Teacher Spotlight: Jeff Holton💡

🤿✨Surfacing Stories: The Snorkl community is full of educators doing incredible work - and we want to celebrate them! Each month, we’re surfacing the stories of teachers and coaches who are transforming learning in their community.

This month’s spotlight is: Jeff Holton at Turtle Rock Elementary in Irvine Unified School District!

A little background -

Jeff is in his tenth year of teaching and has spent eight of those years as his school's EdTech mentor, exploring new technologies and sharing what actually works. He's taught second through fifth grade, but here's what makes him unique: he's a self-proclaimed "combo champ" who genuinely loves teaching combination classes.

Through intentional use of Snorkl in rotation groups and guided feedback routines, he's built a classroom where every student - whether they're newcomers or gifted learners - has to slow down, think critically, and explain their reasoning.

Tell us about your learners.

We're right outside UC Irvine, so we have kids of professors, Master's students, and we're also a Title 1 school, so our socioeconomic levels are all over the place. I have 35 students - 13 Level 1 English learners, 8 GATE students, and everybody else somewhere in-between. It's challenging because you're trying to meet kids where they're at, and everybody's at a different place. But the key is building those routines early in the year so you can go faster and farther. And by this time of year, we've built a really strong foundation.

How do you Snorkl? Walk us through a typical Snorkl session in your classroom.

I don't think there's one specific way I Snorkl - it's very situational. I really enjoy the Snorkl Library that's been growing because, honestly, I have a one-and-a-half-year-old at home, and there are days when I'm randomly out and I don't know if certain content was taught or how it was taught. The entrance and exit tickets from the library are so easy because I don't have to put any thought behind it. I can just grab an assignment, have the kids show me what they learned or didn't learn, and then use the analytics to quickly decide: am I reteaching today, or can I move on? Or maybe I'm just reteaching with a small group during intervention time.

We're also really big on WIN time right now (that's our intervention block) and I've been incorporating Snorkl there too. I'll create my own assignments or pull content from our books and add it in so students can interact with it differently.

One of my favorite things we've started doing is using Snorkl for guided feedback on short answer essays, especially when we're studying for Social Studies tests. I take away the 1-4 scoring because I don't want that pressure, and instead, I give Snorkl the parameters of what I'm looking for. So when students are working on their study guides, they type in their short answer responses and get feedback that guides them toward the answer instead of just copying an example off the board. I think that's been really neat because there isn't just one right answer. And that's the biggest win with Snorkl: so many things don't have a single answer, and being able to give them immediate feedback on their interpretation is huge.

What was your breakthrough moment?

My breakthrough moment came this year in my role as EdTech mentor. Last year, I tried Snorkl a few times and I just couldn't get behind it. But this school year, I was coaching a first grade combo teacher with my principal. It was her first year teaching combo - a one-two combo - and in September, she mentioned she was using Snorkl. So she showed us what she did.

One of her first grade standards is that students can count from 1 to 100, and she had them use Snorkl to record themselves counting. The platform marked their error areas for her - where they skipped numbers, where they got mixed up - and she could see exactly where to coach them without having to sit there and listen to all hundred numbers from every student.

That one little moment - as silly as it sounds, seeing first graders counting and the teacher not having to manually assess all of it but still being able to target exactly where they needed help with very little effort on her end. I was like, wow. That missing puzzle piece just clicked. The whole program opened up for me, and I've been an avid user since then. It's only been a handful of months, but we use it intentionally a couple times a week.

What are some teacher moves & instructional routines you’ve incorporated?

I run three to four differentiated groups leveled by subject. All the groups do the same assignments but with scaffolded tweaks, and I color-code everything on my rotation chart. Certain colors mean 100% independent - they're trained, they're doing it. Certain ones are teacher-led where I'm teaching a small group, and some I just check in on.

I use Snorkl intentionally in rotations to break up the room. I have 35 kids in a space that wasn't built for 35, so it's tight. But we have beautiful weather outside and two doors, so I'll have eight kids outside at a time working on Snorkl while I'm inside teaching. I just pop my head out once in a while to check on them.

What have you seen as a result of some of the work you’re doing?

The biggest thing I've seen is grit. Each year, it's getting harder to find that in students early on -- when something isn't immediate for them, it automatically feels very difficult, whether it actually is or not. Snorkl has been a big benefit because it forces them to reflect on their learning and explain their thinking. They're teaching the platform, and it's giving them feedback, but they have to be able to walk through their reasoning.

That's so necessary for 21st-century learners, but it's the most challenging thing. These kids at this age have done the drill and kill; they know their math facts, they know the process, they know how to get the answer. And so often it's like, "well, I just did it. I just gave you the answer", but Snorkl makes them slow down and really think about it. With so many kids in class, you don't have the opportunity to sit down with each of them every day. This provides that opportunity for their grit to grow.

What’s some advice you might give first-time users that you would’ve wanted to tell past you?

Just start. Don't worry about making the perfect assignment or whether it's going to work. Start with the Snorkl Library, then branch off as you get comfortable. Try one subject at a time, or sit down with your team and come up with a question together.

My favorite thing we did as a fourth grade team was we all tried it as students. We said, "You're the struggling student. You're the high student. I'm the average student." We sat there together, gave our responses, and got to see from the student end what it's going to look like. You've got to go through the experience the kids are going through -- that's the hardest part, when you assign something you haven't tried yourself. If it doesn't work today, try it later. It's not make-or-break. The more you use it, the better you'll get. And there's so much support - you don't have to create everything yourself. Talk with other teachers and leverage their experience so you can grow.

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We're so grateful for this window into your practice. Your students, teachers, and the entire Snorkl community are better for it!

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