Team Up & Collaborate

There are two ways to view teaching with tech which can occur regardless of whether you are in your classroom teaching or teaching online:

• Incorrect: Leading with the Tool in Mind

  • I really want my students to use "TOOL/CONTENT NAME HERE" so I'm going to design a project around it.

• Correct: Leading with the Learning in Mind

  • I really want my students to know how to "INSERT SKILL HERE" so I need to find the right tool/content to meet their needs.

  • I really want my students to know show mastery of "INSERT STANDARD HERE" so I need to find the right tool/content to meet their needs.

Together, you should consider how to best meet the needs of your individual learners. This may mean exploring Individualized Learning Pathways further in order to offer more variety and different means of engagement to connect with your students. You may want to consider how you will want to assess and group students so that, as educators, you can most effectively meet their needs.

• Consider what these assessments and lessons will look like both face-to-face and online.

• Plan with the more difficult route of delivery in mind, so you are prepared.

• Explore potential blended learning models which may help you in delivery of content and experiences to your students.

• When looking at content, evaluate what will be best face-to-face or online.

• Identify content which clearly helps you meet your standards - clearly identify the "Why?" of the content.

• Consider how the content is relevant to your standards AND your students.

• Our Online Content Resources provide a number of locations to find content. Be mindful of which content was free during the Spring of 2020 which may no longer be available in the fall without purchase. Using Open Education Resources is a safe bet - as these resources remain free and online. You can quickly search the OER Commons for these resources or explore robust OER Textbooks such as CK-12.

Our Free Online Tools have a number of resources which may help you identify how you would like to share content with students or how you would like them to demonstrate their learning. Take into consideration that some of these tools which were free in Spring of 2020 may no longer be free during the Fall of 2020.

Make certain all students and parents know the digital tools that you use in your classroom. Clearly identify a small suite of tools which will be used in your classroom. If possible, meet as a team (by grade level or educators with the same students) and identify who will train students and parents on each tool up front to divide this work - whether it will be done in the classroom or synchronously via virtual means.

1. Consider our Recorded Webinars and tutorials as a resource for tool basics and ideas for content.

2. Consider and explore the ISTE Standards for Students. Are your students using the tech tools you're exposing them to become Empowered Learners, Digital Citizens, Knowledge Constructors, Innovative Designers, Computational Thinkers, Creative Communicators, or Global Collaborators?

3. Explore your Professional Learning Networks. Sometimes, seeing what other educators are trying can inspire us to do something new. Often, PLNs are a great way to trouble-shoot or find new resources too. Even when you are the 'lone (insert subject) teacher' at a district, you can find others and new ideas by networking online.

   • Starting your PLN on Twitter

   • Search Facebook for Educator Groups related to tools and resources (such as Google for Education and Flipgrid) or subject areas (such as 2ndary ELA).