Technology Resources
October Edition
Goal: Making Google Classroom More Interactive for students
Spotlight: Discussion Feature
On Classroom, you can post a "Question" on to the Classwork page. This allows students to post responses directly on to Classroom where you can then, show the questions and responses on the board. (It works a lot like the oh so popular, Socrative if you are familiar with that)
Benefits:
- you can see all the responses in real time
- you can show the class all the responses to start a discussion
- you have a log of participation in the discussion for grading
- can act as an informal assessment of knowledge
- quick and easy to post -- No copying required!
- You have control over whether or not students can respond to each other
- You have control over whether or not they can edit their responses
- You have the ability to add attachments to the questions the same way you can an assignment (Think: visual prompts, quote analysis, math problem, etc)
Ways to use it in class:
1) Post a daily warm-up question ("bell ringer") to get class started
(ex. an SAT math problem of the day, SAT word of the day for English, quote or political cartoon analysis, a review problem from the day before)
2) "Ticket out the Door": same concept as the warm-up question except at the end of the class to assess quickly students' understanding of a key topic from the day
3) Discussion Starter: post the question to allow students to put their initial thoughts down before the conversation starts
- allows students who don't typically speak up to participate in the discussion
- encourages (or forces) all students to participate in the discussion
4) Allow students to pose questions and respond to each other in a college-level discussion board format. This could be useful while you are out or for homework if you want students to still have collaborative learning without you present. (Recommendation: Do it once in class together to let students get the feel for it before you send them on their own)
How it works:
- Teacher makes the opening post
- Students must respond to the teacher's post with their initial ideas
- Students must then respond to X-amount of their classmates' posts in a conversational format
Goal: More helpful technology resources
Spotlight: Chrome Extensions
- Save to Google Drive Extension: allows you to save web content or screen capture and save directly to your Drive
- AdBlock for YouTube: removes the YouTube ads from videos you are showing
- EasyBib
- Google Calendar Checker: tells you when your next meeting is coming up
- NewsELA: publishes daily articles at varying reading levels (from 3rd-12th grade), could be great for English reading activities
- LucidChart: diagrams, flowcharts, graphic organizer creator... can be used by teachers or students
Reminder: To download a chrome extension or read more about it, you can simply Google the name of it in your Chrome browser or visit the Chrome Store in your browser