Feb.
23, 2015
Technology
is supposed to make our jobs easier, but often teachers find it can be more
hassle than it's worth. Take assessment. There are lots of student clickers or
responders that gobble up so much time logging in that there is no time left to
assess! But now there is a better way that is so easy, I had to pass on the
good news! Plus I wanted to share 3 ways I found to extend this app beyond the classroom.
In
her blog Minds in Bloom!, teacher/entrepreneur
extraordinaire Rachel Lynette recently wrote about an app that I just had to
try out with my fourth graders. Plickers
is a free app that gives teachers instant assessments for the entire class. How
is that possible?
Once
you complete the quick registration, you are ready to go. Set-up is as easy
as 1-2-3! Print a class set of the unique cards, register, and add in student
names. The teacher must have a smart phone, but that is all. Rachel Lynette gave a great overview
along with fabulous suggestions for use in the classroom. Be sure to read her
blog entry!
I was
so inspired that I started to look for more ways I could incorporate Plickers into my school day. Here are
some ideas beyond the classroom walls:
- Field Trips Why do students think that a field trip
isn’t a school day? Plickers puts the education back
into field trips. By making lanyard name tags with the student name on one
side and the Plickers code on
the other, you can easily assess your students in front of an exhibit,
while riding the bus, or after a demonstration!
- Outside the Classroom Learning shouldn't stop
when students exit your classroom.
Plickers offers accountability no matter where your kids happen to be.
If they are wearing their Plickers name
tag, the library, auditorium. school garden, computer lab, or even the P.E.
field becomes a opportunity to question, assess, and even re-teach. For
example, in P.E. I can tell who can correctly identify the rules of a
game. Or in the school garden, I might ask about the life cycle of a
butterfly. At the library, I can check for understanding by asking the
location of fiction or biographies.
- Wait Time Have you ever been stuck in the
auditorium waiting for other classes to arrive and the program to begin?
This is a great opportunity for some quick review-if your students have
their Plickers name tags. I’m
always drilling multiplication facts. Now I can ask the whole group
instead of one student at a time. That means 34 kids are engaged instead
of one. I like those numbers!
Those are a few of my ideas to extend Plickers outside the classroom. I’d
love to hear yours!
