Come learn about my FAVORITE technology tools for digital communication and collaboration with elementary students. Use these tools with Chromebooks, laptops, computers and some can even be used with iPads. Global learning is making its way into the classroom and we need to make sure our students are prepared so they can make the most of these authentic learning experiences!
Introduction to Schoology: A learning management system allows you to run a virtual classroom while managing administrative tasks such as taking attendance, inputting, and recording grades. Choosing a learning management system is tough. In the past, I started out using Edmodo. It was ahead of current tech trends and allowed a constant relationship ... Read more
Through the use of Collaborative Google Slides, my students were empowered them to take control of their content and learning.
Why is digital literacy important? With the advancement in technology over the years, we now live in a world that is both enriched and burdened by computers and gadgets. The domination of technology in our
Technology in the classroom constantly changes and so are the classroom tech tools that we use every day with our students.
Choice is the unspoken 5th "C" of digital learning. It fits right alongside Collaboration, Critical Thinking, Creativity, and Communication.
Technology came front and center this past spring as teachers everywhere suddenly turned into remote learning specialists managing the ups and downs of all things digital. While eLearning did have a learning curve, the sudden thrust does have many teachers bringing their digital distance teaching knowledge back into the classroom… whenever that will be. ... Read more
We're mixing pen and paper with digital in our blended classrooms, and everything's going great. At first (for me) it was just about throwing in some digital
Want students to express ideas and collaborate digitally with each other? This post goes over how to use padlet for collaborating digitally
This is a list of my Google digital activities that can be used in the elementary classroom. Disperse to your students via Google Classroom, Google Drive Shared Folder, your Learning Platform, etc..
Google Slides Did you know that Google Slides can be used for much more than just presentations? Google Slides is one of the most flexible learning tools in the G Suite. In fact, I used
Find recommended free digital resources for 4th and 5th grade teachers that you can integrate into your lessons while distance teaching.
Canva is FREE for teachers and students, and their templates are beautiful, user-friendly, and great for the classroom! In this 2-part series, Kasey shares 30+ ways to use FREE Canva templates in your classroom, including graphic organizers, choice boards, certificates, and more!
Want to know more about a platform that students can use digitally to work on concepts you assign them? Read more here about Boom Learning!
SlidesGo has free downloadable Google Slides and PowerPoint templates for education, business, marketing and even the medical field!
Need a way to engage your students and motivate them to learn. Use try using games to woo them into learning by incorporating technology in the classroom.
Looking for the most important classroom technology tools and skills to teach your students. Here is how I start my year.
I have been using OneNote as my planner since October 2015. This has made me more organised and has made it easier for me to plan lessons. In this post, I will give some examples of my planning pro…
Hey, all! I hope you’re doing well! Summer has officially started in the Petty family, and we’re well, basically not doing anything differently than we were during self-isolation. If we’re able to safely have in-person classes this fall (fingers crossed!) I’ll need to retrain my teacher bladder and grow accustomed to NOT taking an afternoon ... Read More about MUST-HAVE Chrome Extension
I loved writing out a good lesson plan. And I was always disappointed when an administrator didn't look in my plan book on my desk for the lesson plan. There was some art (and a few arrows) there - and my boss missed it. If you are trying out Blended Learning in your classroom and
Using MoveNote in the Classroom to record presentations. GAFE integration. Technology in the Classroom
Using Google Slides and Seesaw activities for preschool, pre-k, kindergarten and 1st grade is a great way to integrate technology into education. Not to mention it's perfect when you don't want to or CAN'T print a bunch of papers. Google Slides activities and Seesaw activities are easy to send to your students and you can
Digital lessons made simple and effective. Learn how to use Padlet to teach a digital lesson with student interaction and feedback.
Branching Google Forms are a fantastic way to differentiate assessment and reflection in my classroom. Linear forms are great, but not every...
Credit: The 3AM Teacher, Zip-ah-dee-doo-dah Designs, KG Fonts, Hello Fonts It's no secret that I use my iPad ALL the time in my classroom. Some teachers are REALLY lucky and they have a cart of iPads or a class set. I only have one Wi-Fi iPad (my personal iPad) to use with my kiddos but we make it work! Before we begin let me say that I am lucky to have a Smartboard and projector in my classroom. I bought this handy little gadget to hook my iPad up to the Smartboard which helps ALOT to make the iPad more accessible to all students. This is a VGA adapter for the iPad, you can get it from the Apple website or at Best Buy. Now that we're hooked up, here are 10 of my favorite apps/activities using my iPad that benefit all the kids in my classroom. 1. iBooks This is a free app to download from the iTunes. Any read aloud book I read this year (Magic Tree House, etc.) I downloaded it from iBooks. To help with cost, I asked for iTunes gift cards for my birthday, Christmas and as a wish item for my classroom. When we read the book aloud, I would hook up to the projector so my kiddos could see the books much better than if I just held it for them. Sometimes my kiddos would read along on the Smartboard or have a specific set of questions they were working on while we read it aloud. I found that my kiddos were so much more engaged when I projected books onto the Smartboard. 2. mClass Assessment My district uses the mClass 3D Reading assessment (which also includes Diebels Next) as the K-3 reading assessment for our kiddos. I originally used a mini-laptop and a Bamboo tablet before I found out that I could use my iPad! This quickly became the only way to assess since it was so much easier! Sometimes I use a stylus when assessing but you could use your finger just as easily. (Note: my school also has Wi-Fi which makes it easy to sync, if you do not have Wi-Fi at your school you can sync when you take it home to your personal Wi-Fi or whenever you are in a Wi-Fi range) HERE are the directions to get the mClass button on your iPad. 3. Storia I have talked many times of my love for Scholastic Book Clubs, well the Storia app has added to that love. I send home Scholastic Book Clubs every month and my kiddos order books. I can spend my points to get FREE e-books using the Storia app, which I then project onto the Smartboard and read aloud to my class. They also offer some books with audio. 4. Class Dojo About halfway through the year my kids grow a little tired of all the incentives I offer for good behavior. Around January I set up Class Dojo for a new, fresh approach. Now that Class Dojo is available as a FREE app it has gotten even better! The best part of this app is that I can I project my class dojo page on the Smartboard and then open the app on my iPad. While I am sitting with my iPad and teaching small group (which is usually the time that is most difficult for classroom management) I can give Dojo points by clicking on my iPad and it shows up on the Smartboard! I don't have to say anything, I just teach my small group, do a quick scan of the rest of my kids working on centers and give a few points (or take a few points) as needed. As soon as my kids hear the "ding" of points being given it becomes super quiet! It also has an option to pick a random student, no more popsicle sticks! If I need to call on a student, I open Class Dojo and pick at random! 5. Brain Pop Jr. App We LOVE some Brain Pop Jr. in my class!! Usually I just project the website using my computer but sometimes I want to watch a video while teaching small group. I teach small group reading and math instruction everyday so I spend a lot of time at my horseshoe table. (Note: you must have a subscription to access all the brain pop videos, but there is also a FREE Brain pop video of the week you can watch each week if you don't have a subscription). 6. Small Group Instruction I use my iPad ALOT in small group. I play short videos from Grammar Jammers, read short stories from iBooks/Storia or use skill specific apps depending on my kiddos needs. So, how do we do this without disrupting ALL the other kids who are working independently and want to see what's on the iPad?? We plug in headphones using this fancy splitter! I have heard of some teachers requiring students to bring a pair of headphones to school like any other school supply at the beginning of the year so that they have headphones ready to go when using a headphone splitter. I bought headphones from Dollar Tree so I would have enough to use, they aren't the most durable but they get the job done! 7. Tap Roulette App This is the simplest app but it is AMAZING! Do you ever have an argument in your classroom that you don't want to solve?? Well this app will solve it for you! Have whichever kids are arguing put one of their fingers on the iPad and you click "Pick Finger". The iPad will flash and then pick one of the fingers, solving the argument by random selection! If you need to solve a simple problem (who was there first?? who should get the first pick?? who gets the red crayon first?? ) then this app is a lifesaver! 8. Pandora Radio My kiddos LOVE listening to music! Sometimes we dance to pop music, play freeze dance, play musical numbers/words/operations and other times we write while listening to soothing classical music. I plug my computer speakers into my headphone jack on the iPad, we choose a kid friendly station and we are good to go! Pandora has it all! (Note: Wi-Fi is needed to access Pandora) 9. Mad Libs This is another app that I project to practice our parts of speech as a whole group or for just a fun brain break. This is a great review of the different parts of speech. There are many FREE stories and also ones you can buy. I usually move around the room and choose different students to fill in each blank. They always find the final story to be hilarious : ) 10. QR Codes I found myself incorporating QR codes into more and more activities last year. My kids were fascinated with them. QR codes are SUPER easy to make using THIS website. And I usually make QR codes with answers or hidden riddles for different centers/activities around the room. I don't let the kids walk around with my iPad scanning them because I know kids sometimes drop things and I would be so sad if my iPad dropped on the floor and broke. These FREE QR codes were fun to use for test prep and then I used these QR codes in HERE to countdown the last 10 days of school! The countdown codes were a big hit at the end of the year. I also have some ideas for them in the upcoming school year! And that's how we do it folks! I hope I have given you a few new ideas for how to use 1 iPad in your classroom of many!
The authors of The Coach Approach provide insight into their favorite technology tools for instructional coaches and best practices for school coaching.
Come learn about some creative ways educators are using Wakelet in the classroom!
5 Reasons to Use Digital Choice Boards in the Classroom: Personalize learning with digital choice boards and activities. Great way to integrate technology into the classroom while providing a rich learning experience for a variety of learners. Digital differentiation! Think of it like a hyperdoc or hyperslide :)
Integrating technology in the math classroom can go far beyond substitution, digital worksheets, and simple quizzes. In this blog post and episode, my guest, Craig Klement, will share 10 ways to use technology in the math classroom. You will learn about free tools, templates, and lesson ideas you can use across grade levels.
This Elementary Technology Curriculum includes over 200 lessons and activities for grades K-5 that will save you so much time coming up with what to do in the computer lab. It is ideal for a technology teacher, media specialist, tech facilitator, or grade level teachers with mandatory lab time. All of the work is done for you! This is for you if: You want students who can log in, access any programs, type efficiently, and use technology to learn. You want students who are confident in using the technology required for standardized testing. You have limited time– in one 45 minute session per week, your students can develop technology literacy while completing engaging projects. You need it to be effortless for YOU and fun for your students. My name is Brittany Washburn and I’m an educator obsessed with ed tech. This curriculum was created over 3 school years when I had nothing for materials for my technology specials. I was spending my nights and weekends scouring Pinterest and Google for ideas because I knew my students deserved engaging lessons even if I had to do everything from scratch. I found myself exhausted and frustrated and just knew there had to be an easier way. That is when I discovered the magic of having my own class website and screencasting my instructions. I created a modified-flipped-classroom before I even knew that was a thing. Students were working at their own pace and they stopped asking me to repeat instructions. I felt like I had struck gold! I tested and perfected the activities with them and now I’ve made them available to you!
Looking for a free comprehensive K-12 technology curriculum, scope & sequence, or framework? Tasked with creating your school or district technology & computer science curriculum guide? This round up includes a clickable list of various curriculum frameworks, lessons, checklists, etc. for for integrating technology into the classroom. Technology Curriculum Guides Many Teach With Tech Facebook Group discussions and questions revolve around tech curriculum. What curriculum are you using? What standards are you following? Do you have a scope & sequence of tech skills? What lessons are you doing with which grade levels and when? Because many educators have been tasked
A flipped classroom ensures that your students have content before you get "hands-on" with it in the classroom...and it works!
Come grab this free resource that is a collection of my favorite virtual math manipulatives!
My Favorite Creation Apps for the Elementary Classroom
