This past weekend I learned of the website, www.polleverywhere.com , from my cousin Kelley Batrowny, who is an Instructional Technology Specialist at our local BOCES (www.gstboces.org/iss/it/ ).  The site lets you create a poll and have people respond by TEXTING WITH THEIR CELLPHONES!  I, being a proponent for cell phone use in the classroom, am very excited to use this when the school year begins in two weeks. 

Polleverwhere.com is very user friendly.  You set up an account and create a poll.  It is that simple!  You then download the poll question as a slide or you can embed it on a webpage.  There are also options for tracking results and how to respond.  I created a question for my webpage (www.energizetheclassroom.com ) that I would like you to respond to. 

“Do you like polleverwhere.com as a classroom resource for your students?”   Text “99503” and than answer “4963” for YES, “4958” for NO, or “4965” for I ALREADY USE THIS METHOD.

I signed up for the free service which limits my questions for 30 participants.  For the classroom, this is perfect.  There are no charges to the phone of the responder (depending on their text plan).  Personally, for my classroom, polleverywhere.com will be a great resource.  I may have students respond to a question as a “sponge activity” at the start of class, ask about a political or school issue, or use it to track responses during a review activity.

In closing, if your school has a cell phone policy that prevents students from using them for “instructional purposes” in the classroom, they could respond to questions you set up as homework assignments.  The results could then be used the next day in class.

Good luck!

_____________________________________________________

Be sure to check out the “idea of the week” and “website of the week” at www.energizetheclassroom.com .

-Paul Richmond

 E.T.C.