Magical Beginnings and Endings

I really appreciated the article The eight minutes that matter most & how to make them magical by Brian Sztabnik posted in Edutopia. It's about creating meaningful beginnings (activating prior knowledge, building anticipation, setting learning targets) and endings (checking for understanding). 



Source: "The eight minutes that matter most", Edutopia 1.5.15

I immediately started thinking about tools that could be used with this author's ideas. Below are some that came to mind. Here's to a magical 2015!

Beginnings

1) "Trend with YouTube"

YouTube EDU is described as a "global video classroom" bringing learners and educators together. Here's a bit more information about this resource. 

3) "Cross disciplines"
Check out Art Project - Google Cultural Institute if you're interested in the author's idea of starting with a painting. This site gives users access to collections all over the world.

Endings

1) "Level Up", 2) "Exit Tickets", 3) "Mimic Social Media", 4) "Post-it Power"
Try:

Kahoot! - "game-based classroom response system" using mobile devices including mobile phones

 

Padlet - where students can post their feedback online (web-based), could also be used to "Start With Good News"


Plickers - great way to collect formative data without student devices, you need an IOS or Android phone, very cool


Polleverywhere - students can give real-time responses using mobile phones, Twitter or the web


Socrative - a free, comprehensive assessment tool that can be used with any device


TodaysMeet - private, online discussion forum (web-based)