The 10 best classroom tools for gathering feedback Getting feedback from your students can serve multiple purposes: it can help you understand your students’ comprehension of the material, it can give you insight into what teaching methods work or don’t work, and it can help engage students in their learning process by knowing they have a voice that is heard. Not only can feedback offer insight for both teachers and students, it can be an integral part of group work and classroom time, given the plethora of connected devices in the hands of our students these days. That said, there are a lot of classroom tools available for gathering feedback. Twitter Sometimes, a particular tool ends up being awesome for a slightly different purpose than it was originally designed for. Socrative Socrative is one of the most well known (and widely used) student response systems, and for good reason. Verso Plickers Plickers is a great option if you don’t have a classroom full of devices. Doodle Polldaddy Poll Everywhere Google Forms Infuse Learning Kahoot
John Lye's Courses and Sources Pages A Guide Designed for His Year 1 Students by Professor John Lye Copyright John Lye 1996, 1997 This is a guide to what you might look for in analyzing literature, particularly poetry and fiction. An analysis explains what a work of literature means, and how it means it; it is essentially an articulation of and a defense of an interpretation which shows how the resources of literature are used to create the meaningfulness of the text. There are people who resist analysis, believing that it 'tears apart' a work of art; however a work of art is an artifice, that is, it is made by someone with an end in view: as a made thing, it can be and should be analyzed as well as appreciated. There are several main reasons for analyzing literature: The ultimate end of analysis is, first and foremost, a deeper understanding and a fuller appreciation of the literature -- you learn to see more, to uncover or create richer, denser, more interesting meanings. I: Critical Analysis of Poetry 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
Create Killer Presentations with Explain Everything Explain Everything is a whiteboard and screencasting app that makes creating interactive lessons a simple proposition. Its full-featured editing options and its import/export functions allow it to stand apart from the other competitors I tested. Read on to find out why the Explain Everything app’s educational focus, adaptability, and user engagement make it the best its kind. Explain Everything Review Background: According to MorrisCooke, the force behind Explain Everything, the app is a “unique interactive whiteboard and screencasting tool used by over 1.5 million students and educators.” The app is recommended for grades 7-12, but teachers of lower grades may still benefit from the app by using it to liven up lessons. Methodology: I began the evaluation process by downloading several popular interactive whiteboard tools for tablets, including Explain Everything V. 2.55. Pros: Integrate content from myriad sources and incorporate social media for easy sharing. Scores How Do You Use It?
11 Tips for Editing Your Own Writing You thought of a great idea, gathered the information and used your keyboard to create a piece of art. Now comes the tough part—editing. If editing other people’s work is challenging, editing your own writing is downright painful. It’s difficult to edit your own work for several reasons. First, it’s your art. Second, you’re too close. Third, humans make mistakes. Our eyes play tricks on us. Self-editing is difficult, but it’s also necessary. 1. We all know someone who writes five words and deletes two, making it a miracle that any piece is ever done. 2. Although you shouldn’t rely completely on spell check (there’s a key difference between public and pubic, but they’re both words), it is a good place to start. 3. One of the best ways to recognize errors in writing is to step away from the piece. 4. Printing out your story allows you to catch more errors than reading it on the screen. 5. 6. Read your work out loud and change anything that doesn’t make sense or that you stumble over. 7. 8.
9 Digital Learning Tools Every 21st Century Teacher Should Be Able To Use The 21st century is a time of rapid change, and while the brain may not be changing (much), the tools we use to feed it are. This puts the 21st century teacher in a critical spot–of mastering constantly evolving technology and digital learning tools–the same tools their students use every day. So below, we’ve started with 9 such tools, but this is obviously just scratching the surface. This list is not meant to be exhaustive (obviously), or even authoritative (but rather, subjective). This is the 21st century, after all. And incidentally, it pairs nicely with a related post, 36 Things Every 21st Century Teacher Should Be Able To Do. Let us know what we missed on twitter or facebook. 1. While Google Reader is going the way of the dodo, social readers like Pulse and Flipboard continue to surge in popularity because they’re attractive, accessible across devices, and make it easy to skim large amounts of information at once. Why Every 21st Century Teacher Should Be Able To Use It 2. 3. 5. 6. 7.
30 tips to improve your writing now Writing is a fundamental part of communication, yet many people are poor writers. Part of becoming a great writer is practice. You become a better writer with every email, story or blog post you draft. There also are things you can do to improve your writing immediately. Here are 30 tips to improve your writing now from my friend, Carrie Coppernoll, a staff writer and columnist at The Oklahoman: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. What is this list missing? emaze - Online Presentation Software – Create Amazing Presentations Storymind 81 Dash - A Nice Backchannel Tool for the Classroom 81 Dash is a nice backchannel platform that I learned about today during the "Smackdown" at Hack Ed 2014. 81 Dash provides a place for teachers to create chat rooms to use with students to host conversations and share files. Once you are registered you can begin creating rooms. In your chat room you can exchange messages and files. As the owner of a room you can delete messages written by your students. Students join your 81 Dash room by going to the URL that is assigned to your room. Applications for Education81 Dash resolves the complaint that teachers have about many backchannel tools. Backchannels in general provide a good way to hear from all of the students in a classroom.
These ‘Color Thesaurus’ Charts Let You Correctly Name Any Color Imaginable Ingrid Sundberg, a writer and children’s book illustrator, created a very useful infographic chart for anyone struggling with color names. The writer says that she loves to collect words that can help give her stories variety and depth. Show Full Text “I’ve learned that we all have different associations with color words,” Sundberg told Bored Panda. “For example the color sapphire is a light blue to me (since that’s the color of the sapphire on my engagement ring), but a sapphire can also be a very dark blue. I doubt there can be an ‘official color guide,’ as color is so subjective.” Read on to see all of these colors’ names as well as Sundberg’s interview with Bored Panda. More info: ingridsnotes.wordpress.com | sundbergstudio.com | Facebook (h/t: lustik) “There was no official color guide,” Sundberg told Bored Panda. “I use it all the time when I write. “I’ve learned that we all have different associations with color words.
10 Word Cloud Generators You Have Probably Never Tried A few days back, we looked at five great ways to incorporate word cloud generators into your classroom. There are obviously many more uses out there for them – but that is a discussion for another post. We’ve mentioned most of these before – in a post from way back when – so I won’t go into too much detail about each individual one, but we’ve added a few notable ones to the list. (Of note, the list is in no particular order). The vast majority of them work the same: plug your text into the box, select a few options, and you’ve got yourself a word cloud. Some offer more options than others, some offer word clouds with words going in any and all directions, some offer shapes, others create much simpler word clouds. If you do a quick search for word cloud, you’ll see so many different types. Do you have a favorite word cloud generator from the list below? Wordle Jason Davies’ Word Cloud Generator WordSift WordItOut Tagul TagCrowd Yippy WordMosaic AbcYa Tagxedo VocabGrabber
23 Writing Websites to Improve Your Writing We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master. ~Ernest Hemingway How strong is your writing? No matter how good you think it is, there’s always room for improvement. (***By the way, have you seen this amazing online creative writing course, “Story Is a State of Mind,” created by Giller finalist Sarah Selecky? Want to strengthen your story, empower your performance, and beef up on the publishing business? Here are 23 sites (in no particular order) I look to for daily inspiration and advice: PS If you find this list useful, please share it on Twitter, Facebook or StumbleUpon – I’d really appreciate it! 4) Query Shark A query critique site you don’t want to miss. 5) Men with Pens Fantastic articles on copywriting and freelancing. 6) Ask Allison Writing and publishing Q&A by novelist Allison Winn Scotch. 10) Pub Rants Self-proclaimed “very nice literary agent,” Kristin Nelson, rants about writing and publishing. What sites help you make your writing stronger?
5 Ways To Use Word Cloud Generators In The Classroom Photo Courtesy of flickr and Sue Waters The popularity of word clouds remains pretty constant in education, and it’s not difficult to see why. They’re a great way for students to distil and summarize information. However, it’s important to remember that the process of creating word clouds is just as important as the resulting resources. How to Use Word Clouds with Students Far from just an assessment tool, creating word clouds can be useful in promoting critical thinking, relationship building, and even as a great kick-starter. 1. As educators, we’re well aware that words are the building blocks of comprehension and cognition. Word clouds are an excellent way to help our students develop their vocabulary. One Edudemic reader commented on the previous version of this article to explain how she used word clouds as a way to encourage her students to come up with a bank of synonyms and antonyms that could be used when approaching particular topics. 2. 3. 4. 5. What’s Next?