Breakout of Typical Breakout Thinking

Do you know about BreakoutEDU? Maybe you attended the session last February where you had the chance to experience it yourself. Maybe you've participated in one with your coworkers. Maybe you've done some with your students. They are a ton of fun and there is a lot of activity hitting the 4 C's -- creativity, collaboration, communication, and critical thinking.

One thing that sometimes scares teachers off from attempting a BreakoutEDU with their kids is the set up. There are papers to be printed out and locks to set. Doing this for the first time can be daunting, but it gets easier the more times you do it.

But what if you could do a BreakoutEDU lesson that didn't require that? Sounds too good to be true, but it's totally possible! Cue the digital Breakout!

Digital Breakouts are done completely online. Students start at an initial website and solve puzzles and work through problems then submit their answers online. Even though they are not physically unlocking locks, they are still very much involved in those 4 C's. One thing that is really nice regarding the digital Breakout activities is that it is really easy to break kids into teams to work on the activity. You can put kids in groups of three, and each group can work at their own pace on their own activity.

There are some Breakout games that are free and some that are paid. You can sign in with your work Google account to create a free account and access the free games.

If using BreakoutEDU sounds like something you'd like to try in your class -- either using the box with the locks or using a digital game -- but you're unsure how to start, that's what I am here for! Let me know and I can help you find a game, set it up, and run it! If you've used a Breakout game in your class, please share in the comments! You just might inspire someone else to tackle this fun learning activity!

Jigsaw Activities with Google Slides

I'm sure we have all had experience doing jigsaw reading -- my first experience with it, believe it or not, was when I was working on my master's degree. I remember thinking it had some pros and cons -- I liked that a long reading was broken up between multiple people so I didn't have to read as much, but I also didn't like it when I was responsible for reading something in the middle of an article but didn't always have the context needed to make full sense of what I was reading because I didn't read the information before my assigned section.

You can take the best part of a jigsaw activity and use it in your class effectively and easily with Google Slides! Think of it as crowd-sourcing for education! Here's an example of how it can be used:

Let's say you want your students to learn about the life cycle of a plant. You can easily break students up into groups and assign each group one part of the life cycle. That group researches their topic and they become "experts" in that aspect. Then each group is given one slide of a Google Slides slide deck and they put the information about their assigned part of the life cycle on the slide. When each group is done, you have a complete resource on the entirety of the life cycle that can be used by all students in the class.

This is something that can be done across grade levels and subject areas!

• Literature: events that take place in each stage of the plot of a story or novel
• Grammar: students create sample sentences demonstrating different uses of comma rules
• Social studies: complete a study of a country -- geography, industry, history, culture, climate, etc.
• Math: students explain the steps for completing a problem at the top of the slide
• Science: students research inventors and their inventions -- one slide per inventor/invention
• Music: students share YouTube videos of different composers' music
• Art: students share images that depict different styles of art -- abstract, impressionism, still life, etc.
• P.E.: students crate a warm-up routine for the start of class; put the exercise on a slide then run the slide show at the start of class for students to follow

Most of the hard work has been done for you already, too! I found this great template that you can use, too!

Have you done something like this already, or are you planning to now? I'd love it if you'd share in the comments below! 

You Need Some Stinkin' Badges!

It's hard to believe that teachers could be so excited about -- of all things! -- stickers, but here we are! My sticker mania started at my first EdTech Team conference in January 2016. While there, I saw all sorts of other teachers with stickers all over their Chromebooks and I wanted some, too. Then I learned that some of their stickers were freebies (like the adorable pears you can get from visiting the Peardeck booth or attending a Peardeck session) but some stickers were EARNED by completing a task or challenge or accomplishing a goal. This is what inspired me to work with our esteemed Director of 21st Century to develop some badges for our teachers to get for themselves by tackling all the new things that came with Chromebooks and "going Google".

I knew the stickers were a hot when some teachers had to relinquish their machines last year, thus losing their stickers. Mayhem ensued! I asked those teachers to let me know which badges they lost and I would send them replacements. It was tons of fun feeling the positive energy last year when teachers get new badges to proudly display. And I'm guessing that there are teachers who need some badges but don't have them.

So this week's post is a reminder to keep on doing all you can to master the G Suite for Education tools, finding ways to incorporate them into your classroom to improve teaching and learning, to keep finding ways to give your students creative, innovative learning experiences, to keep sharing the learning that is happening in your classroom, and to keep growing from the stumbles you make along the way rather than let them stop you from trying anything new.

And get some badges in recognition for the innovation that is taking place!

Want to know what badges are available for you? Check them out here!

And now that you know what's available, start to work toward those badges -- move your way through SAMR, incorporate those 4 C's, and proudly display the rewards for all your efforts! Fill out the form below to apply for a badge!