Get Googley with Google Forms

By far, my favorite Google App is Google Forms. This program is so absolutely versatile. Most of you have used Google Forms to submit survey answers and didn’t even realize it.

Some great uses for Google Forms:

• Collect unique info about students at the start of the school year.  It can be completed by parents and step parents (or anyone else who provides care for the child) and it can be resubmitted if information changes.  Great tool for learning about your students.
• Special Ed teachers can gather information from teachers (and/or parents) to prepare for IEPs or SSTs. 
• Administrators can conduct their classroom walk-throughs and take quick notes 
• PTAs can use it to find volunteers for their big events 
• Knowledge Brokers (see Tech Tidbits 6.5) can submit resources anytime to the teacher 
• Elementary sites can submit hot/cold  lunch counts to the cafeteria 
• Create self-grading quizzes in conjunction with a plug-in called Flubaroo (easier than it sounds, I promise) 
• SPED instructional assistants can track student behavior for the SPED teacher
• Turn independent reading logs into a paper free resource by posting 
• the responses online (talk to me about this one if you’re interested) 
• Collect lab data so students have more than one data set with which to work and analyze 
• Students can submit information prior to parent/teacher conferences 
• Report (anonymously, if desired) incidents of bullying 
• Collect questions from students before class meets to better prepare for the next lesson 
• Students can submit suggested test questions 
• Submit book suggestions to library staff 
• Students can provide feedback to the teacher on how they learn best based on a learning style inventory or multiple intelligences assessment 
• Submit lab write-ups 
• Complete Group/Peer/Self evaluations after a large project 
• Exit surveys for teachers/staff on what may need repairing before the next school year starts 
• Students can conduct their own surveys to gather data for an experiment or a problem-based learning activity

Search YouTube for instructional videos – they’re short and to the point. You can pause the video as you follow the steps.

Developing Knowledge Brokers

I just read an article by Larry Rosen in Educational Research called Teaching the iGeneration.  The focal question is how can schools respond to the growing use of technology by our youth to make education relevant.

In Tech Tidbits 6-2, I wrote about teaching and thinking with technology.  Rosen’s article brought me right back there with ideas of how we can do that –by identifing knowledge brokers.

A knowledge broker is “someone who helps you identify online resources.” There is so much online available for free that a teacher, especially one who isn’t very comfortable with technology, can feel completely overwhelmed when s/he does a Google search for a topic and receives millions of hits (i.e., “revolutionary war primary sources” = 5,290,000 hits or “multiplication facts remediation” = 2,370,000 hits).  Who has time for all of this?

So, I have some suggestions for helping you navigate the sea of free online resources:

• Split the work among the team. Teams can consist of any person, located at any site across the district, who teaches the same topic.  Fortunately very few of our courses/subjects are taught by only one person in the district. Once excellent resources are identified, they can be shared across the district. I would be more than happy to help you with that.

• Get students involved.  Give them a head’s up that a certain topic is coming up and ask them to do some research into online resources that both covers the curriculum and interests them.  Of course, the teacher has the final say in the validity of the sites, but at least it will pare down the bulk.

• Get older students involved. Many CHS students love the web and need community service hours. Combine the two and everyone comes out a winner.

• Get parents involved.  There are many parents who would love to volunteer in their child’s classroom, but simply can’t get to the school.  Asking them to become a knowledge broker will give them the opportunity to be involved without requiring them to be at school.  They can research at home and share their finds via LoopMail.

• Share what you discover. Not every resource has to be geared towards a specific curricular area.  Many are productivity tools that help with organization.  Take a few minutes at grade level, subject area, or school wide staff meetings to share a favorite online tool of yours.  Don’t forget a follow up email with a link to the resource to assist your fellow staff members in locating it online.  Include me, too, please.

 

Behavior Management Made Easy(-ier) with Class Dojo

Lately, I have been hearing a lot about Class Dojo from teachers of all levels, so I thought it might make a great article for Tech Tidbits.

Class Dojo is a web-based program or a tablet app designed to track both desired and undesired classroom behaviors.  It is currently free for teachers who sign up for this beta version. However, since Class Dojo had ready receives 47,000 results in a Google search, my guess is that it won’t be free for much longer.  I’d suggest you create an account now, just to be on the safe side.

Teachers:  Teachers create their classes and customize the behaviors they wish to track.  During class, they can award points for desired behaviors (i.e, completed homework, prepared for class) and deduct points for undesired behaviors (i.e., shouting out, talking to others) right into their computer/tablet/smartphone, providing immediate feedback to students in real time.  Comments can be included with the points.  Some teachers keep the Class Dojo site/app visible throughout class for students to see.  That would definitely be a teacher choice to do so or not.

Students: Teachers can provide students with access to Class Dojo so they can view their own behaviors on their own time.  They can customize their avatar as well.

Parents: Teachers can provide parents with access to Class Dojo so they can view their own child’s classroom behaviors daily (if desired).

By instantly reinforcing desired behaviors in real-time, student behavior improves, they become more engaged, and intrinsic motivation can be enhanced. Teachers can print reports to use for report cards, parent-teacher conferences, and to share with other site specialists (SPED teachers, psychologists, counselors, etc.)

It can run on an interactive whiteboard or any internet connected device. Only one device is needed – for the teacher.

While I don’t currently have classes, I created an account to see how easy it was to add students, add/subtract points, and customize behaviors and I have to say, it was pretty easy.

If you’d like a reference from a teacher actually using it with students, feel free to contact Danielle Ryan, a Carlsbad High School English teacher using it with her sophomores and even her seniors (who think it’s “cool”).

I’d love to hear about your experiences with Class Dojo.  And if you need assistance, please let me know and I’ll do what I can to help you.

More information available here: http://prezi.com/padb8nzkw-yq/sharing-classdojo-with-other-educators/