This past month in my classroom we have utilized Nearpod, Dotstorming, and BreakoutEDU more.
I had great success using Nearpod with my Honors students. A student who is sometimes notorious for having a less than enthusiastic attitude towards English asked me "Can we please do these every unit?!" I consider this to be a win in my book. The student's favorite portion of the entire experience was the ability to draw their responses. It increased engagement, and students were required to remain focused during the presentation. Dotstorming is a tool I learned about at Design Camp. It is similar to Padlet, in the sense that students can leave an anonymous response to a question or prompt. When setting up the board, the teacher can give a certain amount of "votes" for participants to use to signify what answers they liked/found the most helpful. After they have voted, the teacher can sort the responses by number of votes. Another nifty feature is that if a student does end up putting something inappropriate, the teacher can reveal the names of who has said what, due to the students having to sign in at the beginning of the session. BreakoutEDU has completely energized my inclusion classes. The students really enjoy the competitive element of trying to open the box before the other half of the class. It also required my students to think critically & utilize their resources (things that in the past we have been hesitant to do). For the classes who have done well with our Epic Unit I am planning on using a Greek Mythology lockbox. Since the lull of "break brain" has set in, having more engaging activities (even if it's just using new tech) has definitely helped us keep our spirits up while getting to Spring Break!
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The past month I've played around with a nifty feature in Schoology that allows you to add the standards to each question you assign on a quiz or test. Initially, I thought this would be a painful experience because I was under the assumption that I had to manually type in all of the standards for each question. However, I was pleasantly surprised. Whenever you create a question, there is a small place down at the bottom that says "Options" with a small blue target that if hovered over, says "Align Learning Objectives." The standards are already imported into Schoology so all a person has to do is click through the proper menus to select the standards. Schoology also allows for more than one standard to be assigned for each question, so this feature is very user-friendly! I've discovered that there are two main benefits to assigning the learning standards & objectives to questions:
1. It serves as a good reminder of what standards students need to be focusing on from benchmark reports. Going to assign the standards makes it easier for educators to track the progress students are making towards mastering the standards. Whenever you click on "view results," you can export the data into a spreadsheet and include question data in the report. This allows you to see the Students names, their answer to the questions, the correct answer, as well as the standards. 2. Along with seeing how students are progressing towards standard mastery, you can also see which students are struggling with similar concepts. I've used this information to make it more effective when I put the students into groups. This way, I can differentiate the activities they are completing as a means of better addressing their actual needs, making their learning more meaningful to them. I definitely recommend taking the time to utilize this feature, as it doesn't add but a few additional minutes to quiz & test creation, and allows for greater understanding of where students abilities are. Happy learning! Backchannel: a conversation that takes place alongside an activity or event. Something that I focused on the past month in my classroom is using different backchannel chats. I used backchannels last year, but after an unfortunate misuse of technology by my students, I ended up avoiding them for a while. However, the time has come to use them again. Backchannels are great because they allow for students to participate in classroom discussion, ask questions, and collaborate with their peers. For students that are shy about speaking in class, backchannels allow them to utilize their own voice and have their opinion be recognized. Below, I've listed a couple different backchannels that I've used and my experiences with them:
1. Twitter- Twitter is a great way for students to share information in a few short characters. I assign hashtags to different classes, so that way I can later search the hashtag and see everything that came out of the chat. If students want to ensure I see their post, they can also tag me in their tweet. For students who are efficient and responsible with social media, Twitter is an excellent resource. Not all students have Twitter, but this can be resolved by having students work in groups. 2. Padlet- Padlet is a website that allows students to utilize virtual sticky notes to discuss different ideas. The posting system is completely anonymous, so I inform students their responses will not be graded if they do not sign the sticky note. Some students utilize Padlet at their groups as a means of recording information to have as a resource for later activities in class. I recommend using this tool with students that have higher maturity levels. 3. Linoit- Linoit is very similar to Padlet. The website allows you to post videos you have on your laptop right on the "message board" for students to view. If you need students to react to images or videos, this is a good option. Again, it's anonymous posting, so I encourage students to sign the sticky note if they wish to receive a grade. 4. Discussion Boards- The discussion boards on SChoology make a great resource for backchanneling. I've used the discussion boards in all of my classes in different units with success. It allows for teachers to upload files for students to view and then discuss. We've just started our novel unit on Lord of the Flies in my fourth block. I used the discussion boards for the students to discuss the dystopian genre and analyze how it has stayed relevant in pop culture through an analysis of Adele's music video for "Skyfall" as well as REM's music video for "It's The End Of The World As We Know It." The students were able to download the videos as well as transcripts of the lyrics and then answer some questions that helped guide their thinking. After they gave their opinion, they responded to two of their peers. Something nice about Schoology's discussion boards is that teachers can choose the option to have the student responses hidden from one another until they post their original response. Students also cannot delete their responses, which gives the teacher more control over what is posted. There is also a "drop down" feature that allows for teachers to see who in the class has posted, as well as how many times they post. 5. "Chalk Talks" "Sticky Talks"- While technology is great, it also is notorious for failing at the worst moment. A tech-free backchannel option is to write topics/discussion questions on sheets of paper and post them around the room. Students can use physical sticky notes to respond to the topics, or if the paper is large enough, students can simply write their opinion. After everyone has written something, students can go around and read what their peers have said, make comments, ask & answer questions, and give affirmations to one another. If students think that something their peer said was particularly insightful, they can put a small "checkmark" next to it, signifying to the student who wrote it that their opinion helped somebody else's understanding. A couple other backchannel resources that are also available to teachers can be found below: TodaysMeet - todaysmeet.com EdModo - www.edmodo.com Socrative - www.socrative.com Voxer - voxer.com Google Docs Hackpad - hackpad.com Backchannel Chat - backchannelchat.com Happy learning! |
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