[00:00:00] Shanna Martin: Thanks for listening to the Tech Tools for Teachers podcast. For each week, we talk about a free. Piece a two of technology that you can use in your classroom. I’m your host, Shanna Martin. I’m a middle school teacher, technology and instructional coach for my district,
[00:00:31] Fuzz Martin: and I’m a producer and husband, Fuzz Martin.
[00:00:33] Fuzz Martin: And how we’ve done 232 episodes Boddles my mind.
[00:00:41] Shanna Martin: Nice.
[00:00:42] Fuzz Martin: Thanks. Hey, welcome back. It’s been a while. It’s been a while.
[00:00:45] Shanna Martin: It’s, yeah, there’s just a lot going on.
[00:00:47] Fuzz Martin: There’s a lot, a lot of life happening around here.
[00:00:50] Shanna Martin: There’s just. Sporting events and kid holidays, activities and holidays and breaks work and yeah, there’s just a lot.
[00:00:59] Fuzz Martin: School.
[00:01:00] Shanna Martin: Yeah.
[00:01:00] Fuzz Martin: Which is work for those of you listening.
[00:01:03] Shanna Martin: Correct.
[00:01:03] Fuzz Martin: But for me it’s school for you guys.
[00:01:07] Shanna Martin: Yes. What, so just so many things. So we’re at episode 2 32 and we kind of mentioned back. Um, episode,
[00:01:14] Fuzz Martin: probably episode 2 31, which was like four weeks ago.
[00:01:18] Shanna Martin: Uh, yeah, ish. Sorry about that. Yeah. But yeah, like our last episode will be 2 35, officially at the end of the school year.
[00:01:26] Shanna Martin: Mm-hmm. Because we love chatting with everybody and sharing ideas. And we also,
[00:01:31] Fuzz Martin: we’ve been doing it since 2018 and yeah, we’re gonna do, we’re gonna do some other stuff for a while. We might come back. We don’t know.
[00:01:37] Shanna Martin: We might, yeah, we might. Do another podcast.
[00:01:39] Fuzz Martin: Yeah. See,
[00:01:40] Shanna Martin: so it’ll be fun. But, yes, so we are rounding out, we’re in this like last stretch here for school and , here in Wisconsin.
[00:01:49] Shanna Martin: We just finished state testing and , yeah, I keep checking the calendar. I’m like, holy cow. I have so much to teach and we have like six weeks left and I don’t know, I’m get all taught, but it’s gonna happen and these kids are gonna learn and it’s gonna be great. So that’s just. Fun and excitement at the end of the school year.
[00:02:08] Fuzz Martin: Agreed.
[00:02:09] Shanna Martin: For episode 2 32, we are talking about model. Model, which is, , the latest and greatest is all I can say. All, , many teachers I know, elementary teachers, it’s set up for K five, K six, I’m sorry, students. , It is a great, very engaging practice site. , And it’s called Boddle. Mm-hmm. B-O-D-D-L-E. And.
[00:02:33] Shanna Martin: We’ll kind of get into it, but it’s like super engaging. It offers ELA math and science practice. It’s great for supplementing at school for, , engaging students if they’re finishing early or if you wanna supplement where they’re struggling with a certain concept and you can assign it as a teacher. , It’s really helpful because parents can do it.
[00:02:51] Shanna Martin: Kids can choose to work at home, so it’s great to set kids up now so they can have something to practice over the summer and keep them engaged in practicing their math throughout the summer. Mm-hmm. , Which is really great and helpful and it is a great option for students to practice skills. Um, it also includes science, which I appreciate ’cause sometimes it’s.
[00:03:10] Shanna Martin: Oftentimes it’s just ELA or math practice, but there’s science concepts in there too. And then, , yeah, it is for K six students, but any student could engage in it. If you have students that are struggling or if you have students that wanna extra practice, um, some of those middle schoolers could definitely play along with it as well.
[00:03:29] Shanna Martin: So Boddle, B-O-D-D-L-E, it’s Boddle learning.com. Okay, so B-O-D-D-L-E. L-E-A-R-N-I-N g.com. , And it is standards aligned and the content is super engaging. Um. Our fifth grader at home
[00:03:48] Fuzz Martin: Yes.
[00:03:48] Shanna Martin: Has been playing. And when I told her, we were talking about today, she was like, can I be on the podcast? I’m like, no.
[00:03:54] Shanna Martin: , But she was very excited because she Oh, mom wanted to talk about it. ’cause she’s really engaged in it as well. Mm-hmm. And as I was talking about it and talking with her about it, actually, she’s like, this is how you set it up and you can earn pets and you can do all these things. Oh, that’s cool. So I’m on the teacher side of it.
[00:04:11] Shanna Martin: We’re assigning math and assigning different. , Putting everything in and set up, you know, as a teacher. So, and when you create the teacher account, it will be an LMS dot Boddle learning.com. If students are playing, it’s play Boddle learning.com. , And so teacher accounts are really easy to set up. It will connect with your Google classrooms if you choose to, but you don’t have to connect it with Google Classrooms if you don’t want to.
[00:04:37] Shanna Martin: You can just add your student list in there. And what I appreciate about the teacher dashboard is that. When you go into your classroom, so you can create your classroom however you choose to, you could do this maybe not for a full set of class students. Maybe you just wanna set it up for a group of students that need additional practice.
[00:04:56] Shanna Martin: You can set it up that way. So you can pick and choose how you want to assign things to your students. And how you wanna set up their assignments with making sure there’s rigor in there and that there’s targeted and all that kinda stuff. So when you go into the teacher dashboard on the left hand side, it’s got everything loaded in for you.
[00:05:12] Shanna Martin: So you have your classroom where your students are located. I appreciate, ’cause if you go under students and you’re trying to have them, . Figure out there are logins because as a teacher, I can’t tell you how often I create like accounts for kids. Like I forgot my login, I don’t know what password.
[00:05:28] Shanna Martin: Mm-hmm. And then they have to go back and figure it out. They have different options like how to get your student logins if they’re not not home. Like if they’re not at school and they’re doing something at home like. There’s little options to help and there’s little cards to print off for your students.
[00:05:42] Shanna Martin: So like they can have their own login and password and save all of us the time and they lose it. So I appreciate that as a teacher. Like there is help for student logins and it’s right there under the students. You have all your students listed, you can change their grade levels. So if you have students working at different levels, you can actually go in and change what they should be working at, which I appreciate too.
[00:06:04] Shanna Martin: So everything can be differentiated for your students. There’s a spot then too. Add assignments in there. It will give you the list of your subject area and then all of different like content areas. So you can pick and choose what lessons you’re assigned to students or what content you want them to practice in math and ELA and in science.
[00:06:23] Shanna Martin: And then you choose your grade level, so kindergarten through sixth grade. Again, you have all of those options and it will show you. So like I can assign a math assignment. And I can send ELA and they keep ’em separate so they’re all not mixed together. So math assigns one spot, ELA is one spot, which is really nice.
[00:06:36] Shanna Martin: It gives these beautiful little reports so you can see what is going on with your students. , What. Levels they’re working at, , what like number systems geometry, like the different contents that they’re covering and how they’ve done that, how much usage they’ve had, and it tracks their learning gaps, which I really appreciate.
[00:06:54] Shanna Martin: So we can see if like students are really struggling in an area, because then you could go back in and help them, which I. Appreciate. You can see all of that in one spot as a teacher, so you can kind of navigate through your students.
[00:07:06] Fuzz Martin: Mm-hmm.
[00:07:06] Shanna Martin: And then also there’s a live feed, so when kids are saying, I’m working on it, I did it for 20 minutes.
[00:07:12] Shanna Martin: Yeah. And you’re like, yeah, but no you didn’t. ,
[00:07:14] Fuzz Martin: Yes. But also I see what you did.
[00:07:17] Shanna Martin: So in the live feed, it’ll show you who’s online, actively, and then who’s offline. And then it will show you like what curriculum they’re working on. What their performance and their current session they’re in and how long their current session has been going on.
[00:07:29] Shanna Martin: Nice. So you can track all of that in the teacher section, which I really appreciate. Now the fun part is the student section, so they can create these little pets. They get to make their little Boddle guy, , they get to pick their colors and all that kind of stuff, and cartoony and super engaging. So it looks like.
[00:07:50] Shanna Martin: Yeah, you’ve got, got little cutesy cartoons and mm-hmm.
[00:07:54] Fuzz Martin: Like, you have your, you got like a Pokemon feel to it.
[00:07:56] Shanna Martin: It does. And so it walks everything through. So the audio, , all of the text has audio to it as well. So students will need their headphones. Okay. For your sanity in their classroom or at home. , But it’s nice ’cause it’s read to them.
[00:08:09] Shanna Martin: So even if you have students that are, . Maybe ML students or if you have struggling readers or they’re younger readers, they also haven’t read to ’em something at the audio, which I always appreciate that they can do that. And then. Basically you have your challenges, you have your student learning adventure, so you click on it and like we start off in the green clo, green grove, and then as you master your tasks, you have your little battles and you get to go through it.
[00:08:37] Shanna Martin: Part of that’s kind of similar to Prodigy. Okay. I talked about Prodigy back in episode like 1 56, I think. Which is math and people have been doing Prodigy for a while. Another interactive, you know, like math and ELA focused practice activity. , Games. This Boddle is like a different version and set up differently, but same kind of feel.
[00:08:57] Shanna Martin: So you have your little guy and you’re gonna solve your little problems, and then you’re gonna figure out the little puzzles. And then once you do all of that, like you’re able to get things and get more pets and upgrade and all that kind of stuff. Sure. And it’s again, brightly colored, very cartoony, super engaging, and it’s like cutesy.
[00:09:19] Shanna Martin: They all have like big eyes and like they’re cutesy. I don’t know. So you have that going on anime
[00:09:24] Fuzz Martin: ish? Yeah.
[00:09:25] Shanna Martin: Yeah. And you get your little battles and then you do some math and you get some more battles and you do more math and you’re work your way through the different. Like tasks as you’re playing. So it’s very cool.
[00:09:37] Shanna Martin: So the kids are really engaged with it. It’s a super fun way to get them practicing their math and their ELA. In science, it’s very easy to sign as a teacher and also when kids go in, they can click if they’re working at school or they can work at home. So they do have like both setups.
[00:09:52] Fuzz Martin: Mm-hmm.
[00:09:52] Shanna Martin: , As kids are going into practice so they can acknow like, yes, I’m in school time, or, yes, I’m at home.
[00:09:57] Shanna Martin: Sure. , And so it’ll track ’em for that as well. So. There’s lots of cute things. It’s definitely worth engaging and it’s worth trying out with your students now so that way, even if you choose not to use it in your classroom, they might wanna practice over the summer and that would be a great way to have them engage and like learn about having a gaming activity to do over the summer.
[00:10:16] Fuzz Martin: Right.
[00:10:16] Shanna Martin: That they can practice these skills even if you don’t do it in your classroom. Sure,
[00:10:20] Fuzz Martin: sure.
[00:10:20] Shanna Martin: So it’s very fun and very cute and it is Boddle learning,
[00:10:26] Fuzz Martin: Boddle learning. B-O-D-D-L-E.
[00:10:29] Shanna Martin: Correct.
[00:10:30] Fuzz Martin: Not bot toll.
[00:10:31] Shanna Martin: Right.
[00:10:32] Fuzz Martin: That’s a different kind of learning.
[00:10:34] Shanna Martin: Correct. So Boddle, B-O-D-D-L-E. There you go. Because that one’s pretty cute and it’s fun.
[00:10:41] Shanna Martin: And it’s, again, if our fifth grader could be in here, she would be telling us all about it as well.
[00:10:46] Fuzz Martin: Yeah. Give us, yeah. Given us a, uh
[00:10:49] Shanna Martin: yeah. A full tutorial.
[00:10:50] Fuzz Martin: Yes.
[00:10:51] Shanna Martin: So
[00:10:51] Fuzz Martin: wonderful.
[00:10:52] Shanna Martin: So there’s that. So check it out, Boddle. It’ll be super fun. And engaging, and we love that. So there you have it, episode 2 32. Mm-hmm. We are gonna survive the end of April getting into May.
[00:11:11] Shanna Martin: May the fourth be with you
[00:11:12] Fuzz Martin: and may the fourth be with you. Yes.
[00:11:15] Shanna Martin: So thanks for tuning in. This has been the Tech Tools for Teachers Podcast. If you ever have any questions, you can find me on Blue Sky Threads, Facebook, Instagram at smartinwi. And if you wanna get more information and the links to the technology discuss in this episode, you can visit smartinwi.com com.
[00:11:31] Shanna Martin: If you’d like to support the show, please consider buying me a coffee or juice. Visit buy me a coffee.com/smart wi or visit smart wi.com and click on that cute little purple coffee cup. Your donations help keep the show going. New episodes almost each week. Thanks for listening. Go educate and innovate.
[00:11:49] Fuzz Martin: The ideas and opinions expressed on this podcast and the SMART in W website are those of the authors, Shanna Martin, and not of her employer. Prior to using any of the technologies discussed on this podcast, please consult with your employer regulations. This podcast offers no guarantee that these tools will work for you as we’ve described, but we hope they do.
[00:12:08] Fuzz Martin: That’s why we do this show and we’ll talk to you the next time we talk to you right here on the Tech Tools for Teachers Podcast.
