Let's get in Kahoot!

It has been a long yet wonderful week for me!  I had the pleasure of spending time with some energetic youngsters who just happen to be my nieces and nephews!  Our time together was spent bowling, skating, playing laser tag, and the icing on the cake was a trip to The Children’s Museum in Indianapolis.  Unfortunately I did not spend much time on the Internet looking for resources; however, I spent lots of quality time with the munchkins! 

As I was starving for my daily dose of “webicine” I decided to engage the 5-11 year-olds in an online game I used in my classes last year.  The good news is that they loved the game and wanted to play it over and over again!

Kahoot! Is the game.  Kahoot! is an online review tool that masquerades as a ‘game’.  This game is fun, engaging, and can be challenging.  I suggest you check this game out.  There are well over 2.7 million Kahoot games that can be used immediately!  Actually, if you browse the Kahoot archives you will undoubtedly find a game to play with your friends and family.  If you don’t find what you need or want, create your own game.  You will need to create an account to get started, so get moving!!

To find this treasure…go to https//:create.kahoot.it and get started!

A Wonderful Interactive, Engaging, Easy-to-use Tool

Have you settled into the calmness called Summer Break yet? As you are chillin' and playing Candy Crush or whatever your guilty pleasure is, why not check out a piece of technology that just might work for you and your students.  

For most of us the school year and all of its craziness is just around the corner and you and I will be expected to ‘hit the ground running’.   What in the what does that really mean?  It means that our plans will need to be done, our rooms need to be decorated, and our technology game needs to have improved over last year. 

Technology game?  What in that world is that?  Well for me it means I should be prepared to roll out engaging, exciting, rigorous activities using more than just paper & pencil and/or talk ‘n’ chalk.

While perusing my school email yesterday I came across a sale I have already taken advantage of.   www.nearpod.com is hosting a 50% off sale on their programs!  Repeating…50% off.  Now you don’t have to be a mathematician to know that this is quite a sale!    Also, there are many FREE presentations you can download and use in your classrooms!!

“With Nearpod you create or download interactive presentations to engage your students using any device”.  Taken directly from the Nearpod website. 

Go ahead and create your account.  You will love it.  When students are on a Nearpod presentation, they are forced to move at your pace.  Students stay interested and the lessons are good for preview, review, or just reinforcement of topics. 

Once you check it out, please comment on this post and let me know what you think.

So Many Apps, So Little Time!

As the school year ended, our  school district’s technology department requested the secondary teachers with iPads to take the iPads with them for the summer and explore the various applications and other interesting qualities of this tablet.   Sounds like an awesome assignment if you have explored the App Store or you are an iPad regular. But what teacher really has time for all of that?  

Just how many apps are there?  I ‘Googled’ this question and I found out that there are millions of apps.  In the Apple App Store there are 1.4 million apps.  I know we have the summer off, but 1.4 million apps are a bit much for most teachers…most people to peruse!   So let’s narrow it down to just education apps…there are a whopping   80,000 Education Apps!!   Again, ‘ain’t nobody got time for that’

So if you are wondering where you should start, I am going to list a few of my favorites.   Each of these apps is offered free in the app store so check them out and let’s talk about it. 

Education Apps:

• Socrative:  This app provides a platform for making and giving paperless quizzes and exit slips to individual students. 
• Handouts:  This is an app that allows teachers to give out worksheets without using paper.  The students are then able to ‘write’ on the worksheets. 
• Showbie:  Showbie is similar to Handouts and works the same way. 
• Class Dojo:  Class Dojo is an app that assists with classroom management.  Check it out…cool app!
• Educreations:  This app allows students a chance to show comprehension without paper. 

Low- tech notes I took during a Webinar

Technology...Schmechnology...Ain't Nobody Got Time for That!

So after  teaching using the traditional methods, I am attempting to not only integrate technology into my classroom, and I am trying to go...PAPERLESS!!!   Yes for someone who uses a forest's worth of paper each school year, this has been a bit of a challenge to say the least.

I have been a science teacher in a public school in Indiana for the last 29 years of my life.  Like other educators I have seen lots of changes in kids, teachers, teaching styles, school schedules and all. However the technology boom is here and if I don't hop on the train, I am bound to be left at the gate.

My journey started years ago when I would take students to the computer labs to complete projects or look at websites related to the topics being studied.  I loved doing this because the kids seemed to engage better whenever there was a change of rooms.  This process was good and efficient...and even today, the laptop labs and classroom computer labs provide students with a chance to access information from around the world.

I needed a way to perk up my lessons and fire me up enough to reach the finish line called RETIREMENT!


iHeartBio,
Reba

Introducing....Co-Pilot First Class!!

Like many other teachers, I knew it was imperative that I add a technology piece to my teaching repertoire.  So I started the school year the same way I ended the previous one.  I stalked our school tech coordinator and bugged the Principal to let me get my hands on those iPads.  Lo and behold I got a cart with 30 working iPads to use. I just knew I had landed in education heaven! However the weeks and months that followed taught me more than I ever imagined!

Next post will highlight some of the adventures my Co-pilot & I had!

This is my co-pilot the iPad Cart!

iHeartBio,

Reba

Year End Reflection!

Another school year is history!!!   2014-2015 marked my 29th year of teaching and my 47th year of going to school.   When 2013-2014 ended, I really felt like I had lost my effectiveness and therefore I secretly abhorred those "lucky" retirees.   As they prepared to embark on a new adventure that did not include nearly 200 high schoolers, papers to grade, lessons to plan, meetings to attend and such, I prepared for another year of  SSDD...Same Stuff...Different Day!  

So...over the summer I decided I needed to reinvent myself as a teacher.  I was in desperate need of some rejuvenation to get me prepared to give the next set of Freshmen who were scheduled to have me for Biology the best education I could give.  But that would mean I would have to put on my big girl undies and do things differently...put some UMPH in my teaching!!!

 Reinvention Strategies:

• Interactive Science Notebooks
• Copious Amounts of iPad Apps
• Collaborative End-of-Course Groups

Each of these strategies will be explained in subsequent blog posts...Keep watching and reading...it will be worth your time!

iHeartBio,
Reba