Thing 11: Widgets

Well, I must say that this was the most frustrating "Thing" for me to date. I created a Widget in Voki and then was having all sorts of difficulties posting it onto my blog. I suspect that the website is having difficulties because now it won't even let me sign into it anymore, even after resetting my password. I am using a Mac and that might also be contributing to my difficulties. I've spent an entire morning trying to figure this out, so I'm going to have to walk away from it for now before I drive myself crazy.

Even though I am having trouble with the site, I actually found the process of creating the Voki very fun and easy to do. I enjoyed it so much that I'd like to create one to have up on the Smartboard on the first day of school, telling my new students what they should do as soon as they enter the room. That will free me up to be at the door to direct traffic and welcome my students. Additionally, it will be something new and exciting for the students to see in their first moments of fifth grade.

I also played around with Poll Daddy and am hoping to utilize it as well. One way in which I'd like to use it is to gage students' comfort levels about their understanding of a certain topic. For example, after a lesson on the addition of fractions with unlike denominators I might ask the students to vote for whether they understand the topic well, somewhat understand the topic but need more support/practice, or do not understand and need reteaching. This immediately gives me feedback so that I can plan to differentiate the instruction for the following day.

Edited to add:

It worked! Finally!!