Using academic games in the classroom is an easy way to boost engagement!
The Unfair Game
Category: Instructional Response
Tech Tip Tuesday- Blabberize
Blabberize is a free online tool that allows you to quickly create talking images, providing some great opportunities to foster student engagement and collaboration.
“Tech gives the quietest student a voice.”
Jerry Blumengarten
Ideas on how you can use Blabberize in your classroom?
- Have a piece of student writing plus their drawing? Take a pic of the image, add it to Blabberize and have your students make their writing come alive by making their drawing “say” what they wrote! (Instant engagement) See this example.
- Students could show what they know by making historical figures defend their decisions, explain their actions, etc… in short videos; use it as a quick formative check or as part of a longer project. See student example here about Sam Houston or check out this humorous one about George Custer.
- ELA connections: Students could put words to novel characters or a talking poetry activity.
- Foreign language: Have students record their voices practicing Spanish set to an image or a picture. See this example.
See video tutorial below on how to make a blabber. Note: create an account in order to save your blabber.
5/3/22- Tech Tip Tuesday (FutureMe)
Want an idea for a unique writing assignment? Check out FutureMe. You can have your students write a letter to themselves and this website will send it to them at the date you choose. You can choose 1 year, 3 years, 5 years, or a custom date (perhaps HS graduation?). Need ideas for writing stems to help students get started writing a letter to themselves? Check out this Future Me Stems handout.
Tech Tip Tuesday (Canva for Education)
Canva is an amazing online graphic design tool.
- You or your students, can create posters, flyers, social media, projects, resumes, infographics, edit photos/videos, presentation slides, talking presentations, video edits and transitions, text animations, background remover, graphic organizers, schedules, essay plans, comic designs, virtual backgrounds, book reports, lesson plans, worksheets, etc…
- It has millions of premium templates, photos, fonts, icons, videos, or you can start from scratch!
- All the premium features can be used by teachers free when you sign up for Canva for Education. When you sign your students up (create a class; send them the invitation link), they also get all the premium features for free.
- Students can collaborate on the same project.
- Projects can be downloaded in a variety of ways; all projects are also stored on the Canva website.
Canvas Tech Tip (Canvas Quizzes)
How to convert paper quiz/test to a canvas quiz without retyping all the questions!
Have you been wanting to convert a paper/pencil quiz or test into a Canvas quiz without having to re-type all the questions? The beauty of using Canvas Quizzes is that it automatically grades the Multiple Choice, T/F, Matching, etc… You would still need to grade any essays or short answers, but parts of your quiz/test could be automatically graded! What a time-saver!
Here are step by step instructions on how to do that! It will work for MC Questions, T/F Questions, Short Answer and Essay. Click here for the step-by-step instructions or watch the YouTube video above. This is the conversion website you will need (big thank you to San Diego State for providing that conversion tool).
Tech Tip Tuesday
Canvas Tabbed Agenda Page
Do you want a different way to display your agenda for the week in Canvas? Check out this super clean look to a weekly agenda in Canvas! Watch this video to learn more. Interested? Shoot me an email and I will stop in and help you set this up in your canvas courses.
Prodigy WYTOPP Test Prep Option
Did you know that you can set up prodigy w/ WYTOPP practice questions? Click here for a step-by-step instruction sheet on how to set that up!
Tech Tip Tuesday (Padlet)
Padlet is a useful, engaging tool to increase student collaboration skills and knowledge creation to promote deep understandings of key concepts. It allows for flexibility in voice, choice, time and space for students and teachers. Watch this video to see three different ways to use Padlet in the classroom and how to set up your own Padlet. You get 3 or 4 free padlets in the free version.
Padlet can be embedded into your canvas pages, assignments, discussions, announcements, etc… Students do not need to leave Canvas to use padlet. Click here for written instructions or watch this video on how to embed items into Canvas.
Grudge Ball
This is a game that your students will love! It is called Grudge Ball and is better suited for upper elementary to high school. It is not very techy, but very engaging. Here is an overview of how the game works. I used “Explain Everything” as my whiteboard in the tutorial which is also a great tech tool if you need a digital whiteboard in which students can collaborate. Here is a Grudge Ball template that you can open on your Cleartouch Easinote software ready to go for the game.
Tech Tip Tuesday- Rewordify.com
More Feedback for Greater Learning
Quick tools for formative assessment, teacher clarity and questioning resources, and more professional learning posted!
Formative Assessment Ideas
Are you looking for quick tools for formative assessment? Here are a few ideas!
- 7 Ways to Do Formative Assessments in Your Virtual Classroom. Don’t let the article name fool you…these tools would work well in our 1-to-1 classrooms and would encourage whole class engagement.
- Using Drawings for Formative Assessment. Drawing demands a different kind of thinking. This article outlines how we can use drawing as a learning tool.
- See many more formative assessment techniques in our Embedding Formative Assessment: Practical Techniques for K-12 Classrooms book. If you can’t find your copy and need another, add it to your resource quick request mentioned below. The Learning Sciences site has more research and resources related to formative assessment.
Teacher Clarity & Questioning Resources
Are you interested in any of these resources? Fill out this quick request by November 4th and they’ll get ordered for you!
- The Teacher Clarity Playbook: A hands-on guide to creating learning intentions and success criteria for organized, effective instruction.
- The Success Criteria Playbook: A hands-on guide to making learning visible and measurable.
- Questioning Sequences in the Classroom: Ask targeted questions to enhance students reasoning skills and increase rigor in classrooms. Use a four-phase questioning sequence to help students make claims, build sound arguments, and provide evidence to support their points.
Professional Learning
Looking for credits? New credit opportunities were posted to our Professional Learning page.