Unboxing Education

A smooth start to the school year sets the tone for everything that follows,  especially in the online classroom . Whether you're new to virtual teaching or a seasoned pro, building trust , clarity , and connection early on pays off all year long. Here are three essential steps to help you start strong: ✉️ 1. Send a Welcome Letter That Connects Before students ever click into your LMS, send a warm, clear, and visually friendly welcome letter. Include: 👋 A brief personal introduction (with a photo, if you're comfortable) 📚 A simple overview of what to expect in your class 📬 Preferred communication channels & your response times 🔑 Login instructions and how to get started 🎥 Bonus: Add a short video greeting to help students feel connected, especially in asynchronous or self-paced programs. 📊 Fun fact: A 2014 study found that instructor-generated video content boosted student engagement and satisfaction in online higher ed courses. 🔥 Pro Tip: Use a m...

  Wait—before you clutch your annotated copy of To Kill a Mockingbird , let me explain. I’m not burned out. I’m not bitter. I still believe in the power of story and the necessity of critical thinking. I still light up when a student finally cracks open a book they claimed to hate—or when their writing hits that sweet spot of clarity and voice. But after years in the ELA classroom, I’ve come to a difficult but exciting realization: English class, as we’ve traditionally framed it, is too narrow for the kind of reading and writing students actually need. 📚 Reading and Writing Don’t Belong in a Silo We live in a world where language is everywhere—slippery, powerful, and inextricably connected to every subject. So why do we keep reading and writing corralled into “English class,” dissecting fictional texts and over-analyzing symbolism as if that alone builds literacy? I’ve seen what happens when we teach reading as a skill for English class , not a survival skill for life. S...

In virtual and asynchronous education, one of the most persistent challenges is keeping students on track without daily in-person check-ins. When learners fall behind, they can quickly become overwhelmed, especially when teacher oversight is limited. Enter AI-powered support tools. 🧠 Why AI in Pacing Matters As educators and instructional leaders, we can now customize AI tools to meet our students’ real needs. One simple yet powerful example? ✅ The AI-Powered Pacing Guide Generator This tool creates individualized learning schedules based on each student’s: ✅ Start date ✅ Course length ✅ Available work days 🛠️ What Is a Pacing Guide Generator? A pacing guide generator takes a few simple inputs (course content, end date, skipped days) and automatically produces a custom, student-friendly plan . With just a few lines of code, you can generate pacing guides directly into Google Docs or Google Sheets with minimal effort. 🎯 Use it once, reuse it forever. 💡 Why This Chan...

There’s No Magic Bullet in Virtual Instruction—and That’s a Good Thing When you started teaching virtually, you probably found yourself asking: "What’s the one tool, activity, or strategy that will finally reach all my students?" I hear it all the time as an instructional coach: “Just tell me the best way to...” But here’s the truth I always circle back to— There is no magic bullet in virtual instruction. And honestly? That’s not a problem. That’s the point. The virtual learning model is designed to give students personalized pathways,  not standardized experiences. That means it’s perfectly normal (and expected ) for students to take different routes to the same goal. As teachers, it’s our job to provide multiple access points, not one perfect solution. The Myth of “One-Size-Fits-All” In a traditional classroom, we’re already used to differentiation, but online, it can quickly feel overwhelming. It's not just about a conversation; it may be lesson design, 1 on 1 m...

 Freebie Alert: At the link below, find a tab with the ChatGPT prompt and a tab with the Blooket csv format. Template in Google Sheets Customize the provided prompt in ChatGPT to generate a table of questions. Copy the questions starting in 3B of the CSV template. Save CSV tab as a CSV >File>Download>Comma Separated Value Create Blooket Game Import Questions with Spreadsheet Import option Edit/Review Game and Save Have fun!

Conferences can be hard. You have: determined which students need support. communicated, usually multiple times, in order to find a time to meet. held a conference with parents/students/other staff. Now what? First, setting the conference up for success is important.  See my previous post on managing virtual parent/teacher conferences.  During the conference, keep the goal in mind. SMART goals, that is. With as much student input as possible, set a short-term goal that is measurable.  Next, consider these tips to ensure you get the most return on your efforts to meet with students. 1. Manage Your Communication.  Where possible, you want to build relationships with students. You do this by tracking previous conversations so that each meeting feels like a continuation of the relationship. I use several Google tools to manage my communication with students and families. Google Sheets: I use a Google Sheet to keep a list of my students. I use this list to email students ...

Tools Used: 1. ChatGPT 2. Canva     -Magic Design     -Bulk Create

  AI does not take the summer off! While many in education were relaxing at the beach or vegging out to Netflix in their PJs (or was that just me?), AI was plugging away, making developments that made so many of the policies and practices from Spring obsolete.  Once I finished my Netflix binge, I tackled the mountain of AI updates, tools, and trends that I had been bookmarking since June. Here is a round-up of what's new and worth reporting: Nolej Nolej recently released update 1.0. While I fear there may be a requirement to move to a paid plan soon, there is still a free version and it got some new bells and whistles. Most notably, I can now upload a graded quiz to my LMS using SCORM packages: Nolej still offers teachers the ability to create microlearning packages while limiting the AI to only the knowledge provided by the instructor, thus offering some guardrails that don't exist in AI at large Conker Conker has been my go-to for quick, AI quizzes, especially for reteaching...

  End-of-course surveys can give you valuable info so you can continue to perfect your course and your teaching. They support a growth mindset and allow for important reflection. 

  TL;DR: Prioritizing social-emotional health in the classroom is crucial for teachers and students, with a focus on health over grades. Teachers should take care of their own well-being to effectively support their students, as they cannot give what they haven’t mastered themselves. Poor social-emotional health among teachers negatively affects student outcomes, emphasizing the need for schools to prioritize teacher well-being, leading to better staff retention and improved student outcomes. SEL for Educators: Teachers are people, too. In the practice of social-emotional  health  in the classroom, school leaders and teachers need to prioritize social-emotional health before learning. We have a saying at my school that a student is a person first, and our priority is always health over grades. Teachers need to take care of their  own social-emotional health  before they can address that of their student s. It is often said that you cannot pour from an empty cup,...

 Incorporating student choice into assignments can increase engagement and show mastery of 21st-century skills.  A popular method for choice is a choice board. Choice boards give students parameters for demonstrating mastery of concepts but allow them choice in the final format of the assignment.  Check out a great Literacy Choice Board Here: This assignment demonstrates mastery in the following CCSS ELA Standard: CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.11-12.10 By the end of grade 11, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, in the grades 11—CCR text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.By the end of grade 12, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, at the high end of the grades 11—CCR text complexity band independently and proficiently. This link will take you to a Canva project that includes the slide above, a rubric, and step-by-step instructions for each project listed. Tools use...

 Mentally, I was drafting an update on how I'm handling AI in my virtual Britlish Lit class when I received this email: Click for GrammarlyGo Well, great.  That blurred the lines, didn't it?  Created with openart.ai Over the last few weeks, I've met with over a dozen students to discuss their use of ChatGPT. Surprisingly, they've all been honest about their use of AI to "help" them write assignments in Brit Lit.  Here is my process: 1. I sent all of my students a friendly "Don't be dumb with AI" message:                Dear {{First name}} So far this year, many new tools have become available using  artificial   intelligence  (AI) to assist in various tasks.  Depending on your age and with your learning coach's permission, you can no doubt find many helpful things out there. For instance,  Quickdraw  is a fun AI game, and Chefgpt.xyz generates recipes from ingredients you have on han...

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming the education landscape in many ways.  One of the most promising applications of AI in education is its ability to personalize learning through differentiation. Differentiation refers to the practice of tailoring instruction and assessment to meet the unique needs and abilities of each student. Traditionally, differentiation has been a labor-intensive process, requiring teachers to create and manage multiple lesson plans, assessments, and activities for each student. (Thanks, ChatGPT ) However, with the advent of AI, differentiation is becoming more efficient and effective. This video gives one example of differentiation in an asynchronous literature course for twelfth graders.  Start to finish, this lesson example took 30 minutes.  How are you using AI to differentiate instruction and encourage mastery learning?

  Here is a quick tip that has grown from my utilization of the robust tools in Canva . For this mashup, pair Canva with Bitmoji to create customizable feedback stickers. You can use digital stickers as feedback for online assignments, or even print them on sticker paper and cut them out to use on physical copies of assignments. Enjoy this personalized touch today! Bonus tip: If you have a Cricut machine, you can upload your stickers, use the offset setting, then print and cut to make even fancier stickers to use on student feedback and communication.

  Supporting students in a virtual environment goes by many names. Coaching mentoring or shepherding are all programs that have been instituted to provide the virtual student with that one key person within the virtual program that can offer them support and guidance. I often liken the mentor, as it is called in my program, to a guidance counselor as it is a person that can see a student's whole schedule and has regular contact with the student and the parents to communicate important information about the virtual program and to answer any questions that the student has. The mentor also communicates with the teachers when a student has an issue such as an extended illness that might impact their ability to work in their classes. Without a mentor, a student can get lost or overlooked in a program. Teachers may know a student is struggling in their class but may not realize that they're not working in any classes or may miss key information about that student's personal life....

  As the number of K-12 students taking online classes increases, the need for research to identify best practices specific to the online classroom becomes greater. Michigan and Florida, along with other states, require most students to take an online course in order to graduate. Moreover, students are electing to enroll in virtual schools for all of their classes, whether those schools be in their district or in a charter school, public or private. The chances are that a teacher entering the field today will, at some point, have the opportunity or obligation to teach in an online setting. The value of a great teacher is established and makes the need for best practices more urgent.  For teachers already teaching online, it quickly becomes apparent that while a few classroom strategies transfer to the virtual classroom, many do not. The available literature on the topic of teaching online centers around either higher education settings or blended learning models. Some new rese...

       While many studies point to the superior power of intrinsic motivation, every classroom teacher still reaches for rewards as a form of extrinsic motivation and rapport building. Classroom rewards don’t only offer motivation, but they offer a way to connect with students, especially if the rewards can highlight the personal interest of the students. Rewards can also offer a way to connect to a specific student's " love language ." By giving a tangible reward that reflects a student’s personal preferences, a teacher acknowledges that he or she has learned something specific about that student.       In the online classroom, it is tricky to connect with students in this way.  One of the first methods I developed was to send personalized birthday wishes. During the first week of school, I send the students a survey that asks them, among other things, about their birthday. Then, as responses come in, I schedule a Gmail message with a birthd...