DyKnow Conference

I attended a DyKnow conference where local educators shared their tips and tricks about DyKnow. After using DyKnow for a year, I did not learn many new functions of DyKnow, but it did inspire me to use DyKnow in different ways. Here are a few reminders of functions I do want to use or use in new ways:
1. "White Out." I learned this last year, but I want to use this more this year. White out is simply using the white pen to cover up typed text. This is effective to cover up answers to questions.
2. Timer. I used the timer all the time when I used SMART Notebook, and I didn't know there was a timer in DyKnow.
3. Use "Attention" to ask a question. The attention freezes their screens so they can't work on anything else. Instead of saying, "Pay attention," put a question for them to discuss as a class or in partners or groups.
4. Monitor List. You can tell who is logged in and who is not. This is a tool to take a attendance. I'm not sure if I would use it to take attendance, but it is helpful to know who is logged in.
5. Answer boxes. I have not used these, but one teacher writes the answers in the answer box in white ink and then highlights it to reveal the answer.
6. Direction of desks. One teacher has students turn their desks around while testing so he can see everyone's screens. This could also work during independent seat work.
7. Use Monitor to show students' work. This can be an alternative to collecting slides if you want to show a student's slide to the rest of the class.
8. Force participant notebook save. This automatically saves a copy for students in their DyKnow folder on the DyKnow server.

Based on what I learned, I have a few goals for DyKnow this year:
1. Change the beginning of class routines. We will say prayer, then I will give them a list of "chores" to do in an allotted amount of time. This will also give me some time to take attendance and make sure I have everyone's homework. These chores are turning in a slide of their homework by submitting a panel and then give them a few polls or a question to chat or activity to do on a slide to submit. After that, we can go over a section or two of homework. This year I am not going to go over every single section of homework. Instead I am just going to focus on the sections that are most challenging.
2. Do at least one remote study session. Unfortunately, this will exclude the few upperclassmen that are in my Spanish 1 class, but I can give them an alternative.
3. Do one pre-recorded lesson for students.