Verso - for anonymous student feedback

Verso is a great app that offers formative data for teachers. It gives students a voice and allows them the opportunity to anonymously respond to prompts, articles, videos, etc, and then allows them to respond and rate each other's comments. The thing I like most about it is that it offers a voice to students that otherwise wouldn't necessarily participate in class, while also giving the teacher the ability to see who shared what (so it's not completely anonymous, which helps with extracting authentic responses, and makes grading easier).

Submitted by Mr. Bruno

Quizizz - pre-made quizzes

https://quizizz.com/admin

An alternative to Kahoot...quizizz allows you to conduct student-paced assessments in a fun and engaging way.  Quizizz contains many pre-made quizzes from a handful of subjects.  You can use their quizzes or take questions from any quiz and combine with your own.  It also give you a detailed class level report on how everyone did.  Quizziz can be done as individual practice or as a game.  

Contributed by Ms. Gonzalez

Quizlet review game

https://quizlet.com/features/live

If you have the upgrade teacher version of Quizlet, this is a fun, collaborative review game.  Students sign in and are assigned to random teams.  They have to work together to find the term that matches the definition/concept, since each student has different answers on their screen.  They have to stay focused and communicate in order to win...everyone was contribute!  They also have pre-made games for specific topics. 

Contributed by Ms. Gonzalez

Communication with students - Remind app

I use the app Remind. This is an app that can send alerts to the students via text message without actually giving out your phone numbers. You can also change the settings to either allow or not allow students to respond. This becomes very handy when I want to tell the students something that I may have forgotten to mention in class, or when you want to remind them of an upcoming test, quiz, etc.

Contributed by Ms. Matsunaga

First day activity - favorite thing

On the first day, I play a game to help me remember their names quickly. The class sits in a circle, and you start with one person. The student says their name and favorite food. Going clockwise (or counter), the next student says their name and favorite food + the student's name and favorite food that had already gone. The third student would then say their name + the two student's answers and foods that had already gone. You repeat this process until you complete the circle. By the time we are done, I am the last one to go. It helps when you pick a unique category to bring up discussion, or something that can relate to your class. It puts a little pressure on them, but I remind them that they should all know one another's names anyway. If you know a student may struggle, or have stage fright, you can start with them to reduce the anxiety. This activity can take a while, but I know all 150 names by the end of the day. 

By Ms. Matsunaga

Answer Garden

Use this website to have students type in words as responses, and the most frequently used words will appear larger.  Display to show your class the responses.