Roxi Thompson

  Day 1 of ISTELive was fantastic! My brain is on overload, and I'm still trying to process all the learning today.  The morning started with an amazing talk from Cornelius Minor on the Mainstage. He shared a powerful message about making school and education accessible to ALL students. Here is one of my favorite quotes from his talk: "Innovating is about more than changing technology. It is about changing systems and ways of doing things." This was followed by a great talk from Deborah Olatunji  in which she advocated for student voice and agency in schools. Her passion is so inspiring! Favorite quote: "Students have stories to tell. We just need these platforms to help them tell their stories." Next, I attended a session with Michele Eaton  titled "15 Strategies to Engage and Motivate Online Learners." I will pretty much attend ANY session from Michele Eaton. 😁 I loved the idea she shared about having students set goals for themselves as online lea...

I recently took the exam to recertify as a Google Educator Level 1. It got me thinking about the many benefits of obtaining this certification. Here are my top five reasons: 1. Learn New Skills Whether you utilize the free training resources in the Google Teacher Center , or you find resources outside from colleagues or social media, you will absolutely learn new skills as you prepare for certification. Check out the resources linked below to practice some specific skills that you will be tested on in the exams: Level 1 Basic Tasks Level 2 Basic Tasks Google Workspace Skills Checklist 2. Increase Your Efficiency There are so many great time-saving skills that you gain as you become more proficient with the Google tools! Once you figure out how to save time with the little things, then you can put that time to better use creating amazing learning experiences for your students! Here are just a few tips to save time: Comment bank in Google Classroom Starring files/folders in Google Drive ...

There are many things that are unknown about the upcoming school year. However, one thing we know for sure in my district is that ALL teachers will be teaching their students online until at least Labor Day. We also know that it is going to be super important for teachers to spend some time developing relationships and building a classroom community with our students. This will be challenging, especially for teachers who are not feeling very comfortable using technology. However, with the right support, I think all teachers can find ways to do this in an online setting. One tool that can be used to build community is Google Classroom. This is a great place to start because most of our teachers went through training with Google Classroom when schools were closed in the spring, so they have a basic understanding of how it works.  Stream The stream is the first page you see when you enter a Google Classroom. One thing that I always recommend is that teachers change the settings on the...

As the new EdTech and Social Studies Specialist, part of my job includes planning and facilitating professional development for our social studies teachers. Our main PD sessions take place once a month on Wednesdays when teachers are released early from their school sites. Leading these PD sessions was a part of the job that I was SUPER excited about when I first started. However, there are some challenges that I wasn't prepared for that have caused me to reflect and rethink the way I have been planning.  Challenges 1) We have 32 schools in our district, and there are three different release times. To honor everyone's time and make sure teachers don't have to work outside of contract hours, we decided to have two different sessions with a half-hour of overlap time. I set up the activities in Google Classroom, number them, and include videos and directions so that teachers can work through them at their own pace when they arrive.  However, some teachers have a d...

Today was our first social studies PD, and it was awesome meeting all of our social studies educators! I was super nervous stepping out of my comfort zone, but I learned a lot and I’m super excited to take the feedback they gave me and work to improve our next PD session! Areas for celebration: Teachers learned how they could use a variety of digital tools to promote student learning  Teachers used the class comments feature in Google Classroom to share resources they use to build community and prompt student thinking Teachers shared really honest and useful thoughts on shifting to inquiry-based learning Areas for improvement: I have a tendency to rush when I’m nervous. Learners need time to process. I need to slow down and give teachers more time to think and talk about how they can use some of the learning strategies we talked about in their own classrooms.  Teachers have varying levels of comfort using tech. I need to find ways to better address and su...

Today I worked on putting together resources for my session at the DVUSD Tech Fest. I am presenting a session called, "Getting Started with Google Sites" to help teachers learn the basics of using the new Google Sites.  One of my goals for this session, and for my new role next year as an EdTech and Social Studies Specialist, is to help teachers learn how they can use Google Sites to have students create digital portfolios. Digital portfolios are a great way for students to demonstrate and reflect on their learning and growth. My hope is that by showing teachers the basics of how to use Sites, they will then be more likely to help their students create websites. I started a new Wakelet collection to share with the teachers in my session, and I hope others will find it helpful, also!  Click here for the link to my Wakelet collection! Do you have any other resources you would add to this collection? I would love to hear your suggestions!

One day on Twitter, I came across a tweet from Ryan O'Donnell ( @creativeedtech ) in which he shared a Facebook template that could be used for students to demonstrate their learning. I clicked on the link to his website , and I was AMAZED at all the cool templates he had created for teachers to use for free!  I decided to try using an Instagram template during a unit on the planets in our solar system. I wanted students to demonstrate what they learned about the different planets, but I wanted them to do it in a creative way.  Here are the directions I gave to my students: Here are some student examples: Student Example #1 Student Example #2 Student Example #3 Student Example #4 I really enjoyed this activity, and I love how students familiar with hashtags were able to create and use them in clever ways! If I was to go back and do this again, I would spend some time working with students less familiar with social media and hashtags and give them some...

One of my favorite ways to use Google Slides in the classroom is to have students create collaborative slide decks together. I originally learned about this idea from Alice Keeler ( @alicekeeler ) in one of her "Go Slow" classes. She  also wrote a blog post earlier this year about using Google Slides to create Frayer Model templates. I took her idea and changed it up in order to use it for a geography activity.  I created an assignment with the directions and the Google Slide decks (one deck for each rotation): Here are the directions I added to the assignment: I used the grid view in Google Slides to watch as students started adding to the slide deck. My students have really improved in their ability to work collaboratively within a single slide deck. The first time we did this there were some students who were messing with other students' slides or changing the backgrounds for all the slides instead of just their own. I try to treat each of th...

I recently saw a post from Marshall Beyer ( @MarshallBeyer29 ) about an activity he did with students in which they created scenes in Google Drawings to demonstrate their learning. It looked really awesome, so I decided to try it in my classroom! A few weeks ago, students chose a Native American region to research. One of the resources they used was an article from Newsela. I created an assignment in which they were challenged to use Google Drawings to create a scene that demonstrated what they learned about the Native American region from the article.  I gave my students a set of directions that included an example of a scene that I created. Here are the directions: One of the things I'm working on this year is letting students explore the digital tools we use instead of showing them how to use them step-by-step. It's challenging at first, but they are so proud of themselves when they discover all the different ways they can create! I also love how eager they ...

Last night was "Back to School Night" at my school, and we had a really great turnout!  Our 5th grade team decided last year to set up stations so that our students and parents had things to do instead of just standing in a long line waiting to shake hands with the teacher. We wanted to encourage them to interact with the other students and parents, and we also wanted to be able to circulate and have time to meet them and make some personal connections instead of repeating the same information 90 times.  We created a checklist to help guide parents through the stations. ( Click here if you would like to see it. ) Here is the basic set up in each classroom: Google Doc Station: We created a Google Form for parents to fill out information about their student, including allergies, volunteer availability, and anything they would like us to know about their student.  Notecard Station: Parents can write a note to their student that they will receive on the ...

Earlier this year, Matt Miller ( @jmattmiller ) wrote an awesome blog post titled  "Caption This! A fun, deep-thinking Google Drawings activity." The blog post was co-authored by Laura Steinbrink ( @SteinbrinkLaura ) and it included an explanation of four different activities that could be created using Google Drawings or Google Slides. They also provided templates, tips, and examples of how to use each of these activities in the classroom. ( Click here to read the original post. ) I tried the "Caption This & Comment" activity for a Martin Luther King Jr. unit we were doing in class. In order to build some background knowledge, students completed a few different activities: Google Arts & Culture : I tried to hook students' attention by having them explore images related to King . They chose one image that stood out to them and they shared it on a collaborative Padlet board with an explanation of why they chose it.  YouTube Playlist: ...

Google recently announced some updates to Google Classroom. One of those updates received a lot of attention, both positive and negative. This particular update allows teachers to "lock down" a Google Form Quiz so that students are not able to open other tabs or perform internet searches until they have completed the quiz. To be honest, I was a little surprised at the reaction on Twitter. Because I follow so many educators who I think of as progressive and forward-thinking, I assumed that most would respond with eye-rolls and frustration that Google would take what feels like a step backward in terms of innovation in education. However, I saw quite a bit of excitement over this "update." I saw comments like "This is what my teachers have been begging for!"  Really?!? Locking down the internet is what teachers are BEGGING for? That's a sad thought.  But it's true. This announcement happened to come a week after my district held it's...

Today I attended the first AZ Google Summit, and it was fantastic! This is the first in a series of one-day summits being delivered by the EdTechTeam throughout the state of Arizona this summer. The summit sessions focus on integrating G Suite apps and other Google tools in ways that promote student learning. The keynote, entitled "Meet GenerationZ," was delivered by Holly Clark ( @HollyClarkEdu ). She spoke about the  need to engage our students by tapping into their talents and interests and the importance of making student learning visible. She also spoke about the challenges of trying to prepare students for a future in which so many technological advances will have taken place. My favorite thing about Holly is that every time I hear her speak, her passion for students is SO evident, and it motivates me to want to learn more and do better as an educator! So, already fired up, I set off for my first session, which was "Be Internet Awesome Curriculum in the...