Learning in the Lou

  I was looking for a way to get fast formative data from kids but we were on a field trip. I know I could just ask a question and count the number of hands but I thought there could be a faster way. Plickers. Mash the word paper with clicker and you get plicker. Check out minute 3:01 of this video. As the demo shows you wave your phone over the plicker and it will automatically record what the students answered. To get started: Download Plickers on your mobile device. Create an account - https://www.plickers.com/ 1. Create New Class and name it. You could create one per subject or hour. 2. Add Students 3. I entered numbers because I teach 6 sections of PE. I could add names if needed but numbers lined up to the grade book. 4. Click Next. Click Done. On the main screen click New Set in the upper left. 1. Click Survey. There are no right/wrong answers to the question I need to ask. 2. Add the prompt. 3. Add choices. Add to Queue. Pick the class you just made. On the main scree...

I need a quick way to assess my kids, so fast that I can give the formative and act upon it within a minute, is there a way to do that? Google Forms to the rescue! A big idea is to keep the number of questions you are asking between one and three.  Creating a Google Form To start, open Google Drive. Click +New in the upper left. Click Google Forms or the little arrow for more otpions. I usually click Google Forms. If I need inspiration I choose From a template. 1. Name the Form something meaningful and by reading it will give you instant context to what it is all about. 2. I can't stress this enough, add directions! Click on Multiple choice. By clicking Multiple choice you will see all the question types you can ask. For this example we are sticking with Short answer. I can't stress this enough, add a description! 1. Click the ice cream cone, the three dots. 2. Pick description. 3. Add the directions. While a Google Form can automatically collect names, I usually recommend addi...

  I am getting ready to present some new material to my students and I am bored with the choices I have. Is there something fast and simple that I could try? I noticed a presentation a teammate was giving and it was full of color, what did they use? There are many options and in this post, I am going to highlight two. slidesgo slidesgo offers a wide range of Google Slide templates that are free to use. You can sign up for a free account which will allow you 10 free downloads a month. To get started, visit slidesgo . Start by clicking one of the categories on the homepage. I usually check education first. I do not pay for slidesgo so I avoid the ones with the Premium tags. I liked the look of the Sketchnotes, so I clicked. I then clicked Google Slides. Click to make my own personal copy. The second slide gives you some directions to start building. This is what slidesgo gives me as an introduction slide. I only needed three big points, so I quickly edited it down. I used this techni...

  I love Post-It notes, a simple way to record ideas. These tiny notes help me maintain focus and accomplish tasks faster than longer to-do notepads. While I love the paper notes there isn't always a great place for kids to keep these notes to refer to later on. A while back I started tinkering with Google Keep , a simple web/mobile app, it is like a modern version of the Post-It. Start by visiting keep.google.com Click Take a note... at the top of the screen. Start by giving the note a tile and start adding some context. I highly recommend being very specific and informative when creating the title. After a while, you will have a billion notes and it makes it difficult if they are all named Thursday. The power comes when you click on the bottom ice cream cone, the three dots. Choose Show checkboxes. It will turn your note into a checkable note, when you cross it off the item will move to the bottom. You can indent items, making them subtasks, by dragging them to the right. The mos...

Use this post to update your email signature before school starts. Be advised, if you have images in your signature they need to be removed. While images make the signature pop, the text inside can not be read by assistive technology.  What does this mean? If you have your name and contact information inside the image it is inaccessible to anyone using assistive technologies on their devices. All district emails sent by you must contain your email signature. This includes your laptop, iPad, mobile, etc.  Follow the directions below to create your signature on your laptop and mobile device(s). If you are an elementary or middle school teacher that was assigned an iPad, you must add the signature to that device as well. Note: You must use the gmail app on your mobile devices. The built-in mail app will not work for district email. This includes district iPads. In addition, you are required to use a passcode and/or face ID when accessing district information on any mobile device....