3 Ways to Use EducationCity MyCities for Targeted Teaching and Learning

In your elementary classroom, you likely weave in independent work time and/or a station-rotation model for focused online learning. But, when students crack open their laptops or switch on their tablets, how are they spending their time? While priority number one some days is just to keep the peace (raise your hand if you’ve been there), you also recognize that it’s paramount that students are building critical skills and getting targeted practice that turns into a set of valuable data points to help you plan for the next day’s or week’s instruction. In EducationCity, this is exactly what MyCities are for.

MyCities allow you to quickly group, sequence, and assign content to specific students as needed. Each MyCity can contain any combination of video tutorials, graded activities, interactive practice tools, and even competitive games found within EducationCity. By collecting specific content all in one place, MyCities enable you to provide targeted learning for a specific student, small group, or even your entire class.

Today, we will take a closer look at three ways you can use EducationCity MyCities to individualize learning and plan meaningful classroom lessons.

1. Build Classroom Assignments

MyCities are most commonly used for creating in-class assignments for independent practice or for making quick formative assessments. For instance, take how this feature can help transform your learning centers. When students rotate to a technology station, they can quickly log in to their EducationCity account and access the set of assignments you’ve created just for them to address a specific set of standards or skills.

In just a few clicks, you can build a week’s worth of practice for your tiered learning groups or set a specific learning path for the entire class. All activities are instantly graded so that you can review progress and adjust your instruction accordingly. Preferences even allow you to differentiate achievement goals and time parameters to fit your students’ unique needs.

Below, you can see a MyCity as it appears to the student. Aria is working through a series of instruction and practice elements all about temperature.

2. Reinforce Learning at Home

MyCities are also a great fit for continued practice at home. Students can log in from any Internet-enabled device of their choosing. Once students navigate to the Homework area, they will see their assigned work with a note of encouragement from you, their teacher. With Homework MyCities, differentiated learning can still continue, even when you’re not in the room.

Trying to keep a close eye on which students are doing their homework? Instead of sifting through piles of packets and marking down completion in your gradebook, the Tracking tab does the work for you. At a glance, you can see which students have started their homework, what their progress is to date, and even those who have completed their assignments and met mastery goals.

Below, you can view the Tracking tab in action. Educators can quickly see which activities are complete, in progress, and not attempted. Click on a particular student to see individual performance on each element of the MyCity—perfect for recording in your gradebook or setting up quick student conferences.

3. Plan Your Direct Instruction

Perhaps the most overlooked use of MyCities (and my favorite one) is as a tool for you, the classroom educator! In addition to creating assignments for students, MyCities are a nice way to organize all of your lesson components in one place. With features such as Learn Screens used as mini lessons, Topic Tools for guided practice, and ThinkIts used as exit tickets, any number of EducationCity resources can be arranged to suit the needs of your lesson structure.

With MyCities, your lesson plan is kept in an online portal that allows you to access resources from anywhere you are. Whether you choose to build out a week’s worth of instruction or an entire unit, your MyCity is there waiting for you to quickly launch each component as needed.

Below, you can look at a visual showing just one way a teacher can add work into a MyCity. With search options and a set of helpful filters, educators can quickly find just the right content to include.

MyCities are just one of the great content types available in EducationCity. Interested in learning more about how this interactive program can help connect teaching and learning in your classroom? Watch this 6-minute video to learn how EducationCity can be used as morning work!