Interactive Assessments with Sandra Story

We had an excellent and informative session with Sandra Story on March 16th, 2017. Sandra is a returning presenter to TLP-C and always comes with an extensive list of tools to share.


The first tool Sandra walked us through was Edulastic. Edulastic is an interactive formative assessment tool that can align with standards to provide authentic assessment to prepare students for the SOL. A few things to know as you get started, you will need to create a free account and you can link it to your Google Classroom. Edulastic has created some tutorials to support new users. This video will show you how to create an assessment:

Next, Sandra showed us another comprehensive resource that teachers can use to create formative and summative assessments. From exit tickets to creating a platform for a flipped classroom, Socrative is a dynamic resource for all teachers’ tool kit. Though this is another free resource, Sandra pointed out that it is not as easy to search for pre-made assessments, and it not as user friendly as some tools like Kahoot.


The next three tools Sandra covered were Wizer Me, Spiral, and Quizizz. Wizer Me is a resource to enhance worksheets. Spiral is a collection of formative assessments to be utilized throughout the lesson. Quizizz offers students a gaming platform, similar to Kahoot, but differs by allow the assessment to be student/player-paced. For a complete rundown of these tools, watch the recording here: TLP-C Interactive Assessments

Thank you to Sandra Story for sharing her knowledge of interactive assessments and several great resources during our March session of TLP-C. Consider joining us live for our next session! Thursday, April 27th from 4-5pm EST Cary Hanson will be covering digital citizenship and information literacy. Come with question or ideas for how to utilize resources and tools from Common Sense Media. Log on a few minutes before 4pm on the 27th using this link.

A Recap of Coding with Erin Weleski

As we wrap up the national Hour of Code week, we would like to spotlight November’s TLP-C presenter, Erin Weleski. Erin is an ELL teacher at Polk Elementary, and a TLP graduate. Coding is the language we use to tell computer how to do the things we need them to do. Some coding programs create buttons to make it easier for us to tell command computer to do certain activities. Erin shared with us her thinking on wanting to integrate coding activities with with curriculum content. During the TLP-C session, Erin shared great goal-oriented and open-ended coding resources: code.org, Robot School, Daisy the Dinosaur and Move the Turtle, Scratch Jr.

Erin then shared with the activity she did with her students using Scratch jr while working through a nonfiction unit and how-to books. Basic coding matched well with this unit and explaining steps in a process.

Scratch and Scratch jr. is a great resources for teachers in all subject areas and grade levels to check out. If you haven’t tried coding, listen to this TLP-C session, and feel confident in trying coding out for yourself.

A Recap of OERs with Allison MacMahon

If you missed our session you can watch the video here.

We had a wonderful TLP-C session with Allison MacMahon on Thursday, September 22, 2016. Allison gave an overview of OERs and where to find resources. The first bit of information Allison covered was to give us a working definition of OERs. Open Educational Resources (OER) are free and openly licensed educational materials that can be used for teaching, learning, research, and other purposes. Educators can use, modify, and redistribute as necessary without copyright or cost restrictions. Allison then showed us two resources. The first came from DOE Office of Educational Technology. Check out OET HERE. U.S. Dept. of Ed is running a #GoOpen campaign encouraging all educators in all districts and states to use openly licensed material in hopes of igniting change within the schools and how learning happens. The next resource we dove into was OER Commons. The driving forces behind OER Commons is to equip today’s educator with the highest quality resources by encouraging participation and co-creation. Here you can create an account to allow you to create OERs, discover OERs created by other educators, and connect with groups globally.

For additional tips and information, watch the recording of this TLP-C Blackboard Collaborate session and reach out to us with any questions. The recorded session can be accessed at the top of this post.