This year, I’ve been teaching entirely virtual. Our district decided to open with distance learning and we’ve stayed that way all year so far. There are rumors about going back into the classroom, but at this point, they are just rumors with no return date in sight. Our district purchased all kinds of technology for us, which is great, including Seesaw. But, a site that I love, and our district didn’t purchase, unfortunately, is Boom Cards (wow.boomlearning.com). Basically, they are auto-correcting task cards. A no-brainer, really!

The Gist

• Boom Cards are auto-correcting task cards.
• With an upgraded, low-cost membership, you can view student reports.
• Affordable and free decks are available (decks are the equivalent of a set of task cards.)
• Easy for the kids to use (they need a username and password that you, the teacher, create).
• Free play is available for free accounts, but there are no reports with that option.

Since everything we do is online, our direct instruction through Zoom and all assignments through Seesaw, Boom Cards was just another option I could use for tasks that are graded for me. This is super important, because one thing I really brainstormed this summer was how to grade the work students submitted without becoming overwhelmed. The crazy thing is, that teaching virtually means more grading, versus being in the classroom. As long as the students begin the set of task cards, a report is generated so that I know how many they completed, and how many they got correct.

First let me point out that I assign all activities, including links to other activities and websites, via Seesaw. It’s basically where our classroom “lives.” Our school uses a management system, but it’s not very user-friendly for elementary students, so I post everything in Seesaw, including links to Boom Cards.

Now, with Boom Cards, I upgraded my membership so that I could not only assign decks, I could create them as well. This was important to me because one of the primary reasons I wanted to use Boom Cards was for math sprints. Our district started a new math program this year (great timing!), Eureka, and the sprints are important for math fluency. I wasn’t sure how I was going to administer sprints without wasting our precious Zoom time. Solution: Boom Cards. I basically copied the sprints onto Boom Cards and then assign them as independent work. It’s not a perfect way to assign sprints, but it works while we are not in the classroom.

Creating my own decks was a little bit of a learning experience on the Boom Cards platform, but it wasn’t too challenging. I’d rate the difficulty of navigating Boom Cards for the teacher somewhere between easy-ish to moderate (there is a learning curve on the teacher-end), but easy for the kids to use. I’ve also been able to turn other task cards I’ve used in the past into Boom Cards, which has been helpful. I love task cards, but I think I love Boom Cards even more.