🗑 10 low-prep learning activities to try

🎁 Share Ditch Summit, win prizes!

Don’t out on these two prize giveaway contests. You can win just for sharing about Ditch Summit!

1. Email your teachers to win AirPods + my books!

Just send an email and you’ll be entered in a drawing for a new set of Apple AirPods Pro 2 AND a signed copy of each of my books! Follow these directions carefully …

1. Copy the text from this document about Ditch Summit. (Feel free to adjust or add to it.)

2. Put it in an email to 10+ colleagues / coworkers / edufriends.

3. Add [email protected] to the “To:” or “Cc:”.

4. Press send!

I’ll draw a winner at random before I send my email on Thursday Dec. 12, so you have 10 days to enter to win!

2. Share on social media to win a DTT prize pack!

We’re giving away THREE prize packs that include: TWO of my books, an item from the DTT merch store, and some DTT stickers! Follow these instructions …

1. 🗄️ Make a copy of the template (Google Slides / Canva)

2. 💛 Share your excitement (and image) on social media. You can use/edit this sample text or write your own:

I’m going to Ditch Summit, a FREE online conference for educators from Dec 16 to Jan 10.

Topics include student curiosity, AI, student voice, PBL, practical teaching ideas, and much more!

➡️ Register at ditchsummit.com

3. 📝 Enter to win!

Fill out this form to share your post with us. You may enter multiple times if you post on different platforms. Please fill out the form for each post.

We'll draw 3 winners on Wednesday, Dec. 11 and notify them via the email address provided.

💡 THE BIG IDEA 💡

📈 10 low-prep, high-return activities for class tomorrow

The Ditch Summit is coming. I’m very excited about it!

(I know … it’s all I’ve been able to talk about for a little while now.)

But what can you get? What will you learn?

We wanted to give you a little taste today.

In our post — 10 low-prep, high-return activities for class tomorrow — we share several ideas that our Ditch Summit presenters have shared.

What does “low-prep, high-return” mean?

• Low prep: takes little to no time to get ready

• High return: leads to meaningful learning (not fluff)

Here are just a few of them (and you can catch the rest in the post):

2. Boost critical thinking with “Caption This” in Google Slides/Drawings

This one has been a favorite of mine for a long, long time. Add an image related to what you’re learning to a Google Slides/PowerPoint file. In the shapes, add a speech/thought bubble. Then have students type what they think that character was thinking or saying.

There are lots of variations to this activity! You can find them in our “Caption This!” post.

📺 Ditch Summit session: “Create a Memorable Class with Techy, Pirate Teaching with Matt Miller”

5. Practice collaboratively with Quizlet Live

Quizlet Live is one of my favorite ways for students to get repetitions on content they need to remember. And it’s super collaborative!

However, playing the same game over and over again can get boring. Mix things up with some new ways to play. For example, when playing Quizlet Live, try a Quizlet Live relay:

• Students line their computers up next to each other.

• When it’s their turn, they look at all of the computers to find the right answer.

• Then they get in the back of the line and the next student steps up.

You can find more fun alternative ways to play Quizlet Live (thanks to Patrick McMillan) in this post (look for #5).

6. Solve problems with the 5 Clue Challenge

Educator Mike Soskil has traveled a lot. He started creating “5 Clue Challenge” videos for his students so they could guess where he was visiting. It was a fun little problem-solving, geography puzzle.

He has shared more than 100 5 Clue Challenges with the world on his website! (If you look closely, you’ll find a couple challenges that I recorded!)

📺 Ditch Summit session: “Changing Lives Worldwide with Mike Soskil”

9. Help students think with graphic organizers

Graphic organizers have been around forever. Rather than drill-and-kill, only-one-answer worksheets, graphic organizers are a workflow for student thinking. Create a great one, use a concept that’s already been created, or use one of the templates we created in the DTT template library. It helps students think through ideas on their own — a very student-centered, low-prep way of learning.

You’ll find tons of free graphic organizers you can download/copy in this post (just look for #9).

📺 Ditch Summit session: “Fantastic Learning Activities with Google Drawings with Tony Vincent”

Get more low-prep, high return activities

Check out all 10 ideas in our post: 10 low-prep, high-return activities for class tomorrow.

And check out the related Ditch Summit presentations when the summit begins on Dec. 16!

💻 TECH TIP 💻

👀 Get a sneak peek at Ditch Summit!

Can’t wait for Ditch Summit?

Neither can we!

Lucky for us all the Ditch Summit is right around the corner.

But if you’re dying to get some Ditch Summit info early then check out our Wakelet collection. It’s filled with information about the summit itself plus more details about the speakers and the spotlight sponsors.

🔗 2024 Ditch Summit Wakelet Collection

👋 How we can help

There are even more ways I can support you in the important work you do in education:

1. Read one of my six books about meaningful teaching with tech.

2. Take one of our online courses about practical and popular topics in education.

3. Bring me to your school, district or event to speak. I love working with educators!