Miss. Bryksa
Preservice Teacher
Technological Skills
In EDTS 325 we learned about many online tools that enhance student engagement in lessons, while providing meaningful learning. Technology is important to incorporate in the classroom because it is evolving fast, and students are becoming more and more knowledgable about it.
Covid-19 is a great example of why technology is so important to incorporate in the classroom, as schools worldwide had to go completely remote practically overnight.
Google Apps
(Click each image to be taken directly to each app's webpage)
Google Docs
Google Docs is great for collaborative work. You can share access with classmates, colleagues, students or teachers and have them able to edit, comment, or just view the document. It is great to incorporate into the classroom because it is most commonly used in schools today. It is also great because the documents can be accessed anywhere, and it saves automatically.
Google Slides
Google Slides is another app that is great for working collaboratively. Personally, I use Google Slides for all of my presentations, or assignments where creating a slide deck is necessary. It is extremely easy to use, which is great for students when it comes to meaningful tools to benefit learning. Like other Google apps, it saves automatically and can be accessed from anywhere if logged in with the same email.
Google Forms
Google Forms is great for surveys and formative quizzes in the classroom. You can have answers anonymously, or with names attached. It provides an easy way to hear from everybody in the class, and it is private as well.
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In EDTS 325, I learned that Google Forms was much more than just a questionnaire. My classmate and I created a "Choose Your Own Adventure" style story using Google Forms, which can be extremely useful in the classroom!
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This is a picture of one of the questions from our form, if you click on the image you can try it yourself. The answers you choose change the ending of the story, so you can give it multiple tries!
Google Drawings
Before EDTS 325, I had never used Google Drawings. However, after discovering it I think that it could be extremely useful in a classroom. It could be used to note take, or as a collaborative whiteboard. It is great because it can be shared to others, and they can either edit, comment, or just view it.
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In our class, we had to digitally draw ourselves using Google Drawings. This is how mine turned out!
TQS 2F, 3A. 3 and 10, 3B. 3, 4C, 4H
(Click app icon to visit website)
WordArt
Word Art is a great tool to use in the classroom, it is extremely easy to use and can demonstrate creativity digitally! I attached the one that I made in class highlighting the important aspects of my future classroom.
TQS 3A. 8, 3B
Padlet
(Click app image to visit webpage)
Padlet was one of the first apps that we learned about in EDTS 325. It is a great tool to use in the classroom because it allows students to work independently, and then their answers or results are posted to the class. We used it to create name tags in order to get to know each other better. This app could be used as an icebreaker to start the year, and delete the anxiety of having to speak to the class. I attached a picture of our class's padlet, and what it looks like from a student's perspective.
TQS 2F, 3A. 9 and 10, 4F
EdPuzzle
Credit: EdPuzzle
Click on the image to see the questions I assigned during this video!
EdPuzzle is a great online tool to incorporate in the classroom. It allows teachers to assign videos to students, while including questions throughout that have to be answered. This is extremely useful because it ensures that students are watching the entire video, instead of skipping through to answer questions on paper.
TQS 2F, 3A, 3B, 3C
Microsoft Word
Microsoft Word is a great tool to use as an educator. It is extremely easy to use when building effective worksheets. It is extremely user friendly, and has many shortcuts that provide an easy experience for creating documents. I've included the worksheet I created on Microsoft Word!
TQS 3A, 3B, 4B
Credit: Microsoft
iMovie
Growing up, I had a lot of experience with iMovie. I would always film and edit videos with my brother, and make funny edits of my friends and I. I think that it is a great tool to use in the classroom, although I think it would be better suited in older aged classrooms as it is difficult to operate sometimes. In EDTS 325, I had lots of fun creating our music video, as well as watching what our classmates created. Click on the image to watch what my classmates and I were able to come up with!
Credit: Apple
TQS 3A 9 and 10
Flip is a great educational tool because it has many different aspects to it. You can assign things to your class and get responses in the form of a Vlog, and people can comment on it OR leave a Vlog response. My EDTS 325 class used it and it was extremely user friendly! I would definitely incorporate this into my future classroom!
TQS 3A, 4G, 4H
