Studying with Quizlet

Remember the days of learning new vocabulary words by tediously writing them all out? Well, those days are gone! Using the new web 2.0 Tool Quizlet, learning new vocab and other subjects will be a breeze. This interesting program allows teachers, and students, to create their own study tools. For instance, vocabulary words just need to be typed into a box and the program will give you different definition options to choose from. If this is too complex student could go on a google quest to find the different definitions to different words. Next, the program creates different study tools for students to utilize. There are flashcards, quizzes, and a variety of different educational games. I would personally use this for 4^th-8^th, and maybe even high school. The samples provided are screen shots of the program’s activities. You can access my set of Algebra tools here!

 

These are sample flashcards of this set. 

 This is a sample of the Quiz game that is timed.

This is a sample Quiz from my Algebra set.

I really did love this site. I do think that it is a little too complex for younger grades unless you really simplify it. For example, if you purchase the membership to Quizlet you can add photos to your set and I think it would be a great idea to set up color/picture word matches for students to practice word recognition. With this site it is important to set it up and then let students explore!

History Reports with Blabberize!!

Usually writing a report and presenting it in front of the class is not every student’s ideal project. Nerves run high and often times, students will try to avoid the entire assignment. Giving students options as to how they would like to present an assignment to the class is something that I would like to provide in my classroom.

Instead of the usual PowerPoint or Prezi—Blabberize is an excellent tool for Teachers to provide to their students. This fun website allows students to record audio that will go along with an image that they edit to present. This allows students to prepare and practice public speaking without actually having to stand up in front of class. Public speaking is something that students must practice and master throughout their entire educational career. I believe that with Blabberize we can help instill a sense of confidence in students public speaking abilities and for them to believe that what they have to say is important. This can help them to realize that speaking in front of people or sharing your ideas is not really all that scary! This is a free website that is easy to use and has endless possibilities for both students K-12 and Teachers in all content areas. Please watch and listen to this sample provided to hear a student give a report on the story of a civilian during World War II era.


This website is such an incredible tool to offer to your students. This really has them practicing their speeches before they present and it forces them to restructure their writing if it does not sound well. Seeing this makes them more aware of their editing skills and it's just a really fun tool to play with. Students will love using this even outside of the class. Well, at least that's what I think...

I know for sure I will be using Blabberize for different things in my classroom. I actually really would like to add a little blabberize to my professional site.

Book Reports with Glogster!!

Incorporating literature into a young mind is so essential to the mental and spiritual growth of a student. Students can never have enough reading time, but often it is difficult for us, as Educators, to have students show us what they’ve learned through the text that they explore. This is why I believe that students should have some creative freedom in creating their very own storyboards using the program Glogster. Glogster is an online educational tool that is used to create different storyboards or posters for different subjects and or criteria. Allowing students to use a different media to express what they’ve learned is an amazing tool. 

Students can show comprehension of content in a visual way. Below is a sample I created using Glogster to show how a student could create a book report through text, images, and other resources in place of writing an essay. The sample below is a book report on the novel Divergent by Veronica Roth. Students needed to identify the following: Setting, 2 Plots, Main Characters, Conflict, and Theme. 

I really enjoyed using this program!! I think it is fun, you can really let students get wild and creative with it to show what they've learned. I feel that this tool is simple enough to use in younger grades and can be assigned at at difficult level for the older grades. Even if you don't use this program often, students will still see it as a resource that they, themselves, could use in other subject for projects and other homework. 

This site gives you a free 30 day trial but I think in order to utilize all of its resources you do need to pay a fee of $25 for the Educational option.

Google Search

You give the Internet permission to do anything it wants the moment you go online. You log onto websites, post pictures, set maps to pinpoint your exact location—basically you share your life with the world. We’ve grown accustomed to thinking that this is normal but really it's not. We are now able to be our very own detectives with just your basic Internet connection.

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For this research I decided to Google a person I know everything about but would never have to run a search on for basic information. I also thought this was a good idea because I could actually then crosscheck the information I find with my friend to see if it was accurate or not. 

I began with Google. Ah…good ole trusty Google! My missions’ name: Emilia J. (I’m going to keep her last name private because I don’t want her name to pop up with one more additional link, haha!). This was my first search result: 

 

I clicked many of the links but none of them were my Emilia so I decided to type in ‘Emilia J. Chicago’ and I received many more links that looked legitimate. These were some of the results I found. 

I was astounded that I could find all this information online. I found her address, her phone numbers, her age/the year she was born,  the names of her parents and siblings, and even a map that showed me her neighborhood. This is all really important information that could get out of control if it got in the wrong hands. Having this information on her could lead to someone being able to find out even more information that would lead to more and more goods on my friend. All of that is no bueno!

It’s important to limit what you post online. You never know who is out to get your information. Younger people on the Internet are still blessed in thinking that nothing bad could happen to them. Unfortunately it is only when they are in trouble that they realize that their Internet tracks are what brought on the issues in the first place. We need to educate and teach our students that whatever you post online does in fact stay online forever.

I think I can!

Funny Times Toon

Truth. When you are first introduced to a new form of technology it is pretty intimidating. Its this expensive looking thing that you are scared to press on too roughly, you don’t want to double click too often, and you really don’t want to mess up the system. After a while you begin to feel more confident about it but when someone comes around to use your new gadget you can get pretty nervous. We all have stages we go through when it comes to using technology.

Could you imagine the pure confusion some educators went through in the 1980s when Apple decided “Hey, we should see how teachers adjust to and use our computers if we put them in their classrooms”?  I’m sure that for a lot of those test teachers the sheer panic was very evident on their poor faces. According to Apple there were different levels of a teachers involvement with technology.

1.     Entry-This when a new form of technology is introduced to the ‘user’. Basically unknown.
2.     Adoption-User begins to learn device and feels okay using technology but still stumbles with its use.
3.     Adaptation-User begins to incorporate into daily life and feels comfortable with technology.                    
4.     Appropriation-User begins to find other ways to incorporate technology into daily life for both personal and business matters.
5.     Innovation-Technology is used as a way to better parts of our lives but is not the sole tool used. User uses much more sophisticated gadgets and tools because of the purposes it must fulfill.

I am 100 %Confident!!

Personally in my technology‘career’ I feel that I am at the appropriation stage. I am extremely comfortable using different forms of technology and I know how to explore the Internet without fail. I’ve been growing up with technology though, so perhaps this comfort I feel shouldn’t come as a surprise. Since I was in grammar school I learned the basics of a computer. In high school I learned how to type while keeping my fingers on the ‘home keys’ and not looking down at my hands. My computer tech teacher in high school Mr . Tucker, used to put these shoe boxes over our hands and timed how quickly we could type the words could, should, would, etc. over and over until he called time.

…Okay, I lied. Lets knock that down to 80% confident.

I feel comfortable because I’ve been taught the basics but I’m still trying to figure out how to use technology that is still fairly new. For example: Prezi. I think that Prezi is an awesome presentation tool and I’ve wanted to learn how to use it for a very long time. So finally the opportunity has shown itself, but I am struggling a bit with all the different ways to edit. I am a child of powerpoint. I can make my titles fly into the screen with awesome car wreck sound effects. But powerpoint is so basic and boring now and I want to better the way I educate people that means upgrading to Prezi. I personally thought that Prezi was a really difficult site to manage but I just dove in and made some mistakes. Deleted my entire presentation twice but then I figured it out.  When it comes to technology you need to take risks and not be intimidadted by the system in front of you. That is why I believe younger children do so well with phones, tablets, and computers. They are so excited about what they are doing that they don’t think too much. They press buttons, get frustrated, ask for help, and just explore until they finally realize that they are masters at their device. Everyone needs to just take those risks and be brave. Our world is moving too fast to be intimidated or scared about technology. If you don’t take those risks then you will really be left behind.

 Thanks for reading! 

Until next time!!