Technology in the classroom constantly changes and so are the classroom tech tools that we use every day with our students.
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.
There are so many fun and engaging apps you can use in the classroom to enhance your students’ learning! The only downside to having so many tools available
I am a technology junky! At any given time you will find a collection of iPads, laptops, iPhones, smart T.V.s, e-readers, you name it. If you haven't read Goodnight iPad by Ann Droyd, you really should. This may very well have taken place in my house. ;) If you aren't sold on the importance of integrating technology in the classroom or have doubts, this video is an absolute MUST!! This video is one of the most powerful videos that I have watched lately. This year I was fortunate to receive Chromebooks for all of my students. Receiving these Chromebooks and feeling the pressure (mostly self-induced) to use them often and effectively was, and still is, overwhelming. To keep my sanity in check, I decided to start small. By starting small, I saved my sanity and also my students'. Whether you have one, two, three or many technology devices available for your students, start small!! To get you started or to simply get your creative technology juices flowing, I have a list of 10 simple ways to integrate technology into the classroom, and they are all free. These tools and resources are great for the classroom that is 1:1 with technology, or the classroom that has only one iPad or tablet. Do you only have one device? Create a center that focuses on the use of technology. 1. Listen/Watch digital stories. There are many free websites available where students can go, choose a book, and listen to the story. Zing and Storyonline are a perfect start! 2. Have students begin with a little research. Provide them with a topic and have them gather 3-5 facts. Here, on Upper Elementary Snapshots, we have a list of child-safe search engines that you can find HERE. 3. Create a Google form for students to choose their lunch choice for the day. 4. Practice math skills on IXL. IXL is a paid subscription, but students can practice for free until they have reached the daily problem limit. 5. Create a Kahoot to review for an upcoming test. They are a hoot and students LOVE them! 6. Have students visit Wonderopolis, read the wonder of the day, and reflect in their writing journal. 7. Create a classroom blog using Google's free Blogger. Post an open-ended reading question for students to comment. 8. For Social Studies, use KidsGeo.com to practice their geography skills. 9. If you are familiar with QR codes, create a question of the day and require students to check their answer by scanning the code. 10. Can students ever get enough practice with basic math facts?!?! XtraMath is a perfect free solution! Remember to start slow! Focus on one area of your choice. Allow students to become comfortable with using the tool and allow yourself to become comfortable implementing it. Once you and your students are comfortable, think about adding a new focus. Taking baby steps with ultimately lead to success! Teaching With Simplicity Pinterest Facebook Instagram Teachers Pay Teachers
My Favorite Creation Apps for the Elementary Classroom
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.
Smart school computer lab management tips for technology teachers and classroom teachers that spend time in their school computer lab.
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
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!
Vocabulary and exercises - ESL worksheets
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.
Learn how you can get started with using green screen technology in your classroom. Lots of low budget options, apps, and software are shared!
Looking for the most important classroom technology tools and skills to teach your students. Here is how I start my year.
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
We all know and love Kahoot, right? If you do not know about Kahoot then we have a few blog posts with tips and ideas to get you up to sp...
Using Bee Bot in the classroom is an easy way to teach important 21st century coding skills while also working on other key skills.
Ozobots can be so much fun, but sometimes give you multiple problems. Here are some of the troubleshooting tricks I have discovered along the years of using Ozobots. I first purchased Ozobots for my classroom in 2015!! What really drew me in, was that that they do not need a computer or iPad to be ... Read more
A Technology project doesn't have to be complicated to be effective. Download a Google Slides template to teach your students some basic technology skills.
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!
Wondering how to organize Google Classroom? This post will give you the most common organizational strategies for the Classwork page and topics.
This article will help you with teaching kindergarten computer lessons - with plenty of ideas and tips for introducing computers to kindergartners.
Has your classroom turned into a 1:1 Chromebook Classroom and you are unsure of how to utilize these devices each day? Come learn about some meaningful ways to integrate these devices into your elementary classroom!
Has your classroom turned into a 1:1 Chromebook Classroom and you are unsure of how to utilize these devices each day? Come learn about some meaningful ways to integrate these devices into your elementary classroom!
Virtual Collaboration Board Web 2.0 tool: Using BoardThing in the classroom. This tool is great for 1:1 settings and even Chromebooks!
Have you ever wanted to add slides to existing Google Slides presentations your students have already started working on? Come read about the Slip-in-Slide Add-On that is ideal for teachers who use digital notebooks, digital writing journals, digital activities and more that are created in Google Slides! This is a game changer for the Google Classroom.
5 Techie Ideas for Lesson Closure. Technology in the Classroom
Apps for the Art Classroom. I’ve been teaching with iPads for a number of years now & I thought I’d share what Apps I’ve been using & found success with.
Padlet is one of my favorite collaborative web tools to use with students that I have used for years. I love how versatile it is and how one can access a Padlet wall on laptops, Chromebooks, iPads and Android devices! If you are not familiar with Padlet then click HERE. This week I helped a 5th grade class incorporate technology into their novel study groups. The teacher wanted to use Padlet for each team to gather ideas and brainstorm the events that they read about each day. I mentioned how anyone can MAKE a background for a Padlet wall to help students organize their digital sticky notes. She was so excited about this possibility! I whipped up these graphic organizers for the teacher to choose from each week and I wanted to share them with YOU: Click the image to download We ended up making four different Padlet walls--one for each novel study group. Thank goodness for the remake feature that allowed us to quickly and easily make four different walls! Press the button once and BOOM the new board pops up in your dashboard. Once the students worked together on their individual devices to add their ideas to the graphic organizer, the teacher printed the wall, deleted the post-its and uploaded a different graphic organizer for the next assignment. That way she didn't have to keep recreating 4 different walls each time. Honestly, creating a wall takes NO time and she may have spent more time deleting the post-its. However, this worked for her because she didn't have to print out different QR Codes to get to the new Padlet walls (for those who were using iPads) and didn't have to post new urls in her Google Classroom. Note: We learned the hard way. The sticky notes will appear in different locations on the graphic organizers IF the students use different devices but work on the same board. Therefore, we had one group use iPads while the other three groups used their Chromebooks. Here is a quick video tutorial I created to show how you can upload these graphic organizers to be the background of a Padlet wall: Note: As I indicate in the video, you will most likely need to expand your browser window so the graphic organizer doesn't appear cut off. I created these graphic organizers in PowerPoint and saved them as a jpeg. I did have to play with the formatting a bit. After a little trial and error, I finally had the size that fit perfectly on the Padlet wall. Give it a try! Other ideas for customized Padlet wall activities include: Having students label a diagram (parts of a cell, parts of a plant, layers of the Earth, maps, etc.) Digital Board Game Sorts (words, shapes, math sentences, etc.) Exit Cards Graphing Other Padlet Resources: Ditch That Textbook's 20 Ways to Use Padlet in Class 35 Ideas for Using Padlet in the Classroom Mrs. Treichler's Wikispace-Padlet What are some other ways we could customize Padlet activities for our students? Leave your ideas in the comments! UPDATE: Since this post was written, Padlet has had a major facelift! If you are having trouble moving your sticky notes, go to the three dotted icon in the upper right hand corner and click Change Format. Select the green Canvas option. This will allow you to move the stickies anywhere on your screen. If the graphic organizers are not fitting to your screen then you can try zooming out of your browser or dragging the corner of your browser until it comes through. Several people have contacted me about this issue and I have passed on the information to Padlet and hoping to hear back soon!
When students have fun learning, everybody wins.
Want students to express ideas and collaborate digitally with each other? This post goes over how to use padlet for collaborating digitally
With so many options available for classroom robots, you may have a hard time deciding which robots are right for your students. While I adore a number of other robots for the STEM classroom, Ozobots® are unique! They are accessible for introductory robotics lessons while also offering advanced coding options for older or more experienced students.
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
Use technology daily warm ups as a way to inject some tech into your classroom every day. If you are using technology regularly in the classroom or are a technology teacher with a cart or a lab, check out how these technology daily warm ups can build classroom community, augment your digital citizenship discussions, and help students practice coding, design thinking, get energized, and more! Time is the biggest roadblock to having meaningful discussions about technology with students, even though technology is a huge part of students' lives in and outside of the classroom. If you are a classroom teacher
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..
Academic Ways to Use the MaKey-MaKey in the Elementary Classroom: Fun ways to advance coding in the classroom!
This blog is dedicated to sharing my experiences with setting up a technology enhanced classroom. The technology I have in my classroom is 28 iPad minis. I hope to have students use the iPads to access the almost limitless information available on the internet to solve complex problems and analyze historical events. I would also like to create as close to a paperless classroom as possible. I obtained 12 of the iPads in my classroom through a Hillsboro Schools Foundation grant and the other 16 through the Hillsboro School District innovation grant. Even though I am short 6 iPads from being able to assign 1:1 iPads to each class I will attempt to fill that gap with students using their own devices. The first problem I had to solve was a way to store the iPads in a safe and secure way. When I first received the iPads I really had no other solution than just stacking them on the countertop. This made it difficult to know if all the iPads had been returned and didn't keep them secure. I decided to take on a weekend project to create a cabinet with enough shelves and locking doors for all the iPads that I had. Here is a picture of the final product in my room. The cost of the wood and hardware came in under $60 plus the power adapters listed below. The cabinet has a total of 36 shelves and is constructed from 1/8" fiberboard, 2x2's and fir boards. The back has holes in it for the charging cables to pass through in order to charge the iPads. The door has a clasp but could be defeated with a small pry bar. This solution is definitely more secure than the iPads laying on the counter but would not stop a serious crook determined to walk away with the iPads. The gray boxes in the plans are 2x2's and the shelves are made from 1/8" fiber board. The doors and the fir surrounding the shelves is not in the plans shown above. Once the shelves were all stacked on top of each other I just measured how wide and tall it was and cut the wood to match. The doors are 1x2's attached to two pieces of fiberboard, one on each side of the 1x2's. I then attached the doors with hinges. The real difficulty in creating the cabinet is the amount of outlets you need to charge the iPads. This is where a multiple USB port adapter comes in. With three of these and two 9 outlet surge protectors all of the iPads can be plugged in at once from two wall outlets. These are around $16 online.
Use technology daily warm ups as a way to inject some tech into your classroom every day. If you are using technology regularly in the classroom or are a technology teacher with a cart or a lab, check out how these technology daily warm ups can build classroom community, augment your digital citizenship discussions, and help students practice coding, design thinking, get energized, and more! Time is the biggest roadblock to having meaningful discussions about technology with students, even though technology is a huge part of students' lives in and outside of the classroom. If you are a classroom teacher
Check out this list of over 85 Apps that Integrate with Google Classroom! Did you know that Google Classroom plays well with others? Yep! Google is known for making their applications open to working with third-party applications, and Google Classroom is no exception.
Google Classroom allows teachers to add videos and students to submit videos. This has always been the case. No fancy equipment required.
