Tag: edtech

Chromebook, Geometry, Google Drawing, Google Forms, performance task, technology

CYOA Geometry Style

Mandi

Choose Your Own Adventure was such a success in Algebra that we wanted to try it in Geometry. This served as our unit 7 assessment. We followed the same process that we did here but I did update the process so students could plan electronically using this planning form. I also had students create this in New Forms so the process is slightly different than my original post.

The biggest difference between old Forms and new Forms is inserting a page compared to new section.

Untitled drawing (4)

We also used Google Drawing so students could create their geometry problems using tangents, secants, arcs & chords. Many students had never used Google Drawing and they were very excited how nice their images looked.

Two Tangents

Students had to get 3 peer reviews, which meant a student worked through their adventure, correct and incorrect answers, then gave feedback on improvements. They used this document to guide them through the peer reviews.  The result SHOULD have been a product that met all of the requirements. Some students don’t peer edit as well as other but they learned quickly that being NICE doesn’t help you improve.

Here are a few of my favorite projects. I told them I wouldn’t publish them unless they were correct. 🙂

Journey to Pasta

Royals Rally

First Day of School

Making it to the Movies

 

BreakoutEDU, Google Drawing, Google Forms, Google Sites, technology, Uncategorized

Make a Digital #BreakoutEDU

Mandi

They let me guest moderate a #DitchBook twitter chat last Thursday on #BreakoutEDU. It was A-Mazing! Matt Miller (@jmattmiller), author of Ditch That Textbook, has a tremendous chat at 9 PM each Thursday. The DitchBook team is very supportive and welcomed a newbie like me in without a blink of an eye. Karly Moura (@karlymoura) was so patient and supportive and co-moderated with me to make the experience wonderful. I do hope they will let me do it again sometime.

I love #BreakoutEDU for the problem-solving qualities and for encouraging perseverance. I have a Breakout box that I made. I purchased a wooden treasure chest at Michael’s and my wonderful husband but a locking hasp on it. I purchased all of my locks at Amazon or Wal-Mart, but Lowe’s and Home Depot have many to choose from also. A really awesome Date Lock was shared on #DitchBook that I need to add to my collection.

As I prepared for the chat, I knew I wanted our group to experience a digital Breakout. I had participated in a chat where we got to do one created in Google Forms and it was fun. But then I stumbled upon (thanks Sean Fahey @seanfahey another awesome #DitchBook team member) some digital breakouts created in Google Sites. THIS was what I wanted. So I set out to figure out how to do it. I’m going to share the process below. Talk about Google App Smashing! This uses Sites, Forms, Drawing & YouTube.

Look through the one I created or the links above to see how everything works before you read the tutorial below. Digital Breakout Data Cruncher

You will want to write your story and have an idea (or a list) of the links and resources that you will use. Being prepared ahead of time will make the process go more quickly.

Sites: If you plan to make a lot of these, you could have one digital BreakoutEDU site and each Breakout would be a new page within your site. That what I plan to do next, I just didn’t think through it this first time, just jumped in feet first (as usual).

BReakout Image

You want to set up your page with one column and insert a table with 2 columns. If you choose the site layout with two columns, it won’t leave enough room for your image. You will insert the Google Form into the left column and your Google Drawing in the right column when they are complete.

Layout

Drawing: Now you need to create your Drawing with invisible hotspots. Make sure you use images with Creative Commons License to modify and give credit as per the CC License. Once you have your image, create a shape on top of the image. Set the outline and fill to transparent. You can click on the invisible image and insert a link to the resource you want to use. Repeat this process for all the links in your Breakout.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Forms: Next you need to create the Form so participants can enter their answers. I started by inserting a video into the form with a countdown timer. BreakoutEDU has a timer you can use that’s 45 minutes, the typical breakout time, but I wanted 15 minutes for the chat so I selected one from YouTube. Next you want to set your locks. You need to validate the answer so it will only unlock with the CORRECT answer.  Here is a link to a youtube video from the digital BreakoutEDU experts Justin Birckbichler (@Mr_B_Teacher) and Mari Venturino (@MsVenturino) explaining how to set your locks to validate.

I also wanted a reward for breaking out, so I created a badge in Google Drawing, downloaded it as a .png and put the link to the image in the confirmation page.

Once your drawing and form are complete, embed them into your site. Test the game and have many others test the game to make sure it does what you intend. Once you’ve beta tested, share it with the world (or at least your class) and let them have fun.

I came up with the process on my own, but the experts mentioned above, Justin and Mari, have a page with resources to make your own. I didn’t find that page until after I’d worked through the process.  I did link to two of their videos above but there are many more nuggets of goodness on their page.

If you make a digital BreakoutEDU, please share on our crowdsourced Padlet and/or send the link on Twitter with the #DitchBook hashtag and we can beta-test for you.

EdWeek, technology

#SJSDEdWeek Summary

Mandi

Ed Week 2015 Logo

SJSDEdWeek 2015 was a huge success.  It’s always an awesome experience when you can learn with and from your fellow colleagues.  Our 3 speakers were amazing and challenged us to look at learning differently. I have posted the links to the presentations below.  You can also follow #SJSDEdWeek on Twitter.  We have folks still tweeting at the hashtag when they use something we’ve learned.

Day 1: highlight video

Josh Stumpenhorst – Lessons from the Run

Stumpenhorst keynote sketch note

Josh Stumpenhorst – Social Media

Google Gab

Symbaloo

Day 2:  highlight video

Eric Langhorst – Leveraging Technology to Enhance the Classroom Experience Langhorst keynote sketch note

Eric Langhorst- Twitter and other Social Media

All of Eric’s resources

Use This Not That

Day 3: highlight video

Justin Tarte – #futureready schools and the digital mindset

Tarte keynote sketch note

Justin Tarte – STEAMing full speed ahead with learning
 Tech Showcase

formative assessment

Socrative

Mandi

SocrativeI use Socrative as one of my formative assessment tools.  It’s very easy to use and you can have a quiz ready to go in minutes.  When other teachers come to me and want to get started with online formative assessment, this is the tool I start with.

Pros: You can easily share quizzes with other teachers, you can use graphics in the question portion (but not the answer portion), you can randomize the order of the questions and the answer choices, and you can choose to give students instant feedback. It provides quick reports to help evaluate the data from your assessment.  Socrative can be accessed on smart phones, tablets and computers by going to the website. You can print a quiz from Socrative for students who don’t have a device.  It also has a game component called Space Race that the student think is fun.

Cons: The students enter their names each time, so you can’t have accumulated data for a single student.  Students will sometimes enter a name that is not theirs.  If you are providing instant feedback ,they will take it once under a false name to get the answers, then log back in with their own name to take the quiz.  It also doesn’t handle graphics as well as I want, sometimes enlarging them to the point that it’s hard to see them.  I did contact Socrative about this issue and they are working to improve the graphics component.  Since my content is math, I need to use equations or at least have the option to capture equations as images and post them as answer choices.  Socrative isn’t there yet.

Socrative is good for a quick exit ticket and instant feedback.  When I use it at the beginning of class, I can see where I need to clear up misconceptions from the class period before.  When used at the end of class, I can see where students missed instruction and begin with that next time.

Give Socrative a try and let me know what you think.

iPad, Reading

Reading in Math

Mandi

Our professional development focus for the district this year has been reading and vocabulary.  We developed a project for our classroom that met the reading requirements for a unit long project.  On reflection, our reading passage could have been better, but the product from the students was good.  They used Notability to put their project together.


Name