December Technology Tips
Make Grading Easier with Technology!
ZipGrade- Use your phone or tablet to quickly grade multiple choice quizzes or tests. Your device acts like a Scantron machine. The app provides item analysis, and you can export the results to a PDF or CSV report. You can scan and grade up to 20 tests a minute. Available for IOS and Android.
Instagrade- Create quizzes on your computer, print out the answer sheets, and grade them on your device. Results can be sent to your inbox, and you can email results to students and parents if you would like. Only available for IOS.
And, of course, you can create quizzes and tests on My Big Campus and they are graded instantly.
TEACHER TECHNOLOGY SPOTLIGHT!!
Mr. Pollard's Agriculture Class had a Skype Adventure!
In October the agricultural education teachers of Alcovy, Eastside and Newton College & Career Academy took the officers of our FFA chapters to the National FFA Convention that was held in Louisville, KY. This is an excellent opportunity for many reasons but one that prospered today was the ability to meet new people. Mrs. Galloway and I met many industry contacts that were willing to work with our classes in multiple ways. One person that we met was Jason Green, who is the Assistant Curator of Rhinos & Hoofstock at Busch Gardens in Tampa, FL. We were interested in setting up a Skype session with our classes here at NCCA to ask him questions regarding the animal care industry. Today my Agricultural Animal Management and Production class met with him via Skype. He shared a lot of valuable information with our students, asked them all about their career interests, and challenged them to seek out a person in that industry before the end of the school year to shadow and ask questions. We shared that we’re working on creating a waste management program for our barn. This triggered his interest because Busch Gardens has won awards for their waste management practices. He came up with the idea that once a month he would like to talk with the students in our class and relate what we’re talking about (nutrition, waste management, animal husbandry, etc…) and relate it to what they are doing with his rhinos at Busch Gardens. Mr. Green was quick to let us know that he was an FFA member and is waiting to view an application of an FFA student. Last month he received 493 applications for an entry level position.
The Skype session was a valuable experience for my students. They are excited about working with a relevant company such as Busch Gardens. Mr. Green seemed to be equally excited to take part in this activity. The technology worked flawlessly. If teachers are going to use it, I encourage sessions of 10 students or less. I look forward to using it in the future and have spoken with other contacts related to my other class curriculums to start up the same activity. My approach to larger class sizes would be separate contacts for smaller groups within my class. If anyone would like to speak with me about using Skype in their classes, please let me know.
Thank you Mr. Pollard for sharing your technology integration. I would like to add that the Skype room is ideal for smaller classes, but larger classes are welcome to come into the Skype room. I can fit 30 chairs in the room comfortably.
I hope that more teachers utilize the Skype room for the new year!