Using cel.ly in the classroom or other ways

I am new to the idea of allowing kids to use cell phones in school. I agree with it 100% if the purpose is valid and I have an administrator who has also indicated it is a good idea if it is monitored and used effectively in the classroom, but the question remains- how can it be used effectively?

I attended a webinar recently on the website simplek12 and I learned som ideas about using phones in class- one website mentioned was cel.ly. I immediately established an account and created a cell for my school library. I decided what have I got to lose? It may be an additional way to inform student patrons about programs, contests and hot new releases. I also talked to my corporation about establishing a cell to do instant messaging to families in the event of a weather issue, a change in schedule or even to update lunch menus if they are changing. It is a free program and the overall concept is simple.

I am going to use it in my class to do quick starts and exit slips. One thing I liked about cel.ly is the capability of changing the replies. Some of the cell programs I have looked at do not allow the recipient to reply to the sender but with this program, you can set it up for an anonymous response.

There are so many concerns regarding teachers and student connecting via text and social media. Through cel.ly, it can be done 100% anonymously from the teacher standpoint. You can even set it up so students have to input their name but you never see their number. Talk about instant feedback.

I am certain that I can use this program with success in my class. I am going to spend more time dabbling in the technology and will probably find even more ways to use it as I explore.

If you are in a district where technology is open and cell use is permitted, take a look at cel.ly.

I am going to flip my class

I have decided after a lot of research, reading and chatting with others, I am going to take a jump in the deep end and flip my class this year.   I have spent numerous hours this summer talking to people on twitter, reading chats and reading blogs about the topic.   As a little background information, I am a French teacher.  I also run the school library. There are many times I am in the middle of class and someone stops in needing technology help. Yes, I have an aid, but sometimes the needs are things only I can do.  I think if I flip my class, a three minute interruption won't impact the kids learning.  I spend only a little bit of time each week doing lecture.  I have found that a short intro of the topic to the whole class and then small pod lessons works best with my kids.  I think what I am already doing is a little flipped, but, I intend to stop the in class lecture and move into the video mode.

I don't intend to make kids watch the videos at home unless they want to.  Since French is not a core class, most kids don't do homework anyway.  They often put it on the back burner to get their core work done.  I can't compete with math, science and English.  Both content areas often require a lot of night work and kids have so many other things to do outside of school.  They spend seven hours a day at school.  Why should they spend their entire evening doing more school work?  Plus, I have to grade it. 

Here is how I envision my class:
Kids will come in and log into Edmodo for their daily starter. (we are 1:1 so all students have a laptop.)  I will be using today's meet or poll everywhere to do warmups.  They will also see links to their videos.  They will be instructed to download the video and be given their daily assignments.  One of the assignments will be watching the video.  While that is happening, I will be in small group talking to the students, using the target language and answering questions.  As they watch the videos they will be taking notes which will be used for their grades.  I also anticipate a lot of projects and group discussion in French.  We are also going to be connecting with Francophone schools via skype and ePals.  I see my kids gaining a lot of their knowledge through communication.

I am looking forward to trying this and seeing how it works.

Kwik survey has lots of possibilities

In my attempt to use and evaluate tools on the web, I went into my polling symbaloo and tried a few.  Kwik surveys was my favorite.   The main reason, it's free and unlimited.  You can create as many surveys as desired and it doesn't set limits like survey monkey.  You can build several different formats of surveys for use both in the classroom setting as well as in the corporation setting.  You can build a quick sample survey without an account as well.  It just gets deleted as soon as th































e browser closes.

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off, create the free account.  Immediately, once you login, you receive a page that is formatted to fill in with titles, descriptions and questions.  I made one for myself to just see what it was like.  I asked a few short text box questions, a few multiple choice, and there were many other options to use.

I have been a huge fan of google docs forms to create my surveys, but I really think I am going to change my toon with this site.  I love the fact that I can embed images, videos, audio directly into the survey.  I haven't figured that out with forms on docs. As a foreign language teacher, using embedded devices benefits my students and my classroom.

A few wonderful things, aside from embedding, you can delete surveys but are required to input your password and you can duplicate a survey for a different class.  So, let's say you need a test for your students in first hour and third hour. You duplicate and voila, the results are collected per class and separate.  I also like how it builds graphs with data for all questions asked.  With so many data driven administrations these days, that is a huge benefit.

How can I see it used?  Let me count the ways:

1. Pre/Post testing- I can see a teacher who is required to do a pre test and a post test use it to compare the results and show growth.  It would really benefit teachers who don't teach a core class that is being evaluated. (I am talking about new rules in Indiana here, but I know some other states also base pay on student growth as well).

2.  Exit/Entrance slips Have the students take a really quick survey at the start or the end of class to see their understanding of the concept.

3. Pop quizzes Students can enter class and take a quick pop quiz to test content.

4. Class officer voting If your school has the capabilities of allowing students to access email, send the link to all of the kids in the respective grades and vote for class officers.  Saves time tabulating.  Generate a form for each grade and make a mailing list. You could use it to vote for homecoming queen, prom queen, etc as well.  Just have the link on the back of the ticket to the dance, they log in, vote, voila.

5. Climate surveys On a corporate level, I can see a school district having teachers, students, and community members use it for a climate survey.  Maybe a technology awareness survey.  A lot of information can be learned asking the community as a whole.

6. Book Reviews Have students answer questions about books, add the statistics to a blog or to a website so students can see the data.

7. State book awards.  I know Indiana has book awards where students read books and vote for them.  You can establish a survey for the books, have students take the survey for each book and let the program tabulate the results.  That way, when the final tabulations are due to the state, you just go on the site and count.  You could create a QR code for each survey and attach it to the book. The survey could be as simple as the title of the book, the author and a 1-5 rank.

8. Survey on blog You could do a poll question on your blog about something you are doing.  Maybe about an upcoming movie based on a book.  Maybe about a book... Lots of possibilities there as well. 

My mind is still racing with ideas to use this, but the ideas above are a good start.

The Tween Tribune

One of my colleagues and I were chatting one day about the uninterrupted 90 minute reading block required by the state of Indiana to all students in grades K-3 and in some schools continuing until grade 6. One of the goals is to align with the common core and introduce students to more real life informational texts.  As a high school teacher, I don't see a lot of the components of elementary so I always have questions, especially since my own two children are in elementary.  She shared with me that a large amount of her informational texts come from a site called The Tween Tribune, so of course I had to check it out.

The site is curated by journalists, teens and tweens (you know that awkward age before kids hit puberty but think they are cool- I have one myself.) It is updated daily with articles from across the globe that are of interest to kids between 8-18.   It reminds me a lot of an updated Channel One News with a more fascinating flare for the eye catching story.  It isn't all news, it is also lifestyle, culture, arts and even cute and fuzzy.  Kids can read the articles, which are updated daily and comment upon them!  The tabs across the top are age based so the students can select articles based on their age level, a junior tween, tween and teen.  The fantastic thing-  teachers can set up classes and see what their students do.

If you visit the site you see a large list of subjects that students can sift through to find articles.  I can already see a lot of interesting ideas for this one.

1.  Read an article and discuss it with the class. Have each student find an article of choice, read it and share the information with the class.  I believe part of the common core includes presentations, especially for some of the mid grades like 4-7.

2.  Read and comment.  The kids can read the articles and comment upon them on the site or to the teacher.

3.  Letter to the editor.  Older students can read articles and write reactions/ letters to the editor about what was read.  It can be a way to teach kids to be involved citizens and use their local media to inform the public.

4.  Home share.  Have the students read an article and take the information home and include parents in the evening task.  It could be a simple Q/A with their guardian about it.  Maybe have the listener write a quick note on an agenda?

5.  History Classes. Students could read articles relating to history and delve a little deeper into them.  The day I evaluated this page, there was an article about Betsy Ross having three husbands.  Now isn't that something kids would want to investigate a little?

6.  Science classes. There are tons of articles about animals, discoveries, etc.  It could be a quick start to class to have kids read one short article each day about something your class is studying. (Ex: in the classification section of the Biology class, maybe there is an article about a new species discovered.)

As a non English teacher, I am not as keen to ideas for something like this.  As a librarian and a journalist, I feel getting kids to read news is a huge part of growing up.  So many of them love to read news but don't.  Why not provide them the time to do some reading during a class or a block?  Every little bit of reading matters and making our students global citizens requires them to know more than what is in a book.