Kahoot is a tool that I have enjoyed using in my classroom. I first heard about Kahoot years ago while completing my ESOL endorsement. My instructor used it to test us on prior content we have learned..This instrutor in particular also demonstrated us how she used Kahoot with her ESOL students. Her creativity inspired me to use it with my own students. Kahoot is a tool that can help us assess student understanding. It can be used as a quick "exit out the door" to see if students grasped the understanding. Kahoot can also be used to review content before a test or a quiz. Another tool that I explored and currently use in my classroom is Nearpod. I am slowly continuing my learning with Nearpod. One reason why I enjoy using Nearpod is because the lessons offered are very engaging. Also, not only does it help guide your lesson, but students get to interact with it through poll questions, open-ended questions and even virtual reality opportunities. Nearpod is a great tool that can be used to reach out all learners in a classroom. For example, when I use it in my class, I sometimes use the student-paced option with my enrichment group. This helps them gain more ownership of their learning and can complete the lesson at their own pace. For my below grade students, I use the live-session option so that I am helping guide the lesson and I can give them immediate feedback on a question they may have answered wrong or if they had misconceptions about the content. I sometimes use a Nearpod while my students are working in small groups, so that they have the peer support to understand the skill or concept being taught. Lastly, a tool that I enjoyed exploring was Quizizz. The first feature that I liked about Quizizz is that you have different options to turn on/off while using it. For example, you can turn off the timer and not show the leader board. I really liked seeing this, because Kahoot does not offer that. The time portion in particular is a great option to have because turning it off can help those students that may need longer to answer a question. It can also help those students that take longer to read. I also saw the option of being able to print the questions used, which would be beneficial for those students that benefit from seeing the questions ahead of time.
I liked that all tools can be used through a blended learning or even a flipped classroom. I personally do not have experience with either one because the majority of my students do not have the technology access they have at school. However, after reading the Flipping the Flipped Classroom article by Tim Watson, I learned that a flipped classroom can start by taking small steps. He suggests why not record your lesson as if you were creating a flipped classroom, but then play it as the first part of your lesson (Watson, 2017.) I could see this as very beneficial for my students since my grade is departmentalized. I can easily record the agenda or even the content they will be learning in science or language. Students can then view the recording as they are coming in, getting settled for class to start. Flipgrid can be a tool that I can use for this, or even Screencastify, then upload into our google classroom. Tim Watson also offer other benefits of recording the lesson for students to watch. One benefit he sees is for his ELL students. He mentions how students can pause the video and look up words they don not understand (Watson, 2017.) The student that is sick at home, can watch the lesson and not feel behind after coming back to school. I see this as very beneficial as well. At our school we have had a high number of students absent due to to the flu and other sicknesses. Although not all have access to a computer or tablet at home, those that do could easily watch a missed lesson from home.
*Please excuse my voice on the video... I tried to record several times, and my voice has been suffering all week.
I liked that all tools can be used through a blended learning or even a flipped classroom. I personally do not have experience with either one because the majority of my students do not have the technology access they have at school. However, after reading the Flipping the Flipped Classroom article by Tim Watson, I learned that a flipped classroom can start by taking small steps. He suggests why not record your lesson as if you were creating a flipped classroom, but then play it as the first part of your lesson (Watson, 2017.) I could see this as very beneficial for my students since my grade is departmentalized. I can easily record the agenda or even the content they will be learning in science or language. Students can then view the recording as they are coming in, getting settled for class to start. Flipgrid can be a tool that I can use for this, or even Screencastify, then upload into our google classroom. Tim Watson also offer other benefits of recording the lesson for students to watch. One benefit he sees is for his ELL students. He mentions how students can pause the video and look up words they don not understand (Watson, 2017.) The student that is sick at home, can watch the lesson and not feel behind after coming back to school. I see this as very beneficial as well. At our school we have had a high number of students absent due to to the flu and other sicknesses. Although not all have access to a computer or tablet at home, those that do could easily watch a missed lesson from home.
*Please excuse my voice on the video... I tried to record several times, and my voice has been suffering all week.
Screencastify
My initial experience with Screencastify went well. I don't always feel confident hearing myself but I tried my best this time due to having a sore throat all week. I enjoyed using Screencastify for this assignment because it is a very user friendly tool if you want to do a screen cast of any kind. it did take me several tries to get my final one ready to add to this blog post, but I think if I continue to use it more, the recordings may get better. I did liked seeing that new options have been added such as the marker, and even being able to upload the screen cast to youtube. I can't recall if that has always been an option or not.
One way I can see using Screencastify or even Screencast-O-Matic is to record a lesson when you are absent from school. I've done this before, didn't mentioned it to my students, so they found it surprising and exciting.Last year, I began to use mentor sentences as part of my writing block, and since I knew my substitute was not familiar with them, I chose to record my mini lesson for it. My students still got to continue their learning, even though I was away. This also really helped my special ed students because they were able to pause to complete the independent portion of the mentor sentence or rewind if they wanted to hear a clip of it once again. Another way I can use this tool is to reteach or introduce a new skill in Language or a new concept in Science. One way I can see my students using Screencast is by letting them complete their quick writes through it. Instead of the students responding in writing, they can orally share their response to the quick write. One last way to use Screencastify is as a way for students to present a presentation for research or a topic in science. This may benefit my students that are very shy and don't feel comfortable sharing in front of the class.
References:
Watson,T.(2017, July 10.) Flipping the Flipped Classroom. Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/discussion/flipping-flipped-classroom
My initial experience with Screencastify went well. I don't always feel confident hearing myself but I tried my best this time due to having a sore throat all week. I enjoyed using Screencastify for this assignment because it is a very user friendly tool if you want to do a screen cast of any kind. it did take me several tries to get my final one ready to add to this blog post, but I think if I continue to use it more, the recordings may get better. I did liked seeing that new options have been added such as the marker, and even being able to upload the screen cast to youtube. I can't recall if that has always been an option or not.
One way I can see using Screencastify or even Screencast-O-Matic is to record a lesson when you are absent from school. I've done this before, didn't mentioned it to my students, so they found it surprising and exciting.Last year, I began to use mentor sentences as part of my writing block, and since I knew my substitute was not familiar with them, I chose to record my mini lesson for it. My students still got to continue their learning, even though I was away. This also really helped my special ed students because they were able to pause to complete the independent portion of the mentor sentence or rewind if they wanted to hear a clip of it once again. Another way I can use this tool is to reteach or introduce a new skill in Language or a new concept in Science. One way I can see my students using Screencast is by letting them complete their quick writes through it. Instead of the students responding in writing, they can orally share their response to the quick write. One last way to use Screencastify is as a way for students to present a presentation for research or a topic in science. This may benefit my students that are very shy and don't feel comfortable sharing in front of the class.
References:
Watson,T.(2017, July 10.) Flipping the Flipped Classroom. Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/discussion/flipping-flipped-classroom