💡 Tips & Best Practices
Share your classroom strategies, workflows, and WiseBoard tricks.
How I use the pacing tracker for a project-based art class
I was not sure the pacing tracker would be useful for art since my schedule does not follow a standard lesson-a-day structure. I was wrong. Here is how I adapted it: instead of planning individual lessons, I plan project phases. So a unit on perspective drawing has a phase for introduction and guided practice, a phase for independent work, a phase for critique and revision, and a phase for final presentation. Each phase gets a block of days in the pacing tracker. This immediately showed me some…
Using the pacing tracker to plan the whole year before school starts
I tried something this week I want to share while it is still fresh. I mapped out my entire school year in the WiseBoard pacing tracker before the year even starts. Not just units, but specific lesson dates and buffer days built in. This is not something I have ever done before. Usually I plan two or three weeks ahead and hope for the best. Here is the process: I started with my state assessment date and worked backward. Identified my five biggest units and how much time each realistically need…
Summer experiment: trying every WiseBoard feature I ignored during the year
My summer project is to try every WiseBoard feature I skipped when things were busy. Here is my report two weeks in. WiseUp games: I had not touched these at all. I ran one as a practice quiz by myself just to see how it works and I am genuinely excited to use competitive games for vocabulary and review this fall. My class is very game-motivated and I think this is going to hit differently than worksheets. The gradebook: I was using a separate gradebook app and exporting data across. Switching…
Bell ringers changed my first 10 minutes and here is the setup
I want to share how I use bell ringers because it is the feature that had the biggest day-to-day impact on my classroom this year. Before: I would find something on Pinterest, print 30 copies, hand them out during the transition, lose 4 minutes to shuffling and settling. I was doing this every single day. Now: the bell ringer is on the board when students walk in. They sit down and start. No handout, no instructions needed once the habit is built. My setup: every bell ringer connects to somethi…
My WiseBoard summer setup plan before school starts
I have been spending part of my summer break getting WiseBoard set up the right way before the fall. Here is what I have been working through and what has been most useful. First thing I did: loaded all five of my science units for the year with rough dates. Just the skeleton for now, no detailed lesson notes yet. Having the full year visible in one place immediately made everything feel less overwhelming. Second: I went through every feature I had skipped during the spring. The pacing tracker,…
I stopped dreading essay grading this year and here is how
I teach three sections of 10th grade English in Ohio. That means a lot of essays. For nine years grading essays in May and June has been the thing I dread most. This was the first year that changed. The feedback generator in WiseBoard is what made the difference. Here is my actual process: I read the essay and fill in a quick rubric score. Then I open the generator, paste in my rubric and three or four specific notes I typed about that student's draft. It gives me a full written comment. I edit…