How can I use Education Perfect in the classroom?

There are many different ways that you can use the Education Perfect system to enrich the classroom learning experience. Just a few examples are laid out below. 

Whole Class Games

Quick Quiz

Set a Task with a time or points limit on your preferred content for the first 5-10 mins of class. This will get those brains warmed up and create a positive buzz in the room! Students will be running to get to class to get a head start on their mates. Consider setting up a routine of this happening every Friday, for example, or at the start of the lesson while taking the roll!

Race to the Board - Option 1

1. Split the class into two teams lined up in rows. 
2. Have the person at the front of the line answer. 
3. Display an EP activity on the board. 
4. Choose the first hand up from the 2 teams to answer the question that appears on the board. 
   1. If the student answers correctly, the person at the back of their line runs to the front of the line, inching their team closer to the board.
5. The team to reach the board first, WINS!

Race to the Board - Option 2

1. Have all students standing at the back of the classroom, with EP displayed on the board. 
2. Select an EP activity and choose the first hand up to answer the question. 
3. If the student answers correctly, they can take a small step towards the board. 
4. First person to reach the board, WINS!

Taboo!

1. Have a student sit in front of the board with their back towards it. 
2. Project an EP activity from your laptop onto the board - this works best with one-word answers such as vocabulary, definition, glossary or spelling lists.
3. When each word pops up on screen, have the rest of the class help the student guess the correct answer by providing clues (but without saying the actual word). 
4. Add an additional element of challenge by requiring the student to spell the word correctly to gain an extra point!
5. Great for all year levels but especially senior students!

Around the EP World

1. Break the students into groups. 
2. Each group takes turns to stand and answer a question from EP that has been projected onto the board (or read out by the teacher). 
3. First hand up in the standing group answers the question. 
   1. If they're correct, the student can select another student at their own table to ‘knock out’. 
   2. If no one at the table can answer correctly, it gets opened to the room, but the student who answers correctly can only knock out someone from the table that is standing. 
4. Last one left standing from each table comes to the front of the classroom for a knockout round, and the overall winner wins prizes for their whole table. Can be quite a strategic game!

EP Speed Dating

1. Split the class into two groups. 
2. Arrange the classroom desks in a horseshoe shape or similar. 
3. Have a student from Group 1 sit at a desk on the inside of the horseshoe and a student from Group 2 sit on the opposite side of the desk. 
4. The student from Group 1 has a chosen lesson from EP open on their device. 
5. Students from Group 2 then revolve in a ‘speed dating’ fashion, getting just 30 seconds with each Group 1 student on questions from their chosen lesson. 
6. Group 1 students ask the questions, Group 2 students answer the questions. 
7. Points don’t matter for this one, it’s chaotic fun with everyone talking at once, but it’s safe in that students aren’t having to answer in front of everyone and productive in that they get through a lot of questions.

EP Whispers!

1. The teacher (or a chosen student) positions themselves at the back of the classroom with a laptop/iPad. 
2. The class is divided into two groups. 
3. Each group stands in a line facing the board. 
4. The teacher shows the student at the back of each line a question, term, abbreviation, description etc from an EP activity. 
5. The student then whispers the item to the next student in line (once only, no repeating!) and it is passed up the line until the student closest to the board hears it. 
6. The "whisper" could be a question that the student needs to answer, or a definition they need to attach to a term, for example. 
7. The final student then writes the answer on the board. If they are right, they get a point!

EP Terminator

1. Project EP onto the board (or have a teacher/student with it open on a laptop). 
2. Scatter the students around the classroom, standing up, with space to swing their arms without hitting anyone. 
3. As each question comes up on the board, the student with their hand up first gets to answer. 
4. If they are correct, they may take a step in any direction and any classmate they can touch from their new position gets tagged "out" and must sit down. 
5. As the numbers dwindle, if none of the remaining students can answer a question, it goes to the floor, and those knocked out can win their way back in! 

Necessary rules:

• If the student is close to someone, they must tag them out; no alliances/peace treaties.
• Students must answer as soon as they're called upon - no putting up hands and THEN thinking once they've been chosen.

Group Work Ideas

• Pair / Group Work: Assign a Task or Assessment to a pair or group of students. Edit the Smart Lesson or Assessment ahead of time to include an Extended Response slide asking for the names of the group members or keep a written record of this.

• Jigsaw Learning: Assign students different Smart Lessons to become experts on different aspects of a topic. Then, students can present back to the class on the topic in which they have become an expert. 

• Rotation Activities & Learning Stations: Assign a Task on EP for students to do as one activity in a learning stations rotation. Students can work together to determine answers to questions. Set the Task with the time parameters for that lesson only plus a week’s late submission. This way, you will know how much students completed in class. The rest is then homework or carryover to the next lesson.

• Teaching activities for extension students: assign content to extension students in advance, and then have them use the system to teach skills and concepts to groups of their classmates. Conclude the lesson with a shared learning session to ensure that students have got something out of it, then set tasks for the rest of the class as homework. This provides different perspectives on the content, and stimulates the understanding for your extension students.

• Blind testing: split your students into pairs. Have one student at a computer, and the other sitting facing away from the screen or blindfolded. The student at the computer reads the question to the other, who answers verbally, and the first student inputs the answer if they agree. The students have to reach agreement and input the answer before the time runs out. 

General

• Q&A Competition: set up a list of questions on the smart board, with one student stationed at your computer, and have students call out answers, raise their hands, or use a ball to determine who answers the questions. A student is out if an incorrect answer is given, or if they run out of time.  
• Think-pair-share session: give your students some free time on Education Perfect to find concepts, features, aspects, lists, etc, that interest them. Allow them a few minutes to work through their ideas, then another to discuss this with a comrade. Finally, discuss this as a class. This is great for introducing students to the system, and getting them familiar with content. 
• Allow your students to head the learning: allow your students to find activities on Education Perfect that capture their interest, and collate a list of suggestions with names. You can then begin each lesson with a student suggestion, and allow them to take the lead.
• Points challenge: First student to reach a predetermined number of points in a set time period, wins! It's a great way to get new students acquainted with the platform. Monitor the scoreboard from the Student Zone.

Individual and Targeted Learning

• Flipped Learning: Assign a Task for homework that covers your particular concept or topic. You can assign specific sections of the EP Smart Lesson, such as the Information slides and automatically marked questions, so students focus on content and lower order questions at home. You can then assign the Extended Response sections during class time or use them to promote class discussion about the topic.
• EP Dash is a great way to end a class. It will give your students a fun and interactive activity at the end of the lesson to see how much they have learned. You can even play along with your students!
• You can assign tasks and homework for individual students that is personalised by identifying those that might need revision, extension, or consolidation.
• The Assessments function can also be used to set up competitive quizzes. It's a great way to formatively assess students during the term and is a fantastic way to motivate them as they see progress. Award prizes to students who improved the most over the term.
• When competitions are in place, they can be helpful for stimulating learning; try setting appropriate targets for points for each cohort and class, and give class time for students to achieve them. Education Perfect makes it easy to harness competitive spirit to inspire learning.
• Embed your favourite resources into EP lessons! It's possible to embed everything from Google Street View to Kahoot! and more!
• Try setting work to run before lessons begin so that students arrive to class with a pre-understanding of the content. You can then devote more class time to activities, games, practicals, and so on. This can also be useful if you don’t have much class time available.
• One-on-one time between student and teacher (or learning assistant, tutor, etc) in which the student gives answers verbally can help students engage with learning without having to type. They also have someone to prompt them if they lose focus.

Student Content

Students can create videos, text, audio files, comics, cartoons, and images that they can then upload into a question using the Uploader component.

For example, for a Languages class, a student could take a photo and describe their features in the target language, or for Science they could add a video example to an experiment description.