I Love "The Pew"!

My students often make fun of me, but I am not ashamed of my love for "the Pew" aka the Pew Research Center. I utilize public opinion data regularly with my AP US Government and Politics course quite often. It is one thing for a teacher to say what the major issues are facing the country, but when a teacher can show this data and explain to students how to verify what factors make a poll legit--this is critical teaching/learning.

In AP US GoPo, students are required to learn about the characteristics of a poll with high ethos, though ALL students should know about terms like margin or error and sampling size. We are regularly bombarded with data, and much of it is garbage. No matter your content area, you can find great polls and statistics for a variety of activities. I enjoy using polls and tables as Warm Up activities to spark my students' critical thinking skills, and to get them interested in the topic of the class.

Besides Pew, you should check out these fantastic polling resources:
- Pollingreport.com
- Gallup.com
- Census.gov

Here is my favorite set of data...Because I teach so many first, second, and third generation Latino immigrants (and because I am married to a first generation Latina), I "live" this data daily. I used this data at the beginning of the 2012-13 school year as an introduction into my data analysis lesson with my ESOL Government students. We ended up having some great discussions about the data and student anecdotes.

 

Akindi...Grade M/C Assessments with a Scanner for FREE!

I have been a Gradecam user for over a year now. However, Gradecam has become a product one must pay to use if you want to scan more than a 10 question assessment. Then along comes a new guy in the multiple choice automated grading industry...Akindi.

Unlike Gradecam, where one must use a webcam to scan bubble sheets individually ..Akindi lets you scan assessments and upload them to be graded using a scanner. I work at a school that has copy machines with terrific scanning services, so it is relatively easy for me to scan hundreds of papers and email them to myself via a PDF file in less than a minute. I also like how you are able to reconcile scores if a student went to town erasing and changing answers.

Experts and education pundits can cry and moan about multiple choice assessments, however, we teachers in the classroom know that multiple choice assessments are a reality. We don't want to spend hours grading mundane assessments, though we want data to guide our teaching. Akindi allows teachers to get this useful data without much effort.

Akindi does not currently allow you to print bubble sheets with names and ID numbers pre-printed, but that will likely be a feature coming in the future. Additionally, one cannot upload a csv file containing student rosters, though when you do your initial scan of bubble sheets, Akindi will save the ID numbers. A teacher with 30 minutes to kill while playing some tunes can easily type in student names. I have sent questions to Akindi and the founder has been quite responsive and helpful. I foresee great things for this company.

If you are looking for a FREE service to quickly grade multiple choice assessments, you should definitely give Akindi a try!

ForAllRubrics Will Make You Love Rubrics

For all you classroom teachers our there, you need to check out ForAllRubrics.com and discover this gem of a website. First, you need to upload a class list. If you have access to a .csv file of this information, you will save yourself lots of time. Next, you create the rubric. After you create the rubric, you can use it to assess a student via a computer or IPad.

I like how you can print out your finished rubrics (they do all the math work for you), save them as PDFs, and you can automatically email them to students. You can also add written feedback for each category.

Now...ForAllRubrics is not perfect. Currently, you cannot create a rubric with weighted categories. For instance, I don't weight all of my rubric categories at the same amount. However, the wonderful people at the company assure me they are working on adding this feature--it will likely be out within the month. I get the feeling that many more positive changes are on the way.

If you would like to check out some short videos showing how you can use ForAllRubrics.com, click here.

Here is an example of a rubric I created using a writing rubric I have been developing and using throughout the school year with my ESOL Local, State, and National Government classes. I am still becoming acquainted with ForAllRubrics, but I love what I see so far...and I am hopeful for some feature additions in the future :)

Did I mention ForAllRubrics.com is FREE? Now I did.

Google Forms is Revived and Kicking!

I have been a big fan of Google forms for many years. Recently, Google did a major overhaul making Forms much more user friendly. You can create simple or complex forms depending upon your needs and skill level. I love how you can copy the link of a form and send it out via email or through Edmodo for students/colleagues to view. 

If you are not familiar, read this quick description taken from Google's own words:

Create online forms and surveys (if you run a club or committee, you will love forms)
Collect RSVPs, run a survey, or quickly create a team roster with a simple online form. Then check out the results, neatly organized in a spreadsheet.

Get answers to your questions (a great tool for teachers so they can easily assess students)
Create simple or in-depth online surveys either individually or while working with colleagues thousands of miles away. Share them from a link, embed them on your website, or even right inside an email.

Sit back and watch the results come in
All responses to your questions are neatly organized in a spreadsheet, so sorting and analyzing data is a snap.

Access anywhere, anytime
All your form data is automatically organized in Google Sheets and stored in Google Drive. Access them wherever you go, from any device.

Here are some sample forms I am currently using:
1. Unit Reflection
2. Unit Mini Assessment
3. Sign Up Form

In the coming days, I plan to post more ways you can use Google Forms in your classroom. If you want a sneak peek, you should check out Flubaroo (grade student assessments in seconds) and Doctopus (make student submission of Google Docs less time consuming and more efficient).

TurboScan...A great tool!

I received a few iTunes gift cards over the holidays and one of the apps I paid for ($1.99) has made some of my paperwork a little easier...it is called TurboScan. The app is relatively simple--you take a photo of a document, photo, etc., and the app turns the image into a PDF file that you can easily email yourself and/or colleagues.

In the short time I have owned the app, I have been able to efficiently write up grade change forms and submit them to my principal quickly. I foresee using this app to capture student work while walking around the room and storing it in a digital portfolio or saving it later for grading purposes.

The app works well with my iPhone and the website notes that it works well with iPads too. Unfortunately, this app is only created for iOS devices, though I am sure Android users have something like it available!

EdSurge...My secret hiding place of edtech goodies!

Edsurge has many components, though the most useful resource they provide for the classroom teacher is their EdSurge Wiki. You could literally spend hours finding resources to help you no matter your grade level/content area. Use their search tool to help you find items that will make your teaching more enjoyable and efficient. You will see some usual suspects (Learnzillion, Brainpop, etc.), but you will also find items you would not normally find. For instance, I am interested in trying out Drop Some Knowledge (DSK)...a study tool that students allows students to play games against their friends from their smart devices.

I highly recommend you sign up for their weekly newsletter where they provide new edtech resources. Besides providing different edtech website recommendations, EdSurge also provides edtech job postings--though these postings are geared towards computer programming jobs rather than classroom teacher positions. You can also find a variety of deadlines for different grants and other edtech opportunities, though I do not have much experience with these items.

Political Cartoon Resources

Source: Click here to find this cartoon

As an American government teacher, I use political cartoons regularly to explain different viewpoints on policies and politics. Many students often struggle in analyzing the meaning of a political cartoon. Nevertheless, political cartoons can be a great tool to help build higher order thinking skills (HOTS) of students in secondary schools.

As English and Social Studies curriculums adapt to Common Core changes, students will have more opportunities to analyze and evaluate different points of view on historic and modern issues. From my experience, I have found that a teacher needs to spend time building up student analysis skills of political cartoons. By repeating certain steps (listed in the worksheet below) regularly, students will become accustomed to the process of analyzing political cartoons.

My favorite two websites for political cartoons are the following:
- Politicalcartoons.com
- Cartoon Politics

The National Archives has a terrific worksheet that lists questions a student should be able to answer regarding any political cartoon. Besides this great worksheet, the National Archives provides a variety of primary sources and lesson plans.

This is the political cartoon analysis worksheet: