Hi , I am visiting schools in Mexico this week. It's my last week of teaching with Fresno Pacific University. It's been a great experience. One thing I've realized in this position is that "engagement" is hard!! I asked students to write lesson plans in the 5 E's lesson plan model of Engage, Explore, Explain, Extend, Evaluate and it is really hard to think outside of the box for what really engages a student to want to learn the lesson.

Here is a list of what you need to know and you can scroll down to get more details.

1. 🖊️SIGN IN with the passcode alpaca
2. 🟢 Drip Workshop: Collaborative Activities in Google Workspace
3. 🌴Tip #1: Slides Timer Add-on
4. 🌟Tip #2: Play Farkle to Teach Students Strategy
5. ☑️Check alicekeelermembership.com with passcode alpaca for resources & events.
6. 🖥️ Webinar Video: Week 4 ChatGPT and Google Apps Script with Alice Keeler

8.🖥️ Join the Webinar: Popsicle Sticks Add-on with Alice Keeler Tuesday May 9 4:30-5:00PM PST

9.🏢 Office Hours with Alice Keeler Monday May 8 4:30-5:00PM PST

10.📅Be added to the events calendar for the week.

Google Slides Timer⏲️ Add-on

⏲️Slides Timer makes it insanely easy to add a timer to any Google Slides. This works while you are in presentation mode.

Install Slides Timer Chrome Extension

➕Add a Textbox to Your Slide

💥less than, less than, time, greater than, greater than. Thus, <<3:00>> puts a 3 minute timer on a slide. <<1:24>> is one minute and 24 seconds.

🟩Let the Chrome Extension Do Its Work

❓How do you use Slides Timer? It just works. You never need to click on the Chrome Extension. You just need to have it installed. It starts to work when you are using Google Slides while presenting. It is that easy!

Play 🎲Farkle to Teach Students Strategy

Amazon Colored Dice

🕹️Playing games that involve strategy can be a great way to engage students and to help students to practice 🗣️communicating their strategy and🧠 thinking.

1️⃣One game I use for this is “Farkle.” Farkle is a 🎲dice game that uses 6 dice.

👉Have students play in small groups, taking turns, and ask them to share their reasoning with the group for each move.

📗The Rules of Farkle

Farkle is a dice game where you roll 6 dice. You must score or you get a 🔴FARKLE. A Farkle earns you 0️⃣zero points for the round.

💯Basic scoring is you get 50 points for a 5 and 100 points for 1. 3️⃣If you get 3 of a kind it scores the number times 100 (except three 1’s which get you 1000 points) so a three 4’s is 400 points.Get an extra four and you get an extra 400 points!

🃏A straight gets you 1500 points and three pairs is 750 points. You can keep rolling in a round as much as you want so long as you don’t Farkle.

🆘You MUST score at least 300 points in a round before you can quit the round.

Directions for Farkle

🤝Alexis Gray and I played Farkle where we talked strategy not just point scoring. Farkle is a way for students to demonstrate strategic thinking with 🧮mathematical justification. Whether or not students 🖩calculate the actual probabilities they can understand some of the basic concepts such as rolling 4 die is a better probability of NOT getting a Farkle than 3 die.

Video of Alice and Alexis Playing Farkle

Farkle Templates

🎲I prefer actual dice in the classroom if possible. I have dice at each student group in the supply caddies for students to play Farkle if they finish a task early. However, it is not always possible to use actual dice so I created a couple of Google versions of Farkle.

Google Slides Template

Google Sheets Template

Play Farkle

⛔Not sure that using my template is the best place to start. 💻Maybe using a mobile game or website is better for students to ENGAGE (From the 5 E’s lesson plan style) with the lesson. 😊Give them a chance to develop some strategies.

First, they need to play and learn the rules. I also like physical dice🎲 , so if you have those use those.

Slides

➡️The purpose of my Google Slides for Farkle is to give students a place to explain their STRATEGY and thinking for each round. Students can play with physical dice, virtual dice or I have a spreadsheet that simulates rolling Farkle dice.

🔈Feedback

One of my favorite reasons to use Google Slides is the feedback options. WHILE students are playing (or even after) the teacher or peers can view the Slides and insert feedback comments to help further the students THINKING and explaining.

Not ✅Checking Answers

🟡One thing I like about activities such as this Farkle game is each student’s Slides are different. They have different numbers and different dice rolls. When students are doing the same problem they check each other’s answers. ⏬Low critical thinking. When students have different numbers then they must compare and contrast to how they strategized. ⏫Higher critical thinking.

Drag Scoring Die

🟣A student rolls dice. Either physical dice or virtual dice. Notice along the top edge is virtual die to drag. For the scoring die the student will keep, they can drag this onto the gameboard.