As you prepare to regenerate for the next school year, Ask a Tech Teacher contributor, Jenny Wise, has some ideas on strengthening your school community with collaborative projects. Jenny is a homeschooling mom of four children, including her youngest daughter, Anna, who is on the autism spectrum. She and her husband chose to begin home-educating when their oldest was just four years old, embarking on a journey filled with both challenges and meaningful rewards. Along the way, Jenny has navigated the complexities of raising a growing family, supporting her children through life’s difficulties—including the recent loss of her father—and finding strength through faith, resilience, and connection.

Through her platform, Special Home Educator, Jenny shares her family’s homeschooling experiences, offering practical advice, encouragement, and resources for parents considering or navigating homeschooling, especially those raising children with special needs. Her mission is to support and inspire other families by honestly sharing the ups and downs of creating a personalized education at home.”

How Collaborative School Projects Build Stronger Campus Communities

K–12 educators working to integrate technology often face a tough mix of social challenges in schools and uneven digital habits that can quietly weaken day-to-day connection. When engagement slips, classroom tech can feel like another management problem, and student-staff relationships can become transactional instead of trusting. Collaborative school projects offer a practical way to bring students and adults back into shared purpose, giving learning a visible, collective reason to matter. Done well, these experiences strengthen educational engagement and set the conditions for lasting campus community building.

Understanding Shared Creation and Belonging

At the heart of a stronger campus culture is shared creation that students can see, revisit, and contribute to. When a class publication, art showcase, or storytelling series runs in repeating cycles, participation becomes normal, and identity becomes shared. The scaffolded and disciplined learning journey idea matters here because community grows when skills and contributions build over time.

This matters for tech-enhanced teaching because visible outputs turn digital tools into a reason to collaborate, not just another platform to manage. When students expect their work to be published or displayed, routines tighten, feedback improves, and quieter students have more ways to belong. Over time, roles and norms solidify, much like students who build skills at each of these levels from self to relationships to the wider system.

Picture a monthly “campus stories” drop: one team interviews staff, another designs pages, and others curate photos and captions. Each release becomes a small tradition, and each new student can join without starting from zero. The project becomes a shared mirror of the school, not a one-off assignment.

With the concept clear, adaptable project ideas and a simple publication workflow become easier to put into motion.

Design 6 Collaborative Projects—Plus a Yearbook Workflow

Shared creation builds belonging when students can see themselves, and each other, in a product the whole campus can access. Use the ideas below as plug-and-play models, then adapt the workflow to fit your schedule and tech setup.

1. Launch a “People of Our School” story series: Assign pairs to interview classmates, staff, and community helpers, then publish short profiles with a consistent template: 150–200 words, one quote, and one photo or illustration. This works because repetition creates a recognizable campus narrative and lowers the barrier to participation. Add roles like interviewer, fact-checker, photographer, and editor so every student contributes in a visible way.
2. Build a voter’s guide or issues explainer (grade-appropriate): Students act as newsroom teams to research a local issue, compare perspectives, and publish a guide with verified sources, vocabulary support, and a “how to take action” box. The voter’s guide model is effective because it requires students to practice gathering evidence, synthesizing, and writing for an authentic audience. Use a shared folder with a source log and require each claim to link back to a note or citation.
3. Run a cross-grade “how-to” knowledge base: Create a living digital handbook such as “How to succeed in 6th grade” or “Lab safety and STEM routines,” written by students for students. Publish one new entry weekly and rotate teams through drafting, peer review, and accessibility checks, such as headings, alt text, and readable fonts. The community-building payoff is huge: students feel responsible for helping others, not just finishing an assignment.
4. Host a collaborative data story about your campus: Have small groups collect simple data that doesn’t identify individuals, cafeteria choices, recess activities, library favorites, then produce charts and short write-ups that interpret patterns. Assign a data steward to check for privacy and a designer to standardize visuals across teams. This often boosts participation when students who don’t love writing can own an analysis or design.
5. Create a digital citizenship “micro-campaign”: Teams design a set of 3–5 shareable assets for homerooms or advisories: a poster, a 30-second script, a mini-quiz, and a reflection prompt. Add a clear production constraint such as “one message, one example, one action step” to keep quality high. This helps rebuild momentum when student engagement has declined by giving students fast cycles and a real audience.
6. Use a yearbook/publication workflow with sprints (repeatable all year): Start with a kickoff where you assign roles and norms, editor-in-chief, section editors, photographers/illustrators, copy editors, and a permissions manager, then set a two-week cadence: Week 1, gather content, Week 2 compile and review. Compile pages in an online design studio using templates so students focus on storytelling and consistency; a comprehensive school yearbook design approach can help keep templates and standards aligned, then run a final checklist for captions, names, and image rights before publishing.

When these projects run on clear roles, short cycles, and shared quality rules, collaboration feels fair, and students can take creative risks without the usual confusion about permissions, privacy, and feedback.

Collaborative Project FAQs for K-12 Classrooms

Q: How do I set roles and permissions without turning into the tech help desk?
A: Create three access levels: view, comment, and edit, then assign them by role (writer, editor, designer, checker). Start students on comment-only for shared “master” files and let teams edit their own working drafts. Post a one-slide “who can do what” chart so requests do not pile up in your inbox.

Q: What’s a manageable feedback cycle that doesn’t stall progress?
A: Use a 2-round routine: peer feedback first (one glow, one grow, one question), then teacher spot-checking on a small sample. Timebox feedback to 8 to 10 minutes and require students to accept or reject each comment with a short note. This keeps revisions moving and makes decisions visible.

Q: How can I protect student privacy when work is shared campus-wide?
A: Default to first names only, no personal identifiers, and pre-approved photos or avatars. Teach a quick “privacy scan” before publishing, and consider a digital literacy mini-lesson using ProjectEVOLVE, which is used by many schools.

Q: What can I do when one or two students dominate the collaboration?
A: Grade both the product and the process using role-based checkpoints, not just participation points. Rotate high-visibility tasks and require each student to submit a short evidence link or screenshot of their contribution. Structured turn-taking in meetings also helps quieter students be heard.

Q: How should I handle AI tools in group projects without creating new issues?
A: Set a clear rule: AI can support brainstorming and clarity, but students must cite sources and verify facts. A useful norm is a shared “AI use log,” especially since AI prompts in their classes are already common in many learning settings. Keep any student data out of prompts.

One clear routine at a time makes collaboration feel doable and fair.

Turning Collaborative Projects Into Lasting School Community Traditions

Even with a solid checklist, collaborative projects can fade once the deadline passes, leaving relationships and momentum underused. A community-first approach, grounded in student and staff collaboration and shared ownership, keeps the work focused on connection, not just completion. When teams repeat and refine a familiar project, strengthening relationships becomes part of the school’s rhythm and students experience a stronger sense of belonging. Projects become powerful when they turn into school traditions. Choose one project to run next term again, tighten what worked, and share the story so others can join. That consistency builds resilience and lasting community impact of projects across the campus.

–image credit Deposit Photos

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“The content presented in this blog are the result of creative imagination and not intended for use, reproduction, or incorporation into any artificial intelligence training or machine learning systems without prior written consent from the author.”

Jacqui Murray has been teaching K-18 technology for 30 years. She is the editor/author of over a hundred tech ed resources including a K-12 technology curriculum, K-8 keyboard curriculum, K-8 Digital Citizenship curriculum. She is an adjunct professor in tech ed, Master Teacher, freelance journalist on tech ed topics, and author of the tech thrillers, To Hunt a Sub and Twenty-four Days. You can find her resources at Structured Learning.

I get thousands of visitors a day–over six million since I started. The most common reason why you-all drop by is for resources. I have lots of them–lesson plans, real stories, tips and tricks–but one area I always welcome new ideas is from the experiences of fellow teachers:

• your personal teaching experiences
• your informed take on tech ed topics
• pedagogy

If you’re an educator interested in guest posting on this blog or start your own column, leave a comment below and I’ll be in touch.

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Spelling Force by EdAlive:

A Smart Solution for Mastering Spelling

Spelling Force, developed by Australian edtech company EdAlive, is a powerful and engaging platform designed to boost spelling proficiency in children through interactive learning, intelligent adaptation, and curriculum alignment. With a proven track record in classrooms across Australia and beyond, Spelling Force is a valued resource for teachers, students, and parents alike.

What is Spelling Force?

Spelling Force is an online spelling program designed for students from Year 1 to Year 10, although it is most commonly used in primary and lower secondary classrooms. It combines dynamic learning activities with a powerful adaptive learning engine that tailors content to each student’s individual needs. Students work through interactive spelling exercises, games, and quizzes that are designed not just for repetition, but for true understanding and mastery.

Unlike many spelling tools that simply drill lists of words, Spelling Force offers a much richer and more strategic approach. It identifies each student’s weaknesses and presents targeted exercises to improve their skills, building confidence and competence along the way. (more…)

I get thousands of visitors a day–over six million since I started. The most common reason why you-all drop by is for resources. I have lots of them–lesson plans, tips and tricks–but one area I have not enough depth is the experiences of fellow teachers:

• your personal teaching experiences
• your informed take on tech ed topics
• Education pedagogy

If you’re interested in guest posting on this blog or start your own column, leave a comment below and I’ll be in touch. It’s a challenging time but one we-all can get through if we talk to each other.

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I don’t write enough about special needs so when Rose contacted me with an article idea, I was thrilled. Rose Scott is a literary teacher with a goal of making education comfortable for students with special needs. Her dream is to help students explore their talents and abilities.

In this article, Rose writes about a little-known problem that students may unknowingly suffer from that may make it look like they are plagiarizing when–to them–they aren’t.

Read on:

Many people have come to believe that plagiarism is intentional and evil, and all students whose works have text coincidences are shameless wrongdoers. While it may seem that the majority of plagiarists do turn out to be cheaters, there are exceptions. Have you ever heard of cryptomnesia?

Cryptomnesia, according to the Merriam-Webster medical dictionary, is “the appearance in consciousness of memory images which are not recognized as such but which appear as original creations.” In other words, a person says something for the first time (as he or she thinks), but in reality he/she has already mentioned it, and now just doesn’t remember the previous occurrence.

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How to incorporate podcasting into your curriculum this school year

School is almost back in session and educators are busy working on curriculum for the upcoming school year that will challenge students, improve their communication skills and provide a platform to express their thoughts and interests. If you haven’t created a podcasting unit before, there are plenty of platforms that will help you get started with low or no start-up costs.

My son and I started The Middle School Mind podcast last fall as a way to give him a platform  to express his, sometimes random, 6th grade thoughts. We had so much fun making the podcast that we’ve created a tutorial to encourage students to plan, produce and publish their own podcasts and hope educators will incorporate podcasts into their curriculum.

Why podcasting?

According to a recent survey published by Kids Listen, an organization of advocates for high-quality audio content for children, nearly two-thirds of the respondents have been listening to podcasts for more than one year.

Respondents cited that podcasts are fun and offer entertainment value while some offer educational value through current events, history or science and nature-themed shows as primary reasons for listening to podcasts. Many families like podcasts as a way to keep kids engaged and off screens and something the entire family can listen to in the car.

Meet The Middle School Mind

We started The Middle School Mind because we also love listening to podcasts. We started the show when my son started 6th grade and wanted his own YouTube or Twitch channel to stream video games like Minecraft and Fortnite.

My wife and I had strong reservations with him posting online content that would include his name or image. People can be cruel on the internet and online message boards and comments sections can be places that are detrimental to a middle schooler’s ego and view of self-worth.

We go by Father and Son on our show to maintain a level of anonymity and privacy. This allows my son to speak freely and openly on the show without fear of being judged, identified or bullied online. During our first season, we covered a wide variety of topics ranging from school resource officers, video games and even a two part episode where we interviewed middle school teachers (who also happen to be close family members).

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It’s always interesting to find out what new teachers learned in their early teaching that affected their later years. Here’s Ask a Tech Teacher contributor, Elaine Vanessa’s, take on that–5 bits of wisdom she acquired while surviving the early teaching years:

My first five years of teaching were the shortest and longest years of my life. I was living the best and the worst time simultaneously. However, it was the most memorable time of my life that I don’t want to forget. Also, those five years made me a well-groomed educator and a better person in my life.

Every teacher has a dream of having a classroom with respectful kids having fun activities and love while learning. It makes teaching easy if kids love to be in the room every day. However, my first years were not like that. As I continued, I got better every year. There was one thing consistent; learning. Below are five lessons that I have learned in my first five years of teaching. I am sharing them in the hope of being a candle in someone’s darkroom.

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This is such a great article on the benefits of bi-lingual education. Sure, we intuitively know what these are, but what are the real metrics? From an educator with a passion for her calling, see if you have any reasons you’d add:

4 Long-Term Benefits of Bilingual Education

Raising bilingual children is the norm in Singapore. From an early age, the children living in this multicultural city are exposed to a number of languages at home, in their preschools, and in their communities. At the same time, the government here has adopted a bilingual policy wherein students are required to gain proficiency in English and their respective ethnic mother tongue, which is Mandarin for the Chinese*, Malay for the Malay, and Tamil for the Indians. If you’re staying in the country with your family for work, it’ll be a breeze to find a bilingual program that will provide your children with the right environment for improving their language proficiency. These schools can focus on your mother tongue, English, as well as other languages that your child might be interested in acquiring. With the assistance of the right bilingual program and teachers, your child will have a better chance of acquiring, retaining, and deftly using multiple languages.

The beauty of bilingual education is that it presents students with immediate as well as long-term benefits, many of which the children can utilize even as they find their places as productive members of the workforce and society at large. Here are some of the advantages of having your child undergo a bilingual education program and how they can benefit from it in the coming years.

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A lot of teachers are also authors. In an effort to spotlight their two hats, I feature teacher-authors on both my writing and education blogs. Guests can write about any topic they’d like as long as it revolves around those skills.

Today, I’d like to introduce Anne Clare, a teacher as well as a historical fiction author. Anne Clare is a native of Minnesota’s cornfields and dairy country. She graduated with a BS in Education in 2005 and set out to teach in the gorgeous green Pacific Northwest, where she and her husband lived. She also serves as a church musician, singing in and occasionally directing choirs, playing piano, organ, and coronet (the last only occasionally, when she forgets how bad she is at it.) After the birth of her second child, she became a stay-at-home mom, and after the birth of the third she became reconciled to the fact that her house would never be clean again, which allowed her to find time to pursue her passion for history and writing while the little people napped. Although she’s back to teaching, she continues to write historical fiction and to blog about WWII history, writing, and other odds and ends at thenaptimeauthor.wordpress.com.

I reviewed her amazing book, Where Shall I Flee, (click for my review and a purchase link) about the battle in Italy during WWII from the perspective of a female nurse. Today, I’m excited to share her story of teaching through the pandemic. With not only apocryphal but statistical stories about the damage done by the pandemic to student learning, I was eager to read about this through the eyes of a teacher in the trenches. I think you’ll enjoy this:

Coping with COVID in the Classroom

I’ve always found that teaching is a profession that requires some flexibility. Since March of 2020, “flexibility” doesn’t seem like quite a strong enough word for the mental gymnastics required in maintaining any kind of workable learning environment. All of the teachers I know have their own stories of Covid craziness. Here are a few of mine.

The First Round

As soon as we heard that our state was going into full lockdown, my school’s faculty started looking for online options. I teach in a small “church school” with just over a hundred students. Small size has its own challenges, but when it came to pivoting to a new teaching plan, it allowed us to adapt quite quickly. Over Spring Break we set up Google Classroom pages, learned how to do Zoom, and created packets of papers for students’ families to pick up and drop off outside the school weekly. By the time break was over, we were ready.

Sort of.

Technical difficulties, struggling students, and the stress of a total change of lifestyle made online learning challenging.

Then there were difficulties with the physical space. My husband worked from home in our bedroom while my eldest daughter did her 4^th grade work in her room, my son worked on first grade in his, and my youngest wrapped up her Kindergarten year at our kitchen table, occasionally weeping over the ipad when she couldn’t find the correct sheet. Meanwhile, I tried to record lessons in such a way as to keep my students accountable, tried to keep up with online correcting, and tried to be there to assist my children as needed.

While my faculty and I adapted to provide the best learning situation for our students that we could, I didn’t complain when we decided to end the school year early. It made sense—the loss of sports and extra curriculars meant that we finished our curriculum ahead of schedule anyway. Perhaps, after summer, things would return to normal.

The Long Haul

As I approached the 2020-2021 school year, I hoped (as I’m sure many did) that maybe things could go back to normal. They didn’t.

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Simulations and games have grown from rote drills using a computer to challenging learning experiences for students that hone problem-solving and critical thinking skills. They are fun for students, keep them engaged, and teach the foundational pieces of a lesson. I

I’ve talked about gamifying elements here and here (and under this tag). One of our Ask a Tech Teacher contributors goes into depth about simulations–what these are and how to use them. The article’s about 1000 words and well worth the read:

Simulations as a Teaching Strategy – Everything You Need to Know

In the diverse and ever-evolving world of simulation, there’s no doubt that tactics such as gamification continue to have a positive impact across a broad range of industries and activities. This is certainly prominent in the workplace, where some 90% of employees say that gamification makes them better at their job and more productive at work. What’s more, employees experience an average 48% engagement increase through gamification, highlighting its ability to impart potentially complex subject matter to individuals.

This is why gamification and wider simulation strategies hold huge value in educational facilities across the globe. But what are the key considerations when leveraging simulation as a viable teaching strategy?

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