Hi! I'm Kathryn & I am a former teacher and Content & Community Lead for
@diffitapp
!
Try Diffit today at !
See how teachers use Diffit:
Become a Diffit Certified Educator:
I've used this discussion framework (created by Shela Linto of The Root Social Justice Center) w/ students for a few years.
It empowers students to speak up when they make a mistake, see harm, or need clarification.
Here is a
@peardeck
ready slide deck:
Sometimes I worry that sharing the ‘wins’ in my class comes across as bragging but really I LOVE when other Ts share the things that go well in their class or the amazing things they’ve tried! I learn so much from celebrating the success of other teachers. Let’s all keep sharing!
I just want one full day per week for lesson planning and collaborating. And 90 minutes per day to give students feedback and communicate with students and families.
Then I’d be where I want to be as a teacher.
Please and thank you.
Dear World of Education,
If I see one more grant application that says they are giving priority to STEM projects I might scream.
Respectfully,
A history teacher who is worried about a future without the humanities.
History and ELA teachers this one is for you! Have you tried the A Moment in Time strategy with your students?!?
It was one of my favs especially when I taught middle school.
My student just showed me Homework Pal! It is a free app she uses to write down her homework. You can customize when it notifies and reminds you about assignments!! It also color codes assignments by class!
#erhstweets
#cnusdfutureready
I am so tired of hearing that schools are closed.
Maybe I haven’t set foot on campus all year but I’m teaching and my students are learning.
I’m working so hard.
I’ve reinvented all my lessons.
I’m in constant contact with students & parents.
I’m still teaching.
A favorite team-building activity! Built as a
@peardeck
or hyperslide: Which One Doesn't Belong!
Group students & have them decide which one doesn't belong, they'll need to share their argument w/ evidence in front of the class. Great team builder!
Y'ALL! I have found the tool to replace Google Tour Creator!!!
Did you know about the schools version of 360Cities?!?!?!
Make guided tours with their huge library, add tags, questions, and text slides throughout!
IT IS FREE:
🌍World History Resources🌍
👉Crowd-Sourced HS Lessons:
👉WH Lessons I'm using this year:
👉My AP World Lessons:
👉Previous WH Lessons from me:
#sschat
#teachersgiveteachers
One of my favorite new student activity templates on
@diffitapp
is this Moment in Time Activity.
See a full example here:
Make your own for any topic at
Made a bunch of templates for Zoom Breakout Rooms.
-->Copy the slide you want to use to a new deck, make enough slides for each group & number them.
--> Add your topic.
-->Share with students as "Anyone in the Organization can Edit"
#sschat
It is WILD to me that people in leadership positions throughout education continue to treat educators like we aren't all still trying to survive a global pandemic.
Still a work in progress but here is the latest lesson on Ukraine I plan to use with students.
#sschat
I relied heavily on
@NewsHourExtra
+
@NPR
as resources when creating this lesson:
I know it’s almost 10 PM but I’m watching the a Facebook Group post non-stop about summer assignments and I want to scream:
📢 WE DO NOT HAVE TO GIVE SUMMER ASSIGNMENTS.
📢 WE SHOULD NOT GIVE SUMMER ASSIGNMENTS.
📢 GIVE KIDS THEIR SUMMERS.
(But I still ❤️ you all.)
I've been staring at my computer looking at an assignment that usually takes me 15 minutes to prep trying to wrap my head around HOW to get the same space for discussion and collaboration for my students during Remote Learning.
This is why teachers are exhausted.
This week I plan to do Hexagonal Thinking for the first time with my AP World students so I used Google Sheets, Google Slides, and Autocrat to make the hexagons using vocab lists I have.
Here is Unit 5 for AP World:
I really enjoyed presenting on lessons and tools that worked well for me in Remote Learning with other
@cnusd
history and social studies teachers!
You can see the presentation here:
👩🏫My
#WorldHistory
team made a
#GoogleClassroom
(w/ no students) where we are all teachers.
👉We add lessons we created to each topic.
👉If we see a lesson we want to use in our class we go to "Reuse Post" & select any assignment from this fake course to add to our own class.
If you are like me and have more struggling students than ever before, here is a google doc I made to help my students plan out how to end the year the best they can by focusing on what they can control:
Real talk: if you as a teacher are unwilling to put your face and voice on a prerecorded 5 minute back to school night video for students and parents you can’t expect kids to turn on cameras and use mics on Zoom.
Guess I'm a radical activist for teaching the truth about how Columbus and his crew murdered, raped, kidnapped, and enslaved indigenous people.
Speaking the truth does not undermine someone's legacy unless that legacy is built on lies & omission as in the case with Columbus.
Looking for
@peardeck
ready Google Slides to add to your history slide decks?
File-> Make a Copy:
These can also be added to your hyperslides for students to work on!
#sschat
#edtech
#googleedu
Today was my last day of teaching. It was incredibly bittersweet because I’ve been so lucky to have worked with such incredible students, colleagues, and communities.
I’ve got exciting plans for the future & will share them soon but for now, let summer begin. ❤️❤️❤️❤️
Used a Google Doc in ‘can comment’ to get students discussing and engaging with a text today during our Zoom.
Paired this with
@PearDeck
& I got to ‘hear’ every kid today & send them feedback with the new specific feedback feature!
#erhstweets
#cnusdfutureready
#remotelearning
This year I am taking a thematic approach to World History.
My hope is that by doing so I will stop making Europe the central narrative of my World History class and create a truly world narrative.
Here are the units of study:
If you teach DBQ's, I really loved the SPY method or writing with evidence.
Here is a Google Doc activity to help students use the method to analyze documents:
👩🏫So our school is closed but we are not doing
#RemoteLearning
as of yet.
👩🏫I want to engage with my students but I thrive with structure & want to make sure I have self-care built-in because boundaries are a blessing so here is my daily plan:
❤️❤️LOVE❤️❤️ using a shared Google Slide deck in breakout rooms on Zoom!
Thank you all for the inspiration:
@historysandoval
@historyfrog
& all the others I am forgetting.
Love how these annotated maps are turning out as we review Afro-Eurasian trade from 1200-1450!
Lesson Found Here:
Adapted lesson, let me know if you know the original creator so I can credit them!
💡First semester was rough for me and my students so I plan to start the second semester with intentional community & culture building.
Up first - Get To Know You activities.
📝Get to Know You Thin Slides:
👩💻Remote:
Here’s another strategy I love: Quote It, Draw It, Explain it! This one gets students super engaged with a text and I loved having students share with partners or the whole class!
Try it here:
Alright, here is my part two which is really just taking a few key
@npr
sources and maps onto one slide deck as I try and help students understand what is happening:
Still a work in progress but here is the latest lesson on Ukraine I plan to use with students.
#sschat
I relied heavily on
@NewsHourExtra
+
@NPR
as resources when creating this lesson:
Made a
@peardeck
version of the graphic organizers I shared earlier.
Add them into your Social Studies lectures to check for understanding.
Drawing Slides = easy for students to add text boxes. You will need the upgraded version of Peardeck.
#sschat
Teach AP history and want to introduce the DBQ while driving your students wild?! I love "The Breakup DBQ" and turned it into a
@peardeck
It's always one of the most fun days:
Turn your PDFs into entire lessons with
@diffitapp
!
Here I took a PDF of Martin Luther King Jr.’s ‘I Have a Dream’ speech & turned into a CER And Think, Pair, Share!
Deleted a giant thread but the TLDR is this is the book that made me become a history teacher because it made me think of all the stories that still need to be told.
It’s not a perfect book but I thank Howard Zinn regularly for opening my eyes to what history could be.
‘It is no wonder we are struggling with balance.’
@Catlin_Tucker
We are being taught to approach this profession in a way that is unsustainable.
#FallCUE
#WeAreCUE
You can have rigor and have fun with your students. They aren't at odds with each other. Let's stop pretending that rigor = stoic seriousness at all times.
I took the
@facinghistory
Class Contract lesson & used
@PearDeck
, Google Forms, &
@flipgrid
to adapt it for Remote Learning next week.
#sschat
👩💻Links to resources needed in speaker notes.
Started a new daily SEL check-in with my students and I think they are actually enjoying it?!
Had 100% participation with this activity today which was a big win for some of my classes.
Preview it here:
Get a copy here:
Here is my latest lesson on the traits of Totalitarianism, students learn what totalitarianism is by learning about the USSR under Stalin.
It is
@PearDeck
or can be done as a lecture:
If there is a microphone please use the microphone! Don’t ask ‘can you all hear me without this?’ Because the ones who need you to use that mic shouldn’t be put in a position to advocate for themselves and they might not hear you to be able to.
Working on writing DBQs in AP World and students really seemed to like these document placards so they could sort and group documents to help them organize their claims.
We are still learning how to HIPP documents but a lot of great progress was made this week.
Used
@PearDeck
as a drawing slide so students could practice analyzing sources!
Here is a thread of some of my favorite templates currently available over
@diffitapp
to end the week!
Think, Pair, Share - students work through the SAQ questions together.
First vaccine is done! Super quick and easy and painless! Vaccines are safe and effective and an important step to us getting back in the classroom!
#covid
#VaccinesWork
👩🏫Here are some start of the school year lessons and activities I love.
📝A thread.
Get to Know You Bingo gets students up and moving and talking to each other:
This is still a work in progress but here is my lesson on the experience of colonized people during WWI.
It looks at racist policies used against colonial troops, Chinese contract workers, the high death rates of the carrier corps, and more.
Made a little Halloween
@PearDeck
for my classes on Friday because both my students and I need some fun during our Zoom!
Feel free to FILE->MAKE A COPY!
What I learned from last nights school board meeting is I basically need to prepare for any and every possible teaching condition for Fall.
💻 Gonna prep those Remote Learning lessons.
📚 Gonna prep a hybrid lesson plan.
👩🏫 Gonna prep being back in the classroom.
🤷🏼♀️🤷🏼♀️🤷🏼♀️🤷🏼♀️🤷🏼♀️
Here is my next Ukraine mini-lesson, it is a
@PearDeck
:
This one has a large focus on the refugee crisis, the racism in reporting the crisis, and the challenges non-Ukrainian refugees are facing.
I'll add a SOTU slide tomorrow if needed.
My favorite lesson of last year to introduce
#worldhistory
content was from
@OERProject
!
You turn your classroom into a map & use yarn to show students how connected the world was in 1450, 1750, and today!
Here is the slide deck to go with it:
👀I see so many teacher friends planning for
#BackToSchool
so here is one of my favorite
@facinghistory
lessons that I adapted to use with Google Slides &
@PearDeck
Create A Class Contract:
💛this for community building & expectation setting.
Teaching the Industrial Revolution in World History?
Here is a fun activity covering some elements that helped England Industrialize first, and the impact it had:
Taking a more global approach with my World History class this year, we normally dive right into Europe and the Enlightenment but spending a week giving them a tour of the world at 1750 with this lesson:
📽️Here is a WWII through Film Hyperdoc with three different activities for students to complete.
📽️Trust me, I know there are like 100 other films I could have included.
👩🏫Feel free to make your own version with movies you love.
#sschat
#whapchat
Teachers, have you tried the Emoji Reaction activity from
@DitchThatTxtbk
?!?
Such a fun and engaging ways to get students responding to a text! So excited this is in the
@DiffitApp
activity library now!
Try it yourself & add your own content here: