Useful Tools for Discovering My Students… #diffimooc

I hope that this will be an ongoing blog over the next few days.  I believe I commented previous about a few of the tools I hope to delve into with more detail so there may be a little repetition.  The first is of course Survey Monkey.  We use this in our school and have had great success when using it to take polls and votes regarding staff opinions in a non-threatening environment.  We have even done so during staff meetings that take place in our computer lab.  The results are instantly recorded, and are completely anonymous.

We do the same with our students to discover the school climate as perceived by our student population.  They are asked their opinion on everything from safety concerns to how they feel they are treated by others and teachers.  We get very interesting feedback about the buses:  how safe students feel on the bus, or at the bus stop.  There is a learning period that must take place to get students comfortable with the survey forum, but if done correctly students can pick up on the idea that they are in a safe and anonymous environment.  This tool has been invaluable helping us create a safe learning environment in our school.

Another I have used, as stated before, is Explore Learning.  I have never paid for Explore Learning, but I do frequently subscribe to a free try out period, and have my students use that account for a brief period before it expires.  What I like about the site is that students can observe myself perform the labs, or gizmos as the site calls them, or they can follow along, or even be allowed to do them on their own.

Some concepts can be scaffolded for different learners with different labs.  A worksheet packet can be printed for each student to follow along and answer questions, as well as a vocabulary sheet, and teacher guides.  These can be downloaded in PDF formats and Word formats.  After the gizmo is completed students can take a quiz if the teacher has set up a class to record the results.  Those results get reported back to the teacher.  I have used this in the past, but since our computer lab is very difficult to get into this year I do not use the online quizzes, but I do have my classes actively complete the labs.

I have found these gizmos to be successful being teacher guided, with independent work after, and as completely teacher guided in a classroom with an interactive whiteboard for presentation.  These labs are a great way to discover if students have mastered a concept, if the resources for those concepts are not readily available.  For example, understanding the difference between weight and mass in relationship to objects on the Earth and Moon is a difficult concept to grasp.  These gizmos can give immediate feedback as to the degree that a student can perform and answer real world problems without really being there.  They can also be a great introduction before doing the real lab in your classroom, hands-on.  Thanks to my mentor, Paul, for introducing me to the sneaky ways of internet resources!

National Geographic’s Forces of Nature is an awesome, interactive, site that allows students to learn about, and create, some of the most deadly forces in nature!  It’s not just a cleaver name!  Tornadoes,Hurricanes, Earthquakes, and Volcanoes are the different online learning opportunities that students have.  This site does not have any way to record the results of what they learned, but I have created worksheets prior to using the site whole class.  The students have specific instructions about what to do while they are exploring the activity a page at a time.  Providing some sort of front loading is also necessary to ensure the greatest chances of success with any class doing these activities.  My favorite lab is the Earthquake lab.  Not only do the students get to triangulate an earthquake, but they get to create one as well!  After the activities are complete we review the items and concepts to make sure there were no mixed signals with the content before letting them run wild experimenting with the different settings.

Geospy is a wonderful tool to use when trying to determine the mastery students have memorizing the names and locations of continents, countries, or states and provinces of the United States.  It was originally located at the National Geographic page, but is now at Miss Maggies.  The best thing I like is that students enter their names prior to the quizzes in a very user friendly form, choose their quiz, and the site records their results.  When the time expires there is an option to print an “Agent Certificate”.  I always require my students to print this form out so I can record their scores in the grade book or to track progress.  Having a general knowledge of the world around us makes us better decision makers, more interactive, and more interested in the happenings of the world.  Regular classroom learning along with support activities like Geospy help our students become more knowledgeable citizens of the world.  I will admit it has been sometime since I took these quizzes and I did not fair well when I took the tried to do so.  It did reminded  me of watching movies with my father with a giant atlas of the world open in front of us so we could keep track of the locations used in the movies.  It was one of my  favorite things to do with my father!  Thanks to my mentor teacher, Paul, for introducing me to this great tool!

Some of you have spoken (my PLN), and I have listened!  I found this article called Meaningful Connection: Using Technology in Primary Classrooms.  One of the best pieces I read involved primary students using digital photography to relive their experiences in the classroom.  These pictures can be accessed later for the purposes of discussion with each other, the class, teacher, or other adults.  I would think that with the visual aid primary students would be able to recover a great deal more of what they were doing and thinking at the time of the event.  I thought it would be a great way for students to do oral reports, or even something to have going on a screen or board at parent teacher conferences.  Using the pictures could also be a great motivational tool.  The students would know that the photo will be there as a reminder, and assist them in their project(s).  I have seen students look all around the classroom for divine inspiration, but having a photo of the process they took to develop their project would serve not only as a recall tool, but an integral part of the presentation.  Thanks for the feedback on my blog!

I went to discuss the topic of primary tools with our in-school reading coach, and she mentioned Dibels assessment for fluency which can be used all the way down into primary, as well as the Aimsweb assessments.  I have had very little to do with either of these assessments, but have been told that they are great snapshots into a student’s abilities, and a way to progress monitor.  Someone from our class on Monday stated that Aimsweb is used in her school to monitor certain subgroups on the student population, and is also used for level placement within the building.  I was told that these assessments can be using for all primary grades.  There is a great guide for parents regarding the Dibels assessment from the University of Oregon that discusses the specifics of how what the assessments is, how it is given, and how the results will be used.  Specifically how and why students may receive the services they do.  Again, this is to insure that students are ready for the instruction they are receiving, and can make maximum grown possible.  Thanks to my classmates and reading coach for sharing this information with me.

I also know that MAP tests have a separate K-2 set of tests that look for mathematical, reading, and language skills that are developmentally appropriate.  We use this data when the students come from our feeder schools in the district as we are a 3-5 school.  The data is used to aid in placing students into the correct tier for each content area to promote the greatest chances for student academic success.

Finally, I understand that students are more than simple content knowledge receptacles.  They are also emotional, needy, impulsive, influential kids.  Class Dojo does a great job  of providing instant, visual, feedback to the class as a whole, or to individual students.  My classroom management system is based on training I received from Fred Jones, and involves being calm, and in control of one’s self.  Class Dojo provides a great interactive tool to do visually display the “points” or minutes the class has earned or lost.  It can be broken down into as many characteristics or traits the teacher would like to record.  After recording the points class/individual discussion can occur about why the behaviors were evident happened.  Reports are also provided, and are a great tool to use during these discussions, or for record keeping.  If you have a smart phone or mobile device such as a kindle or ipad those can be used as well over the wi-fi and cellular networks at your school.  Students in my classroom love having visual feedback on their daily behavior management, and although Class Dojo is used in our building I have not gone further than set up my account.  This class has given me a great reminder that I should go forward with integrating Class Dojo into my management plan.  Thanks to my co-workers for showing me how to use it!

These are my useful tools for now!  Please leave me a comment to share your ideas!