Every student is an MVP! Share their success through the Student “Play of the Week,” with Google Slides.

It’s so important that we celebrate student success and help every student to feel like an MVP of the classroom.

Below is a guest post from Pam Hubler, sharing a super fun way to get students to recognize their accomplishments and share their success.

We’ve all heard the phrase “Play of the Week” used in sports around the world.

The purpose is to highlight the great plays you may have missed. Why not do the same thing to share all the amazing experiences going on in our schools?

In our society today, social media and digital presentation tools make it so easy to spark engaging and inviting ideas to use in our classrooms.

Part of Kasey’s Dynamic Learning Framework is to go BEYOND the Walls of the classroom, giving students a global audience for their work.

(You can learn more about Dynamic Learning and the framework in Kasey’s book, Shake Up Learning: Practical Ideas to Move Learning From Static to Dynamic.)

[Tweet “Every Student is an MVP! The Student “Play of the Week,” with #GoogleSlides by @SpecialTechie #edtech”]

Student “Play of the Week” with Google Slides

Using a “Play of the Week” may be exactly what you need to start sharing your ideas with the world. No matter how simple the ideas seem to you, it may be new and brilliant to someone else!

I was introduced to this idea as a Personalized Learning Coach in South Carolina. We were given a template so each of the coaches would have a slide to show highlights from their campuses.

We met once a week, so that’s when we’d share as a group.

At first, it felt like just another thing on our to-do list. Once we started sharing as a group, I realized how much I could learn from what the other coaches were doing in their schools that I wouldn’t be able to see without visiting each school in person. We each had the freedom to design our slides however we wanted to, which can also make for some healthy competition! That’s why I thought this would be an awesome addition to any school or classroom.

That being said, here are some ideas for educators to implement “Play of the Week” at their schools.

My favorite platform to use for this is Google Slides because of the collaboration, endless design possibilities, and easy sharing with other teachers, students, and even parents. As Kasey says, “Google Slides is the Swiss Army Knife of G Suite!”

How to Implement “Play of the Week”

Play of the Week (One Slide Per Student)

In this scenario, the slide deck would be shared or assigned each week using your own preferred method. (Google Classroom, link, etc.).

If you want to make it easy for students to get to the correct slide without scrolling through each one, use a table of contents slide at the beginning where the students’ names are already listed.

Get the FREE “Play of the Week” Class Template!

You can create your own or use the template links below. (I used the Jaques Slides Theme from Slides Carnival, as well as The Noun Project school icon, and Bitmoji).

CLICK HERE to Make a Copy | CLICK HERE to use the Template

If you use the template, add the names (be careful not to break the link) and update any images before sharing it.

Here’s a video to demonstrate how to change the names easily. Kasey also teaches how to create a student table of contents, step-by-step, and much more in her Google Slides Master Class.

Kasey’s post on Creating an eBook in Google Slides also demonstrates how to create a simple Table of Contents in slides.

Sharing your template with students using Google Classroom:

• Create an assignment in Google Classroom and attach it using the Google Drive icon.
• If you want each student to have their own for the year, make sure they get their own copy. Then make sure you assign this as “students can edit the file” using the drop-down in Google Classroom so everyone is working in the same document.
• If you want to share outside your classroom, make sure your template is “shared” by choosing “anyone with a link can view.”

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Play of the Week (One Slide Deck Per Student)

In this scenario, each student would have their own “Play of the Week,” Google Slides presentation.

The student would create a new slide each week for the entire school year.

If you choose this method, you may even want to take it a step further and share it with parents or community members with a QR code or shortened URL.

Get the FREE “Play of the Week” Student Template!

You can create your own or use the template links below.

Use this template for a year-long play of the week per student.

CLICK HERE to Make a Copy | CLICK HERE to use the Template

Sharing your template with students using Google Classroom:

• Create an assignment in Google Classroom and attach it using the Google Drive icon.
• If you want to do this each week as an entire class, share it with students so they can each edit. Make sure to update each of the highlighted areas in the template before sharing.  Then make sure you assign this as “students can edit the file” so everyone is working in the same document.
• If you want to share outside your classroom, make sure your template is “shared” by choosing “anyone with a link can view.”

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Idea from the Field! (Original idea from Kate O’Leary)

Do you post student work outside your classroom?

Why not create a Google Drive folder where students put their best work, including their Play of the Week project. Share this folder so “anyone with the link can view.”

Create a QR Code with the link to that folder so others can view all their best work at one time!

Students can decorate a large printed QR code (on 8.5×11 printer paper) and post it on the wall outside the room, or you can take a picture of them holding that same decorated QR code and post the picture outside your room. The latter idea is a bit more expensive, but it would be amazing for parent nights!

School Ideas:

• Play of the week with one slide per faculty/staff: Share this once a week using your preferred method. Just as I mentioned above, you could use a table of contents slide to make it easier for teachers to get to the right slide quickly.
• Play of the week per faculty/staff: Again, this would be shared once, then the faculty/staff would add a new slide each week for the entire school year.

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Now go shake up learning! Get creative, share often, and have fun! #sharingiscaring
I’d love to see how you use this in your schools and classrooms, use #EDUPlayOfTheWeek on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook when you share!

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About Pam Hubler

Pam is an Instructional Coach in Charleston, South Carolina with 22 years in education.  She is passionate about professional development, technology integration, and building a strong culture in schools.

As a Google Certified Trainer, Pam supports teachers by providing frequent professional development on how to integrate GSuite tools into their daily routines.  She also guides discussions during weekly PLC’s to help teachers find dynamic ways to provide instruction and develop engaging activities that incorporate the 4 C’s in authentic ways.

Pam also loves to create resources to share with educators through her website www.spedtechgeek.com, Twitter, as community manager of the Shake Up Learning Facebook Group and other social media platforms. She has presented at FETC, the EdTechTeam Low Country Summit, and EdCamps.

Pam is a lifelong learner who loves to read professional development books, especially books from Dave Burgess Consulting, Inc. and listens to Podcasts like the Google Teacher Tribe to keep up with educational technology and pedagogy.  She strives to be PIRATE leader to support educators so we can keep great teachers in the profession.

Follow Pam on Twitter: @specialtechie

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Want to Learn More?

Join the Google SLIDES Master Class Online Course

I frequently refer to Google Slides as the Swiss Army Knife of the G Suite tools because it is capable of being so much more than a presentation tool. In this course, you will learn how to use Slides in new and unexpected ways in your classroom that will engage your students and make learning more dynamic!
K-12 teachers are going to LOVE THIS COURSE!

This class is perfect for beginner to intermediate users to take their skills to the next level and become a Google Slides Master!

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Learn All About the Course

What’s Included?

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  • Bonus 1: Stop-Motion Animation
  • Bonus 2: How to Create Magnetic Poetry with Slides and Drawings
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• Supporting Resources
• Best Practices and Tips
• 6 hours of professional learning credit
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• Bulk license discounts
• Get your whole team, campus, or district on board

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Click here to learn more and to ENROLL TODAY!

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Check out all of my Google Slides Resources here!

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