Canva

     Canva is a digital graphic design tool that allows you to make posters, flyers, worksheets, brochures, etc. You can choose the layout and features of your design, as well as, upload or search for pictures. I have used Canva to create wedding and baby shower invitations for my family and friends, but have just recently used it to make activities for my students. They are technically "worksheets", which is a no-no now, but I create planning sheets for Project Based Learning (PBL) activities.

     While it is time consuming to create your own activities from scratch, I have found that sometimes it's necessary. Many times I go on Teachers Pay Teachers looking for something to teach a specific skill, and find resources that teach that skill in combination with another. For example, I may only want resources on the "oa" vowel team, but find ones that have "oa" and "ow". This is when creating my own activities becomes a better option.
     More recently, I was looking for PBL about subtraction. I found an intriguing one on Teachers Pay Teachers, where the students have to buy and pet and everything they need to take care of it. Unfortunately, it included subtracting two digit numbers, which my students have not been exposed to yet in Kindergarten. Canva is a great option for my to create a PBL like the one I found on Teachers Pay Teachers, but adjust it to meet the needs of my students. I, also, think this would be a great way for students to create presentations because you can add text and pictures.
     Like I said, this is a time consuming way to create your own activities, but sometimes it is necessary. Also, it is free to create and print on Canva, once you make an account. You have access to template, fonts, pictures, and you can upload your own pictures and fonts. If you want access to more features and templates you have to pay. Every design you make it saved and kept in your profile, so you won't lose them. Personally, I really like Canva. It is very easy to navigate and my designs have always turned out well.

When Your School is Short on Tech (Cult of Pedagogy)

     Jennifer Gonzalez gives suggestions of the approach to take when your school is short on technology, in the Cult of Pedagogy blog post. She talks about how access to technology is no problem for well-funded schools, but is a huge issue for underfunded schools. This is exactly what I have noticed as well. My school is trying to transition into integrating technology as much as we can, but there are limited resources. Third through fifth grade has chromebooks, but the rest of the school is left to work with 3-4 classroom desktop computers, and a shared iPad cart. It is difficult to make technology an integral part of education, when there are limited tools. Gonzalez talks about 11 ways to combat being short on technology.

Work Arounds

1. Create centers or stations: Students take turn using the technology by rotating through activities. Gonzalez suggests reading the blog post "Spruce up your centers with technology" by Tony Vincent. It talks about how to set them up, create videos, provide instructions, and give students the chance to be creative.
2. Bring Your Own Device Program: Students can being their own tech tools from home to school. This is an option that should be carefully considered and make sure that their is a buy-in with parents and students.
3. Use Minimum Tech Tools: This only requires the teacher to have a device, but the students can still participate. Some options are: Plickers, GradeCam, and Skype.
4. Create a Tech Hub at your school: All the technology is available in one place that students can go to.

Fundraising Ideas

1. Partner with local businesses
2. Apply for Grants: Education World offers a great guide to applying for grants

Off Campus Solutions

1. Portable Wifi Hot Spots: They can be checked out by students, and it gives them internet access at home. Kajeet offers the SmartSpot, which only allows students to access educational material.
2. Wifi enabled school buses: Kajeet offers this, as well. Many school districts in California have their buses parked in front of neighborhoods, so students can use their wifi at home. 
3. Summer Device Check out Program: Students without devices can check out school owned devices for the summer months.
4. Build Community Connectivity: Districts can work hard to create WiFi kiosks within neighborhoods.

     These are great ideas to consider when dealing with tech scarcity in your school. If you have tried any of these options, let me know how it went!

Khan Academy

     I've recently been introduced to Khan Academy, through EDUG 647 and through other teachers at my school. I was unaware that Khan Academy has free online courses, practice activities, and assessments for math, science and engineering, economics, arts and humanities, and computing. You can search by content area or grade and it will show the standards for that grade. Once you click on the standard it will show videos, practice problems, assessments. It can all be completed on the computer. That means that you can assign different activities to individual students, which is an effective way to differentiate. I like that you can assign activities to students based on the skills they still need to practice.

     Currently, I am just beginning to incorporate Khan Academy into my math lessons. I teach Kindergarten, and we just finished our addition unit and are starting subtraction. My school uses the Envisions curriculum, but I started to supplement with Khan Academy videos. I really liked how the videos from Khan Academy show how to solve a problem step-by-step, like how to draw a picture to solve. I like how the Envision videos pause and allow for conversation, but I don't feel that they do a completely thorough job of showing how to solve a problem step-by-step.

     I am hoping to, eventually, use Khan Academy even more in instruction. I would like to be able to have my students work on Khan Academy individually and practice the skills that they need. I have heard that you can input your students MAP scores and it will give options for videos and practicing skills. If you know any other useful features about Khan Academy, please let me know! I'm new to this, but exciting to try using it more.

Starfall Reading and Math

     My students are exposed to Starfall within my classroom and during Computer time. They love Starfall! They were taught in Computer how to access it and have gotten very good at navigating the site.

     Starfall is a great introduction to phonics, such as letter sounds, for young students. At the beginning of the year, my kids experienced Letter Bootcamp for 26 days and I supplemented instruction with Starfall videos. Each letter has a letter sound video, which teaches the letter sound, letter name, and words that begin with that sound. At the end of each video there is a game that allows them to practice their knowledge of that letters sound. Often it is a letter identification game or a beginning sound game for each specific letter. My kids loved playing the games at the end and often the videos were very quirky and silly, which kept their attention.

   
     Also, I liked that the books that are available on Starfall, correlate with one or two word families. The first half of the year, the kindergarten team focused heavily on word families. During reading groups, the students would either be on Lexia or reading a book on Starfall. The books on Starfall can be read independently or it allows the students to click on a speaker button, and it will read the text to them. At the end of the book, there would be a word family game. For example, if the book focused on -an and -at word families, the game would involve those word families as well. The games have students make words included in the word families. It shows them a picture of an object and the students have to put the beginning sound on the word chunk. It is great for developing phonological awareness.

     I, also, use Starfall during math workshop as a station. Most recently, my students have been learning addition, so we have been using the addition games. The games have students create addition sentences by matching numbers to the groups.

     The only downfall to Starfall, is that it is not completely free. My school has a subscription, so I have access to all of the features, but if you do not there are some videos and features that you will not be able to access. Overall, I really enjoy Starfall and recommend it, especially for use during ELA time. This is how I utilize Starfall within my classroom, but there are many other features. Some that, maybe, I'm not even aware of. If you know of any other useful features for Starfall, please comment below!

Microsoft Immersive Reader (Cult of Pedagogy)

     This is a highlight post from Cult of Pedagogy Blog by Jennifer Gonzalez, which discusses Microsoft Learning Tools, such as Immersive Reader. Microsoft has shifted towards an environment of inclusiveness, which is extremely exciting. In 2014, Satya Nadella became CEO of Microsoft and is committed to creating greater access for all people, due to her first born son having special needs. Now, Microsoft has created a learning tool, called Immersive Reader, whose intent is to help students with reading disabilities, such as dyslexia. Within the classroom, this tool allows for quality differentiation and personalized learning experiences for all students. This is done through various features, such as text size, spacing, narrowing line display, highlighting parts of speech, breaking words into syllables, changing the background color, text read aloud, and the picture dictionary.

Google Images

     It is possible to upload any PDF into OneNote, so that it can be read on Immersive Reader. Once the file is uploaded, the settings can be changed to fit the individual's preferences. As I've mentioned before, the text size and color can be changed. I have a student that is blind in one eye, so a bigger text size would be beneficial for him. I love this feature! In the picture below, the text was made larger and the background was changed to black. On the side of the picture, you can see the different color and size options.

Google Images

     The other feature I really like, is that the lines shown can be narrowed down to three, two, or one line. This is very beneficial for students who get overwhelmed when trying to read an entire page of text. My students with ADHD would benefit from this because they would be able to focus on one line at a time. 

     Finally, Immersive Reader has a picture dictionary. This feature allows the user to hover their cursor over a word, and a picture will show up and the word can be read aloud. This is a great feature for students who struggle with decoding words because it will show them a picture that goes with the word to help them figure it out. 

Google Images

     I was not aware the strides that Microsoft was making to ensure that technology and education are more inclusive for all students. I really love Immersive Reader from Microsoft and plan on using in my classroom, especially with my students who struggle a little more with reading. If you want to watch a tutorial about Immersive Reader click below!

Powtoon Presentation Tool

     Powtoon, is a tech tool that was featured of the Cult of Pedagogy blog back in 2014. It was written by Jeniffer Gonzalez, who writes amazing technology articles! I had never heard of this tool before and was assuming that it was like powerpoint, but with a more catchy name. Powtoon, is sort of like powerpoint, but more enticing. Powtoon is a tech tool that allows students to create animated or cartoon style presentations. Being that we are in the days of Captain Underpants and other comic book/cartoon style books, this would be an engaging and relevant tool to use with students. 

     Students type in the text, just like with powerpoint, but they are able to choose what kind of animation or animated character they would like to add. For example, they could select the animation "boom" for the title and it will make it explode onto the screen. There are many interesting transitions that stay true to the animated/cartoon feel of this app. For example, there is a paint transition, which shows a hand using a paint roller to paint on the next slide. 

     Powtoon creations are converted into a video format and can easily be shared on Youtube, Facebook, and Twitter. If you use any of these social media forums to communicate with parents/guardians, it would be very neat to share student presentations. 

     Powtoon can be an engaging and efficient way to check student understanding of a topic. It can be used to create an end-of-unit presentation on a specific topic. Students can use this tool individually or collaborate within groups to create a presentation. It can also be used as a lesson extension or enrichment activity for your students who have already mastered the content. I would love to use this tool with my students!

Here is a short information video: 

Bloomz Communication App

     I have been searching for a new messaging app that is free for everyone, since Remind began to charge Verizon users. I have done a lot of research and I think I found a good replacement app. I am going to try out Bloomz, which has many more features than Remind. Bloomz allows for private messaging, whole group updates, picture and video sharing, calendar reminders, conference reminders, and volunteer sign ups. Parent/guardian involvement is a bit of a struggle for myself and my colleagues, but Bloomz seems to have many features that make involvement easy and efficient. Also, it helps that parents/guardians can receive messages and reminders straight to their devices through email or text.

     Bloomz makes two way messaging simple and quick. Also, it allows for parents to communicate amongst each other, if you enable that feature. In addition to private messages, you can send whole group updates or reminders. This is helpful when reminding parents/guardians of an event the day before. Also, it would allow you to do away with a paper class newsletter if you wish.

     Bloomz allows you to take or upload pictures or videos for specific parents/guardians to see or as a whole group message. When a picture is uploaded you can place it in individual student folders, so that their parent/guardian essentially has a photo album of their child's school year. Also, it is a great way to share outstanding classwork with parents/guardians.

     Another feature, which is very helpful, is the calendar. You can input class or school events or conferences into the calendar. Reminders will automatically be sent to parents/guardians before the event. It, also, allows parents/guardians to RSVP to any events, so that you know how many people to expect. I would definitely use that feature for Open House! Within the calendar, you can also schedule conference times, and it will send a reminder before the conference day and time. 

     In addition to all of the feature mentioned, Bloomz helps to organize volunteer events and item request. You can create a volunteer event, state the number of people needed, and the day and time. It will send out the request and alert you when parent/guardians sign up. It is the same with item requests. You set the item and quantity and it will alert you when a parent/guardian has claimed that item. I love this feature!

     What I have described so far is just the tip of the iceberg with Bloomz, but they were the most useful features in my opinion. I will let you know how Bloomz works out for me and whether it helps to organize things or not. I hope so!