How to Use Breakout Rooms in Zoom for Teaching and Learning
This video from Flipped Classroom Tutorials provides step-by-step directions on how teachers can set up breakout rooms.
October 18, 2021
Craft Category: Artifacts
10 Ideas For Using Virtual Breakout Rooms During Distance Learning
This article provides ideas for how teachers can use breakout rooms including breaking students up into targeted small groups and putting students into groups to work on projects.
October 18, 2021
Reactions in a Zoom Meeting
This video from the Unversity of Queensland shows how instructors can use the reactions feature to engage students during a lesson.
October 18, 2021
Aurora Institute’s Federal Policy Priorities: Charting a New Path for America’s Learners
The Aurora Institute’s Federal Policy Priorities: Charting a New Path for America’s Learners new report issues a call-to-action for federal education policy makers and provides eight recommendations. These future-focused, student-centered learning policy recommendations are informed by the input of hundreds of nationally recognized educators, leading personalized learning and competency-based education scholars, community advocates, and a diverse set of students who support uplifting education innovations while also prioritizing educational equity.
Federal policymakers who want to drive transformation to support the future learner can use these recommendations to learn about key issues to address, entry points, policy levers, and a vetted path forward to revolutionize student-centered learning. This document provides deep contextual knowledge and actionable recommendations to advance future-focused, student-centered learning policies and transform education, including:
- Create Learning Ecosystems Across K-12, Higher Education, CTE, and the Workforce
- Modernize the Educator Workforce
- Diversify the Educator Workforce
- Bridge the Digital Divide
- Support COVID-19 Learning Recovery
- Advance Educational Equity
- Redesign Assessments
- Rethink Accountability
Calls for a redesigned education system are growing in number and volume, in part due to the impact of COVID-19, but also because our current antiquated education system has not shifted to appropriately serve each learner. Now, more than ever, is the time to rethink the purpose of education and redesign learning ecosystems so that each child has robust opportunities and pathways for a thriving future.
To view the report, please click here.
October 18, 2021
Digital Promise Digital Equity Checklist
The Digital Equity Checklist serves as a guide to support district leaders in
meeting the needs of every student with a direct focus on meeting the needs of all students. This checklist highlights six primary categories that include and extend beyond just providing students with devices and internet access.
October 15, 2021
Digital Promise Technology Sustainability Toolkit
This toolkit is designed to provide digestible bits of information for consideration as districts move through the planning process. We realize that each school district and learning community is different. We developed this toolkit with input from Verizon Innovative Learning Schools partner districts, and incorporated our own knowledge as former school district IT leaders, representing decades of experience, to serve as a source of inspiration and insight for planning.
October 15, 2021
Episode 11: Ector County ISD on Community Internet Access, Personalized PD, and Strong Home-School Connections
On this final episode of What Will We Take With Us?, a series featuring our conversations with education leaders across the United States on how they grappled with the COVID-19 pandemic in K-12 education, we speak with Scott Muri, Superintendent of Ector County Independent School District in Texas, about how leaders worked to make the most of the pandemic to accelerate the implementation of goals that benefitted the entire school community, ranging from expanding connectivity and internet access, to focusing on personalized professional development, to forging stronger, more meaningful connections between schools and student families.
October 7, 2021
Episode 10: Distinctive Schools on Communities of Care and Thoughtful Instructional Strategies
On this episode of What Will We Take With Us?, a series featuring our conversations with education leaders across the United States on how they grappled with the COVID-19 pandemic in K-12 education, we speak with two leaders at Distinctive Schools in Chicago: Mike McCarthy, Executive Director of Student Services, and Stephanie Cardella, Executive Director of Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment. They share with us how Distinctive developed a community of care, nimble practices, and targeted instructional strategies to support students in balancing their learning and well-being through a year of uncertainty as schools closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
October 7, 2021
Episode 9: Meriden Public Schools on Creating Student Opportunities Through Partnerships, Spaces, and Technology
On this episode of What Will We Take With Us?, a series featuring our conversations with education leaders across the United States on how they grappled with the COVID-19 pandemic in K-12 education, we speak with three school leaders from Meriden Public Schools in Connecticut: Mark Benigni, Superintendent of Schools; Barbara Haeffner, Director for Teaching and Innovation; and Susan Moore, Supervisor of Blended Learning Director for Teaching and Learning. These three leaders shared with us how they worked to establish partnerships with community organizations and local educational institutions, to reimagine learning spaces, and to leverage technology to support students and create engaging learning opportunities.
October 7, 2021
Habits of Success: Helping Students Develop Essential Skills for Learning, Work, and Life
This report offers guidance for K-12 districts and schools by synthesizing the latest research and knowledge on emerging practices for: 1) developing local habits of success frameworks, 2) addressing equity and cultural considerations in implementing habits of success and lifelong learning skills, and 3) promoting and assessing habits of success. The report also provides recommendations and next steps to support all students in building strong habits of success.
Habits of success are the skills, dispositions, and mindsets needed to continue as a lifelong learner and participate effectively in work and civic life. (They are also called 21st century skills, personal success skills, social-emotional skills, and noncognitive skills.) Schools, districts, and states have recently devoted an increasing level of attention to helping students develop habits of success.
Success in most professional and personal pursuits requires an additional set of skills and dispositions, in addition to academic knowledge, that can be learned in school and anytime/anywhere. These “habits of success” include self-direction, collaboration, communication, self-awareness, social awareness, and others. The extensive practice examples and research findings synthesized in this report will help practitioners implement frameworks to support students in developing essential skills for learning, work, and life.
October 4, 2021