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!
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