Recently, I have scowered the internet in search of edublogs. Specifically, I was looking for blogs that I could use as resources as I continue to develop lessons and teaching strategies. I looked at a few blogs and commented on two, but there was one in particular worth mentioning. The was, of course, David Theune's blog (see my previous blog post for my opinion of Theune's teaching philosophy). I decided to check out his blog after hearing him speak in class and it was a great life decision!!
Theune's blog was full of amazing, innovative ideas. The great thing about Theune's blog, and his ideas in general, is that though he is an English teacher, his ideas are easily translated across disciplines. Indeed,most of his ideas pertain to teaching philosophy and tend to focus on student engagement, relevance, and purpose. The second greatest thing about Theune's blog was that he did not just present ideas in isolation. Indeed, Theune had practiced what he preached and then provided an analysis of what went well and what needed improvement. I found this helpful as I tried to envision how I might incorporate some of his ideas into my own planning.
I was so inspired by Theune's post that I worked up the courage to post my own response to one of his blog postings. I basically geeked out and rambled on about my love of Theune's ideas and in a final moment of extreme courage I recommended a book to him. Obviously my meager contribution to Theune's blog was vastly outshined by the supreme intellect present in Theune's own posts; and yet, Theune still responded to my comment (in an impressively quick amount of time). I am unsure why I was so surprised by this, probably because my comment likely did not warrant Theune's precious time, but I should have known from the evidence in the blog that Theune would take the time to reply to me. I was more excited about his reply than I should probably admit, but anyone who has read his blog or hear him speak woudl not fault me for this I am sure. Seriously, though, I challenge everyone to check out his blog, comment, and not feel that level of excitement and honor!!
Check out Theune's blog at this link: http://www.educationaltransformer.blogspot.com/
Tuesday, November 4, 2014
Tech Tools: Socrative
In my Teaching with Technology course, we have been exposed to quite a few tech tools that could potentially be used in the classroom to enhance learning. I am hesitant to entertain the use of the presented tools in my classroom mostly because I am aware that I am in no way a tech-savvy person. I certainly appreciate technology and believe it has a place in the classroom if it is used effectively to enhance students' learning experiences, but I doubt my own ability to use technology in this way, especially unfamiliar technology.
This course, however, forced me to research and explore Socrative, an online quiz tool, and I could possibly see myself using this in my own classroom - possibly. For instance, it could be a useful tool for short, quick assessments. It allows teachers to develop quick, one question quizzes, pre-made exit tickets, or longer quizzes. There is also the option of incorporating a variety of question formats, including multiple-choice, true&false, and short answer questions. All student responses are easily downloaded to an excel format, which is a convenient feature. Personally though, I still struggle with online assessments. I like to afford students the opportunity to write notes or outlines and to cross off answer options. I feel like this initial strategic/planning stage is sometimes missing when moving to online assessments.
One feature of Socrative that I particularly liked was the Space Race feature. It allows students to work in teams to answer quiz questions and displays their progress in real time using little rockets. This way the teams of students race to finish the quiz. The rockets provide a fun visual aspect and the race itself seems to be a huge motivator for students. This feature definitely has the potential to bring an element of fun to an otherwise boring assessment. On the other hand, I wonder if quality of thought is jeopardized as students may be rushing to answer to win the race and not focused on the actual content.
Overall, I think Socrative has some useful features that some teachers might love, but I am still partial to paper-pencil quizzes (or alternative assessments altogether). I am wondering though if this could be one option to harness the cellphone in my classroom. Students using cellphones for nonacademic purposes is an epidemic at my placement. Could a quick Socrative quiz that students take via cellphone be an option to shift the use of cellphones to serve an academic purpose?
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