Moderated Padlet for Responses

We've all been there... somebody asks you to share a goal or an idea and although you have one, you're a bit nervous to share knowing that others will hear your crazy idea and judge you, or worse, you may have to admit to your weaknesses that are holding you back from attaining those goals. None of us wants to admit our weaknesses, yet we all want to grow and learn. It's such a double edged sword! In my position, it's hard for me to help others learn and grow if I don't know how I can help. I also don't consider these weaknesses, but rather our starting point. We all are in different places with our comfort in using technology and I simply want everyone to take a step further, a little out of their comfort zone, to try something new and let the magic happen


This past week I spent some time talking about global collaboration opportunities with the teachers in both of my buildings, a topic that can often strike terror in the eyes of teachers wondering how in the world they'll know HOW to connect with Google Hangout or WHERE in the world do I find classes to connect with, or WHAT happens if.... you get the idea.

After providing some of the answers on "the what" and "the who", I wanted teachers to share a goal they had for themselves this year based on something that piqued their interest from our discussion. That was simple enough, but I also wanted them to share how I could support them in achieving that goal. I wanted teachers to be brutally honest with me so I could best help them achieve those goals, but I didn't want anyone hitting the panic button because they were apprehensive about others seeing what they wrote. For my purposes, I also wanted to have this information in a place that I could access it throughout the year so I can continue to check in and work towards helping with these goals but I needed a private platform. Post-it notes wouldn't work, I'd lose them, they'd get ripped or lose their sticky. Email? Too many to keep track of- I want everything in one place and organized. And- I wanted to utilize technology so I could model a practical application as well as have the benefits of easy access from anywhere. Not too many considerations, right?!

What I ended up doing was creating a Padlet board that everyone could access with my unique link and with the posts set for me to moderate. In this way everyone was able to quickly get to the board, easily create their "sticky note" BUT not see others' posts. On the smartboard I displayed a screenshot of my empty board along with the link. I did not click over to the actual Padlet board during this activity as teachers would be able to see the unmoderated posts coming through since I am always logged into Padlet. Once my meetings were over, I went back into the settings for my Padlet board and changed the  board to private so at this point it is only accessible by me. I then approved the posts and rearranged them in order of priority. I now have easy access to the goals teachers chose and I can add notes to their posts as well. This really worked well and gave everyone a level of privacy. 

(Names as well as the areas teachers felt they needed help with have been removed from the sample screenshot above to maintain the privacy I wanted teachers to have)