Deb Norton Tech

Cram is a Flashcard Creation Site with Some Terrific Features! Do your students a favor and introduce them to this site. Students appreciate using applications that help them study for tests, quizzes and to help them memorize.  And they are especially interested when the application includes a gaming feature !! Cram is a site that was shared with me by one of my colleagues (Thank you Catherine Wood!) who has been using Cram in her Spanish classes. Cram is appealing, simple and can be used on a browser or as an app. Here are some great features: Browse Cram for premade and ready to use flashcard sets.   It is obvious that Cram is quite popular and well used! Create a flashcard set from scratch or import a set from a file or from Google Docs Use shortcuts to practice the flashcards, with the ability for hints and text to speech. Use the Memorize tab to keep track of your progress. Keep practicing the facts you need to...

We all know that students love to learn through games, so I believe it is well worth the extra 10 - 15 minutes of your class time, once or twice a week, to allow students some gaming time on the computer to reinforce the skills that you are teaching.  Too often we don't want to give students any "free" time because we have so much to teach them, or they need extra time to get their work done.  I tend to think differently.  I think students will learn important lessons from the challenge and self-discovery of exploring a game on a site that reinforces what I have taught them.  I'm willing to cut my lesson short once a week to allow for some gaming time.  I'm even willing to shorten an assignment once a week to gain some extra time.   A few guidelines to consider:  Play the game yourself and see if the game  appropriately challenges your students.   If the game has directions, I don't teach the game to the students.  They need ...