Instructions for an eLearning Day: Park Elementary (Grades 4-5)
Step by Step Teacher Instructions for an eLearning Day: HMS and HHS (Grades 6-12)
Is your Gmail inbox overwhelming you? After coming back from break, I had to take a few deep breaths before tackling my inbox, but the process was less daunting with a few strategies that help me stay organized. I thought I'd take a moment to share those strategies with you!
In this short video, I show you how to take advantage of filters and bulk deletion in cleaning up your Gmail inbox. You can use filters as a quick way to identify and delete unneeded messages, and filters as a way to prevent new unwanted messages from clogging up your inbox.
In this short video, I show you how you can take advantage of multiple inboxes as a way to streamline your Gmail workflow. I use "Starred" messages as a running to-do list, so I show you that here. I also show you how you can sort out Google Classroom/Private Comments messages to it's own inbox!
It's been a minute since we last talked about Mote, and there have been NUMEROUS improvements! This cool tool helps you (or your students!) to do the following tasks:
Record and insert audio directly into Google Slides
Leave a voice note on any website
Share quick voice feedback in the comments section of Google Docs, Slides, Sheets, etc.
Add voice notes to Gmail messages
Leave voice note feedback in Google Classroom comments and private messages
Create audio questions, answer choices, and feedback in Google Forms. Recipients can also respond with audio!
While it is important to note that Mote is not a fully FREE tool, there are many things you can do for free to try it out. If we have enough individuals who are interested in more, we could explore that down the road. Just keep me posted.
Record a mote on any webpage
30 second recording limit
20 motes (voice notes) per month
180 second recording time
Voice to text transcription
Save and re-use motes (voice notes)
We were able to up our subscription to Gimkit, which has freed up several licenses for staff to claim on a first-come, first-served basis.
To join our group subscription:
Step 1: Join Gimkit here by clicking the "Continue with Google" button.
Step 2: Come back to this email and click this link to be upgraded to a full account: https://www.gimkit.com/group/join/6169c4a4b6fe8300235a8654
What is Gimkit you may ask? It's a live-learning style game similar to Kahoot, Quizlet Live, and Quizizz, but the biggest difference in my opinion is that the creator keeps coming up with new game concepts to keep kids engaged and learning! Rather than using one game style over and over, classes have some choice in which games that they'd like to play. The best part? Your content and questions are used to fuel the game, so it's a FABULOUS way to review and learn as a class! I HIGHLY recommend trying a game if you haven't tried it yet.