Clickers in the Art Room.

The full keyboard clickers have been in effect on the Sappington Art Room for a few weeks now and "Wow" what a difference they have made.  I have been using the clickers for a quick review at the beginning of each class to discuss the previous weeks activities.  The students have shown an incredible difference in recall of vocabulary and artist, as well as, explaining process on projects.  By having the students type in their explanations and vocabulary, it seems that they are committing this information to long term memory a whole lot easier.  Plus watching the progress bars of each student while they complete these reviews shows me any areas that I may need to review with students again.  The clickers are a phenomenal tool.

On a second project I have watched a number of students take on my new digital art projects after completing their studio work.  The students really seem to enjoy creating art in the digital medium.  I am continuing to develop more projects for them to attempt. 

This year is turning into the digital art year for the students of Sappington.

Clickers

We have been trying to incorporate the clickers daily, and for the most part we have.  In the morning students love to start the day off by taking a timed multiplication test. During reading we have used the clickers several times for short answer or multiple choice questions. 

My major challenge has been to get the students to not answer inappropriately and to be patient while others in class are choosing their answers.   

Getting Used to Clickers

My use of clickers:
- daily questions of the day (warm-ups) for multiple choice
- checking for understanding after video clips or probes (formative assessment)

Sucesses:
- Getting a true feel for how well my students understand the warm-up, so I can allocate the right amount of time to go over it. 
- Students enjoy using the clickers and ask for them. 
- Greater student participation than usual.
- Velcroing them to the desks.

Challenges:
- Figuring out the logistics originally
- One clicker was dropped the first day and now it rattles
- Not able to assign numbers when they are attached at the seats


Evidence of Learning:

Students texted in a property of gold that they learned from a video clip.

to click or not to click

I have used the clickers on each of my levels of Spanish. Initially I distributed them from a cart and the original case. Since I have attached bags under the desks which seems to be more efficient in distribution.

Spanish 3--after preparing vocabulary pages students texted in words with which they still had difficulty with the English meaning. After seeing the words on the board others who knew the answer could share it with us and those who were unsure received the answer. Usually, I would give the students 5 questions/words to question. In this fashion, the students texted in their problem word without admitting they didn't know the word.

Spanish 4 Honors--1) used for a listening activity. Students listened to AP type exercises, wrote down their answers and then we polled their answers to each question explaining or repeating sections of the listening prompt to reiterate the correct answer. It seemed very cumbersome and me tied to the board the first class I tried it in; the second class it seemed to go more smoothly.

2) Students texted in words that described various characters in a reading which then served as a discussion of the characters.

Spanish 5 Honors--Students texted in a word summarizing a magazine article. From the words received, we were able to begin a cultural discussion that preceeded a reading we were going to have in class.

I don't have pictures, but I am a trustworthy person. I wrote and approve the previous blog.

McDowell Clicker Activity

Students used their clickers to text pre-primer words found on the ABCya.com, spelling practice game. This was a great way to review our word wall words and get the kids excited about spelling. We use the clickers as part of our morning routine and it has become something the students look forward to each day.

Clickers (Blackwell)

I have used the "clickers" in my classroom in a varitey of ways - quick polls with answers texted in, self-paced questions that lead the students through an activity, answering the quiz at the end of BrainPop videos, sharing their conclusions from an experiment, and compiling a list of "what went well" in an activity.

I started each class with a brief introduction to the clickers and some simple questions for them to answer to get used to the features of the clicker. I used the ELMO camera to take a picture of my clicker, and created a quick picture with labels explaining what certain buttons do. This worked well, as some of my students had never used any type of clickers before.

Some of the challenges I am seeing:

• I am still struggling with feeling like the clickers are "gimmicky".
• The kids (grades 2-5) sometimes seem excited to use them, but sometimes kind of groan when they are asked to get them out. I wonder how quickly they will tire of using the clickers ... particularly as they are making their way in to more and more classrooms.
• Too many of the things I am able to do/ask with them are lower-level (knowledge & comprehension ... DOK level 1) activities. My hope is that as I become more comfortable using the clickers, I will be better able to develop higher-level thinking activities with them.
• I wish the students were able to text in multiple answers. I would LOVE to use the clickers for brainstorming ... and then be able to sort/categorize the ideas. It is difficult to do this, however, when ALL of a student's ideas must be in the same posting.
• The "graphs" of the texted answers are virtually useless, and when I "throw" the words to a blank page, they are all overlapping. Iwish the default was set so that they are "thrown" on the page in a readable way.

Some of the benefits I see:

• Everyone is able to answer questions, rather than just 1 or 2 students
• They provide a quick glimpse at where the class is in terms of understanding.

Heilich's Clickers

How have you been using the clickers in your classroom?
I have used them in several ways so far. 1) As part of morning work when the students come in. 2) Used them for a math measurement "hunt" for 5th grade. 3) End of the day review questions.

What successes have you had? Challenges?
So far pretty successful! Kids are definitely enjoying them and have been pretty responsible with them. In my room I keep them velcroed to the desk and in order to keep their clickers with them at all times they must have neat/tidy desk areas. If they can't keep it neat then I keep them with me until we need them. The only challenge was realizing I had to set the timer with the questions when I made my measurement hunt! Otherwise the timers were set to 5:00 to complete all of the tasks and it would reset the clickers.

I don't have any pictures at this time. I do have the Measurement Hunt saved as a flipchart if anyone would like to look it over and use it(5th grade). Email me and I'll send it to you aheilich@lindberghschools.ws

Juzenas Clickers

Students have been using clickers since the day after we got them, using the Express Poll, mostly as an informal assessment of their skills in using material presented. In a couple of classes, students asked to use them if I didn't start the class with them.

The best feedback has come when students choose from pre-set multiple choice questions/answers. This lets us discuss the "wrong vs right" answers and move along. When I ask that they type in words, there's the risk of students taking too much liberty with "entertaining" answers.

I did have a little trouble changing pages of my ppt while using Express Poll. The Elite 3 "guru" has advised me to make sure I close the Express Poll question before trying to go to the next page of my ppt.

Symmetry

We have really enjoyed having the clickers in our classroom.  The children enjoy getting them out and on their desk as a part of their morning routine.  We have used them to do a variety of things in our room each day.  Making decisions has become a very democratic process that can take place quickly and efficiently.  Of course the kids want to vote on everything, now!  :)  They have also made working on study guides, answering math questions, and participating in interactive web sites something they all participate in actively for all questions and activities.  I observe an increase in interest, focus and use of time!

Our math lesson on symmetry was enhanced with the clickers.  The students cut out shapes to fold in order to strengthen their understanding of lines of symmetry.  Then we responded with a number indicating how many lines of symmetry each shape had.  The graphs provide great immediate feedback. 

 

Daily math review

We use the clickers to start our math lesson.  I use them to do a quick check to assess whether or not they understood the lesson from the day before and to do a quick assessment of what they already know about the lesson I am teaching that day.

Blends and Digraphs

We use the clickers every day and several times a day.  I especially like to use it first thing in the morning when they arrive to create an "urgency" for learning.  We are still at the beginning stages of answering yes/no, numerical, and short answer (1-2 words) questions.  My biggest challenge has been getting used to the timer (setting it properly and at the right time).  My students LOVE using the clickers, and they want to use them more often.  So do I!  Can't wait to learn about how to use them other ways!

We have been learning about blends and digraphs and highlighting words in our shared reading that contain blends and digraphs.  After reading a big book and locating these words, my first graders went back to their desk and "texted" me a word they know that begins with a blend or digraph.  The two pictures below are evidence of the results and one student texting his answer with the clicker.



Tap Water vs. Bottled Water

My students watched a video on Tap water vs. bottled water and then use the clickers to help me determine how many kids wanted to sell bottled water in our hydration station. This is where the challenges occured. I asked students to answer yes or no to the question "should we still sell water bottles?" I recieved all different kinds of answers...like yessss, yes, yeah, yipee, N, no, nooooo, na, maybe. So I tried to be more specific...I asked them to put ONLY Yes, NO. Again I received different answers...so I tried having them put just y and n. They couldn't follow these simple directions either. So I never did get a chance to find out how many wanted to sell water bottles and how many didn't. My other challenge is usage of the clickers. At this time I am only able to use clickers in the Health room and we are not in there on a consistant basis. So I used the clickers and then Colin asked us for pictures of learning. Needless to say, I didn't get pictures of learning. I will try again.

Boyd's Class with Clickers

We have been using the clickers each day. We are still in the basic stages of voting yes or no or giving few word answers. The students are very engaged when using the clickers. They love seeing the graph and analyzing the graph. My only challenge right now is wanting to do more and not knowing how.

Here is one example of we used the clickers. Today they used the clickers to vote if Phil, the groundhog, would see or not see his shadow. They also used the clickers to tell us what they thought of him seeing his shadow. Of course we talked about the results and what it means to us to have 6 more weeks of winter. After the clickers, they had a writing assignment about Phil the groundhog.

Kindergarten Mend the Number Activity

I just visited Mrs. Kaeser's Kindergarten classroom.  They were playing the game Mend the Number Square.

 The students were using the express poll to text in their answers to determine which number should go in the space with the red bug.  They were so excited to see when they all answered correctly. 

clickers in use

I used the clickers today with my German 5 AP/IB kids to poll them on the most crucial environmental problems facing us today. After we saw the results (bar graph) of the poll, we discussed 1)the reasons these problems were the most crucial- according to them- 2)how America and Germany are similar/differ with these issues, and 3)possible solutions. We were able to continue viewing our results, judging the validity/viability of possible solutions, etc.


Had no problems using them. Kids seem to like them. Could have polled as quickly withOUT the clickers, but the visual of the bar graph seems to lend something to how one receives the answers...it appears more valid? We can see the "big picture" alongside the details...which seemed to make more kids jump into the discussion.

Boughman's 1st Graders

We used our clickers to text our names. Then, we worked on putting our names into ABC order. As you can see, we are not finished with the activity yet! We used dry erase markers instead of the pens to cross off the letters to see which name would come first. Next time we will use the pens. The dry erase markers don't show on a screen shot!!!

As partners, we located _ick words in books or around the classroom. Then we used our clickers to text in words. The highlighted words will be used for spelling this week. (We are still learning how to text correctly using our clickers!!!)

We listened to a story called The Happy Day. It had a surprise ending. We texted a response about a time when we were surprised. These responses are being used for our next story in writing workshop.

We have been using our clickers everyday!

Success:  We love the clickers and want to do more with them! The velcro works great on the desks!
Challenges:   First graders send before thinking!!! We are working on this!

Clickers

1. How have you been using the clickers in your classroom?
I have been using the clickers since they were passed out. I came to school and implemented them the following morning.
I use them in a variety of ways. One way, is each morning the students send in their name if they have turned in their homework. This reminds them to get their work turned in because they always want to use the clickers.
Another way in which I use them is with math. I use them for introducing a concept, or while learning the concept, and/or to close the lesson.
Social Studies is another area in which clickers have been integrated. It seems to make the lessons more enjoyable and interactive.

2. What successes have you had? Challenges?
I have had much success while using the clickers. The students are motivated and want to answer. They look forward to using them each day. It seems to engage them in the lesson.
Challenges that have been faced are minor. For instance, when some send in their answer using uppercase letters versus the same answer in lowercase, the results are shown differently. Also, our clicker 23 magically answers at times. (even though it is put away in the case and crossed off)


3. Include evidence of learning such as pictures of student interactions, screen shot of clicker results....

Using Clickers

Since I received my clickers we have been using them almost every day. I start the beginning of each class period with students conjugating verbs on their clickers. I don't typically spend much class time on conjugating verbs, and I think it has really helped students to learn the irregulars. I also used the clickers for students to rate how comfortable they are with the material, and did a multiple choice quiz with vocabulary.

I really think the clickers have improved my students' knowledge of irregular verbs. I can see how they conjugated each verb and explain the verbs that the majority missed. My challenge was the wait time between each question.

Walker

I used my clickers for the first time last Friday and this Monday. Both sessions went well. I was glad to see that the kids needed no real instructions on how to use them. We work all semester on learning the definition of technology and I used the clickers as review activity for that definition. After a little discussion I asked them to text in the first word of the definition. We then looked at who got that correct and I used a flip chart I created to add in a few more words of the definition. I then asked them to text in the tenth

word of the definition, and followed the same procedure. I did this one more time and gave out candy to everyone that got it correct that time. I did not have any problems and the kids seemed to enjoy it.

Initiation

Adams, Lisa-C5
OK, I have been initiated. On Day 1 (Friday-bad opening day choice!) I broke out the clickers to give my seniors a review activity which asked them to answer a m/c question with a,b, or c. Stupid me did not limit the choices, so, to my initial surprise (why should I have been surprised-especially with seniors?!) up come the answers but not just to a, b, or c. The answers were texted in, and one in particular was NOT school appropriate! Eventually we had to put them away to be able to get something done.

After that, I was leery to use them until I could learn more about how to control them, and could get them organized...on Day 1 I just had the kids take them out of the box and I re-organized them as they returned them. I didn't use them today (Monday) because of these issues.

I need:
1. More info on how to connect a student to his/her clicker (export to the EXCEL file will take care of it?)
2. How best to organize the clickers for maximum efficiency (have been asking experienced clicker users)
3. Time to review the moodle notes (I assume/hope there are some)

I did notice that the seniors did exhibit much more interest in the questions than they would have otherwise. The problem was the aftermath-they lost interest when they had to discuss the answers. Will work on planning the time/activities in which they are used.

Hope all of your "first flights" went smoothly!