Jen Jen's Top Ten Tech Tips

Kahoot!
quiz, poll, survey
Kahoot! is a fun way to assess students knowledge. It is a free game-based learning platform that makes it fun to learn – any subject, in any language, on any device, for all ages!

Plickers is a fun new way to help students answer a survey. Each student gets their own card with a QR code on it. They rotate it different ways in order to say which answer they pick. It's cool because it is a fun way for students to be engaged in the classroom without completely relying on technology. Students get to individually answer the questions while participating with everyone else.

This is a great app to help students as they learn to write. They can speak into a iphone or ipad and it will show up on the screen. It is great for students that need accommodations because instead of being stressed about writing they can use speech to text to help them move smoothly. This can be a great tool for students that aren't very strong in their writing or typing.

Aurasma is a great app I was able to play with this year. You have to download it to a smartphone and then the magic begins. You pick a picture to be a "trigger" picture. This means that when you hold your smartphone over the picture a video will come up. You can make any picture come to life. This is a great tool for students to see pictures come to life and they can learn from these different videos, whether its educational or a virtual field trip.

Class Dojo is a cool way to create a happy and positive classroom community. There are different moods and faces students can earn for their behavior. If they are doing good things that day they might get a happy face and if they misbehaving they will get a sad face. This will help the students and parents know how they're doing in the classroom.

GoNoodle is a cute app with many different ideas for educational games. It has different indoor recess games as well as games for students who just need a brain break. They are fun for the students and also keep them on track and engaged in learning. Each challenge gives the students something to tackle individually or in a group.

One thing I love about google classroom is how easy it is for students and teachers to collaborate and share work. Google is great about giving users the opportunity to work at the same time with others and work together to make one final product. It has many different tools to help organize and communicate through a virtual classroom.

Show me is app that allows you to record lesson plans while you work them out on a white board. This is a great tool for all math classes. It can be used for students who missed a lesson or just need some extra help on a certain topic. Students can go back to show me and watch the certain topic they are having trouble with. This will help them with comprehension without bothering the teacher over and over.

Mindmeister is a app all about creating graphic organizers. Graphic organizers are great for any subject. They put information into a visual for students to study from and also understand. Mindmeister has many different templates as well as options to create original organizers. It is a great tool for students to organize their notes and ideas for all classes.

I like this app because it is very accessible and user friendly. It allows you to create a poll and then share it with anyone. Students can then take the poll on their phones, computers, or ipads. Then it collects the data from each poll and places it into organizers and graphs. It brings it together in one picture to show the teacher what students think. It is unique and great for teachers to use in order to collect information from their students.