Teacher Tech blog with Alice Keeler

Paperless Is Not a Pedagogy

Alice Keeler

Add At Least One C

Add at least one C

Add At Least One C

Add at least one C

Does Your Lesson Have At Least One C?

In planning activities for our students, the first place to start is to ensure that the activity has at least one C, and that C is not clipart.

Collaborate

The first thing I plan for when designing a lesson is “How will my students collaborate.” G Suite users this is almost a freebie. Google Apps are designed for collaboration. Click the blue share button and collaborate away! My favorite activity is to create ONE Google Slides and have all students in the class on the same Google Slides. I ask the students to put their name in the speaker notes. TIP: Control F is find. If students put their name in the speaker notes you can use Control F and type in the student’s name and jump to their slide.

Critical Thinking

“Live in DOK 2 and DOK 3, VISIT DOK 1 and DOK 4″ – Shelley Burgess

How much critical thinking is a student doing? Go beyond DOK 1 in an assignment. For DOK 1 (and many DOK 2) tasks consider making it DIGITAL!

Make a Decision

One way to increase critical thinking is to make sure students are making a decision, even if it’s a small one. Combat learned helplessness by intentionally designing into the lesson some level of “figure it out.” Arrange student groups so that the layout encourages students to discuss together things they need to make a decision on.

Clearly Communicate Ideas

Communicate is not talking. Students should be communicating their ideas. This could be with no words. Can a student visualize their idea with a picture? One thing I love about students using Google Slides is they can add a text box to the slide to explain their thinking. Notice on the sample Farkle Slides there is a box for students to communicate their strategy. Communicating ideas is not show your steps or come up with the answer. It’s communicating the original thinking. For DOK 3, strategic thinking, problems the student should be sharing their multiple strategy approaches they needed to utilize.

Creative Thinking

Students all filling out the same worksheet and coming up with the same answer is not creative thinking. Creative thinking is also not a craft. How are students coming up with creative and unique solutions? Are all students doing the same thing? Submitting the same thing? This is not creative thinking. Ask students to include a creative decision in the activity.

5 Easy Steps for Teaching with Digital Tools

Introducing digital tools into your teaching can seem challenging at first. There are many tools out there, and it might feel like there’s a lot to learn. But with easy steps for teaching with digital tools, you can start simply and gradually. There’s no need to dive in all at once – just take it one step at a time. Taking easy steps for teaching with digital tools starts with trying something!

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Students Prepare to Present

Help Your Students Prepare to Present

Maximize student success in presentations with ‘Speaker Notes by AliceKeeler,’ the ideal Google Slides add-on. Enhance how students prepare to present with easy transfer of speaker notes to Google Docs, promoting effective communication skills. Dive into the world of engaging, technology-aided presentations and empower students to shine in their academic endeavors. Discover the key to transforming student presentations into interactive, skill-building experiences.

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Infographic 7 Basic Steps for a Google Form

New to using Google Forms? This tool is essential for teachers to not only save time but to be adaptive to student needs. Use Forms to survey students, play games, personalize instruction, and assessment. This infographic on the 7 basic steps for a Google Form will help you get started.

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Online Workshop: Get Your Add-on Published

How can you make Google Workspace (Docs/Sheets/Slides) even better? You can create custom Add-ons with Google Apps Script. Wondering How to Get Your Google Workspace Add-on Published? Join Alice Keeler, Google Developer Expert, to learn the steps to get your Add-on officially published.

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