Spring is in the air! And along with warmer temperatures and flowers starting to bloom, spring also brings new features to the Kiddom platform, designed to reduce friction and help create context for teachers and learners.
As we thought about what features to release this spring, two things came to mind:
How can we reduce friction for teachers? How can we save them time when using Kiddom? How can we make sure that Kiddom is optimized for efficiency?
Teaching and learning has been tough over the last year and the shifts between in-person, hybrid, and remote learning have made it more important than ever to give teachers opportunities to contextualize at every possible step.
Taking those things into consideration, we’ve just launched five new features:
- Multi-Class Assignments
- New Question Type: Drawing
- Improved Planner Speed
- Curriculum Collaboration
- Microsoft OneDrive Integration
Read on to learn about each feature in greater detail!
Multi-Class Assignments
Our new multi-class assign features lets teachers assign work to multiple classes at the same time, using a simple checkbox interface. When teaching multiple sections on the same timeline, it’s just one more click; there’s no longer a need to manage each class individually.
In addition to working for whole class assignments, this also works for student groups that have been created. For example, teachers can now assign enrichment (or remediation) work to students in designated mastery groups but different sections at the same time!
Multi-class assign is also a great way for co-teachers who work with different lead teachers throughout the day – they can assign work to their students across classes all at once.
Managing multiple classes or sections is a lot of effort; multi-class assign makes it easier.
New Question Type: Drawing
There’s a new question type in town and it’s name is Drawing! Now, teachers can assign drawing questions from their chosen curriculum. With this new question type, students can either create drawings from scratch or complete partial drawings provided in the question. Submitting answers via drawing helps students provide context to their through process in arriving at their answer.
This new question type adds to the variety of ways students can communicate answers – written, audio, video, uploading an image, and now drawing – providing ample opportunity for students to communicate understanding.
Drawing reduces all this systemic friction and allows those questions to be completed in-app.
Improved Planner Speed
When we received feedback that loading the Planner screen was slow for teachers, we did some investigating. Since those screens are where teachers spend most of their time planning instruction and assessment, they need to be lightning fast! Our engineering team did a ton of work on the backend to improve this experience for teachers. The load time on Planner has been reduced significantly, saving teachers significant time and frustration when planning and assigning.
Curriculum Collaboration
For schools and districts using their own curriculum, there’s a lot of work that goes into getting that curriculum just right before teachers implement it in their classroom, but Kiddom didn’t have a great way to facilitate that process. Enter Curriculum Collaboration! Now, curriculum coaches, department administrators, or PLCs (professional learning communities) can create a best in class version of the adopted curriculum and publish it to teachers. Teachers then make a copy of the curriculum and put their own, more granular finishing touches on it before delivering it to students.
Curriculum Collaboration helps coaches contextualize the curriculum for teachers, and ensures that all teachers are starting from the same base that has all the needed edits, notes, and enhancements. This feature also saves time for coaches because they can now work on the curriculum centrally and deploy it to all teachers at once (instead of managing multiple instances).
Curriculum Collaboration hits right in that sweet spot of “rigor and flexibility” that we talk about so much at Kiddom. Coaches ensure that the curriculum is implemented with fidelity across teachers, while teachers still have the flexibility to make additional edits.
Microsoft OneDrive Integration
Life this year has largely been “in the cloud” and sometimes, it becomes challenging to manage all the tabs and windows needed to get through the day. Plus, especially with students, there’s always the worry that when you send them out into the wilds of the internet, they’ll never find their way back.
As part of this release, Microsoft OneDrive will soon be integrated in Kiddom so teachers can view, collaborate on, and share OneDrive files without having to download/upload docs or open links in new tabs or windows. This integration reduces the friction of tab management for students (a daunting task for even the most seasoned adult!), and helps them stay on task and present in the learning environment.
And that’s it for this edition of Kiddom’s New Teacher Features! We hope you’re just as excited about these videos as we are to share them with you. If you’re interested in bringing Kiddom to your school or district, you can request a demo by clicking the big red button below.
Kiddom seamlessly connects the most critical aspects of teaching and learning on one platform.
For the first time, educators can share and manage digital curriculum, differentiate instruction, and assess student work in one place. Learners can take assessments online, see student performance data with the click of a button, and teachers have the insight and tools they need to create individual learning paths.
Ready to bring digital curriculum to your school or district?
Connect with us in a 15-minute meeting to learn more about available pre-packaged curriculum, and how the Kiddom education platform can support your learning community.
