Formative Assessment - Stop Light method

Hey, the video is only about 50 seconds long, but could change the way you teach. Take a look.

Using Talk Moves

This video is about using Talk Moves to help students stay on task. So often, students check out when someone talks or goes to the board because they will not be held accountable for the information. But what if they were? Simple things, like asking students to restate what was said, to explain their understanding, etc. helps students feel accountable and can increase participation (and therefore retention).

New Whiteboard App - Show Me

Now that Educreations has decided to charge for its services (to the tune of about $100/year), I am switching to Show Me. Show me is similar to Educreations, and is a free app with unlimited storage. Educreations still has a free version, but many of the previously free features (such as unlimited storage) are now only available in the paid version.

Below is a first attempt at using Show Me. As you can see, it looks similar to Educreations.


While Show Me does not have as many features as Educreations, it appears to be a solid app. I like that I can import PDFs or other formats as a background, and can have several pages set up ahead and scroll through them as needed. I also like that I can explore topics and find things that I might be able to use in the classroom.

Here is an example of a video found on their site that teaches about solving 1 and 2 step equations. These can be embedded on a site as below, or you can link to them.


Thanks, Show Me!

Math Resources - Share My Lesson

Order of Operations - Good reviews and comments. Everything from Special Ed to 8th grade teachers.

Quadratic Equations - 8th Grade might want to save for end of the year.

Common Core index

Learning Style Inventory

Click here to go to a site where you can find a Learning Style Inventory.

Whole Brain Videos - Middle School

Here are some Whole Brain videos for a Middle School setting.









Whole Brain Teaching - Chris Biffle's You-Tube page for more videos.

Instructional Guidance from the DOE

This is a very important document from the DOE. It takes each current Indiana College and Career Readiness Standard and lets you know how important that standard is for the coming ISTEP test.

6th Grade: (Page 6)

7th Grade: (Page 7)

8th Grade: (Page 8)

See the entire document here.

Have you seen it yet?

Have you had a chance to visit Kristal McCorkle's classroom yet? It is a wonderful job of creating in inviting learning environment!