Do you feel like you are fighting a losing battle by asking your students to sit quietly, while you give detailed instructions, explain everything, and telling them exactly how it's to be done? It's a pretty good chance that you are losing the battle. As teachers, we are competing with so many factors to vie for our students' attention in hopes of teaching them a thing or two. Stop banging your head against the brick wall! It doesn't have to be that way. Remember, we are doing our very best to raise 21st-century learners. We want them to be creative, collaborative, critical thinkers and great communicators. How do we do this? How do we foster these 21st-century skills in our distracted, hyper, eager, sweet, angelic 
students? I'll let you in on a little secret. Are you ready for this? STEP AWAY FROM THE GATE! You heard me! You are no longer the gatekeeper or the "sage on the stage." You are not the only act in town. You do not have to have all of the information and answers for your students. Hooray! 
This is GREAT news!
Our students simply need some inspiration. They are curious by nature, and we can foster this curiosity by providing them with opportunities to be curious. Let their curiosity grab their attention, and encourage them to use that curiosity for learning. You will soon see what amazing critical thinkers and problems solvers they are. Let your students be creators of information rather than consumers. Let them collaborate and communicate, as opposed to sitting passively and being spoon fed information.
Our students simply need some inspiration. They are curious by nature, and we can foster this curiosity by providing them with opportunities to be curious. Let their curiosity grab their attention, and encourage them to use that curiosity for learning. You will soon see what amazing critical thinkers and problems solvers they are. Let your students be creators of information rather than consumers. Let them collaborate and communicate, as opposed to sitting passively and being spoon fed information.
Think about this scenario. What if, as a teacher, you could not talk? What if you literally did not have a voice? How would you be able to teach your students about nouns, pronouns, verbs, adverbs, and adjectives? How would you teach them about the quadratic equation, the Declaration of Independence, the Scientific Method, or health and nutrition? If you only had a laptop and a Google Doc, what could you put on it to engage, educate and inspire your students? On a day in which teachers and students alike tend to be a little unusually energetic, it's so fitting that we talk about a technology integration tool that is a little hyper in its own sense. This technology integration tool is a Google Doc. It's not just any old Google Doc, though. It's a HyperDoc!
HyperDocs are a great way to remove yourself from the "gatekeeper" role transition into more of a guide or facilitator role. It's a great tool for delivering instruction without having to say a word. Learning is engaging and student-centered. A well designed HyperDoc allows for students to tap into their 21st-century skills.
I do not have a class of my own, but I love to create HyperDocs for my peers to use in their classrooms. With Halloween right around the corner, I have created a Halloween Across The Curriculum HyperDoc to share with you. I'm hoping that it will be a fun, Halloween Day activity no matter the subject. Simply share the template with your students and have them share their document with you! I created this particular HyperDoc with the middle school student in mind. However, I think you can use it, as is, with some of the upper primary grade levels. You can always tweak it, too, to make it more grade level appropriate.
WOW! These HyperDoc digital lessons make me want to be a student all over again. It has me bouncing off the walls but in a positive way. What a super FUN, engaging, and active way to learn! We can go bonkers with HyperDocs!
Check out these HyperDoc Resources:
Happy, Fantas~TECH Friday, y'all!
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