Teaching Thought #67

Teacherscribe's Teaching Thought #67

The five digital tools I can’t teach without.

Tool #1 – Padlet

I don’t know how long I’ve been using Padlet, but it’s been years.  And I haven’t found anything that works as well for formative assessments, bell work, polling your students, or just getting feedback.

Padlet is like an online posterboard where students can log on and leave feedback, images, and video.

How I use Padlet.

I use it to generate student examples.  One of the most effective ways I have used it is when we read Carmine Gallo’s Talk Like TED.  He has a chapter devoted to using humor in speeches.

To see what students find humorous, I created a Padlet board asking for them to leave two examples of something (video or images or even jokes) that they find funny.  THEN, they have to explain why it is humorous. Finally, students must present their two examples in front of the class.

When I did this a few years ago, it took on a life of its own.  When students put the examples up on Padlet, I happened to be gone that day with a sick child.  (And that is also one of the best ways to use Padlet – when you have a sub). So when I got back, I wanted to push ahead to something else, but the students asked if they could watch what their peers considered funny.  Really? Students wanted to see what their other classmates came up with?!

I was shocked.

Finally, at the end of the week, I promised that we’d look at their Padlet board.  And it was amazing.

Why?

1. The students were all engaged.

2.  The students couldn’t wait to share their examples.

3.  The students couldn’t wait to explain and justify their examples.

4.  I learned a ton.

5.  I found dozens of great examples of videos to steal and use in other presentations or Keynotes.

Seriously, give Padlet a try.  It’s amazing.

Bonus content –

Here is a link to the Padlet on humor.