Using TodaysMeet

It's me, again! Let me introduce myself: I'm Jordon. I teach 5th grade. Welcome to my blog. The snow has left the Midwest (for the time being) and my blogging was given a swift kick in the ...behind. However, I'm back - for a few minutes. :)

We are wrapping up our force and motion unit (so many blog posts to add!!) and we have spent the past few days preparing for our final test. Tuesday morning I was racking my brain trying to think of an engaging way to help my students study and then a little lightbulb went off! In my eMINTS class, we used the online tool TodaysMeet.com to generate a discussion about our session. The purpose in eMINTS was twofold, we learned about a new web tool and were able to use it purposefully for our classwork.

In the five minutes I had remaining of my plan time, I created a "room" on TodaysMeet.com and ran down the hallway to pick up my students. Once we finalized all of our questions and answers on the study guide, I paired students up on laptops and gave them the link for our room. I gave them some time to get out their silliness- which was very necessary - and then we got to work. I typed all of my questions in CAPITAL letters so students could distinguish my text from the others. I reminded students that they were given time to be silly in our "online room" and during our study session, silliness would not be tolerated. Honestly, I did not anyone who was off task or trying to be sneaky. The engagement and excitement was through the roof - this turned out to be one of the best study sessions we've had. Since then, students have been begging to hop on TodaysMeet again! 

Using #TodaysMeet to review for our force and motion test. The engagement and excitement is through the roof! pic.twitter.com/Q154azE36w
— Jordon (@furnelly) April 1, 2014

What tricks do you have up your sleeve to help students study for assessments? Are you preparing for state testing as well? Post your tricks and wisdom in the comments below!