7 Activities with

1. Use as a "parking lot" for questions that come up during the lesson.

You've heard of the "ask-it basket," right? Well, it's this way to allow students to ask questions without interrupting class or to ask questions that are difficult to ask in front of everyone. It doesn't work in my class, never has. But TodaysMeet does work, which is probably attributable to the fact that students do not have to change their primacy platform for communicating.

2. Send links to all students in the classroom quickly.

Although there are other ways to do this, using TodaysMeet to send links will keep discussion info in context with the learning materials.

3. Use guiding questions before students watch a video.

Access to guiding questions can be made available before the learning activity to allow, for example, those students who feel more comfortable with a lesson preview before class can be at ease and ready to learn.

4. Create Wordle from transcript after discussions to analyze for understanding.

What was most important in our discussion? A quick copy/paste into Wordle.com will visually represent the frequency of words. Try displaying the Wordle for a journal reflection activity after the lesson or at the beginning of the next class.

5. Use transcript to give daily grade based on participation

Each transcript can be saved as a PDF, making it easy to assess participation for a three-week progress report. It's also strong evidence for parent conferences (positive or intervention).

6. Two or more classrooms engage in a conversation as they listen to a podcast.

With an inexhaustible amount of videos and podcasts available, students from different classes can listen to a live podcast and have a back channel discussion on TodaysMeet without interrupting. Since we all tune in and out, the back channel often better keeps their attention, while making the departures from listening relevant.

7. Before a science lab, students record their hypothesis and respond after the lab.

The teacher can project the hypothesis before and after the lab for discussion. Teachers have the transcript for assessment and students can access it for lab reports. This use also works for anticipation guides, thesis writing, and even math solution defense.

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