To Engage Them All: Quick Tech Tips

Soooooo... what is everyone up to? Ha! Just kidding! We are all biting our nails wondering what next year is going to look like. No matter how we go back in August, it won't be the same as any other of my 20 years!

As a tech coach in my district we have been talking a lot about how we can use tech to take over some of the basic things we do with our kiddos. Just this week I had a conversation where we realized we won't be able to use legos, blocks, playdoh, or even come sit on the rug.... ugh.

I decided to try to do something and was looking for some online building tools to integrate into our Stem read alouds. I put the call out to one of my favorite edtech facebook pages Teach with Tech, and someone suggested I check out a great digital maker space made by Shannon McClintock Miller: https://vanmeterlibraryvoice.blogspot.com/2020/07/our-virtual-makerspace-is-open.html

I fell in love and decided to make one for my district! I borrowed heavily from her but am adding

a ton of content as I find it! https://sites.google.com/view/digital-makerspace/home

Everything here is elementary focused, able to be used on a computer or Chromebook (not all the items will run on an iPad) and require no logins!!!!

Feel free to share this with your students and feel free to reach out to me and suggest more items or categories! Enjoy!

Quick Tech Tip: Flippity.net to make quick escape rooms! #edtech #escaperooms #digitalbreakouts #breakoutedu

Hey all! I wanted to jump on super quick and show you a cool tool. I always feel like I have to write a novel on here and then I posy great ideas on my Instagram but I really need to combine them!

I have been dabbling in the world on Escape Rooms and am really enjoying myself! I have made a couple of physical escape rooms and some digital ones and both kids and adults love them. I was teaching the concept in a grad class of current teachers the other day and they all loved the concept but realized it does take a chunk of time to create one.

On my quest to make their lives easier, I found the Flippity.net, which I already love to use for putting students into groups or choosing a random name. Has a quick and easy lock generator!

Basically, you enter your prompt, answer and hint on a spreadsheet and Flippity makes the locks for you.

I have embedded these in a Google site digital escape room but I can see this used in many different ways!

Take a worksheet and cut it up to make the problems separate "locks". Make the answer the combination to the lock. Add even more engagement by placing these problems up on a wall or around the classroom.
If you have a station activity, add an overarching question and answer that they have to unlock before they move to the next station.
Us the locks for a whole classroom reward! Countdown to a an event, vacation, etc. and have a password for each day. If the class meets the expectation for the day, the receive the "password". When the lock are all unlocked, they receive their reward!

So, let's crowd source this idea: how might you use these locks in your classroom? Leave a comment below!!!

If you are interested in checking out some of my escape rooms, click on the links below!