FTT - Peardeck

Looking For Interaction In The Classroom? 

It's All About The Pear!

@LisaBerghoff/@MrKimDHS

I get to be in so many classrooms! I feel so fortunate to have the position that allows me to see so many of our incredible teachers in action. It also gives me a unique perspective on what our students experience on a daily basis. Imagine spending your day with 8 different bosses who each give you a new, independent, set of tasks and expectations. It's pretty exhausting! That is why one of the most common questions I get from teachers is: "How can I make sure my students stay engaged in my class?" As a teacher myself, I know that it is challenging to always make sure my students are moving, interacting, and staying on task. Sometimes, I just need to have a slide deck and a lecture or discussion. That is when we often lose our students. No matter how amazing your graphics are, sometimes it's hard to stay focused during a lecture.

That's where PearDeck comes in!

I will admit, this post is slightly biased because I just spent a day learning and experimenting with PearDeck at the Google office in Chicago and it was outstanding. I did write a post on PearDeck in October of 2018, you can search the blog to find it, but I realize that it's a good time for a refresher. That's how great this tool is!

First, watch this 1 minute video:

Here are five big takeaways about PearDeck...

1. PearDeck integrates with your slides.

If you already have slide decks that you are using, it is seamless to utilize PearDeck. You don't need to change your slides, you can just add a few interactive slides within your existing slide deck. Yes, you can use both Google slides and PowePoint. As you advance your slides, the slides will advance on your students' screens as well. No need to make sure they're all looking at the front of the room.

2. Students can connect to PearDeck using any device that has internet capabilities.

Yes, we're a 1:1 chromebook district, but sometimes those chromebooks are not charged, not working, or in a locker. Not to worry! You know they have their phones on them:) Also, you can run your slide deck from a different device than what is projecting. This allows you to move around the room and interact with your students. No need to stay at the front!

3. There are fantastic templates that are free to use.

Don't have a slide deck? Want to start fresh with PearDeck? Don't have tons of time to create your own interactive lesson? That's ok. PearDeck has so many templates that are already created. Use them as is or edit to make them your own.

4. Flashcard Factory integrates with Quizlet

PearDeck has a game called Flashcard Factory and it is outstanding for vocabulary! Enter your words and your students and then Flashcard Factory does the rest. It will pair your students and they will take turns giving and example and drawing an image that goes with that example. You can see the responses on the teacher dashboard and approve the best ones. THEN, it will make a Quizlet flashcard deck for you and your students to use with their examples and images! (can you tell I'm excited?)

5. You can create self-paced activities

Once you have presented, you might want your students to work through some activities on their own. You can do that right in PearDeck. You will see all of the responses on your teacher dashboard. Then you can choose if you want to show them anonymously or not. There are lots of options available. 

Want to get started with PearDeck? Head over to PearDeck.com to get started.
PS. You will be given a 30 day free trial of the upgraded version, which is better than the free version, but the free version is rad too.
Let me know if you want any help getting started!

FTT - Remind: we have a district license? We sure do.

Remind: we have a district license? We sure do. 

@LisaBerghoff/@MrKimDHS

Unbeknownst to most non-power users of Remind, last year telecommunications company, Verizon Wireless was threatening to impose new texting fees on Remind users in an effort to control and reduce spam messages. This would have effectively shut down relatively tiny app companies like Remind who offer mostly free services. An interesting online campaign (#ReverseTheFee) made up of educators, parents, and students, as well as intense negotiations between eDavid and eGoliath, ended with a win for the little guys and the service is largely unchanged.

And now: we have a district license! Here's how to take advantage

1. Logging On

To enjoy the premium features through our district license, log in here using your Google sign in. 

If you've been previously using a personal account, you'll have to switch over to your district email.

2. Student Onboarding (It's already done!)

Once logged in you'll see that through some Infinite Campus - Remind integration magic, all of your courses have automatically been uploaded to your Remind site. Not only are your courses already created, your students have also been directly added using their IC data. (although it might be a good time to audit your student drops and transfers) To add new students, give them the Class Code that begins with an "@" sign, and is directly under your course name. 

3. Sending Messages

This is where Remind has made some strides in the messaging department. In addition to text messaging, Remind has teamed up with Google Drive, Quizlet, OneDrive, Flipgrid, and a few other apps to beef up your messaging ability. Now you can attach different varieties of files and videos with your Remind message.

Also find that Remind can translate your message into over 50 different languages! 

As usual, you can schedule your messages ahead of time to help with organization and planning.

You can also have some granular control over who you're sending your messages to. You can send a single message to all of your courses, just your homerooms, and even specific groups of people within your courses.

Thank you to the real heroes - the myriad internet Twitter warriors who tirelessly tweeted and retweeted #ReverseTheFee, and forced the evil telecommunications conglomerate to concede. 

Questions? Comment below!  

FTT - 10 Google Searches You May Not Know About

10 Google Searches You May Not Know About

@LisaBerghoff/@MrKimDHS

It's funny how we've become so used to "Googling" things we want to know. I think back to when I first learned how to do research for a paper and I shudder to think about all of the misinformation that I believed because it was written in an encyclopedia that may or may not have been published sometime in the last few years. 

Now, we (and our students) have a world of information at our fingertips. We still need to be very discerning about what information is credible and what is not.

You know that if you put a keyword into the Google search engine you will get millions of options within a fraction of a second. In order to find the lightbulb image on this post, I first searched lightbulb and got 297,000,000 results in .60 seconds! I then narrowed it down to images and then narrowed even further to images that are not copyright protected.  

 Sometimes getting millions of results is just too much. If we start with something simple, it might encourage our students to ask more thoughtful questions and research further.

What you may not know is that there are lots of other uses for the Google.
Here are ten of my favorites that I have used in the classroom.

1. Flip A Coin

Can't decide which homework assignment to give? Studying probability? If you type "flip a coin" you will get a random coin flip showing heads or tails. 

2. Roll A Die

Also great for probability! I used this in class once to determine the order of questions we would review. Type in "roll a die" and you will get to choose how many sides and how many dice you would like to roll. You can then roll as many times as you like.

3. Timers

I LOVE timers in my classroom. They keep both me and my students on task to make sure we're using our time efficiently. YouTube also has lots of timers but I find that they can often be distracting because they have crazy colors and sounds. If you search "five minute timer" you will get a basic timer that beeps when it's done. There is also a stopwatch feature built in just in case you prefer that tool. 

4. Calories Of A Specific Food

Teaching health, nutrition, data tracking, or just trying to get healthy yourself? You can type "calories in ..." to get the calorie count of specific foods. You can also adjust for size or portion.

5. Definitions And Information About Words

Since literacy is the bedrock of learning in our world, our students really need a quick and easy way to understand the words that they are hearing and reading. Type in "define..." and you will get a complete definition in addition to the origin, synonyms, antonyms, and more.

6. Weather Data

Type "weather in..." and you will get instant weather data including wind, precipitation, humidity, etc.

7. Translate Words From Other Languages

I know! It's absolutely not a substitute for learning another language. But sometimes we come across words and we need to know what they mean in order to move forward in our learning.

You can type in "translate..." or "how do you say... in ...". You will have a box to put the input language and another for the output language.

8. Public Data

When teaching a concept to students, it can be most beneficial to them if you use actual real-life data instead of just made up numbers. You can enter the "term" and then the "place" to get the data, along with a graph and link to click to explore further.

9. Find Images That Are Free To Use (public domain)

We should be teaching our students about fair use, attribution, and utilizing public domain images. Here's an easy way to make that happen. Just type in "public domain images of..." and Google does the work for you. No excuses!

10. Medical Information

By just typing in a medical condition such as "osteoporosis", you can get a quick at-a-glance summary of commonality, treatment, what is involved in diagnosing, etc. I know, the doctor always says not to look on the internet, but I can't help it. At least I'm getting information from a decent source and not just a random search!

I know there are lots more! What are your favorites?
I'm sure your students have also all tried these:
"do a barrel roll"
"zerg rush"
"pacman"

Happy Searching!

*This post was inspired by my friend, Eric Curts who writes the Control Alt Achieve blog.
Check him out here.