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Innovative Education in VT

A blog exploring innovative school change by the UVM Tarrant Institute

  • ABOUT US
    • We stand against systemic racism.
    • Diversity Policy
    • The Tarrant Institute
    • Our staff
      • Penny Bishop
      • John Downes
      • Susan Hennessey
      • Audrey Homan
      • Emily Hoyler
      • Life LeGeros
      • Rachel Mark
      • Robin Merritt
      • Jeanie Phillips
      • Scott Thompson
      • Lucie delaBruere
    • Our schools
    • Our book
      • How to use this Educator’s Guide
      • Ch 1: Defining Personalized Learning
        • 1.1 The Three Pillars of Personalized Learning
        • 1.2 The Definition of a PLP
        • 1.3 New Student & Teacher Roles
      • Ch 2: PLPs Aren’t Just For The Teacher
        • 2.1 Knowing Students Well
        • 2.2 Avoid the Pitfalls!
      • Ch 3: Laying The Groundwork for PLPs
        • 3.1 What Are Your Pedagogical Priorities?
        • 3.2 Structures to Support Personalized Learning
      • Ch 4: Starting with the Learner Profile
      • Ch 5: Flexing Your Pathways
        • 5.1 Engaging Pedagogies for All
      • Ch. 6: Scaffolding for Equitable, Deeper Learning
      • Ch 7: PLPs & Proficiency-Based Assessment
      • Ch 8: Student-led PLP conferences
      • Ch 9: Sustaining Innovation
      • Chapter References
  • VIDEOS
    • Tech Tips
    • PLP videos
    • Proficiency-Based Learning Videos
    • Student-Led Conference Videos
  • PODCAST
    • #vted Reads Episode List
    • #vted Reads Videos
  • EVENTS & COURSES
  • TOOLKITS
    • Personalized Learning Plans (PLPs)
    • Proficiency-Based Education
      • Learning Goals
      • Formative Assessment
      • Summative Assessment
  • ARCHIVES
  • CONTACT

Tools We Like

Marco Polo app
Flexible Classroom Spaces Tools We Like 

Virtual video walkie-talkies? Meet the Marco Polo app

May 21, 2020May 26, 2020 Jeanie Phillips Scott Thompson 0 Comments asynchronous messaging, broadband, equity, video notes

Why the Marco Polo app? With social distancing and remote learning on educators’ minds, there’s never been a more urgent

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virtual bulletin board corkulous
Tools We Like 

3 ways to use virtual bulletin boards

October 19, 2018October 31, 2018 Audrey Homan 1 Comment corkulous, Google Keep, iPads, padlet, Peoples Academy Middle Level, Proctor Elementary School, vocabulary

Padlet, Google Keep and Corkulous — oh my! 1.Padlet Padlet’s been a go-to for a number of our educators for

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Tools We Like 

Setting behavioral expectations in a makerspace

October 1, 2018October 2, 2018 Erica Zimmer 0 Comments Google Docs, Makerspaces, padlet, Proctor Elementary School

  2 ways to bring in transferable skills Makerspaces are amazing. They’re a big carnival of lights and sounds and

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Tools We Like 

Using audiobooks for Universal Design for Learning

June 16, 2017June 16, 2017 Emily Wood 2 Comments audiobooks, digital literacy tools, Moretown Elementary School, reading, sustained silent reading, Universal Design for Learning

Expanding student access to reading As a school librarian, I needed to think how I could adopt Universal Design for

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Tools We Like 

Machinima: using video games for storytelling

June 9, 2017June 27, 2017 Audrey Homan 0 Comments digital storytelling, Flood Brook School, machinima, minecraft, second life, video games, world of warcraft

Be an X-Box Hero (with stars in your eyes)* Meet machinima. The word’s a portmanteau of “machine” and “cinema”. It’s

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Tools We Like 

4 ways students can control the pace of content delivery

April 14, 2017April 14, 2017 Susan Hennessey 0 Comments Blendspace, EdPuzzle, nearpod, screencasting

Deliver the goods! Rather than creating a unit on the Civil War, imagine working with an individual student or small

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Tools We Like 

The tech-rich social studies classroom

April 5, 2017April 5, 2017 Susan Hennessey 1 Comment EdPuzzle, Kahoot, nearpod, Newsela, Socrative

Standard 3-part story-driven post: 1) what it is, 2) what it looks like in a school, 3) how to do it in your school

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Tools We Like 

The Perils and Possibilities of YouTube

February 16, 2016February 16, 2016 Audrey Homan 9 Comments the internet is made of cats, YouTube, YouTube videos

How to make YouTube appropriate for the classroom YouTube can provide students and educators with hundreds of powerful educational videos

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ePortfolios Tools We Like 

Screencast-o-matic on the Macbook

January 21, 2016 Audrey Homan 4 Comments Google Sites, Screencast-o-matic, Wallingford Elementary School

A step-by-step tutorial We helped one of our partner schools, Wallingford Elementary in Wallingford, Vermont, get set up with screencasting

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Tools We Like 

Exploring identity and current events with Chatterpix

January 13, 2016November 30, 2018 Susan Hennessey 2 Comments Chatterpix, identity, Peoples Academy Middle Level, political science

Students tackle politicians’ identities Students at Peoples Academy Middle Level in Morrisville, Vermont, are exploring the theme of identity in their humanities

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help students prototype app development
Tools We Like 

A is for App Development

August 17, 2015September 19, 2018 Audrey Homan 6 Comments Buzztouch, Flinto, make mobile apps, mobile apps

Help students prototype mobile apps with these development tools Mobile app development with students can be tricky, because in a lot of

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Tools We Like 

Chasing Google: A Defining Moment

August 14, 2015August 14, 2015 Scott Thompson 6 Comments Google Certified Educator, Google+

Becoming a Google Certified Educator My fascination with Google started in the early 2000’s simply from a financial interest. Here

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Tools We Like 

Collaborative digital tools for faculty meetings

June 21, 2015June 21, 2015 Susan Hennessey 4 Comments leadership, MoveNote, padlet

Go beyond back-channeling and unlock creative communication This summer, look for ways to liven up your faculty meetings and delve a little

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Tools We Like 

How to use MoveNote for screencasting

June 19, 2015 Audrey Homan 8 Comments app-smashing, Brattleboro Area Middle School, MoveNote, Peoples Academy High School, Videonot.es

Embed yourself in your video lesson MoveNote lets you create screencasts where you appear alongside the material, making how to screencast

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Tools We Like 

4 great online tools for the Hour of Code

November 25, 2014November 25, 2014 Audrey Homan 7 Comments Code Monkey, coding, Rails for Zombies, Tynker

Global day of coding coming in December December 8th – 14th, students and educators around the world will be taking an hour to

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Science Saturdays Tools We Like 

Monster Physics and the importance of careful consideration

November 22, 2014November 22, 2014 Mark W. Olofson 3 Comments differentiated learning, physics, reflection, STEM

This has been a very interesting week for me, trying to write a post for today. The task actually seemed

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Innovative Edtech Classrooms News Tools We Like 

Leveraging Google Calendar in the Classroom

November 12, 2014 Meredith Swallow 4 Comments Christ the King School, family engagement, family involvement, Google Apps for Education

Inspiring collaboration between teachers, students and families The free suite of tools through Google Apps for Education have certainly inspired

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Augmented Reality Science Saturdays Tools We Like 

Molecules in Augmented Reality

November 8, 2014November 9, 2014 Mark W. Olofson 6 Comments augmented reality, Aurasma, chemistry, STEM

One of the challenges in science is to help students make connections from concepts to their real world. This can

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Tools We Like 

Too much good stuff: a wealth of reading and curation resources for the classroom

October 17, 2014October 17, 2014 Susan Hennessey 5 Comments ATOS, Clearly, diigo, Harwood Union Middle School, iSpeak, Kahoot, lexile levels, Newsela, Read and Write with Google, Spritz, Subtext

The technology cannot thwart us, it can only make us stronger As many of you are aware, I was out

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Tools We Like 

How to add footnotes to Google Docs on your iPad

October 8, 2014March 6, 2017 Susan Hennessey 6 Comments Google Drive

Cite your sources as you write I was working with a teacher the other day who expressed some frustration around

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Science Saturdays Tools We Like 

Science and Math simulations for your class

September 13, 2014November 30, 2018 Mark W. Olofson 6 Comments chemistry, Next Generation Science Standards, STEM

One of the big challenges in the math and science classroom is to make abstract concepts real for your students.

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Flipped Classrooms Tools We Like 

4 ways to use Flipboard in your flipped classroom

September 12, 2014September 12, 2014 Audrey Homan 13 Comments Android, collaboration, curation, current events, Flipboard, flipped classrooms, Google Nexus, iPads

We’re flipping for Flipboard — and your students will too! Flipboard is a free mobile app for the iOS, Android and

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Tools We Like 

How to use EdPuzzle for differentiation

September 8, 2014September 8, 2014 Susan Hennessey 19 Comments differentiation, EdPuzzle, flipped classroom

New cool tool for flipped classrooms and personalized learning Check out this great resource for differentiation and the flipped classroom:

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Tools We Like 

Create community in your classroom with ShadowPuppet

July 28, 2014December 12, 2020 Susan Hennessey 18 Comments back-to-school, intro to iPads, iPads, Shadow Puppet, slideshows

Free app for students to make quick and easy back-to-school slideshows

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Tools We Like 

Thinglink Video for educators

July 22, 2014December 15, 2020 Audrey Homan 7 Comments

Get a sneak peek at the new Thinglink Many of you have undoubtedly heard of Thinglink’s new video service, where

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News Tools We Like 

What you should know about iPad cases

July 18, 2014January 9, 2021 Audrey Homan 12 Comments 1:1, intro to iPads, iPad cases, iPads

Getting mobile devices into the hands of educators and students is the name of the game, but what happens after to

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Tools We Like 

Chatterpix in the classroom

June 19, 2014June 19, 2014 Audrey Homan 7 Comments app-smash, Chatterpix, chemistry, digital storytelling

A new iOS app to blab about — literally! Chatterpix is a free iOS app that allows you to put

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Tools We Like 

4 great apps for creating presentations on your iPad

May 29, 2014July 18, 2014 Audrey Homan 14 Comments Animoto, app-smash, app-smashing, Aurasma, Haiku Deck, Touchcast

It’s that magical, magical time of the year again! No, not the end of the school year. (STOP THAT.) I

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Tools We Like 

#1minutehowto: Use EasyBib to create a GoogleDoc bibliography

May 13, 2014May 12, 2014 Audrey Homan 4 Comments EasyBib, Google Docs, Skitch, Tellagami

Why We Like This This is Amy Gibson’s fabulous (and brief!) tutorial video about the EasyBib Google Docs Add-On, which

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Edugaming Tools We Like 

Want to try out interactive fiction and games?

April 24, 2014July 18, 2014 Audrey Homan 4 Comments digital storytelling, interactive fiction, StoryNexus, Twine, You can do it!, YouTube

Want to try out writing interactive fiction and games with your students? Here are three tools that make it easy

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Tools We Like 

Use Image Capture to harvest videos off iOS devices

April 18, 2014September 25, 2015 Audrey Homan 15 Comments iPads

Has this ever happened to you? You’ve captured some amazing in-classroom video footage with your trusty iPad — a compelling

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Innovative Edtech Classrooms News Tools We Like 

VT 8th grade class receives EduCast Pioneer award

April 3, 2014April 3, 2014 Audrey Homan 5 Comments Peoples Academy Middle Level, STEM, Touchcast

  Rachel Goodale’s 8th grade science class at Peoples Academy Middle Level was honored yesterday for their series of speed

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Tools We Like 

Jumpstart STEM badging with DIY

April 1, 2014September 19, 2018 Audrey Homan 5 Comments digital badging, STEM

Here’s a great way to dip your toes in the digital credentialing waters: DIY.org. What Is It? Geared for kids

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Tools We Like 

Video creation and editing apps for the classroom

March 19, 2014March 18, 2014 Audrey Homan 2 Comments Animoto, iMotion, iMovie, PhotoStory, Reel Director, Silent Film Studio, Touchcast, Vine

What tools you use are missing from this list? I sat down this afternoon to brainstorm a list of video

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Innovative Edtech Classrooms Tools We Like 

Frog dissection: there’s an app for that

February 21, 2014February 24, 2014 Audrey Homan 0 Comments STEM

  Guest post by Lindsey Halman, facilitator at The Edge at Essex Middle School: What is a system? How are

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Tools We Like 

New from Hennessey: Nearpod

February 13, 2014 Audrey Homan 2 Comments nearpod

One way I know for sure an app has potential to transform classroom practice is when, with minimal introduction and

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Edugaming Innovative Edtech Classrooms News Tools We Like Videos 

Edmunds Middle School is on the airwaves with ARIS

January 3, 2014 Audrey Homan 0 Comments ARIS, Edmunds Middle School

Edmunds Middle School teachers, students and district technologists were on Commissioner’s Corner last night , talking about their experiences designing

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Edugaming Innovative Edtech Classrooms Tools We Like 

ARIS @ Echo

December 4, 2013 Audrey Homan 3 Comments ARIS, community partnership, Edmunds Middle School, iPads

When last we left our trusty Edmunds Explorers, they had just defeated a horde of geometry-loving aliens who’d invaded the

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Edugaming Tools We Like 

Best. Game launch. Ever.

November 25, 2013 Audrey Homan 0 Comments ARIS, Edmunds Middle School

Following up on our intro to ARIS with geometry last Friday, this morning the 6th graders from Edmunds Middle School

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Edugaming Innovative Edtech Classrooms Tools We Like 

Geometry, aliens and ARIS at Edmunds Middle School

November 25, 2013 Audrey Homan 2 Comments ARIS, Edmunds Middle School, geometry, math, STEM

Pop quiz, hotshot. What do geometry, aliens and the augmented reality gaming platform all have in common? A: All were

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Tools We Like Videos 

The Parable of the Puppet Pals: integrating technology in religion class

November 18, 2013 Audrey Homan 0 Comments iPads, Mater Christi

Julia Melloni, the Middle School Religion teacher at Mater Christi School in Burlington, worked with her students on “blending ancient

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Innovative Edtech Classrooms Tools We Like Videos 

From a 1:1 toolkit: organizing student work on iPads with Google Drive

November 6, 2013 Audrey Homan 2 Comments Google Drive, Peoples Academy Middle Level

Peoples Academy Middle Level (PAML) educator Joe Speers returns with an explanation of how PAML uses Google Drive on iPads

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Innovative Edtech Classrooms Tools We Like 

8th grade VT science: interpreting distance over Touchcast

October 2, 2013 Audrey Homan 1 Comment Peoples Academy Middle Level, STEM, Touchcast

    by Rachel Goodale (Peoples Academy Middle Level) We started out this year with a Physics Unit studying the relationships

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Tools We Like 

How to: create your own Aurasma auras

September 19, 2013 Audrey Homan 2 Comments augmented reality, Aurasma

In a nutshell, Aurasma’s augmented reality images are called auras. You make them with Aurasma Studio, which runs in your

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Augmented Reality Tools We Like 

Meet Aurasma: an augmented reality app for the classroom

September 19, 2013July 30, 2014 Audrey Homan 2 Comments augmented reality, Aurasma, Harwood Union Middle School

Augmented reality apps allow users to experience a layer of additional information — usually visual or auditory — meshed with

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Tools We Like 

Having an augmented reality kind of morning

September 10, 2013July 30, 2014 Audrey Homan 0 Comments augmented reality, iPads

Okay, so I’m a few months early but oy, this weather, #btv. Brought to you by AR DinoPark, a free

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Tools We Like Videos 

How students are using Touchcast: welcome videos!

September 4, 2013 Audrey Homan 1 Comment iPads, Touchcast

As a follow-up to our post on how teachers are using Touchcast, here’s an example of how students are using

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Innovative Edtech Classrooms Tools We Like Videos 

Teachers teaching Touchcast

August 21, 2013 Audrey Homan 1 Comment Touchcast

We’re sharing the screencasting love over here at the Institute, thanks in no small part to #btv librarian-rockstar Shannon Walters

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Tools We Like Videos 

iMovie Exercise: Introduce yourself in a trailer

July 26, 2013 Audrey Homan 1 Comment digital citizenship, iMovie

From Katie Sullivan and via our own @hennesss: “Look at this cool way to use iMovie for kids to be

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Tools We Like 

Blogger of the week: Phoebe Slater

July 12, 2013 Audrey Homan 0 Comments Peoples Academy Middle Level, Skitch, student engagement

Phoebe Slater teaches 7th grade at one of our partner schools, Peoples Academy Middle Level, over on her blog, Slaterspace,

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Innovative Edtech Classrooms Tools We Like Videos 

Explain Everything, um, explained.

June 26, 2013 Audrey Homan 1 Comment explain everything, Harwood Union Middle School, iPads

A middle-schooler from Harwood explains how they’re using Explain Everything for a class project to capture stills and videos.

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Tools We Like Videos 

How to: use iMovie on the iPad

June 20, 2013 Audrey Homan 0 Comments Harwood Union Middle School, iMovie, student voice

A brief but effective demonstration of how to use iMovie to construct a poem recital video, courtesy a student at

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Edugaming Innovative Edtech Classrooms Tools We Like Videos 

Minecraft as digital storytelling tool

May 29, 2013July 17, 2014 Audrey Homan 2 Comments digital storytelling, minecraft

“Grand Theft Diamond”, a video from Flood Brook Union School’s 6th graders, shows how the popular game Minecraft can be

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Innovative Edtech Classrooms Tools We Like 

Brian Wagner on Aurasma, continued

May 27, 2013 Audrey Homan 1 Comment augmented reality, Aurasma, chemistry, explain everything, Harwood Union Middle School, STEM

Page 1 | 2 The annual Rube Goldberg Challenge is an opportunity for students to engage in their inner creative,

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News Tools We Like 

iPads in VT: we came, we saw, we apped

May 16, 2013 Audrey Homan 0 Comments iPads

Over on Storify, a brief recap of how our first annual iPad play-day went this past weekend. With more than

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Tools We Like 

Map apps for the iOS

April 7, 2013 Audrey Homan 0 Comments geography, maps, place-based learning

An illustrated guide to the map apps covered at Friday’s iOS User Group meeting. [View the story “Map apps for

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Tools We Like 

iPad Apps We Like: Germ Blaster

September 1, 2012 Audrey Homan 0 Comments iPads, STEM

A one-minute screencast of actual game-play from the free iPad app Germ Blaster, by the Rice University Center for Technology

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Recent posts

  • The unexpected joys of screentime in a pandemic
  • The Power of One Person
  • #vted Reads about Equity & Cultural Responsiveness in the Middle Grades
  • Culturally responsive practices for equity in the classroom
  • Decolonizing Place-Based Education

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