Virtual Stamps!

It is report card time!

As I am sitting here marking my student's assignments (on paper, which is more and more rare), I began thinking of how I give feedback to students using stickers and stamps. From here, the idea of a virtual stamp came to mind.

Most of my marking this year is done online using Google Docs. When I do mark students work done on paper, I always stamp or put a sticker on their work. I realized that I have yet to do such a thing when I mark my students work that is done online.

So, I quickly put together some images (using Google Drawing) to put on my students' work.

Check them out:

I especially love the idea that I can make my own in French!

        Happy Marking!

Where I want to be in one less click!

Wow!

So maybe I might be a little behind the times, but I just discovered Google Apps!

I have heard of their Apps before and after a quick glance, I became aware that I was already using some of them. However, last night was the real discovery : life is much easier with Google Apps!

Basically, I chose all the Apps that correspond to my daily online usage and determined how using the app brings me to where I want to be in less time!

Screen Shot of Google Apps!

In addition to my daily usage apps, I found some really neat apps to use with my students:

Diigo Web
Type Scout
Evernote Web
Picasa
Prezi
Sketchpad
Typing Test - Key Hero
QR Code Creator
Weebly
Google Docs
For Language schools there is Google Translate
For teachers, the Webpage Screenshot app is awesome!
And many more...


Another great thing is that we already use Google Chrome as our Internet browser at school ( I would highly recommend you install Google Chrome on your school computers, especially if you also work with Google Docs). By adding educative apps to the Chrome home page, it makes it that much easier to share app links with our students. In addition, each app has its own image. Therefore, it is much  easier to guide our younger students to where we want them to go.

Happy Apping!

My first attempt at using Google Forms and Fluberoo

Beginners mistake:

I worked really hard last night preparing my very first online exam for my grade 9 students. I even had a mixture of questions to evaluate all the levels of Blooms Taxonomy. However... when I shared my quiz with the students today, somehow they got a copy with most of the answer's. Luckily there were still enough questions to be able to evaluate them properly and it was a good drill to get them to verify the answers that were already there.

Needless to say, my lesson learned today: Always send myself a copy, before I share anything with me students. My students lesson today: Patience, understanding and flexibility with using online tools is key in a online course :)

On the other hand, I am very grateful to have learned about the application Flubaroo integrated with Google Forms. It saves a lot of time when marking your exams. However, another beginners mistake : Don't forget to exclude your long answer questions before you submit to have your exam marked, otherwise your students marks will be much lower as it is not able to correct long answer questions. ( I had to send an email to my students apologizing for the amount of emails they may had received with various results of their quiz).

My suggestion and lesson #2 for today: Make a 2 part exam
a) Multiple choice - short answer (User Fluberoo to evaluate)
b) Long answer ( Have students share their answer's with you in Google Docs)

I hope you will all have much more success when it comes to your first time using Google Forms and Fluberoo.

Feel free to share your experiences!