Future Ready | mrssmith

Classroom Tech Tools

What it means to prepare our students for the future is an answer that grows and evolves daily. Each day another classroom tool or web application is launched that changes the way students learn. And sometimes, the students themselves redefine the process by creating their own programs or applications. Here you will find some tried and true tools that my students and I have used.

Virtual Reality

With video games and virtual reality at an all time high interest wise, what better way to engage students than having them create their own virtual reality worlds?

In English class students will use CoSpaces to create scenes from novels, construct utopian societies and even do some basic coding.

This experience also opens up new opportunities for us to use our Google Cardboards to enjoy our Virtual Reality worlds and other VR lessons and fieldtrips.

Google Sites

Google Sites is a free and easy way for students to create a fairly secure website as it is linked to our school accounts. Since the sites are linked to school accounts they have limited sharing and publication ability.

Schoology

Each teacher on the Sky Pilot Team will be utilizing Schoology for classroom assignments. Schoology allows for both parents and students to have their own logins and access. While the program is an app for iPad, it is also accessible through your web browser at https://www.schoology.com/

Students are able to log on from anywhere and contribute to class discussions, see live assignments, review videos, submit work and receive notifications of updated and graded assignments.

With Parent codes parents are able to watch real time discussions, access all course materials to help assist their children, correspond with the teacher, see graded assignments, and receive notifications of updated and graded assignments.

Schoology is a wonderful tool to keep parents, students, and teachers connected with one another. Please let me know if you have questions about getting started.

For more information, check out this Flipped Learning video on Sophia.

Trello

Trello is a an online collaboration tool, similar to Padlet, that allows students and teachers to organize, list, and color code points of conversation and jobs to complete in a process or outline.

My students really liked that they could color-code and comment on their classmates' work and receive feedback from their peers as well as their teacher in the comfort of their own classroom chairs or homes!

I have also used this website in groups where students access the program as part of a gallary walk.