Classroom Tools- Ones I have used

As a teacher I have found that there are so many tools available to teachers online. This summer I went to a conference about technology in the classroom. There are two tools that I have now been using because of that conference: Plickers and Class DoJo. Through a class I am taking with 5 Star Academy I have found many other tools to use in the classroom like Kahoot.it and Quizlet. As an educator I have found that symbaloo and padlet are also useful tools for sharing with other professionals.

Plickers is a tool that can be used for free. You print out these cards and all you do is put questions up. To answer the questions students use the card and turn up their choice. You then take an iPad or smartphone and scan those answers and they pop up immediately. This is a fast and easy way to get answers to questions and eliminates the need to wait and call on a student to answer a questions.

Class DoJo is how I manage my classroom behavior. Instead of having the stop light system up where everyone can see it each student has their own log in. The students can bring it up and see how they are doing on their own and not have to worry about other students seeing it. Students can also get notes on the system that are sent to parents who register. If a student is working hard teachers can also share pictures on the story wall. Only parents who have registered can view those.

Kahoot.it is a new way to assess the students that is all online. You can create your own set of questions or use ones that have already been created. My students have done one over the ecosystem. It is color coded and easy for the students to follow. This is set up like a game and they are competing against each other to see who does the best. My students enjoyed it and it will be used a lot more. The results can then be downloaded and/or saved on google drive.

Quizlet is another app or online system that I have found to be useful. You can put vocabulary words on here for students to learn and they can quiz themselves in many different ways. Not only do my students use this, but I have shared it with other peer tutors and they love it. They find that it is very useful for English vocabulary words.

Symbaloo and Padlet I could see being useful to teachers in a collaboration. So many things can be shared and discussed on these forums that it would be nice to use them just to share information. They can also be used to have certain discussions if needed.

All of these tools have come in handy for me in some way this year. I haven't dug very deep into many of them, but I have used the surface level of them and love it. I think these make teaching easier and it also makes it to where the students enjoy the material more.

If anyone has any other tools they would like to share I am open to learning all about them! I love learning about new technology tools.

Mrs. Jagger