CLASSROOM TECH TOOLKIT
Below is a list of Apps and Tech Tools that I recommend for creating a more engaging, 21-st century learning environment in the classrom:
Classroom Ideas:
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Share an important memo to families!
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Support oral language development and storytelling
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Support ELL families and students. Ask ELL students to audio record explanation of a concept or a read-aloud.
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Record oral counting
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Make Learning visible by asking students to record solving a Math problem
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Share special events with families who could not attend
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Video record a science experiment in action. Reflect after
Classroom Ideas:
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Assess students' knowledge before the start of a unit
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Have students create their own kahoots by taking material from a particular unit and create a Kahoot for it.
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Review for Assessment
Classroom Ideas:
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Reinforce lessons taught in class by assigning practice at home
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Project iXL and complete problems as a whole
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Facilitate differentiation by assigning different levels for studetnts or early finishers
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Track progress, identify improvement and pinpoint trouble spots and scaffold instruction
Classroom Ideas:
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Students can create a book report such as a summary of a book or avisual story based on the book.
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Students can explain and record their thinking process as they solve a math problem.
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Let your students record the complete proess of a science experiment and have them explain what's happening at each step.
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Let students use Explain Everything's highlighters as they read and analyze texts. Students can point out splling mistakres, or record their understanding of the text
Classroom Ideas:
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Create a Padlet in the classroom for students to get to know e one another.
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Use it as a formative assessment after teaching a lesson where you can post an "exit ticket" question to find what students learned that day.
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Create a Padlet for small student groups and ask them to post driving questions about a research topic and post the answers as they find the answers.
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Ask students to share their work without taking the instructional time by posting a picture of what they are working on and post it on Padlet.
Classroom Ideas:
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Book Talks: Ask students to select a book and record their book talk on Flipgrid. Other students can then view and comment on each other's book talks.
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Ask students to record their explanation for solving a numbers problem. Teachers can then listen to their vide as an informal assessment or to scaffold instruction.
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Cultivate a sense of community in the classroom by choosing a student of the week and ask other students to record Flipgrid video complimenting or noting something positive about that student.
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Ask students to record their demonstration for a STEAM project.
Classroom Ideas:
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Stories to Support Lessons: Epic! has thousands of book titles that you can use to accompany any lesson. Share a story with the entire class on your smart board or projector to start up conversations with students for a new lesson or concept.
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Use non-fiction books for research projects, such as reports on animals.
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Compare two books by the same author
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Students create book reviews and recommend favorites to classmates.
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Perform experiments using ideas in Epic's STEM books
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Create book commercials using multimedia tools such as iMovie, Telestory, or ChatterPix.
Classroom Ideas:
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Create a "NoRedInk" station as part of a rotating station activity on writing.
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For summative writing assignments in which a student struggles with a particular grammar rule, the teacher can set up excercises that help students practice the rule.
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A pair of students can log on to a shared account and work on NoRedInk together. One student can act as a tutor while the other receives the scaffolding he/she needs.
Classroom Ideas:
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Introducing a Lesson: Use BrainPop videos before the lesson to spark kids' interest and help them generate questions about an upcoming lesson.
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Review: Play a video after an activity and encourage students to hear the vocabulary in the video which will help them solidify their previous learning experience.
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Extension: Great resource for early finishers or those that need more challenging content. These students can watch other videos extending the curriculum.
Classroom Ideas:
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Book Report/Review: Students can create a book report or review as a video. You can break the class into groups where a group create a video about the Plot of the book, other groups can do Theme, Story Elements, etc.
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Field Trip: Ask students to create a video of a recent classroom trip.
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TV Advertisement: Ask students to use this tool to develop a brilliant end product which can cover a lot of different curriculum areas, particularly around writing (a script) for a persuasive TV advert for a product.