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Sutori and Other Thoughts

We had a two-hour meeting today with our union representatives about our school re-opening plan. We go back to work on Monday and not a single teacher has any idea what we are teaching, who we are teaching, and how we are expected to teach it. Talk about overwhelming and anxiety-inducing. I wanted to start lesson planning this weekend, and next week when we have our "preplanning" week but it doesn't seem like we will have an instructional plan in place. Why am I telling you all of this? To explain why I went down a rabbit hole reviewing our tools from this course over the past few days. I thought it would be a great time to explore some of the ones I only grazed over and decide if and how I can implement any in my classes this year- no matter which format I am expected to teach in. 

I started with Sutori since I merely made an account during  Week 10 and never spent time exploring. First and foremost, the teacher tutorial is excellent! There are short videos, screenshots, and helpful information clearly pointed out all organized by topic. I also enjoy that the teacher tutorial includes screenshots and information from the student perspective. This is often left out of teacher tutorials and it makes it incredibly difficult to help students navigate new tools when I do not know what they are seeing, especially if we are in the distance learning format. I really think I might use this resource and pay for the year to have access to the premium content. It is wonderful that I can build interactive presentations, integrate with Google Classroom (which is required by the school and familiar to the students), and provide feedback all in one place. It seems like it will make my life a lot easier and streamlined, rather than having to build PowerPoints or Google Slides, include a link to a Google Form or build-in tools to have interactivity in PowerPoint, and then build assignments, etc. I feel like right now I have to go to multiple places whereas Sutori would be all-in-one 

The other tools that I know I want to use this year are Instagram, I would love to have a class Instagram to show off my AP Psychology student projects, and one for my Model United Nations group so I can show their debates and participation at conferences. I think that parents would particularly enjoy the Model UN page since we travel frequently and they always want to know what is happening and see updates. I also plan on using Pearltrees, Kialo, Flipgrid, and maybe trying some gamification techniques with Badgelist to keep my students motivated and engaged. I predict that distance learning will be very difficult for them. 

The tools I will use personally, for my own professional development or personal enjoyment, will be Twitter (which was not new to me, but I made a new professional account), Reddit, Goodreads, and Refind. 

This has been an overwhelming and wonderful semester. I still have a final reflection blog post to come, so I won't say goodbye just yet. Feel free to comment and let me know, what tools are you going to use now, or did you have a favorite tool from this semester? 

Comments

  1. JessJuly 30, 2020 at 5:04 PM

    I can't imagine how overwhelmed you fell. I can tell you that Flipgrid is a great tool to use for online learning and has a lot of features to keep students engaged. They have some new updates coming too. I just did a workshop that night that showed a way to use the shorts feature and QR codes to do things like video directions, sub plans, and so much more. It was a game changer. Nearpod is awesome too and has a lot of things premade that you can use as is or modify to fit your needs. The IG account is a great ideas. I have a friend who teachers AP psych and she uses IG that way. I actually just started setting up my IG accounts for this year...I'm gonna give it a try.

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    Replies
    1. JFoxxJuly 30, 2020 at 5:11 PM

      That is awesome! I hope you have success with your IG account. It is cool to know that Flipgrid has new features coming out. I used it during the spring and it worked really well, it is definitely one of my favorites. I had my AP Psych students post unit reviews and they were SO creative! One student decided that his was going to be like a talk show, and he was the host. He created this whole persona and kept it up for every video he posted!

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