Padlet: A Simple Way To Have Everyone Participate

Padlet is an online “bulletin board” that allows students to post their response to a topic in a manner that allows the whole class to participate.

Here's an overview:

  What is Padlet?

• An online bulletin board that allows everyone to post to it

How is it helpful?

• It allows all of your students to view the responses of their classmates

• It consolidates all of the responses to one place (easier grading)
• It allows for more creativity in the classroom

How can I use Padlet in the classroom?

• Group responses in the classroom
• As an “into” activity
• Elicit responses to primary text
• Use as homework
• Use as a “Bell-Ringer”
• Use as a “Ticket-out-the-door” activity

How does it work?

• Go to padlet.com and click on :

Put in your:

• Email address
• Password
• Click "sign up"

• Put in your name
• Click on "Save and continue"

You will see a homepage

• Click on "Create a New Padlet"

Create your online bulletin board

• Click on the red triangle
• Click on "Modify Wall"

You can:

• Click on "portrait" to personalize your page
• Title you Padlet (Perhaps the name of your class?)
• Describe your Padlet (Put your discussion question here)

You can also:

• Select your background (wallpaper)
• Click on "layout" and determine how your posts will appear

Your Padlet should look similar to this:

This is the address

Now the fun part, share the address with your students

• In this case, the address is :  padlet.com/nate_theune/ny3lsbaq5ceq

Easy input from the class!

• When the students go to the address, they double click on the wall and this appears:

• They enter their name and write a response
• Notice that they can also add a link, picture or video to the website.

Some examples and possible projects:

• Create a timeline:

• Create a map with descriptions:

• More ideas:

Remind.com: How to Increase Your Classroom Achievement in 30 Seconds

REMIND (Formerly REMIND 101)

All teachers face similar problems when it comes to assigning work. Students saying, “I did not know that the assignment was due" or parents saying, “My son/daughter didn't know that the test/assignment/homework was due.” In some cases it may be true, but in other cases it may be an excuse. One thing that is certain, ineffective communication causes hostility.

Remind is a free, easy way to send a text to a large group without:

• Giving out your own phone number
• Giving the recipients the ability to reply
• Having the students' phone numbers

This is how we do it ( in six easy steps):

1. Go to www.remind.com and click on “Teacher sign up”

2. Fill out “First Name, Last Name, Email and Password” and click “Complete sign up”

3. Enter the name of one of your classes then click on “Save class and add students”

4. This is cool.  Notice a few things:

• You can download the PDF and print it out as a handout for your class
• You can project the image on a screen and have your class sign up immediately on their phones

5. You can also click on the “Send Invitations” tab and get this screen where:

1. You can type in student or parent emails or phone numbers
2. Or share a link that they can access on their computer

6. Your home screen will look like this:

• You can simply type in your reminder and click on send 
• Educational enlightenment achieved in 30 seconds or less!

7. Quick Recap:
1. You don’t have their phone numbers and they don’t have your phone number.
2. An excellent way to quickly communicate with parents and students
3. Added Bonus-There is a free app for your phone, so send them a reminder text when you get to school in the morning, or at night or at the store..etc.
4. It’s Relevant, Functional and Accessible and it’s FREE!

Using Google Form to Create a Quiz or Survey for Your Classroom

Using Google Forms for “Bell Work”

Teachers often find themselves with an onslaught of  demands at the beginning and end of class.  Students often use the beginning or end of class to ask about late work, missing work or clarification of homework.  At this point it may be helpful to assign “Bell Work”.  Bell work is a way to have the students focus on a short activity that takes five to ten minutes while the teacher is busy doing attendance, handing out papers, etc.  The following will demonstrate how to create a short assignment using Google forms.

The first step is to go to Google Drive.  You can access it from your gmail by clicking on the the little square in the top right corner.

 

Then you should click on “Drive”

Once you click on “Drive” you will want to click on “Create” and “Form”

At this point, you will get this nifty introduction to Google Forms.  Feel free to click “Learn more” if you would like to go through the tutorial.  In our case, we will click on “Get started”

Now the fun begins!  The form is very user friendly and is a nice template that allows you to design your own survey/short quiz:

So for the “Untitled Form” section, you could put in the title of your quiz as you would put it in your gradebook.  The form description could include your name and subject.  

When you start the quiz/survey, It’s a good idea to put in three questions:  What is your first name?  What is your last name? What period do you have (fill in your name)’s class?  After you enter the question title, select add item and move on to the next question.

Notice how you can change the question type from multiple choice to text or scale if you prefer.  

Here’s what the form looks like after I did the above changes:

In this case, I create one question:  Please list three of California’s Biomes.  When you are finished creating the quiz/survey, click on “Done” and “Send Form”

Here is the screen you will receive after you click “send form”:

Here are your options:

1.  Click on “Link to share”
1. Copy and paste the link into an email and send it to the class
1. The students receive the link, click on it, and take the survey/quiz
2. Write the link onto the board and have the students go to that address on their computers/smart phones/Chromebooks
1. Side note:  Go to http://goo.gl/ to shorten the link to make it easier to write it down
2. For example the above link:  https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1LTkni0PrQgGNR8nw62zBeFIacj2uc4NAef46Kwc81vo/viewform?usp=send_form

is shortened to:  http://goo.gl/5fg0tL by using the “Google URL Shortener”

2.  Embed the link into your website.

3.  Share the link through Google plus, Facebook or Twitter

3.  Enter the email addresses of the people you want to invite to take the survey.

Let’s say that I write http://goo.gl/5fg0tL on the board and one of the students is on the computer and goes to that address, here’s what he/she will see:

The student fills out the form:

They click submit and see this:

Meanwhile, you (the teacher) check your Google Drive and you see this:

If I click on “Biology Quiz-Biomes (Responses) I will see this:

As the responses are submitted, I can arrange them by first name, last name and period.

As you can see, Google Form is a nice way to submit online quizzes and surveys.  Hope this helps and let me know if you need any clarification!

Creating a Google Account

The Internet has a lot to offer educators.  One of the first ways to begin using the Internet in the classroom is to sign up for a Google account.  It is free and offers educators immediate access to a variety of programs that may help you organize your time (e.g. Google Calendar) and communicate efficiently with your students (e.g. Google Docs and Google Voice).  The following information is designed to help you create a Google account.

How to set up a Google Account (Gmail, docs, calendar, etc):

Go to this website:

https://accounts.google.com/signup

1. Fill out this information:

2. Continue to fill out information

3. Verify your account:

4. Enter your verification code:

5. Success!  Click on “Next Step” to access your Google Account

6. There’s your email address:

7. Here’s the next screen:

“Click” on that square at the top and then Gmail to access your email.

8. Congrats!  Here’s your email account: