EdTech TOSA

Posts for Tag: forms

autoCrat

This definition sounds frightening. Thankfully, there is another definition for autoCrat. 

Flexible, easy to use document merge tool that creates PDF or shared Documents from spreadsheet data.

Automate the creation and sharing of personalized documents with autoCrat.

AutoCrat is a multi-purpose document merge tool that allows you to take data from a spreadsheet and merge it into a document via a template.  Tell autoCrat which fields to merge via <<merge tags>> and then let autoCrat mass-generate personalized documents. Optionally send the documents as email attachments.  Optionally tell autoCrat to run when new forms are submitted to created truly automated processes.

-autoCrat

And the Google Sheets add-on is much more friendly. I saw a tweet by Mari Venturino describing how she uses autoCrat in the classroom for Claim Evidence Resoning, and was inspired to learn more. Thank you, Mari! This was the game-changer my teachers and students needed.

Conference season

The first trimester is drawing to a close. That means parent conferences are just around the corner. Soon, you'll be preparing files of student work and assessments, and you'll be scheduling appointments. 

Then, you may start to anticipate what questions the parents may ask about their student. You compile all the information needed to ensure that the conference is a success. You have numerous examples of student work, print-outs of online scores, and all the data necessary to support your observations. 

You're excited to share this information with parents, because you know that it will help their child succeed. But, then the questions start to form in your head: 

  • What does the parent think about their child's learning? 
  • What does the student think about his or her learning? 
  • Does these examples of student work and assessments truly reflect this child's abilities?
  • Does this child have a growth mindset, and how I do foster that in him/her?

There's a lot going on in that 20-30 minute time slot. Why not leverage technology to make the most of it? 

Google Forms can simplify these conversations, and give you the opportunity to really speak to the student's strengths as well as areas for improvement. Think of using Google Forms this way: you can quickly collect information from parents, and the student, prior to the conference. As a bonus, students get a voice in their learning and growth. 

Student Self-Reflection example 

Parent Pre-Conference example 

 

Exit Ticket

Currently performing a little experiment with Google Forms, in the way of exit tickets. My goal is two-fold: 

  1. solicit feedback from students 
  2. count the total number of student contacts per week 
I'm excited to read through student comments. Most school days, the scheduled #gafe time prevents students from opening up a dialogue. I know they have questions that haven't been asked. 

And, I'm thinking I may continue this exit ticket through the year...just to quantify the total number of students I see on a yearly basis. 

powerful stuff

Last week, Angela (a fellow teacher) forwarded a link to a blog post. Below is what she sent:  

This blog talks about the smart way one teacher takes the emotional pulse of her class. 

http://momastery.com/blog/2014/01/30/share-schools/ 

In this blog post, the author describes her experience volunteering in her son's elementary classroom. More importantly she explains how her son's teacher uses a specific method to examine classroom dynamics. The blogger, Glennon, writes:

Every Friday afternoon Chase’s teacher asks her students to take out a piece of paper and write down the names of four children with whom they’d like to sit the following week. The children know that these requests may or may not be honored. She also asks the students to nominate one student whom they believe has been an exceptional classroom citizen that week. All ballots are privately submitted to her.  

And every single Friday afternoon, after the students go home, Chase’s teacher takes out those slips of paper, places them in front of her and studies them. She looks for patterns.  

Who is not getting requested by anyone else?  

Who doesn’t even know who to request?  

Who never gets noticed enough to be nominated?  

Who had a million friends last week and none this week?  

My first thought: why can't we do this in Google Forms? My colleague Angela had the same thought. Great minds think alike! Great minds like a think. 

We could quickly create a similar system, and eliminate the slips of paper. Best of all, we could get instant insights into the pulse of the classroom by looking at the response summary. 

And that is exactly what we did. We pushed out a Google Form through Google Classroom. It only took a few minutes for students to complete the Form. A few minutes later, we had powerful data. 

What you find might be surprising. Below is just a snippet of what one classroom told us. Talk about Student Voice and classroom pulse! 

Attached are screenshots of the way this Google Form was presented. If you're interested in gaining some insight into your classroom, I encourage you to try something similar. What your students tell you might surprise you. 

The "popular kids" may not be so popular. That "quiet kid" might often be excluded on the playground. It's powerful stuff! 

Thank you for forwarding that blog article, Angela. Your willingness to try this gave students a voice in the classroom. That's a true inspiration, for the kids in your classroom and your colleagues. That truly is powerful stuff!