What's Working in My Classroom? My top 5 for 2016!
Sometimes you just need to step back and think about what is working in your class, why you love it, and share!!! Teaching is a solitary activity for some of us who don't team teach or don't share the same class with other teachers. That is what internet is for! This year I have made some good changes in my classroom and added some great tech tools. Here are my top "favorite things" (just like Oprah) of 2016 so far.
5. I am really happy with my daily sheets. I have been using these daily info sheets to start my class each day. They have a space for warm-up, the weather, the date, the agenda for the day, the objective, and the homework. My students love them. I forgot to do it one day and they all reminded me that I didn't have "la hoja" or "la feuille" as I say in my classes. They do their warm-up and then after we have checked warm-up, we go through the rest of the sheet together. I love looking back through them and I love the structure that it gives to the start of class. Starting your class on the right foot goes a long way in classroom management.
4. Planboard I love you! I can't say enough about this streamlined online lesson plan book. I can upload my files to lessons, add my links, move and copy lessons, print pdfs of my plans, and edit lesson plans really easily. I love that I can plan by units, personalize to my school's schedule, and our vacations. I have all my lessons there this year instead of in my former green planbook and there is no turning back!
3. App Smashing with PicCollage and Seesaw! I have always loved an image-centric classroom. But this year, I have really focused on letting students create personally meaningful posters with their own images and audio using picCollage and Seesaw. Students first make a poster with images on PicCollage, add sentences (or not) and then upload that to their digital portfolio on Seesaw, where they record so that I can check their pronunciation and give them feedback (both written and recorded). What's not to love?
2. Quizlet Live is Quizlet's response to Kahoot, I think, but with a team twist. Students have to work in a team to complete a set of vocabulary. I love to make quizlet sets with complete questions and answers and have students try to match those in their teams to make it more communicative. I work at a 1:1 school so Quizlet live is a great last few minutes of class activity to solidify something I have taught, but in a fun way.
1. GoFormative!!! I can't rave enough about how much I love GoFormative. I have used it for quizzes, reviews, check-ins after new material, and exit tickets. I have used it for listening practice, drawing to show what you know, interpersonal writing, and sentence diagramming. Not only does it give me a way to give feedback to students on a daily basis but it gives me a snapshot each and everyday of how they are progressing and mastering the material.
