First, we hope that you stay safe and healthy during this pandemic. Please take care of yourselves, your families, and community.  We know this is a very difficult time for many people in communities impacted by the novel coronavirus, COVID-19. Our team’s goal is to support the educators and family of students during this time, as we adjust to the new reality of remote learning.

We also know that we all must give ourselves some grace right now, in this unprecedented situation, as we work out many details and figure out what learning should look like over these next weeks, and potentially months.

When you are ready, we hope to support you in using Tyto Online for deep engagement with the Next Generation Science Standards. The game was designed to support strong science learning, even in remote situations. 

Towards that end, we’re working on various ways to support teachers right now:

Google Classroom Professional Development

We have set up an online ongoing PD course with Google Classroom. This will lead you through steps on getting started with Tyto Online, and also incorporates best practices for the NGSS and student-driven technology usage.

The course was originally designed for in-classroom usage, but we made a special Spring 2020 cohort that we know will be mainly remote, and will be making modifications and providing additional suggestions as we go and develop best practices together. 

To join:

• Please note that due to Google restrictions, an Educational Google Account will not be able to join our company’s Classroom, so you will have to use a personal Google account to sign up.
• Head to https://classroom.google.com/
• Enter class code: rwx4wy2

Facebook Group for Tyto Online Educators

We also have a Facebook group available, and welcome teachers to join and grow our community of learning there: https://www.facebook.com/groups/tytoeducators/

Schedule of Webinars

Due to the many new teachers joining, we will also be posting a schedule of openly available professional development webinars soon. These will vary from 1 hour introductions to longer sessions for more advanced skills and NGSS application.

Find the webinar schedule here: https://www.tytoonline.com/training/#webinars

Remote Recommendations

During all of this, we’re developing sets of remote recommendations and practices. While Tyto Online is an online tool, the teacher is a core part of the learning process: asking questions, prompting students, providing supplemental activities, and debriefing. And there are certainly great ways to do this remotely!

View the page here: click me!

Our Goals for You

All new experiences are opportunities for learning, and our goal for you during this time is to also help you learn some new tools and skills.

Here’s how you “win the game” of your own learning over the next couple months:

• Learn new skills in using technology (including video games) to drive student-centered instruction;
• Use phenomena and storylines as part of your NGSS teaching;
• Expand the ways you support the development of students’ Science & Engineering Practices;
• Overall, add to your toolbox of resources and approaches you use to accomplish the goals of the NGSS!

Of course, we want this to be as smooth of a process as it can be, so please reach out and let us know what you need right now. We'll help in any way we can.