January Tech Tidbit: Breakout EDU

Post date: Jan 02, 2018 6:57:15 PM

Wow – December came and went and now’s it’s 2018!! December was so crazy for me that I actually forgot to send out a Tech Tidbit… I’m sure it was such a disappointment to not have another email in your inbox!

We’ve got lots of announcements! Here are the highlights:

• 1. I have made a short post on our Teaching Resources Website to supplement my lack of December Tech Tidbit. It’s about Google Keep.

  2. Our Skyline Educational Technology Conference continues on Tuesday, January 23: We meet in Room 1115 from 3:15 – 4:30p and we will be hearing about Computational Thinking with EDPuzzle – a tech tool that helps students learn with videos you create or alter from YouTube. Best of all, you can get paid (check out the Tech Pay Tracker to see how many hours you have so far)!

1. Did you do Hour of Code this year? If you answered Yes or No, the Ed Tech department would love to know. Please fill out this 90 second survey. You will be entered to win a prize just for taking the survey!

   1. Do you use technology in your classroom? Join us by presenting at the STEMposium on February 15 from 6-8p. Participants will receive 5 hours of tech pay! Sign up by filling out this survey and more details are available here.

Alright, now onto our January Tech Tidbit! I figured we’d start the year off with something that’s kind of new to our district: BreakOutEDU!

BreakOutEDU is an interactive puzzle solving activity for your class to participate in. Think of it like an Escape Room for your classroom. You can use it as a warm-up, a culminating activity to review for a quiz, or just a fun way to learn or research a new topic. Students have to solve clues to open the locks to get into the BreakOut Box.

BreakOutEDU has a whole bunch of activities and puzzles already created for your content area. Check out the full list here. There’s also resources on the website to create your own activity. We also have a ton of people in the district using this that could help you.

Even better, the district has a set of BreakOutEDU boxes that you can check out. Here’s a link to the Connect website with the information to sign up to use the district set, attend a training, or get more information on the types of lessons you can use these with!

Thanks for sticking with me through all of that! Please accept this really happy baby orca that represents my enthusiastic outlook for 2018! (As always, there’s a link to a nerdy joke, too)