Signs Posts, Literally, for the Modern Classroom

When I go to an airport, especially a busy one, I start looking for signs before I even get out of the car. Which lane gets me to the dropout? Which airport entrance is closest to my airline? Where do I print my ticket? Where's security? And the list goes on. I am sure many of you are the same way. In fact, we'd probably get angry if there were no signs. I'd rather have some signs than have to hunt down someone who's not too busy to help me. And even if we are frequent flyers, we still subconsciously look to signs for assurance that all is well and nothing has changed.

It's the same way when we drive. Where I live the transportation department has been working on a new road for over ten years. It was finally finished last month, and trust me, I have been depending on all the signs, old and new, to let me know what changes to watch out for. But even on my regular, unchanged routes, I still find myself watching signs and signals for direction and reassurance.

So why do we think students are any different? In fact, lacking the maturity of adulthood, they need signs and directions even more. Today's classrooms are ever changing - no phones allowed at all, to tablet carts, to bring your own device (BYOD) and 1:1 schools. In just a few years, things have changed drastically in many schools. And I see teachers, and students, being frustrated by those changes. Some days, teachers are telling the students they don't want to see any phones, while on other days, students are asked to use their phones to answer surveys or calculate math problems. Being a person between the ages of nine and nineteen is confusing enough, add to that technology itself, then different teachers with differing preferences and rules, and it's no wonder students and teachers get on each others' nerves.

My suggestion - give them signs, literally. Here are some things to think about, and some signs you can print out and use (click on the words, not the pictures, to get the signs. They were made in Google Drawings. If you can't open them, contact me and I can email them to you).

1. If you are a BYOD school, what are your preferences? Make those preferences visible to students. If you never want to see phones in your class, make it known. If you use the devices some days, but not others, have a reversible sign. Just flip it around so students know what to do in your room and when.

Device Allowed                                                                                No Devices

2. You need to have your mind made up regarding headphones. I would suggest, really beg, that you do not allow students to wear headphones while you or anyone else is instructing. It sends a huge message of disrespect. Think about how you would feel if your doctor, mechanic, bank teller, waitress, or any number of professionals or service providers was wearing headphones while serving you. We are preparing students for college and career. We can not teach them that this is acceptable. If they say the music is off or it isn't plugged into the phone, great, there is no need to have the headphones in their ears. There may be times you allow headphones, like when students are working independently, and certainly that is fine. But I have seen an alarming number of students wearing headphones while their teacher is instructing. Set the tone for respect in your classroom - and set the signs so students have no excuses. If there are times headphones are allowed, make the sign reversible.

Headphones                                                                                 No Headphones

3. Insist that students use real names when participating in interactive activities such as Kahoot or Socrative. Now I am all about having fun in my class. You can ask any of my past students, but even in the midst of the fun, we need to set the tone of taking work seriously. Think about it. Even at a professional development workshop, we may play a fun game, but we would probably (hopefully) be considered unprofessional if we starting calling ourselves by strange names like Sexy Girl or The Man. Set expectations high for your students. The majority will rise to meet them. Obviously, an exception to this would be a foreign language class in which students go by language specific names.

4. Finally, think about other things that get on your nerves. Communicate your expectations to students and expect them to follow through. You may want to make a short list of rules, like the following (feel free to copy, paste, adjust to fit your needs):

• Devices stay face down on the table or in backpacks/purses until instructed otherwise. No keeping them in your lap. Staring at your crotch is weird.
• Use real names when engaging in student interactives. I will delete anyone who does not appear to be a member of my class. 
• Watch signs for headphones. If I take them, it will cost you to get them back, IF I'm in a good mood. 

Have fun teaching. If something repeatedly gets on your nerves, fix it. You are the king or queen of your classroom. And college and career readiness is more than math and language and science, it's just as much, or more, about attitudes and professionalism. At least in my humble opinion.

Tired of all the Grading....part 4

If you are just joining the 4:1 Tech Challenge, I have been sharing about time-saving grading solutions. After reading about the four resources I review, I challenge you to choose one of the solutions and give it a try. 

This week I'm sharing I'm sharing about the final grading solution in this series: Google Forms and Flubaroo. If you are part of a Google Apps for Education school, this may just be the one for you. At the end of this post, I compare all four grading solutions.

Forms & Flubaroo

What it does: creates digital assessments, grades automatically, analyzes answers

NOTE: This is a combination of tools: Google Forms, Google Sheets, and the Flubaroo add-on

Tech level: High, each student needs a device - works best for 1:1 or BYOD; can be complicated with shared devices, especially shared iPads

Commitment level: None, Google Apps are free and Flubaroo is a free Google Sheets add-on

Devices:

• teachers - desktop, laptop, Android device; making a form with an iPad is awkward because there is no app
• students - use any device with a browser

What it offers:

• digital assessment creation using Google Forms
• item analysis and detailed reports that are exportable with Google Sheets and Flubaroo
• a variety of answer choices (multiple choice, yes/no, true/false, fill-in-blank, checkboxes,etc.)
• grade delivery through email

Time to set up:

• If you already use Google Apps for Education, little setup time is involved. It took me about five minutes to make a ten question assessment, and less than one minute to get the Flubaroo add-on in Google Sheets. I also spent about two-three minutes setting up a QR code generator.  

What I did: I wrote a ten question assessment using multiple choice, fill-in-the-blank, and a number scale. I emailed the assessment to one student, but I also made a QR code with the Form URL. I had my students scan the QR code with the iPads and Android phone. I had another student access the assessment through email. All devices worked fine for taking the assessment. I also completed the assessment myself so I would have an answer key.

After the students were done, I chose to view responses in Sheets. A spreadsheet was automatically created. In the Sheet, I chose Add-ons, chose Flubaroo, then walked through the steps to grade the spreadsheet. It took less than a minute to grade all the responses. Flubaroo created an item analysis and allowed me to see how individual students performed.  

Why it’s a game changer:

• Time saver!
• You can use a variety of questions.
• It provides color-coded  item analysis.
• If you have students enter an email on the Form, or if you are a Google Apps for Education school, Flubaroo has an option to have the grades automatically emailed.

What I learned that you should know BEFORE using:

• In Forms, be sure to check the settings before sending the form.
• You can shuffle question order to deter cheating. If you do this, don’t number the questions. 
• Be sure to mark “can submit only 1 response” if you don’t want students taking the assessment over and over again.
• You can add images and even videos.
• In Flubaroo, you have grading options for each Form question: normal, skip, and grade by hand.
• Flubaroo will accept more than one correct answer. This is handy if there is a fill-in-the-blank and you want to accept alternate spellings, or if there is more than one acceptable answer. When you fill out the form for the answer key, type %or between all acceptable choices. Flubaroo has a great explanation on their help center.
• Understanding the different question types in Forms is important. Synergyse has a great tutorial.

Now let’s compare the four grading tools:

Tool	Cost	Students need device	Need to set up classes	Item analysis	Track student performance
ZipGrade	free to try; $6.99/yr	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
TheAnswerPad	free basic/ $19.99/yr	Yes	Yes, students can self register	Yes	Yes
Socrative	free	Yes	No	Yes	No
Forms & Flubaroo	free	Yes	No	Yes	With effort

Now, which one are you going to start trying this week? You deserve to get some of your time back. It is worth the effort to get one of these solutions working for you. Let's get some comments flowing. Share which one you plan to use, and if you have questions or need some help, use the contact form on the right to let me know.

Tired of All the Grading.... part 3, Socrative

If you are just joining the 4:1 Tech Challenge, I have been sharing about time saving grading solutions. After reading about the four resources I review, I challenge you to choose one of the solutions and give it a try. (You can check out my past posts on ZipGrade and The Answer Pad to get caught up.)

This week I'm sharing one of my husband's (he's a teacher, too) favorite tools - Socrative.

What it does: Test/quiz delivery and automatic grading, analyzes feedback

NOTE: Socrative is really two tools in one - a test/quiz delivery and grading system AND an interactive student response system. In this post I am only reviewing the quiz/test grading system.

Tech level: High, each student needs a device - works for 1:1, BYOD, computer lab, or shared carts

Commitment level: NONE!

• completely free! (Gotta like that on a teacher’s budget!)

Devices:

• ANY - students and teachers use a browser or app; I tried it with a Chromebook, desktop, iPad, and Android phone - all worked great.

Pros:

• create digital assessments
• view live results as students complete questions
• assessments are graded as students submit answers
• downloadable/exportable results for each assessment
• tag assessments with standards
• variety of question choices (multiple choice, true/false, short answer) can be combined on each assessment

Time to set up:

• No time at all - choose “Get a Free Account” from the main page and fill in your information.
• Unlike the other grading solutions I’ve written about, you do not have to add students or set up classes. Students use your classroom code anytime you want them to use Socrative.

What I did: 

• I got my free account going and made my classroom code.
• I chose “Manage Quizzes” (it has a little wrench picture) from the top tab bar.
• I chose “Create a Quiz.” From there it was pretty self explanatory. It took me just a few minutes to make a quiz. I combined all three question types.
• I entered the classroom as different students using different devices and took my practice quiz. It was all super easy and super fast.

Why it’s a game changer:

• It’s a time-saver and here’s proof. My husband, who is also a teacher, used Socrative for his final exams recently. When the students were done taking the exams, he was basically done with the semester, too. No more papers spread out across the kitchen table. No more late night grading. No more deciphering student handwriting. All he had to do was enter the grades in his school’s learning management system, and his semester break began!
• You can do more than multiple choice.
• Assessment reports are color coded - you can see at a glance how students performed.
• From the results table, you can click on individual question numbers and anonymously review the results with your class by projecting the teacher screen - just be sure not to project the results table because it has student names. (Practice with this first to make sure you maintain student privacy.)
• You can get a variety of results for each assessment - individual student results (which is really a printable graded copy), whole class results (spreadsheet), and individual question results for item analysis.

What I learned that you should know BEFORE using:  

• Be sure students enter their real first and last names.
• To make an assessment or view reports, choose the “Manage Quizzes” in the top tab bar. 
• To give a quiz, choose “Dashboard” in the top tab bar and choose “Start a Quiz.”
• You can include an image with questions!!
• When starting a quiz, you have several options.
• To discourage cheating, you can choose to “Randomize Question Order”.
• Student Feedback - after each question, students will be told if their response was right or wrong--know your students before leaving this on. Some students will stress out and shut down at the first signs of failure. Also, it tells them the correct answer, so if you use the same assessment for different classes and don’t want students giving out answers, turn this option (“Disable Student Feedback”) ON.
• Student Results - students see final grade when they finish the assessment. If you want this, leave this option (“Disable Student Results”) OFF.
• You can tag an assessment with standards - it’s really easy. When you choose “Create Quiz,” you’ll see a pink box asking you to name the quiz, just below that box you’ll see “+ Add Tag.” Click it, be patient, and a blue CCSS box will pop up. Just keep clicking on the arrows on the far right to get to the standards you need.

What are the cons (and possible solutions)?

• Reports are based on individual assessments, making it a little harder to track student performance over time, but I’m sure that can be solved once the grades are entered in your learning management system.
• You are limited to three types of questions (multiple choice, true/false, and short answer), but if you carefully craft your questions and make use of adding images, you can do much. Also, Socrative lets you have more than three or four choices with multiple choice questions.
• You have to type your assessments in Socrative. You can cut and paste, and Socrative saves the quizzes so you can use them again. If you have always used paper tests, you will have to start doing some typing, but, in the long run, it will save time at the copier (which jammed half the time when I would use it), save time grading, and save money on paper. I say it’s worth a little typing!!

If you've used Socrative, feel free add a comment to share you experience.

If you need some help or tutorials, try the Help Center.

UPDATE: You can use shared quizzes on Socrative. Find more information at Socrative Garden.

Tired of All the Grading....part 2, The Answer Pad

If you are just joining the 4:1 Tech Challenge, I am sharing about time saving grading solutions for the next three weeks. After reading about the resources available, I challenge you to choose one of the solutions and give it a try. Be sure to check out last week's post on ZipGrade. (Feel free to sign up over there on the right--you'll only get an email when a new post goes up.)

This week I'm sharing one of my favorite tools - The Answer Pad.

What it does: Automatic grading via digital answer sheets, analyzes results

NOTE: The Answer Pad is two tools in one - a digital grading system AND an interactive student response system. In this post I am only reviewing the grading system.

Tech level: High, each student needs a device - works for 1:1, BYOD, or shared carts

Commitment level: Low or none - you can just be friends, date a while, or commit!

• basic plan - free for teachers and offers a good bit - I’d probably be satisfied with this if I only used it for grading
• 30-day free upgrade
• like the upgrade? - pay $9.95/year (for the interactive response tool, I’d pay this, but I’ll review this at a later date)

Devices:

• teachers- browser based, work from the website
• students - use any device: a browser on a laptop/computer or an app on mobile devices

What it offers:

• create digital answer sheets to go with paper assessments for instant grading and analysis
• item analysis and detailed reports that are exportable
• code questions with standards, if required by your school
• variety of answer choices (multiple choice, yes/no, true/false, fill-in-blank, essay, coordinate grids and other math options)

Time to set up:

• less than ten minutes to create an account, choose the free upgrade, and upload my students via a .csv (Google Sheets) file
• can enter students manually, but it may bump set up time to about 15 minutes
• The Answer Pad has an option to let students self-register with a group name and group code you choose - super fast

What I did: Once my class was set up, I chose the library icon to create a new answer sheet. I quickly added six multiple choice questions and two essay questions. This took only 2-3 minutes. I attached a PDF so students could see the questions on their screen, but this is a paid option. You can just use your paper assessments.  I assigned the assessment to my class and got the test code to give my students. I had my students take the assessment. The multiple choice was graded immediately. I could even use Live Monitor to watch as they worked. I had to go to Reports, then Analysis, then  Item Analysis to score the free response essay questions (see next section for more info about this).

Why it’s a game changer:

• Obviously this saves loads of time. That is one of my goals--help teachers save time. The Answer Pad does that.
• One digital answer sheet can have a variety of question types so you are not restricted to only multiple choice (MC). Plus, when you choose to edit a MC question, you even have more options, like the ABCD, then FDGH choices some tests use.
• Grading essay questions is SUPER EASY because I can see every student’s answer at the same time. I don’t have to flip through papers or think about how I scored another student’s response for comparison. I can see all the answers at one time and just work my way down the screen assigning scores. I love this!!
• It provides item analysis and colored coded proficiency graphs. It gives results almost instantly to guide future instruction! Students can even see item by item results as soon as they finish the assessment. No more waiting to find out the grade.
• Results of each assessment can be exported to a .csv spreadsheet - AWESOME feature
• Students have space to show their work for every question. This is automatically saved and the teacher can see it.

What I learned that you should know BEFORE using:

• If you register students, they should choose “I Already Have an Account”  and use the Group Name, User Name, and Password you set up, otherwise they register themselves. “I Have a Connect Code” is for the interactive system.
• Click the little Answer Pad circle symbol in the top left corner to get back to the dashboard.
• You will only use the Groups, Library, and Reports icons. The other icons are for the interactive response tool.
• If you use the on screen PDF, be sure to tell students not to slide the box up too high or it gets stuck. I got it stuck and had to exit and resume the test. Thankfully it remembered where I left off.
• Click on the Proficiency pie graph to see a student-by-student list with proficiency levels - a great feature!

What are the cons (and possible solutions)?

• If you are very new to educational technology, it may take a little time to figure out the navigation. I am not afraid to just click on stuff and see what it does. If you are not that adventurous, click on +LEARN at the top right and The Answer Pad provides lots of resources to help you. Also, in the bottom right you can leave a message.
• The on-screen PDF is small if using a phone or iPad. If using mobile devices, you may want to have some printed tests available for students who get frustrated with the small reading space.

Bottom Line: If I still had a regular teaching position (see post from January 10 to find out why I don't), The Answer Pad would get a workout in my classroom, giving me time to get my own workout!

If you're in my area and are interested in using this resource or any others I share, and want some help setting it up, leave me a comment or find me on Google+.