Teacher Feature: Taking the First Step

It is always interesting to see how new users make their first deck and conduct their maiden Deck.Toys lesson in class. In this Teacher Feature, a Canadian teacher who has just built her second deck generously shares her experience on how she engaged her students remotely with Deck.Toys.

Karen Hanson (@Hansonlovestech) has been a teacher in Calgary, Alberta for over 20 years and absolutely loves what she does. She has a BEd with a specialization in Elementary Education and completed her Master of Education in Educational Technology in 2005. She has always had a keen interest in how technology can support strong instructional design and how teachers can use these tools to help kids learn.

Karen is currently a Grade 6 Social Studies and Religious Education teacher. This year, she started teaching in her school District’s first virtual school. While it was started this year in particular because of the pandemic, it has been in the works for a few years and the plans are to continue with the school in the future.  

Deck.Toys: How long have you been using Deck.Toys?

Karen: I am actually very new to Deck.Toys. I came across the tool on a social media feed last spring and was intrigued right from the start. I started playing with the tool and took a look at some of the creations in the Deck Gallery over the summer. I realized quickly that Deck.Toys could help me create some really engaging lessons more easily than I had been doing in other ways.  My first project was a Halloween-themed activity just to get my feet wet and take that initial plunge.  My students loved it and so did I!

Deck.Toys: What did you discover in Deck.Toys that you find particularly useful in your lessons?

Karen: As a Social Studies teacher, I am often presenting content to kids that they do not have a lot of background knowledge with. “Democracy”, for instance, is not a subject that 11 year olds talk about a lot. Deck.Toys allows me to situate the content in a meaningful learning environment, allowing them to build understanding of the content and get the practice that they need.  

It also allows me to have embedded accessibility features like Immersive Reader and audio files that will help all of my learners understand the content and activities. On top of that, I can set different learning paths for different learners to help them meet their needs. Differentiation made easy!  

Deck.Toys: What features do you really find useful in our platform?

Karen: The Slide Apps allow me to make things interactive simply by clicking and dragging, providing tremendous opportunities for formative assessment.  I particularly like the Drag n Drop app! Also, instead of having to build an assignment that includes information and then links off to other sites to have kids play with the ideas and practice, it is all in one place.  This makes it easier for them to access and for me to track their progress in real-time!  

Deck.Toys: How have your student responses been using Deck.Toys? 

Karen: My students have only had one experience so far with Deck.Toys but they all loved it! They keep asking me when we will be using it again. I can’t wait to share my newest creation which is on Local Governments in Alberta with them in the coming week. Check it out here: https://deck.toys/a/mJzgUvKz5

Deck.Toys: Do you have any advice for other new users trying to build their first decks with Deck.Toys?

Karen: There is so much to Deck.Toys. It really has the ability to do anything you need it to do. As a result, it can be a bit overwhelming at first, so start small. Build a deck for one small piece of content, then build up and out from there. Take something you already have – even a worksheet! – and use that. Then think of ways you can add to that experience and build from there.

My second deck which I shared was supposed to simply be a review of content we were covering on local government using a Quizlet set I already had. Before I knew it, the activity evolved to a full breakout experience, having the kids collect keys that our mayor lost around the city!  

Deck.Toys: Thanks for all the sharing, Karen! We believe many newbies would benefit from your tips.

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