Planning for the upcoming school year? StartSOLE has you covered with StartSOLE Virtual - a simple synchronous videoconferencing platform integrated directly into StartSOLE so you can use all your existing questions and resources for your next great inquiry lesson. Here are some key features:
Start with a big question, designed to provoke curiosity and lead to more questions. We've got 18,000+ big questions to help you get started.
Learners organize into small groups and collaborate using a single internet device to search for answers. Our mobile app makes it easy to facilitate the process.
Each group presents their discoveries. Use our tools to manage time and keep track of your rubrics.
Keep track of time during your SOLE and manage transitions easily with our timer. Share time remaining with learners and keep things on track with warnings and reminders.
Select behaviors you'd like to focus on during a SOLE like collaborating or using vocabulary appropriately, then take photos and record notes as they happen with our app.
Connect the StartSOLE app to your classroom projector right from our app. Share photos and notes with the whole classroom.
Complete a brief guided reflection after each SOLE and get help from our community with any challenges you may have faced.
I can't tell you how much I support this! I just sent an email to our principal and curriculum director telling them that SOLE lines up perfectly with our new reading program and that if our teachers went to the SOLE training and practiced SOLEs in their classrooms, they would have a better understanding of the research component to our new program and feel less overwhelmed, not to mention reap it's benefits!
When I saw Jeff's presentation he did to the staff years ago - I was hooked! I went back to school that day and did my first SOLE and saw the power of it. The kids are eager, engaged, and enthused in this task. They take more away from this than I could ever 'present' to them. The information they gain is powerful enough, but put on top of that practicing smart research skills, working cooperatively, and presenting orally - very powerful.
One primary goal for Oregon City Schools has been to train our teachers on methods to become more of a coach/facilitator of student learning rather than simply the provider of content. Finding this type of training has been difficult until the SOLE training was offered to us. The feedback has been tremendous and teachers are instantly implementing the concepts with students and spreading the word. This training came at the right time for our district helping to move along the type of classroom transformation we are striving for.