Comet Tech

This week's app highlight of the week is Adobe Spark . Adobe Spark is a multi-faceted tool that can be used for student presentations. When using Adobe Spark, students can create images with text overlays, page flyers, or quick videos. Adobe Spark is a powerful tool that allows for students to create meaningful projects quickly, easily, and most importantly, on their Chromebooks. The best news is, while there are free accounts available for students over the age of 13, in April of this year, schools will be offered free premium accounts with premium features, as well as a change in the policies that allow for students of all ages to use the service. You can read about some of the coming changes here. Adobe Spark is an easy to use tool that allows for lots of creativity in the classroom. Feel free to check it out and ask questions if you have any!

This week, its all about the bookmarks!

Back to back formative assessment tools in the first two posts of the App Highlight section! I guess it goes to show just how important I think formative assessment is! This week, we take a look at Quizizz. Quizizz is like a Kahoot! style formative assessment. While it does offer points for speed, it also offers points for amount correct, so that our students have the opportunity to process at their pace, not at the rapid pace of a Kahoot!. It also provides teachers with the opportunity to put fun memes in the middle of their challenges, as well as provides us, as teachers, with a good way to formatively assess our students.  In my opinion, one of the best practical uses of this is following a segment of direct instruction with the students or following a reading for comprehension activity, regardless of the subject. After student learning occurs, using a Quizizz quiz to assess what was retained and what you may need to cover is a fantastic way to review the material.  Che