BetterLesson is a website that provides teachers access to thousands of lesson plans ranging from Kindergarten to High School.
Subjects include: math, English language arts, science, and blended learning.
When a lesson plan is chosen such as Discovering the Meaning of Line Symmetry is selected it will bring up a warm up activity,
class activities (ie how to find symmetry in nature) , how to end the lesson, and the amount of time it will take. Each lesson plan is
based around the common core standards and explains how it relates to a set standard.
Not only does BetterLesson provide lesson plans, but instructional strategies in various areas, with an emphasis on a growth
mindset, and also provides additional sources to read.
Final Thoughts: BetterLesson provides great resources for teachers in all areas of content, easy to use, and navigate. Not only does
it provide lesson plans, but helps with strategies in the classroom and how to implement them. I think one of the most intimidating
things in the classroom can be to create a great learning environment where everyone can succeed. Overall, I see myself using this
tool in the future when lesson planning, needing help with instructional strategies, how to implement them, and ways that I can
build a student centered learning environment.
Plicker is a free to use app where students hold up cards with their own personalized QR code. A teacher will project a question for
the student to answer then they will rotate their card to select their answer and the teacher using a smart device will scan their cards
with the results going onto the projector. This app is a fun way to incorporate technology. It is similar to Kahoot, but not everyone
needs a device just the teacher. When using this form of assessment it kind of reminded me of using whiteboards to write the
answer and then showing it to the class. One of the benefits of using Plicker is that the data gets stored by question and students
individually.
How to use Plicker: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bejiz2HzUz8
How teachers use Plicker: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCM9nqikcjs
Higher quality Plicker cards: https://www.amazon.com/Plickers-All-Plastic-Cards-Real-Time-Assessment/dp/
B082TXQBLG/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=1&keywords=plickers&qid=1587772624&sr=8-4
Mary,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your blog post about BetterLesson and Plickers! I know as a teacher lesson planning may be tedious and tends to take a lot of creativity so BetterLesson will be a great resource for us aspiring teachers. Thanks for sharing!
When looking through the websites I felt like was one of the ones that I would probably get use out of. Lesson planning seems very time intensive and its nice getting to see what other teachers are doing out there.
DeleteHi Mary,
ReplyDeleteI love how you incorporated screen shots into your blog post, I think that's awesome good job. Thank you for sharing about BetterLesson, I like how it can even help us with our teaching strategies as you mentioned. BetterLessons seems like it would be great for finding ideas for your own lesson planning and becoming inspired. Do you think that this will be something you use frequently when you start teaching?
Thank you much AnnElise, I would see myself using this website in the future since it is free to use and is always being updated with new sources. When browsing through I was surprised, by how much more they had to offer besides lesson plans.
DeleteMary,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed your post! What I liked most about it was how many images you provided that physically showed all of the things that BetterLesson can do! This app provided so many lesson plans am I'm very excited to have learned about this platform that I can use in my future classroom! Great job!
Thank you, I was trying to provide as much visuals as possible, so people could get an idea of how the website was setup. Glad you were able to find a new tool for your future classroom.
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