2nd Grade Erickson Student Blog Post :) Over the last few months of school, we've been learning lots of great technology skills. Some of them are: -Screencasting (records voice & screen) -Taking Screenshots (takes picture of the screen) -Voice Recording (records your voice) We use Google Classroom to get assignments from our teacher and get to certain websites. All kinds of activities in different subjects are really fun on the Chromebook. I love using Google Draw, Google Docs, Tagul Word Cloud Maker, and QR Codes in the classroom. Every week, we do our Tic Tac Toe choices. They are when we do different activities on our Chromebook based on our weekly story or spelling words. Having technology has helped me to learn different things. The Chromebooks make learning fun and taught me how to be a responsible person. See some of my work below! Narrative Halloween Screencast
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Using Google Classroom? This extension is for you! Share To Classroom is a Chrome Extension that can make magic happen in the classroom. Both the students and teacher must have the extension installed for it to work properly. Teachers have the ability to PUSH out websites, documents, assignments, and announcements to any of their Google Classroom classes. Students can also push information back to the teacher. Imagine a teachable moment where you want to push out a website during a spontaneous student discussion! With the extension, the site will automatically appear on all student screens as soon as the teacher click the "PUSH" button. It's definitely worth checking out! Below is the URL to install: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/share-to-classroom/adokjfanaflbkibffcbhihgihpgijcei References: Share to Classroom Extension. Dir. Gene Carboni. Perf. Gene Carboni. Youtube. N.p., 3 Sept. 2015. Web. 26 Oct. 2015. Technology provides an avenue to help create great 21st Century learning experiences for students. The integration should be meaningful and authentic! This week, teachers in District 13 focused on four incredible tools/resources that have potential to transform instruction.
Socrative. Socrative can be used for many different types of assessment. It allows for multiple choice, true/false, and short answer questions. Recursive feedback is recorded for the teacher in real time. Imagine starting a lesson with essential questions to get a feel for where student thinking is at. Was the Civil War worth its costs? The discussion elicited from such a question can provoke thoughtful discussion and guide future learning. Instagrok. Instagrok is a great hidden tool out there. It "groks" or searches any research topic and creates an INTERACTIVE map of images, videos, facts, concepts, and websites. Kids tend to have negative connotations about research, but not with Instagrok. Students can practice analyzing media and take their information skills to the next level! Rewordify. Rewordify simplifies complex text. The website helps to break apart vocabulary that is difficult in a more comprehensive way, so students can find success. Google Voice Typing. Google recently launched Google Voice Typing. To use, all you have to do is open up a blank Google Doc, go to Tools in the menu bar and select "Voice Typing." After allowing your device to access your microphone, one can speak their thoughts! This can be a game changer for many students! Teachers out there.... Have you used any of these instructional tools? If so, what have your experiences been? LEARNING IS FUN! There are so many wonderful learning experiences going on in the hallways of District 13. In the past couple of days, here are some of the incredible instructional opportunities for kids taking place:
The list goes on! Stay tuned for more updates! Students are developing a new sense of independence and it's EXCITING! The Chromebooks have afforded kids the opportunity to seek answers for themselves. Instead of asking the teacher questions, THEY are able to access information. When working on their own, they have oodles of help at their fingertips.
Take this second grade example. Students are to work on spelling, vocabulary, and other ELA Common Core Standards independently throughout the week. By the end of the week, they are to have completed a Tic-Tac-Toe pattern on their choice board. This is meant to be worked on as the teacher is working with small groups of students. Usually, students may want to go up and interrupt the teacher to inquire about something, but there are directions provided with each choice. Students can watch these step-by-step directions at any time to gain a better understanding of what they are to do. Forgot what a synonym is? Look it up! Forgot the parts of a diary entry? Look it up! Forgot how to take a screenshot or audio record your thinking? Watch the screencast directions! This fosters incredible independence and creates learning experiences for students that involve ownership and self discipline-- life long skills :) Screencasting our mathematical thinking has taken over many of the classrooms in District 13. Students are explaining their thoughts and ideas as they solve problems. First graders are practicing finding the missing parts of ten and fifth graders are solving division problems! The practice of screencasting has allowed teachers to dive deep inside of their students' brains. After students are finished recording their thinking as an exit ticket, homework assignment, or practice, they plug their headphones into another Chromebook and listen to a friend's Screencast. This way, they are able to evaluate each other's thinking and give feedback. It's incredible to see first graders suggesting ideas to each other and fifth graders taking ownership for their learning. What a powerful instructional experience?! Check out the incredible example below! SO PROUD! Today first graders Skype Video Conferenced with the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. Ms. Smith taught us all about animals. We learned about their life cycles and traits-- perfect for what we're studying in Science. We even got to see the animals LIVE! Yes, bullfrogs, mice, and birds! It was such a cool experience to connect with experts across the country. Thanks to Skype Classroom, Kaytee, the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, and the first grade teachers for making this awesome learning opportunity possible! #learningtransformed At the end of last year, during a presentation on the upcoming 1:1 rollout, a parent came up to the Tech Department and let us know how excited she was that the Chromebook was going to help teach her child responsibility.
Students are doing amazing things in the classrooms with their Chromebooks. This comes as no surprise as the students and staff of District 13 are unbelievable. We didn't know what to expect beyond the walls of the classrooms. Our students are exceptional! After learning something new in class, they go home and re-create their learning experiences! Last week, first graders learned how to SCREENCAST their mathematical thinking while using virtual manipulatives. Before the end of the weekend, three students had gone home, created their own Screencasts and shared them with me. Additionally, we have students doing homework when they are SICK at home on their Chromebooks and are ready to ROCK N' ROLL the following day at school! Responsibility soars-- not only inside, but outside of the classroom too! I Love Technalojy because you can watch stuff. In class today, we made videos on our Chromebooks. We sent them to Miss Eirinberg and Miss Juhas. The class watched mine because I got lucky. I loved the activity because it was technology. It will help me learn better. I hope to do a lot more fun projects on the Chromebooks. That's all! |
Author(s)Jennifer Eggert Archives
August 2019
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