Welcome to week three of Schoology November! If you missed the first two weeks about Discussions and Google Drive Assignment App be sure to check them out.
This week we will look at the resources within Schoology. This tool is Schoology is extremely useful for collaborating and sharing. No teacher has time to reinvent the wheel, so saving and sharing course resources in Schoology helps to streamline this process.
There have been lots of questions and some confusion about the resources; specifically how to add to your resources, and how to share them with your team or colleagues.
Here is a 6 minute video walk through of the resources tool.
Welcome to week two of Schoology November here on the blog. Be sure to check out last week's post about Discussions.
Google Drive Assignment App
At the elementary level the way we use digital tools is not the same as middle and high schools, for obvious reasons. Often a teacher will tell me, "I don’t need an LMS because I’m not grading papers online or requiring students to turn things in electronically." While we may not be giving students “grades” or closely monitoring due dates, the Google Drive Assignment app within Schoology is worth exploring. If you ever have your students work on a doc, slides, drawing, or sheet, and you want to be able to see and/or comment on their progress, then I highly recommend using this tool!
Teachers can push out a template of any Google Drive product (doc, slides, drawing, or sheet) and this app will make a copy for each student. Gone are the days of sharing with students, having them make a copy, and share it back to you. You can also avoid the flood of emails you get when you ask students to create and share a document with you. Even if you just push out a blank document, I think this process is worth it. Using the Google Drive Assignment App creates a folder of all the student assignments in the teacher’s Google Drive. This alone can save you hours of searching for student documents. You can also differentiate by individually assigning your templates to select students or groups.
Check out the video below where I demonstrate how to set up a google drive assignment, and the second video to see the student's view.
It's been a while since I've posted on here, and A LOT has changed in the last several months! The biggest change to our school (tech-wise) has been the adoption of Schoology as our LMS. The goal behind adopting this new platform is to give our teachers, students, and families a one stop shop for everything digital. Schoology also offers some really powerful collaboration and assessment tools. I plan to feature different tools here on the blog each week for the month of November.
SCHOOLOGY DISCUSSIONS
WHO?
Online discussions are not reserved for older students or online courses, learners of all ages can benefit from this tool. Schoology gives students the option to respond with text, audio, or video, so the needs of various learners can be met in one place.
WHAT?
After reading TFK, Science Stories, or other text post a 3-2-1 (3 things you learned-2 questions you have-1 connection you made)
After watching a video post a question or prompt
During or after a read-aloud post a question or prompt
Post thoughts or questions for book club members to respond
Ongoing discussion where students can make book recommendations
Use the video recording tool to give a book talk
Post a problem of the week for students to solve. Give them the choice of how to respond (audio, video or text).
WHEN?
For students in our elementary buildings who do not take their devices home, I would encourage you to give students time at school to respond to the online discussion. This could be part of math, reader's, or writer's workshop.
WHY?
Writing takes more time to process and reflect on what you want to communicate.
Encourage all students to participate, the shy students get their voice heard and the ones who are always willing to share won’t dominate the conversation.
Documentation of a student’s thoughts and responses.
Practice keyboarding skills.
Practice speaking/audio recording skill.
Practice online communication skills.
Authentic practice of digital citizenship skills.
HOW?
Preparing your students to participate in online discussions can seem like an overwhelming task. I highly encourage you to take the time to set up clear expectations and practice discussion techniques prior to having them go online. The investment in time up front will be worth the headache it saves you in the end. I have adapted this slideshow from second grade teacher Sophia Garcia-Smith, and it is FANTASTIC for teaching kids how to respond to online posts.
Setting up discussions in Schoology is quite easy, follow the steps in the video, and see the graphic below.
Online discussions should NEVER fully replace face to face interactions in a our elementary classrooms. Like anything, balance is necessary, so I encourage you to consider the online discussion tool in Schoology as a way to engage students in a different way.
As always please reach out to me with questions or feel free to comment below!
