If I Were on a Desert Island With My Students...

...these are the 3 Google apps I could NOT live without.

PS - Your island would also need Internet, wifi, laptops, smartphones, tablets, AND a way to charge everything. So... yeah.

Number 1: Feedly


Available on iPad or Google Chrome, Feedly seemlessly transferred my Google Reader RSS over and allows me to view the musings of my PLN (which includes ed techies, history geeks, and colleagues from Reading, MA) in a much sexier format.  This means I'm not just keeping up with their thoughts in 140 characters or less via Twitter, I'm getting their fully developed philosophies and stories delivered to me day in and day out.

Additionally, since working with Steve Olivo on a middle school team I've decided that the best way to hold students accountable for their writing is to have them blog.  They are publishing their work to me, each other, and the world.  What better motivation to build a portfolio that tracks one's own progress?  They may not realize that they are building an online portfolio when they create the blog at age 13, but when they look back as 16-year-old sophomores they are astonished at their own growth over 3 short years.  Feedly is an easy way for me to read their writing every day from my classroom laptop or from my iPad while I sit in the Social Studies Department room sipping coffee during my prep period.

Number 2: QR Code Generator


A QR reader and creator is essential.  The fastest way for students to access your in-class presentation, an online video clip, a scholarly article, or just about anything else you can think of that can be digitized is via a QR code.  I've also used QR codes to build parent interest at Back to School Nights (see the sample above).  They look fancy hanging around your classroom when administrators "visit" too!

Ok, so if the public relations approach doesn't appeal to you, how about a quick way to answer the daily question: "Mrs. InsertYourNameHere, I lost the sheet. What am I supposed to do?"  Your answer would involve pointing to a posted QR code.  Student scans said QR code.  Directions magically appear on student's smartphone screen.  Game over.

Number 3: Quizlet


The basics of any unit in any subject area can only be absorbed by students if they have acquired the vocabulary to discuss the information.  Recently, when teaching the Protestant Reformation, I felt like I needed a fresh way to teach vocabulary words like indulgences, heretic, excommunicate, and recant. Enter Quizlet.  I type in the words and definitions with context.  Students enter my room, log into Quizlet and start playing games on their phones/tablets/laptops.  15 minutes into the class period and I've taken attendance, checked homework, and even caught up on a couple of emails in the midst of peace and quiet.  I ask them to pause their games and start telling the story of Martin Luther, asking them to fill in the blanks with the meanings of the words I'm using and THEY CAN DO IT! Nuf said.

So, yeah, there are a few more apps I can't live without both personally and professionally.  These three Google Chrome apps are clicked almost daily, though.  They make my day go more smoothly.  They help my students submit and access information faster.  They let us, student and teacher, get to the real business of learning and teaching.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Three Social Media Starter Tips

Image
Note: This post was recently  published on the St. John's Prep GOOD to Go blog . Chad Konecky interviewed me and wrote the post based on our discussion. Demonstrating and reinforcing common-sense social media engagement is important, especially when it comes to adolescents and teens. Kerry Gallagher, St. John’s assistant principal for teaching and learning, is leading the Prep’s emphasis on developing best practices when using social media. “Mentoring healthy guidelines like ‘Think before you post,’ ‘be kind and respectful’ and ‘be mindful of who you friend’ are key, but we need to foster—and the boys need to hone—an even keener sense of their life online.” Interestingly, the challenges of building an online identity can become even more difficult if students and their parents choose not to use social media, explains Gallagher. Alternatively, when students do create an online presence, it can become an opportunity to learn how to act appropriately and with accountability....
Read more

Guest Post: Digital + Traditional = Teaching at Its Best

Image
Rachel Salinger is a high school English teacher at my school, St. John's Prep in Danvers, Massachusetts. She is passionate about literature and about giving her students learning experiences that arm them with the skills they need to be thoughtful and good stewards of our future. I asked her to share her recent project on my blog because I think it is a stellar example of how traditional teaching and learning strategies can be effectively combined with digital tools for a deeper student learning experience. I referenced this project briefly in my recent EdSurge column and wanted to be sure to highlight it in detail on my blog. Introduction In my CP sophomore classes, we read Macbeth over the course of a few weeks. The students really enjoyed the play (surprisingly!) and I wanted to do a more creative assessment at the end instead of a typical paper or test. In the past, I’ve done an iMovie project with Macbeth but really wanted to do something different this year. I met...
Read more

Teaching 19th Century Ideologies with 21st Century Technologies

Image
Some concepts are just hard.  They're hard to teach and hard to learn.  Every year that I've taught the History 10 curriculum to sophomores, one of those concepts has been 19th century European political ideologies.  Conservatism, liberalism, and nationalism have never really been pulled together into a lesson that excited me or my students.  We would work through it and we'd both be OK, but never enthralled.  This year I wanted to change that. Part 1: What Do They Already Know? I asked students to define and give examples of each term: conservatism, liberalism, and nationalism.  They used their understandings from a modern American perspective.  We talked it out and they wrote their examples on the Smart Board. Part 2: How Was 19th Century Europe Different? It was REALLY different.  Before going there, though, I wanted them to know what an ideology is. The next step was to help them understand what these ideologies mean to 19th century ...
Read more