When curiosity is sparked...

Before every major assessment I like to facilitate review activities in class. That being said, I can only handle the Kahoot theme song so much, play so many games of "Chemistry Jeopardy", or figure out another variation of Periodic Table Battleship to satisfy review of the whatever skills we are learning that topic. 

Not that there is anything wrong with the above games, or the myriad of variations. Indeed, if I played Kahoot everyday my students would be STOKED! 

However, the above review games, in my mind, always fall short in one area: student creation/invention.

This is where Google Forms is a powerful tool! During the past unit on Formula Analysis, distributed a different problem to each team of students. 

I then asked each of students to input their solution AND a Youtube video of them solving their problem on a whiteboard into  a Google Form.

I then made the output spreadsheet public, and students spent time solving one another's problems, and watching one another's solutions when they were stuck.

Although not as superficially engaging as Kahoot, watching students invent videos to explain their problems, and negotiate not only the problem, but also how to teach it, was incredibly inspiring, and IMO, much more engaging from an outside perspective. 

Although this post is represents an extremely simple application of Google Forms, one I'm sure many of you have already done before or experimented with in the past, the power of immediately sharing the output formula with students, containing live links to the videos THEY created, was worth sharing. 

Click here for the Google Form and here for the output spreadsheet. See screenshots below as well. 

Not a new idea at all, but I am always blown away by how productive class is when I assign a writing assignment and spend the class editing and providing feedback to all docs simultaneously. Today I pushed out this template, and groups of students relocated to a myriad of places on campus to complete their formal research article according to the template. I sat at my desk and provided feedback. Super fun. Super simple. Super meaningful. Below is a short video of the process. #embracethemess

After a two-week holiday I, and many of you, go back into the classroom on Monday. During this time I find myself getting up early (like right now) nervous and reflecting on how to, once again, reinvent myself in the classroom. The beauty and the torcher of teaching. #cognitivedissonance. 

Below are 5 videos I find myself watching when I need reminders about the teacher I want to be. Some are about research, others remind me to delay direct lecture until students crave more information to fill a gap, while other remind me that simple activities can spark powerful realizations about how the world works. 

This video reminds me that cheap tools can have a big impact. 

​This video reminds me to delay direct instruction until and I spark student curiosity first. 

This video reminds me of the action research I hope to conduct in my classroom. 

​This video reminds me to encourage myself and my students to find new perspectives. 

This video reminds me of the type of innovation I want from myself and my students.