Three ways to use Hapara beyond the classroom

The transition to teaching and learning in the cloud has led to interesting challenges and opportunities for both classroom teachers and other educators in the school building. As learning moves online, educators are finding new ways to manage learner work and ensure that everyone in the building is working together to create great learning experiences.

You may be well-versed in how Hapara tools can help a classroom teacher manage and transform digital work–and lessons in general–but have you thought about how Hapara can be leveraged outside the classroom? Administrators and other stakeholders, those in charge of teacher evaluations, and folks tasked with professional development can all make use of the visibility, access and collaboration available with Hapara.

Gain visibility into learner work

Did you know that people like principals, guidance counselors, and school psychologists can have the same visibility into learners’ digital work that teachers have? These stakeholders play an important role in learner success, and they can all make use of Hapara tools to have a greater impact (and to make their lives easier).

Administrators can access learner work to have a more direct connection to students, to show exemplars at staff meetings, and make connections with learning and behavior incidents.

Guidance counselors can create a class (or multiple classes) with the students they see, and they can use those classes to monitor progress and connect directly with students and their work.

School psychologists can use this kind of access to work with students they see–with clear and living examples of growth and difficulty.

Create artifacts for teacher evaluations

Beyond using Hapara’s visibility to work with learners directly, folks outside the classroom can use these tools as evidence for teacher evaluations. Oftentimes, teachers need to show data on digital lessons or their use of technology. What better (or easier) way to record this than by using Snaps to document digital classrooms? Evaluators can also use Highlights to observe lessons as they unfold–in person or remotely. It’s hard to gauge how on-task students are when you’re looking over shoulders in a sea of Chromebooks, but Highlights (and Snaps) allow you to gather “hard evidence” of online behavior; one can see where students are spending their time in incredible–and useful–detail.

Build powerful PD experiences

Additionally, I like to remind Hapara users that the tools they value in their classroom can be used just as successfully with adult learners.

Did you know that you can add teachers as learners in Workspace? This kind of digital lesson is powerful beyond use with students; teachers can learn from in-house experts, and they can do so on their own time–without the need for face-to-face meetings or substitutes. Workspace also has the tendency to nudge you to think outside the box, which results in exciting discoveries–like how seamlessly PLCs and staff meetings run with the help of a Workspace landing page.

Beyond Workspace, Hapara tools come in handy when in-the-moment, real-world examples are necessary. A trainer can quickly pull up actual examples of student work, active lessons in Workspace, and more with just a few clicks.

How will you think outside the box?

These are just a few examples of using the visibility and access Hapara tools provide to expand and improve your school’s practice and process.

We are constantly impressed by the creative ways our customers use Hapara, and we love to hear (and share) stories of success. Have you tried the ideas we shared? Do you have examples of using Hapara beyond the classroom? Share them with us! We can’t wait to give you a high five.