Blog Post #8 - Social Media in the Classroom

Resource: https://www.enrole.com/pfw/jsp/course.jsp?categoryId=&courseId=BUS459

    Social media is a great way to communicate and connect with people all around the world. It's even beneficial for classrooms and students to connect with other students and their families at home. At my school, teachers and staff use social media platforms, such as Facebook, to connect and communicate with families about school events and upcoming important information. Some teachers even have their own Instagram or TikTok accounts where they can post pictures or short videos about learning that occurs daily in their classrooms. Parents seem to respond well and seem more pleased and connected with how to help their students at home. Class Dojo is another social media platform teachers use to communicate with parents and share photos.

Resource: https://davidmeessen.com/facebook-launches-tiktok-competitor-reels-on-instagram/

     Overall, I'm not afraid to use social media in my classroom but find myself too busy during the day to incorporate it. I also struggle with allowing my students to use it independently. I feel that since I work with such young students, I would prefer to have ownership of the platform until I know they can use it independently and safely. If I had more than 15 minutes with my students daily, I could incorporate lessons about internet safety, but alas I must use my time otherwise. Thankfully, my Library Media Specialist takes care of teaching students about internet safety and even begins sharing the pros and cons of using social media. Many of my students want to be YouTube or TikTok famous, so I think I need to find more ways to incorporate and model using social media responsibly in my classroom.

Resource: https://ssir.org/advancing_the_art_of_collaboration

    When thinking about collaborative productivity tools, I have previously used Google Docs and Slides. After completing this module, I might begin using additional collaborative apps and sites such as Flipgrid, Padlet, and/or Diigo. I would need to consider which ones are best for the large age range I service. What could be good for one grade may not be great for them all. I believe it is important for students to collaborate digitally with one another. Group projects are something that my students get excited about so by using apps and websites that allow them to work together, lessons can be more engaging for them. I also believe learning to collaborate using digital tools is an important skill that my students will need later on when entering the workforce. I am looking forward to the ways I can get creative and use them this school year with my students!

Resource: https://www.freepik.com/vectors/challenge

    

     Obviously, the one large change I wish I could make for my classroom is the time I have with my students so I could include more digital tools in my teaching. If I had more time with students, I believe we could use digital tools more often. Another change I wish could happen would be having access to Chromebooks more often. Though these challenges seem discouraging, I will not let them stop me from trying. I may have to do a lot of trial and error this school year to find a balance, but I'm going to give it my best shot! Maybe classroom teachers will collaborate with me and we can use digital tools in both the main classroom and the intervention classroom?

Resource: https://minutes.co/how-to-accelerate-your-achievement/

    I am very grateful to have taken this class and can positively say I feel more confident in using digital tools in my classroom. This course has opened my eyes to a variety of ways of getting my students engaged with the digital literacy world! I discovered new apps and websites that can make learning more engaging and fun for students. I also learned how to successfully manage a personal blog, engage and download a variety of tools that help with reading and writing, and discover the importance of technology integration. I look forward to challenging myself in creating lessons using what I've learned. Teaching the new literacies is going to impact my students for many more years to come!

Blog Post #7 - Multimedia Presentations, Assignments, Assessments & More!

 

Resource: https://www.huner.co.in/multimedia-presentation.html

    Multimedia presentations are a fun way to get students engaged in their learning! When I used to be a classroom teacher, I used multimedia presentations to help students learn all the time across a variety of content areas. It was a way to help my students view the world without ever leaving my classroom. For example, one of my favorite science units was for my 5th-grade students learning about the Moon, Earth, and Sun. Using a WebQuest (generated by the district so unable to directly link, I'm sorry!), students were engaged in a multimedia task that included videos, photos, audio and video clips, and much more to learn major concepts and ideas of the science standards. If you're unfamiliar with what a WebQuest is, click here to learn more and see how you can use them with your students this school year for assignments and even assessments! 

    In recent years, I use multimedia presentations in different ways. This is especially due to Covid changing a lot of learning to be digital-based. Since I focus primarily on reading intervention, I often will show videos, audio clips, and visual images to support learning. This is mainly done using YouTube, Canva, Loom, or Google Slides. For example, after my Orton-Gillingham training, I began incorporating digital blending boards with my students using Google Slides. My students love when I change the background to match a theme of the month! On my smartboard, I use the presentation to support the blending drill. Here are a few examples and a video on how to use them:

 

    During Covid, I also learned how to create a Google Classroom. This was great because I could integrate a variety of multimedia tools into one area. If you click on the image below, it will take you to my virtual classroom where you can explore an array of reading supports for students. In my Google classroom, I include a video of me doing a read-aloud, links to helpful videos to support learning high-frequency words, images for handwriting techniques, and direct links to a variety of literacy games that are fun and engaging for students to learn from. Since this is all controlled in my Google Classroom, I change things as necessary for my students to access multimedia tools quickly.

    When I think of using multimedia for assessments, I think of how I can use technology to help assess each student's understanding of specific material. Thanks to this class, I will be trying out a variety of new websites and apps that can help me with this during this school year. I might have my students create images to demonstrate understanding using StoryBoardThat, Podcasts to record thoughts and verbal answers, and/or other apps that students can create and type their responses in a digital format using words and pictures. One way I used multimedia to assess students in the past was through Google Forms. I could include questions that contained text, videos, and audio in a traditional assessment format. I'm excited to move away from this and on to more creative ideas that students can get excited about!

    As of now, I don't have any major concerns about creating or using multimedia presentations for my students. I hope to continue learning new techniques and apps to support my digital learners though. I know that there is a variety of apps and software to choose from, so I'm hoping that I can continue having enough time to explore and learn new ways to help my digital learners throughout the years ahead. The only mild concern I have is having the funds to support my class when I decide to purchase an app or software to use with my students. I hope that my school or PTA can help support my learners. 

Blog Post #6 - Digital Writing

 

Resource: https://www.kpcc.org/show/take-two/2013-11-12/california-public-schools-to-require-students-to-learn-typing

    Digital writing has definitely changed and grown tremendously since I was an elementary student. There are a variety of apps available today to make each step of the writing process easier for students. Starting at a young age, students can practice their letter knowledge by tracing letters digitally. Beginning these handwriting skills prior to kindergarten can help students be ready for prereading skills when they enter school. The apps available are also very engaging for students based on their game-like nature. My favorite app so far for this skill is iWriteWordsLite. Though the purchase option is better than the free option, it still is a great start for helping those very young students. This app also doesn't focus on just letters, but also includes simple words to practice as well. This encourages students to make some reading and writing connections which is so important! I plan on using it with my kindergarten and first grade intervention students this school year!

iWriteWordsLite

   As a teacher, one of my favorite parts of teaching writing is the prewriting stage. I love the variety of graphic organizers and tools that can be used with students to begin their thinking before fully diving in and writing about a specific topic. One of the apps I tried this week was Doodle Buddy. This app was best geared towards the age range I teach. I feel like students can easily use this app to edit real photos or draw pictures on their own to help capture ideas they want to incorporate before writing words. I also really liked that there was a good variety of stencils, stickers, and background options for students to pick from. I believe my students could use this app with ease and allow for writing to be fun and engaging for them. Another great feature is being able to add speech bubbles to images. My students like when they can add little touches similar to what they see in other books. I am hoping to try this app with my 2nd and 3rd grade intervention students this school year!

Doodle Buddy

    Another site I tried this week that I am excited about using in my classroom is Flipsnack. I think that it's important to give students a variety of ways to publish their work and this is a site I think they would be excited to use to finalize their writing piece. When you first sign up for it, it looks like it should be geared towards much older students, but I think with the correct modeling and support, younger students can use it effectively. I think using this site would be a fun and creative way for students to create their own books or magazines about nonfiction topics for final project-based assessments. What I also liked is that students can share their work with myself, their classroom teacher and even their parents. I am definitely going to try using this with my 4th grade students this school year to see how it goes! 

                                                                   Flipsnack

    Overall, I chose these apps as my top favorites for a few reasons. First, they are kid-friendly and can serve the purpose they were created for in my classroom. Secondly, I don't think they would take a lot of time to model and teach students how to use. Third, they are engaging and fun for students to use. Lastly, they were little to no cost which is important to consider. These apps support engagement and motivation when it comes to writing because they are interactive, easy to use, contain great graphics and premade templates and so much more! The only thing I can think of that would deter them or distract them while using these apps is not paying attention when I give them directions on how to use them or the purchase add-ons. Overall, I think I could overcome these obstacles easily through reteaching or applying for PTA support in paying for apps that students will use continuously throughout the school year.

Blog Post #5 - The Power of Digital Graphic Organizers

Resource: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/20/c3/ca/20c3ca2f8fbb9c4816c727cda3cbabd7.jpg

    There are many benefits to using graphic organizers with students ranging from all ages and across all content areas. The most obvious reason in my reading intervention classroom is that graphic organizers help students improve in reading comprehension. Graphic organizers help students organize information in a visual format. Therefore, students can better see the relationships and connections causing deeper learning and improved comprehension to occur. Another benefit is that graphic organizers can be easily differentiated to help all students. This is important to consider when thinking about instruction for RTI and supporting ELLs. Lastly, graphic organizers help increase student engagement. My students really enjoy completing assignments when graphic organizers are included. After they are done writing using the pencil-paper mode, students can draw and color making them feel like masterpieces they are proud of turning in for grading. 

    Prior to this module, I have only used pencil and paper formats for graphic organizers but this week after trying a few different online platforms, I decided to give a digital try with my students. I decided to use the apps Inspirations Maps Lite and Kidspiration Maps. The first thing I noticed was that my students were even more engaged than paper and pencil format. They loved learning about how to use the apps and generated some of their best work. I like how these two apps were extremely kid-friendly and did not take long to teach them how to use. For my kindergarteners, we used a graphic organizer to sort pictures into categories of their beginning sounds. For my 1st-grade students, we used a graphic organizer to retell the story using our 5-finger retell strategy. For my 2nd-grade students, we used a graphic organizer to map out important story elements. For my 3rd-grade students, we used a graphic organizer to map out important vocabulary words. For my 4th-grade students, we used graphic organizers to map out writing our personal essays. It has truly been a fun week!

    Obviously, pencil and paper format is still important to practice with students since they won't be able to use apps to help them with state testing and so on. I think realistically, digital graphic organizers are easier to use and can be printed for a physical copy if a teacher needs that. So in the long run, it saves more paper. One thing I learned about using digital graphic organizers is that students were not so focused on trying to spell every word accurately compared to writing with pencil and paper. I encouraged them to get their thoughts down first and then go back and edit their spelling and grammar errors later. I liked that the program would underline errors for them to correct. This is much different than paper and pencil when I have to help them edit it myself. Another positive thing about using digital graphic organizers compared to paper and pencil was that students could incorporate images more quickly rather than drawing them. In the end, both paper and digital graphic organizers help students organize their ideas and thoughts. When deciding which format to use, it truly depends on what's best for each student to be successful in their learning. 

    I don't really have any major concerns about using digital graphic organizers with my students. One mild concern is making sure students don't accidentally delete their own or someone's graphic organizer. Another mild concern is having a backup plan in case technology is not available for me or there is an issue using the app (for example we lose internet capability at my school). Other than that, I think that I will continue learning to find ways to incorporate digital graphic organizers more often in my classroom. I will also continue finding newer or better apps that are easy to manage and are free of charge. I will also talk to classroom teachers this year at my school and encourage them to try using digital graphic organizers in their rooms and across all their content areas. 

Blog Post #4 - Digital Audio Tools for the Classroom

 

Resource: https://unsplash.com/s/photos/kids-headphones

I will be honest, I don’t think I’ve ever thought about how I could incorporate ways to use digital audio tools within my intervention classroom until this module. It has opened an area for growth in my teaching. I really think that by using audio tools with my students, I can set up more authentic purposes for reading which is really important for my students who struggle with reading. The following techniques and ideas will also motivate, engage, and build confidence for my students in ways that I don’t think I’ve thought of before. I’m excited to begin trying these in my classroom this school year to promote my students having a voice!

One of my favorite ideas came from Bridging Technology and Literacy by Amy Hutchinson and Jamie Colwell. I want to begin incorporating digital audio recordings for my personal classroom library books. I love the idea of students recording themselves reading the book and putting QR codes on the cover so other students can listen to the stories later on using their iPads. This could be a great final assessment idea for intervention where I can assess each student’s accuracy and fluency. I could also challenge my students to generate comprehension questions to ask at the end to engage the listener in thinking about the story they just listened to. Here is an example of me reading a book to my students so that I could model and demonstrate the expectations I have for their final product.

Another idea from the same book that I want to incorporate is creating a podcast of my students’ Readers Theater performances. My students enjoy Readers Theater very much because they love feeling like actors and actresses. We typically go into classrooms to perform but I like the audio idea instead so classroom teachers could incorporate our podcast into their literacy centers. We could even do a video podcast so that students feel like they are performing in front of others. Either way, students will probably not even recognize they are reading because they are having so much fun.

A final idea of how to incorporate audio tools in my classroom is to record lessons for students. I think this could be very beneficial for my chronically absent students. They could access the lessons at home to make up for missing lessons or if they need a refresher. I also think that these could be great for when I’m absent from school and have a sub. Lastly, these could be used for tutoring sessions as well. This is definitely something I’m going to begin doing right away.

One of the audio apps I have used previously, and is probably familiar to most of us, is Flipgrid. This app is a tool I began using when the Covid pandemic hit. Flipgrid’s learning platform allows students to respond to a teacher through a video or voice recording. Written comments can also be incorporated. It’s very student-friendly and easy to use. I would often ask students to record themselves reading their favorite page in the book or answering a comprehension question.

One new audio app I tried this weekend was My Story-Book Maker. This app was extremely user-friendly for students. I don't think it would take a lot of time to model and explain how to use it. The only downfalls I saw, personally, are that it limits the number of books for the free edition and it also limits the number of pages you can have in a story. One of the highlights was you can export stories straight to YouTube. A class could have a YouTube channel dedicated to these stories. Another highlight was all the stickers included are geared towards children and they can create drawings and upload photos as well. I am going to try it with my students for an after-reading activity to gauge my interest further in this app.

Blog Post #3 - Images in the Classroom

    Images can be a powerful way to understand someone, especially a child, and help expand their critical thinking skills. Images and visuals can be thought-provoking in various ways based on a person's personal experiences, perspective, and imagination. They can be very beneficial to use in a classroom with students to evoke certain feelings and/or thoughts about a topic. Here are three ways I use images in my classroom and how I teach students to identify their deeper meaning.

1. Use Images as Conversation Starters

Resource: https://waldencroft.com/leadership-and-the-art-of-perspective-taking/

     The image above is one of my favorites to use with my students during Morning Meeting as we discuss as a class what this image is meant to teach us. Students generate a variety of answers which later leads us to our deeper discussion about the ultimate lesson - Just because you are right, does not mean I'm wrong. You just haven't seen life from my side. By using images in lieu of read-alouds, discussions about specific topics, such as learning to have conversations when there are disagreements, can happen just as easily. As a teacher, I can later reference the photo for students when a situation that relates occurs. Images are great for conversation starters.

2. Use Images as Writing Prompts

 Resource: https://www.imagineforest.com/blog/picture-writing-prompts/

    I also use images for creative writing experiences. In my classroom, students create a story based on what they see in the photo and how it makes them feel. I have used these two photos with my students before. For the left picture, I prompt students' thinking by asking the following questions - Is this book magical? Why is this book on the floor? What secrets does this book contain? For the right picture, I prompt students' thinking by asking the following questions - Who does this cabin belong to? When was this picture taken? What could be happening inside? Students then have 15-20 minutes to write a story and can later have an opportunity to share it with their peers. Creative writing is great for expanding the imagination!

3. Use Images to Teach About Puns

    Lastly, comic-like images like this one help teach students about wordplay and puns. I use this image to teach my students how the creator used the word Caribou (the name of the animal) in place of the phrase care about for wordplay. I think this is a fun way to incorporate vocabulary exercises. I'm such a sucker for "Dad Jokes" so my students are pretty good about fake laughing to make me feel good 😂 I also love challenging students to create a wordplay image on their own. This helps me to evaluate their understanding of words and how we use them in different types of settings. I love finding new ways to incorporate images into my daily lessons. There are so many benefits, such as better engagement, which can lead students to develop deeper connections.

    Thankfully, there are so many apps and websites available to help create images for the classroom. The one I used to create my Infographic assignment was easel.ly and for the Cartoon assignment, I used storyboardthat.com. I feel like the first one was harder to navigate and I wanted to use more items that were unfortunately located in their purchased Pro section, so I was limited. The second one was easier to use and I like that there was a lot of variety to make sure I could be inclusive and represent my entire classroom. The only downfall is that you are limited to the number of boards you can have in a week for free. The new app that I tried from the book was Doodle Buddy. This drawing app was easy to manage and is age appropriate for my students. There were stencils to help make simple shapes, stamps to use, and you can draw on inserted pictures. The only thing I didn't like was the advertisements at the bottom were close to the navigation bar so I accidentally clicked on them a few times. Not sure if it would be worth purchasing the ad-free option? I think overall, students would enjoy learning about and using these websites and app for visual literacy assignments. 

Blog Entry #2 - eBooks and Apps

 

Resource: https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/best-apps-for-kids/

    Learning about and exploring eBooks this week has made me rethink asking for eReaders instead of Chromebooks from my PTA as mentioned in my first blog entry. I will be honest, I don't think I can recall a time when I've seen eReaders being used in an elementary classroom so discovering how easily they could be incorporated was exciting to read about. And to be even more transparent, I haven't even personally used an eReader until this past week! A friend that is an avid reader and uses her Kindle often was so kind as to let me borrow hers so I could see how they work. Below is a picture of the one she has (Currently $65 on Amazon right now). In using her eReader, I found it very easy to use and enjoyed reading a book digitally that was not on my laptop. I also loved how light the Kindle was, that I could read at night and not need an overhead light on, and could carry multiple books that didn't take up all the room in my teaching bag. I also learned that she has purchased the Kindle Unlimited subscription which I believe is also important to consider when factoring in overall costs in the classroom. Without this, I'm not sure how much each book would cost.

    The books I explored this week were from freebooksy.com but in using the site, I discovered that the books were basically direct links to amazon.com so it seems Amazon is a great place to look for digital books. The other site I explored was ereaderiq.com, which I found to be much more overwhelming than the previous two and it also included links to Amazon. The five specific children's books I read on the Kindle this week were Catpuccino Adventures, Go to Bed, Ollie!, Ara the Star Engineer, Denny and Penny, and I Spy Halloween!. All these books were easy to use, but one complaint I have was that the pictures were only in black and white. In purchasing one in the future, I would like for my students to have a device that has color. I also did not experience any additional interactive features so I'm not sure if it relates to the book itself or the style of Kindle I was using? Overall though, for just the pure pleasure of reading the book, the Kindle was enough. The font was large enough to see well from a distance, it was easy to navigate between pages, and also switching between books.

    At my school, we use Chromebooks and iPads as our main technology devices. I have used a variety of educational apps that have been fun for students to use and learn from. Some of my favorites for my students (K-4) are Starfall, Teach Your Monster, Hooked on Phonics, Reading IQ, and Khan Academy Kids. While some apps are free, others do cost money or have additional add-ons that cost money so it's always important to check ahead of time before downloading. Students love these because it makes learning fun and engaging. They enjoy playing games and challenging themselves. These apps could also be used at home too which is a bonus! Some apps that caught my attention that I want to further look into are the ones aimed at comprehension. It does seem that majority of these start at $1 and up so if anyone has any recommendations for those that are worth the money, please feel free to leave them in the comments below.

    Since I'm a reading interventionist, I could see how eReaders and eBooks would be a great alternative for my students to use for small group learning. I could incorporate both apps and eBooks together for a full digital literacy lesson. I would definitely try it out with my fourth graders first, to work out any issues that may arise because of how familiar they are with technology, and then work my way down to kindergarten. I would have to also consider time and how much it would take to train the students to use the devices, actually using the devices, and having a backup plan for when the devices don't work. Ideally, I would love to plan a few lessons with my school's Library Media Specialist so that she can support me in my learning and if any troubleshooting issues occur. In the future, I plan on working towards more technology integration back into my classroom once I obtain devices to use 😊