Week 6

Hi everyone!

Today I will be writing about five incredible tools that I truly recommend every teacher to try out:

1. Class Debate- promote speaking and develop critical thinking by handling class debates.

I used idebate.org to get inspired with some ideas.

I found an interesting argument that elementary school students might like to participate in: is homework a waste of time? 

I would first present the argument and let the students think a little bit on their own. They should each come up with a pro and a con and write down if they are for or against the discussion. Then I will divide the class into two groups and provide each one with four points from the website (the points only- one sentence each, without the explanation) and have them talk about the points as a group and explain them. Finally we will have a class debate where four members from each team will explain their point and try to convince their friends. We will have a class vote to end the debate. A great post-activity would be to give the students a chance to write whether they changed their minds after the debate. Why or why not? etc.

2. Voice Thread- work on your students' oral proficiency by having them comment about something using voice thread. You can either send them a short video to watch at home (for example: Junior TED talks) and have them comment their thoughts on it, have them recite a provided text or conduct a class debate. These are only a few ideas I came up with, there are plenty other ways to use voice thread in the classroom. Here are a few more if you're curious: 100 ways to use voice thread.

3. Spelling City- Tired of boring spelling tests? This is an awesome way to improve your students' spelling! Easily create word games based on vocabulary lists you provide. This site has automated worksheets, learning activities and games, featured vocabulary and spelling lists and lots more. I don't know if I'd completely give up on the traditional spelling tests in the classroom, but this will provide your students a fun source to practice and prepare before the test as well.

4. Graphic Organizers- I loved this tool! It can be used to help organize an outline for an essay, analyze a story, organize and explain thoughts, daily job rubrics and many many more! There are countless amounts of ideas in this website. I found a cute worksheet that would be nice to use in the beginning of the year. You can find it HERE.

5. Make Beliefs Comix eBooks- The Make Beliefs Comix e-books are PDFs that students customize by filling in the blanks in the document. If your students use Chrome, they can complete the PDF in their web browsers. 

There are two e-books I liked in particular. The first one Something To Write About is a great source of writing prompts for middle school and even 9th grade students.

The second e-book is Comix Fill Ins. I would use this for younger students approximately 5th-6th graders. It's a great way to promote creative thinking and writing.

Enjoy!

Week 4

Hey ya'll!

So this week's focus was on pictures. 

I found many new interesting sites and ideas I would like to talk about.

The first website is called Photofunia. All you need to do is choose an effect and add your personal picture to it and you're one click away from a fun photo of yourself.

I thought this would be a great tool to give to students as a task they would later on present in class. I thought of a few cool ways to use it:
1. Create your own book cover: 
a. The pictures of the students will be used as a "book cover" to a short story about themselves. The pictures they create will have to say something about them. (I love going on trips\I love cooking\ I wish I was a famous singer etc.)
b. Write a personal story about a family trip/a movie you saw/book you read
 Their assignment will be to create a picture and write about it. Why they chose it and what is the story behind it.
2. Another idea is to create a new cover to a book they read. Instead of just writing a book report, students can create a cover that they think resembles the story. 
For this activity they don't have to use Photofunia. Another great (and free!) website for this would be Canva.
3. Choosing a motto and creating a picture that resembles it. Later you can make a nice wall with all their pictures.
Here are two photos I created with each website:

In The Innovative Educator I found another nice idea that would be great to bring into the classroom as a discussion topic. This site is called Vibe Israel. The site was created in the hope that through social media, Israeli citizens will be able to show the world that there is more to Israel than news related to the conflict in the Middle East. 

I would try to do some sort of project with my students towards independence day and have them each work on what Israel is/means to them or what they love about it. They'll tell about the great things our country has to offer in one category (great inventions, special places to visit, great food etc.) and we can make our own "Vibe Israel" in the classroom.

Week 3

בס"ד

Hey everyone!

So this week I learned a lot about different online tools that can easily enhance any activity in class. I truly enjoyed reading through different posts from my classmates, it was so inspiring! It's amazing how creative our lesson plans can become when we are exposed to all these new opportunities.

I especially liked the following sites:

1. Wordle- a tool for generating "word clouds"

2. FlipSnack- An online flipping book

I have seen so many teachers trying to read long texts or books to their students. The problem is that many times it can become boring. Even if it's being read out of a super large book, sometimes the class is to big in order to see the words\images and they loose their interest very quickly if they're not sitting in the front row. This is an amazing tool. You can screen the story with a projector or have the students create stories of their own in the computer lab.

3. Quizlet- a site where you can build, practice and share vocabulary sets. It's an amazing tool to have the students practice vocabulary and study before spelling tests.

The last tool that I loved and even used is the Crossword Puzzle Maker. I found it very simple to use and fun for any post activity in class.

I hope to keep learning from this course- it's only been three weeks and I feel so advanced already!

Blogging about Blogs

Hi everyone!

Wow! first week with all these blogs and I feel like I've learned so much already!

There is such an incredible amount of useful tools to learn from! I hope that while following these blogs I will really be able to learn about many things that can later be applied in my lessons, and not just feel lost inside a world full of endless knowledge. 

The first blog I would like to introduce you to is Lisa Nielson's: "The Innovative Educator".

In one of her posts I found some really interesting ideas of how to enhance class trips and tours by using social media. She suggests to open a group chat on Whatsapp and to determine hashtags beforehand. The group chat is a great tool for the students and the teacher to help finding each other, update friends about cool exhibits, ask questions and share photos. 

I myself have used Whatsapp groups in the past for that purpose exactly. It was great! I split the students into groups and let them walk around. Throughout the day, I sent them a list of "missions", like a scavenger hunt. They would have to find or create all sorts of things and send a picture to prove they finished. Our day out would turn into a very interactive game. The students all enjoyed it, and I could easily gather them back to one place before we had to leave.

The hashtags idea was completely new to me. I especially loved it because the students can look back on their experience and reflect on it. It's also a great way to share the event with people who weren't physically a part of it (interested parents, students who were absent etc.)

She gave two cool ways to use assemble the hashtags together: 

1. Tagboard

2.  Storify

The second blog I started following is Free Technology for Teachers by Richard Byrne.

In one of his posts, Richard shares a video of a very admirable teacher named Keith Hughes. In the clip, Keith introduces Five Ways to Help Students Reduce Test Stress. After watching this video, I decided to look up more things about Keith and his own posts. In the link I shared you'll be redirected to 27 videos he made, all containing practical tips and advice for new teachers. 

Third and last blog: Technology Tailgate

I found an interesting post about a Chrome Extension called Google Tone. It looks like something that could be very useful if you decided to teach that day in the computer room. Basically you could share any URL to any webpage with your students within seconds. Instead of having to walk around and making sure every student found the correct website, you can install Google Tone onto the computers in advance and save up a lot of class time. 

That's all for today!

Introduction

Hi! I'm Oriya :)

I've never had a blog before, I feel like a complete teenager!

I think this course is super important for any teacher or parent. There is so much to learn about the developing technology tools our generation uses today. Hopefully the things we will learn here will help us enhance our lessons\lesson planning as teachers, and be useful to us in our personal lives as well.