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January 19, 2021
January 19, 2021
Have you ever had middle schoolers afraid or embarrassed to read their writing aloud? Anxious to share? Some who are so petrified to present to the class that either they won't do it or presentation day feels like pulling teeth and the rest of the class is totally disengaged anyway? Or do you just literally DRED presentation day (for a variety of reasons) along with your students?
I have found that adding some novelty to the sharing experience really helps UP THE ENGAGEMENT for both the nervous presenter and the audience. Make it OK to laugh WITH the presenter! Here are a few strategies!
Try this Eduprotocol: "The Worst Preso Ever"
Watch the first video to hear Jon Corippo explain the beauty of this wonderfully "middle school" EASY lesson plan that is part of their Eduprotocols "lesson frame" concept (check in with me if you want to learn more). Then check out the templates to the left for trying it yourself!
Have kids do a horrible presentation ON PURPOSE to demonstrate what they learn, read, research. Then through the silly & quick presentation you can see what they know AND they learn how to actually do it right.
TIP: Always try a new Eduprotocol with LOW/NO cognitive load first. Do it with something fun that kids know and love FIRST.
LOVE IT? Join me for FREE VIRTUAL PD on Feb 5 for Eduprotocols Worldwide where REAL TEACHERS are presenting some amazing stuff! (Click link to register)
Try a Text to Speech Tool like FakeYou or a Text-to-Speech Avatar like Voki.
FakeYou is a new one for me! Deep Fakes are something kids interact with all the time on line and it's good to learn how to spot them as a part of digital citizenship, but FakeYou allows anyone to type a passage of text, and select a fun voice for it. They have voices that sound like TV characters, famous people, etc. Have kids write something and paste the text here to have it read aloud to share with the class! Have kids try to guess the voice!
Kids writing raps or song parodies are an amazing alternative assessment or creative expression of learning opportunity. But listening to those (when you can actually get students to give you permission to share with the class) is either painful or amazing depending on the vocal talents of the student--instead of what matters, which is the CONTENT of what they write. Have the computer rap it. Boom, weird enough for all the middle schoolers to listen to the actual lyrics their peers write. Social-Anxiety minimized as it normalizes laughter at how ridiculous the computer may sound (instead of the student).
ABOVE: Screenshot of ClassroomScreen.com BELOW: Screencast How-To Video
Be aware that in the free version you can use all the widgets, but you can't save your screen. Close the tab and the next time you come it is blank. Not an issue really--it takes about 30 seconds to click the widgets you want/need.
Be aware you CAN save class lists for the random name picker in the free version to reuse. You do this in the group maker tab.
January 12, 2022
January 12, 2022
Rather than a face to face Cool Ideas Club, I have decided to share out Cool Ideas over email on Wednesdays.
2 Classroom Management Tips: 1 Low/No Tech & 1 Cool Tech Tool:
NO TECH Seating Chart w/ Mask and Quarantine Dates: If you are having trouble keeping track of absent dates and mask requirements try putting your seating charts in a sheet protector or laminate them. Then use a wet erase marker to indicate mask or absent dates. Simple, but then it's all in one place vs having to check all the lists all the time. When it updates, update with your wet-erase! It will make you remember back when we had Vis-a-Vis markers at hand all the time for the overhead projector--and when you could tell a teacher by the smear of ink on their hand each day.
CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT TECH TOOL: Check out ClassroomScreen.com It is simple to use and free (free vs paid info) and would be something you could have up on one of your projected screens especially during small group or independent work time. Each of the items below is a "widget" tool you click and add to your screen. I swear you could open the site, add a widget for your class that day and use this tool at least partly in less than 5 minutes.
Want a sound level monitor in your classroom?
It can give kids a visual (and ding) when things get too loud.
This tool alone makes classroomscreen.com something I wanted to learn more about!
Interactive timers and stopwatch
Random Name Picker (can eliminate chosen kids from being cold called again)
QR code
Youtube or Embedded site widget
Interactive Visual icons for what type of activity or volume kids should exhibit
Traffic light for whole group behavior management.
Textboxes, white board, webcam and so much more!
Cool Ideas Clubs To Return in 2022!
Cool Ideas Clubs To Return in 2022!
Being responsive to staff is essential. I decided to press pause on "Cool Ideas Club" for the remainder of the fall to clear what I could off of staff schedules. Look for ideas to return in a new format in January!
Teachers-Getting-Started-with-Newsela-and-Schoology1.pdfOctober 20, 2021
October 20, 2021
Do you want to use Newsela in your classroom?
The Schoology integration is up and running. We can quickly walk through how to get NewsELA materials to your students quickly.
Improve Student Writing (and Your Own) with WordTune:
Click here to add the Extension:
This is an extension that we can add and it can help us and students tweak our writing with a few clicks! I totally need this for writing parent emails!
OCtober 13, 2021
OCtober 13, 2021
Click the video to the left to see how to provide audio and video response tools in Schoology to capture student learning outside of written response. I show you both a discussion post and an assessment option.
I'd love to sit down and learn what you want to try so I can help you build that out on Schoology. Don't worry about investing the time in building it in Schoology on the front end--I am happy to take your paper or digital copy and build the first one on my time so you can implement it with students, decide if it's something you want to pursue further, and then we can co-create future items.
Other Ideas: Drag and Drops, Interactive Whiteboard, Etc.
Ideas:
Start a class journal prompt or exit pass or discussion with EVERYONE responding in a Schoology Discussion Thread. Provide CHOICE on whether kids choose to type, talk, record--but know identified students now have the built in accommodation for a verbal check in. Then you can either continue with asynchronous discussion OR give kids 5 minutes to read/watch peers and respond (audio or type). Now you can promote student voice without taking an entire class period and all kids respond vs just the ones who raise their hands. PRO TIP: Add a schoology 1 click rubric to capture your formative feedback on this topic/standard/participation.
Individually Assign a Discussion Thread to a student and now it is an ongoing digital notebook that allows typing, images, video, audio, and gives you alerts on when student posts. Then this kid is only "discussing" with you or their small group. They can date posts like other kids date a physical page. Make it once and use it all year as needed.
If your goal is to have the whole class have a private reponse tool that you see, but peers don't consider using the audio or video response question in Assessments. Then adding multiple submissions onto this "assessment" so kids can come to this each day. Maybe it is a homework log or a place for them to capture what their team is talking about in small group work--when you can't meet with all groups.
OCtober 6, 2021
OCtober 6, 2021
Today we chatted informall about what is working and what isn't. We didn't cover a new topic.
September 29, 2021
September 29, 2021
Today we explored Wordwall.net and got access to a paid version I purchased. Check in with me if you would like to learn more!
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