The topic I chose to use for my first screencast was how to start an informative speech. I used the free app, “Vittle.” It’s a good app to use for beginners but it did not have many features on it. It also only let you make videos for one minute, which is hard to explain anything thoroughly in that amount of time. Pretty simple to use though. The picture below is what the app looks like and the video below that, is one that I made on the program.
I will be talking about three videos that I have watched from “The Tech Edge: IPads in the Classroom” channel on YouTube. They have many videos that are incredibly useful for teachers to learn new things about technology in the classroom. The video below is from episode 167. The title is “Making the IPad Safe for children. It shows a few tips on using safeguards on the IPad. If you go to the settings on your IPad, click on general, and then go to restrictions, you will find a list of apps and various places of use on your IPad. You can then click to choose which apps can be open for anyone to use and which ones require a passcode.
The video below is from episode 165. It is called “Nutrition Apps.” One of the apps they talked about is called, “From Farm to Plate.” It shows a picture of a plate of food. You can click on a food group to explore the different information on it. There is also a survey feature that takes you to a browser and determines how well you like the app as well as your eating habits. This app would be very good in an elementary classroom that is starting to learn about food groups and what healthy options look like. Another app is called “Eat and Move O-Matic.” This app is nice and also offers a Spanish option. It has something you eat or drink on one side and tells you options on the other side on how you can burn those calories.
The last video I will be talking about is episode 162. It is called, “Journaling Apps.” One app that they mentioned is called “My Wonderful Days Lite.” There is a free and a full version. The full version is about three dollars. In the free version, you are able to select a mood and insert photos, text, no stickers. The side of the app shows all of your journal entries. It is a very organized app. You can share these entries as well.
There is a huge variety of websites that we can use to our advantage. Yet, so many people are not taking advantage of these helpful website. Larry Ferlazzo is a blogger who tells of many amazing websites you can get ahold of, especially for educational purposes. Some posts tell of the high school grad rates and gives websites to go to for different testimonies to read. There are also helpful resources to some of the best and fun videos to learn the English language. The picture below is a snapshot from one of the videos.
Creating comics for a classroom can be an excellent idea. The comic above is one I made from the free app I downloaded called Make Beliefs. The picture below is what the app to download looks like.
For the most part, it was pretty simple to use. The only trouble I had with it is that I couldn’t figure out how to add on a fourth scene to the comic strip. It had a variety of things to choose from to make the comic but not an astounding amount. Comic strips can be used in many different ways in the classroom. You can make one for your class rules. Have the strip show what can follow as a repercussion of certain behavior. Personally, I would have my students create comic strips to help them tell, understand and connect with different emotions in stories.
The video above was made from an app called Tellagami. You can make a person, setting, and what they say on this app. It can be used for many different reasons. It is really simple to use and easy to come up with material to put this in the classroom. I had no trouble with making this video and it can be used for every single content area.
Technology in the classroom can be incredibly beneficial. It can help use the different types of learning styles and intelligences. There are many different ways students learn, you can even look at 3D objects like the picture below.
Technology can can help with various different age groups. For instance, there is an app called Monster Math. It is generally used to help 4th and 5th grade students better their math skills through a fun, engaging and creative game. The app looks like the picture below.
The picture shown above is an interactive picture. It contains links to YouTube videos, websites, and pictures. I made it on a free app that I downloaded called Thinglink. The picture below shows what the app should look like.
This app is incredibly easy to use and would be very beneficial in a classroom. Personally, I used Thinglink to show the different parts of the theatre. It has links to backstage roles such as stage design, costume design, different types of stages, etc. I could most definitely use this in my future classroom. Being a future secondary speech/drama teacher, this same engaging picture can help my students understand some different parts of the theatre. If you need help figuring out the app, click on this link. It should help you but if you are still confused, click this to see a tutorial on YouTube.
If you are a blogger, or a person who reads blogs regularly, you might be aware of the problem I’m about to discuss. Using google’s Blogger can be a little frustrating at times. It’s slow, inefficient, and you may be getting tired of always having to code everything. That is why switching to WordPress would be a great idea. The picture below shows what the homepage of WordPress looks like.
While you may have to pay for it, you are also paying for a better site with customer service to always help you out. Free things are great and all but we get what we pay for. Vicki Davis is just one blogger who expresses her disgust with google’s Blogger and why switching to WordPress was much better for her. You will see a part of this in the picture of her “Cool Cat Teacher Blog” below.
Don’t just take my word for it. Try them both out, and see which one is better suited for you. I’m sure WordPress will not disappoint.
In this day and age, it is important for the leaders in a school to be digitally connected. Being digitally connected can broaden the horizon for creativity in the classroom. It can help the students and parents stay engaged and aware of what is happening throughout the school year.it can also allow teachers to communicate with each other and share ideas. Of course, having a Twitter account does not make you a good teacher. Yet, it can be a helpful step and a useful tool in the process. The first picture on the left shows a website that can take you to multiple different links that share different information about education. The next picture shows how you can spread the word with links and listings on Twitter and use it educationally.
Osmo is a great new way to learn in a fun and engaging way. It is primarily used for elementary aged children and is customizable for different levels. Personally, I liked the Tangram App the best. It is a great way to shown 2-deminsional geometric shapes while still being very engaging. I could see the word App working in my speech/theatre classroom by customizing the words to ones that fit with my classroom. Trough these apps, I discovered and learned that there are a lot more ways to teach with technology than I had originally thought. I was also surprised by how easy it was to navigate through these apps. The first picture on the left shows how the Word App looks. You see the picture and then guess the word. The second picture shows how you can easily change the difficulty levels.
