November is a great month for educators to engage students in important holidays such as Election Day, Veterans Day, and Thanksgiving. November is also a great month to familiarize yourself with the latest in EdTech trends as you prepare for the second half of the year.

Check Out What’s Brand New in November!

Escape from the Math Textbook with Breakout EDU

Breakout EDU is the key to unlocking a love of learning. Plus, Breakout EDU games are standards-aligned to meet classroom goals, and include content for foundational math skills, geometry, pre-algebra, algebra, and more. In this session, we will delve deeper into how you can enhance your math curriculum through a variety of mathematical adventures. Can you crack the code?

Fostering a Culture of Giving

Join us to learn how to weave kindness and empathy into the fabric of your classroom. This session is about building a community where students genuinely support and care for each other and the world around them. Discover how to empower your students to become active, compassionate givers, and watch as their small acts of generosity create a positive ripple effect.

PowerBuddy & You: The Next Chapter

We’re back for round two and ready to dive deeper into PowerBuddy, your AI pal designed to optimize your classroom. In this session, we’ll walk through how PowerBuddy can help design a unit plan that includes creating lessons, quizzes, homework, rubrics, and more. Unlock your full potential with PowerBuddy by creating engaging lessons and activities for your students!

Making Group Work, Work for Every Student

Are you ready to move beyond random student groups? Join us to unlock the full potential of collaborative learning. This session will provide you with tools to design and manage purposeful student groups in a way that fosters inclusion and ensures meaningful participation from every student. Discover how to differentiate tasks, leverage student strengths, and empower learners to support one another. Walk away with a blueprint for creating a truly collaborative and inclusive classroom.

Bringing Science to Life with Current Events

Looking to bring the “real world” into your science class? This workshop will show you how to utilize today’s headlines to make scientific concepts relevant and engaging. We’ll explore practical strategies for connecting topics such as climate change, disease outbreaks, and space exploration to your curriculum. You’ll leave with a framework for fostering critical thinking and equipping your students to become scientifically literate citizens. Join us and transform your classroom into a dynamic, real-world learning environment.

AI for Strategic School Leadership: Things to Consider

This session explores how AI tools can revolutionize school administration by enhancing efficiency and providing data-driven insights. We will go beyond basic tasks to show how AI can streamline and transform your workflow, freeing up valuable time for strategic leadership. You’ll learn to leverage AI for automating routine tasks such as scheduling and communication. Dive into how AI can provide targeted feedback for teacher evaluations, and analyze school-wide data to identify trends. This session will highlight practical applications that foster a culture of continuous improvement and evidence-based decision-making.

Back to School: Re-engaging Absent Students

Struggling with chronic absenteeism? Not sure how to best support students with attendance issues? This session will explore various strategies that increase student attendance and facilitate learning for students who are frequently absent. Join us to learn how to strengthen support for your students inside and outside of the classroom.

Check out the full list of brand new courses for the month of November by clicking on the “Upcoming Courses” tab within OTIS.

Tis’ the season! What are teachers watching in the month of November on OTIS? Here’s a list of popular seasonal online professional development courses:

Thanking Community Helpers with Cricut

Once you’re familiar with the basics of using your Cricut, it’s time to take it to the next level! In this session, we’ll discuss how you and your students can design tokens of appreciation to thank local community helpers. We’ll cover everything from design ideas and considerations, to how you can share your creations with others. Get ready to help your students make items that they’re proud to share!

Robotic Thanksgiving Day Parade

Get ready for some Thanksgiving fun in this cross-curricular and technology-infused course! In this session, we’ll use Teq’s favorite robots to create a Thanksgiving Day Parade float. We’ll learn about the coding skills necessary to complete this assignment, and also explore how to incorporate research and design into this fun classroom project.

Using Google Forms for School Elections

Educators have come to recognize that Google Workspace for Education can transform traditional classroom activities, but did you ever think of using Google Forms to put a spin on your school elections? In this course, we will walk through the steps of how to use Google Forms to create a school election and explore how to incorporate text, images, and videos into election ballots!

Civics – Type of Elections: School Board Elections

As citizens and/or residents of our local communities, it’s important to understand the different types of elections that we have the right to participate in. As residents of a local school district, you have the right to vote how school budgets are enumerated and spent. School board elections and budget votes tend to vary between states and even local municipalities — join our session as we dig into the details!

Veterans Day Activities for Elementary Students

Veterans Day is a chance for students to learn about and honor individuals who have served or are currently serving in the military. As educators, it is our job to teach students about this important day, while also providing them with opportunities to show appreciation for veterans. Join us for this session, where we will explore age-appropriate strategies for teaching students about Veterans Day as well as ready-to-go printable and digital activities. We will also dive into conversation prompts and applicable literature to get your students engaged and involved on this important day!

Designing Holiday Cards in Canva

Giving cards to friends, family, or teachers is a great way to work on a variety of skills from creativity to formal writing. While cards made with consumables are a wonderful way of sharing warm wishes, utilizing a digital tool like Canva can bring in all kinds of new possibilities and benefits! Join us to learn some great activities and tips for creating festive cards in Canva!

Using 3D Design for a Family Totem

The tradition of family stories being passed down through generations is something that gives a family a sense of identity. In honor of National American Indian Heritage Month, this session will focus on creating family totems using 3D design. Join us as we discuss how to incorporate STEM and the history and significance of the totem into the classroom to create a new family tradition that our students will be able to share and pass down.

An overall look at OTIS for educators

Visit the online PD course calendar for a complete list of courses for November. Furthermore, with OTIS for educators, you’ll always get: