Can we just take a moment to talk about how neat Google Drawings is? Talk about graphic organizer heaven! Possibilities are endless for what you can do with it!
I'm currently working with my US History teachers and their students over civil rights. Another DLC, our librarians, and myself created stations for the students to research court cases, people, events, and speeches. For most of the stations, we used Google Drawings to have the students create things to demonstrate their learning. Here are a few links to show you how we used Google Drawings: Our Timeline Template Our MLK Speech Graphic Organizer Our March Madness Court Cases Bracket I've also compiled a folder of graphic organizers created with Google Drawings that I've gathered from websites and trainings, combined with some I've made myself. Folder of Graphic Organizers Take a look at these and let me know if you have any questions!
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I don't know about you but I get sick and tired of receiving tons and tons of emails every day. I get confused about which thread I'm on and, let's be honest, I don't need twenty different email chains about piddly things. I've started using Google Hangouts with my team and I really love it. I don't hear my email ding a hundred times a day, I can have separate chats depending on if I only want to talk to Middle School or High School, just a few people, or our entire group. If someone has a quick question, it's quickly answered and we don't have to receive emails. If you're busy, just mute the chat and you don't have to hear notifications. Unmute it whenever you're ready. I have a few of mine muted all of the time and I check them when I have time throughout the day. If you use Gmail through your work, you can search via your email for any topic you've discussed previously in the hangout. I love that you can video chat about certain things, hold online meetings, etc. (up to 15 people) and even record PD sessions through Hangouts On Air and broadcast them on Youtube. You can make the broadcast watchable for as long as you want, even after you've aired. We have Google Hangouts turned off in our district for students, but the benefits of using it are really great! Invite all of the members of a group and the teacher to a hangout and discuss project information right there!
Such a great tool for PLCs, departments, organizations, etc. Check it out! A test will only tell us so much about a student's understanding. Anyone can memorize basic facts so how do we know how much our students are retaining and understanding? We have to get creative with how we're getting feedback. Here are a few ways to get a better understanding of what your students are grasping. RecapRecap is a video response tool that allows students to verbally respond to a topic or question. The teacher can post a question or record themselves asking a question. Then, students create a short video response. Recap will then take all of the responses and put them into a Daily Review Reel for the teacher to view and give feedback. This is great for evaluating student understanding. Recap has made it easy for the teacher to see in just a few short moments how well the student can explain their answer and thinking. Students can use a computer, an iPad or tablet, or their phones. PadletPadlet is an oldie but goodie in my mind. I love that it's so easy for students to use. They don't have to create an account and it's a simple click & type. All you have to do is create an account as a teacher and click on "Make a Padlet". It walks you through the steps and you can even customize the URL. This can be used for any subject in a variety of ways. Students can reflect on a unit they're studying, answer questions, give feedback, have discussions, etc. You can change the layout from freeform to grid to stream depending on how you want to view the responses. Below is a student example that some of my World History teachers did with their students. I've even used this when teaching professional development to do introductions, goals, and get feedback. AvatarsAvatar programs like Voki and Tellagami are great for student feedback. Even Apps like Sock Puppets and Yakit Kids can be the creative answer to get your students engaged while providing you with feedback that will allow you to gauge the level of student understanding! Let your students create an animated recording of their voice / podcast explaining a math problem, analyzing a poem, answering questions, etc!
Twitter is more than just for following celebrities. It can be used to promote your personal business, to connect with friends and family, or to see what is going on in the world. Moreover, it can be used in the classroom.
Here are my top 10 favorite ways to use Twitter in the classroom 1. Class Chat - Create a unique hashtag so that your class can have a running forum to discuss projects, concepts, and ideas. 2. Class Assignments - Have your students tweet and hashtag authentic experiences for an assignment using a class hashtag. For example: Have your students find geometric shapes in the real world for a Geometry assignment and tweet pictures with their understanding and class hashtag. Here's an example: #cavgeom 3. Online Tutorials - Host a Twitter chat about a topic and have your students ask questions with the unique class hashtag and have yourself and other students answer questions and link resources, videos, etc. 4. Projects - Create a unique hashtag for a project and have students share projects on Twitter and hashtag them with the project hashtag. 5. Go Live - Tweet live projects, experiments, field trips and more to have parents keep up with what your students are doing. 6. Role Play - Have your students tweet as characters from a story they're reading in your ELA class, a Historical figure in your History class, etc and create a unique hashtag to collect all of the tweets in one place! 7. Bulletin Board - Tweet updates about your class, assignments, tests, projects, etc so that your students and parents can stay up to date. 8. Backchannel - Have your students tweet questions and comments about a lecture. This can be used for Socratic Seminar. 9. Creative Writing - Begin a story and hashtag it. Then have each of your students finish the story and use the same hashtag. They'll be able to see multiple endings and variations of the story! 10. Connecting with Primary Sources - Your students can follow people that are important to science, history, math, ELA, etc. They can learn from them as well as connect with them. Twitter allows students to have a voice and a connection with the outside world. It allows for connections between what they're learning and themselves. It's a great way for your students to exchange ideas and learn in a creative way. Y'all I learned about Toby yesterday. And. I. Love. It.
It's like Tab Cloud on steroids. I finally feel organized and don't worry about accidently closing tabs! It keeps track of which windows or tabs you have open and you can save your session. You can have Toby open certain tabs every day. If you're presenting on a topic and know you're going to need certain tabs, save them in Toby and you can open them anywhere as long as you're signed into Chrome. It's super easy. I've added the extension to my Chrome and I've already used it a TON! For students, they could use Toby to open certain tabs for certain classes. They can organize tabs into lists for projects, etc. Go check it out! |
AuthorDigital Learning Coach & technology lover. Constantly looking for innovative ways to engage students and facilitate 21st century learning. Archives
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