#TCEA16 Favorite Finds

As usual, the TCEA annual conference was a great week full of learning! Here are a few of my favorite finds:

Newsela – This website provides daily news articles with a twist…the teacher or reader can adjust the article to one of five different reading levels with the click of a button. This means that everyone gets the content at an appropriate level. Teachers can also create a class account in order to gain more features. With a class account, teachers have the ability to assign articles and their corresponding quiz and/or open ended writing prompt to students. There is also Newsela for Elementary. 

QBall – A few of the presenters had a new way to interact with session participants. The QBall is a small, throwable, squishy ball that’s actually a wireless microphone. Presenters would toss the ball out in the crowd for people to answer questions and provide feedback and then toss to the next participant. It was FUN! The ball was originally created for teachers as a fun, interactive way to engage students in the classroom, but it can definitely be a fun addition to faculty meetings!

(click here for video)

Formative - Formative is a formative assessment tool that will work on any device. Teachers can build content for an assessment or homework. Much like other formative assessment tools, there are a variety of question types. However, Formative provides a "show your work" feature where students can draw their responses. As the teacher, you can actually see the students' "show your work" responses in real time, even before they submit. Another unique feature of Formative is that teachers can upload PDF, Word, or Google Doc and add content and/or questions to the file. Results can be exported as an Excel file. 

(click here for video)

Even as an attendee of the conference, it's impossible to attend every session. Luckily, TCEA has provided links to session handouts. Click here to check them out.

Response Systems

Socrative 2.0 beta version and the new features of Poll Everywhere put these two student response systems at the top of the list for my favorite tools to use in the classroom. Greg Kulowiec, from EdTechTeacher, shares why student response systems are important in the classroom:

1. Response systems provide a check for student understanding.
2. Response systems make student thinking visible.
3. Response systems provide efficient feedback (and immediate if needed).
4. Response systems increase human interaction and debate.
5. Response systems create student-generated understanding.

Socrative 2.0 Beta Version 

Socrative 2.0 now allows students to skip, edit and navigate the assessment questions; the 1.0 version did not allow for student navigation or students to edit their answers. Teachers are now able to see a detailed view of how students are performing in real time as a group or per question; the 1.0 version only allowed teachers to see when students completed questions not how they answered the question. Below are some resources of what the new version looks like and how to get started. 

Socrative How To Guide: (click here)

Scan this QR code to see the new features of Socrative 2.0 or click this link to view video.




Poll Everywhere - New Features
Poll Everywhere has some exciting new features but before sharing I'd like to make a few recommendations:

• Push polls to students using the web address instead of the texting codes. 
• Here's what makes that important...teachers can put the unique web address on a board at the front of the room and the code never changes for the students. 
• Students can save the web address to their phone home screen, and it is all they need to access your polls being pushed. By the way, polls aren't started until you push them.
• Hide results from students
• This allows for efficient feedback and the possibility of debate on that particular question.

My new favorite feature is the Clickable Images Poll. This poll allows the audience to respond by clicking or tapping the image uploaded. This is great for questions where a picture (map, chart, graph, etc.) is needed to provide context. The results look like a heat map. Anywhere a student touches the screen a pin is dropped on that area. To see the Clickable Image Poll in action, click this link.



To read more about the new features in Poll Everywhere, click here.

Side by Side Differences between Poll Everywhere and Socrative. (This chart will help determine which platform is needed per activity in the classroom)

Be sure to visit with a CISD Instructional Technology Specialist for a demo and ideas on how to implement this in your classroom.

Infuse Learning: A Virtual Student Response System

 I am excited to share with you InfuseLearning.  Move over Socrative, PollEverywhere, and other student response systems.  It just got easier.  InfuseLearning is the newest virtual tool for this job in the classroom.  It is empowering yet simple to use.  The online tool allows you to push questions, pictures, prompts, and quizzes to each student device.  School districts that are lucky enough to have classroom sets of mobile devices, laptops, or have a successful BYOD program set up are able to use this tool easily.  It provides a platform that allows teachers to engage every student on any device. It is not limited by location or device.  Real-time student feedback, enhanced interest, differentiation, and effective questioning are all part of this tool.

• Quick Assessment, sometimes called on- the- fly questioning, can come in the form of Draw Response, True/False, Multiple Choice, Sort in Order, Open Ended Text Answer, Numeric, and Likert Scale.
• The ability to send a weblink or a math problem to every student device is part of the Interactive tools.
• Quizzes can be created ahead of time and then pushed to the student devices.
• Quiz Results can be downloaded to a spreadsheet and saved.
• The teacher has the ability to see each student response, including how they solved the problem you pushed to them.

Teachers go to:   http://www.infuselearning.com/ to register for free.

Teachers go to:   http://teacher.infuselearning.com/ to set up quizzes and receive your student room number.

Students go to:  http://student.infuselearning.com/ and wait for quizzes and questions to be pushed down to them.

 

One side note:  It must be used with browsers other than Internet Explorer.  You can use Chrome or Firefox with no problem.  You will get an error with IE.