LC21
Supporting 21st Century Classrooms in La Canada
Let's Innovate!
Hello everyone! The leaves will be changing color soon and the days will be cooling off (hopefully) and that new-school-year shine has worn off. We're all in the groove, and many of us are thinking about ways we can try something new or innovate our existing lessons.
This newsletter is devoted to taking our tried-and-true lessons and adding a new twist to support student learning, increase engagement, or challenge students to create an authentic product. You'll find a lot of links from one of the best ed-tech resources on the web, Ditch That Textbook.
As always, please contact David if you'd like to experiment with a new tech tool or instructional strategy: I'm happy to provide backup as you try something new.
Think Visually with Infographics
It takes a lot of brain power to simplify complex concepts. Challenge your students to do just that by having them create infographics based on your class content. This could be a great standalone activity, or as a supporting component to a larger research project. I’d love to share my lesson that teaches the foundations of designing infographics, with the nuts and bolts of how to make one in Google Slides.
Check it out below: click on the images to open the page.
Use Slides as a Platform for Students to Demonstrate their Learning
Watch Collaboration in Action
Video is Easier Than Ever
Many of us have taken the plunge with Flipgrid, and our students are becoming more confident with the medium. Matt Miller shares some great ideas in the link below, such as:
- Recreate a historic speech or moment in history for a social studies class.
- Display the work and results of a science lab project from beginning to end, from hypothesis to conclusion. Add images of lab data in the project to show specifics of the results.
- Write and record poetry or short stories that illustrate literary elements learned in an English class. Include Creative Commons or public domain music that matches the mood of the written work.
- Bring story problems to life or record a whiteboard explanation of a math problem. Use subtitles to further explain concepts in the problem.
- Create a conversation, explanation or skit in another language for a foreign language class.
- Show off skills learned in a physical education lesson or impart wisdom for a healthy lifestyle for a health class.
Try This App: ClipChamp
While Flipgrid has a very "confessional" style, sometimes students want to tell a story with narrative or documentary styles. ClipChamp is a simple video editor that packs a lot of great features.
Checkmark: Grade Writing Faster!!! (and Empower Peer Editing)
THIS IS WHAT I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR! This free tool allows teachers to right click on a word or phrase, and see a menu with tools such as P for "punctuation" error, EVI for "evidence needed," or SV for "subject/verb agreement." When you click on the button, it automatically enters a comment on the side of the doc. Think how this could help students edit their peers' writing, too.
Check my video below to see it in action.