Fun Fact: According to the Center of Innovative Public Health Research, the average teen sends approximately 3,500 text messages per month (3,952 for girls; 2,815 for boys). While texting in the classroom can certainly be a distraction, there may be instances where we as teachers can engage our students with something they enjoy to allow them to demonstrate learning in a creative way.
The same folks that created Fakebook have another fun learning tool, the SMS Generator, for just that purpose. With the SMS generator, students can create conversations between two historical or literary figures to demonstrate what they have learned about them.
See the video below to learn how the SMS generator works and how student work can be shared.
Have you ever wondered what historical or literary figures like George Washington or Lady Macbeth would have posted to Facebook if it was available in their day and age? As a history teacher, I think it would be fun to have students demonstrate their learning by setting up a social media profile for a historical character to help them analyze "point of view" and bias in historical documents. However, I don't have a Facebook profile and definitely wouldn't encourage my students to set one up. Fortunately, the folks at Classtools created a tool called Fakebook that allows students to mimic the Facebook experience for educational purposes by creating a fictional social media profile. Check out the video below to learn how your students can demonstrate their learning by taking creative liberties with historical and literary characters in a familiar platform.
December 3rd marks the beginning of Computer Science Education Week, the perfect time to schedule the Hour of Code in your classroom. You don't have to be a computer programmer to introduce STEM activities to your students. In fact, the Hour of Code websiteis full of activities for any grade level that support coding and design thinking. So how will you unleash your students' creativity through coding?
