Interview with Jude Schroeder, Twinkl Standards-Aligned Digital Resources for Teachers

With more students turning to online learning, either in their schools, their home, or learning pods, it is important to make sure they will be able to perform well in the requisite standardized assessments.  Welcome to an interview with Jude Schroeder, Twinkl, an amazing company with a wide range of web-based highly engaging activities for young students. What makes Twinkl unique is that they align with State and national standards.  

1. What is your name and your background? 

My name is Jude Schroeder, and I am the Country Manager for Twinkl in the United States. I started my career as a 5th-grade teacher and spent 13 years teaching at elementary level before moving into a publishing role. 

2. What is Twinkl? Please give a few examples as well as a general overview of Twinkl's materials. 

Twinkl is an award-winning educational publisher. We provide instantly downloadable digital and printable teaching resources for educators across the United States and in over 200 countries and regions around the world. This includes materials for planning, independent and group activities and assessment. 

3. What is the philosophy behind Twinkl?

Twinkl helps those who teach! Whoever you teach, wherever you teach, whatever you teach - we've got what you need.

4. I love the fact that your materials align with State Standards. What kinds of materials do you have that align with Standards? 

How can they be used? 

We create thousands of resources every year that align with Common Core State Standards, Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills, and Next Generation Science Standards. 

From informational presentations with interactive discussion prompts to levelled reading comprehension passages, hands-on STEAM projects to digital assessment packs, editable grading rubrics to vibrant anchor chart packs - we create what our customers need in their schools, classrooms, and homes. 

With one-click, you can also save our resources to Google Drive. You can also choose whether you want to print your chosen materials or assign them digitally for completion on a tablet or laptop - the choice is yours! 

5. Who writes the materials for Twinkl?

Twinkl's award-winning resources are all created and checked by current or former teachers and are brought to life by our talented in-house team of editors, graphic designers, and illustrators. 

6. Please describe two or three examples of Twinkl resources in action. 

Over the past year, there have been over 240 million resource downloads from the Twinkl website! Our resources have never been more "in action" than they are today! 

Across the United States and around the world, children have been engaged in fun dramatic play with our stick puppets, developing mathematical skills using our math mystery projects, and writing journal entries to put in their Twinkl time capsule. Even during a global pandemic the world keeps learning and we have been in awe of all the amazing things teachers, parents and carers have done to support young people. 

Peer-Reviewed by MERLOT: Writing Survival Guide

I am delighted to announce that E-Learning Queen's writing resources guide, Writing Survival Guide, which consists of a large set of original worksheets, templates, and flowcharts for use in writing and composition classes has been peer-reviewed by MERLOT and received a great rating!

Here is MERLOT's portal page of the Writing Survival Guide. As you can see, the site has been in MERLOT since 2008. Since that time, I've added flowcharts and have re-arranged a bit.

Here is the MERLOT review which was published in April of this year. I was delighted that the reviewers found the worksheets engaging, useful, and easy to use. It was also great to hear that they liked the graphics, which consist of cartoons that I digitized. The guide was penalized a bit for having distracting and intrusive ads, so they have been deleted. What seemed at first to be a great way to generate cash flow to support the site turned out to be simply a time-consuming and unproductive headache.

I'm all for promoting products, but I think that they should be integral to a website, and ad links, banner ads, pop-ups are often distracting (potentially even seizure-inducing!). To be effective, it's clear that there has to be some sort of win-win and immediately perceived benefit to the reader. At the very least, the ad needs to be relevant and useful. For example, it might not be a bad idea to include a link to a writing conference or workshop, if it's relevant to the audience.

But, back to the main point of this announcement.  I'm thrilled that the MERLOT has peer-reviewed the site, and even more thrilled to know that there are professors who are using it as a resource. Very exciting! Please visit the site and share :)