Interactive Classroom

As a technology teacher, I come across a number of websites and apps to help teachers in the classroom.  Too often I use them once or twice then simply pass them along in a quick mass email to my co-workers.  This year I am trying something new.  I am picking one website or app to use in my classroom for 3 - 4 weeks then I will post my thoughts on my blog.

My first find is Socrative an interactive feedback site, but also a site to use to test your class.  Students can interact through a website or apps.  This FREE app shows student responses immediately or after a question has been answered by the entire group.  There are a number of  similar sites, I find this one to be the easiest to set up and use.

You can use it for immediate polls, multiple choice, true/false and short answers, exit polls and more.  You can enter in questions in advance or use it as you want to question your class.  Results show from your project if you want the students to see where they fall.  Entering questions in advance enables you to decide if students can answer and go at their own rate, or if you want to control the pace to show and discuss each question.  Your questions remain on line so you can edit and reuse as you need.  There is also a way to leave feedback or correct answers making this a useful review tool.

One of my favorite features is the reports.  Yes these reports are stored for later use.  You can go back and see which questions each student missed and what answer choice they made.  This feedback is priceless when reviewing to see what information may have been missed in your presentation of the materials.

Needing a quick review or short time filler?  Use the space race to have teams race to the correct answers.  Students in all subjects in all grades love to compete against each other to see whose the best.

Give it a try - students can use anything that connect to the internet.  The space race works even if students are sharing devices.