Gamification Lite in Schoology

It's easy go get into a routine in both physical and digital classrooms, but sometimes all that you need to increase the energy and engagement in the class is just to rethink how you frame a lesson. Recently, I did a gamification of a lesson in Schoology. Gamification means that you are doing something during the learning process - for a student or PD - that has components of games. It can be points and badging or choosing your own adventure. Sometimes the commit to create or implement these lessons is a bit to much. So how can you use some gamification when you either don't have the time or want to just test out the waters?

It's all about framing the lesson. We were in the midst of a Photoshop unit with my students the week before Thanksgiving. Students had been asking me how they could remove things from photos the weeks before so I decided to incorporate those skills with a Thanksgiving theme and frame it in such a way there were gamification qualities. Students were given a mission: save turkeys by camouflaging photos of turkeys with patch and stamp tools. I created a mission, a social component where fellow students "hunted" for the camouflaged birds, and then a vote at the end on who was the best at camouflaging turkeys. Students even earned a gif badge named "Turkey-tastic!" with a roving turkey. The ridiculousness of a turkey gif was a huge hit with my 7th graders.

The set up of a mission takes maybe 1-2 minutes extra of what would be the normal directions:

The Schoology magic in this case really came from my ability to unpublish the folder that had all the images of the turkeys (Step 2) after students had downloaded their assigned image. When it is a game, people want to win and even when playing a video game people use cheat codes or leaked walkthroughs.

I also disabled the Step 5 turkey hunt until the majority of students had uploaded. Again, to keep anyone from trying to be tricky. I LOVE how easy it was to toggle these things on and off for each class. I spent maybe 1-2 minutes turning them off each period so a grand total of 10-15 minutes maybe?

Don't forget your badge! It seems so simple but the kids really do love it. It took me maybe all of 2 minutes to make and assign.



So there you have it, add in some gamification elements into your course in under 20 minutes and watch the students forget they are learning.

Learned Helplessness and Blended Learning: Removing the Teacher as Crutch

Before I began my Blended Learning Journey, I knew I would have to combat learned helplessness since some go immediately to the teacher to ask questions of what to do or how to do something.

In a blended learning classroom some of the instruction, including directions, is online, so I figured I'd see an uptick in questions directed my way that were not content-related. Preemptively, before they begin their stations or online work, I remind them: "Ask 3 before me: group/partner, directions, Google" 

However, I wasn't quite prepared for the level of helplessness some students exhibit. I'll have students call me over and ask "What do I do?" When I ask if they have read the directions or watched the direction video, I'm gobsmacked when they tell me "no" and then look at me, waiting, I assume, for me to tell them what to do.

Now, I'm all for helping students who need other ways of receiving directions or need me to reword directions. That is part of differentiation and differentiation is why I believe so strongly in blended learning. But I also know my campus mission: We will prepare every child to become independent, growth-minded servant leaders. That I build up that child's capacity to be independent is a key part of his or her future success.

It is my job, then, as an educator to respond to a child with the cognitive process that I want the child to internally adopt. Therefore, I've learned to change the question I ask. Instead of "Have your read the directions and asked a peer?" I'm asking: "How can you figure it out? What resources in Schoology can help you?"

And guess what? My students who were chronic "What do I do?" students are starting to make the shift! It's taking a little time for them to figure out when they need to ask to get support versus when their asking is actually causing a hindrance, but we are getting there.

What do you do in your class to grow independent learners?

Moving Toward Mastery: Schoology Test/Quizzes Options

The point of grades is not to put grades in the grade book anymore than the point of school is to get A's. Assessments provide feedback to both teachers and students. For teachers, we take the feedback to be responsive in our lessons and reteach and reengage depending on that data. But what is it we want students to do with this feedback? 

Sometimes we are so focused on using assessments as teachers we can lose sight of what we want students to do: learn. Therefore, I purpose utilizing some of the settings in Schoology to provide feedback to students so they can get immediate feedback on their learning and reenter the assessment to correct mistakes that way they are working toward mastery.

Oral Administration in Schoology

Some of my students have accommodations for oral reading. I am loving Schoology's ability to record my voice for them.

Litterarti App for Green Initiatives (plus a padlet hack for younger students)

The idea behind Litterarti is simple: see litter? Take an artistic picture of it, share, and then throw the piece of litter in the recycle bin or trash bin depending on what it is.

This is an awesome app to promote during April, on Earth Day, or by the school's green club.

I was so excited when I heard about this from Katy Noelle Scott at ISTE 2017. I quickly looked at the user agreement and saw it was for 13+, which means I can't use it at my middle school. So I came up with a Padlet hack that not only works across all devices without an app to install, but also can let me moderate the images.

To make the Padlet, I created on in my account. You can even use the shelf feature if you want grades to compete against one another or just to organize the data.

In settings, I made sure the most recent was first.

Under the Share feature, I toggled on moderation. This would prevent pranksters from posting anything scandalous. (See image below)

Directions were included at the top. You can easily put a link on the school website, as a QR code, and/or customize a Tiny URL to make it easy for students to post. Create a quick video of how to use it for the morning announcements and add some incentives, including sharing some of the best from that week on the announcements.

Classroom Resources Clarity in an LMS

The success of LMS depends in large part on how comfortable students - and parents - feel as they use it. Remember, students are your audience and anything you can do to help them will make the use of an LMS smoother. Here are three quick tips to facilitate buy-in from stakeholders specifically if you are using Schoology:

1. Organize Consistently

For each unit, use the same color coding for folders, nest folders in a consistent manner, and select "display inline" or "Display in a new page" in a consistent manner.

2. Label to Help Students

Folders, pages, discussion boards, and media albums can get a little confusing. Is the media album its own assignment? Part of the assignment above? Just a reference post? Use "STEP 1:" to clarify. If a media album and a page are both part of step 1. Don't forget to set completion rules to force students to complete tasks before going on to the next.

3. Explicitly Teach the Organizational Structure to Students

All of us are unique and the way you organize your units may be markedly different than that of other teachers. When teaching secondary, this can be especially confusing for students as they have to 5-7 other teachers who organize their courses uniquely. Create scavenger hunts, tours of units, and/or quick reference guides for students to give them a map to navigate your course. Allow access to video tours and quick reference guides on your school website for parents to access. Even if parents don't have their own access to your Schoology site, they are the ones helping their children at home.

Save Time with Schoology Save to Resource and Copy to Courses

Read below, watch video, or go directly to video here.

Problem: Having to update a course calendar year after year and/or remaking those digital assignment posts.

Solution: Schoology "Save to Resources" and "Copy to Courses"

When to use "Save to Resources"
If you are making a unit for the first time, it is best to save the entire unit folder to resources. You may want to wait until the unit is complete to save it. That way if you tweaked anything during the unit, you don't have to also update the resources version.

When to use "Copy to Courses"
If you have a pre-saved unit in resources, copy to all course where applicable. Don't forget to update due dates and the like!
If you are creating something in one course and you want to copy it over to different periods/sections, copy to the other periods/sections.

How to:
Outside of the resource (aka you'd have to click on it to access it), press the cog on the right and select save or copy. Drill down to find the right location.