If you had a tool that could engage 100%
of your students, why wouldn't you use it??
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Ideas for Creating an Engaging, Effective Environment with Technology
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some best
practice ideas!
Classroom Management
& Routines
Calling on Students
Noise
Control
The Class Dojo app/website can be used as a classroom management system with the teacher establishing the positive and negative behaviors which will be documented with the click of a button in a child-friendly environment. Reports can be generated for student and/or parents.Use it along with LearningEarnings,
another free resource that provides students with rewards for good behavior.
Put away your popsicle sticks and deck of cards with student names on them. The Pick Me app can be used to randomly call on students. It will randomly select a student and keep track of how many times you called on each student in a class and how many times they gave a correct response. Stick Pick takes this to a new level as it helps teachers differentiate questioning with question stems tied to Bloom's Taxonomy. Great for differentiation! To control the Noise Level in your classroom, try the app Too Noisy.
Handing Out and
Collecting Work
Go paperless!! Save valuable class time by seamlessly handing out and collecting student digital files with Google Classroom or Microsoft Teams. Distribute digital files to students such as worksheets, text, images, videos, audio files, PDF's, etc. Students can access the content from anywhere there is an internet connection. Students can just open their assignment and work on it. No more excuses! They can access their assignment even if they were absent, they can't lose it, and it is automatically shared with their teacher so it is already handed in!
Schoology and Edmodo are Learning Management Systems that is free to teachers, or school districts can purchase for entire buildings. Not only can student & teacher workflow be streamlined, but grading can be synced to other software systems like PowerSchool.
JustPasteIt is a website that doesn't require any logins. You can paste text, images, hyperlinks, etc. and get a link to share with others.
Scheduling Homework
Save time every class. Instead of taking the time for students to take out their agendas and copy the homework from the board, simply post the homework which the students and parents can access from anywhere. Google Classroom syncs with the Google Calendar and Microsoft Teams syncs with the Outlook Calendar. With the MyHomework app, students can keep track of what they have to complete and organize their work by priority or date, and parents can "subscribe" to all their child's teachers to see all the homework for all their children on one screen. This eliminates the problem of students copying down the wrong thing or neglecting to copy it down. They are still responsible--but responsible to do the work! No more excuse of "I forgot to copy it down." OR "I left my agenda at school."
Active Participation and Fast Feedback
Find out what students are thinking anytime during class. With 1:1 devices in your classroom (mobile devices, netbooks, or laptops) and the websites like Today's Meet, now all students can answer a question instead of just one student--and you can glance at all the responses quickly to see if there are any misunderstandings.
In addition, students can add to the back channel when they have that Ah Ha! moment or if they have a question without interrupting the flow of the class. Some teachers assign a student to watch the backchannel to let them know if there is an important thought or question that needs to be addressed right away.
You can find instantly find out what students know and don't know about your content by asking multiple-choice or true-false questions and having technology gather the results from every student.
You can use the website/app Lets Geddit or Socrative if you have access to mobile devices. OR You may have access to a student response system ("Clickers"). Both options allow you to either plan ahead and create questions or ask questions on the fly.
Taking Notes
Get rid of those big binders and folders with papers hanging out. Eliminate the excuses of students losing their notes or papers With online notetaking websites and apps like Notability, Google Docs, and OneNote, students can take multi-media notes including text, audio files, and images. They can add handouts and organize their notes by subject and date in addition to being able to process their notes by annotating them and adding to them. To easily create mind maps, students can use the website Simple Surface.
Streamline Demonstrations
Use a document camera to project a live demonstrations, to analyze student work, or to model a thinking process. An iPad can double as a document camera with an attachment.
Make your computer/projector interactive when you mirror your iPad screen onto your computer with the AirServer or Reflector software. OR Use your iPad to wirelessly control your computer/projector while walking around the room using the Team Viewer Software, free for non-commercial purposes . This is a good way to get around the fact that an iPad cannot run your favorite flash-based interactive websites. Hand the iPad to any student for them to interact with the content wirelessly without getting out of their seat.
Quick Access to
Information and Student Work
Make your Classroom Clickable!!
Save time---Students no longer have to type in long URL codes. Just create and print out a qr code which is linked to a website, a video, an audio file, an image, or text. Students scan the QR code with a QR reader app (Scan. QR Reader on their mobile device for instant access to the resource.
Aurasma takes this one step further---no printing necessary. You can attach a video or image to any object by taking a picture of the object and setting it as a "trigger" for the video or image. Students use the Aurasma app to search the room for hidden images or videos. Use this to "hang" your students' work all over the classroom.
Chirp is an iPhone app that lets you send out an "Audio QR Code" that brings your students to a website, an image, notes, and more!