Collaborative Project

For my collaborative project, I worked with Josie, another first grade teacher on my team.  We celebrated our poetry unit by having students publish poems on the computer.  Students used the Theme Poems website from readwritethink.org and created their own poem.  They typed these and emailed them to me.  I was able to save them and import the poems into Seesaw.  Next, students recorded their voices reading the poems.  We invited Josie's class to join our celebration when we shared these poems.  We also visited her classroom to celebrate their hard work with technology and poems!  The students were extremely focused and engaged during this project.  I look forward to doing more projects like this!

Technology in Math

Some of my favorite lessons I have tried this semester have involved technology in math class.  There are several review days built into the pacing of each unit, so I have found students enjoy spending those days on computers when they are available.  Here are two websites I have really enjoyed:

1. Geoboard by The Math Learning Center
I created a jumpcode (my first one!) that took students to this website: http://www.mathlearningcenter.org/web-apps/geoboard/.
I first modeled how to use the site on my computer.  I showed how symmetrical shapes could be created.  Students were very excited to try it!  When we got out the Dell computers, students knew just what to do.  However, we did run into a small problem.  The settings on the Dell computers did not show the rubberbands on the geoboards right away.  I had to show students how to zoom out on the website so they could see the rubberbands.  They were very patient as we walked around and helped students that needed help.  Students drew their favorite symmetrical shape and eagerly asked if they could create more.  This lesson was a hit and I even shared the jumpcode with my team and the parents of my students.

2.  Quizizz.com

The other website I used was quizizz.com.  This website is similar to Kahoot, but I like this website better because students can see the questions and the answer choices all on one page.  I created a 10 question quiz for my students to take independently on their computer at school.  Prior to this, I made several shorter quizzes that we completed whole group.  This allowed 1st graders to become familiar with the set up and the directions.  The 2nd time I tried this whole group, I forgot to turn some of the settings to "off."  Therefore, students were distracted by how many points they earned and the funny picture that pops up when they answered correctly.  I found that this website is best for first graders when the settings are set to "off" because they can focus on the questions and answers instead of the distractions.  

I created a jumpcode that took students to the quiz.  I was surprised how quickly some students completed the quiz.  It also took other students almost the entire class period.  My favorite aspect of this website is the feedback it gives to the teacher.  I was able to see how many students answered each question correctly.  

I plan to use this website for other subjects such as well.  I think it would be great to review vocabulary words and grammar skills.