Formative Assessments the easy way: Poll Everywhere

     I love students; they have an opinion about everything. Being able to find out more about what they know, or think they know, is extremely helpful in designing lesson plans that are engaging and effective. Quizzes are great tools for formative assessments; they can be made relatively quickly administered and evaluated. Quizzes given in class traditionally, however, present a challenge to both students and teachers: how can they be given in a way that allows teachers to determine where students may struggle with the content, but also protects students from embarrassment?

     What if there was a tool for formative assessment that helped both teachers and students that was affordable, accessible, and user-friendly? How could it be used in the classroom? Fortunately, Poll Everywhere has all of these important characteristics. In a school where cell phones are very accessible to students like my teaching placement, Poll Everywhere is a great tool to use. While we use DO NOW questions as bell-work and cold calling to help students with self-assessments and teachers determine where students may be having difficulties, the lack of anonymity can result in students not completely sharing their areas of struggle. 

     In my classroom, I would use Poll Everywhere not only at the beginning of class, but during my parts of the lesson to find out if students were following along with me or if there were things that I'd talked about or activities that we're doing that are not clear to students. I would also use this assessment tool to engage students in lessons by asking their opinions and finding out about any prior knowledge that they may have regarding the lesson. For example, I recently taught a lesson on gene regulation. Poll Everywhere would have been great for learning more about what students remembered from the previous lesson on genetic mutations, and would help facilitate connecting that previous lesson with the current lesson. It would help create a safe classroom environment where students could share their opinions and ask for assistance. And, it would allow me improve my lesson planning, delivery, and evaluation. Poll Everywhere is a quick and easy assessment tool that I plan to use often in my classroom.

MACUL 2015

My MACUL Experience

     It's hard to describe how excited I was to attend the MACUL conference this year.  This was my first teacher's conference, and it was quite overwhelming at first: the convention center is huge, and there were so many teachers everywhere: forming huge lines of traffic,  overtaking the sidewalks, and filing into the hallways and meeting rooms. Although I'd attended many scientific research conferences, MACUL had a different aura.  Instead of posters lining from wall to wall with students and professors dressed and speaking very formally, this conference was very professional but more personable. I experienced (once we were able to find parking) a very warm and welcoming atmosphere. There were people with ASK ME signs that were very helpful who directed us if we had any difficulties or questions finding information about sessions, speakers, or anything at all. 

    The first session that I attended was entitled Evaluating Teaching With Google Apps: A Case Study. The presenter, Gary Abud (Grosse Pointe Public Schools), was named Michigan Teacher of the Year for 2013-2014. I was hoping that I would learn more about some of the effective teaching strategies that helped him become named Teacher of the Year. What I didn't realize, however, that Mr. Abud has transitioned from the classroom to more of an administrative and consulting role in his school district. 

     While I appreciated the use of technology for his presentation (has was able to create surveys that the audience could respond to using laptops and mobile devices), I was a little disappointed. This presentation was not one that was not targeted for a beginning teacher or a teaching intern, but for teachers that had been in the system and were concerned about reforming the teacher evaluation process, which was not the best fit for someone like me, a novice. I had considered attending one that focused on special needs learning (Leveling the Special Needs Playing Field-Using BYOD to Build Student Capacity) or the use of Google Forms for Assessment, and probably should've chosen one of those sessions; the content was perhaps more appropriate for a beginning teacher.

     Another session that I attended focused on alternative education. I enjoyed that session because it focused on using non-traditional methods to teach students that have severe challenges to their learning. While I have not had an opportunity to teach in this setting, I have a daughter with special needs who has unique challenges to her learning. It as interesting to hear the perspectives of a teacher and an administrator who are committed to helping these students be successful in the classroom and beyond. It was a very engaging session for beginning teachers, teaching interns, and teaching professionals. 

     While the sessions that I attended did not meet my expectations, I did learn different methods of using technology in the classroom and beyond. I also enjoyed observing teachers using the Hands-On Space on the Bottom Level and utilizing the huge Jenga game. It was nice to see teachers having fun and networking. I enjoyed my time at this conference and look forward to attending next year.