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...

If you’re a teacher with or without ADHD, you know the importance of finding tasks that not only help you stay productive but also give your brain that rewarding dopamine hit. 🧠✨ The key is to match those tasks with how you naturally feel motivated and appreciated . Hack your brain by applying a framework to your tasks for maximum dopamine hits: 💖 The 5 Love Languages : Describe how people experience and give appreciation. 💡 Clifton Strengths : Focus on individual talents and motivators. ⚠️ Decision fatigue and analysis paralysis are real! Here are some ideas to get you started: 🔋 Dopamine-Boosting Tasks by the 5 Love Languages 💬 Love Language 🔧 Examples of Dopamine-Boosting Tasks Words of Affirmation 💬 Make positive calls or emails home; write thank-you notes; keep a wins journal; post encouraging sticky notes. Quality Time ⏳ Schedule focused 1:1 check-ins; collaborate with colleagues...

  Quick wins for overwhelmed educators Let’s be honest: digital chaos creeps in fast—especially for educators juggling lesson plans, student emails, curriculum files, and a thousand open tabs. If your digital life feels more like a junk drawer than a well-organized toolbox, this one’s for you. Here are 6 quick and doable ways to start unboxing your digital life—one tiny task at a time. Set a timer, pick one, and give yourself 15 minutes. That’s it. Progress over perfection. 1. 🚫 Unsubscribe From 10 Emails Time: 1-3 minutes per day Search “unsubscribe” in your inbox. Unsubscribe from 10 email lists you don’t read. If you notice emails still coming through, use the UNSUBSCRIBE in at the bottom of the email or report the sender as SPAM. 💡 Try Unroll.Me or Gmail filters to clean faster. 2. 🗑️ Delete 100 Photos Time: 15 minutes Open your photo roll or Google Photos. Clear out blurry shots, screenshots, and duplicates. 📁 Make a “Favorites” album to preserve the best. ...

Some days, I feel like I’m juggling flaming swords while riding a unicycle—on a Zoom call. Generated with Firefly AI That’s life as a teacher with ADHD. People often associate ADHD with kids, daydreamers in the back of the class, impulsive behavior, or forgotten homework. But ADHD doesn’t disappear when we grow up. For many of us, it follows us into adulthood—and for some, it’s not diagnosed until we’re already deep into our careers. I’m one of those people. And I’m also a teacher. The Daily Challenges Teaching is a job that requires organization, multitasking, emotional regulation, time management, and attention to detail. You know, all the things that ADHD loves to mess with. Here’s what that can look like for me: 🧭 Planning paralysis. I can see all the possibilities, ideas, and resources. But choosing one direction and sticking to it? That’s the hard part. 🕳️🐇 Hyperfocus rabbit holes. I’ll spend three hours crafting the perfect lesson slide deck—only to realize I forgo...

Do you feel attacked when you open your To Be Graded list?   Nearly every online teacher has been in a situation where the grading inbox seems to be an avalanche of work that needs attention, feedback, and evaluation. There are even days when a teacher grades one assignment only to return to find the queue has grown by 5.  While most of the advice available begins with the beginning, course design, there are things a teacher can do TODAY to manage the load. Then, the teacher can find time to plan for the future, to minimize the storm of grading next semester. What to do TODAY: Wrangle the TBG Monster (To Be Graded): 1. Search for or scan for items that are easy to grade. Eliminate short assignments, assignments with rubrics attached, and anything that is for completion. Return any blank assignments, documents that are not shared, or other errors in submission. 2. Sort by Date: Feedback is most impactful when it is timely. If an assignment is more than 5 school days old, the st...

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 ...

 FERPA Defined FERPA stands for the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, a federal law in the United States that regulates the access to and protection of student educational records. It gives students and their parents the right to access, review, and control their educational records, and sets limits on the release of personally identifiable information from these records to third parties. In an Online Environment FERPA can be tricky in an online environment when teachers are communicating, screen sharing, or hosting group lessons. In a synchronous environment, teachers may have little control or even awareness as to who can hear their conversation. Here are a few tips to protect yourself and your students in regards to FERPA and student privacy: Communication Limit the amount of personally identifiable information (PII) shared in the email. This may include a student's name, address, Social Security number, grades, or other sensitive information. Be sure to only contact a...

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?

Proper creation of an online course involves hours of planning, design, and beta testing. Who has the time?  Finding a stock course to use in your online school is a godsend. While many quality courses are available at a variety of price points, virtually none will work in every course, every time.  Furthermore, research shows that the ability to both use stock courses AND modify them are key elements of quality online teaching. When studying teacher-student engagement, Borup and Graham cited minor "tweaks" to the purchased curriculum as being significantly important to maximizing teacher satisfaction. Some of the most common tweaks were reorganizing units, adding school policies, or customizing an assignment for a specific student. Teachers without the ability to modify their courses felt disconnected from the learning process.  As important as customization is, it often overwhelms already busy teachers. Furthermore, when courses are likely to be updated or refreshed ev...