TECHNOLOGY- Useful tools for classroom and personal organization and creativity.
Wordle
I have heard about Wordle before, but have never used it. After watching the YouTube clip, a couple of things came to mind about how I can use it:
- Creating my students' weekly spelling lists, or better yet having them create them!
- Frequently misspelled words for the word wall
- All of my student's name to create a greater sense of community
- My students are currently working on informational texts- this may be a fun cover for their books.
- Vocabulary words related to mysteries that we're reading (detective, sidekick, culprit, etc.)
- Creating my students' weekly spelling lists, or better yet having them create them!
- Frequently misspelled words for the word wall
- All of my student's name to create a greater sense of community
- My students are currently working on informational texts- this may be a fun cover for their books.
- Vocabulary words related to mysteries that we're reading (detective, sidekick, culprit, etc.)
Delicious
I love Delicious. I created an account a few years back because I was worried my computer was going to crash and I didn't want to lose all of my bookmarks! It isn't a site I use all of the time, but I do update it every so often, just in case something happens to my laptop.
When I first thought about how I could use Delicious in my classroom, I couldn't think of anything. Then I started thinking of all of the times I have my students use laptops and I have to write the long URLs on the board, or have to type them in for my students. Delicious would solve this problem! If I created a classroom account, I could link my class website, along with all of the sites I want my students to have access to. Then my students would only have to navigate to the Delicious site to get to everything else. It could be a huge time saver!
Personally, I use delicious to hold all of the websites I access frequently, and not so frequently. Some of my tags are literacy, blogs, school, and units. I tend to collect a lot of websites that I reference every once and a while, so I need a place to organize them and to go quickly to when I need to access them. Delicious is a great place to store and organize them.
I did not know about the possibilities of sharing my bookmarks with others, so now I'm excited to look into that.
When I first thought about how I could use Delicious in my classroom, I couldn't think of anything. Then I started thinking of all of the times I have my students use laptops and I have to write the long URLs on the board, or have to type them in for my students. Delicious would solve this problem! If I created a classroom account, I could link my class website, along with all of the sites I want my students to have access to. Then my students would only have to navigate to the Delicious site to get to everything else. It could be a huge time saver!
Personally, I use delicious to hold all of the websites I access frequently, and not so frequently. Some of my tags are literacy, blogs, school, and units. I tend to collect a lot of websites that I reference every once and a while, so I need a place to organize them and to go quickly to when I need to access them. Delicious is a great place to store and organize them.
I did not know about the possibilities of sharing my bookmarks with others, so now I'm excited to look into that.
Quizlet
I am super excited about Quizlet. I am going to use it for two purposes immediately- multiplication and spelling practice.
After looking around a little bit, I like the options it has available for multiplication. There are basic flash cards for my students to practice with, and there are also games. I wasn't a huge fan of the matching game, simply because there were so many numbers it was overwhelming for me- I can't imagine what it would be like for my students. The other game, though, is timed. The equation scrolls across the screen, and the student needs to type in the answer before it "falls" off. If the student gets the answer wrong, they get more chances to fix their answer. If they don't answer it correctly in time, then the game tells them the correct answer and has them practice- great reinforcement!
I'm also excited about the spelling practice available. My students can always use spelling review. There are plenty of pre-made reviews with high frequency words. I clicked on speller- it will say the word to the student and the student spells the word. It's a great way for my students to practice, and they get to be on the computer. I like that I don't have to set anything up right away, too!
There's potential for some of my students to have extra time tomorrow as we finish publishing our writing pieces, so I think I'll see how it works in practice then!
After looking around a little bit, I like the options it has available for multiplication. There are basic flash cards for my students to practice with, and there are also games. I wasn't a huge fan of the matching game, simply because there were so many numbers it was overwhelming for me- I can't imagine what it would be like for my students. The other game, though, is timed. The equation scrolls across the screen, and the student needs to type in the answer before it "falls" off. If the student gets the answer wrong, they get more chances to fix their answer. If they don't answer it correctly in time, then the game tells them the correct answer and has them practice- great reinforcement!
I'm also excited about the spelling practice available. My students can always use spelling review. There are plenty of pre-made reviews with high frequency words. I clicked on speller- it will say the word to the student and the student spells the word. It's a great way for my students to practice, and they get to be on the computer. I like that I don't have to set anything up right away, too!
There's potential for some of my students to have extra time tomorrow as we finish publishing our writing pieces, so I think I'll see how it works in practice then!
Popplet
Popplet looks like a very cool tool! I think it would be a great way for students to work together on a collaborative project. I also think it would be a great alternative to traditional papers. It seems much more creative and looks like it would a great outlet for students who don't do so well when writing down their thoughts, but still have great ideas to share. I like how visual it is, and that you can visually show connections between ideas; students could use this to their benefit to show how ideas are connected to one another.
I would be a little concerned about where students get their pictures from, and a discussion would have to take place about how to cite information, but this would also create a good learning opportunity to talk about citing sources.
I'm not sure if I can implement this tool into my current classroom, but it is a tool I will need to remember for future classes.
I would be a little concerned about where students get their pictures from, and a discussion would have to take place about how to cite information, but this would also create a good learning opportunity to talk about citing sources.
I'm not sure if I can implement this tool into my current classroom, but it is a tool I will need to remember for future classes.
Dropbox
My husband has been using Dropbox for a while now, and has been trying to convince me to use it. Until now, I haven't really looked into it. I just downloaded the program onto my laptop, and am copying all of my documents from my flashdrive.
I like the ease of using my flashdrive, but have been worried about what would happen if it stopped working. I'm not too worried about losing it, but if it happened to stop working, I would lose years of work. Dropbox seems to solve this problem. I like the fact that it is accessible from anywhere. I'm not certain that I can actually download the program onto my laptop for school, but knowing that I can always go to the website is a huge perk.
I'm not sure I'm ready to give up my flashdrive quite yet, so I'll have to see how I find working with both my flashdrive and Dropbox. I'm excited to see the potential in Dropbox, though, and maybe eventually will get rid of my flashdrive completely.
As far as classroom uses, I see it as a very functional tool for students sending me their work. In the past, because of network issues, I've had to have students e-mail me their work. I imagine it would be easier to use Dropbox so they could send me their work, especially if you could create a separate account just for the classroom; then there wouldn't be a need to worry about passwords, and students accessing other documents.
I like the ease of using my flashdrive, but have been worried about what would happen if it stopped working. I'm not too worried about losing it, but if it happened to stop working, I would lose years of work. Dropbox seems to solve this problem. I like the fact that it is accessible from anywhere. I'm not certain that I can actually download the program onto my laptop for school, but knowing that I can always go to the website is a huge perk.
I'm not sure I'm ready to give up my flashdrive quite yet, so I'll have to see how I find working with both my flashdrive and Dropbox. I'm excited to see the potential in Dropbox, though, and maybe eventually will get rid of my flashdrive completely.
As far as classroom uses, I see it as a very functional tool for students sending me their work. In the past, because of network issues, I've had to have students e-mail me their work. I imagine it would be easier to use Dropbox so they could send me their work, especially if you could create a separate account just for the classroom; then there wouldn't be a need to worry about passwords, and students accessing other documents.