The ed Newsstand

Kahoot's greatest feature is how quickly it engages students and creates a frenzied atmosphere as soon as the game begins. Kahoots are best played in a group setting. Players answer the questions on their own devices, while games are displayed on a shared screen to unite the lesson. Kahoot's social learning atmosphere promotes discussion and pedagogical impact, whether players are in the same room or on the other side of the globe. You can connect and play in real time with other players in 180+ countries. Kahoot! works on any device with an internet connection. For players, no account or login is required to join a game.  Creating learning games and playing Kahoot! is free for K-12 teachers and students. Starting a conversation or reinforcing knowledge, introducing new topics or encouraging teamwork, and more – there’s so many different ways to Kahoot!

You can visit the May 13, 2019 newsletter to learn more and access all the links: https://tinyurl.com/edNewsstand2019

Quizizz provides its feedback in an entertaining way, it can easily be assigned in class or as homework, it integrates well with Google, and the telescoping features for creating assessments is a game changer. Quizizz describes itself as a self-paced learning tool that helps every student celebrate their achievements. Teachers incorporate Quizizz into instruction, review, and assessment to support students at all grade levels.

You can visit the May 6, 2019 newsletter to learn more and access all the links: https://tinyurl.com/edNewsstand2019

Quizlet has found a solid model to help students at all levels understand and remember their content while gamifying their learning. This episode is full of resources and links to help new users get started or better an users find more resources for their classroom. To get started using Quizlet head over to their website at Quizlet.com or visit my website for the newsletter.

You can visit the April 29, 2019 newsletter to learn more and access all the links: https://tinyurl.com/edNewsstand2019

This episode is the first in a series of digital assessment websites to use with students. GoFormative.com offers a lot of great questions options when building assessments for students and has over 5,000 pre-built assessments to duplicate or use currently in their library. GoFormative.com goes beyond simple multiple choice questions, allows for formative  and real-time analytics, it can allow teachers to save time, questions can be aligned to standards, and it allows teachers to provide and students to receive instant feedback. GoFormative.com provides everything you could need in a free digital assessment platform. Checkout my website and newsletter for examples for using GoFormative.com with math, science, and language arts.  

You can visit the April 22, 2019 newsletter to learn more and access all the links: https://tinyurl.com/edNewsstand2019

The Google Next Conference was last week and with that came several updates to the front end and back of Google's G Suite services. In this episode, I provide some highlights for the seven updates Google provided for their G Suite services. The updates discussed are Google Slides - add audio and change theme color, Google Classroom - sort by topics and adding thumbnails, Google Drive and Microsoft Office integration, Google Sheets add five different updates, SMART Online Learning Suite becomes an app, and Google Calendars allows coworker views. Check out all the G Suite updates by visiting their blog https://gsuiteupdates.googleblog.com/.

You can visit the April 15, 2019 newsletter to learn more and access all the links: https://tinyurl.com/GSuiteUpdates2019

Apps come and go but none have been as resilient as Pic Collage. With over 200 million downloads on every mobile platform available, Pic Collage has positioned itself to be a must have app for user creating in a mobile space. With an active Twitter presence, active blog posts, and a plethora of users sharing their creations with #PicCollage it's easy to see the power of this free app. This podcast gives a brief overview of features within the app, @wolfep provides some classroom activities students can make with the app, and there are resources for finding more ideas for using Pic Collage.

You can visit the April 8, 2019 newsletter to learn more and access all the links: https://tinyurl.com/edNewsstand2019

A digital portfolio is a “purposeful” collection of student performance demonstrating growth, acquisition of skills or knowledge, and creativity over time published in a digital format. Digital portfolios can often be a resource for reflection and an opportunity for students to show pride in their hard work while demonstrating their understanding and learning experiences. This podcast provides resources from George Couros, ASCD, The Creative Educator, and Educator's of Technology to help you decide if Digital Portfolios are right for you and your classroom. 

You can visit the April 1, 2019 newsletter to learn more and access all the links: https://tinyurl.com/edNewsstand2019

Learning Menus have been around for a long time, but with the increase in the availability of classroom technology Learning Menus can take a new form and find more differentiation, styles, use more mediums, and have more interactivity. This episode will look at different Learning Menus from @shakeuplearning, @nadinegilkison, @tommyspal, @jgtechieteacher, @jennfindleyblog, @thinglink, and hopefully inspire more ideas to incorporate digital media into your lessons so students can critically think about how to communicate their understanding creatively and take control of their learning.

You can visit the March 25, 2019 newsletter to learn more and access all the links: https://tinyurl.com/edNewsstand2019

CommonLit's award-winning, free digital library contains over 1,500 lessons for grades 3-12 that span different genres, topics, and themes. Each reading passage includes standards-aligned text-dependent questions that allow teachers to collect formative data after reading.

You can visit the March 18, 2019 newsletter to access all the links: https://tinyurl.com/edNewsstand2019

A #HyperDoc is a digital document where all components of a learning cycle have been pulled together in one location. Jennifer Gonzalez from Cult of Pedagogy and Matt Miller from Ditch that Textbook have great resources from the HyperDoc Girls on how to design and play to implement HyperDocs into your lesson plans.

You can visit the March 11, 2019 newsletter to access all the links: https://tinyurl.com/edNewsstand2019