Tuesday, March 16, 2021

Padlet: Archive, Clear Posts, and Reuse

 Padlet is SMASD's go-to collaborative digital bulletin board.



Some of Padlet's inherently awesome features are: 

  • immediate change of audience from teacher only to whole class or to 💡 multiple classes 💡
  • ability to reply to posts, fostering dialogue
  • differentiation with the variety of post types
    • text, image, video, screencast, url, audio, draw (I see 👀 you math teachers!!) and more
  • collaboration
  • real-time interactions and feedback

Despite these features, some teachers have been put off by Padlet's limited number of free boards. (only 3)  Although what we often do not realize is that the board limit is only for active boards!  

In today's Tech Tuesday, I will show you how I  took an archived, not deleted, board from last year, cleared the posts, and reused it for this semester!





Pro Tips: 
  • Ask students to SIGN IN WITH GOOGLE before posting.  This allows them to edit their post if they make a mistake or accidentally post too soon.  It also automagically puts their name on it!
  • When reviewing student posts, use CTRL + F to search for a student name.  You will immediately know how many times he/she contributed to the board. 
  • Want posts to be private for a high-stakes assessment? - Turn on moderation in the settings.



Tuesday, March 2, 2021

Inspiration Station: Google Slides - Class/Group Slide Deck

 One of the reasons we love tools like Nearpod & Classkick is so that we can increase student participation and engagement in the classroom.  The ability to see all student responses real-time offers a unique opportunity for timely feedback.  In addition, having all students, or groups of students, on individual slides in the same deck has built-in potential for peer scaffolding and collaboration. 


Instead of a straight-up how-to tutorial, today I will share with you a scaffolded discussion strategy that I used with Spanish 8.  The goal is to share out and possibly to inspire you to do a spin-off of this activity with your students. 

This strategy models collaborative slides and leveraging the "Master Slide" layouts.


Watch 0:00-3:00 to learn how to set up and deliver a group Google Slide Deck. 

*Can be delivered through SeeSaw as well!


Watch 3:00-7:00 to see how I had students interact with the slides, and how I changed the prompts through the master slide layouts.



Watch this video to see how I "prepped" all of the prompts in the "Master Slides".  Or, learn straight from the SlidesMania guru, Paula, by going to her blog


Did technology enhance this activity?  Yes!  

Without the technology:
  • there would have been significantly less student participation
  • I would not have been able to see all responses in real-time
  • I may have lost teachable moments based on student responses
  • students would not have benefited from the guided pace, scaffolding, and ability to learn from their peers
  • there would have been a lost potential for future spiraling, collaboration, elaboration on the discussion

Interested in trying something like this?  Let's do it together your first time through! 


Have something to share?  

Let me highlight the awesome strategies that you are using in your classroom to inspire others!