Greenscreen in the Classroom

As stated in the article Create a Green Screen Video in Your Classroom, with a green screen, teachers could assist students with creating student-driven, directed, and edited videos that can place them at any place they wish to visit around the world using a simple app. Greenscreen could benefit students because they could picture themselves in a different country, out of space, at the beach, etc. I would use this tool when teaching students about any subject content. Before including the backdrop of a particular scene, the students would record themselves presenting about a certain place or thing. They could then, edit it and insert a moving background. For younger kids, this would be great when helping them understand weather and even seasons. It would benefit teachers and students whereas teachers could encourage students to have a vivid imagination. In the article titled Bringing the Classroom to Life with Green Screen Technology, the teacher who was interviewed stated that she was able to teach her students about the Boston Tea Party, or to order lunch at a restaurant in a foreign language in the country of that language. I believe I could grow as a teacher by using this tool to make learning more fun and meaningful.

Augmented Reality

Augmented Reality provides simulations of several sensory qualities of many different things. However, I felt that it may take actual hands-on experiences from education. With that in mind, I would use Augmented Reality to differentiate learning and engage students in learning about a topic before becoming actively engaged in their learning. As Augmented Reality provides 3D models and the ability for students to visit different places around the world virtually, I believe students could benefit from it in that aspect. I loved how we were able to view the Solar System with a close view and identify parts of the body. I would allow my students to play and engage themselves in interactive, real-life videos. As it would be a new, innovative tool for learning, I think I would incorporate Augmented Reality when introducing a new topic or new findings during a lesson to my students. In the article titled Augmented Reality Brings New Dimensions to Learning, there are many ways listed of how teachers could utilize this tool in the classroom, some of which I would implement in my classroom. I could have word walls, book reviews, mini-homework lessons, lab safety rules for science and more.  

Edpuzzle and Blendspace

Edpuzzle is a very great tool for providing resources to students. I would use Edpuzzle to provide my students access to videos where I have inserted questions to ensure their comprehension of a topic. As it reminds me a lot of PlayPosit, the students would be able to log in and view various interactive videos the teacher posts. It would have a great impact on students whereas they would be able to review more information or expand on a topic by viewing videos posted or bookmarked by the teacher.

Blendspace is another resource where teachers can blend lots of videos, activities, lessons, and more into one place. I would use this tool to make learning more accessible for my students. I could research articles, websites, games, and other activities and place them all in one place where my students would have easy access to them. I would create lessons around the videos.

Both apps are very beneficial for teachers and students. Teachers will have easy access to assure students are capable of accessing all class materials and students will be able to view material and learn at their own pace. It can also serve as an assessment tool for educational development. Teachers could look online at the teacher view to find out where students stop or where they may have questions.

Student Response Systems (SRS)

As technology is on the rise, Student Response Systems seemed to be an awesome tool for formative and summative assessments. Some student response systems that I am familiar with are Kahoot, Plickers, and Socrative. In fact, I used all three in my previous practicum settings. Student Response Systems enhance student engagement greatly. It has also been said that students perform higher when testing. They also provide teachers with an understanding of any prior or background knowledge students may have about a topic. I would use these systems before, during, and after lessons. By doing so, students could express what they are already familiar with, what they are learning, and what they have learned. Socrative is great for pre, post, and live assessments. Plickers is great for students who are not equipped with a great deal of technology. Kahoots are great for students to answer questions receiving adequate wait time. I think students could benefit greatly from Student Response Systems because they could use them to study for tests. These systems can drive instruction for teachers and should be aligned with state standards. Socrative and Plickers are my favorites because they are great about providing data to teachers based on overall classes, each question, and individual student performance. I also like those two systems because they can be student or teacher paced whereas, if I needed to provide students with study materials or activities, they could work at their own level.

Autism

Autism Spectrum Disorder is compiled of brain disorders that develop at a young age and progresses as children get older. When learning about resources for students with autism, I found ‘Neighborhood Play Groups’ and peer instruction to be my favorite strategies for learning. I also found the use of iPads to be engaging and instructional for students. As I am aware that students learn a lot by interacting with their peers, I would use neighborhood play groups and peer instruction to enhance the learning of my students. I would provide question and answer charts for my students if I were teaching a younger group of children to assist them with posing questions and complete responses. I would implement peer instruction by having students work with partners or in groups to achieve academic goals. Peer instruction would help decrease the demands placed on teachers but increase the amount of intervention for students. Peer instruction is a social training strategy that will help improve communication skills for students. IPads are great for student use because students who may have a difficult time expressing themselves. IPads will help these students gain confidence in reading and writing whereas their thoughts could be clearly communicated to others. IPads are also hands on tools that could encourage active engagement of students. An article about iPad use for students with autism titled Why the iPad Is Such a Helpful Learning Tool for Children with Autism was beneficial in my understanding of the many benefits of incorporating iPads in learning.

Student Led Conferences

Student led conferences are beneficial for parents, teachers, and students. The meaning of this presentation was self-explanatory to me. I love the idea of student led conferences because it creates a great deal of accountability for students and develops responsibility for students and parents. I also feel compelled to have my students build a professional portfolio filled with work samples from their classes when I become an educator. With these conferences, students gather their work and the teacher may provide them with data analysis, report cards or progress reports, or a behavior chart (depending on the grade level). The students will have a chance to talk with or present to their parents what they have learned and their understanding of certain activities. I would implement student led conferences for each grading period or progress monitoring throughout the grading period. I would encourage these conferences for all students, struggling and proficient, to keep parents involved in their child’s educational progress. These conferences would impact students because they will have an opportunity to show their parents their assignments and how they have been progressing. I would prepare my students for the conferences by having them review their responsibilities and providing expectations for the conferences. While researching this topic more, I found a photo that could guide me as a teacher when preparing my students for their conference titled Conference Agenda. I would even share learning goals and targets for parents to assure their understanding of their child’s coursework. Here's an example of a second grade student led conference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vo5ki1mlJ9Q.

 

 

 

Nearpod in the Classroom

Nearpod was one of my favorite tools discovered during presentations. Nearpod is a user friendly, interactive tool that could be used for instruction and assessment as well. As a future teacher, I would use this app to create videos for learning, websites, articles, images, activities for application, quizzes for assessments, polls for feedback, and more. After further researching this app, I found an article titled 10 Ways of Using Nearpod in the Classroom. This article provided great ideas for the use of this tool. I would use this tool as it would be great source for modeling lessons and concepts, live and formative assessments of my students, ongoing assessments, self-assessment for students, and instructing homework. This tool will impact student learning because students will be able learn at their own pace and acquire a clearer understanding of a topic. I had a chance to look at an instructional video on the use of Nearpod titled Get Engaged with Nearpod. I found it to be helpful in understanding how to navigate this tool. It displays the teacher and student views of the app. I loved how this app provides teachers with student pins that makes videos or links easily accessible to students.