Thing 29: Student Response

Flipgrid is one of those tools that I keep hearing about, and have put on my list of things to check out #IfYouLearnedHere.  I love how this created an easy platform for students all over the world to see and hear from each other as they built their understanding of a globally relevant topic.  I would love to see our students connect with students in other countries for a project like this.  I am working on connecting one of our Spanish teachers here with an English language teacher in Colombia to have ongoing Skype communication, and this could be a nice addition to that project.

several times, but haven't actually seen in action or had the opportunity to use yet.  Having it here, with some example links, has put it back on my radar.  Because one of my goals for next year is to focus on Global Literacy throughout my program I was particularly inspired by the example I found of

I would also like to use Flipgrid locally as students come back to school in the fall to follow up on their "Super Summer Reading".  My promotion for this summer has been themed around superheroes, and I would love to ask students to "Introduce us to a hero from your summer reading" on a Flipgrid and then share that on our social media and website to build that communication.  My struggle is with ordering it before testing it out, so I am delaying signing up for the trial until students are coming back, so I can try it in a meaningful way before paying for it.  

Padlet is one of my favorite tools to use and share!  It is so easy to use and quick to create that it is a no brainer for sharing with teachers and using when I work with students.  One of the ways I used it this year was in generating "Need to Know" questions with students after sharing an essential question.  I have also used it in professional development to build the conversation,  I am excited to explore the new Padlet Backpack version, specifically the "Student Reports and Portfolios" and the "Analytics" sections, neither of which are released yet, but are both coming soon.

Another tool that I have recently learned about, and am particularly excited to share with The King's School, a small Christian school that I work with on PD, is Plickers.  One of our teachers here at Lake George has used it and really enjoyed the student engagement and ability to access analytics this provides.  This seems particularly ideal for classrooms where there are limited devices, but teachers still want to connect and collaborate with students through technology.  The feedback in particular makes this a great tool.  I think that I will use this next year with my 8th grade book projects instead of the more traditional "ticket out the door" questions.  I will then have more usable data that I can use to build on what they know or what they haven't understood.
I tried this tool out with our incoming 7th graders for their 15 minute library visit today, and it was very easy to use and made the short time meaningful.  I asked students four questions about their reading interests and habits, and I will use the information to develop meaningful book talks and book groups in the fall.  This also gave several teachers an opportunity to witness this tool in action, and I look forward to sharing the feedback with them.  Lots of great possibilities to explore!