What Technology Should I Use and What to Use it For?
Remote learning is going to take some professional development in the area of technology, there’s no getting around that. But let’s find out the best easiest technology for remote learning and how we can get the most out of a few tools. Learning the most out of a the following tools will get your most important classroom pieces up and running again. The following software will help you make the most difference as you change over your classroom to a virtual one.
Communicate & Connect with Kids & Families:
Zoom https://zoom.us/ and Google Hangouts https://hangouts.google.com/ are virtual meeting places similar to face time. These resources are great in this world of social isolation. You can see your whole group or class in a gallery or grid view on any device. Check out my post on Virtual Classroom Meetings for how to run your Meets or Zooms for young children.
This will replace your classroom meetings, parent conferences, small group chats, and even take home folders! Hold daily morning meetings with your class, afternoon check in meetings once a week and a once a week meeting with parents. This will keep everyone connected and informed.
ClassDojo: https://www.classdojo.com/ will become the classroom communication beyond a newsletter for classrooms with reminders of events. This platform will be used to motivate, share student effort, and regularly communicate as well as replace email. It will give families a place to get questions answered and solve problems that will arise in this brave new world of learning for parents & students.
Connect with Students During Learning Activities
Loom https://www.loom.com/ is the best thing ever! Have you ever projected an online reader of a great book for your students and their voice, inflection, or speed, just didn’t suit you?? Seemed to happen to me all the time! I usually need the book more than I need the person reading it. I, as the teacher, am the best person for the job when it comes to sharing books with my kids. By using this video capability resource I can give my students a piece of our classroom story time. Loom puts me in a little circle video window while I project necessary books or lessons. Second best thing to me doing it in our classroom!
Open Library https://openlibrary.org/ is another best thing ever! I was so worried about how I was going to read books without having my classroom library at home! Having a whole library at my fingertips is important during this teaching quarantine. The ability to project the actual pages of each book is so important for my learners.
