Managing Electronic Late Work

Figuring out your system for organizing online paperwork can sometimes take a little trial and error. This week, I had two teachers share how they keep their sanity with electronic late work, and when they showed me, I had one of those "Huh. Why didn't I think of that?" moments. Maybe you already have your method perfected. Maybe you did think of this. But just in case you didn't, I give you...the Electronic Late Work Form!

Overall, the teachers utilize the same process. There is a stack of little forms by the class turn-in tray. When a student turns in an assignment electronically, he/she also picks up one of the forms, takes two seconds to fill it out, and turns it into the tray. The form then serves dual purposes. First, it not only informs the teacher that the assignment was turned in, but also tells the teacher where it was turned in, which is probably the more important of the two. (Knowing it was turned in doesn't speed things up a whole lot if the assignment is aimlessly wandering the halls of Google High School.) Second, the form becomes a receipt for the student; after the teacher grades the assignment, she writes the "graded date" on the form before returning it to the student.

Here are both versions of the form that teachers said I could share with you. Version A is only available as a Word document because Google goofed up the formating. Version B is a little more elaborate and available as a Google Doc.

If you have another method to manage the digital madness, I'd love to hear about it. Please email me or leave a note in the comments.

Starting the New Semester...

It feels so strange to me that today officially marks the end of first semester and that we will all be off and running with second semester starting Monday. This new calendar is messing with my semester transition schema! As you look ahead to Monday and the start of the new semester, here are a few transition pieces for your perusal.


In 5 Tips for a Successful Second Semester, a teacher reflects upon a challenge he received after completing his first year of teaching: "How do you plan to improve next semester?" He shares five tips that helped him respond to that challenge.

Looking for a new way to set or review classroom expectations? Hang poster paper on the walls, each with a question important to how the classroom functions. (Examples: What does _____ look like? What rules help a classroom function more effectively?) At the start of the semester, arm students with sticky notes and have them add their responses to the poster paper. (This activity could easily be tweaked to fit other pieces throughout the semester, too! And, adding movement to the class period can positively impact student engagement and learning.)

In 7 Mid-School Year Reminders on Finishing Strong, an administrator shares (you guessed it!) seven helpful reminders for getting the second semester off to a better start and finishing the year well.

Spring and Summer Workshops at USF

The University of Sioux Falls offers numerous topics for personal professional development. If you are in need of graduate credits for a lane change or renewal credits for re-certification, USF offers both opportunities for their courses.

Some of the upcoming offerings that might be of interest include:

*Writing from Middle School, High School to College (Starts June 3)

*Discipline with Love and Logic (starts June 5)

*Literacy and Gender (Starts June 8)

*Teaching with the Brain in Mind (Starts June 10)

*Grammar 101: Beginners to Advanced (Starts June 10)

Click on the links below to view the full spring and summer listings.

Spring Workshop Listing

Summer Workshop Listing

Calling Mulligan

Oops! Calling Mulligan is actually nothing like calling the Culligan man.

As someone who is not a golfer, I did not fully understand the title of this article until I read the piece (and then looked up the origins of the term). In ASCD's "Education Update" newsletter, the last page features a "Road Tested" technique or strategy from an educator. February's road tested idea focuses on two discussion/questioning techniques as explained by Lisa Arter in "Calling Mulligan! Two Rules for Dynamic Discourse."

In this quick read, Arter, a former middle school teacher and current college assistant professor, explains her version of academically "calling Mulligan" and the 5 Rs of Academic Discourse that she utilizes within some of her large group discussions. In short, calling Mulligan allows students to retract statements that come out wrongly or are misinterpreted, while the 5 Rs (respond, repeat, restate, rebut, reinforce) help encourage students to think more critically about their classmates' responses. If you'd like to hear more about these two ideas in action, take a few minutes to read her article.

Timer for Google Presentations

Using a visual timer to promote time-on-task is a common classroom management technique, however I have not been able to locate a timer that embeds directly into Google Presentations. I did recently stumble across an alternative. (If you know how to embed a timer into a presentation, please let me know!)

Orzeszek Timer 1.11 is a little pop-up timer box that floats in front of your presentation slide, so you can still provide students with a visual timer without leaving your presentation. Access the program from the Orzeszek website here, or read another educator's blog explaining the timer here. 

Steps for Installing Orzeszek Timer 1.11

1. Go to the Orzeszek website.
2. Scroll to the bottom and click on the first green text "Orzeszek Timer 1.11" to install.
3. Save the folder to your preferred location. (You will be able to delete this folder at the end of the installation.)
4. Open the new "orzeszek-timer-1.11" folder.
5. Double-click on the "Orzeszek Timer" file.
6. Click "Extract All."
7. Extract the file to your preferred location. (If you extract it to your home folder, you will be able to access the timer from any computer.)
8. The new folder should open automatically. If it doesn't, go to where you saved it in the previous step. Double-click the "Orzeszek Timer" file. 
9. Click "Run."
10. A little timer box should appear. You can type directly into the box to tell it what time to set. The timer is programed to recognize "2 min," "2 minutes," "two minutes," etc.
11. Hit the "Enter" key to begin the timer. Click in the box to pause the timer.
12. (At this point, you can delete the first folder. Leave the second folder as that is where you will access the timer each time you need it.)