I honestly don't know how I would have taught my content these past 7 weeks without 3 websites:
1. Schoology, our LMS. Instead of having to send out millions of emails, we can just post everything on Schoology. I also used it as a platform for assessments. (I sent emails too, but just not as many.)
2. Screencastify. The free version would let you record up to 5 minutes, but luckily during this time they offered their premium service for free. It includes editing, which I didn't use (if I make mistakes through the video I just fix it and keep going, like in class), but also unlimited length. Not that I'm an advocate of watching long videos, but there are many times you need more than 5 minutes to explain something! Not only can you easily upload Screencastify videos into YouTube, but I also started just saving them to my computer and uploading into Desmos activities.
Which leads me to...
3. DESMOS. From my count, I created 19 different Desmos activities to use with my students. I was able to use CL (Desmos' computation layer programming language) to make them self-checking, so that students would know if they were correct or not. But I was also able to embed notes, videos, and eventually figured out color and some text formatting. And while I actually enjoy creating these activities, they take a looong time to make. However, from some of the student feedback that I've received, they're definitely worth it! I started building in slides asking what students needed help or feedback on... this is a response I had in a recent activity:
1. Schoology, our LMS. Instead of having to send out millions of emails, we can just post everything on Schoology. I also used it as a platform for assessments. (I sent emails too, but just not as many.)
2. Screencastify. The free version would let you record up to 5 minutes, but luckily during this time they offered their premium service for free. It includes editing, which I didn't use (if I make mistakes through the video I just fix it and keep going, like in class), but also unlimited length. Not that I'm an advocate of watching long videos, but there are many times you need more than 5 minutes to explain something! Not only can you easily upload Screencastify videos into YouTube, but I also started just saving them to my computer and uploading into Desmos activities.
Which leads me to...
3. DESMOS. From my count, I created 19 different Desmos activities to use with my students. I was able to use CL (Desmos' computation layer programming language) to make them self-checking, so that students would know if they were correct or not. But I was also able to embed notes, videos, and eventually figured out color and some text formatting. And while I actually enjoy creating these activities, they take a looong time to make. However, from some of the student feedback that I've received, they're definitely worth it! I started building in slides asking what students needed help or feedback on... this is a response I had in a recent activity:
Several other students have mentioned that they feel like they're still learning but not being overwhelmed with it. I feel like that's the best thing that could be happening.
Next up - what happens if we have to start this way in the fall?!
Part 1 - We have to do what?!
Part 2 - Starting to Implement
Part 3 - Making Adjustments
Part 4 - My Content
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