Teacher Spotlight: Bob Santone, Math Teacher

Bob Santone, Math teacher at Jefferson Jr/Sr High School, uses his interest in educational technology to help his students apply math in real life. He integrates technology into lessons and projects so that students see, hear and do the math.

In class he uses the whiteboard to display his instruction, and a TV with AirPlay to have students display their work without interrupting the flow of the lesson on the board. Other students use both these visual aids to stay on track.

On their iPads, students click on the web links in the Schoology assignment, upload the PDF of the lesson into Notability, open the Desmos graphing calculator - switching from one app to another with a quick double-click of the Home button to apply their learning.

The brief video gives a glimpse of his class in action, showing students app-smashing and Bob's use of Nearpod's drawing function for real-time formative assessment and correcting misconceptions on the spot.

Link to video

Bob can direct the lesson on his iPad from the back of the class using AirServer as he walks around giving students just-in-time help, or he can use the SMARTboard to toggle between his SMART notebook lesson, Schoology, Google Drive, information websites, and his iPad with its myriad of powerful apps.

The students have access to iPads, a few class Chromebooks and graphing calculators, and many use more than one device simultaneously in order to have multiple displays and work more efficiently or collaboratively.

For deeper learning on any of these applications, use the Ed Tech website, or contact us for help. Thank you, Bob, for the inspiration!

Using Question Banks in Schoology

As many of you are gearing up for CMAS and PARCC assessments, Schoology quizzes can be a wonderful resource already at your fingertips to help students prepare. Whether you are working as a team or department or just by yourself, the Schoology Question Banks can be a real time saver. Every person on a team or in a department can contribute questions to the “bank”. You can then customize a quiz by using any of the stored questions from the bank. Question banks allow you to create a repository of test questions in your Resources. You can create Question Banks in Personal and Group Resources.

Create Question Banks in Resources

To create a question bank, follow these steps:

• Click on the Resources area on the top menu, and select the option for Personal or Group resources.
• Click into the collection or group in which you'd like to add a question bank.
• Click on the Add Resources button.
• Select the option to Add Question Bank.
• Enter a name for the Question Bank, and click Create to complete.

To add questions from Resources, follow these steps:

• Click to open a Question Bank in your Resources.
• Click the button to Add Question.
• Select from the following question types in Schoology:

• True/False
• Multiple Choice
• Ordering
• Short-Answer/Essay Questions
• Fill in the Blank
• Matching

• Fill out the question form.
• Click Create Question to complete

Create Question Banks and Add Questions from Within a Course

If you already have a test/quiz with questions in a course, you can add these questions to Question Banks. To create Question banks from within a course, follow these steps:

• Click on the Courses area on the top menu, and select a course with tests/quizzes.
• Click on a test/quiz whose questions you'd like to save in a question bank.
• To add all questions to a question bank, click on the Options button in the Questions tab.
• Select the option to Add Questions to Bank.
• To add a select question to a question bank, click on the gear to the right of the question.
• Select the option to Add to Bank.
• To create a new question bank to house the question(s), choose the option to create a New Question Bank.
• To add the question to an existing question bank, find the bank from within the options available in the menu.
• Click Add Questions to complete.

Add Questions from a Question Bank to a Test/Quiz

Once you have a Question Bank in Schoology, you can build tests/quizzes with questions from the banks. You can add individual questions from a question bank, or you can add a random selection of questions from multiple question banks when you create your quiz.

To add individual questions from one question bank to a test/quiz:

• Create a test/quiz, or click on the name of test/quiz into which you'd like to add questions.
• In the Questions tab, click Add Question and select From Question Banks in the menu.
• In the Import from Question Banks window, select Individual Question.
• Click the Question Bank from which you'd like to import questions.
• Select the box next to the question(s) you'd like to import. To import all questions, select the box next to the Auto-select button.
• To insert a set number of randomly-selected questions from the bank:
• Click Auto-select.
• Enter the number of questions you'd like to add to the test.
• Click Select.
• (*When you use the Auto-select feature, the selected number of questions are added to the test/quiz, and all students in the course receive the same set of questions.)
• Enter a value in the field to the right of each question to set the number of points it’s worth. To set a consistent point value for each question, click the Set Points button and enter a value in the Points Per Question field.
• Click Add Questions to complete.

To add a random selection of questions from one or more question banks to a test/quiz:

1. Create a test/quiz, or click on the name of the test/quiz into which you'd like to add questions.
2. In the Questions tab of the test/quiz, click on the Add Question button.
3. Select the option to import From Question Banks.
4. In the Import from Question Banks window, select Random Questions.
5. In the Select Question Banks window, select one or more of your question banks to pull from. You can select as many as you’d like.
6. Click Select Question Banks.
7. In the Add Random Questions window, enter:
8. The number of questions that you want to generate from each bank.
9. How many points each question is worth.
10. Click Add Questions to complete.

• Each quiz will contain the determined number of questions from the selected question banks.
• Each student in the course receives a unique set of questions. Even if students receive a few of the same questions, they will appear in a different order, so no assessment is alike. This is helpful in maintaining the validity of your quiz results.

Engaging Students in Constructive Communication: The Backchannel

What is "The Backchannel":

The backchannel is a digital conversation that runs concurrently in a face-to-face interaction. For example, adults might turn to Twitter to join a digital conversation while watching a presidential debate or an awards ceremony. Where as, we might ask our students to engage in a literature discussion while listening to a read aloud or analyze information during a geography lecture.  A range of tools can be used to facilitate this exchange.  When working with students, Schoology, Padlet, and Today's Meet are all quick and easy tools which can be used to hold backchannel discussions in order to engage all your students in digital conversations that increase engagement, provide spaces for DOK questioning, and build a digital footprint of thinking and learning.

Why would I use the backchannel with students?

Click on a grade level to read how real life teachers engage their students in the backchannel in order to: increase processing time, give a voice to all students, engage in collaborative writing environments, practice increased listening skills, allow students thoughts to develop over time, and to make thinking visible. 

Grade Level:	Tool:	Example:
Primary Grades	Padlet	Backchanneling while reading a NF text with 1st grade
Intermediate Grades	Today’s Meet	Backchanneling during a read aloud in 4th grade
Middle School	Today’s Meet & Google Docs	8th grade Geography class: Collaborate and Curate
High School	Today’s Meet	Socratic Seminar and the Backchannel for “The Alchemist”

Teacher Considerations

Will utilizing a backchannel conversation bring down comprehension?

Listening and writing about related topics is different than multi-tasking.

"...[C]ognitive psychologists make a distinction between task switching and parallel processing. Task switching involves the rapid alternation between two or more tasks. In contrast, parallel processing involves the simultaneous performance of two or more [related] tasks." (Carriera et al., 2009)

Will students be inappropriate online?

Providing our students with authentic writing opportunities allow them to practice digital citizenship skills. Just like any classroom routine, setting up clear expectations and rules is an important step. Consider this rubric created for backchannel contributions. 

Teachers should always be a presence in student discussions, whether as a contributor, or posting the backchannel chat on the board for all to see. 

Photo credit: Silvia Tolisano Rosenthal 

Device Limitations

Not all students need to be on a device; consider designating roles.  In a Socratic Seminar model, some students are engaged in a face-to-face discussion while others are on devices for the backchannel. 

Photo Credit: Silvia Tolisano Rosenthal

Looking for more? 

Visit our Jeffco Educational Tech webpage for additional resources or support from an Ed Tech Specialist in getting started. 

Digital Citizenship: Lessons Now Available in C-CAP

Common Sense Education has developed a free K-12 curriculum to "empower students to think critically, behave safely, and participate responsibly, in our digital world" (Common Sense Education). These lessons are aligned to the ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education)  standards and are now directly available in C-CAP by grade level bands.

How to Access Resources for your Grade:

1. Step 1: Select the ISTE YAAG for your Grade Level Band (K-2, 3-6, Middle, or High)

Don't have the ISTE YAAG added yet? Directions included below:

Step 2: Visit Stage 3 for links to individual lessons

Please note the first time you access a resource from Common Sense Media, it will prompt you to create an account. 

For more information, visit our Ed Tech Digital Citizenship web page.