Lesson Ideas for the first week of school

Stephanie Howell is the middle school instructional technology coordinator for Pickerington Schools in central Ohio with several years of experience teaching special education.

I stumbled on one of Stephanie’s Google Form activities while doing some research for a blog post I was writing.  Her name and lessons keep popping up on social media and at conferences that I attend. I am excited to chat with her and give her a platform to share some of her awesome ideas to help you kick off the school year.

It’s time to go back to school with Stephanie Howell!

How have you seen technology impact your teaching?

Stephanie taught special education for several years before moving into her current position as a technology coach and trainer. Her experience working with students who have special needs gave her a unique appreciation for how tech tools can help open learning opportunities for students.

Over time, Stephanie’s use of technology has earned her numerous awards and opportunities including being accepted into the Google Innovator Academy in the summer of 2019!

Back to School Activities for Chromebook Classrooms

If you plan on using Chromebooks, Google Classroom, and Google Drive as instructional tools, you will need to train your students on how to use these tools in the classroom. As more schools eliminate computer class, this instruction falls on the shoulders of subject area teachers.

Stephanie shared three fun back to school activities to help your students build technology skills:

Chromebook Scavenger Hunt by Alice Keeler (Modified by Deana J. Hubbell) (click to copy) – students earn badges for completing basic Chromebook tasks. Ideal for upper elementary through middle school students. 

Google Slides Scavenger Hunt by Stephanie Howell (click to copy) – this assignment will introduce students to the core features of Google Slides. Ideal for upper elementary students and above.

Shark Tank Restaurant Activity (click to copy) – Students work in a group to design a restaurant. Completing the tasks requires the use of Google Docs, Slides, Maps, and more! Ideal for middle and high school students.

Stephanie attended the 2019 Google Innovator Academy in Sydney, Australia. During the 2019-20 school year she is working on building out her innovator project on depth of knowledge (dok) activities for building relationships.

You can follow the development of Stephanie’s project on her blog!

What’s in your Chromebook toolbox?

Stephanie definitely has a firm grasp on tools in trends in the edTech space. Here are some of the things that Stephanie is excited to share with her teacher for the 2019-20 school year.

• Whiteboarding on Flipgrid
• Google’s autodraw tool is now integrated with Bookcreator!
• Google Expeditions is now compatible with Chromebooks!
• Audience Connect for Google Slides (coming soon!)

If you use one of Stephanie’s back to school activities or resources in your classroom make sure you thank her! You can connect with Stephanie on Twitter, @mrshowell24