A few weeks ago my professor began discussing PLNs with us. She showed us many ways to expand it, and Twitter chats was one of those ways. At first I was very intimidated by the thought of joining a Twitter chat with people who are already educators, but after jumping in I have come to actually love it. It seemed very overwhelming at first and I was really unsure of what to expect, but everyone in that chat was so helpful and nice that it made me feel as if I knew these people for years before.
Screenshot of my first twitter chat
I stayed with the twitter chat that I first tried because I really enjoyed it! The chat I joined was #txed . I joined this chat because it is full of educators from Texas. Texas is where I plan on teaching once I graduate from college, so I figured having a PLN built from down there is a great plus! The first week I joined the chat was very nerve-racking for me because I am a preservice teacher, I was worried my answers wouldn’t be good enough or that people would think I don’t know what i’m talking about. Turns out, people loved what I had to share! I also got tweets from the moderator of the chat which made me feel super confident.
Screenshot of my last twitter chat
I have been able to connect with so many awesome educators, and I have learned so much from everyone in these chats. I got to grow and expand my PLN while discussing the things I love, education, with people who share the same interest. I highly recommend that every educator should join a twitter chat at least once in their life time.
If you guys have joined any twitter chats that you think I should join let me know!! Hope you enjoyed this post and I hope to hear from you guys!
Collaboration and assessment have always been very important topics for educators, but as the 21st century becomes for technologically inclined, so does our classrooms. I was on the look out for some awesome collaboration and assessment tech tool that could easily be implemented in any teacher’s classroom and I found 3 pretty great ones that id love to share with you guys! I rated each tool on the Triple E Evaluation Rubric and they all scored in the “green light” section, which shows awesome they truly are.
The first tool is an assessment tool called Google Forms. This tool is a survey app that comes with your Google drive. You can create open ended questions, multiple choice questions, even true or false questions. What I love about this tool is that the options are endless in what you can do with it. I’ve used this app in a couple of my lesson plans and it truly enhanced them and integrated tech into the classroom.
Based on the triple e evaluation rubric, this tool scored a 15 out of 18. This is such a good score for such a good tool. I really think this is a great tool to allow students to remain engage in what you are assessing them and I really feel that it can motivate them to begin their learning process. I think that he can help extend their learning by it being so accessible to students at any point in their day. You could make an assignment due later that night so they had the rest of their day to submit it. Overall I really love this tool because it allows multiple choice or open ended questions for any assessment you love to give.
The second tool is a collaboration tool called Google Hangouts. A lot of schools that are Google schools are already very familiar with this, but for those of you whose schools aren’t you should definitely look into it. This tool allows for students to video chat or start conversations with you or other students. Teachers can use this tool to set up conferences with other schools or professionals in the field of which the class may be studying that specific week. As this is mostly a collaboration tool, it can also be used as an assessment tool. Students can create conversations or video chats with other students about what they’ve learned which allows for students to explain what they understood from the lesson , communicate, and ask questions about the content area.
Looking at the triple e evaluation rubric, Google Hangouts scored a 18 out of 18. This score truly reflects how awesome of a collaboration to Google Hangouts is. This really hit every single mark on the rubric, it engage to learning, enhance learning, and extended learning, which makes it an amazing tool to implement into any classroom. This really creates so many opportunities for students to learn outside of their average school day it keeps them engaged in what they’re learning in the classroom and it can open so many doors for their future. I 100% recommend this tool to every educator.
The last tool I found is an awesome assessment tool called Kahoot!. Kahoot! is is a game-based learning tool that asks students multiple choice questions on a big screen, such as a SmartBoard in the classroom. Students use their own mobile devices or laptops to compete either individually or in teams. Students can collaborate with other students by teaming up and competing in review games created by yourself or other teachers. Teachers can also have students create their own Kahoot! games over a certain subject and test other classmates on it. Kahoot! is such a fun affective way to assess just about any age group. Personally I love Kahoot! and loved when my past professors and classmates use them to question us over a certain subject matter. Parents can also use this at home with their young student and monitor the games and allow the student to use this as a studying tool.
A screenshot of the many different quizzes Kahoot has to offer
When I rated this tool on the triple e evaluation rubric, it came out with an 18 out of 18. A perfect score really shows how great of a tool this can when used properly buys teachers and students. Not only can you assess student over a certain subject matter, but in your free time as a reward you could even answer a fun quiz over something like Disney movies. This really extends students learning goals and enhances any subject matter that can be taught in schools. I personally love to use Kahoot! and love when I see other teachers using it in their classrooms. Students can really gain so much from this tool which is why I highly recommend teachers implement this at least once in one of their lessons.
The title of this blog may be a little intimidating, but I can promise you, finding fun and easy new ways to gamify your classroom is anything but scary! Im constantly exploring the world of EdTech and i’m loving it! I have picked out three awesome gamification tools, Class Dojo, PlayBrighter, and Quizizz, that any teacher could easily add to their lessons at any point in time! I rated each of these gamification tools on the Triple E Evaluation Rubrics and they all came out to be 13 points or above out of 18. When I say i actually loved each of these tools, i’m not kidding they are all so great!
The first website I wanna discuss with you guys is Class Dojo. This awesome little site is a school communication platform that teachers, students, and families can use every day to build a tight-knit community by sharing what’s being learned in the classroom through photos, videos, and messages. Together as a community you can come together and provide an awesome education experience for every student. The website is super easy to navigate and super fun to use. Below is a screencast one me navigating this awesome website.
A Screencast I created to show you guys how to navigate Class Dojo!
When rating this tool on the Triple E Evaluation Rubric, I gave it a 16 out of 18 points! If that doesn’t prove how awesome of a tool this is for every classroom, I don’t know what will. The first area that I gave Class Dojo lower than two points was because it can only somewhat provide higher-level thinking skills because it has very limited lessons on the actual site. The second area i scored it lower than two points was because I felt it could only somewhat provide students with opportunities outside of the classroom. Since this is a website is mostly for classroom use, I felt that there were really no outside opportunities. Other than those two points, I highly recommend that all teacher at least try this tool in their classroom.
The second website I want to share with you guys is PlayBrighter. I will admit when I first saw it, I was a little skeptic on how easy it would be to use. After playing around and making my own classroom I started loving it ! It is such a cool tool to use in class as a way to assess your students. Your students will love it too because it is just answering questions about whatever topic you choose through a game-play. Below is a screencast of me going through this website and playing one of the games that would be offered to the students.
A Screencast I created to show you guys how to use PlayBrighter!
When I rated PlayBrighter on the Triple E Evaluation Rubric, it scored a 13 out of 18. It is lower than the rest of the tools but it is still in the “green light” section which means it is an exceptional tool to incorporate in the classroom. The section that it scored the lowest in was the “extend the learning goals” section. There was really no ways to create opportunities for learning using this website outside of the classroom. Other than that this website was a lot of fun to play around with myself, so I know that students of all ages could enjoy PlayBrighter!
The third and final tool I want to discuss on this blog post is Quizizz. This website is very similar to Kahoot, but I feel that this website had more of an education purpose and allows students to take the quizzes alone and on their own pace. I took the time to create my own account and make a short quiz. It is super easy to navigate and can be used for any age group k-12! This site also comes with pre-made quizzes that you can also assign your students. Below is my screencast of me navigating through my account and quiz!
A Screencast of me walking you through the Quizizz website and quiz I made!
When I rated Quizizz on the Triple E Evaluation Rubric, it scored a 16 out of 18! That really shows how much I loved this tool and that I would absolutely use it in my classroom. The only place it scored low in was the “enhancement of the learning goals” section because I felt that it could only somewhat create extra supports and cause higher-level thinking. Besides those two points, I feel like this is such a useful tool that every teacher should incorporate in their classrooms.
This week, I explored the huge world of content creation tools! There are many categories you can choose from (mind-mapping, screen capture, infographics, presentations, storytelling) but I decided to look at sites from the story telling, mind-mapping, and presentation category. There is a plethora of sites educators can use in order to create an awesome visual for students. For each website I reviewed, I used the Triple E Framework to evaluate each of them. Overall, the three websites I used scored in the “Green Light” section, which means they were all exceptional and i recommend them all to you !
The first artifact I made was through the Prezi website. It was a really cool way to showcase the information that I had and can be a useful tool for educators. When looking at the Triple E framework evaluation, I scored Prezi at a 14 out of 18. Prezi is a cool piece of tech that could you could use to present information to the class or that students could use to showcase their knowledge on the information you taught them. Something that I scored Prezi slightly lower on was the engagement in learning section. I think that because it is a little more detail oriented of a website, younger students may have problems staying focused. Other than that I highly recommend Prezi!
The second artifact I made was a mind map about how to manage stress. I made this cool little mind map using the website MindMup. With this website, you can take a topic and make little subtopics and expand them in to detail. I think this is a cool tech device that can again be used by teachers and students. On the Triple E Framework evaluation I gave MindMup a 15 out of 18 score. What scored slightly lower on this website was the extending the learning goals section. I feel that MindMup can be a great tool in the classroom, but i’m not sure on how it can be used to extend their learning outside of the classroom. I also think this should be used by older students (4th-12th) , because it has a lot of buttons that need to be used to make a mind map.
A mind map I created on MindMup about how to manage stress!
The third artifact I created was was a little social story using the website StoryBird. This website was honestly my favorite one to use and mess around with. I created a short story about sharing that could be used to teach students in younger age groups. On the Triple E Framework evaluation, I gave StoryBird a 16 out of 18 which shows how awesome it really is. It really never scored too low in any of the sections, just one here or there but nothing that makes this website any less cool than it is. I 100% recommend educators use this in their classrooms some how!
In searching for ways to incorporate technology, you may come across SAMR, Triple E Framework, or my group and I’s favorite , TPACK. TPACK stands for “Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge”, it is a framework to understand and describe the kinds of knowledge needed for effective pedagogical practice in a tech-enhanced classroom environment. There are three main points (Content, Pedagogy, Technology) that over lap and make different instruction methods. The four different methods created:
PCK : Combines content and pedagogy to allow students to meet skills and content objectives. This is a good strategy but it is outdated.
TCK : Combines technology and content and decides if the subject matter is better illuminated by the use of the chosen technology. This is a more modern strategy but it is very limited.
TPK: Combines technology and pedagogy and decides which technological tool is best for the chosen teaching strategy. This strategy does make for an exciting class but sometimes can cause the class to be disconnected.
TPCK: This combines all three areas and creates a great 21st century classroom that is focused on essential learning, and applying good learning theory that is supported by technology. I like to call this the gold star strategy cause it has the best out come in majority of classrooms.
A visual I drew to help you guys visualize TPACK!
The reason I love the TPACK model is because it really breaks down how to add technology in the classroom effectively and shows you what happens if you have one thing and not the other. TPACK is combining how teachers teach, how technology is used, and what teachers know in order to create this awesome way to incorporate technology in your classroom with out student being disconnected or limited. The video below really helped me fully understand what TPACK was, and how to implement it in to a classroom.
If you need or want to look more in to TPACK, I recommend you check out the Yokota 21-Transforming Education Website. It provided me with many great visuals and really helped me understand the concept of TPACK. It has graphic organizers and videos linked so you can further your knowledge on the subject of TPACK.
An awesome pyramid full of tech tool to use in the classroom provided by Yokota.A visual showing strategies used to reach student achievement provided by Yokota.A video you can watch and activity you can do on the Yokota Website.
When searching for a new blogging site, you really need to take the time to look through each and every site you find and see which works best for what you are going to being putting on it and which fits your personality the best. We were given 3 different blog websites to chose from and review. The three websites were: WordPress, EduBlog, and Blogger. As you may notice by reading this blog, I chose WordPress, but i am going to discuss each one a little bit and expand on why I felt WordPress was the Blogging site for me!
I’ll start off with EduBlog. I created an account and started to play around with EduBlog a little bit and i honestly wasn’t a huge fan. I wanted to make it work because i knew that later on I could have my students blog with me on that site but it just didn’t feel right and I didn’t want to force anything. It didn’t have many design choices that i liked and it seemed a bit complicated to navigate. That is why I didn’t go with EduBlog. Below are pictures of the website and its settings!
This is the heading with a default design!
This is the settings where you would create blogs and pages!
The next site I looked at was Blogger. This website just from logging in didn’t interest me. Nothing drew me to the website on the homepage and it didn’t seem like it would be any better than EduBlog. I made an account and tried to make a blog and it just wasn’t as easy as I hoped. The setting area was pretty boring and it didn’t seem to have much of a creativity factor. Lets just say that blogger was short lived for me ! Below is a picture of the dashboard after creating an account!
Lastly, the beloved WordPress. Honestly, I love this website! it really drew me in with all the different designs you can have and all the different ways you can really make your blogs your own. As soon as I logged in, I was changing the font and changing the background color and changing the header photo and it just all came together so smoothly. I know i’m going to continue to use WordPress because of how fun, easy and smooth everything runs on this site! If you’ve used any of the other sites and you love those, i’m happy you made them work for you unlike me! Below is all the beautiful things i’ve done with my WordPress blog!!
Alyssa's Education Blog 