Teaching with Technology

Using educational technology to enhance the learning environment and increase student engagement!

Using Flippity to Enhance Learning

by Leave a Comment

Hello, and happy Friday! I’m back at work today after a lovely snow day yesterday … honestly, I was expecting to be out today as well, but we’re here and making the most of it! On election day last week, my students completed an activity that required them to research proposed amendments and initiatives to our state constitution. These ballot measures ranged from allowing the use of medical marijuana, revamping our state redistricting plan, to permitting an increase in advertising for Bingo games. Yes, you read that correctly – advertising Bingo games. My students thought this was HILARIOUS! The fact that our state constitution will be amended to include a (hopefully) politically unbiased redistricting plan, the use of medical marijuana, and Bingo advertising. To celebrate the passage of this amendment, my students wanted to play Bingo in class and advertise it to their peers. Fortunately, Flippity came to the rescue with an easy-to-create and use Bingo template that allowed them to review concepts, apply their learning using examples of concepts in action, and of course, play Bingo!

I first blogged about Flippity in 2014 when it was no more than a flashcard creator. Today, teachers and students can use Flippity templates not only to create flaschards, but also to track student progress, create crossword puzzles, word searches, scavenger hunts, Jeopardy-like review games, and of course, Bingo games.

To get started with Flippity, simply access the site and choose an activity template. When you select the template, you will be prompted to make a copy of the file because the templates are all Google Sheets. This means  -you guessed it!- you’ll always be able to find the activities that you create, even if you lose the website link! WOOHOO!! When you’ve entered your terms and alternate terms, you’ll publish the sheet to the web, then copy/paste the link in the appropriate tab. VOILA! You’re ready to play Bingo! Flippity also

As I share in my book, Illuminate, Flippity really doesn’t get the attention it deserves – teachers can use Flippity in so many different ways to enhance student learning. If you haven’t tried Flippity, yet … put it on your “to-do-asap” list!

Thanks for reading 🙂

November Mystery Post-Teaching with Technology

by Leave a Comment

Hello, and happy Tuesday! Last month, I tried something new by starting a monthly “mystery post” where I choose one of my favorite topics from my blog to share with you! Last month, I geeked out about my flipped classroom – if you’re a regular reader of Teaching with Technology (thanks!) you know I’m a bit of a fan … and that may be a bit of an understatement 🙂 This month, I’m sharing another of my favorite education/edtech topics with you! What, oh what will it be?????? I’ve held you in suspense long enough. The topic of the November Mystery Post is … drumroll, please … HYPERDOCS!

YESSSS! I love HyperDocs and I’m so glad I get to use them in my classroom. Here’s a quick rundown of the why and how of HyperDocs in my classroom.

Why HyperDocs? 
Before I start gushing about the awesomeness of HyperDocs, it’s important to think about and emphasize the “why” behind my use of HyperDocs in my classroom. When I create a HyperDoc for my students, I’m using the available technology to design a more individualized learning experience for my students. A shift has occurred in my classroom from “what is Mrs. Petty going to teach us” to “what am I going to learn today?” HyperDocs, like my flipped classroom, allow my students to work through content at their own pace. We review content every few days or as needed … we determine this by results from learning checkpoints and in-class formative assessments. The multi-faceted nature of HyperDocs work well with my flipped classroom, as well. The engage/explore piece provides my students with the opportunity to build background and peripheral knowledge of the content we’re learning. When they’re ready to move on, the explain piece, as its name implies, includes explanatory instructional video lessons that my students create through Edpuzzle. The apply portion requires my students to create a representation of what they’ve learned through a medium of their choice. Some HyperDocs also include a collaboration element in which students work through an activity together – primary source or landmark case analysis, etc. The share component allows students to gain feedback on their work from their peers while the reflection piece encourages my students to pause and think about what they’ve learned. Extension activities provide students with the opportunity to, again as its name implies, take what they’ve learned a step further while earning Bonus XP. Our review page includes Kahoot, Quizizz, and other review activities that students can use as content review for unit assessments.

The “How” of HyperDocs in my Classroom
Now you that I’ve explained the “why” behind HyperDocs in my classroom, it’s time for the “how!” How in the world do my students use these HyperDocs for our units? I’m so glad you asked!

During the 2017-2018 school year, I utilized unit HyperDocs as opposed to HyperDocs for individual lessons. My students loved this model! They reported that they felt like they could move through the content more at their own pace, rewatch content and ask for help from me and their peers when they needed it. The main request that I received was that I provide them with specific due dates for completing components of the HyperDoc to help them stay on track. Ask and you shall receive!

Now, my students are given flexible due dates for each component of the HyperDoc – I actually hesitate to call them “due dates” … more like goals for each section. For example, all units start with a vocabulary activity – most of the time using Quizlet, Flippity, Kahoot, etc., where students are required to create something to help them learn their vocab. As a content area, Government is super-vocab rich, especially since the students haven’t been exposed to the lingo yet in their education. Next on the to-do list comes the instructional videos. Students are given class time to complete these videos, and we aim to have a class formative assessment on video content every two days. This, of course, is a flexible plan and changes based on what my students need. Students also complete “learning checkpoints” at various points throughout the unit to ensure deep understanding of content. Next, students begin to create their “apply” project, reviewing important content as they do so. Reflection is up next, usually through Padlet or Flipgrid which provides me with MORE great data to drive instruction and review. Students are also encouraged to participate in extension activities connected to the content we’re studying … our first unit of 2nd semester, for example, includes Congress. For their extension activities, students are encouraged to email an elected legislator (state or federal level) and ask a question … any question … that they’d like to have answered. It’s so great to see their excitement when they receive a response!

Be sure to check out my HyperDoc posts here … and Chapter 9 of Illuminate!

Thanks for reading 🙂

Visible Learning: Charting Pre & Post-Assessments with Google

by Leave a Comment

Hello, and happy Wednesday! I hope you’re enjoying an amazing week and that the weather outside your window is prettier than the dreary, rainy scene I’m experiencing today. It’s at this point in the year that I begin to think on rainy days … “what if it were about 30 degrees cooler … I wonder how much snow this would amount to …” #teacherlife 🙂 I took a rare mid-week personal day today to attend the weekly chapel service with my daughters at their school, catch up on grading for all of my classes, ponder the possibility of (and most likely apply for) a specialist degree program in administration, wear sweatpants, drink coffee, watch Harry Potter, blog, and drink (as usual) TONS of coffee. Today, I’m excited to share how my students are using Google Forms, Google Sheets, and Classroom to assess their learning and chart their learning goals, providing them with a clear idea of where they are, where they’re going, and how they’ll get there … visible learning.

One of my teacher goals for the school year is to use pre and post-assessments for every unit so my students can actually visualize “where they are” in their learning of content. In our earlier units, I used Google Classroom to assign a Google Form that served as both a pre and post-assessment of learning. Students completed the form and viewed their score. After we completed our unit, the students took the post-assessment, viewed their score, and I walked around to them and individually reminded of their pre-assessment score. The looks on their faces were WONDERFUL! All students made great improvement over the course of the unit. Some went from 0/8 to 8/8, others went from a 6/8 to 8/8, while some went from a 0/8 to a 5/8. I was proud of all of my students and their expressions showed they were proud of themselves as well.

While this pre/post-assessment routine provided both me and my students with great data (and a boost of self-esteem) I wanted to provide them with a more concrete visible learning strategy. I also wanted them to actually see “where they are” when it comes to meeting our learning standards. SO … I created a Google Sheet where students can collect data from their pre-assessment, set their goal for each specific learning target, and view their data in the form of a chart. My reasoning behind this activity was not only to provide students with a visible representation of what they’re learning but also to give them an opportunity to practice using a spreadsheet to collect and view data <– one of those “real-world skills” that will help them outside of my classroom as well. They enter the data on the “Pre-Test/Post-Test Data” sheet and then can view a learning chart on the “Federalism & Missouri Constitution Learning Chart” sheet! If you’d like to use this activity with your students please click here to make a copy of the Google Sheet. Then, edit your standards and assign the spreadsheet to your students via Google Classroom. Done! 

How do you encourage your students to visualize what they’re learning?

Thanks for reading 🙂

 

My Flipped Classroom: Adding Learning Checkpoints

by Leave a Comment

Hello, and happy Monday! I don’t know about you, but I drank ALL the coffee today. It’s that lovely time of the year when it starts getting dark a bit earlier in my neck of the woods, which always seems to translate into me being sleepier than usual. I’ll eventually get used to it … sooner or later 🙂 My Government students are beginning their Missouri Constitution and Federalism unit this week (they completed their pre-assessment and charted their data last week <– more about this soon!) and I’m adding another application element to our flipped classroom activities … I’m calling them learning checkpoints. What are they and why am I using them? I’m so glad you asked! 

Toward the end of the 2017-2018 school year, I REALLY loosened my death grip on the reins of classroom learning by designing unit HyperDocs for my students (they’re juniors) and allowing them to basically proceed through our instructional videos at their own pace. This has mostly been a fantastic feature of my flipped classroom. When all of the students reached a specific point (after videos 1-2, for example) we play a game as a class to assess where my students are in their learning, what misconceptions or points of confusion they have, and to basically make sure everyone is on the same page before we move on. (Here’s the why of my learning checkpoints) We’re still doing this, but I really wanted to add another application layer that students can work through individually or with a small group which would allow me to have even more one on one (or “one to small group”) time with my students as they’re learning. Enter “learning checkpoints.” Today, when students had finished Federalism and Missouri Constitution videos 1-2, they came to me for a federalism game that I created using QR Codes. Students accessed a Google Form that I wrote on the board (thank goodness for bit.ly!) and used their smartphones to scan a series of QR Codes, each of which included a number and a specific power. Working together with a partner or small group, students scanned the code, discussed the power and came to a consensus about what type of government power (reserved, concurrent, or enumerated) was being described. They entered their answer on the form and were able to view their results immediately. When each group finished, they flagged me down and shared their thoughts with me. Then, in small groups, I was able to review the 10th Amendment, enumerated powers, the Elastic Clause, and concurrent powers with my students. It. Was. AWESOME!

As students finished the activity, I asked if they felt like they had a better grasp on the various powers they learned about. The response was an overwhelming, “YES! Are we going to do this all the time?” My response? “YAY!!!!”

 

My goal is to create these learning checkpoint activities for students in my flipped classroom to complete after 1-2 videos to make sure they have a solid understanding of our content. Students are still able to proceed through content at their own pace but have an additional opportunity to apply what they’ve learned. WOOHOO!!!

Do you use learning checkpoints in your classroom?

Thanks for reading 🙂

Essential Smartphone Apps for Teachers

by Leave a Comment

Hello, all! Happy Friday! I hope you’ve had a fabulous week! I was out of my classroom Tuesday at a PLC conference at a local university and, please tell me you’ve done this before, I COMPLETELY forgot to send information to my students until we were on our way to the conference. Fortunately, I wasn’t driving so I was able to send the daily tasks with my students. My laptop was, of course, dead so I was using my phone to send a host of instructions through Classroom, during which an idea popped into my head – I should share my essential smartphone apps! Here are my 7 favorite apps!

Google Classroom 
This smartphone app tops my list for obvious reasons – Google Classroom has been a fantastic addition to my classroom as well as so many classes around the world. I love that I can easily access all of my classes and create assignments and announcements, and share resources directly from my phone. It’s definitely a must-have app!

Remind 
Do you use Remind to connect with your students? This app (and program in general!) provides teachers with a wonderful FREE opportunity to communicate with students and their parents. This year, I created a Remind section for the parents of each course section that I teach as well as a group for my students. This has allowed me to communicate important information (due dates, reminders) with parents and students, and provides a way for students to contact me directly and receive a quick response. Let’s be honest … I’m more likely to quickly check and return a message that pops up as a text than an email.

Drive 
Google Drive is absolutely wonderful. There’s no better way to say it! I love that I can access all of my Drive files (from my MULTIPLE Google accounts) in one place on my phone, no matter where I am. I can open documents (with the Docs app) images, etc., and share them wherever I need to with a few taps of my finger. This is especially helpful for me when I’m in places without WiFi and I’ve used all of my high-speed mobile hotspot data for the month … which always seems to happen about a week before the new cycle – ugh.

Padlet 
This is a new download on my phone, not because I’m a new Padlet user, but because I have always created my Padlets from my Chrome browser on my laptop or desktop. Of course, when I realized that I had not created the Padlet for my students the day that I missed this week, I wasn’t able to access my laptop or desktop (see above – dead laptop, traveling to a conference) so I quickly downloaded the Padlet app. I was REALLY surprised at the functionality of this app! We’ve all experienced limited usability in some apps, which can be super frustrating. Not with Padlet! I was able to create the Padlet, customize the background and icon, choose the format of the wall, and create a unique URL for the wall. Yippee!

Kahoot! 
I’ve been a Kahoot fan for many years now, as have many teachers (and now businesses!) around the world. The ability to see where our students are with their understanding of content, and do so in a fun way, is just fantastic. Just like with Padlet, I typically create my Kahoot! games from my laptop or desktop. I had only recently downloaded the Kahoot! app to more easily evaluate student work they create for the “Apply” section of their HyperDoc. As with the Padlet app, I was totally excited to see the functionality of creating Kahoot! games through the app. After I created the Kahoot, I was easily able to share it with my students through Classroom and Remind. Happy Bethany!

Nearpod 
As I share in Illuminate, Nearpod is my go-to tool to deliver engaging lessons that include formative assessment, virtual reality, 3D images, and awesome simulations that my students can view on their own devices, whatever they choose to use. I love the Nearpod app on my iPhone as well because I’m able to move around the room, quickly look up information, randomly sit on tables or next to my student and be in their learning environment.

Heads Up! 
I first wrote about Heads Up a few years ago after I was inspired on a snow day. I tell my students that I love them and I love my job, but I probably get more excited about snow days than they do. There’s just something about being able to sit in my recliner while I enjoy my (multiple cups of) coffee, wearing my sweatpants and hanging out with my daughters …. ahhhhhhhh 🙂  On this particular snow day, my youngest daughter was napping on my chest while my oldest was laying down with her head on my lap snoring away, and I was watching Ellen. If you’ve ever watched Ellen, you know that she often plays a super fun game called Heads Up. As I was cracking up watching her celebrity guests play the game, I thought, “man, wouldn’t it be awesome if I could think of a way to use this in my classroom?” Then, I downloaded the app, noticed there was a “build your own deck” option, and created the easiest review game EVER. Now, Heads Up is a staple in my classroom, and my students BEG to use it as a review activity!

How do you use these great tools in your classroom?

Thanks for reading 🙂