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Booksnaps take a literacy twist to the idea of Snapchat! The idea is for students to use a digital tool to identify a portion of the text and share connections in a creative and meaningful way!  “A BookSnap is simply a digital, visual representation used to annotate and share reflections of an excerpt of a book or text.” (Martin, T, 2017 ) Why Booksnaps? Students can make meaningful and personal connections to the text. Provides students with flexible options for expressing understanding and thoughts. Helps students identify critically important parts of the text, illustrations, themes, etc.   How Do I Create a Booksnap?  The most effective tools for creating a Booksnap allow students to insert images, utilize annotation tools, and add audio/video. You can use a variety of tech tools, such as Flipgrid , Seesaw , and Book Creator.  Check out my helpful video below : No tech? No problem! Students can do many of the same things on a paper handout.  Step 1 - Take a Picture!   Have

 Fliphunts are digital scavenger hunts powered by Flipgrid and another tool like Google Docs.  Fliphunts are an amazing way to help students demonstrate their understanding of content in a highly engaging way! Whether students are at home, at school, or in a hybrid situation, they can showcase their understanding anytime and anywhere!  How Do You Create a Fliphunt? Check out my video below: What are the common elements of effective Fliphunts?  Fliphunts begin with a learning goal. Ultimately, you are providing students with an opportunity to demonstrate their understanding of a concept or content.  Tasks are often listed in a Google Doc, Word Document, Google Slides, etc.  Each task should be designed to meet your goal, which is often designed with varying degrees of difficulty.  Some Fliphunts can take the form of a list of tasks to be completed in order  Students record themselves performing tasks, answering questions, or finding clues  Many Fliphunts take a gamified approach and pro

 If you are a Google Classroom or other LMS user, then you know that increasing student engagement and participation in asynchronous discussions can be difficult for several reasons. What if we looked for ways to facilitate online discussion in creative, meaningful, and engaging ways?  Idea # 1 - Flexible Discussion Board When I was younger, I would struggle with writing my thoughts on paper. It was much easier to "speak" them than right them. If your goal is for students to reflect on a writing prompt, why not consider offering a few ways to respond? Here is an example of a Google Classroom discussion prompt, which provides students with two different response options:  Written response on Google Classroom Video response on Flipgrid If you cannot offer flexibility in the tool being used, it might be helpful to consider using a speech-to-text tool like Voice Typing in Google Docs or using a tool like Grammarly to help edit your student's writing.  Idea # 2 - Provide Stude

HyperDocs are an excellent way to connect learning with students in hybrid, face-to-face, or virtual learning environments. Want to learn how to create your own HyperDoc?  First, I would recommend visiting the HyperDocs.co website to get an idea of some of the templates and samples that are available for all teachers to use. Here is a sample HyperDoc on HyperDocs that I have created.  Want to see a step-by-step video on creating a HyperDoc ?     Next, I would make a copy of a template and begin putting together your HyperDoc. Here are a few things to think about: Workflow - how will you collect and distribute materials? How will students submit work to you? Google Classroom is a great tool for this.  Accessibility - how will you help students access learning and materials?  A good way to do this is to force a copy of the document  and add helpful video tutorials. Screencastify is a great tool for creating helpful videos.  Design - how will you create a document that is easy to navig