BloomBoard: A Great Resource for Teachers

After teaching third grade for the past 14 years, I made the switch to fifth grade this school year.  I am truly enjoying getting to know a new curriculum and feeling rejuvenated.  With that being said, I have also spent a TON of time searching for resources to support my curriculum and build background knowledge. As with most things, when you have a question or need ideas, what do you do?  I bet you Google it, which also means, you are probably on a mini-scavenger hunt to scan and search for quality resources.  I recently found out about a great resource for educators that is a huge timesaver!  BloomBoard is a place for educators to learn, share, and discuss educational topics, resources, and ideas!

Instead of digging around the web for quality sites, games, articles, videos, etc., BloomBoard has collections created by educators that focus on topics relevant to education.  There are content-specific categories with awesome resources, but what drew me in even more, was the focus on broader topics like: Educating the Whole Child, Maintaining Professional Happiness, Building Strong School Culture, etc. What’s even cooler is that you can follow certain topics of interests, save and share resources, and even earn micro-credentials, which some school districts are using for PD credits.

I created a collection on Formative Assessment called “Formative Assessment Can Be Fun” highlighting two of my favorite tools, Plickers and Kahoot, as well as several articles and videos showcasing ways students can have fun while being assessed.  Here are some of the highlighted tools.

• If your students don’t have access to devices, Plickers is the tool for you.  Also, they just launched an amazing new feature with Scoresheet, which makes data collection far more flexible and user-friendly!
• Kahoot has been a student favorite for several years. My students are now creating their own Kahoots to quiz fellow classmates, as well as lead book club discussions.
• C. Ross Flatt and his sixth-grade students were featured in an Edutopia video highlighting game-based assessment.  He not only showcases the fun way assessment can be administered, but he also has links to his game for teachers to print off from the main blog post.
• David Wees, a formative assessment specialist, shared a presentation with 56 ways to assess, complete with visual examples.

Overall, my collection has many great resources featured that will help you in finding the formative assessment tool(s) that are right for you!  Like many of the BloomBoard collections, you can find resources to help you everyday needs in education, connect with like-minded educators, and help improve your practices.

Check out the BloomBoard blog. You can check it out to get links to the blogs that that have already been featured, as well as check out the schedule of featured bloggers for next week that will be posted on Monday. You can also follow along daily on Facebook and Twitter.

Tomorrow's featured blogger is Jennifer Gonzalez. Jennifer Gonzalez is a National Board Certified Teacher, a former middle-school language arts teacher and college-level teacher of teachers, and the creator of Cult of Pedagogy, a website devoted to helping teachers do their work better.

Scoresheet: Plickers Newest Feature!

For the past couple of years, I have used Plickers as a formative assessment tool.  It was one of those tools that hooked me the first time I used it, and I have integrated it into my classroom ever since.  If you are not familiar with Plickers, here is a quick overview.

• You can print off Plicker cards (or purchase a durable set) for each student in your class. Each card has options for an A-D multiple choice answer. Students make sure the correct answer is pointed up. 
• You can create questions and answers ahead of time and schedule them for a specific group, or you can create questions on the spot through the app. 
• Once you communicate the question to your class, you can use the app and your devices camera to scan the cards the students are holding. As you scan, the data pops up on the screen creating a bar graph with the overall progress, but also shows the answers of each student. This allows you to reteach on the spot or spark a conversation for students to explain their thinking. 

The great thing about Plickers is that all of the questions that you assign and scan are archived.  When you go to your www.Plickers.com account, you are able to see the answers and data collected. I have been able to use the data for report cards, conversations with parents, and for curriculum planning. Last month, Plickers added an awesome new feature called Scoresheet in their reports menu.  This has made Plickers even better! Why you ask?

1. The data from each question is now displayed in a gradebook format that allows many questions to viewed at the same time and can be customized for date ranges. 
2. I now have the ability to check the boxes of the questions I would like to use and a total percentage or point value will be calculated.  This is helpful for standards based grading, as I am able to choose the questions that match the standard and see the overall score, regardless if the the questions were all assigned at the same time.
3. While looking at the Scoresheet, you can still get a view of the question in a sidebar, along with the overall progress of the class displayed in bar graph form. 
4. Finally, the scores can now be exported into a .csv file and can be used for other gradebook  programs. 

Here is what the gradebook looks like...minus my students' names. 

They have scored big with me in this new update!  Go and check it out for yourself! 

ISTE 2014: Thank-You for Valuing Teachers!

I am a blogger that blogs when I am excited about things.  After 5 days in Atlanta for ISTE 2014, my head is full of blogs that I can’t wait to write. However, I also have 2 young ones that haven’t seen their mom in a while.

Though I would love to spend all day composing my thoughts while they are fresh, the reality is, I need to transform from the EdTech Cheerleader to Mom. Ideally, I am going to try and take a few moments out of each day to work on my blog posts, but I also know the holiday weekend is here, which also means family time and fun! So here is my first ISTE 2014 blog post with hopefully more to follow.

One of the greatest things about ISTE is meeting the founders of the apps and digital tools we use in the classroom. When I meet them, I can’t wait to talk to them and let them know how they have impacted my classroom. They are like celebrities to me, as I am so impressed with their innovation, risk-taking, and impact on education. I would like to take this time to highlight a few of them that impacted my ISTE 2014 experience.

Write About This:

One of my great EdTech friends that I met years ago at EdCamp Detroit is the creator of Write About This and Tell About This, Brad Wilson.  If you haven’t checked it out, it is one of my favorite tools to use in my third grade classroom.  Not only can children respond to tons of high quality prompts, but students and teachers can also create their own prompts.  This has been great to use when writing reflections, taking notes during science experiments, and responding to our reading. It is EASY to use and my kids love it!

2 of my students wanted my iPad while we were waiting to be called into the Michigan State Board of Education meeting.  Instead of playing a game, they chose to use Write About This! 

Remind:

Another Michigan connection, as he graduated from MSU, is Brett Kopf , co-founder of Remind (formerly Remind 101).  I had the wonderful opportunity to meet him at my first ISTE, which was in 2012 in San Diego. After that I got to know both Brett and his product manager, Christine Garland very well while visiting conferences! They were, and continue to be, so great at grassroots marketing, and in reflection...one of the best I have witnessed!  Smiles can be found on their faces wherever they are, and I am so proud of their growth as a company.  They have expanded their team, and I have enjoyed getting to know the wonderful staff members they have added.  This ISTE I was able to get to know Clara Galan better over a coffee meet-up with others, which was a treat! If you see the Remind team out and about, definitely take the time to say hi.  They are a welcoming crew and truly have great minds and caring hearts!

Plickers: 

In March I came across Plickers, and I was soooo excited about it, I jumped on my computer to write a post about it right after school! (Click here to read it and learn about Plickers.) In Atlanta, I saw some people walking on the streets with Plicker shirts, and I was going to approach them, but I was also running late, so I decided to wait.  After the EdTech Karaoke party, I ran into a young man with the shirt on.  When I asked him, “Are you the Plickers guy?” He said, "Yes," and I squealed with delight, as I love, love, love the tool and the quality technology that it includes.   In short, you can print off ½ sheet QR codes that are numbered for your students.  Each side of the code as an A, B, C, or D. When you ask a question, students make sure the side that is the answer they want points up. Using the camera on your device, you can scan the class and the results will be recorded and even graphed instantly...while you are still viewing your kids through the screen!  It is AWESOME! Plickers only has to be on 1 device, so if you are a teacher with no wifi, but have a smartphone or a teacher that lacks a 1-to-1 environment...this is the tool for you!

I was so excited when I first used it, I ran and got my wonderful co-worker, Jennifer Bonkowski, to have her demo it!  

Nolan Amy is the founder of Plickers, and he was just as excited to meet me...something I had not encountered before.  Then I was able to meet Jenn Kim, another team member of Plickers. They were awesome!  I used Plickers in my Digital Tools for Formative Assessment session at EdCamp Detroit, and Plickers was a hit.  I am a true fan, and I can’t wait to see them grow in the educational world in the near future! The icing on the cake was we figured out that we were in the same hotel...and right next door to each other!  ISTE Neighbors! What are the odds?

Padlet: 

It was surprising to me that founders of apps and websites are equally excited to meet teachers.  In fact, sometimes even shy and intimidated to approach.  That is crazy to me, as I would think it would be the other way around.  Hanging out in the Blogger’s Cafe prior to the closing keynote, Nitesh Goel, the founder of Padlet (formerly Wallwisher) introduced himself. Again, when I found out he was the creator of Padlet, I was honored to be in the presence of such an amazing app developer.  Not only that, but I had no clue he created Wallwisher as a college project!  Wow! What an impact he was able to make at such a young age! (I found this interview which tells his story.) I shared the ways Padlet has been used in my class...and even during Vacation Bible School at my church! He was so excited to meet me, which again, was crazy! I am not a teacher that has thousands and thousands of followers on Twitter.  Having the last name of Bond, as you can imagine, is a fun conversational piece. On my daughter's birth announcement DVD, I even joked that she liked her bottles "Shaken not stirred." However, I had never really taken a Bond photo until I met Nitesh.

Meeting the people behind the digital awesomeness of these companies is one of the things I love about educational technology.  Their stories are amazing, their impact in education is inspirational, and they also have something in common...modesty.  Though they may not be giants in the educational world, they have made a great impact in my life, and they are well on their way to growing by leaps and bounds.

In April of 2010, I was an early adopter of a digital learning platform that changed the culture of my classroom.  I shared my love for it at conferences all over, including my very first ISTE!  4 years later, I am still one of their biggest fans!  Edmodo had my heart when they were just a toddler in this EdTech world, and through the years they have grown into a huge company impacting millions of educators and students around the world.  Despite their growth, I have remained connected and truly feel part of the Edmodo family.  I feel valued and appreciated...something that I don’t always feel in my normal life as a teacher in this educational world.

Edmodo Cheer at my first ISTE! Notice the handmade bow complete with puffy painted icons! 

So thank-you Write About This, Remind, Plickers, Padlet, and Edmodo...thank-you for making me feel like I matter!  It means a lot! For those of you who have opportunities to meet the faces behind EdTech tools...go for it!  They can be a wonderful member of your PLN!

Smore and Plickers...Great Tools for Teachers!

Smore is a great way to create digital newsletters and flyers.  I have been using Smore for almost 2 years now, and I just can't say enough good things about it!  With Smore, you can easily create attractive flyers and newsletters that include video, photos, titles with hyperlinks, text, buttons, forms, and many other neat tools! In addition, you can easily share your flyers using social media, unique urls, or embed codes.  My families enjoy reading these, especially when they include fun videos and photos!

Plickers was mentioned briefly last weekend on Edmodo, and I wanted to give it a try.  Unfortunately,  I did not remember the name of the app and spent quite a while trying to come across it online.  Luckily, someone else posted a reply to it on Edmodo, and it came up in my notifications again!  I jumped right in to pilot mode yesterday, and we gave it a whirl.  After reading a passage about the Detroit Flag, I typed questions right into the app.  It was great and worked very well!  I was so excited I immediately went next door to show my coworker Jennifer!  We then used it with our read aloud, and I asked questions while we read.  It was a very easy way to assess!

To combine both of these tools, I created a Smore with the theme of Plickers.  Take a look!