Talk to ALL Your Students At Once!

I know, I know, that's called a "lecture" and it's easy to do. But do you really have every student's attention? How about giving every student feedback on essays they wrote -- detailed, personalized, meaningful feedback and assessment -- all at once?  Not only that, but the students can replay your comments and suggestions over and over, even let peers/parents listen and read to provide even more support and feedback. No more misunderstanding or "Uh, I forgot" what you said!

It all has to do with Google docs and screen savers, of which the details are all here, including great examples from actual student work.  I think it's a great idea/tool, especially with middle school and up.

Props and thanks to The Transparent Teacher -- awesome blog!


http://alytapp.com/2011/10/27/assessment-feedback-via-screencast-examples/

Voki Bear!

  ok, so maybe I've played around with these a bit longer than I should have, but I thought it would be a fun way to get my students creative and active on their blogs. Supposedly you can use your own voice and have the avatar speak instructions or lesson clarification.

Press play, and tell me what you think of my new accent!

Voki, as in voki.com       readthewords.com

Can Google Create Time?

I'm becoming frustrated with the lack of hours in the day.  I wanna go, go, go and go some more but often have to wait... for... other... teachers. Wait for the gate to open AFTER the bell. Wait for my students to come back from Math. From Grammar. From lunch recess. I don't have time for all this waiting -- I need to teach them now! I have inspiring to do, impressions to make! Life-long study habits and love of learning to ingrain!

We are slowly but surely getting our routines down, the lack of recess seems to have curbed their propensity to chat and dawdle at every turn throughout the day.  The schedule can be tight and is fairly inflexible -- Read, Math, Grammar, Social (Library in the middle) Studies, one after another after another. But I feel all my students, from high to low, could use more time just to think and work. That is why I like the idea of "flipped" lessons, watch the basics at home on video then have more time to work together and with guidance at school, and why I'm hooking our classroom up to Google docs (thanks to the great ideas and how-to over at Think Share Teach ).  I know the majority of students don't have complete computer access/time at home, but maybe it will help a few be able to finish writing assignments?

Well, I wasn't done with this rant/whine but my keyboard froze and the old laptop decided it was done for the day. Whatever. I have a new bee in my bonnet tonight.



And why, oh why, do my students keep asking when we're going to McDonald's???

Schooltube Math Videos

I think I did this right... we'll see if any of the students check it out:

**Next week's Math chapter**

Thank you, Schooltube!