Duh! Keep It Simple for Engagement

Anyone in education that tells you student engagement is not a constant battle is delusional.

That may sound a bit harsh, but, come on, we have all been in the trenches long enough to know that students are never the same, and they never respond the same way. What works for one group one year sometimes fails miserably the next year. Not to mention, in each class you may have different reading levels, attention spans, behavioral plans, multi-grade classrooms (high school and elementary), and a whole host of other variables. 

It is not easy (understatement of the year).
It kind of reminds me of this commercial:

So, what do we do about it? I love this question, by the way, because if we are asking it, that means we have moved beyond the complaining and commiserating stage to the problem-solving stage where stuff gets done.

It has been one of my professional goals to focus on engagement this year. I have spent quite a bit of time searching for those "magical" strategies that will solve all our problems, but, surprisingly (sarcasm, in case you could't tell), they don't seem to exist. What I have found, however, is that there are lots of effective options out there. Better yet, most are SIMPLE! In fact, I think that is why we tend to overlook them so much. After all my time spent searching for amazing new strategies and techniques for engagement, I finally came to a DUH! moment in an online class I am taking.

What was this amazing revelation? 
Quit searching for a magic bullet and start implementing some simple, yet effective strategies to start building engagement A BIT AT A TIME instead of expecting miracles. 



I am sure you have seen some of these strategies used at PD sessions or trainings. You know the ones I am talking about. They are the ones I admittedly grumble about when the presenter gives the instruction to get up and discuss your thoughts with a peer, or give an example of how you could use this in your classes. I secretly roll my eyes (at least I hope it's secretly) because I am perfectly content in my seat and don't want to get up. 
But, you know what? It's effective. I DO get up and start discussing the prompt. I DO start thinking about how I can use the idea in my classroom.
I AM ENGAGED. I may not like it at first, but it does get
easier, and it doesn't even seem so annoying anymore because we start to have great discussions, and I start to make connections.  

DUH! That's where we need to start with our students. 

I am totally overthinking this!

You are probably even using some of these strategies already. But, if you are like me, sometimes we just get so wrapped up in getting the lesson moving that we forget to throw in a 3 minute engagement check now and then. I even think posting some of these strategies on a wall in the classroom would be a good idea to remind myself to periodically reign back in those students a bit too comfy in their seats.


Below, I am including some simple, yet effective, engagement strategies that are extremely easy to implement and will help gently nudge our students into higher engagement. Some students may like them immediately. Some may roll their eyes, but, hopefully, they will connect a bit more with the lesson, and it will start to become routine for students to engage the more you use them. I weeded through 43 strategies on these neat Strategy Cards, to compile a list of 
SIMPLE, YET EFFECTIVE ENGAGEMENT STRATEGIES 
that could be easily implemented in almost any class. If you are looking for more, you will definitely want to scan through the other engagement strategies mentioned as well. I love how they not only explain the strategy, but also give examples for differentiation and variation.

Feel free to share some of your favorite simple, yet effective strategies with colleagues in the comment section below!

Measuring Growth

When my son Scott was a toddler, he would grip the windowsill of our farmhouse, stand on tippy toes, and peer out the window to supervise farming activities. Grandpa, who lived in town but worked on the farm, took great pleasure in monitoring Scott’s growth through the window. First, just the top of a tiny head and bright eyes were visible. Before long, the toddler grew and a wide grin revealed itself to the outside world while little hands pressed against the pane. Grandpa and the little overall-clad boy shared a common goal; both were waiting for Scott to reach a size suitable for tagging along and helping with calf chores. The window made measuring progress toward that goal easy.

Wouldn’t it be great if we had a window that allowed us to monitor the academic growth of our students? One online tool that may prove valuable is Formative. While there are many online formative assessment tool options, Formative has several advantages. Teachers may integrate images, videos, audio recordings, and even embed learning tools in Formative. Check out an introductory video here.

In addition to multiple choice, true/false, and short answer, responses may include drawings and uploaded images. Students like that they sign up using their Google accounts and appreciate the clean, clear interface of Formative. Quizzes may be taken by simply entering a Quick Code, which is easy for younger students; however, the creation of classes makes saving and exporting results possible. Quizzes may be assigned to selected classes, and Formative will automatically score most types of questions.

Tools within Formative allow teachers to override scores and provide immediate written feedback while watching live results. Student names may be made invisible to project an answer to discuss with a class.

Learn about these features and more on the Formative community page, which includes excellent, short video tutorials.

You just may find that Formative provides a window through which to view students’ academic growth. Contact me or another instructional coach if you would like assistance getting started.

How do you measure students’ progress toward a goal and provide feedback? How do your students track their own growth? Add a comment if you have a tip to share.

Student Data Tracking

I read an article recently that compared formative assessments to a fitness tracker.  I loved this analogy because many of us can relate.  We love the accountability of a fitness tracker and also enjoy checking in to see how we are doing on our fitness goals.  They keep us on track! Formative assessments in the classroom are the same!  They keep both teachers and students accountable and allow us to “check in” and see how we are doing.

Teachers use formative assessments to see students’ progress toward a learning goal.  But, how are students using this data?  Are students aware of their progress?  It comes as no surprise that research shows having students track their own progress toward a learning goal is a highly effective instructional strategy.  Students take ownership of their own learning data and track it.  They are in control of their learning and see where they are at and where they need to be.  

There are several options for teachers to use as students track their data.  Maybe you can try one of these examples?  Maybe you have one of your own?  Regardless of what form you use, the learning is the outcome.  

Student Progress Chart

Student Standard Tracker

Personal Learning Goal

Let’s help students take on the role of becoming their own “learning tracker”!

Using Google Forms for Assessment

The Google for Education team rolled out several new updates and features this summer that could be beneficial in your classroom. Several of the updates were for Google Classroom, but one of my favorites is in the often overlooked Google Forms.

The new and improved Forms allows users to not only easily add pictures and graphics into their forms, but also allows you to create auto-graded quizzes for multiple choice, checkbox, or dropdown questions. You can include all other types of questions, but users still can't assign a score to short answer questions on the form unless using an add on like Flubaroo. Hopefully, this option will be coming soon.

Even if you are giving a formative assessment with 3 questions that could be multiple choice and the 4th a short answer, the auto-grading feature is still a hefty time-saver, leaving you with only 1 question to manually grade. This can then allow you to spend more time using the data to decide where to go next in your instruction. Not to mention, since the answers can feed directly into a Google Sheet, it is now easy to sort students into groups for reteaching or extension based on their answers.

One of the biggest benefits of using Forms for assessments is the ability to gather all of the student answer data on one spreadsheet. You still have the ability to view individual student data and group analytics on the response tab, but the spreadsheet summary is the most gradebook-friendly.

Another benefit of using Forms is the integration with other Google for Education products like Classroom and Drive. If you are a Classroom user, Forms can be added as assignments with 1 click. If you are not a Classroom user, you can still use the traditional link or email method to send out the live form. Either way, all the results come right back to your Drive.

I have put together a couple of screencasts to show the new features as well as walk you through using forms to set up a quiz. The first one is general, while the second one also shows how to integrate with Google Classroom as an assignment.

New Resource: Hidden Worlds of the National Parks

This is blog post is going to be short and sweet, but it's just cool, so I wanted to share!

The US National Park Service turned 100 on August 24. In celebration of this milestone, the Park Service has released a new site, The Hidden Worlds of the National Parks, which takes students on virtual reality trips to 5 of the national parks.

As you click on each of the locations on the site, you are taken to 360 degree interactive videos with a local park ranger providing audio as your guide. You can then click through to several different views at the park as well as some additional video and informative interactions.

This experience will be engaging for pretty much any age level, but for younger elementary students, the teacher might want to navigate through the site as a class since it is easy to click on a link and then lose track of where you started.

Even if you decide not to share with a class, this is just a fun site for students (or even yourself)!

Learning never stops at NFV

The teachers at North Fayette Valley have summers full of professional learning opportunities.  We kicked off the summer with sessions immediately after this school year concluded.  Here is a list of only some of the professional learning sessions we have had ALREADY this summer break.  

June 1 - Mandatory Reporter Training

June 2 - Standards Based Reporting (SBR) PD & Work Sessions

June 6 - Make up day for SBR

June 10 - DLT / Admin Retreat

June 20 - Teacher Leaders Meeting

June 21, 22 Keystone Premier Education  Conference

June 21, 22, 23 Professional Learning Communities at Work

The great part about professional learning during the summer break is that we, as educators, get the rare opportunity to focus on ourselves and our own improvement.  All school year long, we are spending every moment planning, preparing, and instructing for our students’ improvement.  Summer allows us to really absorb OUR own learning and reflect upon the concluding, as well as, upcoming school years.  

Your teacher leaders are busy this summer with many of these opportunities as well as other sessions coming throughout July and August.  Instructional coaches have an additional 10 days added to their contract and Model/Mentor teachers have three.   Extended days include a variety of sessions such as; Standards Based Reporting, The Well Managed Classroom, Model Teacher Training, High Impact Instructional Strategies, Google Summit, and Keystone’s Premier Education Conference.  

These opportunities are valuable and we are thankful to have such dedicated teacher leaders at NFV to embrace them.  As I conclude this post, I would encourage all NFV teachers to:  enjoy your summer, value your learning, reflect on your concluding year, and ignite for the 2016-2017 school year!