I've had this platform on my 'to investigate' list for some time, but had too many distractions. Finally, the time has come for me to get bamboozled 🥳😵😁. No devices neededBamboozle can be shared on socials and in google classroom, but it's meant to be played on big screen in class, with students divided in teams. The free version is quite limited. It only gives you one game mode - a jeopardy-style of question cards. Each question can be given a different amount of points, plus there are some 'power-ups'. These make the Bamboozle a bit more exciting and dramatic. Quick and easyThe interface is very intuitive and self-explanatory. The existing game bank is vast so you don't have to create your own sets from scratch. 📂The free version only gives you ONE folder, so organizing might be challenging once you collect a lot of LIKED games. Excellent warm up, but...I found it great to start the brain juices flowing at the beginning of the class. It worked well at the end, too, but... ❌🎶🎵There is no music so it might get dull if we play at he end of a two- or three-hour session. The music of Kahoot and Blooket uplifts the students and gives them the energetic push for those last ten minutes of the class. I found that, with four teams, having more than 8 questions is also a bit bland. The gifs and funny images help break the monotony, but I feel like there need to be some sound effects, like in Wordwall. Give it a goI don't think I will pay for the Bamboozle account, although they offer 50%OFF. I already have a lot of other options, so it's hard to keep up with creating games/quizzes/activities in Blooket, Kahoot, Wordwall, Nearpod, Quizlet, Pixton, and even mind maps in MindMeister. However, if you do not have the drained budget like me, I think there is great value in Bamboozle Plus. The additional features seem quite attractive. It's good to know that the games, unlike Wordwall, cannot be embedded to a website or rich content editor. 🔗This is why I am attaching the link so you can check it out.
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Need a quick game?Get your students engaged, create learning flashcards, games, or simple classroom management tools that are colorful and convenient. You do not need to sign in to flippity.net, or have an account. It's all free and simple. You can even upload your existing spreadsheets with names, vocabulary or target expressions. It has more options that Wordwall, but you cannot assign it as homework. You can share it with students as a link, so they CAN play it individually.
Bingo or various word puzzles, tournament brackets or word clouds - take advantage of the easy set up and simple interface that will perk up your classroom vibe. Give it a go!
Some students have difficulty learning languages, or learning ABOUT languages using words. Students with some Dys-constellation learning differences might have spatial intelligence or tactile sense more developed. Some students have difficulties differentiating subtle sound differences, but might catch the pitch flawlessly.
It might be refreshing, regardless of the possible learning obstacles, to introduce students to multi-sensory productive activities. Imagine if you could have your students write their name, and their name would be turned into a music piece. Imagine you can combine parts of words, and create new original words, or make non-sensical words that would follow the spelling and pronunciation customs. Or, what if you could find a book to preview and overview based on photos that your student(s) choose? All these, and a lot more, are available on Google Arts and Culture Experiments
They combine technology and an artistic experience. I have shortlisted only three:
https://experiments.withgoogle.com/nonsense-laboratory https://experiments.withgoogle.com/paint-with-music https://experiments.withgoogle.com/thousandstories And you should probably take a few weeks to explore more.
Whatever you choose, make sure you stop by the Blob Opera, or follow the Blobs on the World tour.
Do you like Carmen? There are so many possibilities...I am very interested in giving access to the reading of experience to students with reading and writing difficulties. Combined with physical restrictions during the pandemic and inspired by Classcraft, I created a simple virtual treasure hunt. It's a quest, a serious of multimedia questions, tasks, and answers, with progression. Instead of using Docs, Slides or Forms as hyper docs, I created it in Google Sites: it doesn't require sign in, Gmail accounts, password, a code or special account access. There is no learning curve, and the best part - because it's a site – is that it adjusts the user interface to the device. Most of my students use mobile phones, so this is a great reason to choose Google sites for this purpose. This particular treasure hunt is based on Gulliver's travels in Lilliput. The objective is to pre teach vocabulary and prepare the students for reading the story, which I have in print at school. The material here is based on the workbook related to this Macmillan easy reader edition. All the images have been pulled from the free image search from within the site. The YouTube videos are also public. I created the progression map in Google drawings. So it involves branching, sometimes one sometimes two steps forward or back. All the pages, except the landing page, are invisible. I included a resource page so that other teachers could use these if they want to change some elements. This particular treasure hunt keeps the student always on the site. The older students would get a chance to explore in external links, or get access to a folder to upload file or image, or to an editable Jamboard. The most difficult part of creating a virtual treasure hunt in Google Sites is the planning. Once you know what you want to test or achieve with it, and you create the paths between the objectives and connections, it is easy to materialize this by embedding a variety of elements on each page, and linking the answers to other pages. You can create a mind map on paper or a digital one, which can be easily shared with other teachers to understand the connection among objectives. It is probably a good idea to include that map to the resource page, too. Another advantage of having a Site as a treasure hunt is that when you duplicate it, there is only ONE thing to duplicate. With Hyperdocs, you would need to duplicate all docs or slide decks that are a part of the map, and then change the links according to new adjustments. In the end, when the hunt is over, my students will just show me the final token. They can take a screen shot of it if they are at home, or download the drawing of the uncovered map. When we are in the classroom, I am happy with just ‘Look, teacher, I did it!’. Chrome does not have to be defaultEnable more functionalities in Chrome with EXTENSIONS.
Not the hair extensions - The Chrome Extensions! You will be able to change the background colors, fonts, apply screen shades or have text-to-speech or speech-to-text feature. Technology is crucial in enhancing learning for students with Specific Learning Differences. It gives them a chance to consume the written content with less anxiety and effort. Digital tools provide equity in learning. A large portion of our students being able to use these features relies on the skillful teachers who will introduce the students and their parents to those game changing functionalities. If you sign in to your Chrome account, you will be able to access your extensions on any device as long as you are signed in to your Chrome account. Include Assistive TechnologiesYour students have special learning differences or physical impairments and you are not sure what's best for them. There are so many options online and it's hard to choose the best one.
Well, a google innovator Ryan Evans came up with an ever-growing project to curate the available assistive technologies and create a functional database. Visit the website and find your perfect tool. You may be surprised to find something useful even for the students without learning difficulties. The inevitable teacher's headache
Teaching irregular verbs can be rewarding and painless!
It's all about applying the MSL principles: systematic, repetitive, multisensory, explicit instruction. It means that you will explain the vowel change as well as some consonant changes for each verb or group. Depending on the age of the students, you can either group the verbs in similar categories or let the students figure out the categories themselves. Take one category per week. Rap or chant - WITH RHYTHM - the verbs together with the class. Test their retention after every three to four weeks. Give them various activities: matching pairs, memory, find your match. Let them interact with the irregular verbs cards, and quiz each other with irregular verbs lollipops. Here's an essential 'list' for beginners. They can add verbs to it as they learn. Spring brings sun and rainThis activity and learning aid can help beginner students memorize the pronunciation of English letters. I learned about it in the Dyslexia and Foreign Language Teaching on Future Learn platform. It took me a year to push this up on my list of priorities, so here it is: I created it in Canva, If you wish to have the original size (A3 poster), leave a comment, and I'll send it to you.
I wrote about it in a previous post, but I'll repeat the principle here: A is gray, B is green, and so on. The idea is to remember the vowel of the color - that's the vowel we need to say the letter. R is a star! This activity also teaches rhyme, which is another aspect of language production and sound processing that students with Dyslexia struggle with. You can have the whole class working on creating their own Alphabet Rainbow, which may be more effective than just showing them your own. I found this extremely useful for my students, who already have different names of letters memorized because of French. The most problematic letters are: G/J, K/Q, R, A/E/I, X, and Y. Note that this rainbow is made for the American English. In the British Rainbow Z is RED.
Transforming your existing paper or Word document materials (i.e. printables) has never been easier.
Thinking about my first year of teaching, visiting the photocopy shop once a week, and recording the audio tapes (cassettes) from the library, I dreamt of having something quick and handy that would at the same time be interactive and multimedia. Twenty years later, I feel like teaching is no longer a job, but an exploration of possibilities: for my colleagues and my students. Among so many available options, the only downside is that we don't have enough time to try them all out. I suppose the choice will always be somewhat random, because there are new tools coming out every season, the old ones being upgraded, and the payment plans becoming more and more attractive. FYI, I am updating my ONLINE EDUCATION TOOLS MINDMAP weekly!
But, you can't have them all!
Today, I will share with you only three ACTIVITY creating websites (platforms) which seem to be popular among my colleagues. All these three platforms offer a vast public library of ready-made activities, and you can start with them while learning how to create ones from scratch. I can easily integrate them into my Nearpod lessons via WEB content, where I just paste the link. ClassKick
Might be slightly confusing for beginner creators because the interface is not self-evident. You first create an assignment, and then start adding activities. The creation experience is very designer-like and there is a small learning curve until you find your way around it. The upload procedure is not very smooth, it requires three clicks to upload one single manipulative. By the time I uploaded #5, I decided to upload less than what I had planned. It took me at least half an hour to create one sorting activity. Finally, there is only a link or code to the assignment, and no possibility for embedding, like the next two.
Live Worksheets
This one has been around for some time, and I remember teachers mentioning it a few years ago. And this is what it looks like: some nineties enthusiastic teacher learned how to code and created the website. The truth is probably far from it, but the grain of coding remained. However, everything is explained clearly in words, pictures and videos, so the learning curve is not steep. The variety of activities is astounding, and you can find examples, templates and ready made worksheets for just about anything.
The best part is that it's all free. If you're a parent searching for some additional practice, this might be your go-to place. The finished product might look a bit amateurish, clumsy and not aligned to the tee, but all of those whose eyes don't hurt if the boxes are not the same size will thrive on this platform.
Spell'n'Slide Level 1, an interactive worksheet by YOGAteacher
liveworksheets.com WordWall
You will find yourself creating your first activity in less than five minutes, and the end result will be so awesome that you will want to do it again and again. You can 're-create' the same study set with different learning interface. For example, by just one click you'll transform this anagram into a wordsearch or true or false. Wait, there are eighteen different types of activities available with the free plan. BUT - you can only do FIVE of them!
Students as avatarsThey can 'play' in teams, encouraging teamwork and collaboration. They choose one of the three types of characters. Each type has different characteristics and powers. Teacher is a game masterDecide which behaviour is going to be rewarded and which punished. Involve students in the decision-making process. Organize Tasks into QuestsThis is where the fun starts! The Quests are placed on a map, giving the students a sense of space and orientation. The locations are as magical as the characters and the ready-made stories. A Quest is a logical unit of tasks you would do in a week or two. They can be a discussion, assignment - writing, quiz (link to Google Forms); or something they need to do offline. You can create multimedia tasks, embed videos and other content, format text, use colors, attach documents,... The great part is that you can create branching, so that the students who need more or less support do not have to 'walk the same path'. Just having a spatial representation of progress is beneficial enough for students with learning difficulties. And guess what - there are also quizzes they can do in class! Boss BattleIt can be a team or student, random or chosen. However, the free version only gives you one monster to fight. It's all too overwhelming?Don't worry, the Classcraft team have excellent Teacher Support, and they even provide free training. You will be able to do a quest to get certified. They guide you through each task and step, and if you just invest some time and imagination, you can become a game master!
Start today and enjoy this exciting fantasy with your students! |
AuthorMartina Matejaš is a teacher of English and Yoga. She is keen on understanding the mind-body connection as well as cracking the 'code' of thoughts-emotions-behaviour matrix. Archives
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