The end of the calendar year is a great time to reflect, set goals, and wrap up any projects of the past. The end of the semester brings about finality and allows for time to celebrate great work while also looking to get new energy into a fresh semester.
This semester, I wanted to consider what teachers needed to wrap up a semester while also helping them prepare for another transition into a new semester. To make bite-sized PD festive, I played on the 12-Days of Tech-Mas pun popularized by many instructional and technology coaches on the interwebs.
For me, the focus is to promote fast, fun, and practical tips. From using Canva templates to reorganizing Gmail, this quick PD project also features tips I had previously shared with teachers. The frequency of communication and the timing of the message are both important factors when delivering that information. Ultimately, I hope teachers feel comfortable accessing support, have opportunities to explore new ideas, and feel comfortable communicating with students.
At the end of the semester, creativity is necessary!
We all feel a degree of burnout at the end of a busy semester. Tech tools can be a quick and festive way to infuse creativity without requiring extreme talent in the arts. Canva is one of my favorite tools that help make documents, presentations, and multimedia messages incredibly professional in a fast way. This resource is intuitive, offers thousands of templates to editing tools, and provides a free educator account that gives access to even more features! I love using this tool to enhance my LMS, and documents. I even love teaching students to use it, too. Another great tool for adding flair to assignments is Joy Pixels. This extension allows users to add emojis to emails, LMSs, and can even be used to organize resources and documents. I use this tool to create signature attention lines in my emails, which makes finding resources I share easier to identify, bookmark, and save. These two tools are amazing and tools that I use every day to make work more festive.
Communication is critical as grades begin to finalize, too.
Communication becomes vital when we are all cramming work and grading into the final few days of a semester. Leveraging one's LMS is the best way to keep communication efficient, direct, and clear. In Canvas, I love the "Message Students Who" feature that allows teachers to filter and send quick messages to students who need to turn in work, revise, or should be celebrated for great work. These filters are fast and make frequent communication easy. In my district's gradebook, Skyward, I can create automated messages to communicate with parents and students regarding grades and progress reports. These tools serve as documentation and reliable ways to inform every stakeholder.
I also love leveraging features in Gmail that allow me to organize my communication from priority inboxes to the snooze feature; I can sort and arrange for emails to appear when I need them. These organizational features also allow this communication tool to become a to-do list.
Finally, technology can be used to plan ahead.
Setting up for the next semester (or even just the first week back after a break) can ease minds during a two-week hiatus from school. The more prepared a teacher is, the less anxiety one might feel after returning from the holidays. For my district, setting up Canvas courses is a popular way to feel ready for a new year. Whether building out a course in an LMS, printing out lesson plans, or simply creating a to-do list, getting ready for a new year is a great excuse to close a Chromebook and enjoy some much-deserved rest and relaxation.
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