IHMS Tech Tips

" Plickers is a powerfully simple tool that lets teachers collect real-time formative assessment data without the need for student devices."  The prep work is minimal, and students will be fully engaged during your lesson or review as they don't need their device in front of them!  The only required equipment would be your iPad. Plickers can be used to check for understanding throughout a lesson, as an assessment, or as a tool to spark curiosity and prior knowledge, much like a Blind Kahoot . Teachers will first want to sign up for a Plickers account.   Signing up is free and you can do so by connecting to your Google account. After signing up, you will be taken through a quick tutorial of the different menu buttons.  Teachers will create a class for each class period they teach, and print one set of Plickers cards for the whole day. A close up of a card shows that, depending on the direction you hold the card, a different answer will be submitted: A, B, C, o

A GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) is a compressed image.  Think an animated version of a meme.  " A single gif file can feature multiple frames which are displayed in succession in order to create an animated clip, these can either be looped endlessly or just stop at the end of the sequence.  We tend to use animated gifs today as "Reaction Gifs", they act as fun replies for conversations on apps like Facebook Messenger" or via texting (The Sun).  Ask anyone how to pronounce GIF and you will get a variety of answers.  Luckily you're reading this, so you can decide for yourself. Most likely, your students are already using GIFs in their daily communication. Incorporating them into the classroom is another way to engage the students as well as teach curriculum.   Blogger and teacher, Kimberly Snodgrass, uses GIFs " to learn a new concept, to solidify a point, or to assess understanding. The cool thing about them is that they bring static images to l

Wonderopolis is a website created by the National Center for Families Learning.  It houses thousands and thousands of Wonders of the Day.  Every day, a new Wonder is posted. I could see this site being used for bell work or as an extension activity: Have students find a Wonder of the Day based on your lesson/topic for the week. When students select the Wonder of the Day or use the search function to find Wonders based on their keywords and curiosity, they are taken to a full page of learning on that topic.  Students can read the text or have it read to them.  There is a list of Wonder Words that delves into the vocabulary from that article.  Once students have hovered over a Wonder Word and read the text, they can take a Wonder Word Challenge.  There is a separate challenge to set their comprehension of the article.  There are follow up questions, activities, and suggested Wonders of the Day that are related.  Students can also comment or create their own "I wonder..