[00:00:00] Shanna Martin: Thanks for listening to the Tech Tools for Teachers podcast, where each week we talk about a free. He’s the 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, and
[00:00:31] Fuzz Martin: I’m a producer and husband.
[00:00:32] Fuzz Martin: Fuzz Martin. And Shanna told me to act, so I sat in the producer’s chair and got to work on this podcast.
[00:00:40] Shanna Martin: Nice way to use acronyms as words.
[00:00:46] Fuzz Martin: Good job a T. Thank you
[00:00:50] Shanna Martin: so. Episode two 30, we are entering testing season.
[00:00:56] Fuzz Martin: Mm-hmm.
[00:00:57] Shanna Martin: Which as educators is probably not our favorite time of the year because we like to actually teach students.
[00:01:06] Fuzz Martin: Yes.
[00:01:06] Shanna Martin: And when we start doing standardized testing, it takes away from teaching time, but it’s also necessary as we have data on our students and also, um, especially like our high school kids that are taking the a CT.
[00:01:19] Shanna Martin: Some take the SAT kind of depends on like what state or where kids are headed. All of those formalized tests mm-hmm. Need to happen. So it’s that time of year again where springtime is like, oh, it’s almost nice outside. We have sun today of snow in two days. But you know, it’s where we also have to do all of our testing stuff.
[00:01:40] Shanna Martin: So I thought I would share a few. Sites that would be helpful for standardized test prep for students, across the board. And some are familiar with, sometimes you just need ’em pointed back out to you again or like where to find them. They’re also just a great resource for families or to share with students to practice on their own.
[00:01:58] Shanna Martin: So whether you’re gonna practice in your classroom here and there, or if you wanna send resources home with your students, these would be helpful for both of those things.
[00:02:06] Fuzz Martin: Mm-hmm.
[00:02:07] Shanna Martin: So. All three of these sites I’m sharing, there’s no extra planning. They can just jump right in and use them. There’s support for students and I always think about too, like I as a kid all the way through college, probably, never did so great on standardized tests.
[00:02:23] Shanna Martin: I was very much a, please let me show you mm-hmm. How I learn or talk to you about it or gimme a project. I was not a great standardized test taker. And a lot of students aren’t, but we, it’s a reality. We have to do them. So some of these would just be help, help practice, help them practice question answering ahead of time, because a lot of times it’s just reading the question the right way.
[00:02:45] Shanna Martin: Online tests, especially for elementary students as they start taking tests, like they’re different than written tests. So giving our elementary kids or our younger students practice with online testing even just. Typing and mouse work and clicking on the right button and it does matter, and all that kind of stuff.
[00:03:03] Shanna Martin: So just kinda those useful skills that are helpful. And again, they happen at a lot of grade levels, so Yeah. Yeah, we can’t get away from them. So here’s some resources to kinda help you out with that. So the first resource I’m gonna talk about is Khan Academy, which. We appreciate K Academy. They kind of cover everything for us, which is free and fabulous.
[00:03:25] Shanna Martin: But if you go to K-K-H-A-N-A-C-A-D-E-M y.org, khan academy.org/test to ST dash Prep, BREP, it will give you all kinds of test prep support. So there’s like SAT math. And it breaks it down by categories like foundations of algebra, problem solving, advanced math, geometry, medium level stuff, advanced level things, which I appreciate it breaks it down by level.
[00:03:58] Shanna Martin: So if you have students, like I have eighth graders that are doing algebra pieces as eighth grade. Mm-hmm. Going into high school, it’s just great practice. So even if it’s not necessarily test prep, but if you just want some questions of support your students that are outlined, like test prep, you can do that.
[00:04:13] Shanna Martin: Of course with Khan Academy there’s videos. You can set up the little lessons and it will, it’s broken down by unit, so. You can, like, gives you a little background like about the SAT and, and what you need to do and whether your students are taking the PSAT or the SAT, those resource resources. Excuse me.
[00:04:30] Shanna Martin: Are there, they have the MCATs. They have the LSATs. They have so many different tests and while I know, a lot of students take the a CT, having SAT prep questions will help. It’s any sort of standardized test practice. The other piece is they have all of the SAT stuff and additional assessments because do, do, do, the second website is the A CT website, because a CT does not like to share Yeah.
[00:05:02] Shanna Martin: Resources, like they like to control all of their resources. Mm-hmm. So the second resource, if you go to act.org, it’s the starting point to get to the actual resources. It’s a really long URL. So if you go to a ct.org. You can go ahead and register all those things now if you want to, but if you just click on where it says students and parents.
[00:05:25] Fuzz Martin: Yep.
[00:05:25] Shanna Martin: This would be the great resource to share with families.
[00:05:27] Fuzz Martin: Okay,
[00:05:29] Shanna Martin: so act.org, and then it could be like slash content slash act slash ian slash students and parents, or just click on students and parents and then go ahead and scroll down. And there is a test prep button right there in the center, and if you click on it.
[00:05:46] Shanna Martin: They have practice quizzes, they have practice tests, they have question of the day, which I know a lot of teachers in our high school use as the question of the day where you can go ahead and have your little practice. Like steps. So they will give you to help you out with everything. They have their calculator help videos, which people don’t even think like, why would I do that?
[00:06:07] Shanna Martin: Because it’s different using a digital calculator on your computer and during testing time, they have all kinds of resources and support built right in. And you have a little question of the day, go ahead and click into a little question of the day. You do have to register with your email so that way like they can share stuff with you, but it’s a free account and it will give you all of the things that you need, for resources for the a CT, so you can go ahead and do that.
[00:06:33] Shanna Martin: They also have practice tests, which is helpful. So all of these different things, you can do the little practice quiz. Try me right now and see how you do. And you’re able to sign in and do all that again, English, math, reading and science, they have access to all of those things. So, if you wanna just jump in and do the quizzing, you can go to quiz me.ac.org and that will take you right to the online quizzing piece, which is helpful.
[00:06:59] Shanna Martin: And again, they have resources actually, k12, which is great, along with career and other things too. So a ct.org has a ton of resources. For anybody taking the a CT and also any sort of test prep is available through them and you can just have access to all kinds of stuff.
[00:07:16] Fuzz Martin: Sometimes I wish that I could take the a CT just to see how I do against a school.
[00:07:22] Fuzz Martin: Me.
[00:07:23] Shanna Martin: Well, you could. I
[00:07:25] Fuzz Martin: mean, I’m not like
[00:07:26] Shanna Martin: the free version.
[00:07:26] Fuzz Martin: I’m not going to but,
[00:07:27] Shanna Martin: and test it out,
[00:07:28] Fuzz Martin: but it’d be great to know if I’m smarter than a 11th grader.
[00:07:35] Shanna Martin: Well, there you go. I mean, you can take the quizzes and kind of give yourself a, a feel for it. I’m guessing the answer would be yes.
[00:07:42] Fuzz Martin: Yeah, pretty sure.
[00:07:44] Shanna Martin: Um, at least here’s hoping that it would be. Um, but also, um, yeah.
[00:07:52] Fuzz Martin: Yeah.
[00:07:52] Shanna Martin: It’s interesting ’cause as a teacher in Wisconsin, you have to take the Praxis test. So you have to like take a test in content areas to teach them, which I always thought was interesting.
[00:08:01] Fuzz Martin: Did they give you a score?
[00:08:03] Shanna Martin: Yeah.
[00:08:04] Fuzz Martin: Okay. I won’t ask.
[00:08:05] Shanna Martin: Well, and it’s just interesting ’cause you take ’em like elementary, middle, and then high school teachers have to take them to be able to like be in their content area.
[00:08:13] Fuzz Martin: Sure. ‘
[00:08:13] Shanna Martin: cause each state has their own regulations for teaching. So it’s always just kind of interesting. But I always thought like, yes, I obviously have my teaching license, so I passed.
[00:08:21] Shanna Martin: But the other part is, is like. Does that actually tell you that you’re a good teacher?
[00:08:27] Fuzz Martin: Right, right, right.
[00:08:27] Shanna Martin: I can take a test. That’s fine. Um, so
[00:08:30] Fuzz Martin: I
[00:08:30] Shanna Martin: can give
[00:08:30] Fuzz Martin: a test. Don’t need to take the test.
[00:08:33] Shanna Martin: Right. The other resource I have to share is called Spar and really sparq, there’s a lot of paid things. There is teacher resources for free, so you can sign up for free as an educator and have, um, free resources if you want more stuff or you really like it for your classroom.
[00:08:50] Shanna Martin: Then there’s a paid version too. But if you go to Epar, E-S-P-A-R-K-L-E-A-R-I-N-G-L-E-A-R, nin g.com/activities/game-activities, okay,
[00:09:03] Fuzz Martin: we put all these links and
[00:09:04] Shanna Martin: don’t worry show
[00:09:05] Fuzz Martin: notes, and then the website block
[00:09:06] Shanna Martin: post, lemme spell ’em all for you, but you can just link it in there anyway. So Epar has math and reading games for pre-K through eighth grade now.
[00:09:16] Shanna Martin: What I think is something that is important to think about is a lot of our younger students don’t necessarily like test take online. Okay. I mean, they don’t. Mm-hmm. But like when you’re, when you’re choosing games or review games or activities for students to be doing. They should probably practice with a mouse or a track pad and not an iPad because the skillset for taking standardized testing for elementary students is different than things that they’ve done in the past.
[00:09:52] Shanna Martin: So Epar, this just has lots of games online that are like reading and math focused, and they’re standards aligned. So they’re like specific to a standard. So you can try, you know, fractions and you can, they have different things. You can break down the different grade levels and then. Like if you’re gonna use like common core and then you can choose your grade level, and then you can choose math or reading and it will give you the breakdown so that your games and activities are like standards aligned.
[00:10:16] Fuzz Martin: Mm-hmm.
[00:10:16] Shanna Martin: But what I always think about is like our third graders have to type like a paragraph, which is something that they don’t necessarily do on a regular basis, but it’s a part of their testing. It’s not necessarily their knowledge, but like their, like they’re testing their knowledge, but physically for them to type a paragraph is something that they.
[00:10:35] Shanna Martin: Don’t do on a regular basis. They probably hand write ’em. So just being aware of skills for online testing, not just the actual content knowledge that they have or like the learning they’re doing, but the physical, like finding the highlight stuff and clicking on the right multiple choice button and following all of the directions online is something to note.
[00:10:58] Shanna Martin: It looks like you are enthralled in some sort of activity right now
[00:11:02] Fuzz Martin: playing a game called Kitten Castle.
[00:11:04] Shanna Martin: How’s that going for you?
[00:11:05] Fuzz Martin: I think, uh, I think it has audio that I’m not listening to. So
[00:11:08] Shanna Martin: How about cheetah chaser identity property.
[00:11:11] Fuzz Martin: Wow.
[00:11:11] Shanna Martin: Or downhill derby with multiplying by sevens.
[00:11:14] Fuzz Martin: That’s cool.
[00:11:15] Shanna Martin: Yeah, so they’re pretty fun. So they’re very engaging and this is one where you, again, they have a free version for teachers, but you can actually just jump right into the games and play them. So if you want kids to play them or, like for free, or if you just wanna play around on your smart board or things like that in your classroom, you can do that.
[00:11:29] Shanna Martin: So there’s another way,
[00:11:30] Fuzz Martin: or on your laptop as you’re producing a podcast,
[00:11:32] Shanna Martin: right? You can absolutely practice and I bet you would pass that with flying colors. I don’t know about the A CT, but these I think you could handle
[00:11:39] Fuzz Martin: well, there was one that was doing common core math and I did learn that way, so I actually just learned, a little bit how to do that.
[00:11:46] Fuzz Martin: Thank you. Thank you. Kit Castle.
[00:11:49] Shanna Martin: Look at you learning things.
[00:11:51] Fuzz Martin: Oh, EPAR.
[00:11:52] Shanna Martin: Yes, EPAR. There you go. Soie. You can learn things as you go too, as an adult. So again, just getting a few ideas out there or resources for families to practice for testing season and getting your kids all ready to go to show all of the cool things that you have taught them throughout the year and now they can demonstrate all the knowledge they have in their brains.
[00:12:12] Shanna Martin: So. Yes. Little online test prep, we can all use it. Not necessarily our favorite thing, but also resources. Yeah. We love a free resource. Right. So there you go. There you go. Hopefully that’ll help you out a little bit with this testing season. So thanks for tuning in. This has been the Tech Tools for Teachers Podcast.
[00:12:30] Shanna Martin: If you ever have any questions, you can find me on Blue Sky Threads, Facebook, Instagram at Smart nwi. And if you wanna get more information to the links to the technology discussing this episode, you can visit spartan wi do com. If you like support, stroke, please consider buying me a coffee or two. Visit Buy me a coffee.com/ smartinwi or visit smartinwi.com and click on that cute little purple coffee cup.
[00:12:53] Shanna Martin: Your donations help keep the show going. New episodes almost each week. Thanks for listening. Go educate and innovate.
[00:13:00] Fuzz Martin: The ideas and opinions expressed on this podcast and the SMART NWI website are Those are the author Shannon Martin, and not a for employer. Prior to using any of the technologies discussed on this podcast, please consult with your employer regulations.
[00:13:12] Fuzz Martin: This podcast offers no guarantee that these tools will work for you, as we’ve described, but we hope they do.
Sh.
