My 3 Favorite Resources
My colleague, Han Nguyen, created this lesson during our 20-21 school year, while we were teaching 100% distance learning. I edited this lesson during that school year to use on Nearpod, which was my platform of choice. I liked that I could add a slide for students to collaborate on so they could share their thinking without having to utilize their voices, which was even more challenging during distance learning. This year, even though we are in person, I used this lesson, via Peardeck (my school decided to purchase only one platform), as an interactive way to engage our students, especially because they LOVE manga and anime. Han designed this lesson with scaffolds that allow all students to access the lesson. One way Han scaffolds support students is that they allow for a step-by-step mastery of the process, so they can first practice transforming a decimal number into a whole number. Another way she supports students in gaining access is through including the multiplication charts on each practice page for the students who have not yet mastered their multiplication facts. Rather than students being hindered by a standard that they are still striving to master, instead students are focused on mastering the current grade level standard.
I utilized this Blooket for resource for science when most of my students returned after the 21-22 winter break COVID-19 surge. Since many students were home for nearly 6 weeks, including our 3 week winter break, and they were admittedly playing loads of video games, this was a fun way to help me to re-engage the students and prepare them for their culminating unit assessment. Although I used the "Classic" version to have them focus on their understanding rather than competing with one another. When we finished, I used a non-academic Blooket to allow them time to enjoy their favorite way to play, which is "Battle Royale". This version allows student to compete, one to one, for each question. Since both of my classes are extremely competitive, it can get rather noisy, so I set ground rules for noise and respectful comments while engaging with one another.
I assigned this digital resource, through Google Classroom, to give my students choice, review and practice opportunity when we returned from winter break 21-22. The COVID-19 surge in Los Angeles was extraordinarily high and we had 50% of our students attending school each day, sometimes less. This was a great way for me to engage students and assess their understanding, regardless if they were in the classroom or participating from home. It also gave students flexibility in completing the assignment at their own pace. It also gave them a concrete way to track their own work completion, while supplying me with important data to support me in planning a formal review for the entire class, prior to proceeding with the unit lessons.