Whether you're teaching digitally, in-person, or a combination of both this article focuses on an area that has been debated for year.  Is homework important or not? 

​Homework has been part of school culture for decades.  However, just because it's always been done, it doesn't mean it should continue.  Let's take a look at a few questions to help us determine if homework should still have the importance it once had within your classroom.

Flipgrid is one of the first ed tech programs that I used to enhance student engagement within my classroom.  The video feature allowed my 5th grade students to show their understanding in a different way.  For many of them, it was also a lot more fun than traditional pencil and paper responses.  The few who struggled quickly got over seeing themselves in a video and soon learned to love it too.  Besides providing engagement opportunities, it was also easy for teachers and students to use. 

There are so many ways you can use Flipgrid to engage your students.  Here are just a few of those ways:

• Tell Your Answer: Students explain how they came to their math answer using the appropriate math vocabulary terms.  This is a great way for students to demonstrate math reasoning.
• Summarize It/All About the Details: Students summarize literature or explain the main idea and important details of informational text.  If students have less than 30 seconds to respond it will help them learn to only include the most important parts.
• Start/Finish the Story: Students start or finish a story.  This is a great way for students that struggle with writing to have a different way to express themselves.
• How Do You Feel: Students respond to media (images, gifs, videos, etc.) and share their feelings.  This is great for Social Emotional Learning time.
• What's the Outcome: Students explain what they think the outcome of a science experiment will be.  This can be followed up with a topic where students explain if their hypothesis was correct and the steps they completed with the experiment.  They can also do a demonstration of the experiment.
• X Marks the Spot: Students use an online map to show the impact a location has on history.  Flipgrid's screen recorder feature is a great tool within a Social Studies/History classroom.

​Do you have any other ideas you'd like added to this post?  Make sure to include them in the comments below.

If you've never used Flipgrid before or need a refresher on how to create topics, make sure to check out the videos below.

In my family, Thanksgiving is generally a time of reflecting on what we're thankful for and a time to relax and enjoy each other's company.  As we are quickly approaching that season I can easily think of a huge list of things I'm thankful for, however, as an educator who is employed during COVID, I'm most thankful that I almost burned out about seven years ago. 

You might think, why is she thankful for almost burning out?!?  It's simple; without that experience I wouldn't be an educator that can handle the stressors of 2020 as easily.  It helped me mature and gain a better understanding of ways to avoid burn out in the future.

Educator burn out is a real thing.  The stress of teaching and personal problems can become too overwhelming.  Many educators are facing the burn out battle right now with the uncertainty of the future and the stress of the changes in education COVID has created.  From my previous experience with almost burning out I learned a few important tips.