New school year equals new opportunities for classroom innovation. If you’re moving districts, changing grades, or just looking for a new perspective, these ideas will give you a fresh start. Below are ideas for planning, teaching and staying positive this year!
4 Classroom Innovations
- Using a presentation template for lessons
- Paper first, digital second
- Purposeful technology all around
- Reflecting & refocusing
1- Lesson template: I love using Google slides to display my daily learning tasks, group assignments, motivational messages and more. The weekly presentation becomes a digital lesson plan that keeps me on track and my students on task because they know everything we need to accomplish for each day.
2- Paper first, then digital: I love pen and paper! I’ve tried digital planning in the past, but I always felt a little lost because I couldn’t see weeks out or weeks back quickly. Much like my paper planning success, I want my students to feel successful using both paper and computer. One thing to consider is allowing students to take notes on paper and then use those notes for digital assignments.
3- Purposeful technology in all content: Our students are living in a digital world, but that doesn’t mean all technology is created equal. For example, allowing students to spend hours playing “educational games” isn’t the same as allowing them to create with digital tools.
I love tools like Book Creator, Wakelet and Canva for Education.These creative (and mostly free) tools give students a place to practice 21st Century writing skills and have fun!
4- Guided Reflections: With each break that comes around, we’re tired and done with school. I don’t know about you, but I spend my breaks reading for fun, watching TV and enjoying my entire lunch.
With that said, I also make time during each break (long or short) to think about how I’ve done so far and where I want to go next in my career. I’ve been doing more journaling and reflecting in my time off, so I thought why not keep the momentum going and prepare my heart to be back in the classroom.
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