Digital Break-Out!

  How many of you have tried digital break-outs, or any kind of break-out for that matter in your classroom?  If you haven't I promise you are missing out on a fun way to engage your students in their content while making those brains work on some serious critical thinking skills!  

  After spending $$ on my favorite website (TeachersPayTeachers of course) on digital breakouts I decided I really needed to learn how to do this myself.  Especially when I couldn't find the exact item I'm wanting.  Let's face it... it's hard living in a Common Core World when I work in a TEKS environment!  Common Core and Texas Essential Knowlege and Skills (TEKS) are pretty different and most of what I tend to find is catered to Common Core.  Time for me to "BREAKOUT!"  

  I would like to tell you that I spent a large amount of time researching and putting together my first break-out but let me be honest with you... I didn't have that time because I actually want to use this in my classroom fairly quickly!  So I'm about to show you what I searched (via Google of course) and then give you my fairly simple and quick steps.  Now does this mean it's perfection?  Of course not... but perfection can grow with time folks!

What I Knew:

I have a fairly good grasp of technology.  I know what a bitmoji is, I can rock around my google drive and use its features really well, and I'm on a user friendly basis with lots of programs, and cool kid stuff (yes... I know that doesn't narrow it down for you, but what I'm essentially trying to say is that I'm pretty tech savvy, so definitely not a beginner!)  I wanted to make a breakout that focused on fraction skills specifically multiplication and division.  

I Searched:

1. What are the elements of a digital breakout?

2. How to make a digital breakout?

3. How to make a google site?

4. What are the different types of locks?

5.  How to make digital breakout activities?

What I Did:

1. Following along somewhat with this video (THIS ONE), I set up my own google site.  Keep in mind I already had an idea of what I wanted my break-out to be about because well... my lesson plans!

2. I used my bitmoji app to create my pictures for my different locks the students had to solve.  Since this was breaking out the teacher... I used my bitmoji.  Below is the beginning of me doing my google site layout.  Students will need to click on my different bitmoji's to take them to the activities they will need to complete to discover the lock codes they need to break me out of the principal's office.

3. Made my Locks in Google Forms.  This lock page is going to go onto my site page.  As students complete the different activities they fill in the google form with their code.

4.  Then I found more things to try out and kept editing my site... 



5. Honestly to me this part was the hardest... making my activities that I linked to the bitmoji's that the students would complete to determine their lock codes.

The Truth:

I'm not going to lie!  With my A.D.D. I didn't do it all in one sitting.  As a matter of fact, I'm sitting as I type this procrastinating on completing my activities!  One of the best resources I found was a website seemingly made by Digital Breakout EDU. (HERE).  Some of the videos were a little outdated as google has updated their technology but it was pretty easy to figure out and there were some pretty cool resources on that page also.  So while I figure out how to make my fraction and division symbols so I can finish my breakout, I hope I've given you enough to get started on your own!

As of the publishing of this post I am still working on the site but wanted to go ahead and give the site information.  If you click around and nothing is happening, I'm working and editing.  If you click and things are working, go ahead and see if you can break me out of the principal's office!