Technology for Teachers #1

There are many benefits of technology in the classroom, especially as students are becoming increasingly digitally literate. But how do you do that if you aren’t a ‘techie’, a ‘geek’, if you barely use a Smartphone much less the myriad of online tools. I have ten strategies that will make your teaching life easier, bump up your effectiveness with students, and save time complying with Common Core standards. Try these ten tech uses. Watch what a difference they make:

• Online sign-ups for conferences, parent helpers, project presentation dates. You can use Sign-up Genius or the Google Apps for Education (GAFE) calendar. Enter dates and embed the widget in the class blog or website.
• iPads to share stories students write. Write them in Word or Google Docs. Save as PDFs and load onto iPads to share with students. This is especially appealing with comics students prepare to practice creative writing
• class calendar created in Google Docs–edited by anyone with permissions (you, grade-level teachers, older students) and embeddeded into class websites, blogs. It includes all relevant dates for homework, projects, tests.
• Twitter blasts to remind students of due dates. Or use the class Twitter account as a backchannel device, soliciting student feedback on classwork.
• virtual field trips–save money, go places students couldn’t go otherwise
• virtual preview of locations--show students what they’ll see before they actually take a physical field trip, say, to the Long Beach Arena
• diversify teaching with options for students who finish early–think ‘sponge’ activities
• differentiate teaching for students with different learning styles. Offer ways that projects can optionally be done using music (Garage Band), oral (Voki), art (Kerpoof), writing (GAFE), multimedia (Animoto)–whatever suits the student
• translators for non-native speakers. There are many–try Google Translate.
• special needs–use tech to provide equity. Here are a bunch of options.

Reference

Murray, J. (2013, Nov. 18). 10 Ways Any Teacher Can (and Should) Use Technology. Retrieved Dec. 04, 2016, from https://askatechteacher.wordpress.com/2013/11/18/10-ways-every-teacher-can-use-technology/ available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.