Lemon Tech Tidbits

What is Blooket ? Blooket was invented by a teacher as a new take on trivia and review games. It was designed by combining features in Quizlet with Kahoot. How does it work? First, you need to sign up with a teacher account. Then, you can either search for a question set in the Discovery database, import questions from Quizlet, or create your own. Next, you select a game mode such as racing, factory, or battle royale. Then, select to “host” the game using your projector or large screen. You are assigned a Game ID which students use to connect to your game. Finally, the students play the game and when they are done, you can analyze the results. What is different from Kahoot and Quizlet? The designer took the game concept from Kahoot but expanded it to include more than one style. He then took the ability of Quizlet for questions to be created and shared. Is it free to use? It is free to use in its simple form. You can upgrade to receive more features for $35.88 a year (breaks do...

Mrs. Beavers sent over an email she had received about lessons for Spanish that were created as Boom Cards. Since I had never heard of them before, I did some investigation and learned of a new tech tool to share. What are Boom Cards? “Boom Cards are digital, self-grading exercises that are gamified for students and provide the data teachers want”. Watch this short video for a quick overview. How does it work? Boom cards contains a marketplace where teachers can sell already created card sets to each other. Once you have created your account, you can access the marketplace or create your own. When you create your own cards, you can add video and sound. You can choose to make your deck private or public. Is it free? Not really. It is free to use and there are some boom decks that are free to add to your library but most do cost. The site uses a points system which can be earned or purchased with money. In addition, there are several layers of membership. The free membership vers...

It is finally here! You can now easily create a rubric within an assignment in Google Classroom and lock down a quiz. Before you can start on the rubric, you will need to enter a title to the assignment. Once you do, you will be able to create a rubric by clicking on the plus sign located in the bottom right-hand corner. In the rubric, you can add up to 10 different categories and 10 different performance levels. For more information on how to set up a Rubric for an assignment, click here: http://bit.ly/2Of04Nl Once you have a rubric attached to an assignment, it will show up on the right-hand side whenever you click on a student's completed assignment. For more information, click here: http://bit.ly/2O47H92 But that isn’t the only new feature to Google Classroom, you can now lock down students Chromebooks when you assign a quiz! For more information on how to use locked mode for quizzes, click here: http://bit.ly/2O28U0u

The State of Kansas has decided to offer the Pre-ACT test to all 9th graders. This goal is to help students see where they stand in regards to taking the ACT test as Juniors. It will show them which areas are their strengths and their weaknesses. This will help them plan for a career in the future as well as decide on classes to take in High School. So why am I talking about this on a Tech Tidbit? Because there are applications we can share with students to help them with taking the ACT. One of the sites all students should be aware of is the database called LearningExpress which is provided for free by the State Library of Kansas. Students will need to sign up with an account but once they do, they will be able to access practice test for the ACT, ASVAB and a whole host of others. Another site all students should be aware of is the ACT Academy site. Students, teachers, and parents can sign up with an account. As a teacher, you will then have access to a resource library full of vi...

This website is maintained by Coach Pirillo who is an elementary P.E. teacher in Texas. He started the website as a way to share his lesson plans, ideas, and tips with other teachers in the same profession. Although many of the items on his website can be used for free, there are some items that do contain a small fee to access. For example, he has many different GIFS showing different skills for around $3.50 a set on TPT. Another example is his lesson plans which must be purchased on TPT for around $1.00 each but his youtube videos are free for anyone to use. Even though some of the content on his website is not free, there is a LOT that is to make it worthwhile to mention and share. One of my favorites is his page over Assessments. He explains in very simple terms how he uses Google Forms to assess his students skill levels while also granting access to create copies to use in your own class. In addition, there are posters you can download and print, equipment hacks, product revie...

This website is on the AASL Best Websites for Teaching and Learning 2019 list. Explore.org is the place to find a live-streaming video of animals living in their natural habitats. You simply go to the site, click on the animal you want to watch, and then sit back and watch the action unfold. While you can spend hours watching a live feed of kittens and puppies, there are many educational uses for this site. “Applications of explore.org can include creating a center activity in which students observe animals in their natural settings to gather and record data as citizen scientists. Like the introduction to an animal research project, this resource can ignite curiosity and encourage further investigation. Additionally, explore.org can serve as a gateway to compare and contrast different animals among diverse habitats.” (AASL) Students can log in using their G Account information. Once they are signed in, they can click on their favorite live streams. Each live stream contains inform...

Flipgrid remains one of my favorite educational websites and it keeps getting better. This summer, they released a few updates to make it even more powerful. One of these updates is the ability to use Flipgrid as a Whiteboard. Flipgrid is one of the easiest ways to create and share a video. In this video by Richard Byrne, he goes through some of the new features including how to use the new whiteboard tutorial. In addition, Richard Byrne has included a complete guide to using Flipgrid with many video tutorials located here . He even provides different ways students are using Flipgrid such as: explaining how to solve a math problem. having expert speakers share knowledge with students. listen to choir and band students practice performance pieces. physical education students showing proper form for push-ups, sit-ups, and pull-ups. recording short puppet shows. To document the steps of a science lab procedure. sharing encouraging words with classmates who are absent due to exten...

Mrs. Cochran shared with me this new site she found called Vooks . (no, that is not a misspelled word, it is actually called Vooks) “Vooks is the first ever streaming service that brings children's books to life with animated illustrations, read-a-long text and narrated story. Kid safe ages 2-8. A better alternative to screen time with new and classic children’s stories.” (Vook) Vooks is a paid subscription that cost $4.99 a month or $49.99 a year. However, they are providing teachers with a free year trial. It is very easy to sign up and you can then use it with your class via your projector if you want to. Due to the high volume, it may take 3 days before you can sign in and use your account. According to Common Sense Media, “Kids who are not quite ready to read alone but are eager for a lot of listening will enjoy this collection of books” provided by Vooks. You can read their entire review here: https://www.commonsensemedia.org/app-reviews/vooks