10 Reasons I LOVE Google Jamboard

1. Sticky Notes - I love the sticky notes feature. So do the students! It is an awesome way to get immediate feedback from students during discussions

2. The drawing tool - You can write on the jamboard using the drawing tool. It has 6 different colors to choose from and you can also make it a pen, marker, highlighter, or brush stroke.

3. Setting graph paper as background - I am a math teacher so I love that you can set graph paper to be the background. Jamboard also has dots, lines, blue and black backgrounds to choose from. The best part is you can upload images as the background. This is great for people who already use Slides.

4. Setting any image as the background - Okay I know I just mentioned this above. But it is a pretty recent upgrade Jamboard made. Google did a great job of listening to what us teachers needed on this one! You can upload any image you want as a background. Have a Printable PDF you want to use for virtual kiddos? Use the snipping tool to take a screenshot, save as an image, and upload as JAmboard background and BOOM! You just turned it into a virtual assignment

5. Students can draw on slides - I mentioned the drawing tool above but the best part is that students can use this tool to write on the Slides. I believe you can have up to 50 people accessing the same Jamboard at once. This works really well for students to show work either for homework or showing work on a test! Also I love to use this as an immediate feedback tool! I use Jamboard daily in my class for warm ups and exit tickets!

6. Collaboration - Briefly mentioned above but this does need its own bullet point. You can modify the share settings so that anyone can edit your Jamboard. I like to assign a few different students to each slide when doing group work and students can work together whether they are virtual or in person.

7. Can make a copy - You can make a copy of your Jamboard to share with people or use templates. I like to have students turn in work on Jamboard, for this I will create a template. The template may change slightly from one assignment to another so the make a copy feature comes in handy here. This one also took me a while to find so I figured I would share it here for you just in case!

8. Text boxes, shapes, images - Similar to Slides, you can insert text boxes, shapes, and copy and paste almost anything into a Jamboard. The text is slightly limited on the sizes and fonts, but it gets the job done!

9. Pointer tool - I honestly do not know the name of this feature but it is the one that allows you to draw attention to things. It is basically a highlighter/ pointer/ laser feature? I love it for my math class once I have written my notes and am re-explaining something. I can point and “draw” on the slide briefly without making a mess of the slide.

10. App on Phone - You can install Google Jamboard on your phone! If you have a stylus, you can write reallllyyyyy good on the Jamboards! This has come in CLUTCH for virtual learning on the occasions I have had to work from home due to possible COVID exposure (at school- LOL) I just share the Jamboard screen on Google Meets, open the app and same Jamboard on my phone, pull out the stylus and I can write all over the place!

Disclaimer and Downfalls - There are other things I may have have forgot to mention but these are my favorite things I love about Jamboard. The only downfall that I have found for Google Jamboard would be that each Jam is limited to only 20 pages. Also, If you have big classes I believe that it can only have 50 people accessing the Jamboard at the same time so that may hinder you as well! Other than that - I love all things Jamboard and I cannot rave about it enough! Thank you for coming to my TED- talk!

Here is an example of a Jamboard I would use on any given day in my Algebra class, it includes a warm up, mini - lesson, and an exit ticket! This particular lesson is over the Steps to Solving a System of Linear Equations. My students really liked this lesson! Click on the link inside of the PDF to make a copy!