More Ideas For Using Padlet

I have really been loving Padlet more and more recently.
​In this post I will share some interesting ways in which I have seen it used. In doing so I am revisiting a post of mine I did back in November about using Padlet with graphic organizers. In that post I talked about why to think about changing your backgrounds but in this post I share many backgrounds with which you can create interactive lessons with your students. 

• Before I get into sharing those backgrounds here is one of the more interesting uses of Padlet I’ve seen recently. This is from the Google Apps for Ed Summit in Roseville CA where teachers in my district used a combination of Google Docs and Padlet to maximize their experiences at this Summit by creating collaborative notes. Here is how this was done:
• The schedule of this two Summit was typed into a Google Doc
• The doc was left open for anyone to edit
• Teachers were instructed for one person in each session to create a Padlet titled with the name of the session
• Each Padlet link was then linked to the corresponding session title on the Google Doc
• Anyone attending one of these session was asked to add their notes / ideas / thoughts to the Padlet

In the end, what was created was a document with links to all these teacher created padlets. Some of them had more content than others but in the end we had a repository of everyone’s thoughts and ideas instead of one giant shared doc like in years past.

Here is what the Google Doc looked like and a few examples of these Padlet notes from different sessions. ​

This is a screen shot of what this Google Doc. It was about three pages in length with all the sessions. The ones without links were sessions in which none of our teachers attended.

This Padlet Wall was about "Why Teach Failure". You can see the actual Padlet here

This Padlet Wall was about "Teaching to the Human Core". You can see the actual Padlet here

I am hoping to continue to use this style of collaborative note taking at future conferences, particularly the CUE conference later this spring. 

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Not back to Graphic Organizers

Remember: Backgrounds are NOT there to just look pretty. They can have PURPOSE!

Like I mentioned in my first post about Padlet, teachers can think outside the box to really enhance this collaboration tool 

Here is a Google Drive folder with these Graphics Organizers Backgrounds

What you find in this folder are images that you can use for the following:

• T-Chart
• Venn Diagram
• Frayer Model
• Fish
• Sandwich 
• Scaffolded Reading Questions
• World Map
  • What? How is this a graphic organizer? But think about it, with this (or any other map of your choice) you can have student drop location based notes
    • Explorer bios on the places they discovered
    • Biomes of the world describing the biome and including an image of this biome

Below are a some examples of what you will see in this Google Drive folder. Oh, btw, I like Venn Diagrams but hate those circles! Too hard to draw and not enough room to write in - that's why mine have Rounded Rectangles!

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I learned about the Frayer model from the Writing Social Studies resource from Teacher Created Materials. Here is a link to great Writing Strategies for the core subjects of English, Science, Social Studies and even Math. Here you can find TONS of other Graphic Organizers that you can put into Padlet. 

But how do I go about doing that? 
Trust me, its not too hard at all. You will need a program that you can create and edit images. These range from Photoshop to Microsoft Paint (please do NOT use Paint! Its not 1998 anymore!) For sake of ease of use I recommend using Google Draw. It is free and is one of the tools that anyone with a Google account has access to. So, in this program you will simple draw shapes and add text boxes and pretty soon you have a customized - hand made graphic organizer! 
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Here is a link to another Google Drive folder with other Graphic Organizers from Ms. Durant, @durantdmhs,  who has created many of her own that you can drop into Padlet 

Lastly, here is a good link with “32 Interesting Ways to Use Padlet in the Classroom” from Tom Barrett, @tombarrett

Please share back here or on Twitter with different ways you have seen Padlet used. ​