The Journey Continues - More Technology Integration in the Classroom

My third year teaching began the same way as my first two - meeting after meeting, set up my classroom, making tons of copies and updating lesson plans.  As I was doing the beginning of the year activities, I was mental analyzing the new district policy of technology incorporation in the classroom and the new changes to the district wide policy.  This year, the district wanted teachers to start incorporating Schoology into the classroom.  Once again, I had a mini panic attack thinking about incorporating this new technology and the changes I would have to make to fulfill this new district goal.

As luck would have it, my mentor teacher and follow English teacher, had spent part of the summer attending multiple state sponsored training on Schoology and have multiple activities already completed that I used as a reference, in addition, to the videos and articles I read about using Schoology in the classroom. As I slowly developed activities and learned how to use this new technology, I kept referring back to the following three resources...

1. Teaching Hub Article about using Schoology in the Classroom: http://www.teachhub.com/schoology-learning-management-system-overview

2. This youtube video that helps teachers set up their Schoology classroom

3. The help guide located right on the schoology website - https://support.schoology.com/hc/en-us

I did not feel comfortable introducing this technology in the classroom until November of my third year teaching.  The very first students assignment I tried was a discussion board.  This type of assignment was picked for a number of reasons.  First, because my school is so small, I often teach the same group of students for two years, which meant the students were familiar with online discussion activities.  Secondly, the students, for previous experience enjoyed doing discussions posts.  Finally, this is one of the easiest assignment to see up on Schoology.

The very first discussion post I created on Schoology last year. 

After creating this practice assignment and giving the students time to fiddle and learn how to use Schoology, I began to make and incorporate more Schoology based activities, I continue to have the students response to discussion post and occasionally complete writing activities.  This year I feel more comfortable using Schoology and plan to have the students take their first Schoology based test in March.  A snapshot of the test is featured below.

The Green Cities Test the students will take in March. 

I am excited, yet nervous to try this new Schoology tool in March.  Overall, Schoology has had a very positive affect on my classroom environment and the students look using Schoology.  Schoology has made test modifications for my special education students easier, helps to eliminate excuses from students and allows me to track student participation and assignment competition in a more efficient and reliable way.

With Schoology firmly under my belt, I was feeling adventurous enough to incorporate more technology in my classroom. In January I attended a district training on new 

technology based educational tools that could be incorporated in the classroom. Some of the technologies highlighted during that session, including Google Drive, Schoology and a tool called Plickers. As I was already familiar with Schoology and Google Drive, I was most intrigued by this Plickers tool. Little did I know that day, that I would use Plickers as much as I use Google Drive.

Plickers in a nutshell, is a website and mobile application tool, that allows the teacher to ask review questions and get almost immediate student data.  This application, when using it for the first time, can seem a little overwhelming, is ridiculously easier to learn, teach and use in the classroom. as per my usual tradition I research and watch videos about this new tool before implementing it is the classroom. The video inserted below become my guide to setting up Plickers before trying it in class.

After setting up my classes, creating some test questions, printing the student cards and making sure the mobile application worked, I was ready to implement this new tool in the classroom.  Quoting an email, I sent to a parent and fellow teacher interested using Plickers in her classroom, how it works in the classroom is as follows:

When you want to use it in class, you turn on the smartboard, go to the Plickers website and hit live view - in the top right hand corner and hand out the cards.  Then open up the Plickers app and click on a question.  The question will then pop up on the smartboard for the students to see.  Have students think about their answer and when they are ready, have then hold their card high in the air with their answer choice in the top portion of the card - so if they think it is A, the portion of the card with the letter A should be at the top.  Because of the nature of the cards, you can only create True/False or Multiple Choice questions. Make sure that their hands are nowhere near the black portion of the card or else it will not scan.  Then click the scan bottom on the mobile app and begin scanning the room. As you are scanning the room, data will begin appearing on the Plickers app - number of students who answered, number of correct answers, etc - which you can then keep for your own use or show the students on the board.

         Snapshot of my library on Plickers - this is the area were teachers can make
 and store questions to use in class

Snapshot of one class on Plickers

A snapshot of the live view feature on Plickers

Like implementing most new technology in the classroom, it took a couple of tries and lots of demonstrations before the students became experts at using Plickers. A year later, the students become very excited when we use Plickers on test and quiz review days. While Plickers is one of my favorite technological tools to use in the classroom, there is one drawback to using Plickers - because of the nature of the students cards, the teacher can only create multiple choice and true/false questions. With this in mind, I believe the positives significantly out number the negatives of using Plickers. Plickers is a tool that is easy to learn, easy to implement and is a great activity if you have a few minutes left in class.

If any one is interested in trying Plickers in your classroom, here is the website : https://www.plickers.com/.

As I sit here finishing up this assignment, halfway through my fourth year teaching, I can definitely conclude that technology has dramatically improved my teaching practices and classroom environment.  I now have a grab bag of different technologies I know how to use and can easily implement in the classroom in a variety of situation.  While I do not have any technological goals for the remainder of the school year, I look forward to exploring and implementing more and more technology as I continue my teaching career.