I think most of us have some type of Warm-Up activity for students when they enter our classroom.
I’ve tried many different versions over the years: pocket folders, spiral notebooks, binders w/ printed worksheets, etc. You know! You’ve tried them, too!!
What comes with using those types of warm-up formats?? Carrying a box/bag of 150-200 notebooks home on the weekend to flip through, find the right page, read, comment, grade, pack back up and bring back to school on Monday. NOT ANY MORE!!!
My school has a 1-to-1 computer distribution, so students come to my room with a laptop. The availability of computers along with our county’s use of Office365 and Canvas has completely changed how I distribute, use and grade warm-ups in my room…and I love it!
First, I create a PowerPoint slideshow with the day’s Warm-Up and it is projected on the SMARTBoard when students enter. It’s a simple thought-provoking question or even a video clip that will play once everyone is seated, but it’s there every day and the students expect it when they walk in. (I’ll add that it’s our Routine…they were introduced to this on Day 1 and they how it works. It doesn’t require a redirection to get started every day.)
Here’s one of my daily boards:
On the student’s laptop, they open “This Week’s Warm-Ups” (an Office365 Cloud Assignment in Canvas).
I use PowerPoint, but the end result would be the same with Word. Now, here’s where it get’s good.
The benefit of having them submit each day is that Canvas let’s you view those submissions during the week and allows you to give feedback anytime during the week, so you don’t have to wait until the weekend to read them. Plus, if you get a great response from a student on Tuesday, you can share it on Wed. while it’s still fresh…you don’t have to wait until Monday of the next week!
Benefits of PowerPoint:
I hope that you find this helpful or at least informative. If you are a digital teacher, this would be an easy thing to start!!
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