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Gamifying Your Classroom

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Gamification has always caught my attention as being a great approach to engaging your students inside and outside of the classroom. In my own personal experience, Kahoot! And Boom Learning has been my go-to gamification resources. Younger elementary students enjoy the competitive nature that goes along with Kahoot!. This can be seen as a con in some situations, because Kahoot! is not necessarily beneficial for L2 students. Kahoot! uses time and speed to account for how many points you earn. This could be discouraging to students that are not proficient in the language. On the other hand, Boom Learning has been one of my all time favorite resources to use in the early childhood classroom. This application is engaging and age appropriate. There are countless boom card decks that target skills and even specific decks for L2 learners. When researching gamification, most articles mentioned that gamification is used as a strategy to engage and motivate students. Gamification is a great supp...
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Let's talk about MALL

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Mobile Assisted Language learning is an engaging and technologically driven way to enhance the language learning of ELL students. Using mobile devices is an easy and effective way for students to complete academic tasks. Most students are very familiar with the use of the devices and follow along with the tasks on the application. This strategy also provides a more engaging approach to language learning that is accessible inside and outside of the classroom. There are many pros and cons to the use of mobile-assisted language learning in the classroom.  One of the most obvious benefits of MALL is mobility. Students can access the applications on most devices at any time and location. Mobile Assisted Language learning also promotes collaboration between students and teachers. Most applications provide ways to communicate with others. This would allow students and teachers to provide authentic feedback using the applications. A disadvantage to using mobile assistive technology would b...
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Introducing Screencasting into the Classroom

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Screencasting is a great digital tool that can help to clearly express and demonstrate lessons and skills that you want to teach your students. Throughout my time at Wilkes, I have created many screencasts for different assignments. It is a great tool that I utilized during virtual learning as well. I would use a tool called Loom . I used Loom to record my read alouds and math lessons, so that they would be available for students to watch as many times as they needed.  Depending on the age of your students, Screencasting could be used as a formative response tool. Students can record themselves answering questions that relate to the content of your lessons. I think this would be a great technology tool to incorporate in your upper elementary to college level classroom. However, I feel that for the lower elementary you could use it as a resource that would help students to better understand certain concepts.  Screencasts provide engaging and differentiated ways of presenting co...
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Podcasts in the Elementary Classroom

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Podcasts are a great way to share experiences with a target audience. Podcasts are a very diverse resource. There are podcasts that cover all topic areas, such as motivational, funny, educational, and more. As mentioned by Godsey, “ featuring diverse subject matter keeps the class exciting and gives them access to a whole world of knowledge and wisdom.” (2018).  Podcasts are a great way for teachers to introduce students to different topics and different communication styles. Podcasts are also a great resource for ELL students because they are able to follow along with the dialogue and hear how to properly pronounce words.  Godsey mentions, “Pronunciation and prosody — the patterns of stress and intonation used when people are speaking — aid in understanding, especially for English-language learners.”  (2018).  Podcasts are often easily accessible on most devices as well. There is usually no cost attached to the podcast, so it is a great resource to implement into t...
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Using Blogs in the Classroom

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             Blogs can be a great way to digitize your classroom. As an educator, blogs are communication tools that allow you to provide instructional materials in an engaging and effective way. Blogs allow you to embed videos and links to resources that support your lesson. Blogs can also be an effective way for students to communicate and collaborate with each other inside and outside of the classroom. Many of the articles that I read talked about the effectiveness of blogs in giving students a way to work on their digital literacy. Blogs have caused the form of instruction in classrooms to evolve. According to Hong, “The participatory and decentralized nature of blogging discourages the traditional “sage on the stage” approach to teaching and enhances the knowledge sharing between students as well as between the instructor and the students” (2008). One of the greatest advantages of introducing blogs into the classroom is their versatility...
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