Last Fall, the Department of Technology partnered with the Middle Grades Lead team to plan Initiate Wonder- a PBL Exhibition held at the top of the Salesforce tower in December. 12 teachers across 7 middle schools in SFUSD participated in a Professional Learning Community (PLC) to engage in a collaborative process of reflection and professional growth as they embarked on implementing project-based learning in their classrooms. These teachers exhibited their projects at the PBL exhibition.

Leadership teams from Middle Schools across SFUSD attended the event to draw inspiration from the projects and consider how reflection, learning and iterating is embedded when teachers try out new practices such as project-based learning as part of the Middle Grades Initiate Wonder Initiative. Project-Based Learning is one of SFUSD's strategies to get to Deeper Learning & the Graduate Profile.

After attending the event Dr. Michael Bloemsma said, "Having visited many of the classrooms of teachers who presented their work at the PBL Exhibition, it was great to see student work I witnessed in classrooms come to fruition in such meaningful and authentic ways. When I asked teachers "What was your favorite part of the PBL unit?" almost all of them said how engaged their students were in the project and also the caliber of the work their students were able to produce."

Technology integration was a key component of the projects, with projects ranging from students making podcasts and documentaries to building a model of San Francisco and engineering hot and cold packs.

The Department of Technology is excited to announce that TypingClub is now free and available to all SFUSD students in 2nd - 12th grade in their Digital BackPack (Clever). What does that mean for teachers and students? Each student can go into Clever, click on the TypingClub icon and get started learning to keyboard! It is strongly suggested that students should have the opportunity to practice keyboarding in preparation for SBAC testing in the Spring. For more detailed information, check out the Getting Started Guide. Please submit a Help Desk ticket for any technical issues or requests for professional development at your site.

Trying to figure out how students can leverage technology to amplify learning and close the digital divide in service of SFUSD’s Graduate Profile?

SFUSD's Digital Learning Scope & Sequence is your new, go-to resource, with a grade-level breakdown of best practices, recommended tools, and project ideas tied to SFUSD curriculum. Please share with educators at your site!