Paper...Get Your Paper Here!

I have always loved the following quote about education:

"Who dares to teach must never cease to learn."

Each year I have the simple goal of continuing to push myself to grow as an educator.  I'm always talking to my students about becoming life-long learners and I believe that I should demonstrate that first hand.  As educators, we live in an amazing time regarding professional growth.  With access to conferences, webinars, educational blogs, social media, podcasts and more, teachers really have a number of avenues to chose from regarding individualized PD.  For that reason, I have always tried to provide professional development in a multitude of ways so that teachers could access training, materials, and assistance in whichever way they find most convenient and useful.

While I have always found face-to-face, individualized professional development to be the most beneficial, time restraints and other challenges frequently get in the way.  In addition to face-to-face PD and Lunch & Learns, previously, teachers had access to Schoology, a rare blog, an occasional "Askin Lascon" tutorial video and some emails with step-by-step instructions.  All of this is good, but I'm always looking for new ways to disseminate information and training to help teachers and students in any way that I can.

So this year, we released the new Instructional Tech website, started a Res Instruction Twitter account, and now I can officially promote the release of the Res Tech Times paper!


What is the Res Tech Times and why would I want to read it?  Glad you asked.  Utilizing a website called paper.li, I am able to quickly curate educational content that may (or may not) be of interest to you.  For a teacher who may not have the time to search for educational content via social media, blogs and/or educational journals, this may be an option for you to explore.  By visiting the Res Tech Times, you can quickly find a variety of education content covering a wide array of mediums and issues.

The page will update each day, providing access to new articles, blogs, videos and journals, removing the need for you to search multiple tools/resources for access to such content.  Historically, I have spent a few minutes a day on my Twitter account going through my feed to read about educational projects, news, contests and more.  I am hoping that this paper can work in a similar way for teachers who are interested.  In addition to this blog, I will provide access to the Res Tech Times via the Instructional Technology website (under the "Instruction" tab).  Feel free to check it out, and as always, feel free to make any suggestions that you may have!

In Other News:

1. I will be sharing folders with each of you that will contain the new walk-through observation data.  The data will no longer go into a spreadsheet for you to view but rather will be placed very nicely into a Google Doc for easier viewing.  Because of the new format, you may not have immediate access to your observation data but should have it within a day of being observed.  Once the folder has been shared with you, I recommend right clicking on the folder and selecting "Add to My Drive." This will make access the folder much easier moving forward.  Please contact me with any additional questions.

2. This week's Inspiration Educational Video of the Week has been updated.  This week's talk is called "Power to the Pupil" by Jennifer Magiera.  Join Jennie as she takes you on a journey of "bright spots" that illuminate student creativity in a world that has historically crushed it.

3. In addition, the Video Tip of the Week has been updated as well.  This week's video tutorial walks you through creating engaging discussions in Schoology.  This is a very well done tutorial that can help you take your discussion boards to the next level!

Well, that's it!  Happy Friday and in case you haven't heard...Shawn Mendes is coming to Resurrection!

Getting AMP'd

Summative assessments? ACT benchmarks? Schoology tests? Data driven decisions?...WOO!  It's electric in the air!

Getting AMP'd

As was stated at the beginning of the school year, we are the first private school in the country to be utilizing the new Schoology AMP (Assessment Management Platform) feature. This new tool will allow us to collect data at a micro level, helping to guide curricular and instructional decisions. This tool comes at a useful time for us as we continue to build data that we have available to us.  In doing so, I believe we can also be honest with ourselves and admit that few things are more exciting to read about then summative assessments and data driven decisions!

Many faculty members have met with me to discuss the new tool and receive training on building question banks.  If either you and/or your department have not yet done so and are interested, please contact me with dates and times that would be best and we will schedule an opportunity to meet.  Once the tests are generated, I will push them to the required courses.  Located below are the steps necessary to administer the AMP assessment.  If you would prefer to watch a tutorial video demonstrating how to administer an AMP assessment, please click here or scroll to the bottom of the blog.

1. Once I or an administrator pushes an AMP assessment, you will find the test located in the "Materials" tab of the specific courses that will be administering the test.  The assessment will be unpublished, which means that students cannot see it.  To publish the test, click the gear icon located on the right side of the assessment and select "Edit".

2. Once you have clicked on "Edit", please click the circle icon located under the "Options" category. Clicking the circle will turn it green. Once we have hit "save", your test will be published. That being said, before hitting save, let's make a couple more quick adjustments under the "Edit" pop up box.

3. Take this opportunity to fill in the "Due Date" section, "Total Points" section and change the grading scale to the Resurrection Grading Scale.  You do not need to make any adjustments under the "Category" section.  After making these adjustment, please click "Save".

4. Our test is now setup the way that we need it.  When you are ready for your students to actually be able to have access to the assessment and begin taking it, you will need to enable it.  To do this, click on the test itself (not the gear icon).  From this point, select "Manage Assessment" located just under the test name.

5. Click the drop down arrow under "Attempts" and select "Allow Attempts".  You will not have the access rights to adjust any of the other settings listed (i.e. Attempt Limit, Time Limit, etc.)  so after allowing attempts, simply click on "Save Changes".

6. When your students have finished taking the exam, you will go back into the test (by clicking on it), reactivating the drop down menu located under "Attempts" and selecting "Disable Attempts".

Well, that's it!  You are now prepared to assess your students, gather standards based data and then create action plans and/or data driven decisions.  If I may, a piece of advice for any teachers currently working on building an assessment.  If possible, please try to have a particular standard addressed more than once to aid in getting a clearer picture of a particular student's actual mastery of a standard.  If a standard is only touched on once, it is possible the student has some understanding of the standard but simply messed up on one question.  This may not be possible for every standard that you plan on having assessed but it would be preferable if most were covered this way.  As always, if you have any follow up questions or would like to schedule a training session please feel free to email me!

Administering AMP Assessment Via Schoology Tutorial Video

It's Time for Something Different...It's Time for a Breakout!

What you are about to read are real quotes, from real students...

    

"It was the best time I have ever had in a class." 

    "Interacting with others and working as a team to me is all what learning is about."

    "It was a fun surprise and really made me think out of the box."

While I would like to think that this is how my students describe each of my classes, I recognize that probably isn't the case.  So what was it that got my students demonstrating creative problem solving and collaboration?...(insert drum roll) Breakout EDU!

So what exactly is a breakout and why should you consider doing one in your classroom?  Breakout Edu is an immersive learning experience based on the problem solving and collaborate experiences of an escape room.    This fully customizable experience allows your students to truly push their cognitive limits while engaging them!  As with anything that we incorporate for student learning, it has to be about more than just student engagement and fun.  While your students will experience both, it has to be about student learning and achieving your learning objectives.