Chrome books in the classroom!
I now am the proud owner of a class set of chrome books! What to do with them..... it's been a crazy year finding out, and I wish I would have created this blog at the BEGINNING of the year so that I had that record I referred to. But I'm going to start now with reviewing what I remember as my most popular of last year, and start prepping for next year. We started off the year by trying out new programs and web sites every week, but we seem to have gotten stuck in a rut toward the end of the year.... I'm just going to call them our favorites!
Websites we liked best:
Kahoot!
Kahoot was a great review website that the kids loved. I could search out pre-made ones or make my own. The kids loved racing against each other to have a higher score.
Pros: Kids got competitive and really tried hard to answer.
Cons: All multiple choice so sometimes it was easier to guess based on choices than try.
IXL.com
Great for practicing. Modified so if they get it wrong it shows them good steps on how to properly do it, then asks them a similar problem and if they get it right it tweaks it just a bit and asks another problem gradually getting harder. Includes a "smart score" like a percent if you were to take a test right now.
Pros: Gets the kids used to doing math on the computer. Individualizes the assignment: allows me to see who needs additional help while challenging those who understand. Students can compete with each other with their smart score. If have a subscription can get a report.
Cons: Need a subscription to do more than 20 problems or save their progress. Once they've reached a smart score of 100, they can never do those problems again, even for review.
Powtoons
Allows students (or teacher!) to create short, animated videos. I used these for student review projects.
Pros: More fun than a powerpoint. Allows the students to just push play when presentation time, and have all prep work done.
Cons: A lot of subscription only areas.
ThingLink
Interactive poster. The students upload a picture, then add dots to the picture. Each dot is then a link, video, or picture that you can click on and see. I used as a student review project.
Pros: More fun than a powerpoint. Allows students to interact with the poster when presenting.
Cons: Can simply link the internet and not do a lot of actual work if you don't be specific about requirements.
Socrative
Kind of like Kahoot in that it is questions to be answered, only you have options of multiple choice, free response, or true/false. Students then answer on their own device and the "race" is against correct responses not against time answered.
Pros: Variety of response styles. Students can take their time. Students still have the competition against each other. Not difficult to create your own.
Cons: Not a big data base of shared tests, need to make most of your own. Can't have more than 20 students, or it will put some of them together as a team.
