🫥 The gaping hole in your lesson plans

🖥 vivi: Student screen sharing made simple

What apps do your students use in class — Google Slides, PowerPoint, FigJam, Book Creator … others?

With vivi (vivi.io), no matter what the app, students can quickly share their screen so the whole class can see.

And it’s FREE.

Students join your class with vivi. Then, using your computer or even your cell phone, you can mirror students’ screens to the big screen in front of the room.

Vivi also has a student whiteboard feature that can be mirrored for everyone to see.

Did I mention it’s FREE?

👉 Sign up for a free vivi account to get students sharing quickly.

See a quick 2-minute set-up demo here.

💡 THE BIG IDEA 💡

🧠 What 5 minutes a day of MirrorTalk can do for your students

Imagine …

• You’re teaching a lesson. Your students are learning.

• You get to the end of the lesson.

• Your students spend five minutes talking about what they learned — and responding to custom prompts about it.

That five minute time investment? It likely yielded …

• Better long-term memory (through retrieval practice)

• New ideas through creative brainstorming

• New connections among concepts in the lesson

• The ability to transfer new learning to other subjects

That’s what MirrorTalk can help your students do — on the web (laptop / Chromebook) or mobile app (iPhone / Android).

What’s better than that? MirrorTalk creates a custom report based on that reflection session, showing you …

• The Lesson: How students can make progress in areas where they’re stuck

• Understanding: Where student understanding is strongest (and needs work)

• Zone: Whether the task seems appropriately challenging (or needs adjustment)

• Mindset: The student’s mindset based on tone, ability, and motivation

How can students use MirrorTalk? In lots of ways, including …

• discussion of historical events or plot in a book they’re reading

• recall of facts of a new concept they’re studying

• brainstorming creative ideas for a writing assignment or project

• doing a daily gratitude reflection

• reflecting on the previous year as a back-to-school activity

Check out our new post: Build meaningful reflection into class in minutes with MirrorTalk.

🎁 Bonus: Get A WHOLE YEAR of MirrorTalk One, the paid premium version, for free here!

🎉 12 engaging activities to rock your back to school PD

“The best part of going back to school after summer break is the professional development!”

… said no teacher ever. 🤣

Back to school PD is notorious for being irrelevant and unengaging … especially when you have a classroom to prep and lessons to plan.

But it doesn’t have to be that way!

We asked our Ditch That Textbook community on social media about their favorite ways to provide engaging PD during back to school time.

Some examples include some fun games, some challenges, a scavenger hunt, and more.

Check them all out here: 12 engaging activities to rock your back to school PD

👋 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!