TodaysMeet: Unique

What Makes Someone Unique?

UEN:

Standard 2 The students will adopt health-promoting and risk-reducing behaviors to prevent substance abuse.  Discover personal strengths and talents that make one unique.

Education Technology:

Standard 6 Use telecommunications efficiently and effectively to access remote information and communicate with others in support of direct and independent learning and for pursuit of personal interests. (4)

ISTE:

Creative Communicator Students communicate clearly and express themselves creatively for a variety of purposes using the platforms, tools, styles, formats and digital media appropriate to their goals.

The tool that I chose to use was TodaysMeet. It was a nice way to collaborate and ask questions that can be anonymous by students choosing their own nickname.  I could use this now as a different way to test knowledge on what I have taught, maybe if I do a presentation in a class, i could use this as a way of testing or asking questions. This would be a great tool for me to use in the future because I would be able to use this with older grade levels, as a less intimidating way of testing what they know or what I have taught them, it would be a great way to see what I would need to teach about more in depth.  

Pros of this tool is that it is a good way to test knowledge while not being intimidating to the students.  You can use this as a way of figuring out what needs to be taught more in depth.  It is free as well and easy to sign up for.  

Cons of this tool is that it is a bit hard to understand how to work at first, I was confused on how the whole process was supposed to work.  I looked up videos on how it works, once you watch those though it is not bad at all.  

I will use this in my future classrooms when I want to see where the kids understanding are at, where I may want to touch over again.  I would also use this when I want my students to answer questions honestly and they can do that anonymously so they will feel more comfortable to do so.  

My students can use this tool when they want to learn more about something, they could post a question to their fellow classmates, who can answer back.  They could also use this tool as a way of communicating to others, which would be a cool way to collaborate with anyone.   

Prezi: Microorganisms: Viruses

Microorganisms: Viruses

UEN:

Standard 4 The students will understand concepts related to health promotion and disease prevention Explain how viruses differ from other microorganisms.

Education Technology:

Standard 5 Use technology tools (e.g., multimedia authoring, presentation, web tools, digital cameras, scanners) for individual and collaborative writing, communication, and publishing activities to create knowledge products for audiences inside and outside the classroom. (3, 4)

ISTE:

Knowledge Constructor Students critically curate a variety of resources using digital tools to construct knowledge, produce creative artifacts and make meaningful learning experiences for themselves and others.

The tool that I chose to use was Prezi, it is a cool and different way to present information.  This is a great tool to use for me now because it’s fun to make this type of presentations. I could use this now because I am able to make the presentation from anywhere and I can access it at any time.  I would use this tool in my future classrooms when I am teaching any subject, you could make a Prezi for any type of information and it would be a great way to present it. It also moves and changes which I think would be fun for my students to watch and that they would be more able to pay attention to it.   

Pros of this tool would be that you can access it anywhere that you have internet access, you can sign in anywhere and work on it.  It also auto saves which I really liked, I didn’t have to worry about losing any of the work that I had already done.  

Cons of this tool would be that it was a bit difficult to navigate through, you have to make sure that you click the place that you are trying to work on just right or it adds another text box that I didn’t need.  

I will use this tool in my classroom when I am making any type of presentation, it would be a fun way to teach my students information.  When you are presenting the presentations, it is fun because of the transitions that you can choose, which make it fun for the students.

How my students can use this tool is they can make projects with it. It would be a good alternative to the standard powerpoint, it could be more fun for them to make a Prezi, than just a regular powerpoint.   

Podcast: Earths Tilt and Why it Causes Seasons

Earths Tilt and Why It Causes Seasons

UEN:

Standard 2 Students will understand how Earth's tilt on its axis changes the length of daylight and creates the seasons.

Education Technology:

Standard 6 Use telecommunications efficiently and effectively to access remote information and communicate with others in support of direct and independent learning and for pursuit of personal interests. (4)

ISTE:

Creative Communicator Students communicate clearly and express themselves creatively for a variety of purposes using the platforms, tools, styles, formats and digital media appropriate to their goals.

The tool that I chose to use was a Podcast. This would be a fun tool to use when you are presenting information that can be easily understood, with just talking or explanation.  I could use this now when presenting information, it would even be fun to make a podcast on my journey through school and the education program.  This would be fun for my future classroom because it would be information that students would be able to access as many times as they want and they can listen to it as many times as they would like to.  

The Pros of this tool is that it was fun to make and it was exciting to record something that could be listened to over and over again.  I had help with the whole recording process, which was really nice, but otherwise it may have been harder to figure out.

The Cons of this tool is that you have to get the episode almost perfect or right because if you don’t some of the mess ups that you have can be fixed, but not all of them.  You also want to make it sound like you are enjoying yourself and also being yourself, which was a little hard when reading a script.  

I will use this tool in my classroom when my students need to be able to listen to stuff that I have taught.  This is kind of similar to having or taking a recording of a lesson, my students would be able to go over the material as much as they wanted in order to understand.  

My students can use this tool for projects, if they want to make a podcast for a project where they can teach something easily that would be great. They can also make podcasts as a way that they could study for things that they need to remember.  This might help them because they are teaching it and they can also listen to it.  

TikiToki: Significant Events that Shaped Utah

4th Grade: Significant Events that Shaped Utah

UEN:

Standard 2 Students will understand how Utah's history has been shaped by many diverse people, events, and ideas.  Objective 2 Describe ways that Utah has changed over time.

Education Technology:

Standard 6 Use telecommunications efficiently and effectively to access remote information and communicate with others in support of direct and independent learning and for pursuit of personal interests. (4)

ISTE:

Computational Thinker Students develop and employ strategies for understanding and solving problems in ways that leverage the power of technological methods to develop and test solutions.

The tool that I chose to use is TikiToki, it is a place where you can create digital timelines for whatever subject you would like.  This is a good tool because you are able to input the dates that you want the timeline to include and then you put a title and a brief description.  This would be a great tool to use now for projects where dates are important or when making a fun and different way to introduce a timeline.  I can use this tool in my future classroom when I am introducing certain subject where a timeline would be most appropriate.  Like in the TikiToki that I created, I did major events and people who helped shape the Utah that we know today.  

Pros of this tool is that you can set whatever dates you want and it can be as long of a time period as you would like it to be.  It is also nice that you can include websites where the person viewing it can go to for more information.  

Cons of this tool is that it is a bit confusing to navigate at first, it takes a bit of working and messing around to get used to.  You have to put in a day, month, year, and time that things happened which was a little difficult with some of the times that I was adding in.  If you want the free version, you are also only limited to one timeline.  

I will use this tool to present different dates and times that are important to know for my students. It would be a good thing to help them to visualize when things in history occurred.

My students will be able to use this tool when they are making project or even when they are needing to remember important and relevant dates.  They could make their own timelines with their own information that they find important and worthy to remember.  

Storybird: Who, What, Where, When, and Why.

Who What Where When and Why

UEN:

Reading: Literature. Standard 1, 2nd grade Language Arts

Ask and answer such questions as who, what, where, when, why, and how to demonstrate understanding of key details in a text.

Education Technology:

Standard 5: Use technology tools (e.g., multimedia authoring, presentation, web tools, digital cameras, scanners) for individual and collaborative writing, communication, and publishing activities to create knowledge products for audiences inside and outside the classroom. (3, 4)

ISTE:
Knowledge Constructor Students critically curate a variety of resources using digital tools to construct knowledge, produce creative artifacts and make meaningful learning experiences for themselves and others.

The tool that I chose to use was Storybird.  I created a picture book, but you could choose to create a picture book, long form books, or poetry.  This was a great tool for making your own story and/or teaching a subject.  It was a great way to get creative juices flowing and show creativity.  This would be a great tool to use in a classroom and it would also be great to make a story that you could print off and give to my students.  

Pros of this Storybird tool are that you can make any story that you would like to, you can search for beautiful and fun pictures that will go along with the subject of your book.  You can also print out the stories that you create for a decent price.  

Cons of this tool would be the picture choosing selecting.  It was a bit difficult to decide what pictures to use because although the pictures were amazing and wonderful, you could either choose to use a page of all different types of pictures or you could use a specific artists pictures. When you choose between the two types of pictures you can’t go back, at least I couldn’t find a way to do that.  

I would use this in my future classroom by creating fun and personalized books that my students could read.  I think that if I were to do so that would be an awesome way for my future students to feel important and appreciated.  

My students could use this tool if they want to write their own story.  It would be fun for them to use because they could make any type of story with any theme or story line. I think that it would be fun for them to make their own story and then you could possibly print out the stories and share them with my classes every year.       

Youtube: Important National Symbols

Important National Symbols, Landmarks, and Documents

UEN:                                                                                                                              Standard 2 (Citizenship): Students will recognize and practice civic responsibility in the community, state, and nation. Objective 3 Investigate and show how communities, state, and nation are united by symbols that represent citizenship in our nation.

Education Technology:                                                                                                 Standard 8 Use technology resources (e.g., calculators, data collection probes, videos, educational software) for problem-solving, self-directed learning, and extended learning activities. (5, 6)

ISTE:                                                                                                                                  Knowledge Constructor Students critically curate a variety of resources using digital tools to construct knowledge, produce creative artifacts and make meaningful learning experiences for themselves and others.

The tool that I chose to use was YouTube.  This was a great and fun tool to use.  I can use this tool now as a student when I want to learn more about what I am learning in my classes, YouTube has millions of videos on any and every type of subject.  I will use this as a future teacher to help illustrate the subjects that i am teaching.  There as so many great videos that people make that can be used to help teach.  

Pros of this tool are that there are millions of videos available to choose from on any subject that you need.  A lot of the videos that are available are made by other teachers, which is great because then you know that you are getting all or most of the information that you are needing.  

Cons of this tool are that there are some videos that people put on YouTube that are inappropriate so you need to view the videos that you are showing  students at least once, if not multiple times.  You would also need to set guidelines and safety features on what the students can view and search for.  

I will use this tool in my classrooms to show information to my students.  It would be a great way for them to access more information.  I could give them more videos that I would like them to watch where they could learn more.  As well as using other users videos, I could make my own videos that the students could watch as well.    

My student will be able to use this tool if they need more information in certain areas.  It would be a great tool or resource for them to use when they need more information or more clarification.  It would also be a good place to make videos that my students could make for projects or fun.

Ed Puzzle: Our Awesome Solar System

Our Awesome Solar System!

UEN:

Standard 3

Students will understand the relationship and attributes of objects in the solar system.

Objective 1 Describe and compare the components of the solar system.

Education Technololgy:

Standard 8 Use technology resources (e.g., calculators, data collection probes, videos, educational software) for problem-solving, self-directed learning, and extended learning activities. (5, 6)

ISTE:
Computational Thinker Students develop and employ strategies for understanding and solving problems in ways that leverage the power of technological methods to develop and test solutions.

The tool that I chose to use was Ed Puzzle, I was able to edit a video or shorten it and add thinking questions that were relevant to the video.  This was a great tool because I was able to use a video as well as I was able to ask questions about the video in the video.  This tool would be a great tool to use when making projects and making presentations in classes.  It would be a fun and different way to present information.  I would use this in my future classrooms when I present information.  You can edit the video between the start and the end.  It would be really easy to use this tool when wanting students to review information.  

Pros: This was a fun tool to use, you are able to choose your own video from wherever you want.  The website has helpful hints and tutorials that show you how to start and what to do on each part of creating the Ed Puzzle.  

Cons: this tool was nice to use, but I didn’t like that I wasn’t able to crop multiple times I could only crop once.  All in all it was a great tool.  

I can use this tool in my classroom to present information through videos.  It would be a great why to test what they know and what still needs to be discussed. The questions that you add to it can be thinker questions which would help them to think about what information they know.  

How my students can utilize this tool is they can find their own videos and add their own information and questions to videos.  This would also be a fun project that my students could use to present to the class.  

Pinterest Weather

Weather types in 1st grade! 

UEN:

Standard 2 Earth and Space Science. Students will gain an understanding of Earth and Space Science through the study of earth materials, celestial movement, and weather.

Objective 3b Compare and contrast seasonal weather changes.

Identify characteristics of weather, e.g., types of precipitation, sunny, windy, foggy, and cloudy.

Education Technology:

Standard 5 Use technology tools (e.g., multimedia authoring, presentation, web tools, digital cameras, scanners) for individual and collaborative writing, communication, and publishing activities to create knowledge products for audiences inside and outside the classroom. (3, 4)

ISTE:

Knowledge Constructor Students critically curate a variety of resources using digital tools to construct knowledge, produce creative artifacts and make meaningful learning experiences for themselves and others.

The tool that I chose to do was Pinterest, this is an amazing tool that you can use to get any type of information easily and fast. There are so many resources from teacher blogs that make this source great.  I will use this as a future teacher because it’s an amazing resource, it is also a great way to learn from other teachers and to find fun hands-on activities.

The pros of this tool is that it has so many wonderful and fun ideas and activities that you can pin and save for later.  It’s also great because in finding the different types of resources that you can use, you find blogs and websites that have been put together by teachers which is great.  

The cons of this tool is that with it, you can get distracted so easily.  For me, I can spend hours upon hours of time on Pinterest.  Also, on occasion, you can get false pins that don’t actually go to what the picture is telling you that it is.  

I would use this tool to present information to my students in a way that they would be able surf Pinterest and get so many hands on ideas on different topics.  I would allow my students to use this to find different ways that they would like to learn, and what they would like to learn about more in depth on certain projects.  

My students would be able to use this tool to learn more about what I am teaching them and they would also be able to go more in depth on certain topic.  I would make a classroom Pinterest where my students will be able to go to for more information on all different kinds of subjects.  

eMaze Parts of plants

The Major Parts of Plants for kindergartners! 



UEN:
Standard 4 Life Science. Students will gain an understanding of Life Science through the study of changes in organisms over time and the nature of living things. Objective 2 Describe the parts of living things b. Identify major parts of plants, e.g., roots, stem, leaf, flower, trunk, branches.

Education Technology:

Standard 8 Use technology resources (e.g., calculators, data collection probes, videos, educational software) for problem-solving, self-directed learning, and extended learning activities. (5, 6)

ISTE:
Knowledge Constructor, Students critically curate a variety of resources using digital tools to construct knowledge, produce creative artifacts and make meaningful learning experiences for themselves and others.

The tool that I chose to use was eMaze, it was a fun way to put a presentation together. This is a great tool to use if you don’t just want to do a regular powerpoint.  It was relatively quick and easy to put together.  eMaze will be a resource that I use in the future and in my future classrooms.  It is a funner way to present information then a powerpoint.  The backgrounds and templates that eMaze offers are great.  

The pros of this tool are that it is a great alternative to powerpoint.  It is also very easy to use and put all together.  The templates that eMaze offers are great because you can add in the information that you need in the different templates that they have which makes it so much easier to put the whole presentation together.  The backgrounds that they offer were great as well, they have many different styles and pictures to choose from that would be relevant to your subject and also look great while presenting.

The cons to this tool are that on some of the backgrounds that you can choose from, like the chalkboard one that I chose, you have to find pictures that don’t have any type of colored background or else the pictures would look funny and out of place.  

I will use this tool in my classroom to present all different types of information, it would be useful for any subject.  It is also similar to a powerpoint, but just different enough that it is new and exciting for the students.  It is also a different way to quiz because you can add in questions and you can have students answer those, which I liked.

My students can use this tool to create their own presentation, it is fun and easy.  I like how easy it is to make a nice and clean looking presentation because of the templates and I think that that would be useful to my students as well.  They can make presentations with their own pictures, videos, questions. It would be a great tool for students to use.

Padlet Dinosaurs in the Dark

Reading Dinosaurs in the Dark

UEN:

Standard 3 Describe characters, settings, and major events in a story, using key details.

Education Technology:

Standard 7 Use telecommunications and online resources (e.g., email, online discussions, web environments) to participate in collaborative problem-solving activities to develop solutions or products for audiences inside and outside the classroom. (4, 5)

ISTE:

Knowledge Constructor, Students critically curate a variety of resources using digital tools to construct knowledge, produce creative artifacts and make meaningful learning experiences for themselves and others.

The tool that I chose to use was Padlet, it is a fun and interactive tool.  You create a cork board where you can pin information and questions that students can look at and add to.  This is a fun resource to use to add information onto, it’s a virtual cork board.  It would be good to use if you want to keep information together about subjects or also if you have questions. This would be a great way to get students to collaborate with one another. On this you can ask and answer questions, post information on the topic, and opinions that you have.  It’s a great way for students to learn from one another.

Pros of this tool is that it is a great way to collaborate with others. You can add pictures, videos, anything that you want to a post.  It gets students to think more in depth about what they are learning. It’s was also fun and easy to create, you can teach any subject with this and it would be useful.

Cons of this tool are that it wouldn’t work very well for younger aged students, it might be a little hard to navigate and understand.  The Padlet that I did was for first graders, which now after creating it, I think that for younger students it might be a little bit difficult to use.  To use this with younger grades you would need to present it as a lesson more than something that they would do by themselves.

I could use this tool to present information to students by allowing them to look at the information that I have included and then we can go over what they think about it and what the Padlet was about.  For the older grades, you can introduce information to the students and they will be able to use this to add their own ideas.   

My students can use this tool to collaborate with each other.  They can make their own Padlet about whatever subject they want and their classmates can ask and answer questions that they may have or know.  This would be a good tool for 5th and 6th graders, they can use it to work with each other to introduce, clarify, and question what they know and what they want to know.

Google Forms Simile and Metaphor

Learning about Similes and Metaphors in 5th Grade

UEN:

Reading: Literature Standard 4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative language such as metaphors and similes.

Education Technology:

Standard 8 Use technology resources (e.g., calculators, data collection probes, videos, educational software) for problem-solving, self-directed learning, and extended learning activities. (5, 6)

ISTE:

Computational Thinker Students develop and employ strategies for understanding and solving problems in ways that leverage the power of technological methods to develop and test solutions.

The tool that I chose to use was google forms.  This is a great tool because with it, you are able to collaborate with others and also learn from others and their responses to the questions.  I like that the responses you leave can be anonymous or they can be recorded.  I would like to use this in my future classrooms with older students, this would be a great way to gather information on what they know, it can be taken as a pretest or even a post-test.  I would use this as a less intimidating form of assessment because for some students test can be nerve wracking.  

Pros: It is easy to manage and answer questions. You can create any type of questions that you would like, for example that quiz that I made I includes both multiple choice answers and also short response.  The quiz can also be anonymous, which is helpful in assessing what the students already know when preforming a pretest  

Cons: You do have to have a google account to create this, but I don’t believe that you need a google account to take quizzes already made.  To add certain things to the quiz you do need to know what you are doing, that make the process go a lot smoother.  

I can use this tool in my future classroom in order to assess information already known, what to teach more in depth, and it is a different way of assessing information that I will have already taught.  

My students can utilize this tool when they are trying to learn or to see what they need to focus more on.  It is a good way to reduce stress that some students have in relation to testing.