I love when I am able to have my students engage in gaming in the classroom. You can feel the excitement and fun in the air. My students are having such a blast and sometime I wish we could do it all day. I've use Kahoot, Quizziz, Prodigy, Xtramath, code.org just to name a few. But I will admit that in my quest to add more gaming in the classroom I am struggling to find more comprehensive games. Or I just haven't thought that out side of the box yet. I would love to find a game that takes them on more quest then games like Kahoot. I am really excited to explore mindcraft more in my classroom next year. It just seemed a little to much with a new curriculum, master program, finishing up my credential, my job and family. I will admit that I have experienced a but of FOMO (fear of missing out) when I attend all of these awesome conferences and see how other teachers are using gaming in the classroom. I want to provide that experience for my students too. But I have to remind myself to pace myself. I have integrated a lot of tools in my classroom but still want to add more. I know there is a more engaging way to expose my students to the content then what is provided in my teachers manual. As I've gone through this first year with a new ELA program I can now see a clear picture how to make this curriculum my own.
What I love about the whole gamification idea is not that students are sitting around playing games while at school. It's about applying those gaming mindsets to classroom. Grit, perseverance, trial and error, critical thinking and collaboration. These are all skills that I want to see in my classroom throughout the day. I don't even think gamification have to be done digitally. I am excited to see where gaming in the classrooms goes and how I can implement more of it into my classroom. GAME ON
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There are so many great tools out there that can be used in the classroom. I found myself wanting to use the Ipads more in the classroom. I saw all of the great apps that can be used on them. I love having my Chromebooks but sometimes I feel like tables have more options and more fun for the students. I have used Edpuzzles before in class. They remind me a lot of nearpod lessons. I really enjoyed the editing feature that can be used on the videos. I could see myself using these lessons for homework and inserting extra task and notes for my students. I have created one educreation lesson and I love how you can make lessons fully digital.
I did not try out a new video recording app this time. To be honest I kind of forgot that I needed to record a lesson so I just stuck with Screencastify. I also, love the simplicity of the tool. I do want to look into a tool that allows more editing features. I think once I have a little more time I am hoping to try and use a different recording tool. I am excited to see try the whiteboard apps that are on the list. I love google forms! I know spend less time at the printer because of forms. I have been using forms for the last two years. They are so easy to create and the information collected is available immediately. I am a big fan of working smarter, not harder, and with Google Forms its always the smarter choice. I love how I can set up the quiz answer sheet and it will grade all of my students work. No more carrying stacks of papers home to grade (well not everything of course). In my classroom I use Google forms for both formal and informal assessments. I've used it for book reviews, choosing our next read aloud, and for making prediction on what students think will happen next in a story. I think my next steps in using Google Forms is to use more add-ones.
As for my action research/ capstone project I can only think of using it my survey tool. I am not really sure of another way to use it with my particular topic. I used Google forms for my research project last semester to track how my students felt about their person growth mindset. I think I could possibly create a Google Form for the teacher in my school to fill out to see what they they about their students growth mindset. I use think "ugh another thing added to my already full plate" when it came to teaching digital literacy to my students, but then I had a mind shift. I was already teaching my students digital literacy embedded in lessons I was teaching. We were talking about how to keep safe online, not plagiarizing, how to look for reputable websites when doing research. I guess I can think off of my college professors for that. It has just become a part of me so I find myself just telling my students about this sort of stuff. In my classroom I tell my students that I am not preparing them for the 3rd grade but for their future. In order for me to do that I need to make sure that I am showing them how to get good digital citizens.
Being a good digital citizen is just as important as being a good friend. Our digital foot print will follow us forever and it is imperative for use to teach our students have to be safe and productive on the internet. I started our digital literacy in the classroom at the very beginning of the school year because my classroom takes their devices home and in order for them to be able to take them home I hold a information night with my parents. Then during the first few weeks we talk about being responsible for devices and how to use them responsibly. I enjoyed the nearpod lesson on digital literacy and so did the kids. It allowed me to have students work alone on some of the digital literacy components while I did small groups. We also, had our library teacher come in and teach my students about passwords and the differences between private and personal information. By no means am I an expert on teaching digital literacy to my students but I am making forward progress. I can't wait to show my students Google Be Awesome once all our testing dies down. I am always looking for new and exciting ways to teach my students. Quizizz is another online quizzing too like Kahoot. Unlike Kahoot students are given question individually on their device. Students are given multiple choice questions to answer. Funny little memes will pop up after each question either encouraging students on because they got the answer incorrect or keep it up meme because the got the answer correct. As the students are playing I can see how many question they are getting correct and incorrect as a whole. I can also, see the individual questions in real time.
One feature that I like about quizizz, is that I can push out quizizz through google classroom. I can now assign these some quizzes for them to do at home. On the teachers dashboard it was easy to print out student progress letters to send home with parents. If you have all of your parents email you can send a pre-written email to your students parents with their results. The Cons to this program is that my students did not seem to enjoy it as much as Kahoot. After we were done they asked if we could play Kahoot instead. I am not sure why, it is something that I will have to talk to them about. I love all the features to keep parents evolved in their students learning but our school population is very high with Spanish speakers. So I would have to have these letters translated for half of my class. Due to this reason I would use the information for my own personal understanding of my students learning. I do not feel proficient at the program yet, but with more time and exposure I think I can start to feel more comfortable with this tool. I think it is a good addition to my online tool belt and am excited to see what other features it has to offer. (As lover of the show "How to Catch a Predator" it is imperative to teach our students and our own children when sharing our private information can be to much and can have disastrous outcomes. But to our students especially our youngest students they can not understand how their digital footprint have lasting repercussion. I believe with early intervention and exposure to how to protect ourselves online will greatly benefit our students future.
I too stumbled upon the article by Vicki Davis, and her "9 Key Ps" of digital citizenship.
Their are so many fun and engaging games for my students to "play". Also, I think as educators we need to speak candidly (age appropriate of course) on why proctoring our selves is so important. We also need to get our families involved in how to keep their children safe online. I know for my schools population many of the parents have no idea how to set up parental setting on their devices at home. If we can teach educate our parents on online our students can be getting the information from both fronts. Competency-based educations seems like the most beneficial learning environment for out students. Pacing backed mastery of skill then a specific timed pacing guide. I think many students do not feel like they have any control in their learning and because of this they do not know how to perform in a learner-centered classroom. On the flip side of this is that many teacher don't know how to teach Competency-based education. I know that I would personally like to spend more time in my classroom on competency-based education but am struggling with the district pacing guides and implementing our new curriculum with fidelity.
I usually find time for more learner-center lessons when I am working with them in small leveled groups. I am able to spend more time with my students individual needs. This year I am struggling with teaching my students grade level standards when many of my students are currently performing below grade level. I know that with a class that is struggling with grade level content I need to make the switch to more competency-based education. I try to do more individualized lesson when it comes to homework. I have my students practice more individualized stills at home after we have worked on it in small groups. I would love to learn new ways to make my class more individualized for my students with the use of our district curriculum. I am hoping to find new tools that my students and I can use to help my students at a more individualized way. |
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April 2018
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