There is no doubt that technology is here and is an important part of the daily life of a teacher. There is no doubt too that technology skills among adults vary widely, and just like the students we teach, we need to set aside time to learn and practice those skills.
Melissa Bleile (WSD Instructional Technology Specialist) and Allen Pepper (8th grade Social Studies teacher) set out to teach our middle school staff all the ins and outs of the Weebly platform to help them create links from the district site to their own pages. This tool is a great resource for parents and teachers to make connections. In addition, it allows teachers a personal and professional voice from their content areas.
Plickers.com is an excellent way to use the technology you have (room computer, IPad Mini, and a set of printed cards from the site) to gather authentic performance data from students in the classroom setting. Using the cards you print for free from the website, each child recieves a card with a large black graphic shape, surrounded on each side with A, B, C, & D respectively, as well as the card number at each of the corners. You can assign students their own number card (if you want individual data), and then assign the formative/question an A, B, C, or D answer. So, let's say that you ask a yes or no question in your content area, gathering information to know if you can go on to the next part of your lesson or provide a quick refresher for students. You have the question prepared on the Plickers.com site, with A representing YES, and B representing NO. Students will read the question and then hold up their card with either A or B on the top. Using your Mini, you will camera scan their answers, which will come up immediately on the SMART Board (if you wish to show it all) through your computer. You can immediately see if you proceed forward with your lesson, or do the quick refresher you planned in the event that students were still unsure.
What's great about this app is that the graphic shapes are different, discouraging students from responding simply based on what their peers are holding up. The letters are small and printed in a pale gray, making it hard for others to see each child's individual answer. This leads to real authenticity with student responses.
Plickers.com is a free site, which also offers teachers the opportunity, for a small fee, to upgrade if they so wish. However, the free part of the site is truly a functional and appropriate site if you do not wish to upgrade for a fee.
Visit the site here: https://plickers.com/
Plickers.com is not paying me for any promotion of their site, nor have I received any compensation for thie promotion. This is a personal opinion of the author.
Melissa Bleile (WSD Instructional Technology Specialist) and Allen Pepper (8th grade Social Studies teacher) set out to teach our middle school staff all the ins and outs of the Weebly platform to help them create links from the district site to their own pages. This tool is a great resource for parents and teachers to make connections. In addition, it allows teachers a personal and professional voice from their content areas.
Plickers.com is an excellent way to use the technology you have (room computer, IPad Mini, and a set of printed cards from the site) to gather authentic performance data from students in the classroom setting. Using the cards you print for free from the website, each child recieves a card with a large black graphic shape, surrounded on each side with A, B, C, & D respectively, as well as the card number at each of the corners. You can assign students their own number card (if you want individual data), and then assign the formative/question an A, B, C, or D answer. So, let's say that you ask a yes or no question in your content area, gathering information to know if you can go on to the next part of your lesson or provide a quick refresher for students. You have the question prepared on the Plickers.com site, with A representing YES, and B representing NO. Students will read the question and then hold up their card with either A or B on the top. Using your Mini, you will camera scan their answers, which will come up immediately on the SMART Board (if you wish to show it all) through your computer. You can immediately see if you proceed forward with your lesson, or do the quick refresher you planned in the event that students were still unsure.
What's great about this app is that the graphic shapes are different, discouraging students from responding simply based on what their peers are holding up. The letters are small and printed in a pale gray, making it hard for others to see each child's individual answer. This leads to real authenticity with student responses.
Plickers.com is a free site, which also offers teachers the opportunity, for a small fee, to upgrade if they so wish. However, the free part of the site is truly a functional and appropriate site if you do not wish to upgrade for a fee.
Visit the site here: https://plickers.com/
Plickers.com is not paying me for any promotion of their site, nor have I received any compensation for thie promotion. This is a personal opinion of the author.