Slides. Infographics. Video overviews. Audio overviews.

And that’s just scratching the surface!

WHAT IS NOTEBOOKLM: It’s Google’s free tool that helps you create all of these fantastic teaching resources.

The best part? They’re based out of YOUR teaching materials … PDF files, documents … even scan a chapter out of your textbook. It stays within the confines of the material you’re teaching.

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First: Sign up for our free DTT online community. And then …

PS: Group discounts are available! Just hit reply and I can provide you with a quote.

I love this quote that Don Sturm shared in our DTT online community.

Here’s what it says to me (and share your responses to it in the community here) …

It’s easy for me to forget that students aren’t masters of the content that I teach. (I know, this sounds obvious, but go with me …)

That’s because I AM a master (so to speak) of that content area.

I easily forget what it’s like not to know … to struggle … to have misconceptions and to have to correct them.

Being empathetic, to me, means being aware of where my students are and helping them through their struggles — not condemning them for them.

Would love to hear your thoughts about this in the community.

As educators, when the end of the school year hits, we want to get everything wrapped up.

Knock out that end-of-year teacher checklist.

Get the room tidied up. Get out the door and get summer started!

It’s a good time to think about tidying up your Google Classroom, too.

In our post — 10 easy ways to clean up your Google Classroom — we share a bunch of quick steps you can take right now, like …

… and much more! Check it out and get your Google Classroom nice and tidy.

In my social media feeds, I don’t have to go very far to find posts decrying technology in the classroom.

People are upset and want change. And I understand it. Social media, despite its ability to keep us connected and up to date on others’ lives, clearly has negative impacts … anxiety, addictive tendencies, misinformation, etc. That goes for students AND adults.

In statehouses and seats of government across the United States, there are talks about screen time limits and device bans in classrooms.

Some states are talking about setting a number of minutes that students can be on devices. Others are trying — somewhat unsuccessfully — to get devices out of schools completely.

Here’s the problem with this whole movement …

It’s more “all or nothing” thinking. Before, it was “technology will revolutionize education.” Now, it’s “technology is a terrible way to learn.”

The reality … at least as I’ve seen it from my own classroom? It has its moments. There are times when it can be really helpful — for creating and submitting student writing, for communication, for doing creative digital tasks you can’t without the device, and so on.

But there are definitely times to put the devices away.

How do you discern? How do we make smart decisions on tech use?

After more than a decade in the classroom navigating devices, here are some suggestions I’d give …

People will say: “You have to balance tech and ‘no tech’.”

That’s just not true. It’s not a balance. The word “balance” implies a 50/50. Research has never found (and classroom teaching will not show you) that the best way is to use tech the same amount of time that you don’t use tech.

In my own classroom, as I’m planning lessons ahead of time OR making adjustments on the fly, I’m constantly making teaching judgment calls.

I’ll think: “OK, there are several ways I could teach this. Let’s think briefly about the pro’s and con’s of each of them. This one seems to be the best fit — and provide the right kinds of benefits my students need right now. Let’s go with this.”

Notice that this thought process isn’t tech driven. It’s outcome-driven. What do I want students to get out of it?

Tech use isn’t the goal. Great teaching and learning is the goal.

Because of that, I’ll go on a run of days where we’ll use our devices more heavily. We might be working on a digital project … or the benefits of a certain AI feedback tool or an online creation app are particularly suited to what students are doing those days.

But then, I’ll have a run of days where we won’t even get the devices out. At all.

Personally? I’m fine with that. I’m crafting a learning experience here — much like a woodworker crafting something beautiful out of wood.

Picture a woodworker walking into her workshop. She has tools hanging from the walls. There are saws and drills tucked away on shelves. She has chisels and punches and planes in drawers.

She never walks in and asks, “What can I make with a screwdriver today?”

Instead of thinking tool first, she has a picture of the end product. She chooses the right tool for each step.

She doesn’t say, “I’d better balance my power tool use with my non-power tool use.”

If she’s drilling a bunch of holes and driving screws, doing that by hand would be time-consuming — and her arms would be sore the next day.

But if she’s finishing off a nice routed edge on a table, she might use sandpaper by hand to get the details just right.

Teaching is the same way. We pick the right tool — moment by moment — for each part of the job.

In the woodworker analogy above, if she didn’t know when and how to use her tools, they would be useless.

I have lots of teaching strategies I’ll employ — tech and “no tech” — but I’ll only use a strategy when its strengths match what I’m trying to accomplish.

If you listen to the concerns about tech from parents, they’ll talk about being on screens for too long doing mindless activities.

A solution to that: Be clear about when students should have their devices out — and what they’re used for.

For me, I’ll just tell them at the start of class if we’re using our Chromebooks or not today. Or if we’ll start without them and then turn them on later.

That means if a student has a Chromebook open while we aren’t using them for class, I’ll ask him to close it and put it away.

Simple as that.

I’ve started adding they “why” on occasion when I tell students about our tech use for the day.

Why? They’re more likely to get on board when they see how it benefits them.

But it also helps to build digital literacy, too. They start to see the reasons for using — and not using — tech in their schoolwork. That helps them build an awareness of its place and importance that they’ll carry into their lives later.

This is when the mindless video watching and game playing take over.

Unstructured time. Either students have finished their work OR they have tasks to do independently.

Answer questions like:

We’re discussing this in the DTT online community right now.

And we’d LOVE for you to share your thoughts and practices on this.

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