Clarissa's Educational Blog

 I have personally experienced many different opinions on playing music in the classroom during work times given for the students to get late work done or just to have a mental break during the school day. I have always been on the side of not playing music in the classroom because some students struggle to focus when there is music playing. After reading the article that can be found at the link below from Harvard Medical School, I have changed my mind on playing music in the classroom. It says that playing music allows for the entire brain to be activated instead of just certain parts of the brain that are used for everyday tasks. With music playing, students would be able to use the function of their entire brains. Not only will this boost their testing skills, but it will help them to retain more information for longer periods of time. I recommend reading through the following article before having an opinion of music playing in the classroom. It will benefit students greatly to pl

  Twitter often gets looked past as an educational source because of the use of social media that the platform has. There are so many different educational users on all social media apps that often get looked over. On Twitter specifically, I have a few pages that I follow to help me keep my educational instruction up to date with educational methods and new game ideas to keep learning interesting for my future students. To list a few of my favorite Twitter pages, the handles are @ElemMathChat @ETFOeducators and @tomwhitby. All three of these users are worth checking out when looking into educational use of the Twitter platform.

 Kahoot is a fairly well known educational technology that not only is a great way to get a feel as to where the students are at in their learning, but also a great way for students to have fun in class. When I was in high school, we would always look forward to seeing Kahoot or hearing the background music of the platform. I know that children look forward to Kahoot, which gets them excited to come to class. On top of that, it is a great way for educators to be able to reward the students who have grasped the concept well. Below is an image of the home screen for creating a Kahoot. The website is easily maneuvered and makes for an easy creation of a quick check in. I plan to incorporate Kahoot into my future classroom as often as possible to keep the students wanting to stay engaged in my class.

 Hour of Code is a website that allows for students to have some freedom in creatively expressing themselves while still having guidelines to keep them on a learning path on the website. Depending on the coding that is done, this website can help to work on fast facts in math class or solving word problems in reading. The educator can create a game that is engaging for the students, yet still teaches them the standards at hand. The students associate fun with learning, which makes them happier and more excited to come back to school the next day. Hour of Code can be found at hourofcode.com. The following image is the hour of code that I participated in for my class last week. 

  The Glide app is a multi-access app that allows users to create apps for phones and laptops without having to understand coding. There is a simple step by step process to go through to create an app, download the app to other devices, and even how to share the app with friends. I plan on using this app in the future to be able to create easier ways to track individual student progress, attendance, and other tasks in the classroom that are much simpler through the use of technology. I highly recommend giving it a try if you are looking for something new to incorporate to your learning and education organization. The above screenshot is a direct image of the screen that I see after having created two different apps to play around on Glide.

 Have you ever considered incorporating blogging into the classroom? Not only is a blog a great way for students to let there creativity flow, but it is also a great way to ensure that the students are able to navigate technology. Most classrooms in the modern world have some sort of technology for each student in the classroom. Because of this, blogging is a great way to keep children entertained and active in class during periods of time that might not be filled otherwise. It keeps the children in control while the teacher works on transitioning into the next subject. Incorporating blogging into the classroom takes some time for set up, but after the set up process is done, children will be able to access their blogs easily. Getting the children something to write about is as easy as doing a quick little google search and finding a child appropriate writing prompt. Have the students write for x amount of time or until they have wrapped up the writing prompt that was given. Below is a