CREATE: Illuminate Student Voice through Student Choice

by Bethany Petty

Don’t just innovate—create!Because we need to prepare students with the tech skills they’ll need to thrive in the future, teachers know that creativity in the classroom has to be coupled with tech fluency. Fortunately, learning to use tech tools is not only intriguing for kids, it also opens up a world of possibilities for students to create, engage, and imagine.

In CREATE, tech-savvy high school teacher Bethany Petty—author of Technology Enhanced Learning and Teaching with Technology—coaches teachers to design tech experiences that will encourage students’ creativity even as they enhance instruction and evaluation. In these pages, packed with as much fun, dynamic illustrations and stories as innovation, Petty presents a thorough overview of the many digital classroom tools that are available, from social media templates and audio-visual projects to inventive games and multimedia presentations. With rich ideas for engagement, comprehensive lists of resources, and an easy-to-navigate format, CREATE is a go-to guide for teachers looking to bring tech creativity into their classrooms.



Bethany Petty uses her teaching experience to craft a book that sets up the next generation of innovators for success. —Dr. Robert Dillon, educator, author, learner

I have long been a fan of Bethany’s work, and this book has me hooked again. It really illuminates the idea that great teaching is not about the use of technology, but rather how we make use of it to empower learning. This book is easy to follow and a must-have for anyone wanting to incorporate technology in really interesting, meaningful ways. —Holly Clark, speaker, blogger, and author of the Infused Classroom series

109 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 10, 2020

Reviews

[Robyn Harp]

In the book CREATE: Illuminate Student Voice Through Student Choice, the author Bethany Petty shares her teaching experience and creativity from the classroom to guide educators through authentic problem-solving assignments that allow students to demonstrate their learning. “We have amazing opportunities to encourage our students to CREATE every day in our classrooms” (Petty, p.61). I was immediately drawn to the title CREATE; understanding student choice is one of the most significant forces educators can activate and use to channel knowledge and comprehension of a subject. Petty incorporates educational technology, from minimal to more involved, with an increase in student choice to integrate the four C’s (critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity) of 21st-century learning in the classroom.

CREATE: Illuminate Student Voice Through Student Choice contains user-friendly ideas and skills for teachers, including information on activities that focus on student choice and empowers students to contribute to a positive learning environment. “We can design learning experiences for our students in which they use technology tools to demonstrate understanding or that allow them to use other material and resources to show what they have learned” (Petty, p. 60). The visual examples of authentic student projects inspire me, and Petty explains optional ideas on using those projects covering different topics. QR codes allowing access to an editable template customizable to my classroom projects support the work examples. Bethany Petty displays her innovation by employing the first title word CREATE as an acronym for Choice, Relevance, Assessment, Tech, and Engagement and takes the reader through each word on a path to engaging classroom projects with enhanced use of technology (Petty, 2020). Each chapter starts with a topic that can be enhanced by educational technology, tech tools available for the project, teacher’s and students’ use, ways to submit and share student work, and lesson extensions.

CREATE: Illuminate Student Voice Through Student Choice is a guide for teachers looking to bring tech creativity into their classrooms with navigatable ideas for engagement, comprehensive lists of resources, and an easy-to-navigate format. Throughout this book, Petty presents a thorough overview of the many digital classroom tools available, from social media templates and audio-visual projects to inventive games and multimedia presentations. “Providing students with creative choices helps them to engage more fully in what they are learning, and in a way, they wish to demonstrate that knowledge” (Petty, p. 35). I will be following Petty’s ideas and suggestions to fuse C.R.E.A.T.E. in my lessons to enhance student learning and increase student engagement. CREATE: Illuminate Student Voice Through Student Choice is packed with ed-tech tools that educators can implement into the classroom immediately with easy to follow directions on how to make this happen successfully.

[Heather Stringham · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book to help teachers help students.

This book is a helpful guide for teachers wanting to implement more student voice in the classroom. Petty gives helpful tips for each idea and sources to guide the teacher to find the best solution.