Move 'em Forward with Formative

With the establishment of Student Learning Objectives (SLO's in the state of South Carolina), personalized learning is moving to the forefront. Technology is an awesome tool that presents countless options to assist with data collection on students.

According to San Diego State University professors Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey, "checking for understanding is the link between teaching and learning...". To support student learning these two well established professors believe that checks for understanding should take place every 5 to 10 minutes.

This is a great place to pause because that sounds terribly overwhelming. However, technology put the critical information you need at your finger tips. Here's a great tool: www.goformative.com

Formative is an easy to use website that works with android devices as well as iPads. Teachers can create assessments with multiple choice questions, open ended responses, and there's even space for students to show their work with math problems.The teacher dashboard allows teachers to create folders and separate assessments by topic or simply create a folder for each class. The process to enroll your students is seamless. Simply create your class and have students join with the code. Assessments can also be assigned without the create of a class through a shared link. Class setup is required in order for students to see results, guests will not see their feedback.

The "live results" option on the dashboard displays student results. Correct answers can be entered or teachers can simply use this informally to check for understanding. New features that increase functionality with Google Classroom and a few other changes are on the way. It's free so it won't cost you anything to go Formative.

Go Digital

Personalized learning is a hot topic in the world of education reform. Students come in every year with different attitudes, backgrounds, and abilities. The days of teaching utilizing one strategy at a time are a thing of the past. 

As more districts take on 1:1 initiatives and students are have more access to technology, I dare you to use it! 

Go digital with a digital portfolio. Here are 2 tools that are free to use:

The first is Google sites. Sites is one of the Google Apps visit: sites.google.com. If Google Apps for Education (GAFE) is utilized, there will be unlimited storage space available when compared to a personal gmail account. Sites can be created by the students with very limited knowledge of website building or HTML. Once students have built their site, with one click the site can be shared via a link. This is also a great way to share student work with students. With one activity, the game was changed, while increasing engagement and allowing students some range to express what they learned. 

The second tool is Seesaw. Seesaw is an app that keeps all data together by class. Teachers can simply create a class, use a class code for students to join, and students can upload media. Students can record themselves explaining the lesson, take pictures, or create a blog post. Seesaw also has new features with seesaw plus. The new features include a new formative assessment tool.

 Use the QR code below to check it out. 

Intentional Interventions

As teachers we all consider what we want students to learn over the course of a unit, a lesson, a week; but how often do we consider what we want them to learn today? How do you know what they learned at the end of a class period?

When the word intervention is considered on its own, it means to come between. During teaching, in the midst of learning, teachers must intervene and interrupt the process when students just aren’t getting it. Although technology isn’t a substitute for good teaching, it sure is a great aide to a good teacher.

Seesaw is a cool app that allows students to document learning. It also has a free blogging platform for each class. Seesaw is free and students as young as kindergarten can use independently.

Tell you more, sure! As the teacher, any artifact can be uploaded and students can reflect verbally, yes a recording, to explain what they learned. This is helpful for ESL/ESOL, special needs, and those students that are a little shy. Often students can show or tell better than written expression, but the blogging platform is a great way to improve and reinforce writing skills.

The feature that’s most useful is the parental involvement. Parents can join and view their student’s journal. The teacher and the parent now have a running journal of student’s progress throughout the school year.

web.seesaw.me/