Looking for an alternative to the traditional exit ticket?

As we approach a new year, we are often reminded to have an exit ticket to check for understanding. Many teachers I know use sticky notes from their students. That leaves a paper trail and isn’t really a “green” option if you do it often. I decided having students do their exit tickets digitally made my job easier. Previously, I had students leave me comments in Google Classroom. Depending on the nature of the exit ticket their comments could be public or private. This year, I want to encourage my fellow teachers to try something new. Step out of your comfort zone a bit. One of my goals this year is to expose my students to many different ways of using technology in my classes. I want them to learn how to use their own devices for more than just Snapchat and Instagram.

One alternative that I will be using is Padlet. Padlet is like a virtual bulletin board where students can share ideas. It’s like using sticky notes without the paper trail. I am opting for the free version of Padlet with my school Google account. It only allows you to have three Padlets at no cost. That’s ok because I can always delete old Padlets that I no longer need. I made a sample Padlet here to seek ideas from other educators on how Padlet can be used in different classes.

As I looked at other friends’ Padlet ideas, here’s a great one that I found. Next time I have a guest speaker I am going to create a board for students to send thank you notes to the speaker. I can then share the Padlet with my guest. How cool is that?

PollEverywhere is another app that I have used as an exit ticket when I want to give my students a multiple choice exit ticket. It provides real-time information. This was helpful because I could alter my lesson from period to period depending on student feedback. I used the free account. The downside is that you can only have 25 responses per poll. This required me to create multiple polls for each class period. Sometimes I had to create multiple polls for really large classes. That was difficult at times.

I have also used Twitter for students to Tweet responses to the class as an exit ticket, but I had several students who where not allowed to have social media accounts. I discontinued that as an exit ticket idea so the students were not left out.

NOTE: As I find additional alternatives, I will be updating this article. Feel free to share your ideas with me. I am a life-long learner.