Five Apps for Taking Notes On Class Reading

I was observing an English class recently where the teacher was discussing a piece of text with students. He was telling the students what the text was about while the students listened. Student engagement was at a minimum, with the students at the front of the class occasionally engaging with the teacher while the students in the back seemed to be counting the minutes until class was over. 

It must be said that this is a one to one classroom, where each student has their own Chromebook. Never mind that engagement was at a minimum, but the students had technology that could have made the whole process easier for the teacher to check for student engagement while being more engaging for the students!

Three apps that can help engage your students when discussing a text passage in the classroom are:

Google Slides:  Students can use Google Slides to summarize information and keep it nice and orderly. Simply title each slide by chapter or even paragraph.  Each slide can contain a summary, a wondering, or even discussion questions that pertain to a particular part of the text.

Kami: Kami is a fantastic pdf online annotation app that works great with Chromebooks.  Students can upload the document into Kami then annotate with text and highlights. Or, if the teacher has a pre-made note sheet, they can upload the document as a pdf where students can then upload the note sheet to Kami, complete the sheet, then upload it to an LMS such as Google Classroom

Google Keep: Google Keep is an indispensable notes app that ties neatly into the Google ecosystem.  It's on the students Chromebooks, making it ready to use.  And, one of the cool things about Google Keep is that it goes everywhere there's an internet connection.  Students can access their notes from virtually any device with an internet connection.  And, when the teacher wants to check student notes, students simply share them with the teacher via the share button.  No paper collected or returned.

Nearpod: Nearpod is a very good interactive presentation app that works well with both iPads and Chromebooks.  Use the open ended question option in Nearpod and attach the document for reference.  Ask students to summarize a chapter or paragraph per slide.  As the teacher, you get instant feedback on your own device as students submit their responses.

Google Sheets: Did you know that a spreadsheet could be used to take notes?  Well, it can.  Fill column A with chapter or paragraph numbers.  Then, title the rows as necessary with such things as summary or with questions.   

Apps Your Students Need To Be Familiar With

Teaching in the age of technology is a great thing.  The multitude of apps available to help you teach is too many to count.  But there are certain apps that your students should be familiar with.   Why?  Well, there will come a time when you don't have time.  What I mean is that you may need to come up with a quick lesson in a pinch.

Most of us have been there.  You decide at the last minute that you need to take a sick day.  There may be an occasion where something comes up, prompting you to have to leave school early.  The bottom line is, you have to come up with a lesson plan for your students, and quick.  That's where the power of apps comes in.  Some apps come with their own lesson store.  You can browse through the app's own store and find a lesson you deem appropriate for your students to do. 
Below are five apps that come with their own lesson store. 

Nearpod: Nearpod has a multitude of ready-made lessons that you can download and edit as needed.  Granted, some a cost a few bucks, but others are free.  But once you buy it--it's yours to use over and over!   Click "Explore," and you're presented with lessons based on categories like "subject" or "publisher".  You can preview the lesson before adding it to your library.

Formative: Formative also has a good selection of already made Formatives. Type in the subject and choose the Formative that works best for you. Download the lesson and edit it as you see fit.

Kahoot: Have your students learn new or review content!  Finding a Kahoot that's already made is one click away.  Click "Explore Games" and then choose the Kahoot that fits your class.

Flipgrid: Flipgrid has a variety of topics your students can address.  Journey back to the late 1970s and click on the "Disco Library" tab. Select your audience, topic subject, and goal.  If you find a Flipgrid you like, select your grid and add it.

Seesaw: If you're using Seesaw in your class, you must check out the Activity Library.  If for no other reason than to get ideas on how to use Seesaw in your class.  If you find an activity you like, click the "share" button and choose the appropriate class to assign the activity to. 

Liven Up Your Staff Meeting With These Apps

Come on, you can tell me.  We’ve all been there.  Whether you’re in education or some other profession.  We’ve all been in those staff meeting where your attention is everywhere other than on the material at hand.  Your eyes wander.  You can hear your heartbeat.  You stare at the ceiling.  You resist the temptation to one of those people that stare at their phone all meeting.  Time crawls.  Minutes turn into hours.  The clock seems to be going backward.  You don’t want to be rude or seem inattentive, but you just can’t seem to pay attention.  The presenter drolls on, pretending that everyone is hanging on every word.  Come on, admit it, you’ve been in those meetings.

Don't let this happen at your meeting.

And now it’s payback.  The chickens have come home to roost.  It’s your turn to present in front of your colleagues.  You don’t want the staff to feel the way you do at some of these meetings.  What do you do?  Well, lucky you, it’s the age of technology in the classroom!  You’ve got a Chromebook, an iPad, or perhaps just a smartphone.  You are ready to make your presentation interactive and engaging.  But how do you do that?  Let me share you with you a few apps that you can use to keep everyone’s attention by engaging your audience.

When it comes down to it, school staff are much like the kids they teach.  In the same way, the students might get a bit fidgety when sitting in front of their teacher listening to the lecture for an hour, adults do the same thing when being asked to sit and listen to someone present information for a long period of time.  Just like in your class where you want to engage your students and keep their attention throughout your teaching, you want to have the same impact with the teachers you’re talking to.  And you know what, you don’t have to look far for the tools to help you because the apps used for your classroom can also be used in much the same way for a PD or presentation to your colleagues.

Socrative : Use the space feature to check for understanding or summarize the meeting. Create a Socrative quiz, then use it to summarize the meeting with a space race.  If you’ve got more than 20 in your meeting, simply have people pair up.  Give out a prize to the winner.

Kahoot: Use Kahoot to test the staff about the contents of the meeting.  Again, like the Socrative space race, give out small prizes for first, second, and third.

Padlet: As you’re giving your presentation, ask the participants to participate by putting very brief summaries of what you’re saying on a Padlet board.  Pause every so often to allow your fellow teachers to jot down a tiny summary of what you’re talking about.

PearDeck/Nearpod: I put these together because although they have differences, they’re kinda the same idea.  You present your information, then, embed small exercises in your presentation, such as a drawing exercise, a multiple choice quiz, or a short answer question.  The beauty of Nearpod and PearDeck is that you don’t have to leave your presentation to have your audience participate, it’s in the presentation.  Another fun aspect of the two is that you can share participant answers and drawings with the rest of the audience.  

Google Slides Q & A: If you’re using Google Slides to give your presentation, then using Google Slides Q & A is a must!  Ask the audience to not only ask questions or comments, but make it interactive by posing certain sceneries that concern your topic and ask teachers to respond in the Q & A portion.  For example, if you’re talking about classroom discipline, ask your audience how they would act in a certain situation.

Eliminate Classroom Distractions With This Tip

It's all about the "e" word.

Technology in the classroom can be a great tool for learning.  It opens up many possibilities for students to expand their learning opportunities. But having technology in the classroom can bring its own set of challenges.  Along with knowing how to use it as an effective teaching tool, tech in the classroom can present the challenge of student distraction.  Put a Chromebook or iPad in a students hand with little engagement, and, unless you follow certain protocols, the students might find other uses for the tech, such as playing games or visiting unauthorized websites. 

Sure, there are various ways to try and combat student distraction.  The teacher could let students listen to music while they work.  They could provide for phone breaks, where the teacher sets aside a designated amount of time during class where students are allowed to check their phones for notifications.  Another might be to have students sign a contract where they’ll adhere to class rules about tech use in class.  The contract is then displayed in class with all the signatures so the teacher can refer to it as needed.  And lastly, the teacher can have students keep a daily to-do list, helping students to stay focused on the tasks that need to be finished.

Some of these might work in your class, but there is one sure-fire way to keep your students engaged...make engaging lessons!  The answer is that simple.  If you make engaging lessons, classroom distractions will be nullified.  I know it’s easy to say “just make an engaging lesson.” But believe me, once the effort is put into a lesson with student engagement in mind, your distraction problem will melt away.  There’s a two-part formula to making your lesson engaging:
First, students need to know why they're doing what they're doing.  Tell them how this lesson is going to build on the next.  Make the lesson relevant and meaningful.  Use real-life examples of how what their learning applies to them and the real world.

Second, fight fire with fire!  Use the appropriate tech tool to keep students from being distracted Deliver an engaging lesson using engaging apps such as Pear Deck or Nearpod.  Nearpod and Pear Deck are built to provide interactive features that keep students involved in your presentation.  You know the old saying, “Idle hands...”.

You can also keep the students involved with Socrative or Kahoot.  I’ve written before about Kahoot’s question template and how students can contribute their own questions to a Kahoot.  Knowing they’ll have an authentic audience for their questions will keep students on task.  Using these interactive apps can also make the lesson fun as well.  Socrative not only has the ability to check for understanding with multiple choice and short answer questions, but the space race game is a fun way to review content.

Seesaw is another app that can keep your students involved in your class.  Use the blog feature in Seesaw to help create an authentic audience for your students.  Knowing that other students, staff, and parents will be looking at their work will make them less likely to allow themselves to be distracted and stay focused.

The reward comes when a student tells you that they look forward to coming to your class.  It means their mind is open to accept new information, ideas and are ready to learn.  Keep the lessons engaging and you won’t have to worry about classroom management during a lesson again.  

Start a New Semester With These Digital Tools!

With the advent of a new semester, students are apt to be, how shall we say, a bit squirmy.  Trying to harness their attention, no matter what the grade, can be a challenge. 

What better way to start the new year off right with the right tech tools!  The right tools will help keep your students engaged on their first day back from their winter break!
Check out a few tools and how you might use them during the first few days back from a break:

Kahoot:  Kahoot is great to review content!  Perhaps a Kahoot that reviewed the previous semester's information so as to build upon what the student is going to learn this semester.  Or, use Kahoot to find out what students know about upcoming topics by putting together a Kahoot.

Padlet: Invite inquiry with Padlet! Tell the students what they'll be studying this semester and ask them what questions they might have about the topic.  Use Padlet to have students share what they already know about the topic.

Voicethread:  Create a Voicethread using it in much the same fashion as you would a Padlet or Kahoot.  Sometimes, it's just easier for students to speak what's on their minds rather than type it out.  And often, you'll get more out your students if you ask them to record their voice addressing the topic rather than write it.  Ask students what they already know about a topic or ask them what they hope to learn this semester.  Instead of writing a response, students orally share their response.

Nearpod: Find out what your students already know about upcoming topics, what they want to know, or review content from the previous semester.  Nearpod is sure to keep your students engaged through its drawing activities, open-ended questions, and multiple choice questions.  Nearpod also provides its own Nearpod store, where you can browse through a multitude of already made lessons.

EdPuzzle: Create a video of yourself in which you review content from the previous semester, inserting questions for your students to answer as you go.  Then, have students watch the video and answer the questions.  Or, create curiosity by showing a video of upcoming topics, while creating questions asking what topics they're most curious about.

Flipgrid:  If you have the same students this semester as last, ask them to create a Flipgrid where they reflect on their learnings from last semester.  Then, once they've done that, ask them to comment on each other's reflections.  If it's a brand new class, ask them to record their wondering or what they hope to learn this semester.

5 Ways To Measure Engagement Without Breaking Your Lesson Flow

The book "Bold School" (Keischnick, 2017, p. 95),  states that "Trying to measure engagement and comprehension without breaking the flow or falling behind schedule is a great challenge for direct instruction."

This is where technology can come to the aid of a teacher trying to infuse checking for understanding throughout the lesson without pauses or time-consuming transitions.  Chromebooks and iPads have created numerous opportunities for teachers to measure engagement during instruction.  The trick is how to measure engagement without breaking the flow you've created in your instruction.  How can technology help in keeping the lesson flowing, without interruption or dead spots?

The other consideration is to make sure every student has a voice.  If you simply ask students if they get it, some may genuinely understand, while others, not wanting to risk embarrassment or hold up the class, shake their head in the affirmative.

These apps can help you reach each student while incorporating checking for understanding in the lesson without breaking the flow of your lesson.

1. Nearpod: Use Nearpod for all phases of your lesson, from the introduction all the way to your formative assessment.  All the while checking for understanding in between.

2. Pear Deck: Pear Deck will not only help you present your lesson and incorporate checking for understanding with an anonymous thumbs up or thumbs down option, but you can also ask a question on the fly for students to answer in the lesson, without having to exit your Pear Deck lesson.

3. Google Slides Q & A: If you're presenting a Google Slides presentation, make it a Google Slides Q & A presentation.  Students can have their phones at the ready to ask a question without interrupting the class.  Q & A is great for those students who oftentimes are too shy to ask a question.

4. Kahoot: At the beginning of class, prior to the lesson, ask students to prepare for a Kahoot by having them go to Kahoot.it.  Then, you can insert Kahoots at various points of your lesson.  Prepare a few checking for understanding questions throughout your lesson.  Then, when the time is right, throw in a Kahoot.

5. Socrative: Use the Quick Question feature in Socrative to ask a multiple choice, T/F, or short answer question.  Like Kahoot, ask your students to prepare to use Socrative.  You can either have questions prepared (in which case, you can make a rocketship race out of it) or ask them on the fly.

Get Interactive in the Classroom with Nearpod

Get interactive with Nearpod!  I'm always looking for new and exciting ways to present information to my students.  Being in a classroom with a class set of Chromebooks has opened up new possibilities to get my students engaged with the content.

One that I've been excited about lately is Nearpod.  Nearpod provides apps for iOS, Android, Windows, and Chrome OS, so it works on virtually any device with an internet connection.  So, what is Nearpod?  In short, it's a way for teachers to put together and present interactive presentations, which in turn, keep students engaged.  Gone are the days of students staring at a boring PowerPoint presentation (or Keynote if you're an Apple person) while the teacher spews out information.  

With Nearpod, students are engaged drawing, taking quizzes, participating in a poll, completing fill in the blank exercises, and/or writing short answers to questions that are posed by the teacher in the Nearpod.  You may have seen these features in other presentation software or incorporated them into your own PowerPoints, but Nearpod takes it one step further where you can take virtual field trips or examine particular items with Nearpod 3D.

Nearpod 3D includes subjects such as anatomy, the environment, ancient buildings, as well as the planets.  Nearpod 3D allows students to examine a picture from all angles while manipulating the picture.    You can insert a Nearpod Filed Trip, which is a virtual reality type tour of a particular place, such as the Acropolis in Greece or a pyramid in Mexico.  Nearpod also allows you to upload a video from Dropbox, Google Drive, or find one and insert it from YouTube.

Another plus of Nearpod is that you can take those old presentations you've been using for years and upload them into Nearpod and turn them in to interactive presentations that will wow students and colleagues.  Simply insert activities in your slide deck deck and boom, your old presentation has been updated for the 21st century student.

And, while the students are working on a particular Nearpod, you can monitor their progress.  It's awesome!  The teacher can control the pace of the presentation or, with an upgrade, let students proceed through the Nearpod at their own pace.

One of the things that makes Nearpod stand out is its sense of community.  There are many pre-made Nearpods that you can add to your own library, both paid and free.  So, if you find yourself in a pinch (perhaps you've taken ill) and want your students to use Nearpod but don't have one ready to go, you can browse the selections that cover your topic and add it to your library.

Nearpod also features what they call "collaborate."  Collaborate is a virtual message board where students post a quick answer to a question posed by the teacher.  Collaborate is a great way to start of a presentation while activating prior learning or reviewing from the previous day.

At the end of the session, you have the option to view and download  a report of your session for analysis and/or gradebook purposes.

If you can't tell, I'm excited about using Nearpod in my classes!  If your looking for a new way to engage your students in the classroom, or just want to add another option to your teaching practice, you owe it to yourself to check out Nearpod.  For more info, check out nearpod.com.