Tech Integration in the Classroom

Looking for ways to spice up the traditional lesson plan you’ve been using for the past 3 years? Well, I have recently attended a presentation by Tyler Letkeman, a high school teacher at Vincent Massey school. He offered many tips and tricks on ways to increase student interest in learning topics that might generally be so called “boring” for students. He integrates the use of technology in the classroom with his traditional lessons to create a deeper understanding of the topic.

I would love to share some of these with you!

:::Writers Workshop:::

Instead of always handing in pieces of writing directly to the teacher there is an opportunity to have their work published in a classroom book. This book can be displayed in the classroom or in the library that way their peers, younger siblings, and other people in the school are able to look at their finished work. This creates something more than writing a piece simply for a grade. This creates an authentic way of writing where an audience has the chance to read their hard work. This also helps to motivate students to do their best work as they will be writing it every day, allowing them to evaluate it overtime by revising, peer-editing, and ultimately creating a piece that is their best work.

Tech Integration:

Check out blurb.ca. This was the website recommended to create the classroom book. It is a software that you can purchase, but is totally worth it when it comes to creating authentic experiences for your students!

  

:::#bestwordchallenge:::

This is a weekly writing exercise to do with your whole class. The idea of this challenge is for students to be shown a picture and their job is to choose a word that captures the meaning of the photograph. They are expanding their vocabulary when doing this and also writing a short paragraph explaining why they chose that word. The teacher then assesses the students explanations, but ultimately it is an external audience (their classmates) that decides which word they like the best. The students really get excited about this because they want their word to be picked.

Tech Integration:

Google Forms and social media such as Instagram are great ways to explore this activity. 

Here is a picture:

Comment below with your word and why you chose it! 

:::Shakespeare:::

Shakespeare is one of those subjects that can seem daunting for both students and teachers. So really, anyway that we can deepen the meaning of this theme and make it more relatable to students is to have them interpret it in their own way. We can do this by incorporating the use of social media. Shakespeare’s work touches on qualities of human life that are timeless like romance, tragedy, and comedy. It makes them realize that these tales of love, loss, and laughter are universal.

Tech Integration:

We can do this by using many platforms such as Instagram and Snapchat.

Additionally, I thought that I had explored all that Quizlet had to offer but I was yet to find the best part of it! Quizlet live! This was such a fun and engaging experience. You are able to create random teams within your classroom and play a game that allows them to study whatever you are learning at that time. For example, if you are simply learning definitions from biology class you can create the definition and answer and then have to choose the right answer from a list.

:::Memes:::

Lastly, to increase student engagement in any subject or theme you are learning about you can have your students create memes. You can choose to have it displayed on the wall somewhere in your classroom so everyone can view their creation. I am personally a HUGE fan of memes. They really can turn your day around. There are so many memes out there and what makes them really unique is that they are super relatable in an infinite of situations. And the kind where your like… wait… other people feel that way too? 

So to have it in your classroom can help foster community among your students because they can always somehow relate it to themselves or most importantly to the content they are learning about. For example, they can share their thoughts and ideas about a scene or character they are reading about in a book.

Tech Integration:

https://imgflip.com/memegenerator

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Here are some extra tips and tricks for keeping yourself a little more organized in the classroom.

> Have an extra digital copy for those students who have lost theirs or are going on vacation. You can save on time, trees, and stress by using One drive so you and your students can always have access to assignments. You can also turn the editing on and off depending on the purpose of the assignment. 

>Having troubles with students not wanting to type in the mile long link you have shown them? Check out tiny.cc to shorten it. Reminder: you have to make sure that the url is typed in the top of the screen, not in the google search that pops up right away.

So here is how it works:

Go to tiny.cc and it will say where to paste your long link. Then customize the ending of your link. Click “shorten” and it will either load it or it will tell you that that custom one was already taken. CAPTIALS matter. 

  

Go from this -->

https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C5CHFA_enCA709CA709&ei=8T5WXJ7ZL6a9jwTo1LL4Dg&q=llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch&oq=llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch&gs_l=psy-ab.3..0i71l8.0.0..729345...0.0..0.0.0.......0......gws-wiz.D3Nh1iReSVA

To this --> 

Tiny.cc/VillageinWales 

Check out that weather man pronouncing Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch !! This was declared the longest valid internet address according to the world Guinness World Records in 2002.

That's all folks! Happy teaching!