Summer school teachers, the days of lecturing for hours or having your students do book work for most of the day are long gone. You have one class with the same students and the same subject for the entire day, why not make it fun and engaging? With technology, students can now be fully engaged in a lesson while spending hours in the same class.
You say you don't have access to Chromebooks or iPads in the classroom? Well, there are ways around that, especially at the high school level. Knowing that most of your students have cell phones will set you free of a day of classroom monotony.
Here's some ideas to energize your summer school classroom, all of which have phone friendly apps:
Socrative is a great way to spend a summer class session. Split the class up into teams using just a few cell phones and boom! You've got fun learning that can last as long as you need it or want it to. Students can participate in a race to answer questions correctly or review with a quick quiz or morning warm up.
Kahoot is another great way to keep the troops entertained while there is actual learning going on. Again, split the class into groups based on cell phone availability and review the days topic with your students. You can create a quiz beforehand or quickly use one that has already been created.
Nearpod is a good activity to use when other reviewing content or going through it for the first time. With Nearpod, the teacher can create either a teacher led presentation or a student paced presentation where the students work through the various activities at their own pace. Nearpod exercises can include drawing activities, quizzes, short/long answer, and collaborative activities. Nearpod is great for keeping students engaged throughout a lesson.
Edpuzzle is a fantastic way to show your class a video. Using Edpuzzle, students answer questions throughout the video, keeping them engaged. Students watch the video at their own pace. So, if they don’t know they answer to a question you’ve posed, they can simply review the video again until they find the right answer.
