Tales of 3rd Grade Tech

  What is Newsela ?  Newsela is a free website that can help educators bring current events into the classroom. Through Newsela educators can find trusted and reliable content that relates to their students and directly aligns with state standards. In addition the site offers a variety of reading levels allowing access to all students. On Newsela there is a wide range of content, it offers articles relating to science, ELA, SEL and more! How does it work?  Teachers can sign up for a Newsela account and then they will receive a class code. When a student logs into Newsela with your class code they become apart of your class and you can begin assigning content to them. Teachers can either assign articles to students or students can explore the different articles independently. When a teacher assigns an article they also have the ability to have students take a quiz or write about what they read. Students have a binder section on their account and that is where they can go t...

  This week I looked at Holly Clark's blog   Infused Classroom   and her review of virtual backgrounds.    What are VR experiences?  If you are like me VR feels like a topic that only tech savvy teachers can integrate. However, in her blog Holly Clark gave suggestions for how to make it possible in your classroom! Clark states that, " Virtual reality (VR) is a simulated experience that opens the door to the wider real world"(Clark, 2021).  Incorporating  this into your classroom can ignite  curiosity  in students and increase classroom  engagement . In addition it opens up  opportunities  to expose your students to  different  places, cultures and things. Clark,  also  helped me see that I don't need a ton of money to make a VR  experience  happen.  Below  a some steps you can take to integrate VR.  Get a class set or enough for a small group of cardboard . This is how you ...

What is  BrainPOP ?  BrainPOP is an educational platform that provides videos and resources to students. This site covers topics ranging from science and math to art and SEL. After students watch the videos they have different ways they can engage with the content. Students can take a quiz, create a video, find related readings and more. Teachers can choose to assign work or students can explore independently. While BrainPOP is not free teachers can buy a membership for their class without the district/school needing to provide a subscription. Additionally, families can purchase accounts for their students to use this tool at home.  How does it work?  Once you have a BrainPOP account you need to connect your students. BrainPOP is linked to Clever which is a single sign-on platform. If you do not use Clever, BrainPOP will give you a class code and your students can manually sign in and become apart fo your BrainPOP class. When all your students have joined your class ...

  This week I looked at Holly Clark's blog   Infused Classroom   and her review of Immersive Reader.  What is Immersive Reader?  Immersive Reader is a free Microsoft tool that was designed to help students with Dyslexia read. However, this has been such a hit in classrooms it can be beneficial for all students. Immersive readers supports users in readin g comprehen sion and fluency. With this tool all students can have access to understanding regardless of their abilities. Immersive reader is versatile and according to Clark can be used with resources such as, " Canvas, Flipgrid, Wakelet, Flocabulary, Pear Deck, Kidblog, Buncee, Nearpod, Merge, and Thinglink" (Clark, 2021). There are a lot of  possibilities  for integration. In her article Clark highlights five key benefits of immersive reading. This tool can read online content to students. Embedded in the tool is a picture dictionary where student can click on a word and a picture associated with the...

  What is  PBISWorld ?  PBISWorld.com is a website that is designed with PBIS and MTSS in mind and can offer teachers support for tier 1, 2, and 3 students. The website includes interventions, resources, and data tracking tools to help teachers with the diverse learners in their classroom. This website is free to use and gives teachers a place to start when looking for interventions for an individual student or for their class.  How does it work?  There are a few ways you can utilize PBISWorld. When you get onto the website the user can immediately identify a problem behavior that they are looking for interventions for. When you click on the behavior you are noticing it will direct you to a page where it describes what that behavior may look like in a classroom setting. If the description matches your student you will click "yes" and will be sent to another page that provides you with a list of interventions. Each interven...

  This week I looked at Holly Clark's blog   Infused Classroom   and her review of Pear Deck.  What are some benefits of Sketchnoting?  Sketchnoting is a way for students to interact with information and their learning. It allows students to include drawings and captions in their note taking and can help with retention of the content being taught. According to Clark, our culture focuses on verbal information and ignores other ways of processing, such as drawing. Clark also states, " research shows that visuals are processed 60,000 times faster than text!" (Clark, 2020). By  sketchnoting   students  draw and write notes or thoughts to best process the content that they are learning. Clark suggests  that teachers have students explain their notes to make their thinking and learning visible. Teachers have a variety of options for students to sketchnote such as, Drawings on Drive, Auto Draw and Autodesk Sketchbo...