Doodle Scheduling

I was first introduced to the concept on Doodle in high school when we used it to sign up for tutoring hours for classes.

I always have been a fan of this application due to the fact that it is a great way to stay organized and have a personalized time slot to sign up for something and ensure that you will get the support you need from your teacher. Not only is it a good way for students to stay organized, but also teachers because it allows them to personalize time slots for sign ups that work with their busy schedule.

What is Doodle?
Doodle is an online scheduling tool that allows users to select a date as well as time slot to sign up and meet with people. This app allows the creator of the poll to set designated times and dates for users to give feedback and sign up for a time slot.

Anyone can create a free Doodle account by signing up with their email. Once your account is made, you are ready to create your Doodles!

When creating a Doodle, users are taken through three steps to set up their poll.

• What's the Occasion: Users are taken to a form where they are asked to fill out the title, location, and description of the event that participants will be signing up for. 

• What Are the Options: This next step is where the creator personalizes his or her Doodle. Users are given a calendar where they can highlight the desired dates for the event. Next to the calendar is form where the creator of the poll can set times for each date in certain time increments for participants to sign up for. 

• Tell Your Participants Who You Are: Before finalizing the poll, the creator fills out one last form that tells his or her name and email. 

Once the poll is created, you hit finish and then are able to send out your Doodle to participants in it. Once the participants receive the invitation, they are free to pick a slot and sign up with their name and email!

Doodle will send the creator of the poll a calendar synced to the participants responses so that the creator has an organized calendar of date, times and people they are to meet with.

Uses for Doodle

I would use Doodle in my classroom for involving families in their child's school lives. I can create Doodle sign up sheets and email them out to the families of the students to sign up for school events. These events could include conferences, volunteering or any event that I would like if my students guardians to showed up to to support. By involving the families, I will be able to form stronger relationships with my students because I will learn more about them from getting closer to their family as well.

For upper elementary students, I could use Doodle for my students to sign up to do group presentations during class time. This will help not only to organize my students and myself but it will also help to give them some freedom and independence in their work to learn how to start handling that.

I could also use Doodle in regards to planning meetings with my colleagues. This is a good way to organize a bunch of busy teachers to bring them all together to collaborate and come up with ideas to help better the students of the school. By having a schedule poll, it allows for me to figure out which dates and times work best for me fellow teachers to meet and plan together. 

Experts Opinions
The Chronicle of Higher Education had George Williams share his uses of Doodle as a teacher. Williams described that Doodle is the perfect way to find the best times for committee meetings.

Williams has tried all different types of scheduling apps, but describes in detail how Doodle is superior to all those apps. The author goes through describing, in depth, how to navigate Doodle for first time users.

Some of the advantages to Doodle he shares are that it can be used online or in the app, users can create multiple options and time slots in polls for users to vote on and sign up for, and it is very easy to send, receive and give feedback to these polls.

MyDoodle allows for users to navigate the responses to these polls and signup sheets that is very user friendly. The creator of a specific Doodle can receive a calendar synced with all of the responses, making it easy to see which meetings are when and who will be attending.

Why Doodle?
Doodle is a great way to stay organized and plan meeting times with multiple parties. It is simple to navigate and create polls and calendars.

This app is a wonderful way for me to stay organized as a teacher, and plan events and conferences as a teacher with the families of my students.

As a teacher, I would most likely use Doodle to help me with creating meeting times with my fellow teachers to collaborate and come up with ideas to help better the students of the school and all they get out of their school day for the years to come.

References 
Williams, G. (2009, September 24). Scheduling: Using Doodle to find the best time for a committee meeting. Retrieved from https://www.chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/scheduling-using-doodle-to-find-the-best-time-for-a-committee-meeting/22724

Easy scheduling. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://doodle.com/

Class Dojo

I have heard recently about Class Dojo being used in not only individual classrooms but also as a school wide initiative.

I remember when I was in grade school that my teachers would always use a clip chart to manage classroom behavior and send home letter to parents updating them on students' work and what is going on in the classroom.

Now that technology has advanced and the culture the world that we live in is always changing, Class Dojo is a great way keep up with the advances in our world. It is a modern twist on the old style of classroom management and also gets parents involved in their child's schooling.

What is Class Dojo?
Class Dojo is a way to connect teachers, students and parents together in school. It also is a form of behavior management for students in the classroom. Class Dojo is a way for parents to stay connected with what their child is doing in the classroom by teaching sending notes, pictures, videos and updates through it. This app also allows for teachers to track their students behaviors in the classroom as well as manage it and keep parents up to date with how their student is performing in the classroom.

Here are some useful parts of Class Dojo

• Classroom: Each student is given an icon within the "classroom". Teachers are able to click on students and mark in which areas they are excelling in behaviorally and which areas they need to work on. They can also send notes to the student's parents or post updates for the family of the student.

• Portfolios: Teachers are able to post activities for student to upload by text, video, photo or drawing. Teachers can also include worksheets in this section for students to fill up and upload.

• Class Story: This section allows for teachers to keep guardians of the students updated on what the class is doing during the school day to incorporate the family in schooling even when they are not in the classroom. 

• Messages: Teachers can send instant messages to parents about their students that can be translated into 35 different languages making it accessible for almost all families to keep in contact with their child's schooling. These messages can be to the whole class or to individual parents of students. 

Uses for Class Dojo
The uses for Class Dojo are very smart in the way that they address a lot of issues that are faced in the 21st Century Classroom: behavior management and family involvement.

This is a great app to use for the implication of a behavior management plan. Since this app is accessible on any computer or electronic device connected to WiFi, it makes it easy to use for teachers in the classroom without disrupting students learning too much.

Class Dojo allows teachers to manage each student's behavior throughout the day as well as the class as a whole. Students are also able to monitor their behavior by getting updates on how they are performing and behaving in school. This helps for students to intrinsically motivate themselves to behave well in class and work harder to do their best.

This app also connects the families of students to their students' schooling. Teachers are able to keep parents up to date with important information and events going on in the classroom and school. By involving the parents in the school, it allows for them stay up to date with how their child is doing and if their child needs any help in an area or behaviorally.

Experts Opinions
In this article, a study of Class Dojo was used in a second grade classroom for implication. The question posed in this study was if Class Dojo would help to make positive implications of self monitoring in the classroom.

The data in the study showed that Class Dojo was an effective tool in increasing positive behavior and decreasing negative behavior. When students were posed with a weekly point system, they really took into account their behavior and actions in turning them into positive ones. The students were able to better their self management and control, making their behavior in the classroom more positive for the learning environment.

When students are holding positive behaviors and actions, they are able to get more out of their school day and have more time in engaged learning. The outcomes of this expert's study proved that when Class Dojo is fully implemented and followed through on, it is a very effective tool in changing students behavior intrinsically by self monitoring.

Why Class Dojo?
I would definitely use Class Dojo as a teacher for behavior management and involving families in their children's schooling. It is a free and easy to use application that will help my students self manage their behavior as well as myself as the teacher manage their behavior as well.

I believe it is so important to involve the families in the the school, so Class Dojo will be a fun way to make their involvement a positive experience by showing them all the amazing things their child is doing in my class. If needed, I can also update parents on any behavioral issues and they can help me out with those issues by being aware of them and dealing with them at home as well as school.

References 
ClassDojo. (n.d.). Learn all about ClassDojo ♥. Retrieved from https://www.classdojo.com/

Saeger, A. (2017, June 20). Using ClassDojo to promote positive behaviors and decrease negative behaviors in the classroom[Scholarly project]. In Rowan Digital Works. Retrieved from https://rdw.rowan.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3446&context=etd

Educreations

I have always been a huge supporter of Educreations since my junior year of high school. My AP Calculus teacher used this as a way to teach my class on the days he was absent.

I was reluctant to this idea at first because I always liked to have the teacher teaching in person, but after the first time using it, my mind changed and I really enjoyed this tool.

The way my teacher was able to manipulate the information on the screen and use a voice over to narrate the lesson, I really was able to understand everything at he was teaching as if he were there in person.

What is Educreations?
Educreations is a whiteboard and screencasting tool which allows for teachers to share lessons and information that they have the ability to annotate and narrate. This allows for students to receive information in an online format that is fun and engaging.

Teachers can create a class for any class that they are teaching. They are given a class code in which they are able to share with their students so that they can have access to the lessons that they have uploaded.

Once you create an account, you can upload lessons to your classroom by pushing the "Lessons" button in the upper left hand corner. Once you hit "Create New Lesson", you are brought to the design studio (shown to the right). Some of the options teachers have to enhance their lessons are mentioned below.

• Before recording, teachers can preplan out their lessons by making the slides of their lesson. They can write on the whiteboard, insert pictures and add links.

• Once you are ready to start recording, you push the "Record" button and you are able to narrate your lesson while manipulating the text and drawings to enhance certain parts of the lesson that you find necessary as the teacher to emphasize. 

• By clicking the arrow button, teachers are able to move text, pictures and drawings around the whiteboard.

• Once teachers have completed their lesson recording, they just hit the recording button again to finalize it and then can exit, save and publish the lesson to their class!

There is a tab under each class labeled "Students". By clicking the tab, teachers are able to see the name of the students signed up, their email, username and password, and their last active time. This helps to ensure accountability of students to make sure that they are watching the lessons and receiving the information. It also helps to ensure that each student has access to the lessons in the classroom by making sure they are all signed up and if they forget their username or password, they can contact their teacher to get the information back. 

Uses for Educreations
There are so many uses for Educreations in the classroom for any grade. The most straight forward use for this app would be to teach lessons. Since one can narrate and animate the whiteboard on Educreations, it makes it very easy to create clear lessons that make students feel as though the teacher is teaching right in front of them.

This app can also be used as a place for students to show and share their work with their teachers. Students can use the whiteboard portion of Educreations to record and even narrate them working out math problems and showing how they came to an answer. Teachers can also go around the class while students are using the app to check their work and make sure that they are on the right track.

Educreations can be used as an introduction to a topic or even a review of a topic. A teacher could use this app to share the basic information that students need to know on a subject matter so they get a baseline understanding before diving deeper into the topic or being assessed on the topic.

Students can even create their own lessons as a way to share their understanding on a topic with the rest of their class and their teacher. This is a fun and engaging way to not only assess students' knowledge but also allow them to us their creativity in their work since this app differs from most normal assessment types one would find in a classroom. This would be a good app to use in teaching a topic that has multiple subjects to it such as Black History Month. A teacher could assign each student with a prominent African American in the Civil Rights Movement and students could create a lesson / presentation on that person using Educreations.  

Experts Opinions
On the website, teacherswithapps.com, teachers who have been using Educreations share why they believe it is such a powerful app to use in the classroom.

Griva Patel shared an image of Blooms Revised Taxonomy and pointed out the top level is "create".

She shares that if a teacher wants to see if a student has a complete understanding and mastery of a concept, they can have students create and share a lesson on what they have just learned.

Wade Roberts, a developer of Educreations shared his reasoning behind the app: "We want to create the best place to teach and learn on the web, by making it quick and simple for teachers to record and share short tutorials with students. As more teachers use our app to share their knowledge, the overall quality of the lessons will continually improve as data helps us identify which lessons are most effective." 

Roberts ideas on Educreations really follows Blooms Revised Taxonomy when it comes to creating and creating being the top concept that one needs to grasp in order to have a full comprehension of the subject matter being taught. This app is perfect for ensuring that your students have a full understanding of a topic in your classroom by allowing them to use the user friendly features within the app to create lessons to demonstrate their understanding. 

Why Educreations?
Educreations is a great tool to use for sharing lessons with your class in a format that differs from the normal powerpoint presentations that are usually used in class. It is also a neat feature to have to take learning outside of the school. Students can have access to these lessons from anywhere with WiFi and the app, making them useful for those students who missed a day of school or students who need additional support and review of lessons.

This app helps students to demonstrate their understanding of a concept that has been taught by creating their own lessons to share with the class and the teacher. This is a way to demonstrate mastery on a topic by reaching the "create" level on Blooms Revised Taxonomy.

Overall, I would definitely use Educreations in my classroom by creating engaging lessons for my students so that their interest in learning rises and they enjoy being in the classroom, learning more. I would also use this app to assess my students in a way that is not as intimidating as test or paper, but at the same time I can see if they have mastered a certain concept. 

References 
Educreations Interactive Whiteboard. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.teacherswithapps.com/educreations/

Educreations. (n.d.). Teach anything to anyone from anywhere. Retrieved from https://www.educreations.com/

Glogster

I remember learning about Glogster in middle school where we would make presentations to share in class. But this year, my junior year at High Point University, Glogster was brought to my attention again!

In my behavior management class we learned about this site for our Building Rapport project. In this project we make a Glog that introduced ourselves to our class and their families on Back to School Night.

What is Glogster?
Glogster is a way to make a poster online and then present it digitally via email or projector screen.

Although it is used to be a free website create an account and use, it has a small monthly fee of $5 now.

In Glogster you are able to choose from hundreds of backgrounds where you can then add all different types of text elements to bring your online poster to life that include:

• Text

  

  
  

• Text Bubbles
• Images that you can upload from the web, your computer, or from ones that Glogster provides for you
• Hyperlinks can be added to go to certain websites where more information can be found to support the information on your Glog
• Videos from online sources such as Youtube or Vimeo, and even videos that you can make yourself to incorporate another tech element and skill in your presentation 
• Stickers and Clipart that Glogster provides you to add more volume and energy to you poster

Students have the ability to add these customizations, mentioned above, to incorporate their own creativity in their projects. This allows them to incorporate all different types of mediums from pictures, to videos, to graphs, to maps and all the way to different websites they can hyperlink. 

Experts' Opinions
On Glogster's website, they list ways and inspirations for uses of Glogster.

This really opened my mind to all the uses for Glogster and I really plan on using this in my own classroom.

Some of the ways I found most exciting was using a Glog for a classroom news letter, cooperative learning tool, infographic and icebreaker at the beginning of the year.

By using this as an infographic it allows students to show their understanding of a topic in ways other than writing. It also incorporates their understanding of non-fiction text elements by them adding graphs, charts, maps and photographs so they understand how to read them and gain an understanding from them.

I also really liked how Glogster can be used as a tool to introduce students and yourself, the teacher. I can have my students make their own Glog about themselves (their likes, dislikes, interests, etc.) and share it with me so I can learn more about them and plan my lessons based on what is best for them.

By making a Glog that updates families on their student's classroom, it creates a relationship with them and myself that shows I want them to be involved in their child's learning as well as I care that they know what progress we are making in the classroom.

Using the Glog as a news letter home also makes it very simple for families to read. Instead of sending out a typed letter, I can use text bubbles to highlight important information / themes so busy parents don't have to take a lot of time to read what is happening.

Check out the blog of 40+ Ways to Innovate Teaching Using Glogster: Glog Blog

Why Glogster?
Glogster is a great way to incorporate many tech skills besides learning how to use the program itself. 

There are so many ways to use the Glog (poster) that you have created in your classroom for any age and any subject. It's not just for teachers, it's also perfect for student presentations and assessments!

References

Carbohydrates Gloggster [online image]. Retrieved October 3, 2018 from https://www.blogger.com/ blogger.gblog?ID=213799432134812037#editor/target=post;postID=25195 90834319604513

40 Ways to Innovative Teaching Using Glogster EDU. (2014, October 01). Retrieved October 8, 2018, from http://blog.edu.glogster.com/2013/05/13/40_ways_to_innovative_teaching_using_glogster_edu/

Kahoot!

What is Kahoot!?
During class we were able to learn how to make a Kahoot!. Kahoot! is a website where teachers and even students can make online quizzes with their own questions and answers. There is also a Kahoot! community which allows you to share and borrow other Kahoots! made by others.

One is able to present this quiz to their class and have them play it as an interactive way to get involved in their learning.

These quizzes can be used for review game, an actual quiz, or a way for teachers to see how their students are grasping a concept.

Students are able to log in with a game code to play a fun, competitive game against each other with a time limit, or they can take a quiz and see how they are doing by being given more time per a question.

Uses for Kahoot!
Students can also make their own quizzes for reviewing topics with peers and play these quizzes together.

I remember using Kahoot! throughout high school and it was a very good way to get students engaged while at the same time reviewing a topic. I never made a quiz myself, but i remember taking them as a class and it brought out the competitive side in me and really pushed me to try my best because I wanted to win.

Kahoot! would be used in my classroom mainly for review games. It is a great way to see what my students really know and might be struggling in because in this environment they become competitive and want to win and see their name on the board.

I would also use it for students to make their own review quizzes and use the ones that I find most fit for a whole class review game. By students making their own quizzes, it allows them to think about the most important information and the correct answers for that information, so they are reviewing while making a review game!

I remember taking AP Psychology in high school and the teacher always had us make practice quizzes for a review and it was a really useful review tool in itself. So I would want to incorporate that in my own classroom as a teacher.

Experts' Opinion
This website is perfect for reasons why you should use Kahoot! in your classroom as well as how to use it in your class.
Why Kahoot!?

Why Kahoot!?
The opportunities for Kahoot! are endless. Not only is the teacher using technology to create the game, but students are also using it to answer questioned posed to them by logging onto it on their phone, computer, or any other device that has access to wifi.

References
Kahoot! (n.d.). Retrieved from https://kahoot.it/

Google Sites

At the beginning of this course we learned how to set up and use our own Google Site which we can use in our own personal classrooms. This is a very handy tool because it allows for teachers to put all the important information about the class in one spot where students and their families can easily access it. Google Sites also allows for teachers to post videos of themselves teaching content that a student may have missed or needs to review.

What is Google Sites?
Google Sites allows for complete access to whatever the teacher feels necessary for his or her students and their families. This helps a lot with students who may be missing school or who need extra help and review on a topic, so they can go home or anywhere out of school and still take it with them and continue their learning.

It is a very simple to create, which makes it ever the more easier for teachers to use as a tool.

Uses for Google Sites
Not only can teachers use it, but also students. In older grades, the teacher can actually teach students how to use this site and the students can use it for what we are using it for now, turning in digital assignments and writing about them.

This would be a good form of assessment because it allows the student to have a lot of freedom in how they want to set up their projects so they do not have to stick to one straight form. This allows for students to show their strengths in the classroom in different ways than just a written or typed assignment.

At the same time, students are also raising their technology skills which will help them in a global workforce in the long term.

Experts' Opinions
On shivarweb.com, the marketing editor consultant goes through the pros and cons of using Google Sites.

After looking through this, even with the cons, Google Sites still seems to be perfect for the classroom. The cons that the author pointed out were that there were limited design layouts and marketing features. But for a classroom, all of that is not necessary.

Google Sites are good for the classroom because of the simplicity of them. It is time effective for teachers and the simplicity of it makes it easy for anyone who is viewing it to access information.

Why Google Sites?
Overall, I think Google Sites is a great tool to use for schools, especially for teachers. It allows for teachers to reach out to many different groups of people associated with their classroom without being time consuming. The teacher can just give the link to whomever he or she would like to and they can go to the site without having to ask for permission to get updates and information about your classroom.

Feel free to visit my Education Technology Google Site
Caroline's Tech Wiki

Refrences
Shivar, N. (2018, September 23). Google Sites Review: Pros & Negatives of Using Google's Website Builder. Retrieved October 4, 2018, from https://www.shivarweb.com/17004/google-sites-review/