Lemon Tech Tidbits

EdPuzzle has been around for a while but I thought it would be a good idea to have a refresher on this digital tool. What is Edpuzzle? In a nutshell, Edpuzzle is an interactive way to make sure students are watching and engaging with educational videos. It is a way to ensure students are watching your videos and understanding the content It works in three easy steps. First, you either find a video from youtube or upload one of your own to the site. Then, you edit the video by inserting questions, adding comments, or recording your voice. Finally, you assign the video to your students and check their progress in real time.  At Chapman, we have access to the premium version of Edpuzzle. To learn more, check out this quick video introduction. To get started, Edpuzzle has a wonderful step-by-step help center that will walk you through how to use it: https://support.edpuzzle.com/hc/en-us/sections/360001671011-Getting-Started If you would rather watch a video that walks you t...

Earlier, Google announced you could easily add Rubrics to any assignment in Google Classroom. The problem though is you had to type in a new rubric each time until now!  Google just announced they are going to allow users the ability to reuse a rubric they have already created. It doesn’t matter if the rubric was created in the same class or in another one. If you have created it somewhere in your Google Classroom account, you will be able to reuse it. When you reuse or create a rubric, it will be in a preview mode allowing you to quickly see if any changes need to be made before you use it. This new feature will be rolled out to all users in the next few days who have signed up to use the beta rubric program. Google announced pro-tip: If you'd like to share rubrics you've set up in Classroom with other teachers, simply add co-teachers to a shared class with multiple rubrics. All teachers and co-teachers will see those rubrics for assignments in other classes in the new ...

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...

FLIPPITY: An Google Sheets Add-On With Flippity, you can turn a Google Sheet of information into an online quiz show, flashcards, matching games, Mad Libs, and more.  Flippity is FREE and works by changing the function of the Google Spreadsheet. In addition to being an add-on, Flippity is also a series of web apps. To share your creation with your students, you simply give them a link generated by Flippity in Google Classroom. To start, open up a blank spreadsheet in Google Drive. Go to Add-ons and install Flippity. You can now use Flippity with the spreadsheet as well as with any other spreadsheet you already have created. When you select Flippity from the drop-down menu, it will ask you what type of template you would like. Select the one you desire and modify the information. When you are done, make sure you select File - Publish to the Internet. Now you are ready to share it with the class. To watch a short instructional video about Flippity by Richard Byrne, click ...

KAHOOT! I am sure I talked about this before but want to remind you all about the power of KAHOOT. What is it? Kahoot is a free game-based student response system. Students can play a game on Kahoot from almost every device. They do not need to sign in or create an account. All they need to do is to put in your individual game pin on https://kahoot.it/ . The best part is there are already games within the system you can use. To make your own takes only minutes to add multiple questions or play the new game called Jumble. Another idea is to have the students create their own game over the content and share it with their classmates as a way to prepare for a summative test. To learn more, go to: https://kahoot.com

GOOGLE FORMS TIPS, TRICKS and UPDATES Google Forms just keeps getting better. Here are a few Google Form tips, tricks and updates to be aware of from some of my favorite blogs to follow. Multiple Correct Answers in Google Form Quizzes. 24 Tips for Google Form Users (video webinar) Google Forms: Alternating colors in response answers 3 Tips Everyone Should Know

PEAR DECK What is it? A presentation tool that is very similar to Google Slides, Powerpoint or Keynote. What makes it different is the slides in Pear Deck become INTERACTIVE. When you present in Pear Deck, your presentation can go live with an educator’s code you share with the students. You can then guide the flow of the slides and students can interact with the presentation by answering questions either built directly into the presentation or given orally on an impromptu basis. Students respond by dragging, drawing, text, or answering multiple choice questions on their devices. The answers can then be “locked” into the presentation and then shared either anonymously or to the class through the projector. A great feature is you don’t have to start a presentation completely from scratch. If you have a slide presentation already developed, you can easily turn it into a Pear Deck presentation. To see more, click here: https://www.peardeck.com/ There is a free version and a paid ...

QUIZLET: NOW WITH LABELING GAMES Quizlet is one of my favorite sites to use to create easy study guides and games for students…..especially in creating flashcards. What makes it so great is its FREE, easy to use, and there are already thousands of study sets already created for the busy teacher to use and/or modify. But Quizlet use to have one flaw, it did not include a way to study diagrams…..until now. Quizlet has just announced you can use diagrams and illustrations to create a study guide (flashcard set) for your students. From Quizlet itself, ”Creating diagrams on Quizlet is simple. With convenient annotation tools, locations and definitions, you can quickly add new layers of customization to your study material.” What is more, they already have some created for you to check out and use today: https://quizlet.com/diagram-showcase

Recap: a free student video response app “Recap provides teachers with new, creative ways to gather evidence of student thinking using video. It helps create new learning connections between students, parents and teachers, and foster more transformative dialogue by everyone. Great for any age!” Recap is designed to have students provide their feedback in a fun and easy manner by recording their own responses and/or capture their thinking on video. It can be used to provide:  Formative Assessment Reflection Class Management  Parent Communication Recap is multi-device which means it can be used on an iPad, Laptop, Chromebook and more. To learn more, click here:  https://letsrecap.com/  

Tony Vincent  has a new post in his blog,  Learning in Hand ,  that does a great job in explaining 15 different tools you can use for Formative Assessments. What I love the most is how he has broken them down into little snapshots to you can see exactly what one tool does versus the other. Take a look! Know Students Better: 15 Tools for Formative Assessment