Why I use Infuse Learning

Today teachers are under more pressure to ensure they are reaching each individual learner in the classroom, despite classroom numbers growing and more and more content to be covered!  How do you figure out where each of your students are with concepts with so much to do in such a little amount of time?  How do you use data/formative assessments to drive your instruction?

I have recently (through twitter) found the site Infuse Learning (Infuse Learning Website)!  This site allows you to quickly and easily assess where your students are at with concepts, and it doesn't take much class time at all!  Below is a snap shot of how I have used the site, it has been a huge asset to my classroom!

The set up is easy, register for free and you are up and running...ready to assess student learning!  You are given a unique room ID which your students will use to log in to the site (the really nice part about this room ID, it stays the same!).  Teachers log in using a Teacher Login  and student log in using a Student Login. Once you have "started" a quiz, the students will see it pop up on their screens!

As you can see from the image below, there are many options for quiz types to give, really any kind of quiz for any kind of situation!  These quiz options are really what sets Infuse Learning apart from the other similar quiz sites.  The one I want to point out is the Draw Responses, this is the one both my students and I love!  Students are given a blank whiteboard on their screens and you verbally give the question, they draw the response!  Great for iPads, but I have used this with macbook airs as well!

Below is a look at a screen shot I took during a quiz I gave my math students, as you can see I am able to view all the screens at once when the student submit the quiz!  Allows me to quickly assess who has a concept and who needs a little extra guidance!  (You can also see students have the ability to express their artistic ability as well!)

Once you save quiz results you can view each screen independently (PDF files) as you can see below.  This feature allows you to bring students up to your desk and discuss results with them, correct mistakes and misconceptions!  Great tool!

Another great feature is the ability to create quizzes ahead of time and save them!  I have done this a few times and it works great!  Right below the "my quiz option is "quiz results" this allows you to save quiz results and use that data to help drive your instruction!  Great stuff!

Another cool quiz option that has been a great tool for me in my classroom is the "sort and order" option!  This allows you to give a question that requires students to order items correctly.  I used the draw feature to create a heart diagram that students needed to use to order correctly how blood moves through the heart!  I found out quickly who understood this concept and who did not....and it only took about 3 min. of class time!  Well worth it, it told me where I needed to go next in my teaching!  Here's a look at the quiz question below.

Infuse learning has made assessing my students easier and much less time consuming!  If you want a great tool to help you assess student learning in order to drive your instruction I encourage you to check out Infuse Learning!  

  

Excitement in the Mac Book Air!

Today is the day that many in our middle school have been looking forward to for a long time, I know I have!  Today we are rolling out our 1:1 initiative with Mac Book Airs for every student in the building!  The high school had their rollout last week, so that means in grades 7-12 every student will have a Mac Book Air!

Needless to say, I am pretty excited about the way our school is going to run from here on out!  Don't get me wrong, I am sure there is going to be a huge learning curve, and many will struggle to really USE the technology to help improve instruction.  That is why I have decided to try and blog about how the rollout goes from day 1 until further notice.  I by no means will have the time or desire to blog each and every day, but I hope to have a "running record" of some of the ups and downs of rolling out lap tops for every student.  I hope for this to help me process new ways of running my classroom, but also help others who will be doing similar rollouts in the future.

Today, I was not really involved in the handing out of the computers, but from what I have heard it is going really well.  Many staff and administrators worked countless hours setting up a 5 step process that the students walked through.  This whole process was handled through our Social Studies department, who graciously gave up a day of instruction to get these computers into our students hands.  Below is a look at the steps student went through to get the computers, well done everyone involved!

Students checked in with office staff

Students were given pre-assigned Mac Book Air 

Students then unpacked box and made sure logging in worked on the new machine

Students then stored empty boxes in specific locations

Finally students were given cases to protect the computer

Tomorrow is the big day, students will be using the computers in class!  I know I have already set up and planned a formative assessment using the computers.  A great way to gauge where your students are and get instant feedback, which in turn will help to better drive the instruction taking place!

Really excited for what is to come, but bracing for the many speed bumps that we will no doubt face along the way!  Like our assistant superintendent said at a meeting, when we have issues that arise, just remember, those issues are from 500 + computers being in our students hands!  What a great problem to have to deal with!  I could not agree more!!!

I will continue to post as the next few days a weeks go by with how we are doing!  Please comment with questions or advice, would love to hear from you!      

Teachers working on Saturday???

I'm sitting home tonight reflecting on my Saturday, not how much time I spent napping, not how great the basketball games were I watched, or any of the other "lazy" Saturday type of activities!  I am reflecting on how awesome my job is as a teacher, how unbelievable the people are that I work with, and how much good there is in education!  I spent my Saturday at the first annual Michigan Flip Teaching Conference with about 150 other passionate educators today!

I'm always so disappointed when I hear the negative press that teachers get, it really starts to weigh on you as a professional.  I often think, why are the good stories in education never shared?  Why are people not lifting up teachers and supporting them more?  In an effort to process some of these feelings, I am sitting her writing this, fully knowing that it will only be read by a very small audience of teachers or people who agree with my point of view, but I'm ok with that!

I just spent the good portion of a Saturday with a group of teachers who all want to excel at what they do, in order to better serve the students that sit before them on a daily basis.  150 teachers gave up a Saturday to learn from one another and help each other improve their craft.  Besides these 150 teachers giving up a Saturday, a handful of teachers gave up far more time putting the conference together!  Brian Bennett, Dave Prindle, David Fouch, Dan Spencer, Delia Bush, Doug Ragan, Karl Lindgren-Streicher and others (sorry I'm sure I forgot about some!).  Everyone involved gave up time and energy in order to better education and one another.

Bottom line, there are so many amazing educators out there, willing to give up so much in order to help students!  We need to be celebrating this, the good that's occurring in education.

I had a great day, meet other amazing teachers, learned a ton to bring back to school with me Monday....and all this on a Saturday!  I'd do it all over again next Saturday.....MIFlip team, what do ya think?    

GOOGLE FORMative Assessment!

I am lucky enough to be teaching in a school that is going to a 1:1 environment with macbook airs for every student.  I was also blessed to be one of the "test teachers" asked to use a class set of macbook airs in preparation for the rollout coming up in about a week.  I was simply asked to try some things out and see what works and what doesn't work, to which I said.....HECK YA!  When someone offers you 30 macbook airs to use in your classroom the answer is always YES!

There were so many things I tried and had an awesome experience trying, as did the students!  However the one thing that I found the most helpful to me as a teacher was the Google Form formative assessment.  The Google form is easy to create, so making/creating a quick formative quiz for class is not time consuming at all.  The time it takes students to take them is very short as well (depending on how many questions you create of course!).  Need a "starter" for class, this is perfect!

I recently started using Schoology for an online platform, which has been great so far.  Schoology allows for me to take my Google Form and embed the quiz right into the site (which you can do with many other sites/platforms as well).  Nice for students as they can log into our class page and take the quiz right at the start of class and only have to visit the one website!  Quick and easy!

Below is an example of one of the quizzes I recently used in my classroom.

Students have google e-mail accounts through the school district, so I am able to have them log into our schools cloud page and that allows for it to recognize the user who is taking the quiz and gives me feedback for each indiviual student and what their responses were for each question.  **Side note, if your students do not have google accounts, you can simply make the first question a "choose from list" question and type in each students name.  This allows you to see the students name listed with their responses!**  Below is the spreadsheet that you will get when students submit the form.  Instant feedback for you to guide your instruction!!

I was able to use this data to see who was missing specific ideas and who I needed to focus on in the coming days as we continued to work through our human body systems unit.  The information provided above, allows for you to call each student up and review with them how they did, and correct any misconceptions that may have had.  I have done this when students are working on other work, and it's great, a quick quiet 1-on-1 conversation about content.  There are many days this just isn't possible, however, not doing anything with the data would be a complete waste of the time used to take the quiz!  Covering the results with the entire class works great as well, and below is a great way to do this without revealing names with responses!


Here is a look at the "summary" screen which can be found at the top of the spreadsheet of responses under the "Form" drop-down at the top of the page.  This will give you the results/data in the form of graphs with the question listed and percentages for each answer.  I projected this summary on the screen in my room and my students really liked this a lot!  They could see how they did, and we could discuss why some answers may have been selected.  This discussion is great, and will most often help clear up any misconceptions for the students who may have incorrectly selected those answers.

No matter how you use the form or the data you receive from it, this will change how you teach and shift gears from one topic to another!  Google Forms at it's best, allowing teachers to formatively assess students and get instant feedback/data to use for driving instruction!  Every teacher could and should use this tool and the ease of use makes it difficult to say no to!

How do you use Google Forms in the classroom?  Would love to hear how others are using this awesome tool!!

   

Standards Based Assessment

I was thinking the other day as my classes approach mid-terms, do I truly know that every single student has learned each standard?  Tough question considering I see 150 7th/8th grade students each day!  Despite the fact that it is a tough question, it is a question that needs to be asked, by all teachers.  I feel like this is why teachers are hesitant in moving to a standards based assessment for their students.

Standards based assessment should produce better students AND teachers!  The students should see that it is more about WHAT they are learning, not what SCORE they are receiving.  The teachers should see that it is more than just moving from lesson to lesson or unit to unit, but mastering ideas and concepts.  Too often it is easy for a teacher to give a number (percentage) or letter and "prove" the student has learned the concept, but have they really?  Teachers often complain that students ask "is this getting graded" before they start an assignment!  I know I have, but aren't we (the teachers/schools) the ones that have caused this problem?  Schools/teachers talk about, impress the importance of grades, so how can we be upset or surprised when the students are focused on the grades as well!?

I think it is time for schools and teachers to change the focus!  I know I have seen the need for it in my classroom.  I know it will not be easy, but what major paradigm shift is?  So regardless of the state funding, the type of students, the number of kids in your classroom, it is time to re-focus and make it happen. 

Let's give less homework, make learning more authentic, and see the students truly engage in learning!

And one more thing.....wouldn't technology be a logical tool for teachers to make learning more authentic, more engaging?!  

  

Resources at your fingertips

I know so many educators know about LiveBinders, but I wonder how many of them are like me? I was sent an e-mail about it and how great it was, but you get busy, you fully intend to go check it out, but often never make it back to those great ideas. Well I am here to say MANY are missing out, LiveBiners is such an amazing resource! I just searched the public binders for solar system binders, there are 54 of them! We teach about the solar system in 8th grade science, LiveBinders is like having 54 teachers say hey, here are my solar system resources....have a look! How great is that?

I also looked up binders on math, technology and many other topics. I just hate to think how many teachers are missing out on opportunities to find great resources with little work!

I also see opportunities to create unit binders that students would have access to at home, how great would it be for your students to run into trouble, forget a resource, and boom there it is at their fingertips.

Technology is offering our school systems amazing opportunities to engage and reach students.....why are we letting these opportunities slip by?! So many will benefit, administrators, teachers, support staff, and most importantly STUDENTS!

This coming new year I hope all the educators who are "connected" will reach out and show (I mean really physically show)some of your coworkers LiveBinders and the many other great resources out there......trust me they will be amazed, I was!

Great blog post by local school leader!

http://connectedsuperintendent.wordpress.com/2011/12/30/stop-the-testing-madness-and-focus-on-what-the-finns-have-already-proven-works/

When will American leaders start actually looking at other countries success instead of just using it for their own agenda. Too many leaders just using the stats to compare us and show how poor we are doing in comparison.....why not do something really novel, study thier system and apply some of those strategies to our system? Seems obvious, but hey, I am just a lowly teacher in this American system! It's time to stop playing profit games with our kids future, when will we finally realize that is all that is happening?!