I was delighted to be joined by two of our marvellous Mote Ambassadors – Brittany Horn and Nicole Reynolds – in a pop-up PD with Mote. They’re both awesome and deserve a follow!
Overview
In just 10 minutes, they generously shared over 10 brilliant examples of how Mote QR codes have had an amazing impact on accessibility, connection and more in their own learning communities and beyond!
Inspirational Ideas
Nicole generously shared lots of ideas in which she has creatively used audio QR codes with her staff and students.
Community Wide Appreciation with Voice!
Students can record for others – a great and simple way for young people to share admiration: for each other, teachers and parents.
Families/Room Parents – voice notes to express thanks for the awesome work of educators!
Other teachers/staff members – spread the love outside the classroom.
Administration Team – leave notes of encouragement and affirmation for your amazing team.
Media Center Coordinators ( book notes) – use your voice in a variety of ways here: reviews, thank you notes and more!
Instructional Coaches – praise your team for taking on a challenge and integrating technology in a purposeful way!
Audio Affirmations for Students
Greetings cards – whether it’s a birthday or something else worthy of celebrating: why not try adding your voice!
Awards and Certificates – everyone loves acknowledgement of hard work and achievement: level up your affirmation game by adding voice.
Extra, Extra – hear all about it!
Want more ideas from Nicole? Jump into the video here to find out more about how she and her community have used audio QR codes for:
Bulletin Boards
Accessible stickers for student work
Notes in hallways
Notes on door
Scavenger Hunt
Bookmarks
Holy GuacaMOTEly!
Brittany started by celebrating the impact of using voice to 10x notes that she might have left with sticky notes – as it really emphasizes ‘the personalization’ to help build connection.
In her district, Brittany runs sessions on Mote for her staff called ‘Holy GuacaMOTEly!’. You can find lots of info on how they have used QR codes and more by searching on socials and/or clicking here! It’s impossible not to be inspired – as show below by two of the teaching team that have benefitted from Mote QR codes, in both the receiving and creating!
Happy Monday morning! My wonderful IT @Brit_Horn_IT left a sweet encouraging @justmoteHQ for me! 🥰 definitely will be doing this for my kids soon cuz it was a delightful surprise! pic.twitter.com/D9gLUxfjPr
The way that audio affirmations work for the community at NISD is utterly inspirational! If you’d like to bring this simple and powerful practice to your own school, you can access the template here.
Mote Ambassador Program
I am proud that both Nicole and Brittany are Mote Ambassadors! We’re always looking for more innovative educators to join the community. Find out more by visiting the community page on our website.
The most recent Teacher Wellbeing Index reports that 77% of teachers experienced symptoms of poor mental health due to their work and 54% have considered leaving the sector in the past two years due to pressures on their mental health.
There is no silver bullet to the problem. The 5 apps below are merely some of the many technology tools out there that may help in some way.
Have any that you’ve explored and benefitted from? Please let us know and share as a comment.
5 Minute Journal
The 5 Minute Journal is a great way to start and end your day. The journal has sections for you to write about what you’re grateful for, affirmations, and spaces to set goals.
It’s quick and easy to use which makes it perfect for a busy teacher who doesn’t have much time in their day.
Breethe
Breethe is a freemium app that brings meditation into your life in a way that feels both accessible and challenging. It’s not about clearing your mind or emptying the contents of your thoughts, but instead it aims to help you be the best version of yourself by filling the space between them with stillness.
Clanbeat
Clanbeat helps students build positive learning habits with our regular reflection nudges, work planner and goal setting features. Actionable insights on students’ mood allow ny potential issues to be identified and tackled before they arise; supporting your students and saving your time!
Headspace
Their website says “Think of Headspace as your mind’s best friend. We’re here for you whenever you need us, wherever you are, helping you get through tough times and find joy in every day.’ Offering free access to teachers through this link – it’s definitely worth a look.
Mote
Feedback is an art. It immeasurable value in learning (see Mote’s Feedback Masterclass) and takes time to do well. Sometimes a LOT of time. With Mote, not only will using your voice make it 3x faster to leave feedback. The intonation will alleviate any concerns over misunderstanding and help build rapport with your learners.
Changing Mote's in-app settings to support our global community! 🌎🗣️
The community based internationalization of Mote means that it's possible to change the in-app messaging into the language of your choice! 🙏💜#12daysofmotemaspic.twitter.com/i7kNqWmUlD
Voice note transcriptions that cater for mathematical expressions and chemical compounds to be formatted and rendered beautifully!#12daysofmotemaspic.twitter.com/m8WjY57KCF
Running out of time to send that perfect message? Missed the mail? Fear not… Add a voice note to the template below and get those special holiday cards sent! ⛄️🎅🎄https://t.co/KIFgxWqUT2
Your students love hearing your voice – they’ve even told you that it helps them engage more deeply in their learning! Your dilemma is that they’re turning in physical work for you to have a look at and you still want to provide them meaningful Mote powered audio feedback…
How
With a simple template built in Google Slides, you can achieve the above. In no time, your students will be able to listen and act upon your verbal feedback.
Take a look at this short video to see how:
What
Access the following templates below to make your own copy
It can be challenging to make time for regular check-ins and for teachers to spot whether one of their students needs to talk something through or share something to celebrate.
Opening up a Google Form, with the addition of voice, breaks down some of these barriers and has become a real win for many educators and learners the world over.
How
Join me to see how we can quickly add voice notes to a Google Form designed to deepen connection with my students.
What
Use the form made above as a template to develop your own!
Welcome to the Feedback Masterclass video series! Please watch the short introductory video below to get started.
The Feedback Masterclass video series by Mote is designed for educators that want to dig deeper into understanding the purpose, process and impact of high quality feedback on student work. Further, it is created to help educators transfer that understanding into the creation of high quality audio feedback with Mote.
Feedback Masterclass Slide Deck
The team at Mote would like to give a special thank you to SlidesMania for designing the slides for our feedback masterclass. The slides below include all 8 parts of the feedback masterclass! Please share them with your team, school community or PLC. If you would like to make a copy, simply click on the button below the embedded presentation.
Reflection Break: After watching part 1 of the Feedback Masterclass, reflect on your philosophy on providing feedback and the perspective shared in part one of the series. Consider engaging in the thinking routine: “I used to think, but now I think”
Part 2: Types of Feedback
Reflection Break: After watching part 2 of the Feedback Masterclass, reflect on your experience of providing feedback and how that aligns with the four types of feedback presented in the video. Consider engaging in the thinking routine: “Connect, Extend, Challenge”
What ideas from the video connected with your current practice?
What ideas from the video extended your comfort level or understanding but feel valuable and helpful?
What ideas challenge your thinking, create an obstacle or problem?
Part 3: Impactful Feedback
Reflection Break: After watching part 3 of the Feedback Masterclass, consider using the following thinking routine, “What makes you say that?
When engaged with this thinking routine, focus on these two clarifying questions:
What is going on in the video?
What did you see, hear, view that makes you say that?
Part 4: Obstacles
Reflection Break: After viewing part 4 of the Feedback Masterclass, consider reflecting about obstacles to effective feedback with the following thinking routine:
Claim, Support, Question
Engage with this thinking routine by focusing on the prompts below:
Make a claim this concept.
Identify support for your claim.
Ask yourself a question. What isn’t explain in this video?
Part 5: Quality Feedback
Reflection Break: After watching part 5 of the Feedback Masterclass, reflect on your experience of providing feedback and how that aligns with the four types of feedback presented in the video. Consider engaging in the thinking routine: “Connect, Extend, Challenge”
What ideas from the video connected with your current practice?
What ideas from the video extended your comfort level or understanding but feel valuable and helpful?
What ideas challenge your thinking, create an obstacle or problem?
Part 6: Benefits of Audio
Reflection Break: After watching part 6 of the Feedback Masterclass on the benefits of audio feedback, consider exploring the thinking routine below:
Imagine If…
To complete the thinking routine, engage in the following prompts:
In what ways could feedback be made to be more effective? In what ways could feedback be made to be more efficient? In what ways could feedback be made to be more ethical? In what ways could feedback be made to be more beautiful?
Part 7: Feedback with Mote
In the final content related video of the Feedback Masterclass series we explore specifically how Mote plays a critical role in creating high quality feedback. We explore how Mote plays an integral role across three core Google Workspace for Education environments: Google Docs, Google Slides and Google Classroom.
Part 8: Building a Feedback Program with Mote
In the final phase of the 8 part series, we will explore a structure process that educators, PLCs or teams can use to begin the process of implementing a high quality and impactful feedback program in their school using Mote.
With the help of just a handful of free and easily accessible web tools, educators can bring students across the globe with custom virtual audio tours. By using the Sticky Mote feature which allows educators to layer custom audio notes on any web page, students can explore a curated journey where the teacher guides their exploration via Sticky Mote audio. Embrace curiosity and exploration in your classroom and guide students with the perfect amount of necessary audio support along the way!
Virtual Audio Tours Video Walk-Through
Virtual Audio Tours Slide Deck
We can’t wait to hear about what types of Virtual Audio Tours are created with Sticky Motes! Connect with us on social and share your creations with Mote on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook!
Embedding Mote Audio into multi-day digital workspaces
Creating digital workspaces where students can navigate the content confidently and independently is a challenging task. By using the HyperDocs approach, educators can create one unified workspace that students can engage with and explore over multiple days. This approach is exceptionally beneficial as it minimizes the number of digital locations students must manage when explore a concept. With Mote, audio HyperDocs allow educators to create dynamic digital workspaces where teacher audio can be added quickly to include thorough discussion, guidance, feedback or insight into the ideas being explore in the HyperDoc.
To learn more about the process of creating Audio HyperDocs, watch the entire vide0 walk-through below that explore the setup process, strategies and methods of integrating Mote audio into the HyperDoc creation process.
Explore and copy the Mote Audio HyperDoc template provided in the video walk-through above with the presentation deck and template below.
Podcasting in the classroom is a creative outlet that educators can leverage to allow students to share their thinking, tell a unique story and express their perspective through the creative use of audio. Traditionally, podcasting is a relatively complex and often a multi-step process that requires not only planning for content, but a comfort level with capturing audio, editing and publishing. For some the technical process may be too great a barrier to provide students with the opportunity to express themselves through audio.
Mote in Google Slides is the ideal solution that allows students to create micro-podcasts. Instead of getting bogged down with the technical barriers, by using Mote in 90 second audio clips to act as the single podcasting tool, the barrier to entry for classroom creation is lowered, increasing accessibility for all students to create.
Check out the full video walk-through on the purpose, setup and process of creating micro-podcasts with Mote.
The team at Mote has created a micro-podcasting template in Google Slides that can be used as a turn-key solution that allows students to begin creating multi-episode podcasts today!
