Having technology in your classroom is very important, especially as it increases in popularity and availability. As an educator, technology can aid you in instruction and provide you with great resources. Using technology can help engage your students and put a fresh twist on your lessons. Teaching should be fun and engaging to your students, let's use technology to our advantage to help our lesson be the best they can be. The following are all different technologies you can use in your classroom that are effective and easily accessible.
Google Forms: Google forms is a program that you can use to make a form or quiz for any purpose. You can manipulate your form to be of any design you would like, changing the format, color, and question type to each form. Google forms is a super easy way to create good, fast ways of assessment and other uses. This can be used in so many ways in the classroom. Such as, assessment, getting to know students, preferences, and fun quizzes. I can definitely see myself using google forms in my classroom, it is so fun and easy to use! I think I would use it for both assessment and other fun things. For example, getting to know my students on the first day of school. This would be harder to use with younger students, especially pre-k – 1st. Instead of written assessments you could use pictures and do it as a group instead of individually.
Kahoot: Kahoot is an online program where you can take quizzes in the form of a game. You are given points depending on how fast you answer the questions, and whether you were correct or not. You can play with individual students or in teams. Besides the classic version of the game, there are new modes where you can play different games such as color kingdoms and treasure trove. You can choose to use someone else’s Kahoot, or you can make your own. It is very easy to create and use Kahoot! This tool is easy to implement into your classroom! You can spend as much time on the activities as you would like, most of them don’t take very long. You can use Kahoot as a form of assessment to see if your students are understanding what they are learning. It is a great way to review for a quiz or upcoming test. I can see myself using this in the classroom, students respond to Kahoot in such a positive way. I want to make learning in my classroom fun, and this is such an easy way to do that!
Lumio: Lumio is an interactive presentation tool. It has so many options to create a slideshow for your classroom. You can add pre-made pages that other people have created. You can add links and websites. There are four different template features, new page, shout it out, response, and game-based activities. Lumio also provides four ready-made resources, activating prior knowledge, questioning and reflection, manipulatives, graphic organizers. This tool is a great resource for your classroom and I can definitely see myself using it. It is so engaging for students, and I love that you can allow students to go through their own pacing or the teacher can control the pace. I can see myself creating my lesson in Lumio, I really enjoy that you can have your lesson, quiz, games, and links all in one place, so you don’t need students navigating all over. You can use Lumio for an entire lesson or just a section, its all up to you!
Bitmoji Classroom: Bitmoji Classroom is a digital classroom that you can create for your students. It is easy and fun to create these cute classrooms for your students to refer to. Bitmoji Classroom is accessed through Buncee, which is also easy to navigate. This tool tech doesn’t just have one purpose, as the teacher you can decide what you want to use this for. After you have designed your classroom to your liking using the ‘add item’ feature, you can attach links to each of your items. You can attach as many links as you would like. This is where your freedom is, you can attach whatever you would like. They could be extra resources, they could be activities to do if you are done with your classwork, they could change everyday or week, and they could stay the same all year. You can add links throughout the year and rearrange the room, it is not a one and done. You can add in your Bitmoji, which is super fun to have in your classroom. Bitmoji Classroom, is a super fun way to get students engaged and give them links to resources for your class. I definitely see myself using this in my classroom. Right now, I have my Bitmoji Classroom setup with links for students to use after they are done with their in-class work. They can get onto it when they are finished or during any free time given if they would like. I have linked Time Hunter, Freckle, and Class Dojo. These are fun resources for students to use inside or outside of the classroom.
Wizer: Wizer is a digital interactive worksheet webpage. There are many different themes and backgrounds to choose from, along with different fonts and word sizes. It is very easy to make your Wizer worksheet personalized. Once you have picked your design there are multiple activities to choose from that you can add into your worksheet. Ranging from open ended questions to shorting questions. All of Wizer’s activities are easy to add in and manipulate to your desire. This tool tech has the option to preview your worksheet so you can see what your students will see. It also has the option to see and grade your students answers. Most of the activities are self-graded, however, there are a few, such as the draw feature, that are not. Wizer is super fun, easy, and teacher friendly! I definitely see myself using this in my future classroom. I love how many different activities there! This tool tech is super useful for all grades and subjects. I love that Wizer also has a library that you can look through and use other peoples worksheets. There are so many ideas you can pull from other peoples designs! I think using Wizer is a great way to quickly get your students engaged and excited to learn!
Jamboard: Jamboard is an interactive presentation tool technology created by Google. Through Jamboard you can create unique powerpoints to use in your classroom. You can have up to 20 slide in each board and up to 50 people on each board, this is perfect for all your students to be able to access. There are pre-made templates that you have access to, or you can make your own! You are able to change backgrounds, text size and color, add images, sticky notes, shapes, and drawings! Jamboard is engaging and simple to use! You can use this tool tech for content, review, or fun interactive activities in your classroom. I can see myself using Jamboard, however, I prefer some of the other tool techs I have covered. I think Lumio and Wizer were more teacher friendly to use. Both Lumio and Wizer had more activities and options to create your own unique content. I would prefer to use them over Jamboard due to their multiple options and easier usage. I didn’t feel like I was able to express what I wanted for my activities with the resources from Jamboard. That being said, Jamboard is still effective and usable for teachers and students!