contributed by Rachelle Dene Poth

Summer provides an opportunity to relax, but is moreover a time to explore new ideas and reflect on the previous year. We have to ask ourselves what worked and what did not. With the start of each school year, teachers uncork by establishing classroom procedures, getting to know the students, and then starting their instruction.

Even with the weightier plans thought out in advance, things can come up that limit our time to try something new. There is nothing wrong with sticking to some of the same instructional strategies and using some of the same tools that were used last year. We all have methods and tools we use that are salubrious to our students. But summer does offer an opportunity to think well-nigh some new things to bring to our classroom and our students at the start of the new school year.

Because time is a factor, it can seem overwhelming to try too many new things at once. It is helpful to think well-nigh maybe just slightly interchange how we used a unrepealable tool or presented a topic in the prior year. Start by focusing on one thing at a time and see how it goes. The most important part is to remember that we want to implement something that will positively goody our students. It should be something that has a true purpose and will overdraw the learning experiences and potential for our students.

Below are a few ideas that I have used in my classroom which have been fun for the students and had positive effects on their learning.

4 Simple Ideas To Use Technology To Engage Students

Idea: Use infographics to create an engaging syllabus

Instead of creating your undertow syllabus on paper and handing it out to your students, try creating an infographic to post online through your matriculation website or LMS if you have one. It will be easier to read, model a sense of enthusiasm for your own craft, and separate your classroom from others in the vision of students/parents/admin.

With a graphic, you can moreover print and laminate the infographic to pension it wieldy in your classroom. There are many tools to segregate from for creating one and many options for implementing them into your course. In order to create one you simply take the information from your document and paste it into the infographic.

There are many choices misogynist for templates, icons, fonts and much more. As an volitional to having your students well-constructed assignments or projects which traditionally are washed-up on paper or using a Word document, have them create something creative and visual using one of the infographic tools available. It will be a increasingly engaging, visual way to share information, have a increasingly pure learning experience, and they can be created rather quickly.

Some recommendations of tools to create infographics are Canva, Piktochart, Smore and Visme.

Idea: Create interactive lessons

Students need to be urgently involved in the classroom and in learning.  A good way to do this is through interactive video lessons. There are many digital tools misogynist which enable a teacher to segregate a video from YouTube or other video source, and use it to create a quick interactive lesson with questions or other activities for the students to complete. The nice thing well-nigh the tools misogynist for interactive video lessons is that there are some lessons misogynist for public use permitting you to try them out with your matriculation first surpassing creating your own.

Trying one of these out first is a good way to see what the students think, and use their feedback to help guide the next steps, whether to create one and which tool to use. Offering lessons like this is unconfined for having students well-constructed assignments outside of the traditional “brick and mortar” classroom as part of an asynchronous lesson or in a composite or flipped learning environment. You can quickly assess students, track their progress, and hold them subject for having watched the videos.

A few suggestions of some of the tools misogynist are EDpuzzle, Playposit, Vizia, and plane a Google document could be used with questions widow in for students to complete. My suggestion is that you segregate one of these options, see what is available, and then be very well-spoken how you can use it to goody your class. There are tutorials misogynist on the websites which offer guidance to help you to create your first video.  

Simply select a video that you would typically show in matriculation or assign for students to watch outside of matriculation and think well-nigh the questions you could or would ask to trammels their understanding. It is easy to add your video into the lesson editor, add in variegated question styles including true and false, multiple-choice or short answer, in wing to other formats. There are moreover options for quizzes to be self-graded, making the data misogynist right away.

Each tool offers variegated features which add uneaten benefits to learning. For example, you can moreover see how long it took the student to view the video and if they tried to skip through it, depending on which tool you choose.

Idea: Student Created Lessons

Instead of the teacher creating the lessons, you could moreover have the students create lessons to share with the class. When I did this with my students, they sent their completed video lessons to me and I completed the lesson. It gave them an opportunity to see what teachers see and an opportunity to provide feedback to their ‘student.’ By doing this, the students learned in a increasingly pure way considering they decided which video to use, created the questions and as a result, it reinforced the material; it was increasingly personal for them.

Teachers learn by seeing the type of content the students segregate and can use this information to guide the next steps in the lesson. The matriculation as a whole learns and benefits by having increasingly resources misogynist for practice and students can wilt increasingly proficient in the content. One other unconfined thing besides improved learning is that it can be fun for students to create these videos as well. 

And fun is good, yes?

Idea: Use engaging digital quizzes & tools

There are a variety of tools to use for creating quizzes and lessons for students to well-constructed in and outside of class.

In many cases, you can upload your own documents or PowerPoint presentations into the lesson, and pension everything organized in one place. Using some formative towage tools like Formative, Kahoot, Nearpod, Quizizz, and Quizlet to name a few, are ways to have some fun with the students and add to the learning resources misogynist for your classes.

Students enjoy creating their own quizzes and lessons, having a nomination in the tool and types of questions included, and stuff worldly-wise to remoter develop their technology skills in the process. These activities are all highly salubrious to student growth. By giving students increasingly choices, we empower them in the classroom.

See moreover Best Formative Towage Tools

Conclusion

When used with a purpose, there a lot of ways that technology helps teachers and students. Using technology saves time, makes feedback misogynist immediately, and gives students the endangerment to be creators and have a choice. It moreover promotes learning outside of the traditional classroom setting, which reserves the time in matriculation to do other activities, to well-spoken up any misunderstandings and to spend time getting to know the students and giving individual feedback.

Once you decide on one of these ideas, requite it some time, see how it goes, and then think well-nigh taking the next step. Be sure to involve the students in the conversation considering their input is vital and it matters. When students finger valued, learning is increasingly meaningful and this leads to many positive results. Teachers and students working together, creating lessons, providing feedback, will add to a positive classroom culture.

Perhaps one of these areas is the next step that you could take, try and see how your students respond. It was a nice transpiration in my classroom, my students were creative, engaged, and really enjoyed the endangerment to lead. The learning that occurred was increasingly meaningful and they recalled the content information much increasingly when they created their own product or recalled the work of one of their classmates.

Either way, it was a much increasingly meaningful experience, and something that I will protract to do this school year to grow my classroom.