Tag Archive for: Assessment

Using Technology in My Classroom

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With the rapid advance of technology, teachers are being encouraged to use educational apps and devices to supplement their instruction. This may cause educators to feel a range of emotion: “Great, I love technology!”, “Ugh, that is a lot to learn and I don’t have time”, “No way! I am sticking to pencil and paper.” Regardless of your response, technology has become a crucial part of our everyday life, so how do we incorporate it in the classroom?

When I entered the classroom, I was overwhelmed and the thought of adding technology into my lessons was daunting. However, my campus had a technology initiative, so I learned about some amazing educational apps that increased student engagement, and made my lessons more fun. One of the most interactive and engaging tools I used was called Nearpod.

 

What is Nearpod?

Nearpod is a free shared presentation and assessment tool. The app’s concept is simple. A teacher can create presentations (similar to PowerPoints), which can include quizzes, polls, videos, images, drawing boards, web content and more. The interactive presentation is then shared with students on their devices[1].

How does it work?

To start, teachers create a free account on nearpod.com. They can then import presentations they have already created, create a new presentation within Nearpod, or use one of the thousands of already created lessons housed within the website. Traditional slideshows can be spiced up with polls, quizzes, virtual reality field trips, drawing boards, fill in the blank questions, open ended questions, web content, and 3D objects.

Once a presentation is ready to be shared, the teacher can “launch” it from the Nearpod website. This will give your classroom a code and allow students to sign into the lesson from their device. That’s when the fun begins! Students will have your presentation on their screens and be able to follow along, answer questions, and actively participate throughout the entire lesson. While students are answering questions the teacher is able to see responses and address any misunderstandings or share exemplary answers directly with the class on their devices, making Nearpod a great tool for formative assessment in the classroom.

For more on how Nearpod works, check out this short video.

What are its benefits?

Not only is Nearpod free and easy to use, it has other features that make it a beneficial resource for educators. This app works in any classroom, no matter the subject or grade level. No complicated student login is required, so students don’t have to remember any passwords, saving valuable instructional time and eliminating potential confusion. Because each student uses their own device, it is possible to ensure 100% participation and allow students to take ownership of their learning in a new way. Nearpod also makes it quick and easy to assess individual students and class performance on standards, which immediately informs teaching.

How do I start?

To avoid feeling overwhelmed, it’s best to integrate Nearpod into lessons slowly. This may mean trying it out for one lesson a week, or even one lesson a month. Do not try to overcompensate and do too much. It’s far better to gradually build up your Nearpod activity as you feel comfortable/ as it is appropriate. In fact, this is true for any new technology you want to add to your class.

Nearpod’s mission is to empower educators to create learning experiences that engage and inspire millions of students around the world[2]. I would love to hear how you use this resource in your classroom!

To learn more about Nearpod and how to incorporate it into your classroom, click here.

Chelsea VanBuskirk
TeachBeyond: School Services Department Facilitator
TeachBeyond, Global

[1] Teachers and students need a device and Internet access in order to access this app.
[2] “Nearpod – Building Engaging Learning Experiences for Everyone.” Nearpod – Create, Engage, Assess through Mobile Devices, nearpod.com/about.

Photo Credits: Tablet. Secretaria Municipal de Saúde de Porto Alegre Flickr via Compfight cc.

Mapping out success through formative assessment

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One of my favourite apps for navigation is Waze. This app not only provides step-by-step directions, but also adjusts the path based on current traffic situations. This serves as an excellent analogy for how teachers should use formative assessments in their classroom; they determine the best route needed to insure that students arrive at the final destination, which is deep understanding.  map

Many teachers understand what formative assessments are, but they struggle with how to implement them in their classrooms. Formative assessments come in all different forms; basically anything that is used by teachers to determine their students’ understandings, beliefs, and attitudes about their content is considered formative.

As a teacher, I enjoy gleaning ideas from other teachers. Below, I have described three of my favorite formative assessment tools. I will also include a link to a Google presentation that has a myriad of other ideas. Google Presentation – Formative Assessment

Exit Slip – Focused Content Summary: Exit slips are an amazing tool to see what students have learned in a given class period. One of the tools I have used to help students summarise their learning is to have them first list words that they learned and heard throughout the class period. I then ask them to write a summary paragraph including the words that they listed. I have found that doing this first step helps them to be more focused in their writing. As a teacher, I can read the students’ responses to see if they understand the lesson. This can lead to another one of my favourite formative assessment tools – My Favourite No.

My Favourite No- In this strategy, the teacher reads through a formative assessment that they previously gave in class (this could be a bell ringer or an exit slip), and identifies an example(s) to share with the class. “My favourite no” would be a response that exhibits a misconception or common mistake. By sharing this with the class, the teacher establishes an environment that welcomes mistakes and gives the teacher an opportunity to demonstrate how to correct the mistakes. The examples are anonymous and are used as a re-teaching opportunity, and just like a GPS, it helps the class recalculate and stay on the correct path.

Text Rendering – Sentence/Phrase/Word – After the students read a passage, they are asked to identify a sentence that was meaningful and that represents important information, a phrase that captures their attention or that is provocative, and a word that stuck out as being important. After students do this individually, they are asked to discuss what they chose with a group. Through this group discussion, students can explain how they made their choices, and also discuss why certain sentences/phrases and words were and were not chosen. As the teacher walks around and listens to the groups, they can highlight important information that wasn’t mentioned in the group discussions, and can correct any misconceptions.

These are only a few of the tools I have collected during my teaching career. As Untitledyou navigate through your course, please remember to check to see if your students are still travelling with you. It would a shame to get to your destination only to find out that your students are not with you upon arrival. Happy travelling!

Leighton Helwig, M.Ed.

Philippines National Director/Regional Education Specialist

TeachBeyond