SMART Board as an Instructional Tool

This week I am going to take a break from assessment tools and share some SMART Board resources with you.  The SMART Board can be a great instructional tool but sometimes we can get in a SMART Board "rut" and not know what else we can do with it.  My hope is with the following resources you will give you some ideas to jump-start your SMART Board use this year.

Below I have listed some links to videos featuring some of my favorite tools in SMART Notebook.  I also created a list of my top 11 sites to find free interactive SMART Board resources.

Topics:

·         Interactivity

o   Lesson Activity Toolkit

o   Lesson Activity Toolkit and Tools

o   Lesson Activity Builder

·         Video and Audio

o   Link to audio

o   Embed Youtube

·         Customizing and Using Lessons

·         Finding Lessons online-Top 11 sites for finding resources

Please leave a comment with any other great instructional ideas or resources I can add to the list.  Also, let me know if I can support you in any way with your use of the SMART Board in your classroom.

Assessment Tools Part 3-Poll Everywhere

Poll Everywhere-Poll Everywhere is a great tool to engage your students and gather feedback from them using their cell phones.  As a teacher you create the questions which can be anonymous or you can purchase the very reasonable teacher edition which will allow you to set up classes and automatically grade responses.  There is also a free version that will allow you to get started using this great tool.  Below you will find some helpful links to get started setting up your first polls.

• Making cell phones and Poll Everywhere work in your classroom
• Mobile Presenter Tools 
• Word Clouds in Poll Everywhere
• Voting on Images
• New Poll Everywhere questions 

This tool is very easy to set up and get started using in your classroom.  If you have used this tool before please leave a comment on how you have used it.  Also, if you want support getting started please invite me into your classroom.

Assessment Tools Part 2 - Socrative

 

The second assessment tool I am going to highlight this year is Socrative.  This tools works on any device with internet access.  This tool is very easy to set up and you do not have to load students or a class into the system.  You can ask multiple choice questions, short answer questions, and use an exit ticket.  You can also add images to your questions for subject areas where that might be needed.  Socrative will grade the multiple choice and short answer questions for you and collect the data in a report which it emails to you.  This report can be downloaded and viewed in excel. You can share quizzes you have created with your colleagues which will save lots of time.  This data would be very organized and valuable for PLC meetings.

Below I have included some links which will help you get started using this great assessment tool:

• 3 Ways to Use Socrative 
• User Guide, Training Videos, and Great Integration Ideas for Socrative
• Adding Pictures to Questions and Self-Grading
• Space Race Game in Socrative
• What is coming in Socrative 2.0

Please let me know if you have any questions or would like me to come in to show you more about this tool. 

·          

Assessment Tools Part 1-Google Forms

My next few tech tips will be focused on the topic of assessment tools.  Correcting and analyzing assessment data can be very time consuming.  Over the few weeks I am going to share a few technology tools that will help save you time and seamlessly organize your data for you.  I will give some highlights of each tool, but please contact me if you want to learn more about any of the tools.

Google Forms:

Our district uses Microsoft 365, but Google forms (free) is still a tool from Google that I use regularly.  This summer they have added many new features, but one of the most significant is the video question option.  I like Google forms due to its simplicity, ability to self-correct, and data organization.  

Check out this great link which shows how Google forms can be used to create self-grading quizzes.  This would be a great alternative to scantron cards and it is much easier to analyze the results.  Google also provides a video question option along with a way to insert images into questions as well.  The forms are easily printable using the printer friendly format for those who can’t complete them online.  

Application:

Google forms collect multiple choice, rating scales, essays, and short answer questions.  Depending on the question type it will also organize the data and put it in a graph for you to easily analyze.

This would be a great tool to use when you are creating and analyzing data from your common formative assessments or summative assessments.  You can even collaborate with others to create a form and analyze the results.  Please contact me if you are interested in trying this tool in your classroom.