Quia

[Cyndi Danner-Kuhn]

Teachers From the Trenches:
Do you use Quia, (www.quia.com)? If you do could you tell us what you think, if not do you have something else you use that you could recommend?

TECS290 students:
Assignment details are in Week for of Moodle.

[Melissa Beyer]

I think that these was one of the best sites I have ever been on. My mind was going a hundred different directions when thinking of the endless possibilities this has. What a great tool to create quizzes and activities. I have definitely tagged Quia because I want to make sure I remember it after this class. It would great if the school district I go would also have it as an available resource. Thanks for bringing Quia to my attention, can't wait to use it more.

http://www.quia.com/pages/mathks.html

[Cyndi Danner-Kuhn]

Add your link and the main Quia link to your Social Bookmarking site. That wil help you keep track.

[AbbyMaska]

I personally love Quia. I used it quite extensively during my Student Teaching and again as a long term substitute. I mostly used it as a review tool. At the beginning of each new unit the students were always given a list of important Names and Terms they were to learn. I would always put these Names/Terms into a a Quia Activity that they could play. Often times I would use this as a warm-up activity at the beginning of class while I was taking roll and passing out or collecting assignments. I also would provide a ton of review activities for the unit exams. I never gave quizzes this way, but I know several teachers that did. They found it to be a great time saver and it gave them very thorough feedback on specific objectives/questions. I don't know what I will do if my new school district does not use Quia. Its easy and makes review a little more fun.

http://www.quia.com/pages/tecs290samplepage.html

[Cyndi Danner-Kuhn]

I know you say you have already student taught, etc so how did you get through without taking this class sooner? Just curious.

[Jill Whitson]

I think the Quia site is a great tool too. It is a program that can save teachers a lot of time. A teacher can enter the information and Quia helps put it into games and quizzes that the students can access. I like the instant feedback part of it. Kids always want to know how they do right away and it is not always possible to get an assignment graded during the same period that the assignment is done. I like how you can set up calendars to let students know about assignments. It is good to be able to use the games with kids so that when they are getting tired of working, putting them on a laptop and letting them play a game is a great break, they may not realize they are still doing something educational. As with United Streaming I did not find it to be geared low enough for my preschool classroom. I also teach Title I so it would be a good supplemental tool to use to reinforce what is taking place in the classroom. It could be good for after school programs to reinforce concepts also. I think at $49 a district cannot go wrong, another site to tell my administrator about.

[Cyndi Danner-Kuhn]

There is a sliding scale and the price drops the more teachers you have and get really cheap with a site license so all teachers can use. I think Hays district pays about $10 a teacher. A good deal!!

[Emily Higgins]

I love Quia! I had so much fun setting up a class page and exploring what all I could do on here. I set up a class page just like I was a teacher. So far, I made my class page and I added a quiz, an activity, and a survey that I made. I will continue to try out all the available options on quia and add to my page. It was pretty fun to make up a class page, activity, and quiz pretending like I was a teacher. Can't wait to do it for real in about a year! There are so many options in Quia, it is awesome. I like the fact that there is a wide variety of quiz types and activites to choose from. This is great beacuse you can try all different kinds, put them up for your students and see which ones they like the best. I really like the class page: you can add your calendar events, homework assignments, resource links, quia activites/quizzes, surveys, etc. I hope the school i teach in has purchased quia, otherwise it is something I will definetely invest in. Check out my class page if you like, here is the URL:
http://www.quia.com/pages/mshigginsclass.html

(I think that others can view what i added to my class page from here, please let me know if not!)

[Emily Higgins]

One more comment about quia, the site is really helpful because it allows you to get instant feedback on the quizzes and activities. Teachers are not always able to get things graded right away, so this is a big advantage for the students and teachers! Also, like Jill W. said, quia is convenient for your students when they need a break from what they have been working on. You can give them computers and let them work play with the activities and games. I can imagine they would have a lot of fun and not even realize they were learning a bunch at the same time! I am excited to use quia as a way to provide a ton of review activities for units, and give quizzes over lessons taught.

[Cyndi Danner-Kuhn]

Yes and I am a great example of not getting things graded or responded to immediately this past week.

[Paul Carver]

Quia seems to be a great resource for both students and teachers. It has educational games for students. For teachers, you can create quizzes and educational games. You can form things that students will enjoy and learn from. As for resources, I think that teachers can not have too many. It is nice to have a class and colleagues who are willing to find them and share.

[Cyndi Danner-Kuhn]

no problem, glad you are finding it useful.

[Cory Triplett]

This is an amazing site! I could spend hours on this site. I like the fact that you can create activities and quizes all in one place, it saves a lot of time. I also love the calendar feature. I have created a few things for my page such as an art quiz, art hangman and art battleship. It was a lot of fun and it was really easy. check it out! http://www.quia.com/pages/ctriplettart.html