Do you really know what your students are thinking in class?

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Do you really know what your students are thinking in class? Can you know all your students' answers when you ask a question? I guess the answer is no or not completely. So, what if I tell you that you can actually do that using an online platform that is available on various devices, such as computers, mobile phones, and iPads, will you give it a try? If yes, let me introduce you to Mentimeter. 

What is Mentimeter and how to use it?

It's an online interactive presentation and polling platform that allows teachers to create dynamic and engaging lessons. It offers a wide range of features that can be used in various educational settings, from K-12 classrooms to higher education institutions. 

Here are some tips on how teachers can effectively use Mentimeter to enhance their teaching:

    1. Brainstorm and generate ideas:

• Students can do this individually or collaboratively. 
• Use open-ended questions or word cloud functions to bring up the topic or as a tool for activity presentation. 
• For example, you can include questions like "Use three words to describe your ideal life." or "What do your group think feminism is?".

    2. Provide feedback

• Students can answer based on their thoughts during and after the classes, so that you can have some ideas on how to help students who experience some problems or improve your class in the future. 
• Use open-ended questions, scales, ranking or multiple-choice functions. 
• For example, you can write "What do you think of the teaching speed so far?" or "How do you rate this class?".

    3. Quizzes

• You can have a clearer view of students' understanding of the teaching contents.
• The quiz function is similar to Kahoot. 

    Here is a video that shows five functions of Mentimeter and how you can use it in more detail. 

The advantages of Mentimeter

• The answers are anonymous. If you have students who are shy to talk or scared to make mistakes and face threats, you can inform them before using Mentimeter.
• The answers are real-time interaction. Students can see immediate responses from their classmates. 
• Increase Students' engagement in class.
• The data are visualised. 

The disadvantages of Mentimeter

• Students are required to have access to the Internet, which means students who do not have devices, such as younger learners, can not participate in Mentimeter activities. 
• The free version has limited functions, such as exporting data.

I believe after using Mentimeter, you can know what your students are thinking during your classes in time. Let's make your classes more engaging and improve your classes further.

YouTube can be a language learning tool!

 

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I'm sure that you've all heard of YouTube, a platform that contains tons of videos from all over the world. However, as teachers, do you know that it can be a powerful resource for language teaching? Let me introduce to you today's technology: TubeQuizard.

What is TubeQuizard?

• It's an online language-learning website.
• It provides interactive question quizzes from videos on Youtube.
• Students can finish the quizzes by filling in the blanks of what they have heard.
• There are ready-to-use quizzes and self-designed quizzes.
• One video can focus on several teaching objectives, such as grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation and spelling.

How to use TubeQuizard?

• In grammar classes:
• You can choose videos that match your teaching goals and use TubeQuizard questions to test students' mastery of different sentence patterns and grammatical structures.
• In vocabulary lessons:
• You can find the vocabularies that you want to test your students from the videos. If the templates provided can not satisfy your objective, you can simply change the blanks in the templates or design a new quiz. 
• In listening classes:
• Because TubeQuizard's quizzes are categorized into different language proficiency levels, you can distribute different video quizzes to students from different levels. In this way, you can achieve a differentiated classroom, which can satisfy all students' needs and make sure that all students can benefit from their levels.
• In-class and after-class:
• You can use TubeQuizard in class as a way to practice their knowledge from that class and a way to acknowledge students' understanding of the topic. Students can finish the quizzes all together or in groups.
• You can use TubeQuizard after class as homework to consolidate students' knowledge. Again, different students can be assigned different levels of content. 
• Clear instructions on how to use TubeQuizard:
• If you are interested in using it, there is a video explaining how to use the templates, how to design your own ones, and how to find YouTube videos with proper and accurate subtitles (human-generated subtitles):

         (Caution: the volume of the video may sometimes be louder and sometimes quieter.)

It's good because...

• Easy to use! If you don't have enough time to design your own quizzes, just use the templates!
• Personalised! Make your own quizzes and design a differentiated classroom!
• Rich video resources! 
• Introduce different cultures to your students!
• When you click on a sentence, the video will automatically jump to that part!

It's bad because...

• Extra work to check the accuracy of the subtitles. There is a possibility that some error may appear. 
• Choose the proper contents. Teachers may take some time to make sure that the video is ad-free and politically correct (if needed).
• May need a VPN if you cannot get access to YouTube. 

As a teacher who fancies differentiated classrooms, I believe TubeQuizard is a perfect tool for language learning. However, it can also be used in all contexts. Let's make entertainment videos into language-learning resources!

INTERACTIVITY is the key to ENGAGED classroom!!!

 

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"Your content is good, but it'll engage much more if it's interactive."

                                                                        ---- Genially

Have you ever considered why your students fall asleep during classes, even though your teaching content is absolutely fine-organized and interesting? Perhaps, one of the reasons could be the way you present your content. Let's make it interactive and creative through Genially.

What is Genially?

• It's a media platform that can make creative presentations, infographics, videos and games, connecting similar and different content.
• It allows teacher-student communication (teach knowledge), student-student communication (group activities), and student-teacher communication (teaching feedback). 
• Teachers can use it to create interactive and personalised teaching materials for online teaching, offline teaching, flipped teaching, blended teaching etc.  

How to use it in your teaching?

• Present information

• Over 2000 predesigned templates are ready to use for teachers. 
• Teachers can create interactive presentations/PPT slides, mind maps, timelines, images etc. 
• If you want to learn more about Genially in class, THIS will be a big help. 

• Gamification

• Not only students can be more engaged in language learning, but also they will have the sustained motivation to keep learning. 
• Various games, quizzes, and escape rooms can be used to check students' understanding of concepts.  
• Here is a video to guide you on how to design your games:

Advantages of Genially

• Interactive and engaging content
• Easy to access and ready to use
• A clearer display of instructions and information

Disadvantages of Genially

• Limited function for the free version
• Because of the content ownership, the content created in Genially can only be accessed in Genially. However, teachers can share links with students or embed them in their learning management systems (LMS). 
• Perhaps too many options to choose from.
• Some instructions in the templates are not in English.

Let's design your own interactive content and make your class to the next level!!!