Recording this episode with Knikole Taylor put a huge 😃 smile 😃 on my face right when I needed it. We had so much fun talking and I think you’ll have a blast listening. You’ll barely even notice that, by the time you’re done, you will have learned about 7 different tools for #FormativeAssessment (Pear Deck, Nearpod, Jamboard, Padlet, Mentimeter, Formative, and Classkick)!
Listen on YouTube here
Today’s Sponsor:Texthelp – You can sign up for a free teacher account at text.help/equatio-fft
Bio: Knikole Taylor serves as the Instructional Technology Coordinator for Life School. Through personalized support, Mrs. Taylor works with teachers and teacher leaders to craft professional goals to extend their scope of instruction and meet the needs of all learners.
Wow. March 2020 has been quite a month. And buckle up, folks, because it looks like April is going to be more of the same.
For many educators, that means screencasts of lessons, assignments in learning management systems, and lots of time on Zoom or Google Meet.
But what about Formative Assessment? If we’re going to teach new content during these extended school closures caused by the coronavirus and COVID-19 (I’m not sure if we should, but that’s another post) then we need to know if students are comprehending that new content!
If awesome features of Quizizz was a topic on Family Feud, I’m pretty confident that the memes would make it up onto the board.
But I’m definitely confident that your students would love it if they were working on a Quizizz set as part of their #RemoteLearning (or whatever you prefer to call it) and were surprised with the sight of their teacher in the memes. Their teacher! The same teacher that they’ve been missing for the last few weeks since they were last at school. The very same teacher that they’re bummed to not get to see any time in April (and possibly longer). Whether they admit it or not, it’s a little extra touch that your students would really get a kick out of.
So, when Allison Curry suggested it in Episode 39B of the Educational Duct Tape Podcast, I fell in love with the idea. But the best part of this idea is how easy it is to pull this off! Check it out in the #EduGIF below (and the step-by-step instructions under the GIF).
In episode 33 of the Educational Duct Tape Podcast, Dr. Sheldon Eakins of the Leading Equity podcast joined me to discuss techquity, disruptive discourse and bringing culture and community into the classroom. Tech tools covered include Skype-a-Scientist, Flipgrid, Synth, Voicethread, BackChannelChat.com, Yo! Teach, Google Classroom, Padlet, Schoology, and Parlay.
Also, in the Soapbox Moment I discussed my thoughts on Flow and Motivation.
A week after the episode was released, I was joined on Twitter by an awesome crew of “Duct Tapers” who were eager to talk about the content from this episode! Below are some of the best tweets from the chat curated by Mighty DuctDavid Allan!
In episode 32 of the Educational Duct Tape Podcast, Sethi De Clercq of eduflip.net joined me to talk about effectively sharing new technology information with teachers, using video in the classroom and tools for students to create video with. We talked about EdPuzzle, screencasting tools (Nimbus & Loom), Flipgrid, Loom, Explain Everything, Backchannel Chats and more!
Also, in the Soapbox Moment I discussed my thoughts on being sure that we are Doing Better once we Know Better.
A week after the episode was released, I was joined on Twitter by an awesome crew of “Duct Tapers” who were eager to talk about the content from this episode! Below are some of the best tweets from the chat curated by Mighty DuctDavid Allan!
In episode 31 of the Educational Duct Tape Podcast, Jornea Armant, Educator Innovation Lead at Flipgrid, joined me to talk about video creation tools for students under the age of 13 and connecting the entire learning community to your classroom. Also, in the Soapbox Moment I discussed my thoughts on how we can go about moving on when a tech tool goes away.
A week after the episode was released, I was joined on Twitter by an awesome crew of “Duct Tapers” who were eager to talk about the content from this episode! Below are some of the best tweets from the chat curated by Mighty DuctDavid Allan!
In episode 30 of the Educational Duct Tape Podcast, David Ternent, a STEM teacher from Ohio, joined me to talk about 3D-modeling, 3D-printing, Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR). Also, in the Soapbox Moment, I discussed my thoughts on how becoming aware of new technology tools is much like browsing through a hardware store.
A week after the episode went live, I was joined on Twitter by an awesome crew of “Duct Tapers” who were eager to talk about the content from this episode! Below are some of the best tweets from the chat, curated by me and some of the #EduDuctTape “Mighty Ducts” volunteers.
Below, you’ll find those selected responses for each question. As always, since Q1 was silly & fun, we’ll save that one for last. Check it all out below!
A week after the episode went live, I was joined on Twitter by dozens of “Duct Tapers” who were eager to talk about the content from this episode! Below are some of the best tweets from the chat, curated by me and some of the #EduDuctTape “Mighty Ducts” volunteers.
Below, you’ll find those selected responses for each question. As always, since Q1 was silly & fun, we’ll save that one for last. Check it all out below!
We all have our irrational pet peeves. Our things that are “small potatoes” but make us want to gouge someone’s eyeballs out.
One of mine is people who don’t know how to drive in a traffic circle. You know the guy. That doofus that stays on the outside of the circle even though they’re going 75% of the way around the darn thing. Everyone sits waiting in suspense at the entrances to the circle, wondering “Will this be the lucky street that this fantastic driver turns on?” No one can tell. It literally could be any exit. And we all have to stay out of Captain Doofus’ way because you just… don’t… know.
“Hey Kids, Big Ben! Parliament!” – GIF from giphy.com, originally from the 1985 movie National Lampoon’s European Vacation
Anyhow, I digress. One day I was entering a traffic circle and there he was. Captain Doofus. I started to mutter driving instructions for him. “Stay to the inside until you near your exit, dude!” At one point, while starting to yell out, “How do you not know how a traffic circle works, doofus!?” I realized . . . a lot of people do it wrong. And if that many people don’t follow the same process that I follow in a traffic circle, are they wrong . . . or is the traffic circle itself wrong?
If like 25% of users can’t use something correctly, the design itself needs to be reevaluated. This reminded me of education (as things tend to do). I can remember grading tests and groaning “ugh, they all got this question wrong!” After further reflection, I’d often realize that either the question was unintentionally confusing or my instruction had led them astray.
That’s an oft-forgotten reason that we do formative assessment. Not just to assess our learners, but to assess our instruction and content. If a large portion of our learners are confused, we need to re-think our strategies, design and assessment.
Unsurprisingly, there are a few recently built traffic circles in my area that have signs, lanes and arrows painted in the lanes. If the drivers were using the traffic circle wrong, you’ve got to change the traffic circle . . . because you can’t change all of the drivers! And these newer circles changed to accommodate the users.
The moral of the story – Captain Doofus may not be a doofus. You may have just designed a really confusing traffic circle. Or he may have attended a crumby driving school. But your best move is to design a more doofus-friendly traffic circle.
FlipGrid is a platform where (1) teacher poses a prompt or question, (2) students access that “grid” with a code, (3) students record their response, (4) students view each other’s responses and (5) students can comment on or like classmate’s response(s).
Amy’s example of the students showing, describing and explaining Chemistry lab experiments/demonstrations was phenomenal. On her first attempt out of the gate, she went above and beyond the “record a video response” format.
So, I’m getting in on the action. At this link, you’ll see a prompt from me. Hopefully, you’ll also see other professionals’ responses. And, even more hopefully (if that makes sense), you’ll record you response. I can’t want to hear what you share!!
