#EduGIF Guy. Speaker. Tech Integration Specialist. Google Apps for Edu Trainer. Nerd. #EduDuctTape Podcast Host.
In the 12th mini-episode, I talk to technology integration specialist and middle school teacher Mike Feldman about strategies–including gamification–that he used as a tech coach to motivate teachers to try new technologies in the classroom. Mike also talks about his passion for using a wood lathe to craft pens and how it benefits students when they see their teachers as makers.
In the 11th mini-episode, I’m sharing a discussion that I had with Special Education Consultant David Allan at the KySTE Conference in March. David shares some of the accessibility features available on Chromebooks. Also, I share a special announcement before the interview.
Today’s mini-episode was actually recorded back in early January before most people were aware of the coronavirus and well before the possibility of extended school closures came to those of us in the states. Ironically, I think that the strategies that Dan shared back in January could be incredibly useful in #RemoteLearning. If you are giving any feedback to students during remote learning, especially if it pertains to writing, please listen to this one!
In the 10th mini-episode, I’m sharing a conversation with Technology Integration Coach Dan Stitzel about the success that he had as a middle school language arts teacher with using Screencastify to give students feedback during the writing process.
In the 9th mini-episode, 1st-grade teacher Missy Paden and I reflect on the first iteration of the Educational Duct Tape Workshop along with Missy’s goal of using Choice Boards, her experiences with using tech in the primary grades, and her growth and excitement around #edtech in her 18th year in the classroom.
Note: For the foreseeable future, mini-episodes, recorded live and on-location at a conference or event, will come out every other Wednesday morning.
My 8th mini-episode features an interview with high school science teacher Christina Florence from the #TeachBetter19 Conference in November 2019. Christina shares about her plans to start using Scratch in her Anatomy, Biology, Chemistry and Biology 2 courses to creatively represent scientific concepts.
Note: For the foreseeable future, mini-episodes, recorded live and on-location at a conference or event, will come out every other Wednesday morning.
If you could be a fly on the wall of an average classroom, it’d be pretty likely that you’d hear something like “Don’t forget to study your vocab words tonight!” or “Remember to review your flashcards tonight!”
While there’s been a move away from the rote learning of yesteryear, most educators agree that having a firm grasp of content area vocabulary is still an important piece to the learning process. I think that there are two important goals for learning vocabulary in content areas: (1) retention of the words (sticky learning) and (2) application of the words.
In Episode 34 of the Educational Duct Tape Podcast, I spoke with Dr. Jared Cooney Horvath, author of Stop Talking, Start Influencing, about both of these goals.
A week after that episode came out, I was joined by dozens of “Duct Tapers” in the #EduDuctTape Twitter Chat to discuss the podcast episode, including these two goals.
Below are some strategies that you can use in your classrooms to increase your students’ ability retain and apply their vocabulary learning. Some come from the chat and others come from the episode. Continue reading Strategies for “Sticky” Vocab Learning!
I’m a big fan of the Paint Roller (Paint Format) tool in the gSuite platform. I’ve posted before about using it in Google Docs, as well as in Google Slides. I probably use it most often, though, in Google Sheets. I love a nice, organized Google Sheet and this tool helps a lot with that. My favorite part about it is that it even applies to number formatting (i.e., decimal places, date format, currency, etc.). Check it out in the animated GIF below!
Math & Chemistry teachers use Google Docs, too! And so do other content areas and teachers who integrate math and sophisticated science across content areas. And, for those peeps, there is the ability to add equations and other “mathy” symbols to Google Docs. Just click Insert > Equation.
A quick note, before we get to the GIF: Some educators will tell you that this tool could be better. And for people looking to use this functionality regularly, they’re probably right. In that case you may want to consider other tools (equatIO is a great one). But for people who just use it occasionally, I think the Equation Editor is a’okay.
Years ago, as a STEM teacher, I had my students build basswood bridges. We’d then test them by hanging weights from them. I’d submit the results to a Google Form, which would kick it to a Google Spreadsheet, where a formula was all set up to calculate the “Engineering Efficiency” (a measure that leveled the playing field between heavy, strong bridges and light, strong bridges). Unfortunately, formulas don’t automatically apply to the new rows created by new Form Submissions. I had to have a student manually drag the formula down each time a new result was submitted.
I later discovered this wonderful little add-on. It automatically pulls that formula down to a each new form submission. No manual dragging necessary. This is super, super useful when your Form & Sheet are part of a bigger system that triggers other actions in other add-ons (i.e., autoCrat, formMule) that require those formulas.
Here’s a GIF of how it works, followed by a step-by-step guide to using it:
Google Forms are great for collecting information and delivering assessments, but did you know Forms had some differentiation swag?
Yup, it’s true. Use “Go to Section Based on Answer” with a Multiple Choice question to have right answers and wrong answers lead to different sections. A general mockup of what this could look like, and steps for creating it, are below the GIF.
Steps:
General Layout:
Note: you can add multiple levels of this in one Form, but it can get hard to manage. I once created a Form that went: Question 1, Remedial Video & Question 1a, Remedial Video & Question 1b, Question 2, Remedial Video & Question 2a, Remedial Video & Question 2b, etc. As you may guess, I had to create a complex flowchart to make sure I had everything jumping to the correct places.