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Google Jamboard is a fantastic instrument to gauge where students are at emotionally and academically. I use this at the top of the class to see how students are feeling coming in so I can see what mental state they are coming to the classroom in. I also use this to ask students to start thinking about a topic, like with the prompt: draw or drop an image in this slide that represents the hydrosphere. (Miller, 2020)

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How are you feeling today? - Google Jamboard

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The gallery walk with chalk talk is a place where students can explore their own thoughts on a specific topic or subject within the classroom. This is also a place for students to explore each other's thoughts on a topic as they walk around a room and place sticky notes and/or write on a poster to post their comments, answers, and the like. An example of when this can be used is through the introduction of volcano types. There are several volcano types and I can post a few posters on the wall with the different volcanic types and have student ponder why volcanoes might come in so many different shapes and might erupt differently from one another.
(Stern, 2017)

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Ed Tech

Whiteboards and chalkboards have been a fixture in classrooms for ages. They're great for gathering ideas and making thinking visible.

But there are drawbacks ...

Having to write "DON'T ERASE!" next to important stuff

Taking pictures of the whiteboard with your cell phone

Markers drying up or running out of ink

Having only so much whiteboard space in your classroom

If you can sympathize, you've got to check out Google's Jamboard app. Jamboard ( jamboard.google.com) is a physical device -- an interactive touchscreen display/monitor, and it's pricey. But thankfully, the app that runs on those interactive displays is a teacher's favorite price -- FREE!

The Jamboard app is a fantastic tool for learning in face to face environments and for virtual/remote learning. The features are simple and intuitive. It's really easy to collaborate. Plus, it's very visual.

What is Google Jamboard?

You can find Jamboard by going to jamboard.google.com. You can also find it by clicking the "New" button in your Google Drive and hovering over "More".

Don't have touchscreens? That's OK. You can use a mouse or touchpad on a laptop or Chromebook. Or you can download the Jamboard app for Android or iOS (Apple) mobile devices.

When you open Jamboard, you'll see all of the recent jams you've opened. You can click the + button in the bottom right to create a new jam.

1. Draw: Use a pen, marker, highlighter or brush. You can draw from pre-determined colors.

2. Eraser: Erase something you've drawn.

3. Select: Choose and adjust a shape, sticky note, image, text box.

4. Sticky note: Add a sticky note with text. You can choose from several colors.

5. Image: Add an image from your device, image search, Google Drive or Photos.

6. Shapes: Add a circle, square, triangle, diamond, rounded rectangle, half circle, bar or arrow. Choose border color and fill color from the menu bar at the top of the jam.

7. Text box: Add a box where you can type and format text.

8. Laser: Use a pointer to emphasize and highlight certain items on the screen when presenting ideas to others.

9. Background: Choose from dots, lines, graph, or dark colors.

10. Clear frame: Wipe everything off your frame with one click. (Undo if it was a mistake!)

11. Frame bar: See all of your frames in one place. Add new frames, duplicate or delete.

12. Menu: From here, you can rename your jam, download it as a PDF, save a frame as an image, remove, or make a copy your jam.

13. Zoom: Zoom in, zoom out, or fit to window.

14. Undo and redo: I'll bet you know all about this one already.

Note: If you watch videos or read documentation about Jamboard, you might get excited about some features that you can't access by just using the free app. Integrating Google Meet, adding files from Drive, and some other features only work when you purchase the interactive display. When in doubt, try it out on the app first.

Student collaboration with Jamboard

Jamboard is made for collaboration! You can also share your jams just like you'd share a document or slide presentation. Click the "Share" button and share with individuals and groups or create a shareable link.

Students can interact in jams in lots of ways:

Students can brainstorm and create in small groups face to face on one device.

Share an "everyone can edit" link with students in Google Classroom for whole-class collaboration.

In remote or online settings, students can work together in small groups in the same jam.

In lots of the ideas below, you can add a layer of collaboration by giving students an "anyone can edit" link.

Note: Jamboard does not have a version history. This does remove an element of accountability that encourages students not to abuse the activity, writes Wes Fryer in his Speed of Creativity blog. You know your students, so you may well know whether they'll abuse this situation or not. I could see using it with small groups more readily than a whole group because the one who acts out is usually trying to perform for a large audience. You can always use Jamboard to display your own ideas and make them viewable later.

The Do More with Google Jamboard Online Course!

This course will introduce you to Jamboard features you might not know. It will give you dozens of ideas for using it in the classroom.

Plus, it provides you with:
- A collection of more than 100 templates.
- 40 activity ideas you can use immediately
- Tutorial slide s to use as a quick visual review.
- I nteractive infographics you can give your students
- Video playlists, posts, and extra resources.

20 ideas for using Jamboard in class (+ FREE templates!)

So ... what could this look like in class? I'm glad you asked! Here are several ideas for using it with your students. If you like the ideas, then click the "Get this template!" button and make a copy of a template you can use right away with students!

9. Screen record to describe thinking

How do we know what students are thinking when they create with Jamboard? Let's give them a way to tell us! Have students do screen recordings of their jams with a tool like Screencastify. They can describe what they've done, show us how they do it, and tell us why.

Google Jamboard tips and tricks:

Control D to duplicate. For many items on Jamboard, you can choose duplicate out of a menu. But using the keyboard shortcut (Control D) can save lots of time.

Voice typing. Jamboard doesn't offer voice typing for those that struggle with using a traditional keyboard. But students can always open a Google Doc and use voice typing out of the Tools menu. Copy and paste the text into Jamboard.

Make jams available to students. Grab a share link to any jam you use to teach students. Put that link somewhere in Google Classroom or a class website so students can access it later. (Adding the link to the description of an assignment connected to that jam streamlines things!)

Make jams into templates you can copy. Want to make templates that you force the user to copy -- like I did in this post? Click the "Share" button and change the link to "Anyone with the link can view". Copy the link. Then, when you paste the link, change the end of it, deleting the word "edit" and everything after it ... then typing the word "copy" in its place. That link will force the user to make a copy of your file.

More Google Jamboard resources:

Have you used Jamboard? What are your best tips, tricks and ideas? Please share them in a comment below!

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How to use Jamboard in the classroom: 20+ tips and ideas

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Jamboard is a collaborative online whiteboard. It gives students lots of creative work space. How do you use Google Jamboard in the classroom? Check out

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Student reflection forms allow the students to monitor their own growth throughout the unit and the class itself. This gives them time to review what they have learned, how they got there, and how they can be successful moving forward. In figure 5018 in Stern (2017) we see a very simple form where students are asked to write about their progress and to give examples or evidence of this. This will be a great way to give students autonomy over their learning during each step of the learning process. Stern et al, 2017)

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This is a fantastic interface for students to both receive instruction in real-time, but to also give them a place where they can find resources for a unit. I have used this as a place for students to ask questions in real time as a classroom. I have also used this to create a space for students to find videos, simulations, and other forms of environmental science tools.

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Peer feedback is something I have used several times in the classroom and hope to make more time for. This tool is a great way for peers to interact with the content through peer-to-peer communication. This is a real life skill that is necessary for the outside world and should be taught and practiced within the classroom. It is important that we model what peer feedback can and should like and how this helps them through the learning process. (Gardner, 2019)

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Giving their classmates feedback on writing is a complex skill for students to master, but it can be taught with scaffolded modeling.

Bob Daemmrich / Alamy Stock Photo

When I first share with my ninth graders that peer review will be part of our writing process, the response is almost universally negative. Unfortunately, many of my writers have not had the best experience with this activity.

My stronger writers say that they almost never receive feedback that goes beyond basic conventions, while my emerging writers say they feel a lack of confidence in providing feedback beyond basic conventions. This frustration should be no surprise: As educators, we recognize that effective teaching is a complex skill that requires deliberate practice. Likewise, when we ask students to give each other feedback, this too is more complex than simply exchanging papers and locating errors.

To make peer feedback more focused and meaningful, I've found it helpful to define quality feedback, provide structured routines, and teach feedback as I would any other core skill.

Defining Effective Feedback

In my experience, few high school freshmen have mastered the conventions of writing well enough to function as reliable editors. For this reason, I direct my students to reflect upon each other's work-not correct it.

This is confusing because I cannot follow your topic.

I am confused about who "they" are in this sentence.

Explain a little more about why you chose this example from the text.

I like how you repeated key words from your hook here in your conclusion.

My students focus on idea development, clarity, and arrangement to make sense of the writer's text. Of course, scrambled grammar can impact a reader's experience, but rather than have them try to correct a peer's confounding syntax with editing marks, I ask students to write full sentences to one another:

Specific: Comments are linked to a discrete word, phrase, or sentence.

Prescriptive: Like a medical prescription that aims to solve an ailment, prescriptive feedback offers a solution or strategy to improve the work, including possible revisions or links to helpful resources or examples.

Actionable: When the feedback is read, it leaves the peer knowing what steps to take for improvement.

Referenced: The feedback directly references the task criteria, requirements, or target skills.

Kind: It's mandatory that all comments be framed in a kind, supportive way.

I also offer kids a specific acronym to remember what constitutes quality feedback: SPARK. For feedback to be useful to a writer, it should meet as many of these criteria as possible:

Some groups I've taught took to SPARK quickly, while others have needed more practice. For these groups, I create student-friendly versions of a consultancy protocol or tuning protocol to ensure focused discourse, allowing room for all voices.

I also set a guideline for a minimum number of quality comments, but I tell students that less is often more.

Modeling SPARK Feedback

As with any other skill I teach, I begin by modeling SPARK feedback on sample student writing. I interact with students, explaining my thought process as they help pinpoint what about a text is effective or ineffective, as well as how to offer quality SPARK-based comments. From there, as a class we examine other example feedback statements before evaluating their potential usefulness to a writer.

To also give students the chance to practice giving feedback independently, I distribute the same example paragraph. We use group and class discussions to share the variety of feedback offered.

When it's time for live peer review, I assess performance by giving students feedback on their feedback. After that, students share particularly useful examples. Before students leave class, they share on exit tickets what they feel was the best feedback they offered, as well as the best feedback they received.

In the end, good peer review should provide the writer with meaningful information for improvement, while developing the reviewer's ability to analyze a text's effectiveness.

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Giving their classmates feedback on writing is a complex skill for students to master, but it can be taught with scaffolded modeling.

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Project Based Learning is a means for students to learn concepts through real world investigations on a deeper level. Projects that are aligned with standards, allow for discovery in small groups, and engage students by having them answer iterative questions along the way to answering a big question are all steps to having a successful project based learning design. I have used project based learning for at least 3 units this semester and it has been a great learning experience for not just my students, but also myself. (Stern et al, 2017)

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PhET is a website with many resources for interactive simulations. The simulations range from atmospheric sciences to physics. It is a great way for students to interact with concepts that may otherwise be difficult to visualize without. My students have personally enjoyed learning about glacial and climate change using PhET simulations.
(University of Colorado, 2021)

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Over 1.1 billion simulations delivered

160interactive simulations

97language translations

3001teacher-submitted lessons

Founded in 2002 by Nobel Laureate Carl Wieman, the PhET Interactive Simulations project at the University of Colorado Boulder creates free interactive math and science simulations. PhET sims are based on extensive education research and engage students through an intuitive, game-like environment where students learn through exploration and discovery.

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Founded in 2002 by Nobel Laureate Carl Wieman, the PhET Interactive Simulations project at the University of Colorado Boulder creates free interactive math and science simulations. PhET sims are based on extensive education research and engage students through an intuitive, game-like environment where students learn through exploration and discovery.

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Graphic Organizers allow students to engage with lessons and units allowing them to focus on key concepts without getting caught up in the minutia of a lesson. It is important that when building a graphic organizer that students can see  the goal of what were learning and how e can visualize getting there. Every student will organize their notes, thoughts, and processing differently, so allowing them some freedom with their design, but also guiding them is key. (Wise and Cooper, 2019)

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Increasing the Value of Graphic Organizers

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The visual guides work best when learning goals drive the design and students are engaged in their creation.

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Rubrics give us a place to set expectations for students. It is also a place where students get a chance to analyze their understanding of a concept. Rubrics also give us a place, as teachers, to refer to when giving student feedback. Students and teachers alike can look at the rubric and find out what gaps there are in their knowledge and we can then give them the necessary tools to get there.
(Stern et al, 2017)

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The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) are used in my classroom to identify the goals that we are trying to reach in our classroom. The strategy of showing students the NGSS goals gives both myself and the students the expectation that we will have mastered one or more of these standards by the end of a unit. The standards that we use for environmental science are Earth and Space Sciences.

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Improving Science Education Through Three-Dimensional Learning

Quick Search Next Generation Science Standards

THE THREE DIMENSIONS OF SCIENCE LEARNING

Within the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), there are three distinct and equally important dimensions to learning science. These dimensions are combined to form each standard-or performance expectation-and each dimension works with the other two to help students build a cohesive understanding of science over time.

Crosscutting Concepts help students explore connections across the four domains of science, including Physical Science, Life Science, Earth and Space Science, and Engineering Design.

When these concepts, such as "cause and effect", are made explicit for students, they can help students develop a coherent and scientifically-based view of the world around them.

Science and Engineering Practices describe what scientists do to investigate the natural world and what engineers do to design and build systems. The practices better explain and extend what is meant by "inquiry" in science and the range of cognitive, social, and physical practices that it requires. Students engage in practices to build, deepen, and apply their knowledge of core ideas and crosscutting concepts.

Disciplinary Core Ideas (DCIs) are the key ideas in science that have broad importance within or across multiple science or engineering disciplines. These core ideas build on each other as students progress through grade levels and are grouped into the following four domains: Physical Science, Life Science, Earth and Space Science, and Engineering.

More about 3D Learning

GET TO KNOW

The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) are K-12 science content standards. Standards set the expectations for what students should know and be able to do. The NGSS were developed by states to improve science education for all students.

A goal for developing the NGSS was to create a set of research-based, up-to-date K-12 science standards. These standards give local educators the flexibility to design classroom learning experiences that stimulate students' interests in science and prepares them for college, careers, and citizenship.

Get to Know the Standards

IMPLEMENT

The NGSS call for a three-dimensional approach to K-12 science instruction. This represents a significant transition from previous state standards. That's why effective implementation demands a great deal of collaboration and patience among states, districts, schools, teachers, and students.

Thoughtful and coordinated approaches to implementation will enable educators to inspire future generations of scientifically literate students. That is the vision of the NGSS. This website provides a range of high-quality resources that empower educators, administrators, parents, and the general public to help bring this vision to life.

Find Tools and Resources

WHY

Science-and therefore science education-is central to the lives of all Americans.

A high-quality science education means that students will develop an in-depth understanding of content and develop key skills-communication, collaboration, inquiry, problem solving, and flexibility-that will serve them throughout their educational and professional lives.

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Home Page | Next Generation Science Standards

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Improving Science Education Through Three-Dimensional Learning Quick Search Next Generation Science Standards Within the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), there are three distinct and equally important dimensions to learning science. These dimensions are combined to form each standard-or performance expectation-and each dimension works with the other two to help students build a cohesive understanding of science over time.

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A cooperate learning technique that can be used in the classroom is "Jigsaw". Jigsaw is when students learn a concept with a group of other students and then form a new group, where each student is the "ambassador" of that concept. This student will teach their new group the material that they learned in their previous group. Jigsaw grouping can be handled in several ways, heterogeneously or homogenously. This implies that students are placed in groups of mixed abilities or similar abilities, respectively.
(Stern et al, 2017)

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The technique of brainstorming can certainly be used in many places, but in the classroom is where students shine. Having students brainstorm processes or answers to questions gives students a voice in the classroom. It also engages students to think on a deeper level. It is important to set guidelines to the brainstorming sessions so as to keep the process of critical thinking and learning at the forefront. (Professional Learning Board LLC, 2021)

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A brainstorming session is a useful tool to generate ideas or find solutions to a problem. These sessions explore and expand a student's ability to think critically and laterally. As students get actively involved, the sessions aid the process of learning and improve academic performance.
What are the benefits of brainstorming sessions?
Brainstorming in the classroom motivate students to freely express their ideas and thoughts on a subject. As there are no wrong and right answers, the sessions provide students with a platform where they can voice their thoughts without fear of failure.

The sessions give the class a chance to tap into their previous knowledge and form connections between the current topic and what they have already learned. It also encourages them to listen and consider others' ideas, thereby showing respect for their fellow classmates.
How to get started?
Brainstorming sessions may seem like an unstructured activity, however, laying down some rules may ensure smooth functioning of the session. Here are some ideas that may aid the brainstorming sessions:

Discussing and not fighting: There is no winning or losing team while brainstorming. All the ideas and thoughts are considered and given equal preference. The teacher should moderate the session so that the discussion is amiable and students are learning. Also ensure that everyone contributes to the session.

Generate answers: Frame the question that needs to be brainstormed carefully so that maximum ideas may be generated. Teachers should prepare a list of sub-questions that may help direct the thoughts of the students in the right direction in case the discussion hangs or the students get side tracked. Instruct the students to record their ideas so that it won't be missed and there is no repetition.

Set a time limit: Set a time limit on the discussion. The time set would depend on the nature of the topic. At the end of the session, a student can summarize all the ideas that were discussed.

Teacher facilitates: The teacher should coordinate and manage the session without adding their evaluation or comments on the ideas presented.
Tips on facilitating brainstorming
Here are some methods by which the teacher may smoothly facilitate brainstorming sessions in the classroom:
Simple brainstorming
Write down the discussion question on the blackboard or a flip chart and encourage students to add their inputs. After the time is over, the students can voice the ideas written on the board or chart.
Brainstorming in groups
The class may be divided into groups. They may all be given the same topic, a paper to record their ideas and instructions on the time limit. Once the time is over, each group will choose a student who may read out their ideas. The students may also be given a second paper to note the ideas that they have missed out. In this way, students are able to generate and understand all the ideas presented in the session.
Paired brainstorming
In this strategy, the students are divided into pairs and each pair discusses their ideas and notes them down.
Pie method
A circle is drawn and the topic written in the center. The teacher divides the circle into 4 or 6 parts, representing sub-topics. Students are instructed to generate ideas for each sub-topic and these are written down. At the end of the session, the diagram represents all the ideas that make up the total topic.
Card method
In this method, students are asked to list their ideas on a stacked card and pass it to their right. The student on the right reads the idea that was written and adds to it. In this way, the card is passed around the class with each individual contributing to an idea. In case someone has no contribution, they may write a question which could be discussed by the other students. Once all the cards have been passed around, the teacher may collect them and read back the ideas to the class.

Learn more: Take a course

Discuss here: What are some ways you have facilitated brainstorming in the classroom?

About PLB

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How can I Facilitate Brainstorming in the Classroom?

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Brainstorming in the classroom motivate students to freely express their ideas and thoughts on a subject. As there are no wrong and right answers, the sessions provide students with a platform where they can voice their thoughts without fear of failure.

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Gardner, M., Teaching Students to Give Peer Feedback (2019) Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/article/teaching-students-give-peer-feedback

Miller, M., How to use Jamboard in the Classroom. (2020) Ditch That Textbook. https://ditchthattextbook.com/jamboard/

University of Colorado. (2021) PhET Interactive Simulations https://phet.colorado.edu/

Professional Learning Board (2021) How Can I Facilitate Brainstorming in the Classroom? https://k12teacherstaffdevelopment.com/tlb/how-can-i-facilitate-brainstorming-in-the-classroom/

Stern, J., Ferraro, K., Mohnkern, J., Tools for Teaching Conceptual Understanding. (2017).

Wise, M., Cooper, C., Increasing the Value of Graphic Organizers (2019) Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/article/increasing-value-graphic-organizers#:~:text=Graphic%20organizers%20are%20a%20helpful,scaffold%20to%20support%20student%20learning.