Today as part of a jigsaw learning activity I learned about 30 new technological tools. One of my colleagues showed me "wordle" and another similar website called "Tagxedo". Using Tagxedo you can make a word cloud. I initially had a problem loading it on my computer, but it worked well using Firefox. But once you get it going it's a really easy tool to use. I chose to make my word cloud filled of words relevant to my Genius Hour stress reduction project. You can use this tool for so many activities in the classroom - it can be great for initial brainstorming or for a succinct summary of a given topic. I've seen it used in classrooms to celebrate students. In one class I observed they celebrated a specific student everyday and each student submitted a positive word to describe them. The teacher made a word cloud using tagxedo that the student would then take home that day. It's a very flexible tool that can be used for so many different things... the creativity is limitless!
Check out my word cloud:
Google forms is a fantastic tool to check in with your students progress and comprehension of a given topic. I learned a lot while using this tool; I found it particularly interesting that as a teacher you can design a form and have to results reported back to you in a spread sheet - this makes assessment clear and easy!
Google forms allows students to work at their own speed with a text, video, etc. and report their findings/comprehension back to the teacher while also getting experience using technology. It can be even more beneficial when the teacher embeds videos of themselves explaining the question and success criteria in further detail. This would be an awesome way for students to complete a task at home if all had access to computers and internet. I can definitely see myself assigning homework comprehension questions on Google forms if my students had access to it at home. It's a tool that can be used for any subject, in any discipline!
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