My classroom is going to be heavy in Web 2.0 tools this school year- and I am excited! Here is a list of tools that I have planned to use this year:

• GAFE– Classroom, Drive, Docs, Forms, Slides, Drawings, Sheets, Sites, and YouTube
• Quizizz
• Socrative
• Kahoot
• Formative
• Padlet
• Educreations
• Grammarly

This is just off the top of my head- last year we dabbled in Classroom, Docs, Forms, and Slides, and a Kahoot or two for fun so this is going to be quite the change.

When using Twitter, I tend to find most of my Web 2.0 ideas from people I follow- two that really stand out are Alice Keeler and Jon Corippo, rather than from a hashtag. Following the #CUERockStar tag has given me lots of ideas, though, I just don’t think to search it out as much as the other two. I will sometimes search #5thchat just to see other 5th grade classrooms and I sometimes score a tech idea.  A lot of great ideas pop-up during ed chats on Twitter- I like #weirded on Wednesday nights from 8:00-9:00 and #CAEdchat on Sunday nights from 8:00-9:00.

I had made a Pinterest account way back when I was substitute teaching, so it was fun reconnecting with my old site and its one board. Creating my Web 2.0 board I found the site to be intuitive and searching/pinning articles and blog posts was a breeze. I found a really cool Instagram post on Evelyn Andrade’s board when I was adding my cohort members. I haven’t played in Instagram yet- but with the Quest and this idea, I think I need to get on it.

 

Formative has really blown my mind, and is the Web 2.0 tool I am probably most excited about as a teacher to try out. I was excited thinking it was just a way for me to monitor student iPads and give feedback- which is awesome, but when I learned I can take assessments I have already created and load them into Formative and turn them into interactive documents that students can type or doodle on- AWESOME! Goodbye paper/pencil formative math assessments- hello instant check for understanding and feedback. This will save me so much time grading assessments (which slows down the process because I HATE grading), giving less than adequate feedback because of the delay in grading, reteaching the next day or even the next week. I am so excited to use this tool this year.

Pinterest would be cool with my 5th graders as a way to explore and add resources for their Genius Hour projects. I think it would be a great resource for them to really explore a passion. I wouldn’t use it so much as a research platform for content areas because I like to curate that for them- to save time and also ensure quality sources.

I envision using Twitter for my 5th graders as a way to connect with the outside world. “Oh, you really liked that Margaret Peterson Haddix book? How about we send her a tweet and let her know directly.” Same with floating a question out there that they might be pondering- or a poll. A classroom poll about if you could vote for President who would it be, and see different results from around the country. I’ve also thought about using Twitter offline with my 5th graders where they can “tweet” to characters in the story using 140 characters or less and hashtags then post it to Padlet.

I’m looking forward to incorporating lots more Web 2.0 in my class this year- I believe it is going to take my teaching and my students’ learning to the next level.