10 New Teaching Ideas That Surface Over Thanksgiving Break!

Yes. I am obsessed with the craft of teaching. I think about it constantly. Thus, in addition to the incredible time with family ands friends that the Thanksgiving holiday offers (mixed in with writing college letters of recommendation), I found myself using the time to revisit list of "potential ideas"  I gather throughout the semester. 

Things I see online, in conversation, at conferences, spying on other teachers, etc., etc., etc. Things that I want to integrate into my practice, daydream about leveraging, or need to improve upon. In an L-tryptophan haze, I  spent the Friday after Thanksgiving digging through my lists, and curating 10 new ideas I want to integrate into my practice: ​

1. Use Editey as student portfolio creator to encourage simultaneous web editing skills and content curation.
2. Create a google sheet with formulas and share using "/copy" trick for students to track their own grades.
3. Encourage students to use Trello to manage PBL tasks in robotics class and on the robotics team.
4. Make puzzles out of complex diagrams (e.g., Mitosis)  to encourage concept connection and reinforcement.
5. Revisit  my old standards based grading system to avoid current micromanaging of grades.
6. Calendly. I'm sure there is a use for this with student project organization and management.
7. Share Twist Bioscience with Biology students as entry point for ethical debate.
8. Translate a writing feedback protocol such as this into a project feedback protocol in science class.
9. Challenge students to hack their own Hyperduino project without explicit instructions in robotic class.
10. Use the OPI process in science, rather than language class, as an alternative assessment method.