September 4: Using Socrative.com for Student Assessments and Feedback
For the last couple of years, I have been sending out “Tasty Tuesday Tech Tips from the Library” on most Tuesdays. I try to keep these short since I know everyone is very busy. This one is a bit longer than usual, since there is a lot to cover at the beginning of the year! Also, I am trying a new “concept” inspired by one of my cohort members at the Google Teacher Academy I attended last July. (Just one of many great ideas I got there that I’ll be sharing this year.) I’m going to try to make each tip not just a tip, but a “challenge,” or something for you to “try.” And, to encourage you to accept each “challenge,” I’ll be holding a drawing among the participants for a gift certificate for a Starbucks drink. To get the ball rolling, there will be one gift certificate winner this week, followed by one each month going forward.
So, here’s the first tip and challenge: Whether you knew it or not, each of our staff should have a “Google Apps for Education” (GAFE) account. A lot of us at Mira Costa have been using Google Drive, Docs, etc. for several years now, but not under the GAFE umbrella. So, what are the advantages of GAFE over simply using Google Drive?
For one, you can now use Google’s brand new Google Classroom feature to set up classrooms and add or invite your students, making sharing documents and submitting assignments even easier than with your own Google account.
For another, it allows you to keep your school accounts completely separate from your personal accounts.
And, you can create appointment slots in your calendars and we could set up and book rooms as “assets,” something not available in regular Google accounts.
Every 9th grader has a GAFE account in the format [email protected], and we can add accounts for older students. So, for example, Susie Smith, graduating in 2018, would be [email protected]. I've been acquainting our 9th graders with their accounts during the Freshman English Orientations.
I’ll be sharing more about GAFE and Google Classroom features and advantages in the coming weeks. But, right now, I challenge you simply to login, have a look, and try setting up one class. If you haven’t used your GAFE account before, your username is in the format [email protected] (for example, mine is [email protected]) and the default password is mbusd325. If you find that you don’t have an account, let me know on the challenge form, and I will contact the IT people to set one up for you.
To login:
Go to google.com and enter your username and password.
Once logged into GAFE, enter the url classroom.google.com, to get to Google Classroom
So, take on the challenge, and complete this form to let me know you did!
And, here’s a bonus if you are still reading:
Please contact me if I can answer any questions or help with anything.
Do let me know if I can help you use Google Apps for Education, Google Classroom, or anything else. Also, please do consider scheduling a class session in the library and collaborating with me on lessons.