Web 2.0: Quizizz

Hello Educators! With technology becoming a high demand tool in the classroom I wanted to share an amazing site with you. Quizizz is a free site offering quizzes, games and much more to educators and students. You have the option of choosing a quiz that was made by other teachers or create your own. The age and subject range is wide spread from kindergarten to university level and topics ranging from calculus to naming colors, Quizizz has it all. This site can also be used as study guides or activities to learn material. I created a short tutorial to give you an idea of what you can do with this site, click here to begin.

I wanted to go more in-depth with the homework option that Quizizz offers. Once you create or choose a quiz you have the option to have the students complete it in class or assign it as homework. This option allows you to set a time and date it must be finished by. It also gives you the choice to turn it into a game/study guide for the material chosen. I think this is a great way to engage student in a fun way and give them a break from the typical worksheet.

I think this site will be very useful for educators to find different ways to teach required lesson plans as well as a fun experience for the students, There are many options to choose from and ways to mix up the material being taught in this site.

PodCasting in Education

With so many way to use technology in the classroom I thought it would be important to talk about different ways to use them in the classroom with student and with other educators. Podcasting in the classroom hand give the students the freedom do complete homework in a different environment. Instead of the usual pencil and paper method to write a story, class project or a book report, or even as a journal why not have them do a podcast. This will give the student another option to express themselves in a creative way. This will also build and strengthen their speaking skills. Teachers can use podcast as a way to communicate with other teachers, students and parents. Educators can use podcasting to go over homework assignments, to create a classroom discussion, to create podcast forums with other educators. With podcasting they are stored with a public server for anyone to listen and view.

As many of you know iTunes is amazing for music but did you know it has educational purposes as well?  A summary of the site is iTunes offers endless choices of podcast for almost any education interest you may have but it is not limited to just education. They have complete podcast of news, national radio programs as well as TV shows. You can use iTunes to find class related topics, home work assignments and much more. Anyone can create and listen to podcast, they are Delete repeated word a MP3  You can create your own or listen to fellow educators talk about life in the classroom. One unique feature is you are able to link your podcast from iTunes to your ICloud, another unique feature is you can create playlists of your favorite podcast subscriptions and listen when ever you want. AudioBoom is another great resource to incorporate in the classroom. A summary of this site will help you better understand just what you can do with this site. It can be used on mobile devices as well as on the web you are able to record and share audios with anyone. For podcasting and audios, it is on top with over 50 million listen per month. You can set up your feed to genres that interest you, search through tons of listing or do a specific search for a topic.  A unique feature about AudioBoom is it adapts to what you listen to and offers suggestions, when signing up for Audioboom it will ask you some of your interest to find podcast/audios to better suite you. Another unique feature is you can incorporate advertising into your podcast/audios that adjust to your location to offer local ads.

I used iTunes to find educational podcast that interest me. I found a subscription from a Early Childhood educator by the name of Queenie Tan, he has been an educator for over 16 years. She travels across the U.S. doing workshops for early childhood educators. Her podcast is called The Essence of Teaching, her podcast cover almost any question or concern you may have as an educator. I think she is a great go to resource for advice. I listened to Queenie's podcast on iTunes, took notes, wrote down episodes and tile of podcast listed in details on her podcast site. I then used this information on AudioBoom to record my audio. I created an account with AudioBoom, I then recorded the episode and title of the podcast I listen to on iTunes. I paused the audio to go over my notes, once I felt comfortable I started recording my audio again giving a brief summary of what I had learned from the podcast, I also included to specific examples of things that were discussed in the podcast. Once I was finished I titled and listed correct details as instructed. Once I had completed my blog entry, I uploaded my embedded of my audio from AudioBoom.

I created an podcast using AudioBoom. This is a recap of the iTunes podcast I listened featuring Queenie Tan, the topic is about getting student to wait till they are called on to speak in the classroom.

Introduction to Blogging

Hi! My name is Kishawna. I am a first year teacher in Early Childhood education with a focus in Special Education. I am a mother of 6 children, I have 4 girls that are 16,6,5 and 4. I have 2 boys that are 8 and 7. We also have 3 dogs, 3 cats and 2 snakes. It's like our little petting zoo! Needless to say it is never quiet and there is never a dull moment. I have always been passionate about working with children in a preschool/head start atmosphere. To me this is the most important age to start teaching a child. I chose to focus on special education because I can relate to it on a personal level. My youngest child has down syndrome and I have worked closely with her teachers to develop an educational plan to meet all her needs. Not only can I help educate but I can also relate to families of special needs children on a personal level.

photo on flickr by shareski/creative commons licensed

I believe communication between students, teacher and  parents is very key in the child's ongoing development. With a classroom blog the teacher can continuously update whats going on with in the classroom, have the students and parents comment and add on to it as well. Finding way to engage parents into their child's learning has been a struggle in the past, with such busy lives. Blogging can be a way for parents to feel involved.  With technology becoming an important tool used in the classroom it just makes sense to equip them with these skills at an earlier age. Blogging in the classroom can be used in many ways. They can be used as a form of online discussion, strengthening writing skills, lesson planning just to name a few. Students can be introduced to blogging in the classroom as a way of self expression. The teacher can post about a topic or lesson and require the student to respond to it, the student has the option to respond in or out of the classroom. Blogging can be used as an individual, group or class assignment. It can also motivate some students that might not be very vocal in a classroom setting to express their outlook on a topic.

Blogging can also be a great resource for other educators to communicate through. Blogs are not just meant for text anymore. You can insert websites, video, widgets, photos and much more. Being able to share ideas, what works, what hasn't can be a game changer for any teacher. As any teacher knows this career is not a 9-5 job. You can find great discussion ideas here for blogging, lesson plans and much more at PBS Learning Media. This site can be used for PK-12 grade, there are several breakdowns of subject matter, learning tools and how you would like to present your information. Lets say I wanted to find an activity for 1st grade, language arts and I wanted it to be interactive all I would have to do is choose from the drop down sections and it would give me my options to choose from.