Sunday, March 17, 2019

SRS!

Welcome back future educators! I am excited to share my new SRS (Student Response System) tools! Over the past semester in my Technology in Education class, we have gotten with groups in our class and researched different SRS websites that may benefit a future classroom. I am going to share below three of my favorites I have learned about! The top SRS tools I am going to share are Peardeck, GoSoapBox, and Quizizz. Before joining my Tech in Ed class I had never heard of any of these websites. I was used to using links like Kahoot, and PowerPoint. Although great resources, these new three websites are above and beyond when it comes to an interactive unit in a classroom.

Peardeck has become my absolute favorite way to present in a class! It is like a high-tech PowerPoint! The first time I heard about Peardeck was in another one of my education classes. One of my classmates was doing a presentation on a chapter we had read for homework. We were asked to log onto joinpd.com and enter the log in code given by her. Then our screens became the same as the one on the board she was using to present with. Each slide was interactive. There are so many slide options to choose from, including, drawing, true/false, commenting, rating, and even mind maps! When you write on each slide as a student in the class, the teacher presenting can choose to make it appear on the main board of the class! It can then become a class discussion and everyone is able to see each other’s ideas and comments. I think Peardeck would be a huge hit in an elementary classroom! Having something students can be interactive with and comment on while having a class presentation is the best of both worlds as a teacher! I think Peardeck is the new way of having a PowerPoint presentation in classrooms. It provides students with interactive activities and allows them to be creative and continue learning through the lesson.

The second website I enjoyed learning about during our SRS classroom presentations was GoSoapBox. Similar to a lot of information I have learned in my technology class, this website was brand new to me and I was eager to get to see what was in store. This website allows teachers to create quizzes, mini tests, run polls, and create presentations. Through GoSoapbox, a teacher can see what their students are succeeding in and what they may be struggling with. It is a great informal assessment tool. When I was shown this in my class, it was a little difficult to follow how to log in and find the work, but once I got there it was smooth sailing. I think it’s a great resource for students. They can also leave comments on whatever the teacher has given them. This is a great way for students to stay engaged in the class and the work being presented. One of the only times I could see myself benefiting from GoSoapBox is possibly when I want to create my own quiz to see where my students are at in the unit. I also think this website may be geared more towards upper grades rather than younger. Older students will probably have an easier time commenting and giving feedback to teachers as well.

The final SRS tool I am going to blog about may be my new go to. Quizizz is a website that can be used for so many different purposes. When my classmates presented quizizz, they showed us a quiz they created on their own. The explained it and showed how easy it was to create your own as a teacher. Then, I began searching the website to see what else it had to offer. When you come to the first page, they have a list of popular quizzes. Quizzes about Pi, Parts of Speech, Mathematics, history, movies, and so much more. The list is endless when searching the website. When I saw this SRS tool, I immediately thought of how convenient it could be for a classroom of any age. When students are taking an assessment and finish early, this website would be something great for them to go to on their IPad and work on quietly. As a teacher, you can assign quizzes or give them free range to quiz on whatever they are feeling. I also think this website is a great brain break tool to use in the classroom. When students are working hard or just finishing a day of testing, I think this website could give them a break from testing or learning, and allow them to enjoy some thinking of other topics. You can also quiz students on books, or historical events that you may be learning in class. Whatever the quiz, I think this website could benefit any age and any classroom!


Overall, SRS was a wonderful way to learn about a handful of new resources. I now can go to any website I had never heard of before and create a presentation, give a quiz, create an assignment, and so much more. The list goes on and on with ways to implicate these websites in a classroom. The way we learned about them in class with students presenting a website they found useful and comfortable to use was beneficial to me as well. I was able to see first-hand how easy or difficult it was to create an account and how my students were maybe going to react to it. All of these new resources are going to benefit a future class of mine immensely! I cannot wait to get started!

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