April 22, 2015

Page Turners: Technology in the Classroom


Greetings and welcome to week 4 of Page Turners, a weekly Wednesday linky, where I will feature great blog posts I have read (and sometimes that I have written). Hopefully you will find ideas that inspire you in your classroom and your teaching and maybe even a new blog to follow. Read down to the end of the post for directions if you are interested in linking up a post of your own.


And now on to this week's topic: technology in the classroom



Who doesn't love memes and a good laugh? Julie of Faulkner's Fast Five explains how creating memes focused on plot, characterization, irony, etc. is both a meaningful and enjoyable learning activity for students.  




Jessica of Mrs. Plemons' Kindergarten shares 10 ways to utilize Skype in the classroom, technology I never considered utilizing. My favorite ideas are talking to an author and interviewing an expert. Both are great ideas for sneakily getting students to use their research skills.



I don't know about you but I am obsessed with TED talks. There are so many out there on so many great topics. I watched a clip on 60 minutes the other night about how the idea started and how presenters are selected and coached. Having your students create TED talks or even a TED Ed Club is one of Caitlin Tucker's ideas. She shares a few of her students' videos as well as TED's official application if you want to start a club. What a great way for students to research a topic of interest while also practicing speaking and listening skills.



If you do decide to create TED talks or any kind of video with your students, you will likely want to post them online for others to see. YouTube is a great place for sharing videos, but you don't want your students to be exposed to rude or unkind comments. Caitlin Tucker shares how to moderate or turn off YouTube comments.



The Teaching Trio hosts a weekly linky on Thursdays called Tech Thursday where they share all kinds of technology tips and resources. This recent post about Explore.org caught my attention because who doesn't love animals. On this site you can view live and pre-recorded video feed of animals from all over the world. You might see a lion taking a nap, a shark chomping down on its dinner or even a giraffe giving birth (and yes that really happened for one class). While the Teaching Trio is tooting this as a way to enhance science lessons, this would also be great in an ELA classroom for working on descriptive language.



And this last page turner is one of my own, a post about Remind, a free messaging system you can use with students and/or parents. It is easy to sign up and set up and a great way to remind students about their homework and parents about important deadlines and events.

Be sure to check out the posts linked up below and come back next week for some great posts about teaching literature and fiction skills.


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