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Formative Assessments Are Easier Than You Think!

Formative Assessments Are Easier Than You Think!
When I was teaching science one of the best lessons I learned was about formative assessment. In my first year of teaching I taught the way I was told to teach. Deliver content to my students, assess at the end, remediate if necessary. I was talking with a teacher friend the summer after my first year and she suggested something simple. What a difference that made. The following school years that board became an important place for myself and my students. Now, as 1:1 and Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) are taking over our schools, its becoming even easier to formatively assess what our students know and for our students to leave feedback as to what they need. Here are a few sites and apps to help with formative assessments... Online Sticky Notes-Just like my physical space in my classroom there are lots of virtual sticky note sites out there. Understood It-A new-to-me service, this one is elegantly simple. Socrative- This one is quickly become a go-to app for formative assessments for me. Related:  assessment

The Five Best Tools for Creating Videos Without Installing Software Over the years I've published some lists and reviews of free tools for creating videos online. Quite a few of those tools have been for creating simple videos that are really just automated, audio slideshows. See Animoto for an example of this. There's nothing inherently wrong with having your students use those tools, but at some point you will want to take your video projects to the next level. These are the five tools that I recommend for creating and editing videos without installing any special software. Pixorial is the online video creation tool that I hear teachers talking about a lot lately. WeVideo is a collaborative online video creation tool. PowToon is a nice service for creating explanatory videos through a drag and drop process. Wideo is a service that allows anyone to create animated videos and Common Craft-style videos online. WIDEOO REEL ENG NEW LOGO from Agustin Esperon on Vimeo.

The Power of the Formative Assessment The power of formative assessment is one of the things I most like about the process of the IBPYP Exhibition. The IBPYP Exhibition is a student-driven, culminating experience in the PYP. During the Exhibition, the teacher openly drops into a real facilitator role (even though they do this all the time). Formative assessment, or the assessment that drives our teaching, is so critical during Exhibition. How, as a teacher during the Exhibition, do I gather all of this juicy information about the students? I watch: Over the last few weeks, I have taken a lot of mental notes and have written a lot of notes about how effectively the students organize themselves. I listen: What kinds of questions are they asking me or others? I record: I take a lot of pictures. IBPYP Exhibition Voices from YIS Academics on Vimeo . The Exhibition has helped remind me how we don’t need standardized tests to tell us how our students are doing. Formative assessment drives us. Like this: Like Loading...

teachnology / Digital Storytelling DigiTales- The site created by Bernajean Porter, with resources for digital storytelling, many of which are linked below Center for Digital Storytelling- Based in Berkeley, with international digital storytelling resources Digital Storytelling Cookbook- By Joe Lambert, from the Center for Digital Storytelling The Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling- Site from University of Houston, with examples, guidelines, tips, and other resources, many of which are linked below The DAOW of Storytelling- by Jason Ohler, another look at the elements of digital storytelling; a good lunchtime read! What is a Digital Story? 7 Things You Should Know About Digital Storytelling- An overview of the pros and cons of digital storytelling Examples Island Movies- These movies were part of a contest for students in Hawaii. Nice example using clip art to have students write a creative story Should You Be Afraid of Snakes? Pre-Writing/Brainstorming

The Best Resources For Learning About Formative Assessment (Thumbs are one of my favorite forms of formative assessment) Be sure to read my Ed Week column, Ways to Include Students in the Formative Assessment Process. As the new school year approaches (we go back in two more weeks), I’ve been thinking a bit on how I can be a little more intentional and strategic in using formative assessment. For those who might be new to the term, formative assessments are ongoing practices that help both the teacher and student evaluate and reflect on how they are both doing, and what changes either or both might need to make to become a more effective teacher and learner (I’d love it if someone left a comment with a better definition). Again, for people who are new to these terms, formative assessments are often contrasted with summative assessments. Formative assessments are generally considered more useful to teachers, which is why I’m thinking about them. Here are my choices for The Best Resources For Learning About Formative Assessment: Do you understand?

Why Curation Will Transform Education and Learning: 10 Key Reasons There is a growing number of key trends that are both rapidly revolutionizing the world of education as we know it and opening up opportunities to review and upgrade the role and scope of many of its existing institutions, (as the likeliness that they are going to soon become obsolete and unsustainable, is right in front of anyone's eyes). George Siemens, in his recent Open Letter to Canadian Universities, sums them up well: 1) An Overwhelming Abundance of Information Which Begs To Be OrganizedThe goal is not (and probably it never was) to learn or memorize all of the information available out there. It's just too much even if we focus only on the very essence of it. The goal is to learn how to learn, to know where to look for something and to be able to identify which parts of all the information available are most relevant to learn or achieve a certain goal or objective.This is why new digital literacy skills are of such great importance. From the New York Times: "...Mr.

Use Seesaw To Create A Learning Journal In Your Classroom How I Use Seesaw To Create A Learning Journal in My Classroom by Kelli Ohms, Special Education Functional Life Skills Teacher Being a functional life skills teacher, my class is not set up like a typical classroom. We started using Seesaw last November as a way to document and share the work my students were doing in the community and record evidence of the key academic skills they’re working towards. At first, my biggest challenge was teaching my students to add items independently, but now they enjoy adding new items to their journals, and even request to post unprompted! The biggest way Seesaw has helped my classroom is with parent communication. Now that I use Seesaw, Parents have loved getting real-time updates on what their students are working on in class and how they are making progress. For instance, I had a parent who did not think their child could count money. Increasing My Students’ Motivation Simplifying Documentation and Data Collection I would suggest Seesaw to everyone!

How Can Web 2.0 Curation Tools Be Used in the Classroom? Digital Tools Jeff Thomas “Curation” may be one of the big buzzwords of 2011. As the amount of information accumulates thanks to the Web, it becomes increasingly important that we use tools to help us find information that’s relevant and useful. The role of the curator has always been to help pull together and oversee collections of materials. There are a number of tools that enable this. “Curation offers a context on the biggest learning playground the world has ever known.” That’s another vital part of the act of curation: what other people have deemed important. While the Web has perhaps democratized who can be an expert, we do still prefer to turn to those with specific backgrounds and from specific professions, especially when it comes to education.One interesting new curation tool is Scoop.it. Curation was once the purview of experts and professionals who collected and preserved resources. Related Explore: Scoop.it

Metacognition Visible Thinking in the Digital Classroom While you are waiting.... 1. 2. Download any of the apps below that you need Please don't be discouraged if you know all these apps or none of them. Session Essential Questions 1. What does "making thinking visible" mean to you? 1. 2. 3. 4. *iPad Photo Courtesy of Kevin Honeycutt *What Makes You Say That? *Interpretation with justification 1. 2. 3. *Active Reasoning & Explanation Encourages Students to think about a question and share their thoughts with a partner. Tellagami 1. 2. *Setting the Stage for Deeper Inquiry What do you think you know about this topic? Step 1: Get your graphics in line Start with a student drawing, image, picture, graphic, or other piece of visual content. Skitch Great For: basic editing, cropping, labeling, highlighting, blurring (think kid's faces or personal info, license plate). Canva Great For: Creating infographics with pretty templates, icons & graphics. Some other Infographic Creators... 1. 2. 1.

Blog | The Magic of Learning Remote Scavenger Hunt We are heading into our third week of social distancing, school closures and “shelter at home&... We are in the Midst of... Are you aware that we are in the middle of making history? It is March of 2020. We are living throug... 5 Reasons You Should Seek Your OWN Student Feedback Yes, it’s scary. Yes, it’s easy to assume you already know what students think about your class, how well they’re handling the workload, what activities they like the most. Yes, it’s possible you know best. Still. If you’ve never asked students for serious, honest feedback, you’re missing something. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Start by asking good questions. Create a written survey you distribute to students. Is the work in this class too hard or too easy for you? That last question might seem like a throw-away, but it can elicit some of the most powerful and significant information you’ll get. Next, create optimal conditions for quality feedback. Distribute the survey at the right time and place. Finally, ACT on the feedback. Gathering information is useless if you do nothing with it. Talk. If you’d like something ready-made for gathering student feedback, I have prepared an excellent form you can use today: The “How’s It Going?” The “How’s It Going?” The “How’s It Going?” Like what you’ve seen so far?

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