EdTechTeam

Global Network of Educational Technologists

Blog

How to Lighten Your Google Classroom Banner Image

By Leave a Comment

One of our most popular blog posts to date is, “How to Create a Custom Theme in Google Classroom,” and it’s no secret why, especially now with all of the virtual learning happening. Teachers work tirelessly to create engaging and unique content online for their students. And Google Classroom is the hub and jump-off point that students visit over and over, so this space should be engaging and unique. And what better way to do this than creating a custom theme? It’s so quick and easy, yet impactful. Please be sure to visit our original post to learn how to create a custom theme if you’re not sure how. And please note, when I say “theme,” I’m referring to the banner at the top of the Stream. To follow up on our ever popular post comes the prevalent question: Why does Google dim my custom banner? It can be infuriating to spend so much time creating something just the way you want it, only ...

Read More

How to Create Meaningful and Accurate Formative Assessments with EduProtocols

By Leave a Comment

Can you relate to this? - You teach a lesson. You give your students the quiz and there are varying levels of mastery. You create a new lesson that night to then reteach the next day. You check for understanding...the kids totally understand. You quiz again...and they didn’t totally understand.  Can you relate to this? - Your grade level team identifies an area of need/standard based on old data. You design an assessment to measure this standard. You teach and test. You are hopeful that your students will master this one standard by the end of the year.  So...let’s try something that may be more effective and inFORMative. Using the EduProtocols, informed instruction will allow for more agility, flexibility, and versatility, while maintaining a student centered focus. With repetition and timely feedback or even feed forward, students receive information and can adjust ...

Read More

How to Maximize the 4 C’s in Your Classroom

By Leave a Comment

For about a decade now, we have had the “new” state standards. One call to action in these standards was to prepare students for the“21st century” by ensuring students are college and career ready. This preparation included what has become known as the “4 C’s”: Communication, Collaboration, Creativity, and Critical Thinking. Evidence of the need for these 4 C’s is embedded in Universal Design for Learning (UDL). To create truly student centered, personalized learning opportunities, teachers must design lessons with intention. By adding a “C” to a lesson, we ramp up rigor and engagement. In the EduProtocols Field Guide, Book 1, the authors, Jon Corippo and Marlena Hebern spend time engaging readers in a task to evaluate their own practices. Chapter 14, The Four C’s Throwdown, allows readers to consider the level of communication, collaboration, creativity, and critical thinking in their ...

Read More

4 Tips to Boost Teacher Morale Now

By Leave a Comment

October and February - those are historically the two most difficult months of the school year. By October, the honeymoon phase is over and everyone is counting down until the Thanksgiving and holiday breaks. February, though the shortest calendar month, feels like an eternity as the sheen of a new semester has worn off and spring break feels lightyears away. During these months  - and all the ones in between - keeping up teacher morale is critical for the climate and culture of a school building. While most people would consider teacher morale an administrative or district issue, instructional coaches are in a unique position to provide some extra boosts to the morale of the teachers they see every day. Here are four things you can do as an instructional coach to boost the teacher morale on your school campus. Tip 1: Cheer for the Unsung Hero School buildings are micro-communities ...

Read More

What Are EduProtocols?

By Leave a Comment

Teachers, have you ever attended professional development and walked away with a BIG BLUE BINDER that ends up filling up space on a bookshelf? I am pretty sure the answer is YES. Oftentimes, the professional development provided leaves us full of binders and information that will basically patch up a perceived problem. The most useful information and guidance in my instructional practices has come from EduProtocols. The EduProtocols Field Guide, Books 1 and 2, have given me tangible ways to create valuable learning experiences for my students. Best of all, the interaction with the authors, Jon Corippo and Marlena Hebern, via Twitter provides mentoring and coaching. (No binder ever included that!) I know you're probably asking, “What is an EduProtocol?”  From the www.eduprotocols.com website, “EduProtocols are instructional lesson frames that are designed to engage students in ...

Read More