My School is Going 1:1 Where Do I Start?

My School Just Announced We Will Be 1:1 Where Do I Begin?!

School Expectations

First of all, don't panic! Spend some time finding out what the school expectations and rules about 1:1 devices are, how was the devices will be assigned, where will they be stored and what training is provided. Also think about how often will you be expected to use them, or how often you want to use them? What school policies may be in place around students carrying them between classes, or bringing them home? What is the devices aren’t charged? What will the behavior policies be for students who are on other websites? Some of these questions may not have quick and easy answers but they are important to start thinking about, as you begin framing how you want to use technology in your classroom.

Technology is a Tool

Don’t get overwhelmed, but realize that the technology is a tool just like any other tool. It is there to help you and your students. Using technology could completely transform the way that you teach but there are lots of small steps for you to start with as well. Using technology in your classroom doesn't have to be an overnight dramatic shift.

Procedures and Skills

As you get started make sure you allow some time to teach procedures and teach technology skills. Even though we think students grew up with technology, and that they know a lot about technology, it often turns out that they don't know how to use technology for academic purposes. They may know how to use it for YouTube or other ways, or know how to do things on their phones, but may not know how to do some of the tasks that we ask them.

Some procedures and introductory lessons that you may want to cover in your classroom if they are not taught in school as a whole include: digital citizenship, procedures for carrying a Chromebook or laptop, where they will be stored, charging procedures, what to do if a student's technology is not working or is missing that day. What classroom rituals and routines do you want to set up around the devices. Some teachers have students put in only one earbud, close the lid of the laptop or chromebook, or put tablets face down when the teacher is speaking, etc. What will be the consequences if a student doesn't follow the technology directions? If you take the device away do you have an alternative assignment? If it WiFi is down or technology is unavailable do you have an alternate emergency assignment? These are things to think about and to try to clarify in your head as you begin to picture your classroom with technology. These are not meant to scare you off but to prevent future problems.

How Do you Want to Use Technology 

Once you have some of those procedural things out of the way, start thinking about how and when you want to start to build in technology into your classroom. Do you want to use them at the start of class everyday? At the end of class everyday? (There are a lot of great ways to do formative assessment or warm ups using Google Forms). Do you plan to use them only as needed for certain interactive activities or stations? Especially for science, there are a lot of good videos (BrainPop, CrashCourse, Bozeman Science, Amoeba Sisters) and interactive virtual labs and field trips to use for particular topics).  You could also look into Digital Interactive Notebooks, but probably not as a first step. 

Using technology in the classroom really provides a lot of opportunities to engage students, to individualize instruction, to free up your time to work with students rather than being at the front of the room and for students to connect with others outside of the classroom walls.

My advice would be to jump in and get started. Emphasize to the students that you are learning along with them, and take it one step at a time.

Inspirational Ideas and Resources

Just for inspiration, here are a few of my favorite resources for technology in education happening very differently through technology!

• Transforming Lessons through the SAMR Cycle
• Alice Keeler - Anything Google
• Ditch That Textbook
• Flipped Learning

Jump In and Give It a Try! 

Don’t get overwhelmed by learning the tech tool. You can do that with a bit of training or some searching of online tutorials/videos. Instead, spend your time thinking about how you want your technology-infused classroom to look. What will it look like in the long-run? What smaller steps can you take now to go toward that goal? Maybe each marking period you can add on to that? Or maybe take one unit and re-vamp it, but leave your others for now.

What are your 1:1 technology questions and concerns? Leave your questions below or in our Facebook group, but don’t be afraid. Give it a try!

4 Technology-Rich Ways For Students to Demonstrate Knowledge

4 Technology-Rich Ways for Students to Demonstrate Their Knowledge

Many times we asked students to do class work in such a traditional manner, such as to write a research paper, write an essay to present their knowledge, in written form only. While it is important that students can read and write, This is not the only way for them to show their knowledge. It's important to give an element of choice as well as to give variety throughout the year so that students who excel in other areas, or who struggle with writing have a chance to show their knowledge.

Why not just write an essay? 

Perhaps that particular student is not a strong writer, but really does know the content. Or may they are really good at animation, graphic design, sound effects, or some other aspect. It's time that their knowledge show through. Some great ways for them to demonstrate their knowledge, other than written expression would be a screencast, Thinglink, a PowerPoint or Google Slide presentation, a podcast, or even an animation such as PowToon. Sometimes, even if the student is a stronger writer, having an aspect of choice is so important. Allowing the student more choice over how to demonstrate their knowledge is a way to get more buy-in and engagement from him or her, and more excitement about the assignment.

Podcast

A podcast is a very easy alternative to implement, and has many different applications in the classroom. Students could simply do a voice recording on a tablet, phone, computer with a microphone, or many other devices. If you actually want it to be posted as a podcast available online, this is possible too, and there are a lot of tutorials and guides online. However, for a single assignment, it would be appropriate for students to just make a recording, and it could even be shared as an audio file on Google Drive, if you choose. The downside of this is it of course you can't include any visual elements but for some students and some topics this will be enough.

Screencast

A screencast is a recording of the computer screen it can be done with a camera with it, showing the student's face, or without and can record only the tab or the desktop of the computer, along with recording audio. This is a very simple way to record a short presentation with narration, a technology skill, or student presenting or showing a particular topic or skill. There are lots of ways to do a screen test but my personal favorite is the Chrome extension screencastify I believe you can make a free recording up to 10 minutes and the results is saved right in Google Drive. Very simple!!

Thinglink

Thinglink is a paid product, but there are also free accounts with a few limitations. Thinglink allows the student to start with a picture such as a map, photograph, diagram, etc and then add certain buttons with information and links, videos, sound files, or even text documents and callout buttons to make a multi-media clickable image. Again, this depends on the topic, and how it is best suited. I think this would be great for presentations where you want to show a lot of information from different sources. A word of caution, be careful that the student is able to summarize their information, or paraphrase and cite the information, because it can be very easy to just cut and paste a lot of information. Thinglink is a great way to make a really different kind of presentation and include various kinds of information. Here is a great example of a human body presentation.

Powtoon

Powtoon will allow students to create an animation. They write the script, and record the audio, and then choose different backgrounds, characters, and what they will say. Here is an elementary example

Powtoon can be a lot of fun and very interactive for the students. It is quite different than what they may have done before. The warning on this one is that there will be a bit of a learning curve for students. It may take some time for them to get comfortable, so allow extra time to learn the technology if you choose this method.

Lastly, don’t rule out a PowerPoint or Google slide presentation. This is not really a brand new method, but can be an alternative to a written presentation. Both allow shorter, more broken up writing, and the insertion of videos, images, and other multimedia formats into the presentation. Google Slides is easier to insert videos and easier to share the final presentation. PowerPoint is easier to insert narration or sound files if this is something that you want students to do. Adding audio to Google Slides is difficult.

As we transition to using more technology, under the SAMR model, these may be some ways to push your teaching, and your students learning, to the next level, and to further engage your students. Have you used any of these in your classroom? What other alternatives do you utilize, besides a written essay, do you use for students to demonstrate knowledge? Please share in the comments.

5 Free New Technologies to Try in Your Classroom Right Now

5 Free New Technologies to Try In Your Classroom Right Now

With all the technology available, it can be overwhelming. Here are 5 (and a bonus) new technology options that I suggest you try in your classroom this year, in bite-size pieces. They are easy ways to liven up some of your instruction and find new ways to engage with and connect with your students.

Screencasts in the Classroom

It can be intimidating to think of doing a video, but don’t be intimated. First of all, you don’t need to have your face on camera! This is key! You can do a screencast of your computer screen, of a file or PowerPoint, or a series of photographs or images, so you are really just doing a voice over.

There are several easy ways to do a screencast. If what you are doing is short, there is a Google Chrome extension called screencastify that will allow you to record camera, your desktop, a browser tab, audio only, or other combinations of that. It will save to YouTube and/or Google Drive, making the sharing of your video very easy.

If you are making a screencast based on images or slides, my favorite way to do it is in PowerPoint. It is pretty easy to “Insert Audio” and then have it play with the slides (you can set timing as well). Then export the whole thing as a movie when you are happy with it.

Why make a screencast? I have seen people screencast instructions or a mini-lesson for a sub, although I haven’t done that myself. I have used it to allow me to be in two places at once time. For example, I have used it to give directions at a station, while I’m free to circulate. I can show a lab demo, and kids who were absent can replay it. I can give instructions or introductory information, and, again, students who were absent can catch up easily. I have even used a video at one station, while I work with students at another stations.

Flipgrid

Flipgrid allows you to have short online video discussions with students. You post a prompt, and student can response via video. It's like FaceTime or Skype, with classroom applications! Here is a great write-up of some ways to use Flipgrid in class. Here is a really awesome example of a class using it to connect with a researcher in Antarctica

Plickers

We already have a lot of formative assessment tools available. What’s different about Plickers? Students don’t need devices! It's a technology tool because it uses technology to improve speeds, data collection and to make your life easier, but if you don’t have a lot of student tech, this is a great one to try.

To use Plickers you get free printable cards. They have a symbol on that that will not be recognizable to other students (so students won’t know what choice their peers are making). Also on the card, in small, lighter print, are choices (A, 1, B, etc). These cards can be assigned 1 per student, so you can collect data on each student’s individual answers.

When you ask a question, students hold up their card with the answer choice that they are selecting facing up. You take a picture, with the app on your phone, and your data is collected. Here is a video that shows in more detail.

Edpuzzle

If you want to use videos in your instruction, whether they are your own videos, or those from another source, consider EdPuzzle. You can make questions that go with a video, on a worksheet, or you can build in questions and quizzes into the video itself with EdPuzzle. This also gives you the option to enforce that students watch the entire video.

Lastly, there are many videos that already have questions. You can choose from these videos, and copy and modify the questions yourself. Here an example of an Amoeba Sisters Mitosis Video that I found (I did not make up the questions).



As a teacher, you can have your students sign up for a class, assign videos, and you will be able to see their progress in the video and all their quiz answers. You can also just give students a link to a video directly, if you don’t need as granular data.

Padlet

I have used Padlet only minimally myself, but it is one that I want to try more, and it is growing in popularity. It has a lot of potential uses, so I think it should be included on this list. Again, its very easy to use. It bills itself as “the easiest way to create and collaborate in the world.” The teacher (or someone) makes a prompt, on a ‘board’ and students can respond. Think of it as a big wall with sticky notes. However, those responses can also include links, images, etc, and you can build connections between the responses. Padlet is an extremely easy way to collect a lot of information quickly, and to have collaboration.

Bonus… Nearpod

I have not used Nearpod myself, so I’m not writing a lot about it, but I wanted to at least mention it here, in the bonus section. Nearpod allows you to add interactive elements into a PDF document, or into slides. In other words, it add more interaction into a 1:1 classroom. Here is a video showing it in action.



This is Nearpod: the 21st Century Classroom from Nearpod on Vimeo.

What's on your list of new classroom technologies to try?  Have you used any of these?  Tell use about it in the comments!

Free Training: How to Be In Two Places at Once

A little summer professional development for you

We all like to learn something, especially if it's focused on making our lives easier and saving us some time during the school year.  I know we aren't thinking about school at the moment, but give it a chance....it's not so bad if you can sit in your living room, or on your deck, and learn some tips to make your life easier.

I want to focus on ways to limit your time at the copier, and also ways to save yourself time grading. This lets you be in two places at once because while your papers are being graded, you can be working with students, eating your lunch, or even at home enjoying your time with your family instead of grading. 

Limit your time at the copier, here are some easy tips

Minnesota State Law Library paper stack flickr photo by Tony Webster shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) license

• If you are copying something like a reading, news article, or even directions, make a class set or make a class at +10.  If you're a secondary teacher and have 100 or 150 students they don't all need a copy.  Chances are many of them will get left on the tables or thrown out.  You can always make some extra if students want to annotate them, or keep them, but you will still end up with much few copies. Fewer copies = less time standing at the copier!  They will get trained pretty quickly that you're going to re-collect the directions or the reading.  If anyone really wants to keep it or has marked it up a lot that's fine, but it will save a lot of paper and a lot copying time and frustration.

• Secondly, try going digital! There are excellent resources on digital interactive notebooks.  Look into these, Google forms instead of quizzes, or start using Google Classroom.  All of these are amazing because you will no longer be spending your days standing in line at the copier, fighting with the stapler, or paper jams.  You simply make your assignments, assign it to your students and a copy is automatically made for each one of them it's a huge time saver!!!  Also, if they need a new copy, that can be done painlessly.  It's automatically saved so they won't lose theirs either! A few good resources for going digital are 
• The Blended Classroom (Leah Cleary)
• Study All Knight
• Alice Keeler
• Shake Up Learning
• Thirdly think about how you can save some paper.  When you save paper you're also saving yourself time at the copier. For example can you copy something on a half sheet? I do bell work on a sheet for the whole week and make a box for each day. I have even done it for two weeks.  I collect the same paper every day for that time period. That means I'm only copying one bell work sheet once every two weeks or once every 4 weeks if I do them double-sided, rather than daily! 

Saving Time Grading

• A lot of assignments can be graded simply on a check/check plus/check minus/zero basis. It's pretty easy to see whether the students did the assignment, they did it almost perfectly, they did a really poor job on it, or they didn't do it at all. You can give some quick feedback, but this saves you a lot of time checking every single word on their paper.  Over time, if you have a lot of grades like I do, it will become pretty obvious all of those checks and check pluses and check minuses will average out.  I enter them in my grade book as 100, 75, 50, and 0.

• Let the computer grade automatically!  One of the best ways to do this is with a Google form quiz. You set up the quiz questions, and of course an answer key, ahead of time. It will automatically grade if they are objective questions. You can choose if students get immediate feedback or if their scores have to be 'released' by you.  

Bonus

• Another option, depending on what type of devices that you have, is Socrative. This is easier for students to do phone or some other smaller devices that Google forms, and it also can give immediate feedback and automatic grading.
• Lastly, I have never used Zipgrade, but I've heard amazing things about being able to grade objective questions on your phone.

What will you do with your free time, now that you are spending less of your planning period, lunch period, and after school time grading papers and standing at the copier?  

Look Ahead: Less Stress and More Free Time Next Year

Give Yourself Less Stress and More Free Time Next Year

As you finish up this year you may be wondering what you can do to put yourself in a better position for next year, or to make things easier in September. I know you are tired now. It's true....there is no tired like teacher tired!

There are small amounts of energy that you can expend now, or even in the early part of the summer, that will make your life much easier in September! 

Exactly what those are depends on if you know what you will be teaching in the fall or not.  Here are some ideas to get you started. 

If you know what you will be teaching you can really take a lot of pressure off those early fall days by making your photo copies for your first unit or your first week now! For example, the copier will be busy, probably jamming, running out of paper, and you'll be set with your copies already made! Finally, even if you don't know what you're teaching there may be some basics that you can photocopy such as a safety contract, a first day get to know you activity.  Even those will take pressure off in September. That leaves you free time to take care of all the other crazies that you know will be coming up in the fall.

If you don't know what you're teaching in the fall you can still save yourself time.  I am often in this position. In this case it is a matter of setting yourself up for success. For example, make sure all your materials are put away neatly, in an organized fashion.  Label them.  You think you will remember but 6 months from now you very well may not!  Decide if it will work better for you to put them away in kits, or if you want to put them away by type of material. Whatever you decide make sure they are organized. 

Another thing you can do is to do some cleaning now and maybe even set up basic materials. For example, I know that I have sets of materials that will be at each table.  I have a pencil box with a couple pairs of scissors, markers, tape, etc. I go through those at the end of the year, clean them up, throw out of markers that don't work, replenish the colors, etc.  When I pick them up again they are ready to go in the fall. 

If you have file cabinets or storage cupboards this is a good time to go through and get rid of things that you haven't used, or think you  may not use again.   Anything old, broken, really out of date, or just things that maybe where there when you moved in. This is your chance! Start off the year with a 'clean slate' so to speak, and ready for whatever may come!

Depending on your school and your department, you may be in charge of materials or chemical inventory, That's something you can do now!  You may be in charge of ordering new supplies, again that's something you can make a huge dent in right now.  Even if you don't place your final order, if you start compiling a list and getting prices, it will be easy to tweak and submit the order when the time comes.

On a different level, another thing you can do now to help yourself organize is simply to look back through your lesson plans and make some notes and reflections while this year is fresh in your mind. Its important during the summer to clear your mind, and really take a break. But at the same time you don't want to lose those ideas, memories, and reflections that you have now.  You know what things went well, and what you want to change for next year.  Are their units you want to reorganize?  Sequences you want to change?  A new strategy that you want to try? Or things that worked particularly well?  Activities or strategies that didn't work? Now is the time to make those notes and changes, or even to layout a skeleton of the sequence that you want to use next year.  I believe it's better to do that now while this year is fresh in your mind then give it some time to percolate over the summer. 

If you have big projects that you know you are planning, such as a science fair, or a committee or club that you're involved in such as National Honor Society, Science Olympiad, or any others, now is the time to get lay the groundwork for those. That's one thing off your plate when you find out what you are teaching.

Lastly, depending upon what your technology options are, look into using more tech. It really is easier on the teacher! It allows you to facilitate, rather than be on the stage, and again, less wasted time copying.  You may also spend less time grading if you use some automatically grading options (more info coming on those)

Please share with post with another teacher you know that could use less stress next year!! 

5 Fun and Easy Ways to Gamify Your Review

5 Easy Ways to Engage and Assess Your Students 

As we are closing up the school year and looking for ways to review and keep students engaged games are a big one! You may be looking for ways to do your end review, or even to review for a unit, or simply end the week.  We are all tired, hot, and looking for some ways to make school more fun. 

 

I get it. Elementary school students are almost done with their year, they are silly, tired of state testing, and probably watching movies in some classes.  High school students are hot, tired, more interested in talking about prom and summer plans than classes.  But you still want to teach - you can! 

Here are top 5 favorite ways to introduce technology engage students and make review more fun:

 

You can keep your students engaged and doing some serious review! 

Top 5 Engaging Review Strategies

• Kahoot  - You set up a series of questions and answers ahead of time (or you can use shared templates created by other teachers). Students can play on their own or in teams, and on any device (chromebook, phone, tablet, etc).  Students get points for both speed and correct answers, so it gets very competitive!  Kahoot.com describes it as “It is a game based classroom response system played by the whole class in real time.” I have seen it used with elementary to high school ages students, all of whom were very engaged.

• Quizlet Live - Quizlet Live is very similar, it is a real-time, team-based classroom game. In this case it is better based on vocabulary, formulas, or other things that can be matched (as opposed to multiple choice questions). It emphasizes accuracy over speed, but still gets competitive. 

• Quizziz - Quizziz is also a multiplayer quiz game.  It can be done real-time, or assigned individually outside of class (or in class). It also emphasizes giving the teacher detailed data. Students play together on the same questions, but at their own pace. 

• Plickers - This is a more short term option. Maybe you just want a few quick review questions, a ticket out the door, or even a formative assessment built into a lesson.  Plickers aren’t as much to gamify a series of questions, but to quickly and easily collect answers in a fun and novel way.  Plickers are described as “a powerfully simple tool that lets teachers collect real-time formative assessment data without the need for student devices.”  Students get pre-printed cards that they hold up.  You have an app on your phone that uses the camera to collect instant (almost) data on their answers. Pretty AMAZING! 

• And a bonus (non-tech) option recommended to me by a friend - Bazinga!  This one I have not played before, but it sounds like a LOT of fun.  This came from a great discussion with Brooke in my Facebook Group. If you aren’t in it already, check it out here 

 

Why are these types of review important? 

We know how important it is for students to review, but they often don't see the connection between class, exams, and the need to review. It's obvious to us how important it is to review, but once they're done, they're checked out!  Many students are not focused on their review, or if they don't feel successful then they don't want to participate. 

 

These types of review give options for team or individual play and they all have an element beyond just getting the right answer.  This keeps students engaged especially near the end of the year when it's difficult to maintain focus (for both us and the students).  Students can review and feel like they are playing a game, rather than working!  And you get some serious review and get to raise your test scores, while your students are playing a game! 

If you have another review strategy that you love, please leave a comment below. I'd love to hear your favorites! If you try one of these, please comment below or email me and let me know how it goes! 

Tips for Successful Technology Sub Plans

We’ve all been there – you have to be out for a day, but its nerve-wracking. What to leave for a sub?  How to make sure it goes smoothly?  You don’t want to waste a day of class, and you don’t want to come back to chaos the next day.

Here are my suggestions (granted I have mostly taught secondary, but I think these suggestions would work even with upper elementary as well).

1. LEAVE THE DIRECTIONS DIRECTLY FOR YOUR STUDENTS
2. LEAVE THE SUB PREPARED
3. HAVE A BACK UP PLAN

Read more here on our collaborative blog 

How Can Digital Task Cards Make Your Life Easier?

My son was up sick last night. I'm exhausted.  I feel like I might be coming down with something. and my other son has an art show tonight that I really need to attend -- that's after I make dinner and do homework.

I really want to assess where my students are with the topics we have been learning, but I just can't face the idea of coming up with questions, making up a quiz, game or other activity, and then bringing that stack of papers home to grade!  I never want to feel like I'm cutting corners with my teaching. but sometimes I need a break.  My principal is big on data driven instruction. I do see the value in it, but where am I supposed to get all this data? And how do I have time to analyze it?I need something ready to go, and effective.  I have an idea what I want to do tomorrow, but the idea of making a warm up, a closure activity, collecting data and assessing so frequently is too much!

I believe in doing warm ups and tickets out (freebie) and I do them almost every day but I'll be the first to admit that making up questions, and grading them day after day can be tiring. Its an additional piece to your lesson planning on a regular basis.  I understand!  However, a set of 180 science prompts, 8 general formative assessment prompts, and some blank templates could really take that pressure off!  You have a bank of questions and ready made prompts to use.

You may have already seen me writing about ways to use task cards in the classroom,  my Human Body Systems Task Cards, the options you have with the full year formative assessment bundle, how to save time grading with google forms and using digital interactive notebooks in general.  As you can tell, this is a topic that I feel strongly about. We are in a time period when digital resources really have the potential to make things easier on us, and to make us more effective teachers.  Digital task cards can be used so many ways that they really do provide and answer to this.

If you teach biology, this full year bundle covers all that topics that you are likely to teach. The task cards are available in three format (Google Forms, Google slides, and PDF). That means you have options.

If you are looking for a warm up or closure, with data collection, and you have technology you can use the Google Form, and have the data immediately collected and tabulated for you. You can even get graphs of how many students chose which answer if its multiple choice.

If you only have some technology (not 1:1), make it a station.

Maybe you have a short activity, or some notes, but you want to really see how well students understand, use just one task card for a ticket out.

If you are looking for a full-period activity you can use the digital or print versions of the task cards, choose the ones that relate to topics you have already taught, and set up stations.  Since each task card has a couple of questions on one topic, it is easy to quickly pick a topic, or a few topics, and get a picture of how your students are doing.

Your students can fill out their answers quickly on one sheet of paper so you have less paper to cart home.

This is a tool that you can use all year long, on any topic. Think of it as a test bank, with ready to go questions and diagrams organized by topic and available as a printable or digital format.  It makes it very simple to build in pre-assessments, closure activities and to collect data on a regular basis as you go through the unit.

The next time that you are dragging, and don't feel like making lesson plans, use it as a day to collect some data.  Set up stations where students do task cards on recent topics, either digitally (less grading for you!) or on paper and see what they know.   Or do a short activity with a ticket out. But know that you have a whole bank of questions to choose from.

6 Interesting and Simple Tips For Using Photos in Class

Why would you want to use photos in class? And How?

You want to do an activity with your students, but you just don't have the materials to do a great hands-on lab that you imagined.  Then you realize that you could do it as a demo, but it will be hard for all the students to see what you are trying to show.  And what about students who are absent?

Or maybe you wish you could show your students something under the microscope but don't have a projecting microscope.  Perhaps you want to show them other areas of the world, but can't take them there.  Sometimes a picture really is worth a 1000 words. A picture is something students will remember and have stuck in their heads.

Where to find photos

As teachers, we should ideally model proper behavior with regard to copyrights and use of photos.  There are several sites such as pixabay.com, creative commons search, and other that can be used in class. I was not aware of photosforclass.com and I found this photo that would be great teaching the parts of a flower, or even provoking discussion prior to doing a lab. I loved that when I downloaded this photo, it already came with the credit and citation on it. As far as science, most government sites (think about NASA, USDA, USEPA, etc) are Public Domain because they are government works. You can check those out here

Some photo sites (both social sites and photo sites) are blocked at school, so this made it more difficult. You will have to check if they are blocked at your school. Otherwise you may need to take steps to either unlock them, or gather your pictures at home.

What do with them once you've got them

I could see using photos to help explain a concept, provoke interest, or even for a student who had missed class. They are also great discussion starters to practice skills such as inferencing and to bring concepts back to real life, so that they don't only exist in textbooks or diagrams. We get so used to seeing diagrams, that it can be useful to see real photographs.

I was not familiar with BigHugeLabs and I think this could be a lot of fun. Their slogan is "Helping you do cool stuff with your digital photos since 2005. :-)" There are lot of way you could do fun projects with students on here!

It could be useful to make fun, attention-getting posters or bulletin boards, but students could also use this for an assignment. They could use this to make, for example, trading cards for a particular kingdom, or even types of rocks (igneous, sedimentary, metamorphic) using photos they found. Students could also make trading cards or movie posters for famous scientists, for example.  This would be a great way to get students working with digital photos as a project.

Using Photos to Reach Outside of the Classroom

The ideas to use instagram in your classroom on a blog could also be used in a classroom blog, website, or newsletter and would be great ideas and great uses for classroom pictures. My son's class uses Bloomz to communicate with parents, and the teacher sometimes takes photos and shares them through Bloomz. It is fun to see what is going on at school, and to have the prompts to talk to him about the class activities.  Although this post is labelled for instagram, it certainly wouldn't have to be.

Another fun site is http://photofunia.com/ but I'm not sure the application yet.  I used pixlr.com (I think) to create this "Polaroid" and "Postage Stamp" of a faraway place.  Students could then write about the geology/weather/climate/wildlife in that place.

I could see looking at changes in the land use and even the landforms if good historical photos were available, but I had trouble finding a good source.

photo credit: Ted LaBar Musk Ox via photopin (license)

A few other related ideas

I have given my students in AP Environmental Science a mapping project where they have to build up a map and add environmental events and photographs. This is working well so far. Here is an example.  This could be expanded to include more photographs.

Years ago I did a project on weathering and erosion using this website, which has photographs and data on a real rock wall, built of all different types of rock, from all over the US (or the world?)

Lastly, I really liked the "Dear Photograph" project. The concept behind this project is to "Take a picture of a picture from the past in the present." See an example here. This seems to be done mostly in terms of nostalgia and relationships, which might lend itself better to history or English.  I am still  pondering where this could be applied.

I'd love to hear how you use photographs in your classroom, or what you do if you are trying to capture and experience for students without hands on materials.

Full Year Formative Assessment Bundle: Many Options For You!!

The Importance of Formative Assessment

Formative assessment is a very important topic to me.  When we are up at the front of the room teaching, it become easy for both us, and our students, to think that they understand what we are trying to teach.  Then nod and say they understand, and we believe them. No one is being deceptive, but its hard to determine.  

I think it is critical to use formative assessment very frequently.  That may be assessments of prior knowledge when starting a topic, or an assessment during or at the end of a lesson.  I have written before several times about formative assessment, in terms of warm ups, bell work, tickets out, or even station work that reviews and assesses knowledge on a few lessons at a time.  You can read those earlier posts  here, or here :) I think the particular way in that you choose to do formative assessment depends on your classroom routines and structure, but it is SOO important, for both yourselves and your students to have frequent checks on their understanding.

Grading Formative Assessment

When my school started using chromebooks, I made my daily warm ups in Google Forms.  I wrote here, about how I was able to grade work efficiently.  Whether you grade formative assessment for completion or only for effort is a topic for a whole other post (or several).  In my district, I found that students were less likely to complete it and take it seriously if it wasn't graded, but I never gave less than half credit unless refused to do it.

So How Can I Make This Easier For You? 

Does it seem like a lot of work to make up formative assessment questions on an almost daily basis?  It is!  But the good news is, the work is done for you.   I have created a year long bundle of formative assessments.  These are available in a large bundle of 10 units, 18 assessments each, and a bonus pack, or individually.  Here are a few points of information: 

• The units are correlated to my year long Biology Course Objectives, to ensure that all objectives are addressed.
• Each slide or form has 2-5 brief questions that should take students approximately 3-8 minutes to complete.
• Each unit is available in Google Forms, Google Slides (to be projected or used as digital task cards), and PDF

The full preview and description is here

Because of all the options available, the teacher (you) has a lot of easy options for differentiation.  

I hope these are a helpful to you as you work with your students. Please feel free to email me with any comments or suggestions, or to comment below.  I'd love to hear your thoughts. 

Top 5 Awesome Websites for Science Animations

Science class is a great place for hands-on activities, but there are some activities that you can't do hands-on.  Its great to be able to at least give students some experience with those activities in a virtual environment, as opposed to just lecture. There are many alternatives for doing online 'virtual labs.'  Here are a few of my favorites.

Advantages of Virtual Labs

There are advantages to doing a virtual lab.  Sometimes you don't have the materials, space, resources/weather etc to do a particular activity in class.  There might be something that needs a high powered microscope, or a topic that has to be done outside that you can't carry out during class time. Some topics just CAN'T be hands-on.  There are some great visualizations to understand and model things that are too small, or too abstract to do hands-on.  They have to be done through a model.  Sometimes a model is preferable because students can test different variables, repeat it, and pause/slow down/speed up at their own pace.  Maybe a student missed class, or needs an extension or extra credit, or an additional project on a certain topic.  

Hands-on is great, but there are lots of good reasons to use a virtual lab as well.

Just to be clear, these are not just game sites, or simple animations, but actual online labs.  Most have questions or activities that go with them, and they are really designed to help students work on higher level topics.  

Here are a few of my favorites... 

Sick and Tired of Grading? Save Time With Google Forms

Save yourself time easily grading work in Google forms. Forms are great for collecting information, and they can also be great for any type of assessment, but if you are new to google forms you may be wondering how to quickly and easily grade the work that comes in.  I have had a couple of questions from other teachers who are using my year long google form assessment resource, and that prompted me to write this up.

When you switch over to google forms you will be able to spend less time grading, reduce or eliminate carrying stacks of papers around, and have more free time for other things.

If you are administering an assessment that is mostly objective, it can be automatically graded.  Meaning you don't have to do any grading at all!!  There are also times you want to grade by hand, and I will show you some easy tips to do that, which will save time in class and for you, outside of class.

Back to School Secondary Science Huge Giveaway!!

As much as I hate to admit, the end of summer vacation is getting close, and we have start thinking about school starting up!  Luckily for you, the secondary science teachers of Teachers Pay Teachers are here to try to make your life easier as you head back to school! 

This is a great chance to buy some new digital resources, if you have new technology this year.  

        

If you have a new prep, you might want curriculum guides, or even a big package where you will get all the products in my store related to either Earth Science or Biology. 

         

                   

 If you are teaching Biology you might be interested in this growing bundle.  It gives you a full year of biology warm ups, in both full screen/digital task card AND google forms format!  As it is still a growing bundle, so you get it at a discount now as it is still growing.

Lastly, if you are looking for some tools to help you organize your classroom and simplify things as we head back to school, you might be interested in this Classroom Organization Pack.

We are giving away individual giveaways, prizes, and shopping sprees at each individual store AND 

we put together one HUGE blog hop giveaway, just for science teachers teaching grades 6-12 science: Four $100 Teachers Pay Teachers gift cards!  

For my individual giveaway I am giving two lucky winners $15 in resources from my Teachers Pay Teachers Store.  You can enter that at the first rafflecopter below.   You have lots of options to enter. 

For the HUGE blog hop giveaway, each blog post has a secret code word and a number.  My clue word is 13. FLOW.  The number tells you where the word falls in the secret sentence.  Collect the words from each blog, write them down in number order, and copy the secret sentence into joint rafflecopter giveaway.  This rafflecopter form is the same on every blog, so you only need to enter once from any one of our blogs!  You can enter that at the second rafflecopter giveaway below. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway
a Rafflecopter giveaway

An InLinkz Link-up

Can I Annotate Text in a Blended Classroom?

ANNOTATING PDFS AND WEBPAGES IN GOOGLE CHROME

If you use Google Drive with your students, or for your own use, you may want to share pdf files or webpages with your students for them to read.

In a traditional paper and pencil, face to face classroom we spend a lot of time teaching students to annotate text. This is a skill that we don’t want to lose when students read online. There is extensive evidence about the importance of annotating text. It is part of the new common core standards. Yet, as we move toward more web-based coursework it becomes difficult for students to highlight, underline, and make notes in the margin.



These ideas ARE compatible. There are several free chrome extensions and apps that will allow you to do just that. Before we get into the specifics of a few top choices make sure you know how to sign into chrome.

Getting Started

At the top of the chrome window is a spot to add a user, switch user, sign in, or sign out. This is important because when you sign in, your extensions and apps will be saved. You will sign in with your google credentials, just like you sign into gmail or Google Drive.



In order to annotate pdfs or webpages, here are a few of my top options, with some discussion of each one:

Examples

Kamipdf – Let’s you upload pdfs from Google Drive, your computer, dropbox, and box.net. It also has a paid subscription, but a free subscription would probably be enough for most people. When you upload a file, there are a few tools, such as split and merge, OCR, but most importantly are the annotations tools. Once you upload a file, you have the options to add text, strikeout, highlight,comment, and even add some basic drawings. A quick sample is shown here.




When you are done, you have the option to download your document with the annotations, save to google drive, or print (with or without annotations). You can use Kamipdf as a website, or as a google chrome extension.


Xodopdf works very similarly. It is also available as a website or a chrome extension. It also has an app, so that it can be used on a tablet or phone. It seems to have more options that extend across different platforms, but perhaps a few less annotations tools. Overall, they look very similar, but it depends on your personal preference. Edits and annotations can be saved to your drive, and shared.

Both of these tools are great for pdfs, but what if your students are working on a website and want to be able to highlight and annotate?I tried out a few that were ok, but I wasn’t thrilled. I tried Annotate! and f1000 with mediocre results. If you want students to be able to annotate webpages, there were a few tools that I really liked!


I was really very impressed with Diigo, which allows you to sign in with a google account, an advantage to students having to remember another login. It also allows you to annotate both webpages and PDF files. The annotations are then saved to your account. However, it is NOT free. There is a free plan, but it is quite limited. See here for plans and pricing.






For free options, Hypothesis seems quite good. You have to set up a free account, and you have to make sure that when you are on a webpage the toolbar icon is active. There were some webpages where I had trouble making it work properly, because I could not highlight the text (NYTimes.com, but I think that’s more a function of the website that hypothesis. When it did work, it was impressive. You can highlight or annotate, and then you can choose to share your annotations or keep them private. You can also share them with a group, if there is a group created.



I hope this is helpful to you, and please feel free to leave a comment or email with a question. As we have moved more and more towards 1:1 technology, and away from paper and pencil textbooks, being able to interact with text is a concern. Many of my students are not strong readers, and need to practice these reading skills, within an online environment.

There are ways to do so. Do you know of others? How do you solve this dilemma in your own classroom?

What You Need to Know to Use Digital Interactive Notebooks

Digital Interactive Notebooks in Google Drive

As more and more schools are moving toward chromebooks, or use of Google Drive on laptops or desktop, it presents some opportunities that you may not be aware of.

Most people are aware of using Google drive for students to write a document and 'share' it with the teacher, or even to collaborate with another student to create a document together.

Google Drive can also be used to share information such as readings, slides, videos, etc. 

There are countless blog posts, websites, and resources available on using Google Drive, and Google Classroom.

Google Drive and Google Classroom Resources

Here are a few resources to get you started:

• 34 Interesting ways to use Google Docs in the Classroom
• Getting Started with Google Classroom
• The Google Apps Learning Center

I have been using Google apps quite a bit over the last two schools years, but I have been stuck at times because I do things with a lot of diagrams in them, and I use interactive notebooks. I was nervous for students to have some work on the computer, and some in notebooks.

The switch to Digital Interactive Notebooks

I am making the switch to electronic INB's, with a few tweaks that I wanted to share with you

• Most INB pages can be in google slides, making it easy to combine pages, add and move pages, etc. 
• If they do something on paper that can't be replicated electronically, such as a hand drawing, they can take a picture of it and insert it.
• If I have diagrams that need to be labelled or colored, this can be done.

An example of a converted resource

I converted my Circulatory System Foldable (paper version) to a Google Drive version.  You can see a preview of it below:

I'm finding that students are more successful working on Google Drive because their work is automatically saved, searchable, and not lost! It eliminates the forgetting of papers, and losing papers.  Also, if students are messy writers, or get frustrated with mistakes they might make, this lets them produce a neat and clean copy. If you use Google Classroom, it also is a great help with absent students.  They can check there for any missing work.

Here are a few other shots of this digital product, compared to the paper copy.

Digital Notebook Resources

If you are intrigued, but not quite sure, here are a few other links to some ideas on doing interactive notebooks in Google Drive:

Why Use Digital Interactive Notebooks?

How to get Google to Drive your Lessons

Setting up Digital Science Notebooks

If you are using Google Drive, you may also want to be aware of how to use Google Chrome Extensions to help differentiate.   

Click here for a free starting guide to differentiate with Google Chrome

I'd love to hear how you are using Google Drive in your classroom, or if you are doing Digital Interactive Notebooks in another way.  If not, what reservations you might have. Please comment below and share your experiences. 

Other Example Resources

Here are a few other resources that I've converted to Google Drive format: 

Digital Task Cards or Google Forms formative assessments

Photosynthesis and Respiration Sorting Activity

Macromolecule Organizer