3 Tips for Making Virtual Office Hours More Effective
Many schools and educators are using 'office hours' to meet with students and set aside time to give them the extra help and one-to-one communication they need. You may think of office hours just being something that college professors use but they can be effective for high schools, and even middle schools as well. [...]
Competency-Based Education: Rethinking Grading Practices
Competency-based education focuses on student learning and mastery of skills, not seat time. Many schools have begun to, or have already shifted to this type of model. Students can benefit from competency-based education because it's more flexible, and ensures that they really learn a concept. It's not based on a traditional model where students [...]
Time for Change: Building Buy In
Is your school thinking of adding a flex period to its schedule, but struggling to get buy-in? And how do you find time in the school day for a flexible period when your schedule is already packed? When schools are looking to make changes to their schedule, these are often two major roadblocks. It can [...]
PLCs and Flex Time: A Strategy to Meet the Needs of All Students
How can teachers meet the needs of all students? It may seem like a daunting task.Teachers really want to help students. But, kids all have unique interests as well as socio-emotional and academic needs. In this post we'll look at how a school that functions as a real PLC, and incorporates regular flex time, [...]
Genius Hour, Reinvented
Genius Hour isn't a new concept. Schools take roughly an hour and allow students to work on something they really want to work on. It may be easier to do this in elementary schools than middle or high schools, when students are taking so many classes, where do you find the time? Some schools [...]
3 Reasons Not to Cut Your Flex Period This Year
Teachers are stressed. Parents are stressed. Students are stressed. The past few school years have been overwhelming for just about everyone. As schools have done their best to try to navigate how to safely give students the best learning experience they can, they’ve had to make some tough decisions.In many schools this has meant paring [...]