Even though we might call them “digital natives,” the truth is our students still sometimes struggle with technology. This is the number one concern expressed by teachers throughout our district. Whether students are encountering errors or just having trouble navigating Schoology, we will share tools and tips that can help you help your students overcome the technical challenges they may face. In this session, we will examine strategies for saving our students, including troubleshooting techniques and ideas for explicitly teaching students how to use digital tools.

Links & Resources:  Presentation Deck 

Wondering how to keep your asynchronous lessons engaging and interactive? Edpuzzle is a great tool for ensuring that all of your students get the same interactive lesson, even when you are not there. Record direct instruction just once and deliver the same lesson to all your students whether they are in a live session or an asynchronous session. Edpuzzle offers quick checks within the lesson, providing you with valuable formative data and your students with structured accountability. In this session you will hear about the positive impact that Edpuzzle has had for a high school math teacher’s success in the remote learning environment. 

Links & Resources:  Presentation Deck  |   Adding Edpuzzle to Schoology

Struggling to keep students engaged and interacting during virtual learning? Not sure if there is even anyone on the other side of the screen during your Google Meets? You need Pear Deck! In this session, explore real examples of Pear Deck in action, successfully engaging high school students both synchronously and asynchronously! Discover how you can use Pear Deck in a virtual learning environment to engage students and differentiate instruction. With Pear Deck, you see work happening in real time, and it is simple for teachers and students to use. It will transform learning during these unprecedented times that are redefining teaching!  

Please Note:  This session is meant to show you real-world applications of Pear Deck in the virtual classroom. If you are new to Pear Deck and curious about setting up your MESD account, you can learn more by viewing this recorded webinar or by contacting the Ed Tech Department. 

How can special ed, ELL/ELD, or reading intervention teachers support students on their caseloads in the remote learning setting? In this session, we explore effective strategies for special ed, ELL/ELD, and reading intervention teachers to work with the general education teachers using Schoology with the students on their caseload. We also specifically address how leveraging tools like GoGuardian can be used to support their students in the remote learning setting.

This was a Wired Wednesday PD session conducted in a "solutions lab" format. Our Schoology Solutions Labs are informal sessions addressing specific challenges Schoology users encounter with potential fixes and solutions to improve the user experience. Each lab focuses on a particular theme, and in this session we focused on solutions for efficiently managing the Schoology gradebook.

Are you looking for ways to differentiate and support students in the inclusion setting? In this session we offered solutions and strategies to help classroom teachers and specialists organize, plan, collaborate, and share resources to meet the needs of our students using the powers of Schoology. 

Links & Resources:  Presentation Infographic

The Assessment Tool in Schoology has been described by some teachers as a "secret weapon" for creating a wide range of engaging assignments that can be easily aligned to standards and make grading a snap! In this session we explored some "out-of-the-box" ideas for using the Assessment Tool to design tasks that give students even more ways to demonstrate their learning and support you in reducing your workload. 

Links & Resources:  Presentation Deck

This was a Wired Wednesday PD session conducted in a "solutions lab" format. Our Schoology Solutions Labs are informal sessions addressing specific challenges Schoology users encounter with potential fixes and solutions to improve the user experience. The theme of this session was Assessments Q&A + Work Session, but other non-assessment-related challenges were also raised and tackled in this session! (This is what "Solutions Lab" sessions are all about!)

What is all the brouhaha about Flipped Classrooms? How does flipped instruction benefit students? Why would a teacher want to flip instruction? Does flipped instruction even work in hybrid or remote learning settings? In this session, we discovered "what's the flipping point!" about the flipped learning instructional model and explored ideas for joining the flipping frenzy! 

Links & Resources:
Pear Deck Presentation
Why Should You Flip Your Classroom (passage w/session highlights)

This was a Wired Wednesday PD session conducted in a "solutions lab" format. Our Schoology Solutions Labs are informal sessions addressing specific challenges Schoology users encounter with potential fixes and solutions to improve the user experience. The theme of this session was Creating & Using Rubrics.

In this session, we kicked off our Ed Tech Book Study, exploring The EduProtocol Field Guide as an inspiration to work smarter not harder while implementing student-centered lesson frames in the classroom. 

Links & Resources:
Book Study Schedule
Book Study Schoology Group 

Technology and flexible learning spaces allow us to design personalized learning experiences that empower our students as unique and self-driven learners. In this session, we explored and addressed key considerations and actionable strategies shared by the SFUSD and Stanford Research Partnership. The recorded session is just the session introduction and the rest of the training content is available in the "HyperDeck" linked below.  Watch the intro and then begin your own personalized journey into the 4 Essential Mindsets through the hyperdeck.

Links & Resources:
HyperDeck - Essential Mindsets for Personalized Learning (self-paced)

This session is part of our Ed Tech Book Study on The EduProtocol Field Guide. Smart Starts are student-centered lesson frames that build skills and community at the same time! In this session, we examined some Smart Starts and discussed challenges and successes in classroom implementations. We also participated in a hands-on preview of an EduProtocol called Digital Class Book as a preview to our next round of reading.

This session is part of our Ed Tech Book Study on The EduProtocol Field Guide. We discussed several protocols and we participated in a hands-on preview of an EduProtocol called Cyber Sandwich as a preview to our next round of reading.

Much more than just "Google's version of PowerPoint," Google Slides is truly one of the most versatile tools in your digital toolbox with endless potential for engaging students in ways beyond your wildest imagination. In this session, we explored 6 innovative ways of using Google Slides with your students. Google Slides really is the bomb-diggity! Prepare for your mind to be blown!

This session is part of our Ed Tech Book Study on The EduProtocol Field Guide. We discussed several protocols and we participated in a hands-on preview of an EduProtocol called 8 p*ARTS as a preview to our next round of reading.

The new Google Assignment app may be similar to Schoology’s Google Drive Assignment app, but it boasts some great features that you may want to explore. How would you like to verify that the student work you’ve received is original? With Originality Reports you can do just that! Originality Reports allows you and your students to analyze assignment submissions to ensure authenticity and avoid plagiarism.  In this session, we explored the use and benefits of Originality Reports as well as compared the differences between using Google's LTI app and Schoology's native app to push out "Googley" assignments in Schoology.

In this session, we shared important End-of-Year procedures for Schoology, and procedures for saving your content to use again for the years to come.

Links & Resources:
Gradebook Troubleshooting Guide

4 Step EOY Rollover Checklist

Schoology End of Year Guide for Instructors