As an elementary school teacher I know the importance of using tools that help students learn how to communicate, collaborate, create, and think critically. I also know how much time I waste finding ways to integrate these tools into my classroom. Below there are some great FREE Web tools that I have learned how to implement into my classroom of first graders. I explain how these tools can be used for you and your students. There are a few examples from my classroom and others that I found to be helpful.
Voicethread- A collaborative multimedia slide show that is sorted and accessed online. Comments can be recorded by webcam or microphone, as well as typed in.
How can I use it in my classroom?
Collaborating and communicating through the cloud
- Projects- performance assessment for culminating
- Performance projects- Geometry: Voicethread
- Debates-Common Core- Understanding both sides and being able to make points about both.
Whole Group and Small Group Learning
- Comprehension of skills
- Continuous Learning
- Student involvement and engagement
- Example- Nonfiction Text Features
Word Clouds-
Many people have heard of word clouds like Wordle. Wordle serves the purpose of a word cloud, but the two word clouds that I mention below are a little more versatile. Unlike Wordle with these to word clouds students and teachers can save their projects and can do more with the layout and shape.
ABCya is a kid friendly word cloud that allows students to navigate easily as they plug words in the cloud.
Glogster- A collaborative online learning platform to express creativity, knowledge, ideas, and skills in the classroom. *See directions on how to register on Glogster below.
 |
Here are the Glogster Directions that will assist you in get started on Glogster. Directions explain how to navigate around Glogster.
4th of July Glogster - Glogster can be used for many things, but just as blogs can be used to express ideas, a Glogster can be used the same way. Some really neat features about Glogster is that videos, pictures, quotes, information, and many more things can be added like a collage to the page to express ideas, tell a story, give facts about a subject, tell about yourself, etc.
Voki- My kids absolutely love Voki. There are so many ways to use Voki in the classroom. Sign up on the website for Voki classroom for free. Students can choose characters and customize them. After finding a character students can type in or record with a microphone what they would like characters to say. I use Voki to introduce new units, talk about vocabulary, and explain directions. Students use Voki to tell stories, present information, and debate. Great resource for free!!
Class Dojo- Classroom Management tool- Sometime after Christmas a fellow teacher and I came across this website while searching for something on Pinterest. We looked into it and thought we would give it a try. I think giving Class Dojo a try was one of the best decisions I made all year. This website is very easy to use and students absolutely love it! Almost every teacher in the school uses this website after seeing results.
One awesome feature about Class Dojo is the parent email feature. The points earned and lost are all on the student's report. If you click on email parent it automatically sends their report to the saved email for that student. You can send all parents an email of their child's report at the same time. I send one report each week through email. If parents do not have email I print the report. You can send behavior reports as often as you like.
There are so many great features, but the best thing about this website is how effecient and time saving it is. It organizes everthing for you, has a report on each student, charts, attendance, parent email, and much more. Check it out!!!
 |
Bookmarks
Jog the Web and Delicious Stacks
I have used so many different types of bookmark portals with my kids such as Share Tabs, My Portaportal, and other online bookmarking sites for kids. I use the bookmarking sites to save websites that my students will use to complete projects or assignments. This makes it so much easier for students to find what they need. Even if you are trying to teach them which websites are appropriate and which are not as helpful, it is simple to upload a few websites that are not as helpful as the rest.
Delicious Stacks-Plant Research - Delicious is the easiest and most efficient bookmarking website for students to use for many reasons (in my opinion). Delicious does not require a login to access the site. Another great quality is that students cannot change anything on the website, but they can look at every website that the teacher adds. Each stack on Delicious has a tidbit of information and a picture to introduce the site or video, so students can choose the best websites to research.
Jog the Web- this is a wonderful site to save websites you will be using during a unit, a presentation, series of lessons, etc. It saves websites in a presentation style that helps you organize.
Something different about jog the web is that you can search for other teacher's presentations that they have saved on Jog the Web. For example if I was doing a unit on Geometry I could type that in the search bar and various websites that other people saved would show up. I do not have to create my own bookmarks every time because there are many effective websites that other teachers took the time and effort to save. I don't always use what others upload, but most of the time I use at least two or three of the websites they have in my own presentation.
Edmodo- this is a website that my students use to blog. Each students have their own password to get in. There are many privacy features to keep this safe. My students are young and I do not allow them to comment on each others page, but they can post comments to me. Students post blogs about educational videos, pictures and songs. They answer questions about standards and have discussions about units.
Another really cool feature on Edmodo is the Library page and document page. I am able to save and organize songs, videos, and documents to my Edmodo where it easy to find. I save links from Pinterest and other teachers' blogs, so that I can get to it fast and easy. I do make these visible so that parents can look at these through their child's page.
