Who doesn’t enjoy being recognized for the work that they do? The great thing with Schoology is there is a way to do that, Badges. Some of you have explored this tool already, but I wanted to drill down into badges and badging and why you should do it. Badges can recognize great work or reward students for using social skills in your classroom. Badges can be used as motivation since they recognize hard work and success of the student’s…
In this podcast, Victoria Ellis shares her journey of 15 years in education, starting as a paraeducator. She is now working as a Middle School math teacher at the Springfield Virtual School for Springfield Public Schools. She talks about how she found her calling as a teacher and the challenges she has faced in her journey. Victoria emphasizes the importance of striking a balance between using physical and virtual tools to teach Middle School Math. She shares her experiences of…
We have come to the end the of the Blended Learning series. In this post we will look at ways that you can start to integrate Blended Learning strategies into your classroom. Before we get into the how, let’s look at our definition of Blended Learning. Blended learning is a teaching approach that blends both digital and in-person teaching methods. When it comes to this teaching approach let’s look at things that you are most likely already do in your classroom….
This week I am bringing you an incredibly special episode. Over the summer I met Karen Toro and Courtney Ciras from Alice B. Beal Elementary School. During the summer, as teachers, we can really develop new practices in a low-pressure environment. This also means that we get to try new things. With close to 25 years teaching experience combined and Karen coming up through the Springfield School system, these two were ready to try something new! This is where Courtney…
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…
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…
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…
In this week’s podcast episode, I met with Joanna Mineo from Brightwood Elementary School here in Springfield. Joanna is a newish to the teaching world, having graduated a few years ago and now she is doing a fantastic job teaching. Check out to hear all about her experiences as a new teacher and learning how to teach during COVID. Plus, you’ll have to check out how Joanna likes to take care of herself. Tools mentioned: PowerPoint Flipgrid Nearpod Schoology You…
Welcome Back to the 2021-2022 School Year. To kick off this year’s podcast we meet with Erin Demarest from Milton Bradley Elementary School here in Springfield. During our conversation you can hear all about what it was like to teach 2nd grade and then how she made the move to Springfield’s new CS/TC teacher position. This position was created this school year to ensure that Computer Science is taught at all grade levels here in Springfield. As you listen to…
In the penultimate episodes of the 2020-2021 for the SPS Digital Learning hour, I interviewed Kathryn Chace from Springfield Conservatory of the Arts Middle and High School. She is an Instructional Leader and an AP Statistics teacher. Throughout many of her years teaching Kathryn always seemed to be a step ahead with Technology, you might even say she was an EdTech DIYer (not sure if that’s a thing but it’s a great way to explain her mindset). Being a part…