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24 -25 ARCHIVES
Time Management for Teachers
I was reading an article from Ed Tech Tools for Teachers by Mohamed Kharbach, PhD, a blogger from Canada, about Time Management for Teachers or anyone who needs to boost productivity. The article is about using the Pomodoro Technique for time management.
Here is the breakdown of how it works:
Choose a Task: Begin by selecting a task you want to work on. This could be anything from grading papers to planning a lesson.
Set a Timer for 25 Minutes: Use a timer to break your work into 25-minute intervals, known as “Pomodoros”. The idea is to work with full focus for the duration of this time.
Work Until the Timer Rings: During the 25 minutes, work solely on the task at hand. The aim is to maintain a high level of concentration without distractions.
Take a Short Break: Once the timer goes off, take a 5-minute break. This short interval is crucial for mental relaxation and helps maintain a high level of performance throughout the day.
Repeat: After the break, start another Pomodoro. Every four Pomodoros, take a longer break of about 15-30 minutes.
Benefits for Teachers:
Improves Focus and Concentration: The technique encourages undivided attention to one task, which is especially beneficial for tasks like lesson planning or creating educational materials where focus is key.
Reduces Burnout: Regular breaks prevent fatigue and burnout, making it easier to sustain productivity over longer periods.
Enhances Time Management: By dividing work into manageable intervals, it becomes easier to estimate how much time different tasks will take, aiding in better planning and time allocation.
Increases Accountability: Tracking how many Pomodoros a task takes can help in assessing workload and productivity, offering insights into how time is spent.
Flexible and Adaptable: This method can be adapted to different kinds of tasks and schedules, making it a versatile tool for teachers with varying responsibilities.
Encourages Regular Breaks: Regular breaks are essential for maintaining mental health and well-being, especially in a demanding profession like teaching.
Here are some free Countdown Timers for you and your classroom:
Toy Theater Classroom Timer - https://toytheater.com/classroom-timer/
Countdown Timer Plus - https://apps.apple.com/au/app/countdown-timer-plus/id1150771803?mt=12 (from the App Store)
Online Stopwatch - https://www.online-stopwatch.com/classroom-timers/
Room Recess - https://www.roomrecess.com/Tools/ClassroomTimer/timer.html
Autocrat to Automate from Google Forms
Autocrat, a powerful Google Workspace add-on, serves as an invaluable tool for teachers seeking to streamline their workflow and efficiently distribute information to students. By seamlessly integrating with Google Forms, Autocrat enables educators to automate the dissemination of data collected through form submissions. This automation process is akin to a mail merge, allowing teachers to effortlessly generate personalized documents, emails, or even Google Slides presentations tailored to individual student responses. This not only saves precious time but also ensures accuracy and consistency in communication. Teachers can customize the content based on the information gathered from the Google Form spreadsheet, providing a personalized touch to their communications. Whether it's sharing grades, assignment details, or personalized feedback, Autocrat empowers educators to enhance their communication with students in a more efficient and personalized manner, ultimately fostering a more engaging and productive learning environment.
Create a Prompt for an Image Generator
Last week, I wrote about Mind Mapping and Diagramming. What if in addition to that, they were asked to use that text evidence to create a prompt for an image generator, like Canva to create details from their mind map or diagram? See my slide deck.
https://ditchthattextbook.com/ai-setting-images/
Slide deck: https://bit.ly/3PEOlGF
https://www.canva.com/help/using-magic-media/?query=magic%20studio
Where is my Screenshot?
I use screenshots a lot! Creating cheat sheets, using them on web pages, making an image to put in an email, etc., but I could never find them on my desktop.
Whether you take a screenshot of the entire desktop using Command, Shift, 3
or, you take a screenshot of a part of the screen using
Command, Shift, 4,
Here's a way to simplify how to find them.
You can tell your device where to save them!
Use Command, Shift 5 and it will bring up a Quicktime prompt. Now you can point out where you want screenshots saved.
Click on Options, Other Location and choose where you would like to save them,
You can see that I chose Desktop and created a folder called Sandy's Screenshots.
SchoolAI
Many of the AI sites out there for education attract teachers for the tools that help them, but this site is great for students. It has what's called SPACES. These are predesigned with educational settings in mind and INTERACTIVE with students. SCHOOL AI is a safe way to allow students to utilize AI in the classroom. Right now, SchoolAI is totally free. SchoolAI is for administrators, teachers and students. It has been trained for educational purposes and is approved by the Data and Privacy Consortium. Build generators for everything from a syllabus, lesson plans, behavior interventions, newsletter articles, etc. Chatbots for teachers, and students to use. Even create your own!
Canva for Education now on Clever
It's 100% free. Canva believes in equal opportunity for all students. It's also approved on our Data and Privacy Agreements. Making Canva for Education 100% free for primary and secondary schools and districts is their way of giving back. Canva is a powerful design tool that can be used in education to create projects that not only look great but also help teach students the basics of digital design. Canva is well integrated with Google Classroom, making it a very helpful addition for those institutions already using that platform.
This is a free tool that allows students and teachers to work with photo editing, design layout, and more, all within an easy-to-use platform.
While this can be used by students to submit projects, it can also teach them how to work more creatively when laying out work. Teachers can also use the platform to create guidance, posters, and more for the classroom and beyond.
Canva for Education is a powerful feature of this tool as it allows teachers to setup a virtual classroom, invite students, and have them collaborate on a project. This could be used in the classroom or remotely, with the aid of a video chat tool as well. In fact, you can link Zoom and then present screen to share the slides with the class as you go.
Comment additions are helpful with @ options, allowing alerts to be sent to the teacher. This lets students enquire about their work as they go, so they can feel confident they're going the right way. A nice tool that's especially helpful in this creative space in which students are given a lot of freedom and can sometimes feel a little lost, especially when working remotely.
Put your students in the quiz creator's seat. You don't have to grade them! This activity may lead to long term memory. It's a strategy, not an assessment.
Collect student questions in a Google Form and import them into Quizizz.
Make a copy of this Google Form in this link:
We Will Write
Mission
We are on a mission to help teachers create a social and safe environment where students can practice writing through play.
Our goal is to create experiences that get students and teachers excited together and spark their passion for writing in a social way. When students enjoy learning, they engage more effectively and are better prepared for whatever the future holds
See how it works.
Webinar: We Will Write. https://www.youtube.com/live/8eQNx4c43FI?si=JDWiSvZs1l5Knboh
An example
How to Link to a Specific Part
in a YouTube Video
Many times, there are specific parts of a YouTube video you want to share with your students to enhance your lesson but don't want them to have to watch the whole movie to get to that point. It's very easy to guide them to the section using a link in your Google Classroom, an email, or a document.
Create a YouTube Link With a Timestamp Using the Share Feature. The simplest method is to add a timestamp using YouTube's sharing options.
Open the YouTube video you want to share and play it or move through the timeline until you reach the exact moment you want to use in the timestamp.
Stop the video.
Click the Share button to open the sharing pop-up.
Select the checkbox under the URL that says Start at, and optionally adjust the time if it isn't correct.
Diffit for Teachers
Diffit is able to CREATE an automatically generated summary, comprehension checks, vocabulary words, and more to go with whatever text you're working with. Provide a word bank with definitions and create different levels of questions based on your selections with Diffit. You can add images and export to Google. Diffit is free for teachers, BUT it is a limited version. You will have a 60 premium subscription and then is it $14.99 a month.
Benefits of Mind Mapping and Diagramming
1. Makes it easier to retain information. Because they're structured to help connect ideas in the same way your brain naturally processes information, mind maps make retaining information more natural.
2. Helps students learn new concepts. Meaningful learning happens when you learn something, commit it to memory, and connect it with other relevant pieces of information.
3. Makes Learning more engaging. Mapping and Diagramming present information in an engaging and easy-to-comprehend structure, encouraging people to pay attention, learn, and commit it to memory.
4. Breaks Down Complex Relationships - Break free from linear thinking. Pose a central idea and follow it down multiple branches without losing your concept’s overall context.
5. Enables More Effective Collaboration. Because mind maps utilize a visual interface, they make collaboration simple and intuitive. People can all interact on a shared mind map, or they can use them in parallel and compare their differences.
There are more benefits. These are just a few!
Here's a tutorial from Richard Byrne: https://bit.ly/43lWgOu
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