Back to School

As the school year begins there is one thing all teachers are going to need to do. Placement testing to see where our students are. As a teacher this is both the best information I will be able to get from my students to understand them more, so I know how to help them learn AND the hardest because this testing is LOOOONG and arduous. I wanted to find something which would help me increase engagement in my students to allow them to truly show me what they know. After this hard summer, I was able to find something to help! I want you all to know there are programs I have already suggested which allow you to do some of this testing such as Frontrow and Read Theory. These are great, but for those of you who either don't want to use them or want something different: here it is!

Product Information:
Formative is a website where teachers can create, assign, and visualize student growth. This website allows the user to create different types of assessments from basic choose the answer to interactive assessments where the students need to move items around to create the answers. (Just like the spring testing!)

Glitchy Review:
I have recently been playing with this program and it is difficult for users to create assessments, however, the benefits really out weigh the difficulties. The interface when you are making the assessments is easy enough and getting started is simple, but it really seems to stop there. On the plus side, you really do have a lot of options to choose from. From embedding information to adding basic questions (multiple choice, short answer, etc.) to advanced questions where the students can orally give responses or interactive answers such as moving parts around. Like I said there is a lot to do and can be both a great thing and bad at the same time. There is one downside to the advanced questions, like most programs are only if you pay. While the price is not bad ($12 per month), I just like things that are free. Don't you? Anyway, there are benefits to the monthly subscription especially for those of you reading this and going "I don't think I could do this...." For example, you have access to formatives made by others. (My colleague has access to this and if you are nervous about making your own this would be your best bet because some are really good!) In the end, I am excited about trying this in my room this year! I will be able to get rid of more paper in my classroom! I will be able to grade and return to students even with the free version! By the way, when you sign up regardless of which plan you choose it will automatically sync to your Google Classroom!!!!

User Rating:
I would give this program a user level of 3 because you do need a decent amount of tech savviness to really be able to use this program especially if you are using the free program.

Glitchy Review:
I would give this program a 3 out of 5 because it is hard to use and can get confusing.

Extensions

This post is going to be different from my others. I will NOT be reviewing a website, extension, or app. In fact, while going through my research for extensions for teachers to use, I have come across some things I believe teachers should know. Being a teacher who uses technology daily in my classroom, I work to make sure my students are using the technology properly. This has brought me to this post about extensions. Most extensions out there are amazing and great for work, classroom, blogging, social media, etc. However, there are extensions out there that not only teachers should be aware of, but parents as well.  I have caught a couple of my students trying to install some of these onto their Chromebooks at school. With our students being so techy I am not surprised they have found these already; especially when I have students who have already changed the layout and theme of the Chromebook within the first week of using them! (Gotta give it to my students for figuring that out when I wasn't planning on telling them.) Anyway, here are the extensions I have found and ones I have found my students trying to install.

I have gone through and categorized the extensions to allow you to know what the extension does. Feel free to share this information with parents as well! Please note all listed extensions are rate 4 stars or higher.

Extensions which allow you to BYPASS firewalls, unblock websites, etc:

• Free Proxy to Unblock any sites
• Gom VPN aka Go away MDA
• Unblock embedded Youtube videos
• Stealthy
• Incognito-Filter
• ProxyList
• FastStunnel VPN unblack sites & Proxy
• Privacy Manager
• Veil Duck
• Auto Proxy
• aProxy
• Privatix
• Hotspot Shield Free VPN
• ZenMate VPN
• Unblock Now
• FlexiPrivacy

Extensions which BLOCKS content:

• Adult Blocker
• Simple Porn Blocker
• Parental Control & Porn Blocker
• TinyFilter Pro
• Simple Blocker (allows user to create a list of restricted websites only accessible by password.)
• See No Evil (youtube block only)

Extensions which ERASE/ Leave NO history:

• No History
• Forget that Page
• Incognito for Chrome
• Recent History & Clear
• History Cleaner

Safety Extensions:

• Location Guard
• iGuard

Easel.ly

Product Description:

Easel.ly is an online program where you can make “presentations.” These presentations are more like digital posters you or your students can make.  https://www.easel.ly/

Glitchy Review:

After playing around with Easel.ly I was able to see the benefit of the program for teachers and students alike. For example, AVID schools this is great to create different types of one pagers or notes pages for students. However there were some reservations I had about the program.

First, the program is difficult to use and understand, so if you are a teacher with not so good technology skills STEER CLEAR of Easel.ly. As an experienced technology user I struggled with the program. With that being said I did have a couple of my students work on Easel.ly to see if they could do it. I did not give them directions, videos, or anything beyond what I wanted them to make. Here are the results: (left picture is start, right is after 1 hour.)

Student A start 

Student A after 1 hour

Student B before

Student B after 1 hour

As you can see the students were able to get something but the amount of time they need to acclimate to the program as well as learn how to do the different things was very time consuming. This is what they were able to do in 1 hour. While I am able to see the benefits of this program the amount of work which needs to go into it is not conducive to a classroom. For teachers it does offer them the ability to make unique posters for their classroom, you still run into the issue of printing them. When I asked the students what they thought of the program both stated it was "kinda easy to figure out, but it was still hard to use." Might I make a note that the students I gave this too are my "technology proficient" students in my class. I can only imagine how confused my other students would have been. This is the other factor to think about when using this program; each student's exposure and experience with technology.

Second, this program does not allow for the teacher to add students to their class. Each student will have to individually sign-up for the program. As a teacher this is difficult because while my district has Google accounts for all students, most do not. This begs the question of how should the students sign up?

Overall, this program has a great start for teachers, but after seeing everything it really is best for businesses. This program has not adapted enough to allow teachers to really use this in their classroom.

User Rating:

This program is a solid level 3 with even some of the most experienced users having issues the first couple of times out. This is not to say you couldn’t figure it out; it would just take you some time to do that. Let’s face it as teachers we do not have a lot of time left for things like this.

Glitchy Rating:

I would give this program a 2 because of the difficulty in use as well as the lack of real use for a teacher.

Newsela

Product Description:

Newsela is a website which houses numerous different non-fiction articles for different grade levels. Teachers can either assign articles, quizzes, or writing based on these articles.

Glitchy Review:

Newsela is a decent program. I use the free version with my class and can still do many different things. While with all programs the paid version does give you more information there is still much to do with the free version. When you sign up you get a month of the paid program to check it out. The only flaw with this would be if you like the program you HAVE to be a school or district to get the paid program. There is not option on the site to order for the individual teacher. I am currently looking to find out if you can get Newsela for individual teachers. I will update when an answer is received.

For this review it will be a compare and contrast the free version to the paid.

First, with the free version you have access to all the articles available on Newsela as well as the quizzes and writing assignments. The only difference between the paid and free version is you can assign these to the students online while the free version you do not have that option. For me I just read the questions on type them up for my students. (Paper and pencil is still good!) The only thing you can do with the questions on the paid version and not on the free is customize the prompts.

Second, with the free and paid version you have the ability to change the Lexile level of the article to allow all students to read the same article at their level! (Hello access to the information!) Now students and teachers do not have to worry about students not being able to follow along or not have access to the information! (This is my FAVORITE feature! Yes, even more than the quizzes.)

Third, with the paid version you have access to all articles in SPANISH. Yes, you read that correctly, SPANISH. All quizzes, writing, and articles will be in Spanish as well. No other languages are available, but I am sure they are in the works.

Fourth, is a couple of things. With the paid version you will also have access to a report for each student with a breakdown of the concepts. This breakdown also allows you to see the class average, annotations made by students, organize the questions by CC Strand, view student progress, and compare your students to other students on Newsela. This works great for any teacher’s, schools, or districts looking for RTI information or small group information.

Glitchy Rating: I give this website a 4 simply because you have so much you can do as teacher on the free version. I really wish they would have a way for us to buy the program as the individual teacher and more language options available.

User Rating: This website is a level 1. You can go in there and begin working right away. It will take some “playing around” to figure out where everything is, but still highly user friendly for any of the user.

Here is the website for you: https://newsela.com/

Hapara

Product Description: 
Hapara is an online system which allows you to assign, monitor, and grade student work. This system work with Google Drive to allow students to work on and submit files to you the teacher. Teachers can actively see a student's computer screen and what tabs they have open on their computer in real time. Teachers also have the ability to lock or focus individual students, groups of students, or the whole class onto a particular website or websites for a set amount of time. This program allows students to work in groups or individually to complete assignments. Now this is a PAID program which is bought through districts or schools themselves.

Glitchy Teacher Review:
 I have used this program for about 3 months in my classroom. I have been able to assign projects to my students, monitor their progress through the project, monitor their work to make sure they working on the assignment. I can have students focus on a particular website. I can create or borrow workspaces other teachers have created on Hapara. You are able to create a Workspace where you can create online projects, assessments, or whatever you can think of. The workspace allows you to do so much I would not be able to put it all down here (I would run out of room), please check out the videos and links below. Perhaps the best part of Workspace is it already makes a folder in your Google drive for your students to submit work to you to make grading easier (or any RTI or SST evidence)! If you are not sure about creating a Workspace you can also choose from the thousands of Workspaces already created by other teachers! This program offers so much I could go on and on. What I love best is the ability to take assignments, projects, etc and make them 100% digital. Since this works with a student's Google Drive they are able to work on this a home as well! The only negative to this program is each student will need a Google Drive to access the program and will need to download the extension to make sure the teacher ONLY parts work.

Glitchy Rating: I give this program a 5; I love this program. This program is constantly looking for feedback from teachers and students to improve and make the program better. While it takes time to get used to all that Hapara has available; once you do the benefits to you and your students is so great it is worth it!

User Rating: Level 3
You will need to watch videos to be able to utilize all the great things this product offers and it does take some time to get used to. There are many videos available for you to learn about how to use Hapara. I have attached a couple here for you.

Product Information:
Hapara website- https://hapara.com/
Here is a link to a video to explain what Hapara can do for you!
Everything you will need is on this website including videos of all the wonderful things this product does.

For those of you who have Hapara here are some links to videos to aid you in learning how to use Hapara or a quick review for you! Enjoy!

ThingLink

Product Description:
This website allows users to create interactive pictures for presentation. The website allows the user to upload pictures to it and then place interactive buttons on the picture for educational and business presentations.

Glitchy Review:
I would give this product a 4. I say this because it really works for OLDER students (think no one below 3rd grade). First ThingLink has a FREE sign up for teachers, you heard me FREE! While you do have limited access a Basic account allows you to sign up one class, access to limited icons for your creations, and an image editor. Even with these limitations there is still a lot you are able to do. I can create an interactive image to which I can share with my students via a projector, create a channel or follow channels, and attend webinars (one of the best parts). My students can create and share images they make as well.

This program does take some time to learn the ins and outs of this program; however, they do have handy videos at the bottom of your page to aid you and your students along the way. This is an easy program for a teacher who is experienced with technology and can take a new user a couple of videos and playing around to get. Most of my students were able to get the basics themselves and were working on their ThingLink before I finished explaining how to start one! The rest of my students were able to figure things out after I got them started and really enjoyed exploring the website.

As for student engagement, my students LOVED it. They are able to log in using their Google Drive and showcase their knowledge in a different way. They got so engaged in ThingLink (I as well) that we were late to lunch! For 6th graders to be late you know they were having a great time! My students were able to critical think with their partner on what they wanted to do with the ThingLink as well as how they were going to approach showing their knowledge. When used in the classroom this could be used as a different form of assessment, test prep, or final project; honestly the uses for it are endless.

ATTENTION to those teachers, schools, and districts who use AVID; this would be a great way to combine Google Templates (where students can make one-pagers) as the image and take their one pagers to a new level!

Now if you decide to pay there are a couple of different options available to you. Please remember these payment plans are per TEACHER. The different options allow for more classes per teacher as well as different abilities ThingLink has to offer. For example, you will have access to professional development for teachers, more preloaded and custom icons for teachers and students to use, and ability to make videos and 360 degree pictures editor; the list goes on and on.

Glitchy Rating: 4 (since it is best for older students)

User Rating: 2 there are parts of this you can explore and learn on your own and parts where you will need to reference the video below as we as the videos available on the website.

Welcome!

Welcome to The Glitchy Teacher! This blog is going to be for teachers. My goal is to aid teachers in discovering all the outstanding apps, websites, and technology available to them. As a teacher myself I know how hard it is to find time to do all you need to do for your classroom, let alone find time to research technology. With a huge push from CCSS to integrate technology in the classroom, teachers like myself, sometimes struggle to decipher what is good for the classroom and what is bad. This is where this blog comes in. I plan on being able to share with you any and all apps, websites, and technology I believe would and could work in the classroom. I will do the research for you! All you need to do is read about it, look at the rating, description, and watch the video to see if this is something that could work for you. I will include student work as well if I can.

Please feel free to leave comments with apps or websites you would like me to check out or what you think about the post. Thank-you!