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Well, I just updated our class website! Ahh! Don't you love that feeling of making something better and more organized!? It makes me so happy when I see things improving!! This got me thinking though... How do you use technology in your classroom? A couple coworkers and myself were able to go to the MACUL (technology) conference. I have had so many ideas since then and I'm slowly starting to integrate more and more technology into my classroom. I already use lots of videos/songs for learning, as well as SMART board activities. Right now my students are using the computers during their centers. I'm always trying to think of new things to do that will help my class to run smoother as well as integrate technology! QR codes are the BEST! I have many books recoded with QR codes ready to be scanned. I learned at the MACUL conference an "extension" that you can have if you use google chrome as your web browser where you can make any page you are on into a QR code! Super helpful. I have attached all of our notes from the conference at the bottom of this blog! Make sure to take a look and find some new ideas! Just this week I have recorded my first video lesson for our STEM (STEAM) center. I decided to start small. If you look at the home page of my website you will see the words "this week" where I will be trying to record some lessons each week for students to follow along with lessons, repeat lessons as needed or listen to lessons when absent. This is my attempt at an in-class "flipped" class. To do this I used the explaineverything app (which I am NO expert at ... yet!) but I at least have my first video behind me!! :) Last year I also used plickers which I really like but I am trying to stay away from multiple choice questions for the kinders. I also really liked to create and use Kahoots! This is my current goal (after finishing more work on our class website). I would love to create Kahoots for some of our end of year assessments but I know they again will be multiple choice - not my favorite assessments. My tech goals for this week -Prep the class set of computers (ALL charged!) for a Kahoot for next week. -Create at least 3 Kahoots. -Video record 1 writing lesson. -Finish updating website Later goals/to do -Video record a lesson for teachers for our upcoming PLT Any other suggestions for use of technology in the classroom!?
Video of students working on STEM lesson. This is both my first time creating a video lesson and the first time my students have completed a video recorded lesson. Still looking for ways to make this better!
Today for our grammar review we played a game. I am currently teaching summer school so most of the topics we cover are review. While the students seemed to be doing fine with nouns, they were struggling with the types of sentences (Declarative, Interrogative, Imperative and Exclamatory) as well as Relative Pronouns (Who, Whom, Whose, Which and That). I decided it was time for an intervention and some fun!
To review these topics I broke students up into groups with various levels of understanding within each group. I then gave each group member a sheet of colored paper to create the blue team, the green team and the yellow team (you could always have more!) All of the student sat in a circle around a bucket in the middle of the circle. Then came the review! I began asking various questions to the whole class: "What type of sentence is this: Go walk the dog!" "What do you put at the end of an interrogative sentence?" "List 3 proper nouns" "Write a sentence with 2 common nouns" "What does a pronoun replace?" "What are the 5 relative pronouns we have been discussing?" And the overall review question: "Write a declarative sentence that has at least 1 noun and 1 pronoun. After each question, students would turn to their group to discuss their thoughts and ideas about the answer. Once each student had talked with their group, they wrote their answer on their colored piece of paper and shot their piece of paper into the basket in the middle. This became a competition and students couldn't wait to answer so they could throw their piece of paper into the bucket. When normally you ask a question and you get a couple students raising their hands to participate, I now had all students in my class participating and being brave, answering questions even if they weren't sure if their answer was correct!! After all students have shot their papers, the ones that made it into the basket were pulled and read out loud to the class. We could tell what team the paper came from because of the color. If student's answers were correct, their team got a point; if student's answers were incorrect, we discussed, as a class why and their team did not receive a point. The students seemed to really enjoy this activity! I was able to see some great collaboration and team work as well as hear discussions about the topics to assess where students thinking was. This activity is so easy to modify and the students were so engaged! I will definitely be doing this activity again! Then came the review! I began asking various questions to the whole class |
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