Week 4

I feel overwhelmed and unfortunately, can''t play around with all the tools presented in this unit (and in previous units)!  Hopefully, since I'm saving the sites of the ones that interest me, I'll be able to go back to them in the future!

I got frustrated with the photo site. I liked the soup picture but whenever I put in text, it only had part of it and then different letters around it.. I had written (for All My Sons): " Loyalty to Family or Country?: Food for thought! "  I changed it around so many times, making it very short, but to no avail. Then I gave up and tried putting text in the movie theater... and in signs... and even tried out the stitching picture..  Are the students supposed to guess at what's missing?  Am I missing something here?   I looked at the pictures and as much as they seem like fun doing, as someone suggested (Hadar, I believe), for her grandmother's album that a relative is putting together in the States, I didn't see how I'd use that in the classroom.  Waiting for suggestions!

I am not artistically inclined but would like to play around with the paint tools when I can. I have looked through them and perhaps, even someone like me, can use them successfully!

Adele Raemer's site spoke about word clouds.I like the idea and plan to use it. Chaim had used it and had a lovely example for us to see, so this idea wasn't new to me.

Well, we all seem to be in the same boat.. lots of great tools to try but with not enough time to try them... :(

Bye for now..

USING PUZZLEMAKER AND QUIZLET FOR VOCABULARY PRACTICE

I have been using the Discovery site for around 12 years now. They have all different types of puzzles one could create and they each take only a few minutes to create!  The site is great!

I heard about Quizlet  around a year and a half ago, but finally tried it last night! Thanks to my technology course, I was "forced" to try it out and boy am I glad!!!!!!!!!!  I hadn't realized how user-friendly it was and how much fun it would be to use! In a few minutes, I had a vocabulary exercise ready, which could be used in many different ways, just by clicking on one of the choices provided!  I can't wait to have my students use it; I know they will love it! This way, they will think they are playing and I know they are reviewing the material I want them to review!!!!!! :)

I hope my next blog will include my students' reactions to the activities!
Till then, Grandmablogs is off to finish preparing for Shabbat....

Blog #2!  (November 6, 2014)

I have just read Adele Raemer's  "Digitally Yours"   about using the app, NearPod in class, which enables the sharing of Power Point Presentations via SmartPhones. Her PP gave her students instructions on how to do their oral component for their book task!   First of all, this solves the problem of classrooms that don't have SmartBoards or projectors and screens,like my school, for example!  In addition, getting them to speak for 1-2 minutes about their books is a win-win situation; we get to hear all of our students speak and each student gets to practice speaking!  It all sounds great.. now I need someone to push me and show me how to actually do it!  I do not have spare time to play around and learn all the things I want to learn; I'm sure most of you have the same problem!  I need a F2F demonstration!

I liked Richard Byrne's suggestion in his "Free Technology for Teachers" blog          He gave 5 different ways of collecting student feedback, which I have just learned is called, "exit tickets"! The students respond to 2-3 questions, asking if they understood the material taught that day and what questions they had for the next lesson. The two that appealed to me the most was "Socrative" and "Poll Everywhere". I MUST try one or both of these!

The third Blog I read was Lisa Nielsen's "The Innovative Educator" . Since it was on Interactive whiteboards, I just glanced at it because my school doesn't have those..... yet!

Reading about all the new (and free) technology and  how to use it in our classrooms is very exciting, but, at the same, I find it all so overwhelming!

In any case, I hope I'll be writing soon, that I've not only learned how to do some (all????!!) of the above, but that my classes have been enjoying the fruits of my newly obtained skills!

Till the next blog....