This week, we are sharing some tips and tricks to gear up for the new school year. We'll discuss reminders, considerations, and EdTech tools you might use as you get started with your planning. 

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**For detailed show notes, please visit our website at https://edugals.com/98**

Start with big-picture or long-range planning:

• Prioritize your ambitions and goals - rein in your wild ideas!
• Long-range planning will help make the day-to-day planning easier
• Think about what your summative assessments will be
• The minutia of the daily planning will get done - it's ok to not have that ready yet because you need to get to know your students first
• Mastery-based learning - different way of thinking which gives you more flexibility in planning
• Growing pains will happen - expect them if you are trying something new!

EdTech Tools we recommend:

• Screencasting tools - Screencastify, Loom, Screencast-o-matic, Explain Everything, OBS Studio (stick to one only for students)
• Loom for Educators
• Check for privacy/data and board/district policies
• Google Slides - create HyperDocs for mastery-based learning (better than docs)
• Learning Management System (Google Classroom, Brightspace, Canvas, etc) - organization, consistent naming/numbering systems, personalization, minimize navigation
• Google Assignments in LMS for student submissions

Community Building:

• Super important over the first two weeks of school
• Hands-on learning in small, randomized groupings (inquiry, design thinking, etc)
• Diagnostics to figure out starting points
• Consider skills units at the beginning of the semester
• Help new students learn about their school community (tours)
• Use simple icebreaker activities to start off group work (this or that, would you rather, two truths and a lie, etc) - model this first as a teacher
• Colleague relationships matter too! Informal is better than forced icebreakers

Self-Care:

• Establish your routines now, prioritize yourself and your goals
• Figure out what works for you, self-care looks different for everyone
• Add habits to your to-do list (Todoist is great!)

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