EDPuzzle allows teachers to upload their own video lessons or select pre-made content from pre-existing collections, such as YouTube, LearnZillion, Kahn Academy etc. Teachers can enhance their videos by adding their own voice comments and embedding short response or multiple choice questions throughout them. A cool feature of EDPuzzle is “check for understanding,” in which videos can be set so that when assigned, students must respond to the questions before continuing their viewing of the content. To help teachers with assessing their students, the site collects data on student completion and performance, making homework grading easy and efficient. It provides feedback on understanding immediately for students and teachers.
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Castle Learning allows students to practice and prepare for state exams (i.e. Algebra Regents). It provides instructional support through online review, assessment, and data reporting. Both teachers and students are given a lot of flexibility with assignments. It is critical to know your students, as you can create an assignment from scratch, selecting the questions you think work best with your students. There are a countless number of questions to choose from, which also include state administered regents’ exam questions. Castle Learning supports differentiated instruction. Students who have testing modifications or have specific learning needs can choose an audio option where the questions are read aloud to them. If you have ESL students, the questions can be displayed in different languages. To help with scaffolding, there is an option so that students can be given hints and opportunities to answer questions again if they answered them incorrectly at first. Teachers can track students progress and evaluate each assignment by collecting data that Castle Learning produces. The teacher can also see how long a student spent on the exam, when the students started/ended (or did not end) the exam, how many questions answered correctly, incorrectly, and how many hints a student used. Kahoot is resource is a FREE game based assessment tool that teachers and students really enjoy. Teachers can create or search for quizzes that relate to the topics they are teaching. There are 3 types of Kahoots; quiz, discussion, and survey, all of which are forms of assessment. Like Nearpod students do not need accounts and can access the assessment via any device. This is a great tool for students in the lower grades, self contained classes, and emergent readers. The question is posted only on the Smart Board that the teacher can choose to read while students must choose, on their device, a color/shape that corresponds with the response.
I LOVE using this resource as a pre and post assessment for all my students. Nevertheless it is one of the best ways to assess students in self contained classrooms or in the lower grades as they have not yet mastered reading. Nearpod has recently become my favorite! It’s a presentation and assessment tool that engages students beyond your wildest dreams. Teachers can create presentations that can contain quizzes, polls, videos, images, drawing boards, web content, etc., or they can search the database for lessons. It’s easy to use for students and teachers as students do not need accounts, just the code provided. Teachers I’ve shared this resource with are impressed with the control they have. Whether students are accessing the presentation via desktop or iPad (any device really) teachers have the ability to change the slides across every device through their own computers. This tool has improved cooperation in my classroom specifically those who are mute or shy. Every activity students submit is also stored in the cloud and can be downloaded if need be. This is great as you can share work with classes and parents.
Osmo, is a unique educational gaming accessory that turns your iPad into an interactive intelligence that mirrors your actions. Crafted with reflective artificial intelligence, Osmo's advanced technology bridges the real and digital realms. An Osmo is a plastic game base that an iPad sits in and a little mirror that sits over the front camera on the iPad. This setup allows the user to do things on a tabletop in front of the iPad and simultaneously interact with the iPad.
It has several components including masterpiece, tangram, numbers, words, and even coding. It’s an exceptional tool to use in the classroom, especially numbers, tangram, and words. Each of these components aids students in building a basic skill; spelling, mathematical operations, and critical thinking puzzle skills. It helps teachers differentiate their teaching for diverse learning styles and student needs. As a technology teacher I would mainly use their latest component, Coding, which I recently had the opportunity to explore. The kit that you need for the game includes plastic blocks that are magnetic. The blocks show different movements (run, jump) or numbers (1-5) and a play button. The object of the app is to move a cute guy called Awbie through a forest maze to collect strawberries. The way you move Awbie through the maze is to arrange the coding blocks and press play. Then he moves in whatever way you have coded. Like many other games, the player can see tutorial-type hints, clear levels and move on to harder challenges. There is just the right number of hints for younger students but many opportunities to solve problems in unique ways to keep many kids become interested. My favorite part is that the action happens on a tabletop so that the work can be more collaborative than when kids work at terminals Thrively is a student centered personalized learning platform that develops the whole child. It brings together four key components essential in personalized learning; self awareness, finding purpose, building grit, and creating impact. It starts by providing students with a strength assessment in 23 areas; leadership, resilience, creative thinking and many more. This affords students a starting point that they can build on and aids teachers in identifying students’ strengths.
Based on these strengths, Thrively supports students by providing information about various careers using educational and informative videos. It also offers teachers various activities that they can present to their students to complete now in their community. Teachers can further support their students by teaching them growth mindset. Students can build enduring values through various activities that teachers can choose. These social impact activities help them build their creative thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity skills. Additionally, teachers can create real world hands on learning experiences to bring forth further interests. Specifically, I would use the tool as a Genius hour for students. Genius hour supports students in researching their authentic interests. It helps them push past what is popular right now and find meaningful interests. The resource takes into account location and provides students with opportunities within their neighborhood, apps, activity boards, places to see, educational and informational videos, and much more all of which relates to each students personal interests. Being able to access students’ interests allows teachers to group students by interest for projects that could impact student lives and possibly their community. |
Ms. OzTeaching technology and STEAM is my passion. Sharing my knowledge can only light the way for others. Archives
February 2021
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