Review Games: Bingo

So, today we went old school with review games in my class…we played Bingo!  We kept to the classic game on paper, I paid for the lifetime subscription to Bingobaker.com several years ago and it is definitely worth the $20 I spent.  I believe the subscription is now $24.95, but it opens up many more perks than the free version.  I discussed this super-cool-edu-tool on an episode of the PAECT Pod which you will soon be able to access HERE.  You can either print paper cards or play virtually on any Internet-connected device, however, computers work better than phones for this.

I have my Google Doc of key terms, which gets copied and pasted into Bingobaker and the website does the rest, creating and shuffling the terms into useable Bingo cards.  This unto itself is worth the nominal fee.

I was not able to get my hands on any Bingo chips for the game, so we used highlighters and dry-erase markers to mark the cards.  We played a bare-bones style, pulling the words out of a hat, though I must say the hat was rather stylish.  After the first player hit a Bingo, the class had the opportunity to keep playing on the existing paper cards or switch to virtual cards.  The decision was unanimous, keep the paper cards going.

The students were into the games, we played for prizes that I have acquired at various educational conferences, stickers, sticky notes, mini-journals, pens, and other such tchotchkes.  We started with a traditional straight-line bingo, then continued to play on the paper cards for the rest of the period.  I did cut prizes off at a limit of two per student, I need to keep my stockpile of prizes for a while yet.  The students enjoyed the old-school review, I grasped what we needed to brush up on before the upcoming quiz, and we all enjoyed the day.

A Bit About Me

Students have completed this short project for my class over the last couple of years., This year they asked me to complete a copy.  Here it is:

I think it is important to build connections and let the students see “behind the curtain” if you will.  We as teachers are not perfect, we make mistakes, and we enjoy life outside of the classroom.  Students need to see those characteristics in us.

Our Second StickTogether

My classes participated and completed our second StickTogether as an OPTIONAL ENRICHMENT ASSIGNMENT, It went well and more students worked on completing this activity than the first StickTogether.  Once they work on the activity they are to take a screenshot of their work and submit it to me via email or messages in Schoology so they can be given the points they earned.  At times I put the activity on the big board, the interactive TV, in the front of my room.  Students could come up and click squares to complete the puzzle.

You can read more about StickTogether here.

A screenshot of the completed  activity is below:

StickTogether II

Well, my first attempt at a StickTogether for my Honors class can be considered a success.  It was completed quickly…by one student.  I am rolling out another StickTogether, however this time I am limiting the number of attempts per day to give others a chance to participate.

Here is the image from the first StickTogeher.

StickTogether

So, this spring I was introduced to StickTogether, a puzzle/digital puzzle tool.  The concept of digital puzzles and activities for my students intrigued me.  I wanted to try out the tool in my classroom, however, the year was just about over and the students were worn down.  The project trial did not get out of the gate.

This past week for two days I attended the PAECT, Keystone Technology Innovator Summit at Shippensburg University.  The Summit is five days in length, but I was there Thursday and Friday.  Once again I came across the StickTogether resource.

I decided by executive fiat that we will try one out over the Summer to see how it is received by the students.  I signed into my account that was created earlier in the Spring of 2023.  I perused the various premade digital puzzles and pushed one out as a virtual Stickerboard.

Since Schoology, our district’s LMS is not active over the Summer I am hosting my activity here on Edublogs.  You can access the activity HERE. 

I am hoping my students embrace the activity and I can build it into a component of the Choice Boards in my courses.  I will keep you updated on the project as time goes on.

 

Here are the Directions on the Website:

Welcome

Just click on a letter in the panel on the right to select a color. Then click on the corresponding letter in the grid to fill in that color.

To ZOOM click on the magnifier icon and then click again on a section of the image.

Let’s ALL StickTogether!

Chaos of Choice

This past week in class I had my students begin preparing for a Discussion Board assignment: straightforward, direct, rather basic discussion board assignment: they were going to respond to a classmates’ initial discussion board post.

There was one catch…they had to get approval from me as to whose post they would be responding to. As I suspected, they all wanted to respond to their best friend’s initial post. I shot that idea down and made them choose another student’s post to respond to. That is when CHAOS reared it’s mischievous head. Students asked for the same friend a couple of times, others asked for their “other BFF” from class, several tried to argue/debate the reasons why they should be allowed to respond to their friend, others inquired repeatedly as to why they could not respond to their friend, and other students went back to their seats and sulked.

The purpose for my not letting them respond to their “BFF’s” initial discussion board post was to get them out of their comfort zone and to have the interact with other students. Being able to comfortably, confidently, and appropriately interact and respond to others is a necessary skill. And in my not so humble opinion, it is becoming a lost art. I attempted to explain this to the classes, unfortunately my message was not making much headway.

A number of students then wanted me to pick the post they were to respond to. That was also something I did not want to do. The students were encouraged to read over the initial posts again and choose a post that they connected with. Just not a connection based upon being friends with the student. They were to focus on the message, not the author. It took some coaxing, but eventually they came around and chose another post to respond to, even if it was only grudgingly.

In the end the students overcame their angst and the CHAOS settled down. Students used this GUIDELINE to form their responses and overall did a great job for their first attempt at responding to others in a discussion board format.

Day Four Class Update: No Assignment

I recorded and uploaded this video before the District-wide announcement went out via email and phone…the written update is posted below the video, it is missing the weather forecast for today…

Good morning, I have a couple of updates for you today.  First off, if you responded to the first assignment, thank you.  I was receiving replies through yesterday. If you haven’t responded to the first assignment, you still can respond, there are only a couple of people I have not heard from yet.

Yesterday I pushed out the second assignment…almost immediately people started responding.  I have mixed responses from the group and that is okay. Some of you are ready to move on, some are a bit hesitant.  Again, that is okay. If you haven’t responded, you have plenty of time, no need to worry.

I want to address some of your concerns, especially the big one…a number of people are uncertain about starting back up, because they are unsure of where we left off.  Consider the new assignments as Day 1 of the course. I will not throw old material at you on a quiz or test, unless we cover from this day forward. So not being fully confident about the old material should not be an issue, please do not worry about it.  We are pretty much starting over…the only material you need to worry about is what will be coming out.

Also, I will not be quizzing you right away, we will be doing other various activities…not everyone has the same access to technology, which will make quizzes non-standard.  When we get to that stage, they will probably be open note writings, or something along those lines, but we are far from going down that path yet.

Back to technology, those of you that followed up with me, I passed that information on to Mr. Yates and Mr. Budacki.  If anyone’s situation changes or you start having technology issues, please let me or any of your other teachers know ASAP.  If you lose access, let a friend know and have them contact a staff member so we can address the situation.

Another concern was difficulty with topics or technology…once again, please do not worry.  We are going slowly for a reason, and we will continue to move at a comfortable pace until we are sure everyone can move forward without difficulty.  I will be posting video tutorials to help you remember how to use the various tools we use in class. I will also be posting tutorials and audio/video notes on the class content to help explain the topics.  It is important for you to give me feedback if you need more or different assistance. We have been doing that all year with the self-reflections, so you should be good and letting me know if we have to adjust things…zip me an email or message me in Edmodo, I am monitoring both.  Communication is important especially since we are no longer in the same room, but together we can successfully make this adjustment.

Staff is working on other forms of feedback to use with students, I will let you know about those once we have approval.

Thank you for the YouTube links, I am going through those and making playlists to share out.  Keep responding to the assignments, I am keeping track so we can use the information later. If we have any important updates in today’s virtual staff meeting, I will pass in forward to you.  If you have any questions, please email them to me or another one of your teachers.

Have a great day!

Wakelet Student Ambassador Create an Account

So…here is the first step to the Wakelet Student Ambassador Extra Credit Assignment.  Just create an account, I also encourage you play around on the site and see what you can do with Wakelet.  The detailed instructions are on the embedded video below.

For those of you who do not want to watch the video, here are the instructions:  Go to Wakelet.com and click on “Sign Up It’s Free” and create an account.  I suggest using your school Google Account to do this.  Once you have done this, email me with your username, so I can keep track who is who.  Lastly, play around on the site and see what it does, studies on learning indicate that people learn more by experimenting and looking around on their own before being handed a set of instructions.

PLEASE DO NOT WORRY, instructions on how to use Wakelet and a brief video tutorial will be sent out tomorrow, along with the assignment for the first badge.

In the mean time…take care.