Edpuzzle & Blendspace Emaze Presentation!
Technology in the Classroom
Sunday, April 2, 2017
STEM & iPads!
First of all what is STEM?
STEM stands for science, technology, engineering, and math, and the combination
of these opportunities provide excellent leaning experiences for students. STEM
activities are great for any grade, because they can be as simple or complex as
the teacher needs them to be. They also can be implemented across all areas of
the curriculum, because it combines so many skills and learning occasions that
students need to be exposed to in the classroom. STEM activities can be implemented
in the classroom for early finishers, center time, morning work, behavior
incentives, and fine motor practice. Students absolutely love having STEM
challenges implemented in their classroom schedule. There are also various ways
to incorporate the use of iPads into STEM challenges. Just a few ideas consist
of the Seesaw app, using the infrared feature on the camera, using the slow motion
feature on the camera, the Pic Collage app, digital story telling apps to
explain the process that was used for the STEM challenge, the timer or
stopwatch feature, and the level feature on the compass. I have already incorporated
STEM challenges in the classroom before, and I absolutely love the learning experience
that it gives the students. These challenges provide endless opportunities for
the students, and I am very excited to implement STEM challenges and the use of
iPads in my own classroom. Implementing the use of iPads in STEM challenges
allows students to use critical thinking, creativeness, communication, and
collaboration. The students use critical thinking and creativeness throughout
the entire STEM challenge while using the engineering design process. This
process consists of the steps of asking, imagining, planning, creating, and
improving. The students are able to communicate and collaborate with their
peers are they work in their cooperative groups to solve the STEM challenge.
There is so much learning built up in this one activity, and I believe that STEM
challenges should be implemented in all classrooms of all grade levels. We all
know that there is so much to get done during the school day, and yet there
does not feel like there is nearly enough time to get all of the curriculum taught
and for students to enjoy the process of learning. Well, STEM challenges makes
all of this happen. By STEM challenges combining science, technology, engineering,
and math, teachers are able to teach the many areas of the curriculum and
combine it into one lesson. This allows the teachers to make the lesson more engaging
and interactive for the students. STEM challenges and iPads provide endless
learning opportunities for students, and the students are eager to be exposed
to these learning experiences. It is the teacher’s responsibility to take
notice to the need that students have for these types of learning experiences,
and implement them whenever and wherever they can have a beneficial purpose in
the classroom’s schedule. There are more STEM jobs today than ever before, and
there will be more when these students are going to college and getting jobs.
Teachers need to help better prepare their students for the STEM enriched job opportunities
in the future.
This link provides 50 of the best iPad apps for STEM challenges! For example Seismograph, 3D Sun, 3D Brain, and much more!
The Flipped Classroom!
In the traditional classroom
the steps follow as I do (teacher), we do (teacher and students), and you do
(students). However in the flipped classroom, the steps follow as you do
(students), we do (students and teacher), and I do (teacher). The flipped
classroom creates a great learning environment for the classroom, and I am very
interested in seeing how it works in my own classroom one day. Implementing the
flipped classroom in your own classroom allows the students to take ownership
of their learning, and allows more exploring opportunities in the classroom.
The flipped classroom enhances student and teacher interactions, and increases
the students’ learning experience as a whole. The classroom becomes the
students’ work space to practice and use their new knowledge. This experience
allows more hands on activities to take place in the classroom, and the
students become more cautious of their performance in their education. The
flipped classroom promotes collaboration, communication, critical thinking, and
creativeness. The students are able to be involved in more collaborative opportunities
with their peers by being introduced to the material at home, and applying it
with other students at school. These opportunities then opens up more
communication between the students with their other peers and also the teacher
and the students. The students are also able to think critically and be creative
as they introduce their self to the material and apply it in more interactive
ways at school. The flipped classroom levels the playing field for all the
students in the classroom. For instance, some students go home with homework and
have no one at home to assist or answer questions. While other students go home
and have parents there to provide any assistance
they need. Implementing the flipped classroom lets all students apply their new
knowledge and receive any assistance by their peers or teacher whenever it is
needed. A few apps that can assist your traditional classroom becoming a
flipped classroom includes Ask 3, Go Class, and Google Classroom. Ask 3 turns
the iPad into a guided whiteboard that allows the teacher to add text,
drawings, and narration for the lesson’s content. Go Class can be used as an
app on the iPad or as a website on the computer. This program lets teachers
create lessons and assess the students right at that moment. Google Classroom
allows teachers to upload files, videos, and assignments all in one place. This
program is free for any schools that are using Google apps for education.
Although incorporating the flipped classroom will be a learning curve for both
the students and the teachers, and something that the whole classroom would have
to get used to, I think that it would be worth it. The new change would have to
be slowly integrated for the students, and the teacher would have to model and
explain the purpose and the expectations. However, over time I think that both
the students and the teacher would greatly benefit by flipping the classroom.
It puts more of a focus on the students and taking responsibility of their education.
This link includes everything you need to know about making your classroom a flipped classroom! Why it will benefit your students, apps to use, and how to start flipping your own class.
Dyslexia
& iPads!
IPads can greatly benefit learning in the classroom, but
iPads can also be very helpful for students with dyslexia. This condition is
often misunderstood, so in turn people are confused as to what to do to help a student
that faces it daily. Dyslexia is a condition that affects the way the brain
processes words. The student may appear to be bright or highly intelligent, but
seem unable to read, write, or spell on their grade level. This is absolutely true,
students with dyslexia can be smart and capable kids, and usually they are because
of the obstacles they overcome on a daily basis. The main thing to remember about
students that face dyslexia, is that it by no means reflects their
intelligence. It is a condition that affects the way that their brain processes
words, and if helped they can work to overcome it. Students with dyslexia have
difficulty manipulating letters and numbers. However, there are ways in the classroom
that the teacher can assist students as they learn how to process words, read,
write, and spell on their grade level. One great tool that can be used in
several ways to do this, is the iPad. There are tons of apps and features on
iPads to assist students with dyslexia in the classroom. Let’s first take a
look at what features iPads already have that can benefit students with
dyslexia. IPads are great for all learners, but they already have built in
features that are great to use to assist students that are trying to overcome
dyslexia. The recording feature can be used to record the teacher reading a
story, students can use the microphone feature on notes so that they can record
their answers for activities, and students can use the camera feature to take
pictures of activities and enlarge the photo to view larger print. These are
just a few great features that iPads already have installed and that are ready
to assist learning in the classroom. A few apps that can assist students with dyslexia
includes the following: See Touch Learn (free), Phonics Genius (free), Dragon
Dictation (free), Read to Kids ($0.99), and Mod Math (free). See Touch Learn
allows teachers to customize lessons to fit each child’s needs. Teachers can also
purchase pre-made lessons for a low price of $2.99. Phonics Genius allows
students to use a pre-loaded word list or a word list that is loaded by the teacher.
The students are then able to practice pronouncing the words as they see the
words and are exposed to the words more often. Dragon Dictation allows students
to record their response to short answer or essay type questions. Read to Kids
allows students to record their self reading a story. The student can then use
this recording to go back and listen to whenever they need to do so. Mod Math
allows students to work on math problems digitally. Once it is completed, the students
can print the activity off or email the activity to their teacher. I already
had planned to implement iPads in my classroom instruction, but after seeing
how much they can assist students with dyslexia, I see more opportunities to use
them in the classroom. I am excited to implement the apps Mod Math, Dragon Dictation,
and See Touch Learn in my classroom. Using iPads to assist students with dyslexia
allows these students to be creative in the way that they overcome the obstacles
they face. They are able to use critical thinking as they use Dragon Dictation
to record their response to questions. IPads give these students an opportunity
to record their response and reading, which ultimately gives these students the
opportunity to communicate and collaborate with other students on the content learned
in the classroom.
This link provides 5 great apps to help students with dyslexia. Including Phonics Genius, Openweb, and Predictable.
A great video of a little boy using an iPad to overcome dyslexia!
Saturday, April 1, 2017
Mystery Skype!
Mystery
skype is an educational game invented by teachers where students have to guess
where the other classroom is from by asking the class questions about their
location. This educational, interactive, and engaging game helps students to
better understand other cultures around the world. There is even a translator
feature to assist with any language barrier that may come up during the mystery
skype session. Before beginning to incorporate mystery skype sessions in your
classroom, it is important to discuss with the students what exactly will be
taking place, the expectations you have for your students, how the students
need to behave, and what each student should be doing during the mystery skype
session. It is a good idea to give each student a job when implementing mystery
skype in the classroom, so that each student has a purpose and can be involved
in this exciting experience. If students do not have jobs assigned to them
prior to the session, an exciting and fun experience could quickly become a
very hectic experience without any resolution in the mystery. To prevent this
exciting opportunity from becoming hectic, the teacher can assign the following
jobs: greeter/ closer, question creator, question asker, runner, google mapper,
globe looker, atlas flipper, dot jotter, observer, and the hypothesis maker. In
addition to letting your class skype with another classroom in another state or
country, you can also let your class mystery skype with an author or
illustrator. The teacher can read a variety of books by different authors to
the students. Then schedule a mystery skype session with one of them, but not
tell the students which one it will be with. The students can then ask
questions about the books until they discover which author or illustrator they
are talking to. This would be an exciting experience for the students, and
could get students to discover new books that they would like to read by that
same author. I can definitely see myself using mystery skype in my classroom. I
feel like I would be just as excited as the students would be about a mystery
skype session. I would like to implement mystery skype with another classroom,
an author or illustrator, meteorologist, and public figures in the community. I
feel that these mystery skype session help to build a close and collaborative classroom
environment. The students will quickly learn that in order for us all to solve
the mystery, the whole class has to be friendly and work together. The students
must be able to think critically when using the maps to figure out where a
classroom is from or which book that the particular author wrote. They also
must be creative when developing their questions, because they can only ask questions
that have a yes or no answer. Communication is used, because the students are constantly
communicating with their peers and the person or group of people that they are
mystery skyping. Collaboration is used, because the students will have to learn
how to collaborate or work with their peers in order to be successful with this
activity. Mystery skype leads to endless engaging learning experiences that the
students will be sure to remember!
This teacher's blog is literally everything you would ever need to know about mystery skype. How to start, how to find partners to skype, why to use mystery skype, and much more!
A glance at some ideas of questions asked for a mystery skype session!
Digital Storytelling!
Digital
storytelling can be explained as multimedia movies that combine photographs,
video, animation, sound effects, music, text, and voice over. This type of
technology can be made to meet various classroom needs. Digital storytelling can
be implemented in the following ways: a virtual tour of a country or historical
place, public service announcement, storyboard, to show new knowledge, simulate
an interview of a historical character, explain classroom rules, book summary
or review, and even social stories. By the looks of all of the needs that can
be met with digital storytelling, it would be crazy for any teacher to not use
digital storytelling in the classroom! Digital storytelling can be tailored to
meet the needs of both lower and higher elementary grades, as well as with any
subject area. Some digital storytelling apps include the following: Storybird
(free), Animation & Drawing Doink ($4.99), Mystory (free), and Teallagami
(free). All of these are great digital storytelling apps, and this is not even
half of the apps that are out there for this purpose. There are so many more
digital storytelling apps out there, it just depends on what your personal
preference is, and what your students are creating with them. I really like the
Teallagami storytelling app. I feel that this one is very user friendly, and
that it meets the needs of the digital storytelling activities I would like to implement
in my classroom. I can see myself using Teallagami to provide digital
storytelling experiences in my classroom by implementing activities such as: virtual tours of a country or historical places,
to simulate an interview of a historical character, book reviews, and social
stories. Digital storytelling creates endless opportunities for the students in
the classroom. The students are able to share their knowledge that they gained
from the content in the instruction, share their knowledge in unique ways, and
create a product that engages the students while also leading them to another
learning experience as they are creating their digital story. Digital
storytelling also allows the students to learn important 21st
century skills. The students are able to be creative as they create their digital
story and use the many features that are included to personalize their digital story.
Critical thinking is used as they brainstorm the topic they are addressing, and
how the design and layout needs to be for their digital story. The students are
also communicating, as they are recording their voice to serve as the voice
over for the digital story. Lastly, the students are collaborating as they work
in cooperative groups to make decisions with their peers as they create their digital
story. After students create these digital stories, the students can then
present their stories to the class. This opportunity would also allow for the
skills of communication and collaboration to be used once more in this learning
experience. Digital storytelling allows students to explore different ways of how
to show their knowledge, while also being able to express their self and put
their own creative touch into the product.
The link below lists the top 17 free apps for digital storytelling! Browse through them and see which app is the best one for your students!
Still need some more reasons as to why implementing digital storytelling in your classroom is such a great idea? Well check out this link to read 6 more reasons why digital storytelling is so great!
Student-led Conferences and Digital
Portfolios: Let the student do the learning and the talking!
Student-led
conferences are exactly what they sound like they are, the students did the
learning, so they are the ones talking about their leaning in the conference. During
these conferences, the students tell their parents and teacher about their
academic growth and the knowledge that they have gained so far in the school
year. This opportunity allows students to be responsible for their learning and
to reflect on their performance in the classroom. The students will talk for
the whole entire meeting, they will choose what they will discuss within the
teacher’s guidelines, they will put together the portfolio, and the teacher
will guide the student in preparation for the conference. The student will
discuss what is going good with their academics, what they need to work on, their
goals they have for themselves, what they need help or assistance with either
at home or at school, and their social skills in the classroom. At first this sounds
like a lot for students to be capable of doing, but this takes a lot of
practice and preparation throughout the school year in order for the conference
to be successful and beneficial. When the time is taken to model, guide, and
apply the expectations of a student-led conference, the students can really present
an outstanding presentation. I would love to implement this in my classroom because
it is a great learning experience for the students. It brings more open and
honest communication between the student, parents, and teacher, greatly boosts the
students’ confidence, and allows the students to be more active in their education.
I feel that all teachers should consider implementing student-led conferences,
because not only does it help the student’ academics, but also their communication
skills, social skills, and gives them a source of responsibility that they take
pride in. The use of digital portfolios can make the preparation for the student-led
conference a lot easier. A digital portfolio is electronic evidence that is
assembled and managed on the web. Seesaw is a great app that can connect the
line from the digital portfolio to the student-led conference. This app is a
student driven digital portfolio for students to use to show their evidence of
work to back up what they are discussing in their student-led conference. Student-led
conferences and digital portfolios allow students to be creative and design the
whole conference to meet what they want to be the outcome of the conference.
Students are able to use critical thinking strategies as they go through the planning
process and think about what they want to talk about and what they want to
include in the conference as they create their digital portfolio. They are able
to learn great communication and collaboration skills as they prepare to lead
this conference in front of their parents and teacher. Student-led conferences and digital portfolios
provide such an incredible learning experience for students to learn academic
knowledge, social skills, and 21st century skills.
The link below provides the steps as to how to get student-led conferences started up in your own classroom! A video is also included to for those of us that are visual learners, and want to actually see how its done!
This link tells us about 8 different apps that are out there to use for digital portfolios! Evernote, Voicethread, and Kid blog are just a few that this website tells us about.
Integrating
interactive student response systems in t he classroom, provides an engaging and
collaborative opportunity for students and the assessment of their learning. A
few of these student response systems include the following: Kahoot,
Socreative, Poll Everywhere, Quiz Socket, Google Docs, Plickers, Nearpod, and
Clickers. These response systems allow all of the students in the classroom to
engage and participate in the lesson, and for the students to receive instant
feedback on their learning. Kahoot allows you to create your own assessment or
use one of the pre-made assessments. This program is free and can be used on
computers, smart phones, iPads, or other brands of tablets. Kahoot can be used
in the classroom as a pre-assessment or as a post assessment. This response
system saves all of the data collected on your assessments. This means that the
teacher can see the academic growth made throughout a unit by using an assessment
both before and after it is taught, and the academic growth throughout the
whole year. Kahoot can be implemented across all areas of the curriculum taught
in the classroom and for any grade level. Socrative allows groups to work
together as the teacher assigns quizzes to the students. This app can also be
used with all areas of the curriculum in the classroom. Plickers is one student
response system that does not require the use of devises. So if your school is
not a 1:1 school or has a lack of technology devices, then this is a great
response system to use and it still has the same perks of the other ones. The
way that this one does not use devices, is that the students hold up cards that
resemble QR codes. The students will have a card for choices a, b, c, and d.
They will then hold up the card that they believe signifies the correct answer.
The teacher will then use a QR scanner to do a quick scan of the classroom. The
teacher’s device will then record the data taken from each student, to show the
amount of students that picked each answer choice. Poll Everywhere offer several
assessment tool options to cater to any teacher’s needs. These options include
multiple choice, true/false, free response, and a poll option. Teachers can incorporate
this by having a pre/post assessment, seeing the background knowledge that is represented
in the class, and by serving as students’ morning work. The usage of student
response systems in the classroom, creates a more comfortable assessment and
feedback environment for all students, and this is why I think that they should
be used in all classrooms. Those students that tend to be a little shy when
speaking up in the classroom, can greatly benefit from student response systems
being implemented within the instruction. These student response apps and
websites allow students to participate in answering questions within the instruction,
and allow them to not be afraid of being wrong or what other students will
think about their response. These opportunities also allow the students to
become really engaged and interested in the assessment portion of the
instruction. Student response systems can be used with any subject and with any
grade level. They save the data from the assessments and get the students actively
involved in their learning. I will definitely be using these student response systems
in my classroom to assess my students before, during, and after the content is
delivered. My students will be able to be creative when answering free response
or open ended type questions, they will be able to use critical thinking when
taking these types of assessments, and they will be able to collaborate and communicate
with other students while working on group assessment tasks.
This link includes seven student response systems that will work with all devices. So whether your school is an Apple school or a Google school, these should all work great for your classroom! Some of these include Kahoot, Mentimeter, and Poll Everywhere.
Nearpod!
The Nearpod app is an interactive presentation tool that provides tons of beneficial experiences for the 21st century classroom. Using Nearpod in the classroom, makes it easy to integrate virtual field trips, lessons, assessing students’ learning, quizzes, tests, polls, discussions, open ended questions, and instant feedback for both students and teachers. This app can be referenced as a combination of all the perks that Kahoot, PowerPoint, Brainpop, and YouYube provide for a lesson presentation in the classroom. Not only can you create your very own presentations that are catered to your students and can include as many of the features as you want, but you also have access to ready to teach lesson presentations for a small price. So whether you are the super creative teacher that can design a presentation that goes above and beyond, or if you are the teacher that needs a little assistance with getting creative ideas, all teachers can benefit from using Nearpod in the classroom. The custom made presentations or the ready to teach lessons will be sure to be an engaging presentation that will grab your students’ attention! As far as your access to the app itself, the silver package, which is the basic package, is absolutely free! This app can be accessed on any device, including iPads, computers, and or any other tablet brand. So if your school is not 1:1 or does not have a large amount of technology devices, the students could bring their own device on scheduled bring your own device days. Nearpod keeps students engaged, gives the students the opportunity for interactive lesson experiences, and holds the students accountable for their learning. These areas are greatly benefited by how easy accessible it is for students. The teacher’s Nearpod presentations can be accessed both in the classroom and at home by a live access code that will be provided to the students by the teacher. This becomes very helpful as the students work at home and review the presentations at their own pace, or at school as the teacher controls the pace of the presentation during the lesson’s instruction. Nearpod creates such a great interactive leaning opportunity for students, and I cannot wait to use it in the classroom. This app puts every needed aspect into one place, which makes it easy on the students and teachers. It combines the continuous steps of planning, teaching, and assessing all into one. Teachers are able to see the progress that is being made within their class, provide feedback for their students, and always have documentation from the assessing features it includes. Integrating Nearpod in my classroom, will allow me to create engaging presentations that consist of polls, discussions, quizzes, and open ended questions. Using this app in the classroom allows both the students and teacher to be creative either when creating projects or lessons for the classroom. The students are able to use critical thinking when actively participating in the open ended questions or discussions by sharing their thoughts within the presentation’s features. The discussions and polls also allow the students to collaborate and communicate with the other students, and see other students’ thoughts and ideas about topics.
This link provides a teacher's insights as to why Nearpod is great for the classroom! Including a glimpse of how easy accessible it is, what Nearpod has to offer, and how it paces learning in the classroom.
This link includes 10 ways to use Nearpod in the classroom. Including providing resources for the class, the many assessment perks, and a collaborative learning environment for teachers.
The GREEN Screen Technology!
The green screen technology is exactly what you are
thinking it is. That ‘big green sheet’ that is used in movie making and the
news, but how can that be used in the classroom? Well first let’s go over the
things that you will need in order to implement this great technology in the
classroom, and then we will go over the many diverse ways it can be used in the
classroom. Of course to start off you will need a green screen. You can use a
blue or green screen, but a green screen is the one that is most commonly used.
Then you will need a web cam, florescent lights, and a video editing software. At
first glance, the materials that are needed for this experience in the
classroom seem a little pricey. Which it true, but there are ways to get the
materials even if the school has to purchase a few sets and it is shared among
the school. Another idea is fundraising or asking for donations from the community.
People are more prone to helping with funds if they know that it is going
towards an engaging learning experience for the students in their community.
Most schools already have this equipment for the students that are involved in
the school news. If teachers and schools realized the endless possibilities
that green screens can bring to the classroom besides school news, then schools
would have more green screen technology sets for teachers to have access to. So
what are some ways that this green screen technology can bring engaging
learning opportunities for students to create, collaborate, communicate, and
use critical thinking in the classroom? Students can use green screen
technology to retell stories, reenact historical moments, learn about the
different cultures of their classmates, make a book trailer, create book talks
to get other students interested in a variety of books, and of course the one
that everyone knows about, the school news. The students will learn the content
that is needed for whatever they are creating a video on, the students will
then work together in collaborative groups in creating the video, and lastly
the students will work together to edit the video and attach the background
that is needed for the video. Throughout this experience, the level of student
learning is extremely high. The students are learning the content, how to
communicate and collaborate with other students on a task, and using critical thinking
in creating and editing the video. Students are taking what they learned and
creating a product to show their knowledge of not only the content, but also
their ability of using the green screen technology materials. This classroom learning
experience combines both the material the students need to learn, and the 21st
century skills that our students desire to be exposed to. I can see myself
incorporating the green screen technology in my classroom to allow my students
to reenact historical moments. I am a firm believer that if you make learning
engaging and active, that the knowledge will stick with the students and they
will show an eagerness to learn. I absolutely love the idea of implementing the
green screen technology to provide students with a more engaging way to learn
about history. I can also see myself implementing this technology to allow my
students to do book trailers. This will allow my students to share books that
they really enjoyed, and to get other students interested in a book that they
may not have picked up on their own.
Below is a scholastic link with a lot of great tips and ideas about the green screen. Including information about the app Do Ink, pictures of the green screen action taking place, how this experience backs up the 4 c's, and much more!
This link lists 7 creative and cheap ways to have a green screen in your classroom!
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