Unlock Time & Boost Engagement: Digital ELA Escape Room Two-Day Workshop

Unlock Time & Boost Engagement: Digital ELA Escape Room Two-Day Workshop

Join us for this comprehensive two-day workshop where you'll learn how to seamlessly and easily integrate digital escape rooms into your secondary English Language Arts classroom over two one-hour sessions. 

Develop captivating storylines, design engaging puzzles, and master the art of using Google Forms, ChatGPT, and Portant data merging to take so much work off of your plate. Whether you're tech-savvy or just starting out, this workshop offers a hands-on experience that will empower you to elevate your teaching approach and captivate your students' learning journey in a way that is simple to implement, will be ready to roll year after year, and self-checks for you, eliminating the need to grade more papers.

Completion certificates will be provided for teachers who complete both sections with documentation for your professional development committee. Please note that every state and school has its own requirements for counting PDC points, so check with your committee ahead of time to see if this activity will count toward your PDC points.

Workshop Schedule

Day 1: Planning and Designing Your Digital Escape Room 

Duration: Approximately 1 hour 

Part 1: Getting Started and Planning Your Escape Room 

- Understanding the concept of digital escape rooms

- Introduction to essential tools and platforms

 Part 2: Crafting Your Escape Room Storyline and Puzzles 

- Choosing an engaging theme and creating a captivating narrative

- Harnessing ChatGPT for storyline development

 Part 3: Building Puzzles and Challenge 

- Exploring various puzzle types, including digital cipher wheels, secret codes, crosswords, anagrams, and more

- Creating interactive challenges with digitized games and/or Google Slides

 Part 4: Creating Puzzle Elements on Google Forms 

- Structuring your escape room with "mini-rooms" or "levels"

- Designing effective locks using Google Forms' features

Day 2: Running and Adapting Your Digital Escape Room

Duration: Approximately 1 hour 

Part 5: Designing Certificates and Using Portant Data Merging 

- Crafting personalized congratulatory certificates with Google Slides

- Employing Portant data merging for customization and auto-delivery

 Part 6: Launching and Managing Your Escape Room 

- Preparing the escape room for student engagement

- Step-by-step guide to launching, monitoring, and tracking

 Part 7: Adapting to Physical Lock Box Activities 

- Exploring options for transitioning to physical lock box activities

 Part 8: Hands-On Activity 

- Guided hands-on activity: Create your own digital escape room

- Recap of key takeaways, next steps, and resources

 Part 9: Q&A, Troubleshooting, and Teacher Sharing 

- Engaging in interactive Q&A and group discussions

- Addressing common challenges and sharing progress

 Part 10: Continued Support & Collaboration in the Group 

- Stay connected in the group for additional support and optionally share your original escape room resources between group members

- Upcoming time-saving workshops for teachers, including a detailed workshop on fully utilizing Portant data merging in your ELA classroom.

*Note: Workshop content is subject to change based on participants' needs and interactions.*