WOW your Parents, Streamline your Practice

Parent-Teacher Conferences are coming up fast, and with so many options for connecting with parents, it helps to think about how you can use technology to streamline your preparation and leave your parents impressed.

Scheduling

While Sign Up Genius continues to be a favorite for scheduling parent conferences, you can also use Google forms and Google calendar to set up appointments and share Meet links if parents are joining virtually. (For more on using Google forms with parents, see our previous post.) 

Online scheduling is great because it eliminates the "middle man" problems associated with sending papers back and forth. Additionally, using online appointments makes it easier for parents (and teachers!) to schedule, especially if they are coordinating conferences with multiple teachers. And of course, parents can always call/email and you can help them use these systems!

(As another a time-saving tip, printing out your electronic calendar or sign up is a great way to streamline sharing your conference log with your building administrators.)

Showcasing your Classroom

While open house is the best opportunity to allow parents to "see" what their kids experience every day, not every parent can make it. In advance of conferences, you can share insight into your class using digital tools. Several teachers have done virtual tours (check out this example from GHS!), which are not only great to record for parents, but also work great as an introduction for new students. 

And, if you want to empower your students and share the load, have a student tour challenge that asks your kids to collaborate to create a tour and/or compete to see who creates the best tour video.

Showing Student Work

Parents LOVE seeing what their students are doing. While some teachers may already have students creating Google Sites as part of a portfolio, others may simply have a paper folder of work. Some teachers have students complete a Google form or document that allows the students to choose what information they want to share with parents about their year so far. This is a great way to promote student self-assessment/metacognition and to increase parent engagement.

Some teachers have joined meetings with their phones, in addition to their computer, to have another camera to show offline work. One other great idea for sharing this with parents who are meeting virtually is to use a document camera. Especially when you have little learners who need to process a lot on paper, this allows you to talk about what you are seeing in student work with a visual reference for parents. (Click here for directions on using document cameras in Google Meets, or contact TLI.)

Supporting Parents

Some parents have a tricky relationship with school, whether because they are new to having students in the system, they have a language barrier, or they are carrying their own trauma from school. You might consider sending them preconference questions or materials to help them prepare.

Especially as students transition to new schools and class set ups, parents may need more support to take advantage of your communications. If you use a tool like Remind to send messages home, Google Classroom for updates, or even if you use Infinite Campus to share progress, parents may need a set of directions or additional support to access  this. Be prepared with this during conferences, either by creating a follow-up email that you send with links or by having links to this important information that you can put in the chat to walk a parent through the process. If TLI can help direct you to the "best" tutorial videos for parents, let us know!

For more tips on preparing for Parent-Teacher Conferences, especially for new or nervous teachers, check out the Edvocate and the Resilient Educator.

What other tips do you have for great conferences? Add them to the Google Jamboard!

Unburdening the Brain & Shifting the Cognitive Load

There's been A LOT written and talked about recently in regards to "cognitive load"; brain science is showing us more about what does and doesn't work for learning, and the impacts of trauma (like a certain pandemic) and still being felt by our students.

A recent podcast from Truth for Teachers, "Help students do more with less effort using cognitive load theory", explains:

Cognitive load theory includes intrinsic, germane, and extraneous loads. Intrinsic load is the complexity inherent in the content. Instructional designers recognize that most of this load cannot be mitigated. Content load should not be confused with task or assignment load, which are addressed in the next two types.
In germane load, learners are integrating new information into an existing schema. Designers tend to increase this load since it helps ensure learning makes it to long-term memory. Finally, there is extraneous load, which designers seek to eliminate as much as possible. These are the other weights our students carry: distractions (environmental or internal), redundancy of content, and so forth that interfere with deep learning.

(For a more detailed report on what teachers need to know about cognitive load, check this out.) 

What does this mean for us? In short, we want to plan to support the germane load and decrease the extraneous load so that students can spend most of their energy on the intrinsic load. 

What does this look like in class?

If I'm introducing a new competitive review game for some recently taught content, I might not be affecting the intrinsic load because the students should know the content. In fact, frequent, short review games as retrieval practice are good for learning! 

However, by adding a new game and making it competitive, I've potentially increased the extraneous load because of stress AND not taken advantage of the germane load, as students are expending more energy learning something new than perhaps they are on reviewing.

Does this mean we never use a novel approach? Of course not--that would be boring! However, it might mean that I should go with tried and true games FIRST when planning, or that before I use a game like this for content, I introduce it with something fun and low stakes so that students can learn the rules before "it counts." 

In short, the more we rely on routines and solid practices for activating prior knowledge and scaffolding, the more we help our learners focus on learning! 

For more practical tips, this recent Edutopia article also outlines "How to Reduce the Cognitive Load" includes several tips for reducing the extraneous load and supporting the germane load with scaffolds. 

Let us know what stood out for you or what you want to know more about in the comments.

Little Learners Login

 

As many GPS teachers are pioneering playlists and other blended learning models, it has been so encouraging to see our littlest learners logging in to take advantage of technology.

However, the reality of getting 20-25 kids logged into a Chromebook, an iPad, or even a program isn't easy.

But that's just what teachers are doing! As noted in a recent spotlight, GPS Elementary teachers have laminated student login cards that use QR codes for ease of use, and Clever or Google single sign-on has been a game-changer.

Logging in

Blogger and Kindergarten teacher Della Larsen shares 4 tips for getting students logged in to Google Classroom faster in this older, but still good post with really useful tips for supporting students with keyboarding.

Educator and author Christine Pinto has a whole page devoted to supporting little learners with Google apps, including sections for logging into Chromebooks, tablets, etc. AND she has a large templates section on her blog for Google docs you'll love to share with students. (For example, check out these adorable Google sheets/graphing activities that match with seasons!)

Next Steps

If you are ready to "level up" your plans for blended learning with littles, there are more and more great resources being published daily. One that is highly recommended is a Podcast from the Modern Classrooms Project. While lengthy, this Kindergarten teacher shares ALL about her trials and triumphs as she moved her little learners from teacher-centered learning to self-guided learning using "Routines, Procedures, and Scaffolding"!

This echoes a lot of what is written about in this blog post from Edutopia, "Implementing Blended Learning With Pre-K Students", in which a Pre-K teacher shares how she uses technology and station rotations to have more time with small groups and meet the needs of her learners.

Check out a few of these teachers in action with these videos:

Making Self-Paced Learning Work with Younger Kids

Leah Frederick's Modern Classroom:

Looking for more--or doing something amazing? Share in the comments below!