Remnants of past conferences- Exit Cards

 

I am sitting here going through a pile of flyers, business cards, conference programs, etc., that I picked up from some of the different conferences I attended recently. It was one of those things I said to myself "I'll go through this at home when I have more time". HA! I'm actually looking right now at a program from 2010. Seriously?

Well in the midst of all the junk (and the throw away pile is much larger than the keep pile) I am finding a few things worth keeping and repeating. I thought I would share them with anyone who happens to find my ramblings here.

A find worth mentioning was from a talk on Assessment. I remember this one. I felt it was important to hear what they said but I do remember it was not a very stimulating talk. Good information: Bad delivery. However- what I found in my pile here was about EXIT CARDS. Many of you probably have used exit cards before and I have heard different questions, etc, that teachers use. Maybe you will like this one. They suggested a 321 CARD:

• 3 things I learned
• 2 questions I still have
• 1 way I see _______ used in the world around me.

It was the last part of that that I really like. I think that is one of the most important things teachers need to remember the relevance of what we teach to the students' life. We really need to consider that if they do not see how it benefits them, unfortunately they probably don't care.

Tech tools to use for your 321 CARD? How about Socrative? I talked about that in the last post. Another you could use is Padlet (formerly known as WallWisher). I like Padlet, which is like a bulletin board with sticky notes, because you can make it private and you can moderate the posts. And it's close relative Primary Wall that is very similar but geared toward the lower elementary crowd.

August Squeeze! Socratve and LiveBinder

I did this! Not such a slacker, eh?

 I seriously though about this being the last day of August and if I wasn't going to be a total slacker I better get a post in. So pathetic!

But- I do have two good tools that if I did not mention before they certainly deserve a closer look. Let's start with Socrative. Awesome FREE Web 2.0 tool. Create a free account and your students are able to log in either through the web or the iPad app with no account necessary from them. Once there you can use Socrative for review questions, exit tickets, test, and more. Socrative is especially helpful for formative assessment because it makes the checking quick and easy. There are games to play with any of your tests or quizzes. My students loved the Space Race. If your students have access to computers or iPads on a regular basis you may find this a regular part of your lessons. 

The other web based tool that I finally used to create and share with people is LiveBinder. LiveBinder is exactly what it sounds like- a binder, with tabs and everything. What I used it for was a professional development session my principal requested I help him put together. He gave me two videos he wanted us to view and a series of questions to answer. The challenge was how could I put this all together online and keep it all in one place? LiveBinder to the rescue! 

What I discovered was that by using the tabs and inserting the different content choices I could put videos on a page and have sub tabs underneath each main tab containing a question to answer. I then inserted a Padlet (another great web tool) right on the page. All the teachers had to do was read, click, type and they were done. So simple! I also love the option to make the binder private and require a passcode to enter. This made our PD just for our school.

My principal was happy, I was thrilled and I think the teachers found it easy also.

I have been at workshops where a leader has used LiveBinders to organize the details of the workshop but I had never used it to create something for someone to actually use. So....Go check out LiveBinders. There are many great public binders that might be helpful for your own use. But do think about how you might be able to use this for your students.