Blended Learning, Is It for You? (Part 2)

Blended Learning, Is It for You? (Part 2)

Today, we are diving into the different ways a teacher can run a blended learning classroom. A quick recap of our last post. We discussed how blended learning can be beneficial to the way you run your classroom and I pointed out three ways that blended learning can work for you based on the description I got from teachers that I have been working with. Recap: Blended learning is a teaching approach that blends both digital and in-person teaching methods. Blended…

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SPS Digital Learning Hour featuring Denise Cote

SPS Digital Learning Hour featuring Denise Cote

This week’s podcast we interviewed Denise Cote, a Middle School English Teacher from Springfield’s Conservatory of the Arts. Mike and Denise talked all about the use of technology in the district for the last 17 years! During the interview you will learn how Denise first adopted technology in her classrooms and how that technology continues to enhance her teaching. Denise has also been a proponent of Professional Development and has taken on the 22 Tools Challenge head on. When the…

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Blending Learning: Is It For You? (Part 1)

Blending Learning: Is It For You? (Part 1)

As I sit back and reflect on the past two years of education, my mind began to think about aspects of remote and hybrid learning that worked and aspects that could be improved upon. For most of us reading this blog post school is in person; we might be tempted to go back to 2019 and run our classroom pre-Covid. I believe that would be a mistake, since there was a lot of great learning that took place and for…

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SPS Digital Learning Hour featuring Sarah DeFeo

SPS Digital Learning Hour featuring Sarah DeFeo

Welcome to the start of a new school year. For the first episode of the year we spoke with Sarah DeFeo. This interview was recorded near the end of last year and we thought it would be a great way to start this year. Sarah teaches at White Street Elementary School and has been there for the last eight years. Sarah came to teaching 2nd grade as a career change. Throughout the interview we discussed how technology has been used…

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Welcome Back 2022-2023!

Welcome Back 2022-2023!

Summer was way too short! I still hold out that summer is here until the end of the Big E (The biggest fair in all of New England), even though we are back in school. We’ve had an exciting summer around here at Digital Learning and Assessment (DLA) and we can’t wait for the school year to begin. We hope that all the changes that we have made over the summer help you all use technology more efficiently. Over the…

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OneNote Series: Ways to Use It!

OneNote Series: Ways to Use It!

For our final week for the OneNote series, we are looking at examples of how teachers can use OneNote in the classroom and even for their personal organization. In Digital Learning, we have 5 separate Notebooks that we use to keep each other up to date on meetings, information that needs to be shared, tracking of concerns, trainings that we have done, and so much more. For us, the ability to keep all the projects we are working on in…

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OneNote Series: Class Notebook

OneNote Series: Class Notebook

We are in week two of our OneNote blog run and for this week, we are focusing on the Class Notebook. So, the Class Notebook is remarkably similar to OneNote but with a few key differences.  Class Notebook  If you are looking into going paperless, this tool can help. You can embed the Class Notebook into your Schoology course for students to have easy access. You can organize your lesson notes and examples. Essentially you can use this to teach…

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SPS Digital Learning Hour featuring Desiree Robinson

SPS Digital Learning Hour featuring Desiree Robinson

We here at the SPS Digital Learning Hour love to spotlight teachers and this week’s episode is no different. I met Desiree Robinson from Glenwood Elementary. Desiree is a true homegrown teacher here in Springfield. You can hear her love for the city of Springfield in the way she talks about her job. She is a shining example of how you can go from being a para-educator to a teacher to a Math Instructional Leader. Her experience spans Kindergarten all…

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OneNote Series: What is OneNote?

OneNote Series: What is OneNote?

We are kicking off a short series of posts dedicated to one tool. It’s one of my favorite tools and one that I would be using non-stop if I were still teaching.  OneNote  OneNote, in short, is a digital notebook. Think back to when you were a kid, or your older kids were in school, and everyone had to have a Trapper Keeper Binder with the Five-Star Notebook that you would click in. Each Trapper Keeper would have a combination…

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SPS Digital Learning Hour Episode 118 featuring Kathryn Runyan

SPS Digital Learning Hour Episode 118 featuring Kathryn Runyan

Here at the SPS Digital Learning Hour we are excited to bring you this week’s episode featuring Kathryn Runyan from White Street Elementary. Having taught various grade levels throughout the last 22 years, Kathryn has used a wide variety of technology tools that we get into in this episode. Back in 2002 schools were still using floppy discs!!!! Throughout this episode we learn about what technology was like back in 2002 in the classroom (hint: there wasn’t as much as…

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