Tech Talk
The DPS Ed Tech Newsletter
Volume 3, Issue 6 (18-19)
In this edition...
Digital Breakouts
Schoology Corner
Kanopy - Free Streaming for Your Classroom!
DPS Digital Coach Podcast: Student Badging
Digital Breakout Success at Skinner Middle School
With the support of Digital Coach Robbi Makely, Skinner Middle School science teachers Kyrna Harmon, Chris Martin, and Amy Winter had their students create an escape room experience for their younger peers.
In August, teachers at Skinner learned a variety of digital tools and skills in a hands-on breakout (escape room) professional learning created by Educational Technology Specialist Candy McGregor, Digital Coaches Robbi Makely and Tiffany Losasso, and Marrama technology teacher Jen Lueck.
The 8th grade science teacher was inspired to have her honors students create an interactive escape room for 6th and 7th grade science classes. Students interviewed the younger students to understand what they were studying and looked at the grade level scope and sequences of the content. Pairs of students created original content-based challenges using GAFE's digital platforms.
Students learned by doing! They started with a physical breakout and researched digital breakouts with the goal of utilizing those resources, digital tools and ideas in their own creations. They had the opportunity to do mini-lessons around the tools so they could use these in their breakout. They referenced a slide deck created by Michael Davidson, digital breakout tools, resources from Symbaloo, and other student-created breakouts for ideas.
Finally, the finished breakouts were published on the teacher's website.
This unit allowed students to communicate, collaborate, think critically, and be creative in developing their breakout challenges for their peers. This student-driven unit engaged all learners, from those who created the breakouts to those who solved them.
Please reach out to the Ed Tech team to learn more about digital breakouts and how we can support you in engaging your learners and infusing technology in your classroom!
Schoology Corner
The Schoology Gradebook is one of the most useful aspects of our learning management system and many DPS teachers who have used it say they love it!
Not only does it track and calculate grades for students, it also has a “mastery tracker” component that helps teachers align state standards and track student mastery of each standard throughout the school year. It also allows teachers to download a spreadsheet of the Mastery Tracker to show progress with their SLO’s (Student Learning Objectives). Parents have commented that because they can see their students assignments, discussions, standards mastery, and final grades in Schoology, it has become an invaluable source of updated information about their child’s academic progress.
Here is a list of 3 short videos showing the why and how of Schoology’s Gradebook in DPS so you can get started when you’re ready.
Kanopy - Free Streaming for Your Classroom!
Are you looking for educational videos, but your school doesn’t purchase a movie license? Do you need videos to keep kids busy during indoor recess? Denver Public Library is pleased to offer Denver residents Kanopy, a diverse streaming video catalog. Customers are entitled to eight free streams per month.
Engage your classrooms with Kanopy Kids, highlighting films and TV series that inspire and inform through entertaining and educational videos. Educators logging in with their Denver Public Library card must be Denver residents to use Kanopy Kids. And regardless of who is logging in, make sure you don’t charge a fee for after school events (that always violates copyright even though you are an educational, nonprofit entity.)
Go to Kanopy to create an account, then link it to your library card. For more information, visit the Kanopy Help Page.
DPS Digital Coach Podcast: Student Badging
Theme music is from the song “Joker” by Six Umbrellas. Copyright info is here.
If you would like to see Hamilton's badging resources on Schoology, you can follow this clickpath:
- https://schoology.dpsk12.org/resources#/resources
- Click on “Public” on the left side of the page
- Type “Hamilton Student Badges” (or just “Hamilton”) in the search bar.
- Click on the folder titled “Hamilton Student Badges.”
- Click on the “+” to add them to your own resources (they’ll appear in your “downloaded” section)
- Click the gear icon and select “Copy to” to add them to any course you’d like!
You can also find them in the MyTech Collaboration Space in Schoology.
Thanks for reading!
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About Your Ed Tech Team
Email: edtech@dpsk12.org
Website: http://etls.dpsk12.org/
Location: 1617 S Acoma St, Denver, CO, United States
Phone: 720-423-1991