Ever pose a question during a virtual meeting and all you hear in response are crickets? I'm sure I'm not the only one. So then, because we think it's less pressure, we ask for a response in the chat. And that potentially solicits a few more responses. In the article, How to Spruce Up Your Zoom Chat Game, Melissa Dinwiddie suggests that we are overloading students, asking them to think, read, process, and write in a short amount of time. Not to mention that we're asking for this to all happen with the onlooking eyes and listening ears of their peers. The waterfall chat structure is an easy way to engage more students in the discussion and relieve some of that pressure.
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When Ms. Maricle mentioned taking her reading logs online, I was excited to offer blogging as an option. We decided to use Blogger because we are a Google Apps for Education school district and it's absolutely free. Blogging also offered an excellent opportunity to engage students in practical digital citizenship discussions and practice. Take a look at Ms. Maricle's experience here: You can read Ms. Maricle's students' blogs here. They would love for you to leave comments! You may think that blogging with students only lends itself to the language arts classroom. Writing in any content area is essential, so why not take it online. Check out this post via Edublogger with 100+ Ideas and Prompts for Student Blogging. Ready to get you students blogging? Check out this presentation and here are some quick steps to get you started. After collecting all student's blog links, we compiled them in a Google site called Blogging Cougars so that their peers had easy access to their classmates' blogs. In addition, we had each student add their teacher as an author for safety and content moderation if needed.
Have you blogged with students in the classroom? Tell me about your experience in the comments. Interested in blogging with students for the first time? Let me know your ideas in the comments or shoot me an email. I'd love to help you implement this experience in your classroom. The original idea was #TechMexTuesday, but our schedule limited us to a Monday, during our teaming periods...hence #TechMex Teaming. Who doesn't love chips & salsa with their technology training? ! We worked through a short presentation explain the what, why, and how of #EduSnaps and then teachers got to work creating #EduSnaps using content from their own curriculums. This ended up being a 2 for 1 for teachers since I presented using PearDeck. I can't wait to see #EduSnaps and PearDeck in action in their classrooms!
Mr. Guzman reached out to me for a tool that his band students could use to vote on goals for the year. Each student submitted three goals and he wanted students to discuss them and vote on their top three for the band to pursue as a group this year. Dotstorming was my first thought and it was exactly what these band students needed for brainstorming, collaborating, and voting on goals for the school year. Check out Mr. Guzman's experience here: One hiccup we encountered with students sharing devices was the need to logout so that a new student could participate and vote. The solution is turning the device sideways (landscape). A menu option appears and students are able to logout before passing their device. Like this tool, but not sure how to use it in your classroom? Here are some ideas:
Richard Bryne offers a great video tutorial on getting started with Dotstorming. Have you used Dotstorming in your classroom? Tell me about your experience in the comments. Interested in using Dotstorming for the first time? Let me know your ideas in the comments or shoot me an email. I'd love to help you implement this simple, yet powerful tool in your classroom.
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