COCISD TECHegies - March 2022
Instructional Technology and Strategies for Student Success
Technology Without Strategy Is Wasting Time
Are you using technology in your classroom? If so, do you have effective strategies for making sure that the technology is lending to the student's learning? If you do not have effective strategies in place when you pull out the technology, you could essentially be distracting from the student's learning. Using TECHegies will increase engagement and decrease the digital time wasters.
Below you will find several strategies that will help you ensure your technology use is lending to the learning intentions for your lesson.
Toward the bottom of the newsletter I have included a few upcoming opportunities for Professional Development. Take advantage of every opportunity to put tools in your toolbox!
As always, let me know if you have any questions or instructional technology needs!
Effective Instructional Strategy Highlight
Have you ever used SWIRL with your classes?
No matter which grade level or subject you are teaching, academic language and vocabulary acquisition are important. For example, in welding class there is academic vocabulary that must be learned in order for the student to effectively communicate the material being learned in order to connect it to a real world situation. If I asked a student to identify types of welds such as fillet, groove, spot, plug, and flanged and they have never heard of or experienced those words, you can imagine the looks I would receive in that class!
In order for students to grasp a true meaning of the academic content taught in our classes, we must have the students constantly working on their language acquisition skills, and not just in their ELAR classes! This is especially important for our Emergent Bilingual students who are trying to grasp the English language concurrently while learning our academic specific vocabulary in each of the subjects. Can you imagine?
If you are like me, there is a reason I did not teach ELA. Being able to support students in learning to speak English when I struggle with my native East Texan never seemed like something I was prepared to do! Then I learned about SWIRLing!
SWIRL is an acronym for Speaking, Writing, Interacting, Reading, and Listening. The basic idea is that students can work on sharpening these language skills while they are gaining the necessary content specific skills they are needing to learn in each of their classes.
This is not anything extra that you have to do, this can actually help by giving you the strategies you need to help improve student engagement and content retention. I am only going to highlight a few of them in this newsletter but the list is endless. If you would like more details on these strategies, just ask!
SWIRL Bell Work TECHegy
- Using Google Jamboard post a question for your students. Have them grab a sticky note and write what their answer is to the question. Relate it to your recently covered content. They must use vocabulary appropriately to answer.
Have students do a Turn and Talk. Listen to their neighbor and then grab another sticky note and summarize what they just heard their neighbor say.
Vocabulary Hype
Using Google Docs student, writes a paragraph predicting the theme of the lesson using all of the vocabulary words provided by the teacher - on a Google slide. - see example
Students in pairs discuss and listen to the reasoning of each prediction.
After the lesson, the students will use the same words to summarize the lesson and can keep the notes to study.
Each student will make editing suggestions for the other student's paragraph.
# Summary
Alternatively, you could provide a video segment or an article and have students read or watch and give a #Summary in writing.
SHARE WITH YOUR STUDENTS
Professional Development Opportunities
Google Educator Fundamental Training and Certification Exam
The Google Educator Certification program will strengthen educators' confidence in using technology, help them support students in using tech tools creatively, make the classroom more efficient, increase digital citizenship and keep teachers engaged in professional growth and lifelong learning.
Free Self Paced Version available through Google For Education. After completing the free self-paced training, the proctored exam is $10. Click here for information.
For those of you needing 1:1 Support and Colleague Collaboration here is an alternative....
The program, led by Google Trainers, consists of ten self-paced content modules, including independent application tasks, reading and discussion, and assessment, as well as live support with Google Certified Trainers. Each self-paced module includes approximately 3 hours of coursework for a total of 30 PD hours. The course is designed to be flexible and allows for educators to complete the work at their own pace.
Enroll before February 28th for a 50% discounted rate of $225/participant.
Contact: Peter Siner,Google Certified Trainer to enroll..
Missy Eichman
Email: meichman@cocisd.org
Website: https://sites.google.com/cocisd.org/techy-teachers/home
Location: COCISD: Jones Campus, Farm to Market 1514, Coldspring, TX, USA
Phone: 936-653-1188
Twitter: @techyteachersed