Learning in the Lou

A few teachers shared this with me.  I had to share this.  What do you think?  Seriously.  What do you think of this?

This post in the Socrative Garden describes how to visualize the text your class inputs into your Socrative questions. Pro Tip - Use wordle to cut/paste the presidential/historical speeches into.  You will be amazed at the results.

What is Socrative? This  smart student response system empowers teachers to  engage their classrooms through a series of educational exercises and games via smartphones, laptops, and tablets. Sharing Quizzes For those of you who are using Socrative in your classrooms, did you know you could share the quizzes you create with your colleagues?  When you create a quiz, in the settings it will ask if you want to enable sharing. Then you will get a SOC #.  Share this with others to tell them about your quizzes, and they can then import the quizzes to use with their classes. You can also share with Socrative Garden.  Click here to share your quiz with the Socrative Community.  Once you share one, you get a link to the spreadsheet of quizzes people have already shared.   Awesome!

If you have not had an opportunity to check out Edmodo , make that your mission for the day. You are probably wondering.....how can Edmodo help me in the classroom?   ENGAGE : Edmodo is designed to get students excited about learning in a familiar environment. On Edmodo, teachers can continue classroom discussions online, give polls to check for student understanding, and extend learning beyond the 4 walls of the classroom. COLLABORATE: While on Edmodo, students are able to solve problems and ask clarifying questions. It is a social space, similar to Facebook, that allows Want to try it out? Just head over to www.edmodo.com to start your free account today. Once you create an account, you can create "groups" that students join. They would go to the same site and then enter your group code to get started. You can create multiple groups within a class. For example, I might have a group for the entire class and then create subgroups for their book clubs. ...

Check out these engaging issues of National Geographic Young Explorer .  Students can choose to have text read to them as well.  Take a look today!

Success!!!! In our latest ELITE 2 classes, we have been talking about the flipped classroom.   We encouraged our teachers to create a short video to teach their colleagues about what they have been trying in their classrooms.  Music teacher Sharri Gerdel first created a PowerPoint with her key presentation elements.  Then she downloaded Screencast-O-Matic to her laptop.  As her PowerPoint presentation was running, she explained each of the slides and recorded her voice in the background.  At the end, she uploaded it YouTube. Check out Sharri Gerdel's latest screencast explaining her most recent tech jazz lesson.  Love the lesson ideas too!   Tips for Creating a Successful Screencast: Have a plan (script) so you can be brief and to-the-point Be cautious about background noise. Watch your mouse movements.

Thanks Alise G. from Concord for sharing!