Teaching Techies

If you’re anything like me, I’m always looking for new ways to get my students engaged in meaningful (on-task) discussion. While traditional group discussions have their place, I like to mix it up a bit to keep my students interested and participating. A chalk talk is a discussion protocol for students to communicate their ideas while also practicing their writing skills. Did I mention that this is a silent discussion activity?

Here’s how a traditional chalk talk works:

1. Post several pieces of chart paper on the walls around the room. You can also do this on whiteboards with dry erase markers if you have them. In the center, write down the question (or quote, or picture…you get the idea) that you want students to discuss.
2. Have students silently consider the prompt and write down their responses.
3. Students rotate to different groups, commenting on each other’s posts to the prompts. They can add new responses to the prompts, agree or disagree with others, and draw meaningful connections.
4. When you are satisfied with the discussion, have students reflect on the ideas that they shared with each other. This can be done individually as a journal entry, or as a verbal discussion with a peer or group.

Why make it digital?

By taking the premise of this chalk talk and applying it digitally, students can easily discuss their ideas with any of their peers in their classroom or other classes. One obvious benefit is that it makes managing the discussions a whole lot easier – students aren’t tempted to sneak off to the side and try to shoot the breeze with their bestie that you’ve been strategically been keeping seated at the exact opposite end of the classroom all year. In addition to making classroom management easier, it also opens up more resources for your students. Not only can students add their own comments to discussions, but they can also add relevant videos, images, songs, and other media to their discussion posts.

Sounds great, but how do I facilitate a digital chalk talk?

This is where Padlet comes in! Padlet is kind of like a collaborative, digital bulletin board. When you create your first board, you’ll choose your background and see a “bulletin board” like this one:

On the right navigation menu, you’ll notice a set of features that are extremely useful for helping you monitor the conversation.

Once you have your board and settings in place, it’s time to add your prompts. This could include questions, videos, images – whatever you want your students to discuss! To do this, you will click on the plus sign in the bottom-right corner of your screen:

In the “sticky note” that pops up, write the prompt that you want to add to the board for your students to answer. You can also click on the media links to add images, videos, and gifs to your post. It’s a good idea to title your posts in a unique way to help students distinguish which “sticky notes” are the original prompts. When you’re done adding your prompts, your might look something like this:

Now you have your chalk talk ready for your students to start discussing! Click the share link in the top right corner of your screen, give your students the link, and let them start posting using the same steps that you used to create your prompts. If you want to continue exploring other features of Padlet, check out this Padlet tutorial for teachers:

What are some other ways that you have used online discussions in your classroom?

Who doesn’t love a good, healthy competition?

Incorporating games into the classroom is a great way to engage students and get them excited about their learning. My easiest teaching days are the ones centered around games or some kind of competition – when the kids are excited about what they’re doing, disruptions and other behavioral issues tend to disappear. But not only does gamifying your classroom make your job easier, it’s also loaded with benefits for your students! Check out “6 Reasons Why Administrators Should Support Games in the Classroom” for research-supported reasons why bringing games into your classroom is a great idea! (Like the infographic? Create your own for free using Piktochart.)

Okay, I get it, games are great, but what’s a Kahoot!?

Kahoot! is a free tool that allows you to quickly and easily create trivia games and quizzes for your students to play. Quiz questions pop up on your computer or interactive white board, students have a set amount of time to plug in their answer choice, and when the time is up, the correct answer pops up as well as an updated ranking of all the teams playing. As an English teacher, I’ve found that this is a great way to review vocabulary, test knowledge of literary terms, or practice close-reading with multiple choice responses. It takes no time at all for me to create a new quiz, plug in the answer choices, add a few fun pictures and sounds, and that’s it! Also, Kahoot! has a great selection of pre-made quizzes that you can choose from. You can even go a step further and edit any of the quizzes from the Kahoot! database, giving you the chance to tailor the quiz to match your classroom needs and style. Take a look at the screenshot below to see a few quizzes that are already out there, ready for you to use:

What tools do I need to be able to use Kahoot!?

To get your kids started, you will need access to technology in your classroom. In the past, I’ve allowed students to use cellphones to access the quiz when I worked at schools with a BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) policy. If that’s not an option, you can easily play your Kahoot! using student laptops. If laptops are limited, I create teams of students who can work together to answer the questions using one laptop per group. If students are 1:1 technology, then I have them play individually (this is a great way to check for understanding and identify opportunities for reteaching!).

Okay, I’m ready to make my own Kahoot!

Remember that you can always choose and modify a pre-existing Kahoot! game from the Kahoot! database, but if you want to create your own quiz, it’s quick and easy. Create your free account with Kahoot!, have some quiz questions handy, and watch this quick tutorial to guide you in creating your first game!

Now that you have your first quiz ready for your students, it’s a good idea to know how to play it! Follow these easy steps to have your students playing their first Kahoot!:

1. On your computer, go to “My Kahoots” and select the game you’d like to play. You will be provided with a pin to give to your students.
2. Have students go to https://kahoot.it/ and type in the game pin.
3. Once everyone has logged in, start your Kahoot!

That’s it! You’re now ready to gamify your classroom and play your first Kahoot!. What other tools have you used to gamify your teaching?

I still recall sitting in my principal’s office, nervously awaiting the first day of school only a few days away. As a kid, I always looked forward to school starting up again (yep, I was THAT kid): seeing the friends that I had missed over the summer, the excitement of having classes together with friends, and fresh school supplies (…I told you I was that kid).

Years later, being on the other side of the classroom was a much more daunting undertaking. I couldn’t help but worry…will I be able to keep forty kids engaged and on task? Will they like my class? Will they learn enough? Will I be able to inspire them like my own teachers had done so effortlessly? My principal understood my worries, but left me with one piece of advice: connect with your students. You can create all of the lessons you want, but if your students aren’t engaged in the material, then they’re not learning.

So, how do I engage my students?

There are tons of different ways you can capture your students’ attention, but one strategy that’s consistently effective in my room is incorporating videos into the lesson. Let’s face it: our students grew up on computers and tablets, so why not leverage those interests in the classroom? Websites such as TeacherTube.com and TeachersPayTeachers.com offer ready-made videos that teachers can incorporate into their lesson plans, but making your own videos is easy to do and can be tailored specifically to your style. In another post, I wrote about the ways in which you can use Camtasia to create engaging videos for your students, but Powtoons is another great tool that you can use to easily create your own video lessons – and it’s free!

I recently used Powtoons in my own classroom to teach my students about developing theme statements. Theme is always a tough one for middle-school students. Whenever I assign students to write a theme statement about a text, I tend to end up with an insightful collection of “Don’t judge a book by its cover,” “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger,” and my personal favorite, “Violence is never the answer.” In order to help my students dig deeper into theme, I use a strategy called 2Q2T, or Two Questions to Theme. The ideas is that students will ask themselves two questions about the text in order to guide them towards the theme statement.

Those two questions are:

1. What is the text about?

1. What is the author trying to tell me about ________ (answer from number one)?

To learn more about 2Q2T, watch this Powtoons video that I created for my students to help them develop theme statements about our text, The Call of the Wild. In the video, I explain how students use this two-question strategy to guide them in writing and identifying strong theme statements.

If you’re interested in creating your own videos for your classroom using Powtoons, check out this tutorial to get started on your own:

What videos have you used in your own classroom to engage students in learning new skills?

Last week, I announced to my seventh graders that we would be starting literature circles the week we came back from Spring Break. Not unexpectedly, I was met with a chorus of groans at having to read a new book, much of which would be taking place at home. However, fifteen minutes later, I had a class full of students who were excited about their upcoming texts. The trick? Using multimedia to engage students in their upcoming books. Specifically, I used Camtasia to create a compilation of book previews to get students excited about their books. Students weren’t digging for something eye-catching on a dusty old book jacket with years of aged doodles and graffiti littering the cover; instead, they watched engaging book previews that brought the books to life and helped students to get excited about the magic beyond the cover.

What’s Camtasia?

Camtasia is an easy-to-use, video-editing tool that allows you to create video presentations. Not only can you import and upload videos, but you can also record your own screen and add your own narration. Add in a few nifty transitions and animations, and you have a high-quality, engaging video sure to capture your students’ attention. A free-trial version of the tool allows you to create videos with a watermark for free for a certain period of time, or you can enjoy an educator discount to get a more affordable version of this accessible, impactful, and effective tool.

So, why would this be helpful in the classroom?

I created a video using Camtasia to allow my students to watch “previews” of their book options. I want to point out that I didn’t have to craft any of these previews myself – I saved some book previews that others had posted on YouTube, added in a few of my own descriptions of the books as needed, and put them all together (see credits and the end of the video). Check out the book preview video here:

In class, students watched the video, jotted down some notes about what caught their attention, and ranked their top book choices. This is the book selection form I had my students use to help them keep track of what they liked about each book:

By the end of the previews, students were excitedly talking about what book they couldn’t wait to read. Spending less than an hour of my own time creating this video was totally worth it to have all of my students excited about their upcoming books! Without a doubt, I will use Camtasia for all of my future literature circle selections. Interested in trying it out? Camtasia offers a free trial for giving their software a go. There are also tons of online tutorials walking you through the steps of creating your own professional-quality video – check out this one below:

My students really enjoyed the book previews, and they even want to create their own book preview videos when they finish reading their books. As a culminating project, I’m thinking about using Camtasia to piece together their videos to show next year’s seventh graders – what a fun way to pass on their excitement about learning to the next class! What other ways do you think you could use Camtasia in your classroom to increase student engagement?

If you’re not already using Google Drive in your classroom, go create an account now – really! Google Drive is a fantastic tool for both teachers and students. When I first signed up for an account a few years ago and blindly made my way through the different features, it wasn’t immediately clear to me what a game-changer it would be. However, now that I’ve had the opportunity to realize the different capabilities that it provides me with, there was no doubt in my mind that Google Drive would be my first tech tool post.

So, what is it?

Google Drive is essentially an online storage space that you can share with others. You can store files, folders, presentations, spreadsheets – pretty much any file you can think of. That file folder next to your desk that’s brimming with papers and confiscated fidget spinners? Ditch it and stay organized with digital storage. Not only can you organize and store your own files, but you can also share your folders and files with other users. When you’re sharing files and folders with others, it’s easy to designate whether you want the other user to have viewing, commenting, or editing privileges to meet the needs of your project. Want to share project instructions with students? Set the privileges to “view only” and send it off – no need to worry about students accidentally altering your perfectly crafted assignment. Need to collaborate on lesson plans with another teacher? Set your sharing to “editing” privileges and you can all get working – and at the same time! This makes planning sessions a breeze, and teachers can divide and conquer their assignments while collaborating with their peers.

Finally, Google Drive offers its own suite of tools. No more banging your head against the desk because your ancient school laptop didn’t come with Office licenses – Google Drive has the equivalent of every Office tool and more. For me, the absolute best part of Google Drive is using it in conjunction with Google Classroom. Google Classroom is easy to use, and it’s free for educators (just get your principal’s permission before signing your school up if you don’t already use it). You can share worksheets, resources, and self-grading quizzes directly with your students (did I mention the quizzes are self-grading?) all using your Google Drive account. For students who receive accommodations and modifications, it’s easy to share unique assignments with specific students. This is a great way to ensure that you’re truly meeting the needs of your students. Finally, by losing the paper and going digital, no more worrying about jammed copy machines or lugging around papers – everything is done online, and students can even access their work from their cellphones. Want to learn more? Check out this resource for teachers on incorporating Google Classroom into your daily instruction.

What tricks and tips do you have for using Google Drive or Google Education? How do you make the most of Google to meet the individual needs of your students?

Hi everyone, and welcome to my new blog here at Teaching Techies! Thanks for joining me.

If you have knowledge, let others light their candles in it. – Margaret Fuller

While working on my graduate degree in learning design and technology at Purdue University, I have had the opportunity to learn how to use and implement tons of new technology tools in my classroom. Not only have I learned how to use e-authoring and content development programs such as Articulate Storyline and Adobe Captivate, but also accessible, online tools that are a great resource for any K-12 educator.

There are lots of reasons why it’s a good idea to incorporate technology into your classroom:

1. Lots of online tools provide educators with easy ways to differentiate content down to the individual student. This means you can meet the needs of every student in the room – supporting those that need extra support and challenging those who have already mastered the material.
2. Our students are “digital natives,” and not only are they proficient in using computers and tablets, they love to use them, too! By capturing students’ attention, you’re setting the stage for student engagement and learning.
3. Technology provides students a world of knowledge at their fingertips, and it also gives teachers the opportunity to teach students how to use the internet and information responsibly.
4. Online tools and resources provide more opportunities for students to collaborate. While there are many great discussion protocols and collaborative approaches we can use in the traditional classroom, technology opens students up to the world – literally. Students can use tools such as Google Classroom and Padlet to collaborate with their classroom peers, and communication platforms like FaceTime and Skype can give students the opportunity to share their ideas and work together with students from other schools, other states, and other countries.
5. Technology makes teachers’ lives easier, even if you think you’re not tech savvy! Like anything, learning to use technology is a skill. Once you get the hang of implementing digital tools in your classroom, you’ll find that classroom management is easier, grading is simplified, students are learning more, and…no more fighting the copy machine that always seems to jam five minutes before your next class starts.

There are many other reasons why it’s a great idea to incorporate technology into the classroom, and this blog will focus on various tools that you can incorporate into your instruction and how to do it. While this blog will focus on implementing technology in the English Language Arts and Reading classroom, these tools and principles can be applied to any discipline.

I decided to create this blog not only to share the tools I’ve discovered, but also to demonstrate how these tools can be used with students and share examples of lessons I’ve used in my classroom. Our students today are truly digital natives, and by incorporating technology into our instruction, we can engage them in the learning experience.

What are some ways that you’ve implemented technology in your own classroom? Share your successes and lessons learned below!