TwosDay - Cory - Pear Deck Vocabulary

If you are into the academic gaming, Pear Deck has put out another tool that is a little different approach to putting some vocabulary in the memory banks.  Along with all of its new changes, Pear Deck has created a flash card building process that has students creating sentence examples and drawings for each vocabulary word.  Once the submissions are in, the teacher, along with the class, can pick the best examples so that everyone is left with a deck that can be used for studying.  It even allows you to export it Quizlet for further fun and practice.

Marzano Connection: DQ5 E25

TwosDay - Shona - Kahoot Template Review

Kahoot is an awesome and engaging tool, but it lacks depth.  In order for students to reflect on their own learning, I created a game reflection template for them to use in conjunction with the game.  Simply fill in the unit skills or concepts from the unit and have the students play.  Pro tip, put the skill or concept in the same order as the Kahoot questions, and the students will be able to have a quick and easy gauge of where they are with each area of the unit.  You can also use this for final or AP exam reviews. 

Marzano Connection: DQ 5: Elements 25 & 32, DQ 3: Elements 14 & 15

TwosDay - Mystery Guest - Hacking Google Forms

Can you guess the mystery guest for this week’s TwosDay video? 

The word hack refers to a trick, shortcut, skill, or novelty method that increases productivity and efficiency.  Today we bring you a hack for Google forms.  This useful hack will allow you, the teacher, to put a temporary pause somewhere in a Google form so that your students may not move ahead.  Stopping students in the middle of a form may be useful for a brief lecture from the teacher, or some reflective conversation with a classmate before moving on.  To use this hack, create a question that requests a 4-digit code from the student.  Set the response validation option to be equivalent to a specific number that the teacher chooses.  Be sure to enter some custom text such as “please wait for further instruction.”  Set the question to be required and you’re all set.  Your students will be forced to stop in the middle of the form until they receive the secret code from you. Send the HOTSpot an email if you can identify the mystery guest. The first one to respond wins a prize!! 

TwosDay - Sean - Making "New" Pear Deck Work For You

The amazingness of educational technology revolves quite heavily around constant improvement. However, that typically means constant changes. And sometimes we see overhauls happen that can be scary… like we just saw with Pear Deck where we have no idea where buttons or features have gone. But, have no fear, we’ve got you covered with info on major changes and new features very soon. For now, if you don’t want to explore the new Pear Deck waters on your own, you can “go back to the old way.”
My Marzano Connection: DQ5E’s26,28,31

TwosDay - Steve - AWW App

Looking for a cool new digital tool?  Try exploring awwapp.com (“aww” stands for “a web whiteboard”)!  This web-based software allows users to draw freehand or add shapes, text, or sticky notes to a digital canvas.  The site is responsive to touch capabilities, which means your students can use their Chromebooks to interact with it.  By logging in using your Google credentials, you can name, save, duplicate, and reopen saved canvases. You can also invite others to collaborate on your whiteboard by sending them an email or sharing the URL or QR code that brings them straight to your page!  My Marzano Connection: DQ5E24, 25, 26

TwosDay - Bob - Stay Sane with Inbox for Gmail

We all use Gmail at school, and Inbox is an alternate way to access your mail that allows the same functionality as Gmail, but allows you to schedule emails to appear at a more appropriate moment. To access Inbox, all you need to do is go to inbox.google.com. You can return to the standard Gmail interface whenever necessary.  You can also file messages using labels just as in Gmail. Inbox for Gmail keeps your inbox empty until you are ready to address a message.

TwosDay - Sean - Website Functionality Test

Sometimes, we ask our students to go to a website and they tell us that it’s not working or it’s down. There’s a cool little way to check and see if the site itself is down or if it’s just us. Knowing this info helps direct us in a timely manner with our first step in trouble-shooting and ultimately trying to keep the kids from being completely derailed in the activity we are having them complete. The site is called downforeveryoneorjustme.com and is stupid easy to use.

My Marzano Connection: DQ5E28

TwosDay - Shona - PDF's To Google Docs

An easy way to convert PDF’s to workable documents is to use Cloud Convert.  This video showcases a quick step-by-step tutorial for converting PDF’s into Google Docs, which allows the text to be more workable for you and your students.  In passing, teachers have outwardly wished they knew how to do this conversion.  Viola!!  Ask and you shall receive.  If you are interested in having students annotate the workable document, here are some great annotation extensions to deepen your lessons.