Grading, Assessment & Reporting, oh my!

"The most powerful assessment educators can use to influence student learning and foster hope and efficacy is at the classroom level.  We must shift our time and attention to the work that matters most."

Cassandra Erkens, et al, Essential Assessment: Six Tenets for Bringing Hope, Efficacy, and Achievement to the Classroom

In the years that I spent as a middle school instructional coach, I frequently talked with teachers about their grading and assessment practices. With a new role in the BSD Teaching and Learning Office, I continue to have a lot of conversations about assessment, grading, and reporting in our middle and high schools.

Recently I met with a group of middle school teachers, instructional coaches and tech integrationists. One of the teachers in the group had asked me for an update on future plans for middle school reporting. My answer was this: there are no planned changes to the middle school report cards. Here's why: our strategic plan lays out five priority areas that multi-stakeholder groups identified, all of which are focused on improving outcomes for all students. As a district, we’re concentrating our efforts to achieve deeper learning for each and every student through our teaching practices, and because of this, we’re not currently investing time or resources into revising or re-imagining report cards. 

But we do want to clarify and create consistency in our assessment practices, both within our buildings and across buildings. There are important reasons for this. Unifying around our assessment and grading practices makes it easier for students, families, and the staff who support students to understand students' achievement levels and ways that they can improve. 

Lots of layers here. Jocelyn Fletcher Scheuch, who works with me in the Teaching and Learning Office, has been one of the shepherds of our secondary schools' journey toward proficiency-based teaching, learning and assessment. She sat down with me for a conversation about the state of assessment and grading in our district at the secondary level. This blog post attempts to capture some of that conversation, as well as the myriad others I have had in the last few months.

Let’s start with defining terms:

• Assessment: determining a student’s achievement level relative to a specific learning goal or standard
• Formative assessment: information about student progress toward the achievement of learning goals for the purpose of informing instruction and improving learning (Moss & Brookhart)
• Summative assessment: “assessment that is conducted after the learning has taken place to certify what has been learned" (Moss & Brookhart)
• Grading: assigning a value to a student’s achievement level
• Reporting: formalized, official communication of student achievement

Having distinguished between assessments, grades, and report cards, we need to get honest with ourselves about how we're collectively doing on clarity and consistency. Across our middle and high schools, and even within buildings, departments and learning teams, there continues to be significant variation in teachers' assessment and grading practices. We ought to take a look at that.

Take rubrics, for instance.

Each of us has our own favorite approach, language, and format, I know I do. Some of us (including me) spend hours perfecting and tweaking the rubric we use so that it will be just right. But all those individual teacher choices and approaches mean that a student might experience four or five different types of assessment tools in the course of a week, all with different orientations, some reading left to right, others right to left, some 3 point scale, others 5 or 6, like the one pictured from Myron Dueck's Giving Students at Say: Smarter Assessment Practices to Empower and Engage. Some have grades at the top of the categories, others have words, and still others have points. One says “Emerging” or "Novice" at the top of the column; another says “Beginning”. 

And this means that every time a student gets an assessment that has a rubric attached - which ought to tell them about their progress toward achieving a set of learning goals - they have to first figure out how to read the rubric. This is not student-centered. If we all got on the same page, and based our approach on best practice, it would benefit our students.

Back to the conversation with middle school teachers. After we talked for a bit about what we, in the Teaching and Learning Office, are recommending, requiring or not requiring, and planning or not planning for the proficiency-based future, Design and Tech teacher Nathan Caswell summarized it this way: in a proficiency-based system, there are three levels. The first level is proficiency-based teaching. The second level is proficiency-based assessment and feedback, and the third level is proficiency-based reporting. As teachers, we’re focused on the first two: teaching and assessment, and both of these can be levers for deeper learning. Just because we aren’t moving to a proficiency-based report card doesn’t mean we can’t be proficiency-based.

Yes, Mr. Caswell.  Exactly. 

Stay tuned next week for some specific recommendations, examples, guidance, and clarification on requirements. 

For further reading

Susan Brookhart, Grading and Learning: Practices That Support Student Achievement. Solution Tree, 2011.

Myron Dueck. Giving Students at Say: Smarter Assessment Practices to Empower and Engage. ASCD, 2021.

Cassandra Erkens, et al, Essential Assessment: Six Tenets for Bringing Hope, Efficacy, and Achievement to the Classroom. Solution Tree, 2017.

Connie Moss & Susan Brookart, Advancing Formative Assessment in Every Classroom: A Guide for Instructional Leaders. ACSD, 2009.

Professional Learning Opportunity Alert!

 

Experiential Learning: Why do it?

"You can’t force people to care, but experiential teaching can help create the conditions for compassion to emerge. And when students feel as if they have arrived there on their own, it’s even better." BCL Blog: Purpose & Audience

BCL students on the Mobility Equity Challenge

  Make sure you check out the latest blog from BCL called "Purpose and Audience."  This blog reflects on a problem that many educators face:  after the "cool" experience or field trip, how do we authentically make meaning?  Dov Stucker's (BCL teacher and co-founder) reflection takes us through one experience and how BCL teachers leverage experiential learning theory to empower students.Do you want more information on Burlington City and Lake Semester?  You can find their website here, contact them to schedule an observation, or follow them on instagram.

Outstanding Educator Award: Kofi Amoah, Burlington High School

We are honored to announce that Emmanuel "Kofi" Amoah has been recognized in the Vermont Outstanding Educator Awards by the University of Vermont.  This honor makes Kofi eligible for the Vermont Teaching of the Year.  You can find the program for the award ceremony here.

Kofi was one of the first teachers at BHS to implement proficiency-based teaching practices and has achieved amazing results with his AP Calculus class.  He has also been a long time teacher in the Homework Center where he works with all students on their mathematics skills.  Kofi's ability to meet students' needs, to adjust curriculum, and to connect with students makes him an excellent educator.  

Principal McBride shared the following about Kofi:  "His work ethic is unparalleled, while his standards of professionalism are second to none. He maintains a positive, easy going manner with his students and colleagues while still keeping his expectations and standards very high."

In addition to his work teaching math in school, after school, in the summers, and even on some Saturdays, Kofi has led the wildly popular African Dance YES course at BHS. Click below to see the love and enthusiasm that Kofi brings to this program.

Thank you Kofi for everything you do for Burlington School District youth!

Another look at the warm-up routine

I’m a big proponent of a warm-up task to start class. Whether you call a Do Now, an entry ticket, or a warm-up, establishing this routine is an essential pedagogical tool; I’d argue that this is true whether you’re teaching 11th grade students of AP Chemistry or 6th grade students of health. Individual think time, cumulative review and spaced practice are key components of processing and memory. 

Chapter 4 of Benedict Carey's book How We Learn:  The Surprising Truth About When, Where and Why It Happens, lays out the benefits of spaced practice: "people learn at least as much, and retain it much longer, when they distribute--or 'space'---their study time than when they concentrate it." An efficient way to build in spaced practice is through a warm-up review. 

And the first moments in class are prime time. This graphic from David Sousa’s How the Brain Learns shows the two “prime time learning” moments in a 40 min. class: roughly minute 3-13, and then again in the last 5.  Although the warm-up routine can be a useful tool for middle and early high school teachers to settle kids into class, the warm-up should also take advantage of that prime-time learning. 

I have blogged about the warm-up routine before, in October of 2019 and again in October 2020. Here’s an excerpt from one of these previous posts: 

Create warm-ups where kids can be self-sufficient. They need their notes or previous classwork, but they don’t need you, special materials, or help from a classmate. Expect that kids will work for the whole 3-5 minutes, but not that they will complete every question or problem.

For years, I established an expectation that students do the warm-up alone. For 3-5 minutes, I want them to have individual time to process, remember, look through their own materials, and not rely on anyone else. But am I perpetuating a culture of individualism? Tema Okun’s resource, “White Supremacy Culture,”  describes a culture in which “people believe they are responsible for solving problems alone,” which “leads to isolation.” That certainly seems problematic. Am I inadvertently, by warmly but firmly insisting that students try the work of the warm-up, leading to their isolation and perpetuating a white supremacy culture? It’s time to look carefully at this. 

I do think that an individual warm-up can be part of anti-racist instruction, if a few other important conditions are met: 

• Differentiate: The warm-up must be crafted with multiple entry points so that all students can find a question, problem, or prompt that is “just right” for their skill and knowledge. The warm-up is an easy place to differentiate; and we need all the easy places to differentiate we can get. 

• Provide choice: There must be choice built in; allowing students to start anywhere, and expect only that they will work for the full 3-5 minutes, not that they will finish all the tasks. 

• Establish the habit: The routine must be regular enough that students build the habit of thinking, reviewing materials and remembering on their own. This only works if it's regular enough to establish habit - not sporadically planned into the week's instruction.

• Follow up with an opportunity to collaborate.  There must be robust opportunities for students to work together at other times during the lesson, in a way that honors the social aspects of learning and making meaning.

Okun’s antidote to individualism are to “include teamwork as an important value,” and “make sure the [class] is working towards shared goals and people understand how working together will improve performance." I think the question here is what happens after the warm-up? Do you expect students to work individually for the majority of the class? In any lesson, students need both structured and unstructured opportunities to talk to each other. And, as my colleague Jocelyn Fletcher Scheuch points out, a warm-up can be built in to a larger, collective task. For example, when done well, the individual work precedes intentional collaboration, leading to collective understanding

So, keep doing a warm-up. Craft it intentionally with cumulative review or cognitive priming, multiple access points, and choice. Support your students in the habit of individual think time, and follow up with collaboration. 

Finally, keep asking yourself: Why am I doing what I’m doing the way I’m doing it? And keep applying an anti-racist lens to that reflection. I’ll commit to doing the same.

Professional Learning Opportunity Alert!

Get more information!

A Sense of Urgency

I have a sticky note pinned to the corkboard in my office that says, “Keep it movin’.” I’m all about urgency in education: this is important, we have lots of learning to do, so let’s hurry up and get to it. I’m instinctually speedy, but that sense of urgency was also trained into me.  When I worked in Boston as a young teacher, I was taught to teach bell-to-bell, and that lost minutes of instruction add up. I was never introduced to the work of Doug Lemov or Teach Like a Champion 2.0 until I came to the Burlington School District, but the school where I worked in Boston was clearly influenced by the same principles. The systems and routines I was encouraged to develop were aimed at maximizing student time-on-task. Timers for specific activities and count-downs for transitions were part of this - both to keep my instruction tight, but also to, well, keep it movin’.  

So as I review the characteristics of a white supremacy culture that Tema Okun delineated as showing up in our schools and organizations, the one that hit me the hardest was a sense of urgency. I’ll admit that as an instructional coach, I have pushed urgency. I’ve seen many lessons that take too long to get started; the idle time results in student restlessness and leads to many having a hard time getting on-task. I encourage teachers to keep instructions short, crisp, and whenever possible, get right to the task.  In one of my 2019 blogposts, I recommended that teachers “use countdowns for transitions, to create a sense of urgency, while allowing for variation in how long it takes kids to start - or finish- something. 'We’ll get started in 3, 2, 1….' 'Return to your seats in 10, 9, 8'”. Is that the kind of urgency that characterizes a white supremacy culture? It’s time to take another look at all these recommendations.

Tema Okun’s descriptors of a sense of urgency and the antidotes she recommends seem to focus on the leadership level, which sometimes apply to classrooms but not always. That said, a “continued sense of urgency…makes it difficult to take time to be inclusive, encouraging… thoughtful decision-making, to think long-term, to consider consequences, or learn from mistakes.” So what about urgency in the classroom? How do we ensure that we are maximizing student learning, with opportunities to both teachers and students to be thoughtful and learn from mistakes? And how do we balance the tension between the finite time we have, while also, as Okun says, recognizing “that things take longer than anyone expects”, even, or perhaps especially, in a classroom? The last thing we want to do as teachers is plow through a lesson plan, or a unit plan, without regard for where students are, especially those students who have been most underserved by our schools in the past.

And what about timers and count-downs? At the beginning of this year, I made a commitment to thoughtfully review my past recommendations for teaching and learning, especially those that relied on the work of Doug Lemov and Teach Like a Champion 2.0. In “Work the Clock,” Lemov writes, “Measure time--your greatest resource as a teacher--intentionally, strategically, and often visibly to shape both you and your students’ experience.” In that section, he recommends precisely those strategies that I have long used and recommended for teachers: using timers for tasks like the Warm-up, and using countdowns for transitions. 

I asked Joe Truss for his thoughts on urgency in the classroom, and here’s what he said: 

“We always feel pressed for time, in life and at work. Therefore we look for ways to be efficient, work smarter and sometimes that means cutting corners. In the classroom, this urgency can lead to pressure on students to complete tasks, be compliant, or simply break under the pressure. We must challenge Lemov’s notion that “time is your greatest resource.” It’s not time. It’s relationships and connections. That is the true currency in the classroom, the wood that keeps the fire burning, and facilitates student learning. If we allow ourselves to center relationships with our students, we prioritize interest, inquiry, joy, learning, and all the things we signed up for. At times these are in direct opposition to the crunch of time, the number of standards, and a prescribed scope and sequence. Instead of buckling under this pressure of misalignment, we have to ask ourselves what truly matters, what will shift student learning, and how we can make choices to change outcomes for students. Of course time matters. But learning, relationships, and engagement matter much, much more.” 

I stand by my recommendation to use the routines of timers and count-downs, and to, watch the clock. But to Joe’s point, I offer this caveat:  we need to ensure that we’re not keeping it movin’ so fast that we don’t see or hear our students. That same Boston school where I learned many of the tools in my instructional bag embodied a belief that all school-based learning is predicated on students’ feeling connected, competent, and contributing. So yes, keep it movin’. But first, develop solid relationships and community of learners. Second, make sure each and every student has an access point in that lesson and that they can participate in the learning. If you're watching the clock, and you know your students, you can see in a given moment that it isn’t working for kids. Then it’s time to pause. Time isn’t the only thing we measure; we also measure engagement, learning and students' feelings of safety. And if your pacing isn’t resulting in the engagement, learning or sense of safety that you expect from each and every student,  you need to slow down. 

For Further Reading

Reflect, Learn, and Be an Anti-Racist Teacher

Starting the School Year with a Focus on Belonging

Last year, several BSD teachers, counselors, psychologists, and staff worked to create resources for teachers to focus on social emotional learning (SEL) and wellbeing during the first six weeks of school. Many of those resources can be found here, in the BSD SEL resource hub.

This comprehensive resource hub has activity suggestions for every grade level in order to intentionally build relationships with students that create a foundation for safe, supportive, and inclusive learning environments.

Here are a few resources you may find helpful as you build your own SEL toolkit:

• Inner Explorer (short audio-guided mindfulness exercises for transitions)
• Circle Scripts for Building SEL Skills
• Tier 1 Signature Practices (CASEL)
• Topic-Based Lesson Plans for SEL VT
• Daily Learning Dedications
• Along (digital reflection tool)
• 101 Inclusive Get-to-Know-You Questions for Students
• Greater Good in Education
• Adult Well-being Pulse Check

Free Professional Learning - Mini-Webinar

Check out these free educational webinars that are offered by The Transgender Training Institute

Some happen during the school day, but perhaps you're available.

• Celebrating Trans & Non-Binary Friends -Miniwebinar- 9/12/22, 2 - 2:30pm ET 
• Non-Binary Basics - Miniwebinar - 9/14/22, 3-3:30pm ET / 12-12:30pm PT
• Getting Comfortable with Pronouns - 9/14/22, 4-4:30pm ET/1-1:30pm PT
• Foundations: Beyond the Binary -10/12/22 3 - 4:30 PM ET | 12 - 1:30 PM PT
• Supporting Transgender Students Coming Out - 10/28/2022, 3:00 - 4:15 PM ET
• Gender Inclusion in Feminist Language -11/2/2022, 2:00 - 3:30 PM ET

Revisiting Teach Like a Champion

 As an instructional coach in a BSD middle school, I have intermittently blogged about teaching and learning. The gist is this: I choose a theme, summarize some of the experts’ findings, and provide a few specific strategies from the resources and/or my own experience that teachers can apply immediately. 

When I first became an instructional coach several years ago, I was given a copy of Doug Lemov’s Teach Like a Champion 2.0,  as was every teacher in my building. And I have relied heavily on it as a resource for both new and experienced teachers, when we’re looking to increase student engagement and learning in individual classrooms. My own copy is dog-earned, annotated, and full of sticky notes. I have frequently referred to, even quoted, excerpts of Teach Like a Champion in my blog posts; I have been a veritable peddler of many of the strategies it contains. 

Now I have a new role in the Teaching and Learning office for our district. Like all our middle and high school staff, I participated in a full-day launch of the professional learning that our district will center this year: anti-racist instructional practices and dismantling white supremacy culture. And so I’m taking a closer look at all of my practices through the lens of white supremacy culture.

I found the resource we were asked to read by Tema Okun to be particularly helpful in identifying the characteristics of a white supremacy culture and providing antidotes to mitigate the effects. And while I wasn’t completely surprised at the critique that Joe Truss, who is supporting our district in this work, made of Doug Lemov and Teach Like a Champion, I did feel it. As Sparks says, if you’re stomach ain’t churnin’ you’re not learnin’. The video excerpt that Joe chose from TLAC’s video bank sure did show some of the hallmarks of white supremacy culture: only one right way and “I’m the only one", to name a few. Joe argued, it seems, that the strategies I have actively promoted further entrench white supremacy culture in our schools. It gave me real pause; my stomach churned.

Part of me resisted, instinctively. Surely, there must be parts of Lemov’s work that are just plain good teaching. But I also know enough about that instinctive resistance to give it a careful look. And I know that others who have worked with me over the years are asking the same question. What about Teach Like a Champion? 

So I’m embarking on some self-study, going back through my old posts, the strategies I promoted, and looking carefully at them through the lens of dismantling white supremacy culture. I anticipate that I’ll discover some that show a need to learn and do better; I also anticipate finding some that I’ll continue to posit have legitimate pedagogical value. I commit to not fall prey to either or thinking and to check my own defensiveness about the work that I have loved. I hope you’ll join me. 

For Further Reading

Teach Like It's 1895

www.dismantlingracism.org

Schoology Thank you!

Happy end of the year!

6-12 educators: This is a quick letter acknowledging the incredible effort and hard work you all have put into this year with the new implementation of Schoology. Thank you, thank you, thank you. 

Thank you for giving all of your efforts to support students and families with this tool. We are grateful for your collaboration and continued work to use this tool effectively for teaching and learning. 

Since we started using Schoology as a 6-12 team in August,

• BSD staff and students have logged in over 700,000 times to Schoology.

• Staff have created over 25,000 assignments with over 100,000 submissions.

• Students have submitted over 23,000 assessment submissions.

• Families have accessed Schoology to view student progress nearly 10,000 times.

• Over 300 staff have accessed the Advisor Dashboard to support student progress, view assignments and see updated teacher feedback. 

We also wish to acknowledge the challenges that have come with using a new Learning Management System during a pandemic. We are actively planning on implementing streamlined systems and leveraging tools within Schoology more efficiently for the next 22-23 school year. 

Seeking your feedback: As we look ahead to next year, we welcome your feedback! Please share your thoughts, questions and concerns with us through the Spring ‘22 Ed Tech Reflection Survey. This survey takes about 10 minutes to complete. If you have additional feedback for us, please do not hesitate to reach out. 

Self paced course: We will be sharing information about an optional, “skill-booster” self-paced course this summer. This self-paced course will be similar to courses shared last summer- a completely optional opportunity to boost your skill levels within Schoology.

We hope you have a smooth end of the year. 

The Tech Integration team

Students as School Design Consultants, Guest Post by Flexible Pathways Lead Teacher, Dov Stucker

As a place-based program,

Burlington City & Lake Semester (BCL) always seeks projects that can only be done right here, and right now. The program leans into whatever issues are clear
and present, bringing student voices into authentic community decision-making. Over the past few years, BCL students have consulted with city professionals on urban design (e.g., Moran Frame), City Hall initiatives (e.g., Burlington’s Equity Report and BTVStat), and policy dilemmas (e.g, the BPD’s police practices). 

In the Spring of 2022, the clearest call for student engagement and impact was the process of redesigning school itself. Not surprisingly, students didn’t need to be convinced that this particular topic is relevant. After all, they are inherent experts on the BHS/BTC 2025 Project, since they are its end-users. 

On the morning of February 16th, 22 students met with more than 15 community partners at the BCA Center on Church St., where they collaborated on five simultaneous design challenges. Together, the group deliberately leveled the typical power hierarchy between young people and adult partners, which yielded an expansive reimagining of what school could be. Even more radical, it unfolded through play. Each small group worked with markers, pipe cleaners, and legos, designing learning environments that embodied one of three core values. Together, we used a “what if” mindset to invite new possibilities: What if school was designed for wellness, for belonging and connection, or based on learners’ interests?

At the convening, we established a culture of curiosity and collaboration.

As soon as we broke into design groups, ideas flowed…

...new insights surfaced…

...and the empowerment was palpable. 

It was really fun to work with community partners as equals and to be able to all have a say in our design. All of the designs for schools were really interesting and preferable to the school system now. Many groups said that school should be a place that students want to go. Why hasn’t the school system changed? Why does it stay the same even when so much is changing in the world? 

~Anders

During our design project with my group, there was so much flow and creativity and art, and everyone’s brains were working together. I really enjoyed it, and felt very connected to the community partners we worked with.

~Elodie

I like how the community partners joined us as if they were students. This way, we got insights from different groups and people…I also like how when we considered what makes a good school, we brainstormed through experiences and what we have seen. We won’t be experiencing the new BHS as students, but we get to say that we were an important part of building it for the next generations. A lot of us have younger siblings who will attend this new school too, so we need everyone’s voice in the community to make sure that we make a strong, welcoming school for everyone. 

~LJ

Director of Property Services, Marty Spaulding, offers context about designing learning environments. 

Architect Nathalia Ellis listens as Adrien shares his insights.

A typical student spends 8,884 hours over nine years at school. There are a variety of subjects, and people; everything should be welcomed. It should have both outdoor and indoor activities. The school should be a communal space where each kid has an equal environment to roam. There are many varieties of learners and types of learning. I think schools should be equipped for everyone…and be made for all learners.

~Pheonix

Students can feel connection and belonging when their values matter. If the school had a room that focused on mental health, for example a meditation room, that would be good for kids who feel stressed and need some time to relax. The school should also have big windows that let in natural light because natural light just overall makes everyone happier. Outside learning should also be in the design because students are more creative when they are in an outside setting. 

~Adrien

Everything matters when it comes to education. Not only does it count what subject matter you’re learning, but it matters the environment in which you’re learning… School should be a place where learners thrive. It should not be a place that feels hostile or draining…or a place where I dread going. But I believe and hope that we can change school and education so that it evolves.

~Chenoa

For more student quotes and insights, check out these two BCL Blog posts: Reimagining School,  and What BHS Should Be

Ed Tech Professional Learning Activities for Summer 2022

Summer is a great time to reflect, recalibrate, and think ahead about our goals and plans for the next school year.  As we know that educational technologies will continue to be a part of our instructional framework, many of you may be interested in pursuing some form of professional development in this area this summer . 

Please see below for suggestions for ed tech professional learning. An online course or webinar series will provide certificates and documentation of hours that you can provide to our Local Standards Board as you normally would for recertification credit. If you choose to pursue a self paced option (such as the Google or WeVideo or other certifications) you will need to document your professional learning hours and have them “approved”  by Stephanie Phillips before submitting to the LSB. 

We are including the Professional Learning Documentation Frame here for your use. Please note that the frame contains additional prompts from the VSBPE approved guidelines for submitting Professional Learning for Teachers. The description and impact statements come directly from and can be copied and used when submitting your professional learning activity for review. 

This information and list below is also referenced in the BSD E-Learning Guidelines for Faculty and Staff

---

Schoology Self Paced Course Information (for staff in grades 6-12)

Keep an eye out for “Schoology Next Level” self-paced course offering for the summer 2022. This optional, self-paced course will be available in June for staff who are interested in taking their Schoology skills to the next level. Additional information will be shared in late June! 

Self-paced and Traditional Online Courses, Webinars & Conferences:  

Apple Professional Learning Events- Free, 60 Minute Sessions, Designed for Participants Using iPads. Topics such as Learning with Augmented Reality, Elevating Critical Thinking and 

Starting Apple Teacher Journey (linked to May 2021 Schedule).

Become an Apple Teacher- Self-paced lessons to learn iPad specific skills. Free, requires  creation or use of an Apple ID to login and complete lessons, take quizzes and acquire badges and ultimately, your Apple Teacher certification. 

Become a Book Creator Certified Author and then join the Ambassador Program.

Champlain Valley Educator Development Center Summer Offerings (Including Math Differentiation, Creative School Design): https://www.cvedcvt.org/

Code.org: Self Paced Modules designed to help you learn and teach Computer Science Fundamentals, Principles, Discoveries and AI and Machine Learning to students in grades k-12. All Code.org materials are free to educators with a Code.org account.

Common Sense Education Digital Citizenship Professional Development: Register for upcoming webinars, view previous or participate in the following 1 hour courses (must create an account with CSE): Teaching Digital Citizenship and Protecting Student Privacy.

Ditch That TextBook Awesome Summer PD Choice Board:https://ditchthattextbook.com/summer-pd

Includes webinar, training and certification links to instructional tools like FlipGrid, Google Meet, Kahoot,Seesaw and others as well as consideration of topics like Student Mental Health and Teaching with Sustainable Development Goals (updated for 2022).

EdTechTeacher Summer Virtual Workshop Series: https://edtechteacher.org/summer/ 1 and 2 week webinar series $95 and $159 respectively.

Google Teacher Center:https://skillshop.exceedlms.com/student/catalog/list?category_ids=3940-teacher-center Browse Google’s free self paced options including the Fundamentals ,  Advanced  and Chromebook Trainings, as well as  Tools for Diverse Learners and Supporting English Language Learners. Earn your Google Certified Educator Levels 1 and/or 2 by taking the respective exams ( $ fee)

Google Classroom: 6-8 week online course with a flexible start date (June 16, July 21, August 18) that includes pedagogical foundations of online/blended teaching and many other Google tools.. Anticipated 45+ hours. Cost $240 and is tuition reimbursement eligible. Prepares you to take the Google Certified Educator Level 1 exam. Local instructor: Dr. Russel Willis from globalclassroom.us

ISTE LIVE 22 Live (New Orleans) and Virtual Conference June 26-29th. Empowering Educators, Elevating Equity https://conference.iste.org/2022/

ISTE Summer Learning Academy June 28-October 14,2022 http://summerlearningacademy.iste.org/ (64$)Self-paced courses, live or recorded webinars, expert-led community of practice including topics such as Online teaching strategies

Designing for inclusion,Supporting student well-being, Student-driven learning, Project-based learning, Introduction to the ISTE Standards, Game-based learning, Learning sciences, Open educational resources... and more!

ISTE U Essential Topics for Educators (Pedagogy First): https://www.iste.org/learn/iste-u Topics, start dates, credits and costs vary by course. Courses available year round.   ISTE U Short Courses are 3-5hrs, self paced and $49-$65.  ISTE U courses are 15-30hrs Instructor Led and $99-$299.

Scratch Conference (virtual) July 21, 2022. an online gathering for educators interested in creative learning with Scratch! This year's theme will be "What will you create?"

Seesaw Connect:  free, on-demand virtual conference available to ALL Seesaw educators July 25-29, 2022 Learn more and register early to save your spot! 

SeeSaw Pioneer Program :https://web.seesaw.me/pioneer-program Become a Seesaw Pioneer to jumpstart your Seesaw community journey and learn within a supportive group of educators. Seesaw Pioneers have conquered the Seesaw basics and are ready to take the next step to grow alongside others.

WeVideo Creator Community : https://www.wevideo.com/education-community  fun activities, training, lively conversations, epic rewards and the opportunity to build skills and earn certifications

VitaLearn Online Courses: In partnership with the Texas Computer Education Association (TCEA), Vita-Learn is excited to offer over 30 Self-Paced Online Courses! Self-paced, online courses built for educators like you. Our goal is to give people a series of experiences and learning opportunities that are self-paced.

 

Vermont Higher Education Collaborative (VTHEC): 

Technology Integration: Improving Educational Practices with Technology (3 credit grad course)

All courses

---

Podcasts

Pick and choose from earlier podcasts and /or subscribe to current episodes to stay up to date on pedagogy, best practices and ed tech tips:

The Balance: Catlin Tucker https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-balance-by-dr-catlin-tucker/id1485751335 

The Chromebook Classroom: John Sowash https://www.chrmbook.com/podcast-home/ 

The Creative Classroom: John Spencer http://www.spencerauthor.com/podcast/

Cult of Pedagogy: Jennifer Gonzalez https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/category/podcast/ 

Easy Ed Tech: Monica Burns https://classtechtips.com/category/podcast/ 

Educational Duct Tape Podcast: Jake Miller https://jakemiller.net/eduducttape/ 

The Innovator's Mindset George Couros: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-innovators-mindset-the-podcast/id1155968930 

Shifting our Schools: Jeff Utecht https://sospodcast.org/

The Ten-Minute Teacher: Vicki Davis https://www.coolcatteacher.com/podcast/