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Posts for Tag: google

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. 

quizzes on Forms

Not gonna lie...I've got some #ISTE Denver envy right now. Reading all the posts on twitter has me a bit jealous. But, I'm thankful that there are so many amazing educators sharing new ideas. 

One of the things I'm super excited about are the new features for Google Edu, specifically the Classroom Chrome Cast and the quizzes feature on Google Forms. This is a gamechanger! I'm a huge fan of Flubaroo, but this simplifies the process. 

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! 

level up your slide deck

Tired of using the same old themes for your Google Slides? 

Check out Slides Carnival. 

Why? 

DESIGN MAKES INFORMATION CLEARER AND IT’S ALSO A MEDIUM FOR PERSUASION.
GOOD VISUALS WILL KEEP THE AUDIENCE ENGAGED AND MAKE YOUR POINTS EASIER TO UNDERSTAND.
Another reason: it's free! 

Now you have no excuse. No more "death by powerpoint" for your next presentation.  

Make your next Google Slide deck captivating.