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Showing posts from January, 2017

Nearpod, I like you!

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Actually, my students love you!  I can not ask for more engagement when I use the draw portion of Nearpod.  We do have a little fun with it... the students may or may not draw silly pictures or take a selfie when using it, but only and only if they show all work!  I make them swipe left and try again if they have a unicorn pic (it seems to be all the craze at my school these days) and do not show all their work.  I also take the time and look at each pic and praise students.  It really doesn't take too much time because I just keeping clicking right and keep on moving.  The students really feel validated when I highlight their work and praise them or give constructive feedback.  My lower students also get in the game because they see some of the other work on screen and it helps them get started. Here are some examples from writing equations from tables: Not all my students have it correct, but it is a great way to check for understanding and...

Substitute Plans... A thing of the past!

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I have a substitute tomorrow... ugh I never could create a full proof substitute lesson plan until now!  I have fallen in love with Google classroom this year.  I mostly just add announcements so my students find all my links:  google forms, applicable games, etc.  However, now my students are trained to go to google classroom every day that I have a substitute.  They select the link to my google slides which provides all instructions and links to the activities for the day.  This is such a time saver and if I am sick, I can just do it from home.  No more early trips to school to run copies and sub plans!!! Here is an example of my lesson plan for tomorrow...    

New Year, New You, New Unit

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I always love a new year and a fresh start.  I have noticed I keep telling my students that is a New Year, A New You and A New Unit (then they groan)! ha This unit is one of my favorites the year.  We started with Independent and Dependent Events the first day back from break.  I thought it was a nice easy way to get back into the swing of things.  First up, we took notes.  I will definitely be changing the notes for next year.  The notes felt a bit disjointed.  However, I won back my students and their understanding with a four question teacher paced Socrative.  If you haven't tried Socrative, I would highly recommend it.  I will provide a tutorial video in the near future.  After the Socrative, my students played a Quizziz to reinforce all the major points from today's lesson. I would have to say that Quizziz is one of my go to programs.  I start my class with a Quizziz warm up almost every single day.  My students can no...