Crosswalk Curriculum

Raise your hand if you love when the shiniest new tool is introduced at a staff meeting! Groan-worthy, right? My growth mindset flushes itself down the toilet whenever a new tech-tool is enthusiastically touted by one of my colleagues. The Hyperlink Doc was one such item.

What made the Hyperlink Doc different? Why am I suddenly the pied piper of this cross curricular tool? It all starts with trust; the teachers who were proponents of using this technology tool in the classroom were co-workers who share my vision for student-centered education. That made me take a second glance. So I tried it-I made a Hyperlink Doc! And it was a total trainwreck. I literally made a document full of links with boxes where students reflected on their learning. It was terrible. It was…*gasp!* a worksheet.

Fast-forward two years and now I embrace this technology tool as a critical component of my cross curricular classroom. What changed THIS time? Well first, we because a 1:1 device school. This means that each student now had an either family-provided or school purchased device. While it’s not impossible for students to collaborate on a HyperDoc™, it is less than ideal. Having devices daily helped students to work independently at their own pace.

The next big change for me was need. I needed a Hyperlink Doc, therefore I needed to learn to create a value-added lesson set to use the tech tool effectively. Why did I need this resource? I was about to take a four-day vacation. I feel strongly that sub days are not movies days. There is a way to plan robust and engaging lessons on sub days, and Hyperlink Doc are a great tool for designing your sub plans.

So, maybe you can teach an “old” dog new tricks? I’m glad that I tried and then epically failed at my first try with hyperlink docs. Sometimes you have to wait for the right moment for a cross-curricular tool to match a need in your classroom.