Unique Speech

As I am preparing for my career in elementary education after graduation, I work at an early childhood education center to gain further insight and experience in various childhood behaviors, teaching styles and techniques. One of the biggest realizations that I have had is the fact that working in an early childhood education field can be very tough. Helping each young, flourishing child understand their own emotions, understand boundaries, communicate with peers and teachers as well as follow directions, all while educationally enriching them and even going through the potty training process with children are very difficult tasks to manage and balance. What can make this challenge even more difficult is when there is a lack of communication between student and teacher. In my experience, I have come across many students that have been diagnosed with Autism, a great deal of them being almost to completely non-verbal. Witnessing wonderful and bright children struggle because they lack the resources to convey the things they need made me feel utterly helpless. I knew I could be doing something more. My first attempt at trying to remedy this issue was when I made a verbal communication board in my room. This consisted of various pictures on the wall of one side of the room that illustrated certain feelings and things they would need such as water, or to use the restroom. Unfortunately, this backfired on me when I realized that there was too much and not enough on the wall at the same time. I saw that my students would get frustrated when they were over stimulated by the many broad choices they had but also not enough options to depict very specific wants or needs.

I did a good bit of research to fix this problem and I discovered the solution. I stumbled upon an app called Unique Speech. This app uses basic pictures featuring various categories and when you choose a category, more specific choices are presented. It contains hundreds of requests such as locations, verbs, food, etc. so children can not only ask for things, but can conduct meaningful conversations with others.This app is organized in a simple way where the student does not feel overwhelmed and it is easily accessible. The only con to this app is the fact that after the three day trial it provides, you have to pay a monthly subscription. I tried using other free apps like this, but this was the only app I could find with as many options for my students. I let my students use our iPad to communicate with teacher and other students and within a week of using it, I noticed the students on the spectrum were having less meltdowns, less altercations between other students, smoother transitions and a brighter personality in the students with Autism. I am so grateful to have stumbled upon an app like this because I do not know if I would have been able to experience the truly bright and cheery children I had seen when these students had the ability to communicate. Overall, I believe this app has benefitted my classroom as well as my students.

SketchUp

Sketchup.com for school is a great way to bring technology and engineering to our classrooms. When the teachers are giving the students opportunity to design a model, they should teach them how to plan and be prepared to this activity. Planning in advance is an essential principle in the engineering’s world. Sketchup website is really beneficial in this area because it can help students construct their model in 3D form and visualize it in advance. This step before the actual construction will help us build engineering minds in our classroom. While the students are planning, they can see if they need to change the measurements or the materials for their designs. This website gives the students the choice of their scale and the measurements of the design. 

Moreover, the teacher can check the design before the students start the activity and approve it. To save time, the students can do this step as a homework and submit their models to their teachers. In this way, the teachers will have an idea about each student’s plan, they can give feedbacks, tips, and recommendations before the actual construction. Also, this can help us save materials and waste less of them because the students are less likely to make mistakes in their designs if they have a clear model and if they know what they are doing.

In addition, Sketchup can work on any computer, tablet, chrome book and smartphone. Students can access this website from anywhere they have internet. Also, this website is not complicated to students and to the teachers. It is easy to learn how to use it and introduce it to students. This website is a way to combine the STEM ideas and motivate the students to apply them. Also, when the students start with an idea for any design, visualizing the idea will give them opportunity to enhance it.

https://www.sketchup.com/products/sketchup-for-schools

Raz-Kids

Raz-Kids is an app that allows students to build their reading skills in class, at home or on the go! Students log in with their assigned username and password, and choose their grade or reading level. Raz-Kids provides over 400 e-books for children to choose from so they never have to read the same thing twice (unless they want to). Students have the option to listen to the story or read it themselves. At the end of each story is a short quiz that assesses comprehension and skill. These test scores are saved and can be accessed by the students teacher. This is a quick and easy way for teachers to monitor their students reading progress. There is also an option to record yourself reading. This is another great way for teachers to monitor a child's progress because teachers also have access to the recordings and can hear if/when a student was struggling. I have seen this app in action when my daughter used it in her 2nd grade classroom and I saw firsthand the positive affect it had on her reading skills. She was excited to read and still is to this day. The only downfall to this app is that it is a paid app. In my daughters school the district paid for the membership so students had free access, but if that isn't the case then a one year membership will cost $115! Aside from the price tag, I think this app is a great option to offer in the classroom. It makes students excited to read and motivates them to try again if they get something wrong. 

Kahoot

Kahoot is a free website that help teachers assess their students using technology. Kahoot can be supportive in any content area, and it is a great way to engage students. It is an excellent opportunity to introduce new concept or to assess learning ideas. First of all, the teacher can create a multiple-choice quiz, it is possible to add as many questions as you want and up to four possible answers for each question. The educator can choose the time limit to every question. This quiz can be saved on the teacher’s profile page, so she can use it over and over at any time. When the teacher decides to assess the students’ knowledge, she can let them use their phones or the chrome books. The students must go to kahoot.it and enter the provided game pin to join the quiz.

Kahoot can give the students and the teachers immediate feedback for each question. It also provides the teacher with a detail report for each student’s answers. In addition, it shows the students on the big screen in the classroom the top three students. This rank is based on two things the accuracy and the shorter time to choose the correct answer. What is important here is that the students feel this is competitive between them. Thus, the students are not going to waste time and you are not going to worry about cheating between them.

Furthermore, the teacher can add pictures to the colorful quizzes to make it more fun and engaging. Also, Kahoot provides music for each quiz to make the learning experience look like the students’ games on their phones. When you use Kahoot you are assessing your students' knowledge while they think they are playing a fun game. Kahoot is helpful for any subject, any grade level, and any age.

Discover E

By: Karrie Harris

An interesting site that I discovered relating to STEM resources and activities is the Discover E website. The site is engineering focused and provides a vast array of resources including games, videos, hands-on activities, lesson plans, and website links. The site provides STEM resources for all ages and grade levels, K-12.

The amount of activities provided is extensive. Some are simple and can be completed cheaply and easily, while others are much more in depth and will require a lot of dedication from students. The site makes it easy for teachers to choose and activity as there is a filter bar on the right of the screen which allows for choice of specifications including grade level, discipline, topic, and time frame You will need to register on the site to gain access to the content. I clicked on several activities that were of interest to me including creating shock absorbers for marshmallow "astronauts" to teach students about the Law of Conservation of Energy, another about making foil boats to see how many pennies can be held to learn about buoyancy, density, and displacement, and finally one for older students which requires the creation of a water purification device which promotes "green" thinking and living.

The activities and lesson plans can be used to accompany the scientific topics to be covered in class, including those related to chemistry, biology, physics, anatomy, geology, and meteorology The website also provides access to training workshops for volunteers and teachers. It gives information about how to successfully introduce children to engineering and how to bring engineering into the classroom, whether it be elementary, middle, or high school the "Discover E" website gives access to various free posters for the classroom to promote engineering as well to various programs. These programs can help to get the teacher and student involved in the engineering community as it includes information on national and local events.

www.discovere.org

Science Buddies

Science Buddies

A great resource that I've come across is Science Buddies. Science Buddies is a great website that provides excellent resources for teacher and students to utilize. Students are able to engage in article readings, games, experiment ideas, and quizzes. Also, teachers are able to utilize this source to find content appropriate activities and experiments that can be incorporated in their lessons when instructing science in their classrooms. 

As a future teacher, I would explore the Science Buddies site more because they provide thousands of artifacts and experiments that can be used for any science topic/ lesson. In addition, I would purchase science kits that can support my science instruction. For an example, if I'm going to present a lesson on electricity, I can purchase basic circuit kits from the website in order for my students to conduct a hands- on STEM activity in creating their own circuit. This will help them comprehend the lesson better through hands- on learning and in being creative while using the supplies provided in the kits. 

Moreover, this website provides a variety of different science fair project and STEM ideas that can help my students, and I. It provides step by step procedures and the supplies needed for each activity. 

Really Good Stuff STEM-tivity Class Kits

The Really Good Stuff website offers a wide variety of activities and ideas that can be used in classroom lessons. This website is a fabulous tool when searching for fun new ways to teach old ideas. Not only do they have products for sale, the website also offers articles with tips like " 12 ways to get cheap books for the classroom" and other helpful resources as well. There is also an option to subscribe to their monthly "teachers box" where each month you receive a box full of products and activities aimed at enhancing lessons to engage the entire class. While navigating the website, I came across these STEM-tivity kits that I thought looked pretty cool. These kits are geared toward grades K-3, but they have kits for all grade levels. With this activity, you receive 5 different kits that tie into the K-3 curriculum. Penguin cool down is an activity aimed towards a better understanding of the warming of the Earth. Plant Pals is an activity designed to explain the ways in which seeds travel. Push and pull piggies reinforces students knowledge of push and pull. Silly Sounds teaches vibrations of sound and Building Materials Matter teaches the different characteristics of matter. Each kit comes with enough material to divide up the classroom into four cooperative groups to complete three highly engaging engineering challenges. These kits were also reviewed and approved by certified STEM instructional coaches and align with the NGSS. These kits are everything you need to conduct fun, engaging lessons that students are sure to have fun with. The only downside to these kits are the price tag. For these 5 kits the price is $160, and the materials are not reusable in most kits. If you work in a district where they will provide things like this to you then you are in luck, otherwise these kits might be a bit too pricey for a teacher. However if you can manage to get these kits in the classroom, they would serve as an incredible tool to aid in your lessons and to engage students even further into learning. 

ClassDojo

       ClassDojo is a communication platform used in classrooms by teachers as a way of staying connected to parent's and keeping them informed about their child's classroom progress. As a communication tool alone, ClassDojo is amazing. It is set up much like a social media platform. As a parent, you sign up and join the specific classroom your child belongs to. When you open the app, you have the option to select "stories", "kids", or "messages". The "Stories" section of the app looks much like a news feed on Facebook. This is where a teacher can share about the work the students are doing in class, share pictures from in school activities or field trips, post reminders about important upcoming events, give birthday shout outs or basically communicate any information necessary to the student's parents. You have the option to "love" or comment on any of the posts and reply to others on the post as well. 
       If you choose the "Messages" tab, this will take you to a private messenger where you can send the teacher a message that only he/she will see. This is helpful as a parent if you have a concern or question, as it is a quick and easy tool to get a fast response from the teacher. As a teacher if you need to speak to a parent it is a great alternative to a phone call, especially if it isn't very important. You can also create group messages in this section as well. Group messages can be very helpful when it comes to planning and organizing. My daughter's teacher uses the group chat feature when discussing upcoming class parties and who will bring what. This way all of the parents can communicate and decide what is needed and who will provide what. 
       Aside from just sending and receiving messages, ClassDojo tracks behavior as well. When you click on the "Kids" tab, your child or children's names will pop up. You click on the child's name and you immediately will see all the points he/she has earned (or lost) in class. There are points given for being patient, following directions, being a good listener etc. As the teacher observes good or bad behavior he/she can either give or take away points. ClassDojo will generate a report of the student's behavior which is available for the day, the week, the month and for the entire school year. This is a great way for teachers to keep track of their students behavior and areas where they might struggle. It is also great for parents who want to keep track of their child's behavior in school. It also gives parents the option to award points at home too. They can earn points at home for brushing their teeth, cleaning their room etc. This tool can be used towards allowances or rewards and it can coincide with their classroom points as well. 
       What I love about ClassDojo is that all points earned, posts added to the story and messages sent are happening in real time. Throughout the day parents will get notified when their child earns or loses a point or when a new story was posted. This allows parents to be up to date and in the loop with classroom news as it is happening. As of now I have more experience as a parent with ClassDojo than I do as a teacher but I think it will be a fantastic tool to utilize once I am a teacher. It organizes all of your communication and keeps a record of what you have sent out. It supports healthy communication between parents and teachers and aids in building a strong classroom community.