Accelerating Instructional Technology Derek Oldfield

This was a powerful episode! It won't take long to realize these are two dynamic educators. I'm so grateful to get to meet with Hilary and Josh. Click play and listen to the whole episode. You'll be encouraged and I bet you'll take something positive away from their insights. 

Talk about how you, or how your department, worked together last summer to help prepare for this crazy school year.

Share some strategies you employed that you feel helped develop that sense of community that many felt was challenging due to obvious circumstances this year.

Are there any technology tools that have been game-changers for you and your kids this year?

Is there anything you've picked up from remote teaching that you feel will translate well once we return to "normal"?


2:00 - Talk about how you, or how your department, worked together last summer to help prepare for this crazy school year. 
3:00 - Standards work
6:40 - How did you build a sense of community?
10:00 - Josh's landing page he displays as students are entering his meetings
15:30 - Are there any technology tools that have been game-changers for you and your kids this year? 
16:30 - Schoology Assessments and Hilary's journey into a paperless classroom
18:00 - IXL for ELA
21:00 - MOTE, the Chrome extension for audio feedback
23:30 - Gimkit
25:30 - "the way I grade my students..."
32:10 - The power of multimodal content

In this episode I interview Kelly Church, a long time physical education teacher and boys basketball at Hedgesville High School. Kelly and I chat about the current circumstances most teachers are facing, how to combat the mental and emotional toll, and what he's doing to connect with his kids. Here's a link to the self-assessment doc that I spoke about in the episode. 

Mr. Knepper and I discuss the tremendous challenges and impacts these unique circumstances have had on his band and extra-curricular activities, in general. We wrap up the episode discussing some hopes for the future of education beyond this pandemic.