The Importance of Student Engagement and the Apps That Can Help

Engagement is the key to any lesson. Engagement makes it easier for students to learn, increases motivation and fosters creativity. But engagement doesn't only improve academic performance. Engagement boosts self-esteem, confidence, and resilience in students as well. And this happens even more through interactive lessons.

Interactive lessons and engagement go hand-in-hand, and the best way to create engagement in your classroom is to use interactive apps. With Chromebooks and iPads taking over, there are multiple ways to incorporate engaging lessons into your classroom with the use of technology.

So what makes an app engaging? For one, it should provide students with instant feedback and rewards. It should also cater to many learning styles and engagement methods. 

Here's a  short list of engagement apps that can be used in your classroom tomorrow. 

Nearpod:  Nearpod is an app that lets teachers post  interactive lessons online or using the Nearpod app, which students can download on their personal devices. It allows the teacher to add activites to slides. You can upload your old and tired slides and modify them to make them more engaging or create new one's right in the Nearpod app.

Pear Deck:  Pear Deck supports the work of teachers in that it makes your Google Slides more engaging by allowing the teacher to insert questions, videos, and other interactive activities. It's an engagement app that gives students a better way to participate in classroom discussion and lectures.

Quizlet Live:  Quizlet Live iallows students to take quizzes and tests right on their devices. Teachers can also use it to give live feedback to their students on topics.

Quizizz:  Quizizz lets students play live quizzes with other classmates. It's a great engagement app that can be used to review for big tests or practice the material that's currently being studied. 

Gimkit:  Gimkit is an app that lets students make their own quizzes while they learn. It's perfect for engagement with lessons that require some form of test beforehand, such as history lessons. 

Kahoot:   Kahoot takes live quizzes and turns them into engaging games. It's perfect engagement app for review before big tests or just to introduce engagement with new topics.

Socrative:   Socrative is an app that allows teachers to create their own quizzes or practice problems right on their devices. It's a great engagement app for quizzes after a lesson has been taught, or simply to introduce engagement with new  material. It also has a game element where students comptete in answering the correct answers to questions. Students can participate online or through the Socrative app.

Kahoot, Quizizz, Gimkit, and Socrative are engagement apps that allow teachers to create their own questions or quizzes for their students, while Pear Deckand  Nearpod are engagement apps that let teachers create engaging lessons using slides for their students. 

And Kahoot, Quizizz and Socrative can be used to review material before a test. 

Classrooms have gotten a lot more interactive since the rise of technology. As you read, there's a wide range of apps that you can use to interact with your students and get them motivated in learning. Make your class engaging today!

My Favorite EdTech Apps of 2019

This year brought a slew of apps to teachers. Even though they aren’t technically new, they were new to many teachers who tried them out for the first time. As a technology coach, part of my job is to find those apps that teachers can easily pick up and and play, so to speak. That is, that they’re easy to learn and easy to use in the classroom. I want teachers to see how accessible an app is. The last thing I want if for a teacher to be overwhelmed by learning a new app.

Below are five apps that I found easy for teachers to learn and, most of all, were easy to implement in the classroom in 2019.

• Equatio. Equatio is an easily accessible math app that allows teachers and students to insert math into their Google Documents. Equatio is not only great to use with Google Docs, but it works well with Google Forms as well. Equatio solves that eternal conundrum of working with math on a Chromebook.
• Nearpod. The first of the interactive presentation apps on the list. Nearpod is great in that it provides total classroom engagement through it’s interactive presentation lessons. Nearpod provides everything from short answer, to drawing, to quizzes. Nearpod provides an end of session report, showing the teacher where students excelled and what they need to work on.
• Wakelet. Wakelet was app that I discovered this year and shared with teachers. Wakelet is essentially a curation tools that allows for so many other uses. Wakelet can not only be used to collect resources for students or fellow staff, but it can serve as a class website and student portfolio as well.
• Google Forms. Of course Google Forms has been around for awhile, but now that many schools are going 1:1, it’s getting used more and more. Google Forms is great for using in an opening warm up activity, posing inquiry questions or as an exit ticket, asking students what they learned that day. It’s great for assessment too! One thing that took it up a notch was the new “Locked Mode.” Essentially locking down students Chromebooks while their working on an assessment.
• Google Classroom. In the age of a Chromebook classroom, a classroom management system has become a must, and Google Classroom is one of those that teachers have come to rely on. Google Classroom serves as the classroom hub that turns your classroom into a paperless one. From distributing and collecting work, to posting announcements and having online discussions in the stream, Google Classroom has proven to be a valuable teacher tool.
• Pear Deck. Another totally engaging classroom presentation tool. Pear Deck, like Nearpod, engages students in activities while the teacher presents the lesson. Students take part in the presentation using drawing tools, answering questions, watching a video, hovering a selector over the right answer, or taking a quiz. Like Nearpod, Pear Deck allows for a report for the teacher to review student data of the lesson.

If you haven’t explored the above digital tools, you owe it to yourself to make your 2020 school year a more productive and engaging one by checking them out.

Reach Every Student While Making Them More Productive With ClassroomQ

You're a math teacher.  You have a classroom of 30 students.  You've assigned ten problems for the students to complete in class. It's a new concept so you expect there to be questions from the students while they work.  In the old days, BT (Before Tech), if a student had a question, they would raise their hand and wait for the teacher to help them. 

Today, there's an app called ClassroomQ. ClassroomQ is a web app that allows students to ask for help using any device that can access the web.

ClassroomQ is very simple to use for both the teacher and the student.  To create a queue, the teacher creates an account and a class code.  On the other side, the student clicks the student button, enters the class code and their name, and they're in!  If the student has a question, clicking the big red button on the web page will put them in the class queue, awaiting help.

ClassroomQ can be useful in your classroom in many ways:

1. Makes sure that students with questions get help.  Never have a student get frustrated and put their hand down, thus not getting the help they need.  Students put their name in the queue, ensuring they get the help they need.

2. Saves time.  The student no longer wastes valuable class time holding their hand up, waiting for help.  While waiting, students can move on to the next question.

3. Reach every student.  Shy or timid students are no longer missed because they are afraid to raise their hand or ask for help.  There's no hand raising or trying to get the teachers attention involved. Putting their name in the queue ensures they get the help they need.

4. Works great on any device, even smartphones.  Even though it's a web app, it still functions great on a mobile browser.  The teacher can use their smartphone to check the queue.  The student also has the option of logging in with their phone (provided they can use it in class.) Classroom Q works with any device that has web access.

5. Very easy to use. Students click the "Student" button, enter their name and class code and they're in!  All they have to do is click the big red button that puts them on the queue.

6. Great for homework questions. The teacher has the option to allow student comments in the queue.  While this may not be too necessary for the classroom, it can serve a great purpose for student homework.  Open a queue after class allowing students to ask questions about their homework.

ClassroomQ is a gem of an app that will help reach all of the students that need help.  Highly recommended for larger classes.

The Value Of Recording Directions and Lessons For Your Class

Two examples of how recording your directions and lessons could be beneficial to students:

1. In a science class where the teacher is giving directions on how to perform an experiment.  Although the teacher was out near the center of the room, some students strained to see her giving directions.  Also, the students are at different angles of viewing, making it difficult to see the directions.  When the students are asked to complete the experiment, a few students are stumped because of their inability to observe the directions.  They tried asking their classmates, who were busy with their own experiment.  Students raised their hand, hoping the teacher will would repeat the directions, but she is busy answering questions from other students.  Needless to say, the students are frustrated.

2. In math class where the teacher is explaining how to solve an equation.  He explains each of the steps.  At the conclusion of the example, he asks the students to solve the same type of equation.   Although the students can see the example on the board, a few couldn’t remember exactly how the teacher arrived at certain numbers in the steps of the equation.  A student raises her hand asking “how did you get the 5 again?”  Again, like the science example, the student checks with her neighbor, who is busily trying to solve the equation.  She raises her hand, and patiently waits for the teacher, who is helping other students.  

The two scenarios show the value of recording your lessons and/or directions.  But how can a teacher record their lessons or directions to a project?  There are a number of digital whiteboard apps that can be used for math, such as Educreations, ShowMe, and Explain Everything.  The math teacher can record themselves working out the problem beforehand, then post it to the class LMS, such as Google Classroom for students to review.  It works great for not only students that may need a second or third viewing of the process of solving and equation, but it’s also great for those students who may have missed that days lesson.  They can access the recording as if they were in the classroom. 

For the science class, record the directions on how to perform the experiment beforehand using a smartphone.  Then, post it YouTube or Vimeo.  From there, upload the video to your LMS.   

Great for Study Time

And...Having videos of the teacher explaining concepts can be beneficial for students to review when test time rolls around. 

Two Apps That Will Move You Toward A Paperless Classroom

I was recently in a Social Studies Department meeting.  The topic turned to a discussion about when they’ll get more printing paper for their classes.  Not being familiar with the number of cases of paper teachers received from the school, I asked how much paper they were given.  I was told they received a case of paper per semester. 

They noticed my surprised look and stated that it was still not enough.  And, here’s the kicker, their students have Chromebooks assigned to them! It’s a one to one school!

There are many reasons to go paperless with some classroom assignments, among them is time saved at the copy machine.

Teachers could save a lot of time by going paperless with these apps:

1. If you’re using Chromebooks in your class, you gotta check out Kami.  Kami is a fantastic PDF annotation web app.  Students can open up a document in Kami, annotate to their hearts content with text boxes, highlights, or with their stylus, and then upload it to your LMS.

2. Whether you’ve got iPads in your class or Chromebooks, the Showbie app is an easy way to go paperless in your classroom.  Showbie is available on the web as well as an iOS app.  Upload a PDF to Showbie and students can annotate with a text box or drawing tool.  Showbie also allows students to highlight text.  One of the really cool things about Showbie is the ability for students to leave a voice note on a document.  Showbie can also serve as an LMS of sorts in that you can distribute and collect work. 

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.

The Importance Of Immediate Feedback And Two Apps That Can Help

The other day I was observing a class.  The teacher did a formative assessment of that days learning by asking the kids to take out a piece of paper and answer the three questions she wrote on the board.  The students did so dutifully, pondering what they had learned that day. Some students wrote a few sentences for each questions while others wrote just a few words.  The students turned in their work in a tray at the front of the room and sat back down waiting for the dell to ring.
The bell rang and students exited the room, not knowing how they did on their end of the class assessment.  I asked the teacher when the students should expect to see the results of the assessment. She told me that she would get to it before the end of the week (it was Tuesday).

In an effective teaching practice, this should never happen, with or without technology.  I ask you, what’s the point of formative assessment if the students are not getting immediate feedback?  Isn’t the point of the assessment to find out where the students are in regard to their learning? What’s the point of getting feedback a few days later, after students have since moved on in their learning.  Because of that, the feedback won’t matter to them anymore. Most of the papers will end up in the trash after given back some days later.

This is where tech can help.  Feedback is important in the classroom for both teachers and students alike.  The students need to know where they stand in the learning process while the teacher should know how they’re doing in their teaching the material.  Are their methods effective in reaching their students?

There are a couple of apps that are not only great for giving feedback to students but they are great at giving immediate feedback.  ClassKick and Formative are two fantastic ways to see how students are progressing—in real time—and give the teacher the ability to give the student feedback on student work—as they’re doing it!

With student work being shown in real time on the teacher device, it ensures that each students work is being seen.  It replaces the old way of the teacher walking around and peeking over the students shoulder, hoping to get a good glimpse of student work.  Although it’s important for the teacher to continue to walk around, knowing that they’ll be able to view all student work in ensured.

The thing that makes both ClassKick and Formative unique is that they have the ability to show the teacher student work, as their working on it.  As the students is solving a math problem or writing a sentence, the teacher can see it all happen. Granted, with Google Docs, you can click into a students work and see how they’re progressing, but that takes an extra step.  And the way that ClassKick and Formative present students work, all on the teacher device in real time, makes it much easier for a teacher to monitor the students.

Again, immediate feedback is important in the classroom. Tech can help in the forms of Classkick and Formative.

Use These 3 Apps for Pre-Assessment!

I was in a class recently where the teacher was beginning a new chapter. Instead of asking the students to open up their Chromebooks for a pre-assessment, she orally posed questions and asked for responses by asking kids to raise their hands. Her twenty-five student class remained mostly silent, with one student raising their hand to volunteer what they thought they knew, the rest of the class--crickets! Unfortunately, there may have been students that did know about the topic but where afraid to take a chance in front of the class.

When beginning a new unit, chapter, or topic, it's important to find out what your students already know about the said topic so as not to waste time covering material that the students already know. In the age of technology, apps can make this process easy and, depending on the digital tool, incorporate the pretest directly in the lesson.

Pre-assessment should be painless. Painless in a sense that you don't want your students to be timid in answering your assessment questions. You want them to give it their best shot, not being afraid of getting the question wrong. After all, it's not so much about the individual student, but about the data that you'll glean from your pre-assessment.
You want to know what your class already knows.

Socrative: Socrative is a great formal assessment tool. And, it can be handy for pre-assessments. Create a quiz and turn it into a racing game, where students try and answer all of the questions correctly in order to win the race. Then, at the end of the race, Socrative provides data on how your class answered each individual question.

Kahoot: Again, gamify your pre-assessment with a Kahoot. Always competitive, Kahoot engages students by presenting timed questions where students have a limited time to answer. Like Socrative, Kahoot provides a report on how well your students answered the questions so you can determine where you need to spend more time on your upcoming lesson.

Pear Deck: A fantastic interactive presentation tool that allows not only for student participation by typing in their answer but also allows them to draw their answer. Pear Deck has built-in templates asking students what they want to know about the upcoming topic while another asks them to draw what they already know about the topic.

6 Apps for Digital Exit Tickets

It’s the end of the class.  You’ve just finished another one of your amazing lessons and now you’re sure your students are full of newly acquired knowledge.  But how do you know?  I mean, are you sure your students have learned everything you want them to?  There’s one way to find out, an exit ticket!  Since they’ve got they’re devices still on, you might as well put their minds and your teaching to the test and put the last few minutes of class to good use.

There are some good apps out there that can help you with exit tickets:

Socrative:  With Socrative, you could simply type up a “quick question” and ask your students to answer it.  Or, use one of the cool features about Socrative, the exit ticket feature.  The built-in exit ticket asks how well students understood the days material and what they learned in class that day.  The last question is reserved to be open-ended, asking students to answer the teacher's question.  This gives the teacher a great deal of flexibility as they can come up with a question on the fly.  The question can be asked orally or displayed in front of the class.

Padlet: Padlet lends itself to an end of class exit ticket because of its ease of use.  It helps to have a Padlet wall always ready to go at a moments notice.  Give your wall a generic name such as “what did you learn today” or “answer the teacher's question,” that way, it can be used any time.  Display the wall so students can see what other students have written so they can learn from them as well.

Twitter: If you already use Twitter in your class, this one is easy to do.  Simply ask your class a question with a specific hashtag.  Then, have students respond using the given hashtag.  What makes using Twitter convenient is the availability on smartphones and that most students are aready familiar with it.  Ask your students to take out their phones and respond to the question using the hashtag.

Google Forms: In much the same way you might want to have a Padlet always at the ready, you could have a generic Google Form ready to go.  If you use Chromebooks in your class, this is a no brainer.  Again, create a shor answer question that asks your students what they learned today or asks them to answer your question.

Flipgrid: Perhaps students would enjoy recounting what they’ve learned in a simple Flipgrid video.  Using an iOS device or Chromebook, ask your student to recount what they’ve learned that day. Or, if you want to see if your students have learned the particulars about a specific topic, give them a specific question to answer.

Google Classroom:  If you use Google Classroom, this would be particularly easy to do.  Create a quesion in the classwork section of Google Classroom, allowing students to answer it right in your Google Classroom page.

Free the Cell Phone! Why Teachers Should Allow it in Class.

One of the hot button issues among teachers is the student use of cell phones in the classroom.  Some teachers find the very sight of a student holding a cell phone in the classroom an act of reprehensible behavior.  I say, embrace the cell phone!  Don’t ban the one device that students are most comfortable using!  

What follows is in followed by exclamation points because I’m standing on my imaginary soapbox:

Free the cell phone and put it to good use in your classroom! Turn it from a device of evil to one that engages and increases participation in your classroom!  Since student phones are generally always on, you’ll find that you can get your class started in a snap when you ask your students to take out their phones for use with a particular exercise!  Don’t shun the phone, embrace it! As with adults, students are apt to be more productive using a tool that they're familiar with and enjoy using!

Use the following apps to engage students using their phones!  

Socrative:  A fantastic formative assessment app!  Socrative has an app specifically for teachers as well as students.  Wnat to quickly get started?  Simply ask your students to take out their cell phones and fire up the Socrative student app.  They can participate in a space race game or take a quiz, all from their phone!

Kahoot:  Kahoot has an app tailored for a smart device.  Give your students the code and their off and running! Start your class simply by asking your students to open the app and enter the code.  You can do a review of the previous days learning or assess what your students have learned at the end of the period.  

Google Keep:  The Google Keep app is a great way for students to take notes.  Todays student are pretty adept at typing away on their smat phones, so why not let them jot down some notes using the Keep app?  If you want to make sure their taking notes and not texting their significant other, ask your students to share the notes with you by adding a collaborator or sending the notes to Google Docs and sharing them to Google Classroom.

Adobe Spark:  Adobe Spark has a suite of apps that include, Video, Post, and Page.  All three are only available on iOS with Post available on Android.  Video allows students to shoot and edit video, Post allows for graphic design work while Page allows for the creation of a web page.  

Google Classroom:  If your a Google Classroom school, allowing students to use their phones to access their Google Classroom is a must.  After all, as teachers, we want to promote that students are actively engaged in their class, during the school day and after the school day.  What better way to do this than to ask student to install the Google Classroom app on their phone.  Having the app will encourage them to stay up to date on their classroom activities such as pending due dates for assignments and class discussions in the stream.

What do you think?

Two Ways to Automate Your Teaching Life

As a teacher, your time is precious. Time saved in your teaching tasks can be better used elsewhere in the classroom.  There are two apps that can save you time while helping you get stuff done.  For iOS and Android, there's IFTTT (If This Then That) and Shortcuts, an iOS exclusive.  They both essentially automate tasks, combining different functions, therefore saving you time and helping you get more done.

IFTTT is reactive in that if you initiate a task, then it will initiate another.  For example, if a new photo is taken on Instagram, the image will also be tweeted to the users Twitter account, therefore saving you the step of opening Twitter and tweeting the picture.  If you have a file you want to sync to Dropbox, IFTTT gives you the ability to also save those files to Google Drive, therefore automating the tasks.  If you want to make sure and not miss an email attachment, you can configure IFTTT to save your email attachments to your Drive or Dropbox.  There are countless ways to use IFTTT in your teaching life.  Simply open up the app and explore the countless ways you can find it useful in getting things done all the while saving you time.

The Shortcuts app is only available on iOS.  It's kinda the same idea as IFTTT in that it can automate your workflow (which is what Shortcuts was previously called).  But with Shortcuts, you create an action by adding different apps together to automate a task and get it done quickly.  For example, I created a shortcut where I can enter text, which creates a PDF, and asks me where I want to save the PDF, either to iCloud Drive, Dropbox, or Google's Drive.  As a teacher, I find this handy if you'd like to create a quick PDF and share it with your students through Google Classroom or any other LMS.  Like IFTTT, the Shortcuts app has a gallery from which you can choose already make workflows.

You owe it to yourself to check these out.  But don't get overwhelmed by the number of tasks that they offer.  Start out finding one or two things you do often that you'd like to automate, especially with Shortcuts.  Then, venture further and create your own Shortcuts.

8 Ways to Have a Digital Teacher Community

Teachers are busy.  Between parent meetings, staff meetings, and lesson planning, it can be tough to find time to meet with your department or colleagues on an individual basis.  One of the best ways to cultivate a professional learning community is through technology.  No longer do you have to carve out time to have a sit down with your department members, you can do it virtually, when you have time.  Unfortunately, Google Plus is going away and not everyone has a Facebook account (or perhaps they've left Facebook recently), so how can you get together with your learning community?  We'll, like they say, there's an app for that!
Slack: Slack is a good way to post documents for your team members to review.  It's also a great way to chat with anyone in your department without having to have their phone number.

Twitter: With Twitter, your department can hold a virtual meeting using a specific hashtag.  Or, you can tweet a question or comment to your staff or an individual.

Pinterest:  Your department can create a Pinterest board where they can share documents and student work.

Google Classroom:  If you're using Google Classroom, it's easy to adapt to using it as a PLC.  Create a new Google Classroom for your department where you can post comments, questions, and documents for your PLC to review.
 
Edmodo: Edmodo already has a virtual community where teachers can share resources and ask questions.  Create a new class in Edmodo where your colleagues can communicate.
 
Seesaw: Create a new class titled with your department name.  Seesaw allows for the sharing of documents and individual posts.  A cool feature in Seesaw allows for the creation of a blog.  Share the blog with the rest of the staff or admin so they can see the fabulous things you're discussing and sharing!

Schoology: Like Google Classroom, you can set up a class for the staff or for your department.  In Schoology, you create groups based department or grade level.  Easily share documents and post to share questions and comments.
 

Flipgrid:  Use Flipgrid as the students would, by discussing a topic and having others comment on it. Staff can post questions, comments , or share what they're doing in the classroom. Other staff can ask questions or comment on the Flipgrid. 

The EdTech Coach Podcast is Live!

The EdTech Coach Podcast is Live!

Check it out for all things tech in the classroom!

From new apps to ideas for using apps in your classroom, the EdTech Coach Podcast is your go-to for using tech in your classroom!

6 Apps That Should Be On A Teachers Phone-Part 2

As I stated in Part 1, a smartphone is an indispensable teacher tool in the classroom.  After all, a smartphone is essentially a small computer in your pocket.  To help you with your day to day teaching duties, I recommend six apps that I believe can help you manage your workflow.

1. Scanner Pro/Turbo Scan:  There are two here because they are both great scanner apps.  It’s important to have a scanner at the ready for a couple of reasons.  First, if you’ve got that old worksheet you’d like to digitally send to your students, quickly scan it and upload it to your LMS.  Second, you can scan a piece of student work and share it in various apps.  

2. Trello:  I’ve written before about how Trello can be a good teaching planning tool.  Trello is an easy way to plan your classes.  Simply create a board for each class, a list for a chapter or unit, and a card for each assignment.  

3. Twitter: Share on the fly what you’re doing in the classroom.  Snap photos of student work and share them with your school or district.

4. Pinterest: Pinterest is a great resource for finding ideas and getting inspiration for your class.  Look to Pinterest if you’re looking for teaching tips or ideas for new projects.  Looking for teacher blogs to follow.  Look no further than Pinterest to help you find that next blog read. is also a cool place to find teacher blogs.   

5. Dropbox/Dropbox Paper: Dropbox is a fantastic storage receptacle.  Store documents and photos and have them available on the fly through your phone.  Use Dropbox Paper for taking quick notes on your.  Everything is saved in Dropbox.

6. Fantastical 2: Available for iOS only, Fantastical 2 is a great way to write down calendar tasks.  You type your entries in natural language which makes entering calendar events quick and easy.  

10 Reasons Why HyperDocs Are So Great!

I was talking with a colleague recently when the topic of ways to engage students in the classroom came up.  I brought up the use of HyperDocs in the classroom.  My colleague looked at me a bit puzzled and asked, "what makes a HyperDoc so great?"  

Let me share what I told them about what makes HyperDocs so great...

1. A HyperDoc is an interactive opportunity for students to transform their learning into something more.

2. One HyperDoc can address the 4 C's of 21st-century learning, giving students the opportunity for critical thinking, creativity, communication, and collaboration.

3. They're engaging digital lessons.

4. They can allow for differentiation in that students can be given different versions of a HyperDoc or through the tasks in the hyperdoc itself. 

5. Can be personalized and allow for the use of multiple resources and the inclusion of different media.

6. Allows the teacher to flip the classroom.

7. The teacher can design various design templates for their hyperdoc.

8. Allow teachers to float around the classroom, working with small groups.

9. Through the HyperDoc, students can apply what they've learned in the HyperDoc to real-world issues.

10. Great for the blended learning classroom in that learn not only via face to face teaching but through the use of online media as well.

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.

Apps for Classroom Backchannels

What is a backchannel? A backchannel is essentially a classroom conversation that takes place alongside a class. With the advent of technology in the classroom, backchannels can now take place digitally, in or out of the classroom.

How can a backchannel be used in the classroom?

Opening up a backchannel in your class can serve numerous purposes. It can allow quieter students to fully participate in class. By setting up a digital backchannel using one of the below apps, quieter students can simply log in and share their question or comment. It can supplement your teaching by allowing for discussions outside of the classroom. Students and teachers can participate in a supplemental dialogue about the subject after class is over.

Apps that can be used for a class digital backchannel include:

Backchannel Chat: An app and a website, Backchannel Chat gives the teacher control about what is discussed in the backchannel. Discussions can be archived and available for future reference. Another great aspect of this app is that every post in the backchannel can be moderated by the teacher and must be approved before posted for all to see. Along with the website, there’s an app for Android and iOS.

Padlet: Create a wall that pertains to a specific topic or chapter and use it as a backchannel. Allow students to comment and ask questions on the board. Make sure and turn on the profanity filter.

PollEverywhere: In the same way you opened a Padlet wall, start a discussion in PollEverywhere. Use the app or the website to let students communicate with you. Use PollEverywhere while students are working on a project or classwork. Great for students that are timid in the classroom.

Google Slides Q & A: If you use Google Slides to do a presentation, you’ve got to use Google Slides Q&A as a backchannel. Simply go to your audience tools and start a new Q&A. During the presentation, a URL is presented at the top of the presentation, directing students where to go to ask a question or make a comment. Students can vote on which questions or comments are the best then, at the end of the presentation, the teacher can choose to display the comments while they address them.

Verso: Verso is unique in that when you post an activity to discuss, it allows you to post a recording of yourself giving directions, a document from your Google Drive, or attach a link for students to access. Verso provides an option that allows the teacher, to include certain vocabulary. The other thing that’s unique about Verso is that, as the teacher, you can access classroom stats, showing who has participated in your discussions and how often. Verso is available on the web at Verso app.com as well as an app
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Slack: Slack is not only great for business teams, but it can be used in classrooms as well. Set up channels for different class topics. Use separate channels for comments and questions. As the teacher, send out discussion topics and ask students to comment. Send students feedback on their work in class.

How to Lesson Plan With Trello!

The days of planning in a notebook are over! Not only can students use digital tools in the classroom to get their work done, but their teachers can too. Behold Trello. Trello is a versatile planning tool that can be used by students and teachers alike. Students can use it to plan their work on upcoming projects. Teachers can use it to plan out their quarter, semester, and year! And, you never have to worry about where you left your planbook because Trello is accessible from all your devices.

Trello is intuitive so the teacher won’t spend most of their planning time learning new software. Instead, with just a few clicks, they’ll be setting up their classes in Trello. Trello consists of boards, lists, and cards. In planning your classes, simply create a board with the title of one of your classes, let’s say Economics (as seen above in the graphic). Then, simply create a list based on a particular unit, chapter, or topic. As shown above, I’ve created lists based on chapters. Then, I created cards that represent what I plan on doing in that chapter, such as worksheet, a Nearpod, and a Kahoot.

Along with uploading documents to your cards, you can attach links. Do you have a Kahoot or Nearpod you like to use? Add the link to your Kahoot or Nearpod in Trello, then, click on the link to bring it up. It’s that easy! Trello also allows for the linking of your Google Docs, so it’s easy to move your Google Slides or Google Docs over to Trello. Then, with a click, you can simply access your documents.

As mentioned earlier, Trello is available on all devices, including Android, iOS, and a web app.

Real-Life Digital Tools for the Classroom

There’s nothing wrong with using Google Classroom. As a matter of fact, many of the articles I’ve written tie into using Google Classroom. It’s a great digital tool to distribute and collect class work. But, in addition to using Google Classroom or any other learning management system in your class, it’s important to integrate "real-life" digital tools into your classroom.

Google Classroom and other Google tools such as Docs and Slides are perfectly adequate for the classroom. Google tools are good. But, if we want to prepare students for life after school, whether it’s after K-12 or after college, they need to be familiar with the tools they may encounter in the workplace.  Let’s face it, students are more likely to use Evernote, Trello, or Dropbox in the workplace than they are Google Classroom.

I’ve written before about how some of these tools can be used in the classroom. If we want well prepared lifelong digital learners who are ready for life after school, teachers need to expose students to those digital tools they may encounter in the workplace, which I call "real-life" tools. Below are a few of those tools students may encounter in the workplace followed with an idea on how to implement them in class.

Trello: Student can use when working in groups.  They can keep track of team responsibilities.  They can also use Trello as a to-do list.

Skype: Assign students to work in pairs, but with a student from another class!  Ask students to connect with students in other classes and have them work collaboratively via Skype.

Any.do: Have student create and keep to-do lists using Any.do.

Evernote: Ask students to keep their notes in Evernote.  They can share their notes with each other and work collaboratively on an assignment or share their notes with the teacher.

Slack: Students can use Slack when working collaboratively.  They can communicate and share work with each other.  

Explain Everything: Have students explain concepts using this digital whiteboard.  

Dropbox: Students can use Dropbox to store a portfolio of their work, then share their Dropbox with their teacher.

Twitter: Teachers can use Twitter as a means of keeping students informed of classroom activities.

Google Calendar: Have students keep a Google Calendar in which they’ll note upcoming due dates and class events.