Roxi Thompson

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...

In a previous post, I wrote about how our district was trying "choice sessions" for our monthly district-wide PD days. One of the choice sessions we offered was a "Podcast & Pedometers" session.  I LOVE listening to podcasts, and I think they are a great way to learn and really push yourself to think deeper, and sometimes differently, about topics that interest you. One of the first podcasts that I started listening to regularly was the Google Teacher (Tribe) Podcast with Matt Miller and Kasey Bell . One of the best things about that podcast was that I always learned something new, and sometimes I even learned about an idea that I could try that same day in class. I thought it would be awesome if our teachers could learn more about a topic related to education, and then they could share out their learning with each other.  While I have seen many Twitter posts about districts trying out this type of PD, I got most of the ideas for ours from a blog post ...

Flippity is a free website that has a wide variety of Google Sheet templates which you can use to create fun classroom activities, such as flashcards, scavenger hunts, and quiz shows.  As a classroom teacher, I loved using the Random NamePicker tool because I could easily create random groups of students for classroom activities. Each activity includes a demo, instructions, and a free template.  I recently tried a new activity on the website called Flippity Manipulatives. This template allows you to use a Google sheet to create a set of click-and-drag objects. It's pretty easy to set up, and once I started experimenting with it, I started thinking of so many different ways that teachers could use it in the classroom! Here is a quick video I made to introduce teachers to the basics of how to get started: Example Activities I made a few example activities to demonstrate how this tool could be used in different content areas: Social Studies...

Once a month, our district has what is referred to as "Green Day" PD. This is the one early release day where we have the opportunity to offer PD sessions for all of the teachers in the district. Typically, teachers have all been told which session they are supposed to attend, and it is based on content and/or grade level. This month we decided to try something new. We created "Choice Sessions" so that teachers could choose to learn about something meaningful and helpful for improving learning in their classrooms. We recruited Instructional Coaches and teachers so that we could offer a wide variety of sessions. We also decided to offer a Teacher "Genius Hour" session. I designed a website to walk teachers through the process, and I will be their point of contact if they have any questions or need support.  The webpage starts with a quick overview of the session steps: 🎯 Goal: The goal of this session is to provide teachers with the time to   ...

This week I had the opportunity to do my first round of social studies classroom walk-throughs! It was really great getting to see the teachers in their classrooms interacting with their students. I went in with three main goals: Gain an understanding of how our teachers are forming relationships with their students Collect information about the types of instructional strategies being used in classrooms Provide a follow-up email with a resource based on the learning objectives and instructional strategies I observed I visited seven classrooms, and I emailed each teacher the next day with some positive feedback and a resource tailored to the learning that was happening in their classroom. Here are a few resources/strategies I shared: Chat Stations In one classroom, students were learning about the effects of the railroad during Industrialism. They had read an article and were discussing and answering them on their papers in small groups. Their teacher would then have s...

Monday was our first day back after Winter Break, and I was lucky enough to get to spend the afternoon helping some kindergarten friends log onto Chromebooks for the first time! It was exhausting, but it was also super fun! Before Winter Break, our EdTech team made arrangements to lead "Kinder Chromebook Login" sessions at one of the schools in our district. We originally planned to lead sessions in four different classrooms, but we ended up only getting to two classrooms.  For both sessions, I took the lead while two other EdTech team members and the classroom teacher provided support. Here are some of my takeaways from this experience: Challenges Hidden Passwords When our students type in their usernames, they can see it. That means that they can self-asses for errors, and we can easily help them identify how to make corrections.  Unfortunately, students cannot see their passwords as they type them. This makes it really difficult to identify any error...

This week has been super busy! But it's that awesome kind of busy where I am working on multiple projects for January that I am SUPER excited about!  Kinders on Chromebooks We are preparing for our 3rd Quarter EdTech session, and we are planning to include resources specifically designed for our K-2 teachers. We want to create videos in which we model strategies that K-2 teachers can use to help their students learn how to login to Chromebooks. My EdTech teammate reached out to the Kindergarten team at one of our schools, and they were kind enough to open their doors to us!  We will be working with this team on the first day back from Winter Break in January. Our plan is for me to lead the first session while another EdTech team member records the lesson and assists students as needed. We will be sharing the video footage, along with other K-2 resources, with our teachers during our sessions throughout the 3rd Quarter. This week I am trying to build a Google Si...