A site to support Anglo teachers to share, learn, and use digital technology to create innovative learning opportunities for our students.
Classroom Management Tips
TIP#1
HAVE STUDENTS PLAN FIRST
Students need to plan how are they using digital technology and what for. This provides a sense of purpose, ignites creativity, collaboration, and gives them a realistic perspective of the steps they need to consider to develop their project/activity. This factor can minimize distraction significantly.
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Experience suggests that teachers who plan these moments in their lessons have better chances of integrating digital technology successfully. We should not assume students know beforehand the steps to develop digital projects.
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Several classrooms have writeable walls, you can also use recycled materials, or normal whiteboards to do this activity. Planning first puts the focus on understanding and thinking and not on technology.
TIP#2
teach ICT as CONCEPTS
Reducing the use of digital tools to practical tasks is common practice. However your student's learning and understanding will be better if you approach the use of digital technology from the conceptual side.
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This means teaching your students the underlying concept or purpose of digital tools. Students can learn for example, that Excel, is a spreadsheet program, designed to process, graph and make sense of data, to accomplish a specific goal or change something. The concept beneath spreadsheets would be: data and information processing. Other examples:
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Tools
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Video/sound editing apps
Word processing/publishing
Backchannels
Spreadsheets
Interactive products
Concept mapping apps
Graphic design apps
Video games (Minecraft Education)
Google maps
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Concept​s
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Communicating effectively with media/audiovisual language
Communicating with text and images
Visible thinking
Data processing
Connecting elements effectively
Visual planning/thinking and brainstorming
Creating new solutions
Learning in a immersive context
Location anywhere and virtual trips
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TIP#3
be flexible
It is highly recommended to have some previous experience with the digital tools you are going to ask your students to use. Some teachers share the learning objectives and the final product they expect, and they let students choose the tools to create it. There is no formula here. We recommend you have some idea in advance what is possible to create with different apps and tools, but do not limit yourself or your students if you do not know everything.
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Children and young people often approach digital technology fearlessly. They tend to find out unpredicted features and functionality. It is important to take advantage of this. Teachers rarely have the time to explore a new app in depth, however you can have your students sharing with the class the new features they have discovered, and create a "learning community" where everyone's digital knowledge and skill grows including your own. We suggest you make time to do this.
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You can request training and support in your lessons anytime. Learn more.
TIP#4
make sure your students know which digital skills they are learning
You can publish in your Google Classroom stream or in your classroom walls the digital skills students will be learning or practicing during your project or lesson. This helps students approach technology more formally and self-evaluate the way they used digital tools.
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We recommend giving students a checklist where they can "mark" when they master a specific skill. They should be the ones doing this. As an IB school, students do not have formal ICT lessons, so ideally they are expected to learn digital skills in every lesson. If you are unsure how to do this checklist, ask for support from the digital learning coaches. You can also use the indicators listed in ICT Scope and Sequence, regardless of the grade. See the ICT Scope and Sequence of your section's page.
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An example of a checklist:
TIP#5
be on top of things: monitor student devices
You have the possibility of monitoring what your students are doing with their iPads. We have in place a system in which Primary and Secondary teachers can see what their students are doing. Additionally, teachers can deploy content to student iPads, open apps, or have students use a specific website. You need your iPad, the Mosyle and the Apple Classroom app.
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We recommend you get used to keep this app open, so your students know you are monitoring them. We are teaching in the era of distraction, and although we have control over school-owned iPads and student owned iPads, some kids struggle to stay on task. Videos and memes are a very common distraction during lessons.
The key here is consistency. It is important you make sure the system works for you, so do not hesitate asking for support whenever you are planning for your students to use their iPads. A technician or coach can be present during your lesson, to make sure everything works in order.
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Learn here how to monitor student devices.
TIP#6
create opportunities to share
Give your students the opportunity to connect their devices to the main projection system and share what they are doing. This makes a difference in the quality of their work, and makes what they are doing available and visible. If you teach with iPads, you can have any student connecting to the Apple TV in your classroom.
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Most G8-11 students bring Apple laptops to school. This means they can also connect easily to projection systems in the classrooms. We are not suggesting you do this every single lesson, however there should be opportunities to do this, and for students to learn from each other, and share their learning/work with the class using the technology available in classrooms.
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