James Varlack – Developing Engaging Instruction

James Varlack says that “Engagement is developed.” So, in his
interview, I asked him how he develops his engaging instruction.
We discuss how James works toward each of the 3 types of student
engagement--emotional, behavioral, and cognitive--in both analog
and digital ways. We discuss Jamboard, Google Docs, Google
Slides, Padlet, Whiteboard.chat, Whiteboard.fi, Microsoft Teams
whiteboard, Google Arts & Culture.


Show notes also available at
 jakemiller.net/eduducttape-episode-53



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Soapbox Moment: "The One Who Keeps
Score & Gives Permission to Not Take the Shot"



This quote was covered in this previous episode.




Today’s Guest: James Varlack



James Varlack is a Digital Learning Specialist with
McAllen Independent School District. He has worked in
education for 10 years as a middle school math teacher and in
campus technology. He and his wife Dawne moderate the
#RGVEduChat and have 3 lovely children, Jayden, Zara, and
Jordan.

Contact Info: Twitter: @jamesvarlack Email:
varlack.james076@gmail.com




2 Truths & 1 Lie


Educational Duct Tape Question:
 How can I develop engaging instruction?



Having the content down is not enough if it’s not
engaging

Know your learning goals

Connect with learners

“Engagement is developed...means it has a starting place,
grows and is nurtured, etc. Engagement is a work in progress”

Greeting students, connecting with students, using names
are all big for engagement

Adding pop culture references into things like a “problem
of the day”

Using those pop culture references as backgrounds in
Google Slides 

Learn about student interests with a survey (Google
Forms, etc.) - “attack their interests”

Adding students names into problems

Hooks, reveals, challenges, brainteasers, puzzles,
prodigygame.com



encouraging kids to work together on riddles 

Using Google Slides to create “reveal” activities

Google Arts & Culture Puzzle Party



Other Google Arts & Culture "games" here





Ditch Summit - Esther Park - talked about interaction -
student-to-student, student-to-teacher, student-to-class,
teacher-to-teacher

Collaborative spaces - Jamboard, Google Docs, graphic
organizers or drag-and-drop activities in Google Slides,
Padlet, Whiteboard.chat, Whiteboard.fi, Microsoft Teams
whiteboard

"Become the master of your tool… it’s only time to move
on when you’ve mastered it." - David Carradine, Kung Fu

"Digital gorge"

Pear Deck



Complete the squiggle

Shared teacher dashboard (allow co-teachers in)



Engaging Instruction = attracts and maintains attention,
often means students are actively involved and a part of it
(engaged in it)

Three different types of student engagement: emotional,
behavioral, and cognitive -  (Classcraft, Jenny Fulton)




Celebration of the Adjacent Possible



Question - Adrienne Hudson


Edulastic



Great Data!!!

standards-aligned questions

Standardized test prep

Edulastic is great for item-analysis, mastery-based
grading or standards-based grading, identifying students
who need support, creating student mastery profiles that
can be useful in parent-teacher conferences, and even
breaking down assessment data based on a variety of
factors or subgroups.

ScratchPad

Question Types include: Drag-and-drop,
Diagram-labeling, multiple select questions, sets of
multiple choice questions in a table

questions with images, videos or audio

Math tools include: Coordinate plane, Line plots,
Fractions, Math formatting, Fraction diagrams

Paid features: Rubrics, built-in read-aloud feature,
Desmos calculator, Snapscore, Co-authoring &
collaboration, Improved data




Poll Everywhere



Flip phone origins!

Question types include: multiple choice, word cloud,
Q&A with upvoting & downvoting, clickable images
(click on a section of an image to indicate their
answer), open ended, Surveys, short answer, select on a
map

Launch from PowerPoint, Google Slides, Keynote, or
Poll Everywhere’s site.

Students can respond within any mobile or web
browser, using a mobile app or with text messaging.

Asynchronous option

Competitions - multiple-choice games are a lot like
Kahoot or Quizizz

Paid - Show live results to participants, better
reports




Mentimeter



Free Version gives you Unlimited audience size,
presentations, and content slides, but up to 2 question
slides and up to 5 quiz slides per presentation.
Presentations are public.

Interactive presentations can include videos and
images, polls, data, opinions

great for with smart phones

Question Slides include: Word clouds, Multiple
choice, Fun Quiz competitions, Q&A (with upvote),
Ranking questions, Image options, Open-ended, Scales
questions, 2 by 2 grid, 100 point questions

Mentimote remote is pretty cool

Can put Surveys and forms in presentation



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