Wednesday, March 22, 2017

Quizzes Made Easy with Google Forms

If you have a relatively simple, objective assessment you need to give your students, you can do it quickly and easily using Google Forms. This works particularly well for formative assessments. In addition, it gives students the chance to be comfortable with using online resources and completing online assessments. You start with a regular Google Form, but once you set it up as a quiz, then you have the options to assign point values to questions, mark correct responses for an answer key, and offer feedback for correct and incorrect choices. You can even embed re-teaching resources in the feedback for incorrect answers, linking to YouTube videos, websites, or other online resources. Students can get immediate feedback about their performance on the assessment, and you as the teacher can spend less time actually grading the assessments and more time analyzing the data from the assessments. As much as I love making little videos for you, I found one that walks you through the whole process much better than I could ever do! Here it is if you'd like an easy-to-follow guide for how to use Google Forms for quizzes.


If you have already done this in your class, please leave a comments sharing how you use it and your thoughts!

Wednesday, March 8, 2017

Not If, but WHEN!

Has this ever happened to you:

You put together a really cool, engaging lesson for your kids. You've pulled together all sorts of resources for the lesson, you've got everything the kids will need -- handouts, online tools -- and you've booked all the tech items necessary. The kids arrive, eager to start the fun lesson you've promised them since last week, and then the whole thing implodes because of some tech issue: the wifi is slow, a projector blows a bulb, an app isn't working, or some other unforeseen problem occurs.

Source: http://izquotes.com/quotes-pictures/quote-to-err-is-human-but-to-really-foul-things-up-you-need-a-computer-paul-r-ehrlich-56288.jpg


What do you do? Hopefully, you don't give up and decide that you'll just never use technology in your classroom ever again because you just have bad luck with it.

This is why when you plan lessons that involve using technology, you really need to ask yourself the question, "What will I do when I have a glitch?" not, "What will I do IF I have a glitch?"

If you always have a backup plan, glitches become a lot less worrisome. A lesson should not be a complete waste of time simply because one of the tools doesn't work; remember: the magic in an awesome lesson isn't the technology, it's the learning experience the kids get to have. The Chromebook or iPad app or YouTube video is just one tool.

So, when the tech fizzles, what should you do?

  • Stay calm and remember that this is not a reflection on your worth as an educator -- you're not a failure!
  • Try to fix the issue, but don't spend too much time doing this.
  • Move to your plan B (you DO have a plan B, right???).
  • Later, evaluate where the problem lies, then determine how to fix the problem. Get help from people who can help you (colleagues, building level technology specialists, network administrators, directors of 21st century learning, instructional technology resource teachers, Twitter, students).
  • Pick up where you left off tomorrow with the same amount of enthusiasm!
For more inspiration on what to do WHEN the technology fails you, check out this post (it's what inspired me to write this one!)

Wednesday, March 1, 2017

Organize Your Ideas with Google Keep and Google Docs

Google Keep is a great little application that works like virtual sticky notes. They are great for creating to-do lists, reminders, or even for organizing research notes or sources. They are shareable AND you can add collaborators! You can use Google Keep on a computer or on a smart phone. One example of how I use Google Keep (thanks to Erin Bettenhausen for this idea!) is for my grocery list. I have it on my phone and my husband is a collaborator on the list. Whenever we need something from the store, one of us opens up the Google Keep grocery list and adds the item.

Something else you can do that has great potential for your classroom is to add information from Google Keep notes to a Google Doc. You can find resources for research or even take notes using Google Keep then easily assemble them all into one document! Want to see how? check out this quick video I made demonstrating it!

If you're looking for ways to use Google Keep in your classroom either with your students or as an organizational tool for yourself, let me know! I can help with that!