Tech Tuesday

Today I am linking up with Marie from Once upon a Classroom for her Tech Tuesday.  I have been wanting to link up for the past several weeks and there just always seems to be some crisis that pops up and gets in my way.  But I finally made it this week, although it is a tad bit late. 

I am loving the app Plickers.  It is a fast easy way to assess where your students are at.  You go to their website here and sign up, no worries it is free.  Then download the app to your phone or iPad. Next you will need to print an answer card off of the website for each student in your class.  It is click and print, super easy.  Each card has lets the student answer a question with A, B, C or D.  

You can assign just the number to each student or enter their name into the app and set up the number of questions you will be asking. Now you are ready to assess.  You just pose the question to your students, orally or projected on your smart board. Each student holds up their card with it pointing in the correct direction displaying their choice...A, B, C or D. Next you quickly scan the room with your phone or iPad and the app does all the work for you.

You can just view the answers on your device and you will be able to see who still needs help with mastery.  As a second option I have projected the answers up on the smart board and that way we can discuss what the different answers were and what the correct choice should have been. It is a great opportunity for the students to explain the reasoning behind the answer they chose.

I first saw this app at a tech conference last June. My first thought was, this is so cool, then I was thinking, how will this work in kindergarten. Much to my surprise it works pretty great.  The kiddos learn quickly which direction to hold their card to display the different answer choices. I keep meaning to take a picture of my kiddos participating, but we are usually caught up in the excitement and I forget.  If you do teach K and want some easy premade assessment question cards to be used with this app check out Mary at Sharing Kinderdarten.  She has them for several Math and ELA standards. She even made a how to video for you visual learners.

As you can see the possibilities are endless with this app. Hope you all have a great week!