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Showing posts from April, 2017

Let Google Sheets level-up your data collection

Typically, when I think about tools and techniques for collecting and analyzing data, my mind goes to one place: But after a brief journey to the final frontier, I think about the best ways to use student data to promote and progress student learning. Enter Google Sheets and Conditional Formatting! Teachers who use a pretest and posttest instructional model can use Google Sheets to record scores from their classroom-based assessments and then use the Conditional Formatting feature to 'color-code' scores. When the posttest data is entered and conditionally formatted, it creates a quick visual snapshot of gains that were made during the unit. Prior to the unit's end, teachers can use the data they gather to create differentiated groups based on students' specific needs and group them by similar assessment scores. Tracking data this way has many benefits such as: 1. Giving more focus to teacher Collaborative/PLC time.      Teachers use this tool when they meet

Drawing a blank on new tech apps? Try Google Drawings!

When it comes to the family of Google Suite apps, Google Drawings is kind of an underappreciated second cousin. However, just like your real second cousin, once you take a few minutes to get to know her a little better, she's actually pretty awesome. It's then you realize the family is just a little bit cooler than you'd thought. Recently, I guided a fourth-grade class through using Google Drawings to make comics with silly animal pictures. Using Google Drawings, the students searched for images on the web, resized them to put them into three-framed strips, and then added speech bubbles with text boxes for the dialogue. Students then took their comic creations and embedded the images in a Google Slide deck. Throughout the entire lesson, students were completely engaged in their work and wildly enthusiastic to share their creations with classmates, parents, and anyone else willing to look. After students had put the comic on the first slide, they started making more,