Reinventing the alarm clock with help from Google Forms [Classroom, Geeky]

Two of my third grade students are currently working on inventing alarm clocks. They began by brainstorming what they think goes into a quality alarm clock. Some of the more interesting ideas were having a clock under your mattress that punches you until you wake up, an alarm emitting the smell of manure, and a model that played a recording of all the activities you have to look forward to during the upcoming day. Definitely some cool ideas!

Before the designed their clocks, they wanted to gather some information. They used Google Documents to design a survey that their classmates are taking to find out what kind of alarm clock their target audience would be interested in. There are other ways to collect this kind of data on the internet; however, we found Google Docs to be the quickest and easiest.

Here is a quick rundown of how to use Google Docs to create a form (thanks to Matt Silverman):

http://www.mattsilverman.com/2008/10/introduction-to-google-forms.html

One class has taken the survey so far. Feel free to fill it out: http://is.gd/k2GE After having all the answers automatically go into a spreadsheet, Google Docs gives us a graphical summary of the information.

Here's an example:
















The last step in the process is shrinking the URL. There are a few sites that do this including TinyURL, is.gd, cli.gs, and others. I like is.gd because it has never failed for me (TinyURL has had problems with Google Docs) and because there is a Firefox extension for is.gd that makes it way too easy to use. A URL shrinker does what it says it does. It takes a ridiculously long URL like the one Google Docs gives you for your form:

https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?key=p6P2Iowg-2SvB6R4FKeAUdg&hl=en

and shrinks it down to this:

http://is.gd/k2GE

For a free service, there's not much more I could ask for. Imagine trying to get students to that first URL, then feel relieved that companies like is.gd exist so all you have to write on the board is "is.gd/k2GE" and your kids will be off and running.

I hope Matt's walkthrough helps anyone interested in using Google Forms. If not, leave me a comment and I can go into more detail.

Feed your brain and feed the hungry [Classroom, Geeky]

Nothing my students have done this year has received a better reception than Free Rice. I am very grateful to the people involved in the site. The site is the unique combination of study and philanthropy. In speaking with colleagues, I've found that many are aware of Free Rice and have used it in the past. Sharing it here serves two purpose: I want to ensure you know about it, and I want to update you on its features.

First an introduction. Free Rice is an online learning-aid first and foremost. It was originally created by John Breen as an SAT English Vocabulary study guide for his son in 2007. It has since added many different subjects and banner advertisements that donate money to the United Nations to pay for its namesake: free rice.

It's the perfect learning tool for my students because I see them in quick shots throughout the week, so we can spend 10-15 minutes on Free Rice before we share our Book Club updates. I have found that my students have access to many games that utilize the vocabulary they already have, but not as many to build their vocabularies. Free Rice presents students with a vocabulary word and four choices of synonyms. It tracks students levels and gives them harder or easier words depending on when they get words correct or incorrect. If a student gets a word incorrect, the student is given another chance a few words later. Most teachers I've talked to about Free Rice either had never heard of Free Rice or already knew about the vocab aspect. What they don't realize is that Free Rice added many new subjects, among them:

• Famous paintings
• World Geography
• Grammar
• Foreign Languages
• Basic Math and Multiplication Tables
• Chemistry Symbols

One other reason my students love to play Free Rice is that they are donating rice to feed the hungry while they play. They treat it as a competition to see who can donate the most rice.