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Formative assessment helps teachers make data-informed decisions to plan for and/or adjust instructional activities, identify potential misconceptions, monitor the pace of instruction, etc. While there are many ways to formatively assess students, I recently saw  Eric Sheninger use Plickers during his workshop at the Ventura County Office of Education, and thought, what an easy and inexpensive way to quickly assess groups! . @E_Sheninger Using Plickers #l3vcoe pic.twitter.com/rEHcTMgNKb — Tracy Watanabe (@tracywatanabe) November 7, 2014 Purpose and benefits Collect data from multiple choice or true/false questions from a group. View data as a group snapshot in a graph, or view individual data from audience. Quick, low-tech tool to use, especially when you don't have the budget for clickers. Technology and prep Teacher/Facilitator creates an account at Plickers . Download app for portable device: iTunes or Google Play . Print out a set of reusable  car...

Mystery State Skype isn't a new idea, it's basically taking learning geography and placing it in a game format like Twenty Questions via Skype, by asking questions to guess the location of the other classroom. Not only does this connect students from across the country (or globe), but it also gives a context for students to apply geography with critical reasoning, collaboration, communication, digital citizenship, and information fluency -- 21st century skills . Skype in the classroom Learning standards What should your students research? I recommend looking at your standards to know what is expected of your students as a starting place. Geography standards --  History-Social Science Content Standards   Consider the research writing standards (see CCSS ELA Writing Standards #7 - 9 ) Converse and collaborate with diverse partners -- CCSS ELA Speaking and Listening #1 21st Century Skills -- ISTE Standards for Students Note that your students will read information...

Formative assessment informs educators about student learning, and when done correctly , it also informs the students how to improve and move forward with their next goal. Teachers must know how to use the data to drive their instruction. Formative Data by Tracy Watanabe - Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires Gleaning results from the data and providing specific feedback must be timely, which is why I like using Google Forms (along with other tools). Why Google Forms While there's a plethora of tools that can be used to collect formative data, I am going to focus on Google Forms. Google Forms is an awesome time saver for collecting data in surveys, assignments, mindsets, exit tickets, etc. It aggregates the data collected into a Google Spreadsheet, and gives me a summary of the data in nice graphs as well. For example, below is a Google Form used by a high school teacher. He told me that this tool is a time saver because he can quickly se...

How does a teacher start to use iPads in the classroom? This post will include the basics for getting started. Part 1 focuses on the hardware fundamentals with iOS 7, while Part 2 focuses on iPad integration in the classroom. Hardware basics Turning on / off the iPad : Hold the sleep button for five seconds until you see the apple appear on the screen to turn it on. To power down, hold the sleep button for five seconds, then  "slide to power off." Putting the iPad to sleep : Press the sleep button . To wake it up, press either the sleep button or the home button . Use this feature to save the battery or to have students' full attention. Open an app : Tap once on the app you would like to open. If it is not on the first page, you can swipe through the pages with your finger to look for it. If you have many apps/pages, then you can find it with the Spotlight search . Just go to your Home screen by pressing the home button , and swipe down from the middl...

How you set up and lead one-to-one is based on your vision for one-to-one. So, what's your vision? Why 1:1? How will students use the tech? For what? The purpose of one-to-one is to give the students ubiquitous access to learning. The device itself is not the purpose of one-to-one -- augmenting students' learning is. Therefore, it's essential to know what change you want to see in your district/school that one-to-one can support. What learning do you want to see, and how will technology make that possible? What does that look like?  How will the students use the technology to accomplish those goals? For me, it's simple, I want to see students using their critical thinking to create, collaborate, communicate, and contribute as digital citizens. How does 1:1 connect to and support other district or site initiatives? One-to-one is a learning initiative, and not a technology program. It should not be treated as something separate or as an add-on . ...

In this post, my focus is sharing some of the math resources that I heard about during "Core technologies for the Common Core" by Kyle Brumbaugh and Elizabeth Calhoon at #ISTE2014 . I'll also add a few ideas of my own. Math in the real world Students should be able to apply mathematical concepts to real world issues . In the real world , math doesn't come in a box labeled, "Today you will only use your multiplying with fractions skill." In the real world, students must use critical thinking to solve problems. As math is taught, it must be relevant to our students by connecting to the real world. Technology can assist in relevancy by giving students access to real-time data, current information, interactive tools, and audiences beyond the four classroom walls. Use appropriate tools strategically  Students are asked to choose appropriate tools strategically when solving math problems. Appropriate tools include traditional tools such as ru...

One of the #ISTE2014 sessions I attended was "Core technologies for the Common Core" by Kyle Brumbaugh and Elizabeth Calhoon . They had a great introduction to the Common Core and a plethora of helpful tools. In this post, I will share some of what I learned from them , and add in a few more resources, ideas, and tools. ELA Text Complexity Readability levels are an important ingredient for figuring out text complexity . Reading Standard 10 specifically states that students must read complex text, "Read and comprehend complex literary and informational texts independently and proficiently." Text complexity reminds me of a s'more. It contains three main parts, and while you can talk about each ingredient separately, it's not really a s'more until you put them all together. Tools for readability Have you ever wondered if the text on a website is the appropriate reading level for your students? Here are some tools for assessing the quan...