Popplet is an app that is web based, and also available on iOS. It is incredibly versatile and can be used in so many different ways, in ANY classroom. It's an online mind map! It's very easy and intuitive to use. It allows you to think and learn visually. It allows you to capture facts, thoughts, images and videos - to help you create relationships between them. What a great tool to help visual learners!
The free version of popplet (lite) has a 5 project limit. Otherwise, it's the same as their paid version ($4.99). You can collaborate and share with others, too! My Girl Scouts suggested using this as we plan our meetings and badges. I know event planners that use this as well! Did I mention it's incredibly versatile??!!
When you go to www.popplet.com, create your free account. To begin your first popplet, just double click on the blank "canvas". This is how you create your first "popple". Using the tabs at the bottom of the popple, you can change its color, add text, draw or add an image. Images can be added from Flickr or uploaded from your computer. You can also add video from YouTube or Vimeo. A great feature is that you can search for videos within the app.
Popplet lets you collaborate through their "Share" button. You can also share through a link, or on social media. This makes group work outside of school much easier on students who may not be able to get together physically.
The possibilities are endless! Some ideas I've come across for various content areas include: Language Arts - Story Maps, Writer's Workshop... Math - Representing Numbers (decomposition, prime factorization) Exponent Laws...
Science - Phases of Mitosis, Phases of the Moon, Classification Social Studies - Time Lines
ALL CONTENT AREAS - Word Walls / Vocabulary
Students will quickly navigate this app. Let them explore next time you're using computers or iPads. I bet they'll surprise you with their creations!
Socrative is an app that engages and assesses students in real time. It can manage up to 50 students at a time. It supports subscripts and superscripts for math content. It is also incredibly versatile and fits in with any teaching style! My favorite feature is that it supports Short Answer responses. I think this is a huge asset to Language Arts teachers who often tell me the other apps don't work for them because multiple choice just doesn't lend itself well to their content. I think this solves the problem for many content areas, not just language arts. They've just complained the most! (JS!!!) Socrative is FREE, and it is web based, so you can access it on any device, laptop or computer. (You can also download the teacher app or the student app on Android and iOS plaforms.) It also lets you create and share quizzes OR you can do this on the "fly" with no preparation whatsoever.
Create your account by going to www.socrative.com and signing up. This is the same site students will go to sign in, but will click on Student Login. They don't need email, it just gives them the screen to put in your "Room #". Your Room # will be created when you make your account. Start out in the tab that says "Manage Quizzes". Here
you have 4 choices: Create a Quiz, Import Quiz, My Quizzes, and
Reports. Click on Create Quiz and start entering your questions
(Multiple Choice, True/False or Short Answer). You will also find your
"Share Quiz Code" that you can share with others! If you click on
"Import Quiz", you can either import a quiz from an Excel sheet, or use
someone else's code to use their quiz. My Quizzes lists the quizzes
you've already made. You can duplicate, delete, download or edit them
from here. Finally, Reports is where you go to get your class results.
You can get the whole class' results in an Excel sheet or individual
reports in .pdf or even individual question results in .pdf. There's a
choice of having the results emailed, downloaded or saved to your Google
Drive.
The other tab is the Dashboard. From here you have 4 choices: Start a Quiz, Quick Question, Space Race or Exit Ticket. Start a quiz and Space Race use quizzes you've previously created or added. Quick Question can be done on the fly. You can choose from Multiple Choice, True/False or Short Answer. The Exit Ticket consists of 3 pre-set questions that assess understanding, asks what was learned, and a Teacher Question that you can give verbally or on your board - that's also short answer. The perfect Exit Ticket!
When you choose "Start A Quiz", you first select the quiz you want to use from the ones you've created. You also choose how to deliver the quiz. You can let it be student paced, where they get immediate feedback (in order, no skipping, no changing answers), or student paced where they control the navigation (any order, they can skip questions). You can also deliver it as Teacher paced, where you can send one question at a time, in any order, you can skip questions and also revisit questions. The Space Race uses the quiz of your choice and object of your choice. Some choices include a rocket, unicorn or a bear. As students answer the questions correctly, their object "races" across the screen. They LOVE this game!!! And I love that I can download the report and see how well they've mastered the content!
The third tab is for "Live Results". From here you can watch the students' progress in real time.
This app is very user friendly and incredibly easy to navigate. The students really enjoy the Space Race - it gets them engaged and focused on the content. The "Start A Quiz" feature is wonderful for independent work if you have computers in your room, or want to assign an online quiz for homework.
