This summer I have looked at using Twitter, YouTube, Nearpod, Flipgrid, Canva, Curipod. I have even googled myself within the last 5 weeks. My base of knowledge has grown. Which means my ability to plan and deliver engaging lessons has grown also. Depending on what tools I incorporate into a lesson students can interact in different ways with classmates. They can work at their own pace or revisit parts of a lesson for further clarification. By providing tools like Flipgrid for student response they are utilizing an approach they are familiar with already.

I think using Twitter in my current role as a teacher will be for my personal use. I can access other teachers and current news in education. I don’t think I will use it for my first-grade classroom. Maybe when I become a librarian I will be able to us it with parents or the community to raise awareness of the library and its services.

The same would go for YouTube. I see it as a great tool to use and save videos for my use. As an elementary teacher, I am not sure about sharing it with a class or families. Again, in the future, I can see how I can post information to the community to use. I will continue to use it for videos in the classroom because it is easy to search and link to.

 Nearpod is a tool I can use to make interactive lessons. I can insert quizzes, polls, videos, and collaborative boards in your slides. There are premade lessons to choose from or you can choose from lessons made by teachers within your school and district. There are two ways to use Nearpod. 1) Students can access a teacher’s presentation through a code, and the teacher then moves the class through the lesson and lets students interact with the media as they go. 2) Teachers can make it a student paced lesson where the student controls the flow of the lesson. Nearpod can work on any device because it is web-based.

With Flipgrid students are able to record their answers and add a variety of items to their response with familiar icons. Flipgrid is set up by the teacher who provides a link to students. They use the link to post responses. They can even respond to other student answers. I can begin the year with a getting to know you activity and introduce myself to students and parents and allow them to introduce themselves as well. I could also imbed this in lessons as a place for students to post responses to prompts.  Feedback can be given easily and quickly.

Canva is great platform to create slides or presentations. Currently my district doesn’t have student access. But I could include what I have made in other platforms I am using like Nearpod.

I also have discovered Curipod. It is an AI that will generate slides or lessons with just a bit of information from me. I can alter the slides, rearrange them or delete them if they aren’t what I am looking for. This tool will also include brain breaks in the lesson or slides it creates.

When students are able to have some flexibility and choice in their classwork they will be able to have a greater sense of ownership of their learning. By using these and others I haven’t become familiar with students I will be able to create a learning environment student enjoy and hopefully excel in.