EDUC 462 Blogs

Generation Genius      Generation Genius is a website that provides a wide variety of science and math lessons for grades k-8 that I learned about from my mentor teacher. It has pre-made lessons and experiments with step-by-step directions on how to teach or introduce it. All of their science content encourages hands-on, Inquiry-based learning across all of the science NGSS and common core standards. There are also 5-20 minute long videos that teach and reinforce certain concepts depending on the topic and grade level. Eaze of Use/ Versatility      It is very organized and easy to find what you want to teach for your desired grade level. First, you select if you want math or science lessons and then explore by topic, grade, or scroll through the options to find what you are looking for. It provides the lesson plan, directions, assessment, vocabulary, teacher guide, online quiz game, and an exit ticket pre-made. Although it is very easy to use once you have ...

  Dojo      I learned about this technology from my mentor teacher in my practicum who uses it multiple times throughout the day in various ways. Class Dojo is a site that allows teachers to connect with students and parents to build positive classroom communities. It is one of the most versatile tools I have used and makes communicating with parents direct and easy, provides classroom management tools, and contains resources that make teaching easier.  Versatility/ Experience      One of the most common reasons teachers use this free and very easy-to-use tool is to have direct, quick, and simple communication with each parent. The site can be pulled up on the teacher's account and shows every single parent under “contacts” and throughout the day, teachers can click their name and send them a message about anything and can have a conversation about anything. Parents have to create an account in the beginning of the year and can download it on thei...

  Epic Epic is a digital reading platform found on Dr. Wang’s PowerPoint slides where students can access thousands of books to read or listen to as an audiobook. Students have access to many different genres of books (fantasy to nonfiction), different reading levels, and various lengths of books. When students read each book, teachers and parents can see the progress of the students showing them the time they have spent reading, how far they are, and what books they have read so far. Once each child reads a book, Epic personalizes the choices of books they offer based on the interests they detect the student has. It also has extra tools where students can highlight what they are reading, look up definitions of words in a connected digital dictionary, and “read to me books” where students can listen to the book while simultaneously reading it.  The Use This is a very easy tool to use for anyone who chooses to use it and is especially useful for teachers. Teachers can set up a ...

  Kahoot Kahoot is a game-based learning platform found on Wang’s Powerpoint, where anyone can create customized questionnaires catered towards a certain topic in education, for business reasons, or for friends and family. You can create trivia quizzes with any amount of questions for any reason and can be played on any device. You can create your own and have others join individually on their own form of technology or you can choose existing Kahoots from their library.  The Use As an educator, this is very easy to use and intrigues students immensely because it can turn a boring review or formative assessment into a timed competition against their classmates. Teachers (or anyone) can create an account and make them for free. You get the option to ask whatever question, can include pictures as the answers or part of the question, you may have true and false questions, and you get to choose what answer options there are. Once you make your Kahoot, you have a certain code that e...

    Seesaw is a very unique tool where students can show their learning process online through drawings, pictures, videos, collages, and writing posts found on Professor Wang’s PowerPoint. Each student can access it for free on their Ipads or Laptops and can show their learning in their own unique way allowing teachers to teach and assess to all types of learners. This is helpful for both in-person and online learning classrooms because teachers and parents can see how they are learning by interacting with them online as they develop new skills. Here is the site: Seesaw | Where learning happens   Teachers can create their classroom home page and create new sections that include instructional videos of them or choose from premade lessons on Seesaw for all ages of students. As the year progresses, all of the students' work is saved onto their portfolio that builds. Students can create and demonstrate learning in any subject: writing, math, reading, art, history, scienc...

    Flip Grid is a social platform that encourages more fun and engaging ways to communicate and learn through videos located on this link: Flipgrid | Empower Every Voice . It allows students to have discussions through videos through their computer or laptop, making it ideal for online learning.  Teachers can create topics and post a video of them speaking or upload a video that is premade on the FLipGrid site. Then, once students go to this discussion board, they can post their responde through video along with commenting on each other's videos and captions. This tool is perfect for enhancing social learning in an engaging way and can be used for any topic. Here is a video that explains more about it: https://youtu.be/N9kMlyvCK3Q Flip grid lets students record or prerecord their videos before posting, relieving some unwanted stress it could cause. Teachers can easily invite students through email into a group and connect google classroom to it as well. Students can get...

                           Google Classroom is a tool widely used in classrooms today found from Professor Wang’s                        powerpoints. Google classroom is essentially an organizational tool through google,                                  accessible at any time on any computer that allows the teacher to organize assignments and                   lessons on a calendar that makes it easily accessible for students. It makes it easier for                             teachers to grade, plan, and communicate with others as well. On google classroom, teachers create their classroom and can have ...

This blog is all about the tool widely used in many classrooms today called Laptop Chrome books, found in Dr. Wang’s PowerPoint. Laptop Chromebooks are individual laptops that some school districts provide for each student to help enhance the learning of each student and their ability to teach despite circumstances. These are bought by the school and can be rented out to each student without the cost of the student for the school year or for some school districts until they graduate.  Since 2012 these have opened up a whole new way of teaching that over 40 million educators are taking advantage of that can be more individualized, more consistent, more convenient, and enhances students’ learning because of all of the technologies able to be used for learning certain skills on the laptops. When an entire class receives laptops, it eliminates the financial gap of students (if any) and provides access to mastering important skills learned on a computer that will aid their endeavors in ...