Start Your School Year Off With This Tech

For some, it's way too early to talk about the beginning of the next school year. For others, the next school year is just around the corner.  I know that some teachers have the same routine year in and year out for the first couple days of school.  But, with technology slowly creeping more and more into the classroom, I thought I'd offer a few ways to change it up a bit and set the tone of the school year with some tech.

1. Peardeck:  I've touted Peardeck as a great way to engage your classroom.  Start the year off using Peardeck to have your students introduce themselves to you and their classmates.  Students can use Peardeck to either draw or write about themselves, all the while having it displayed on the projection screen.  You can also pose various questions to students about their likes and dislikes, showing the results on the big screen in front of the class.

2. There are a couple of ways you can use Google Slides.  First, have students create a Slides presentation about themselves, which they can share with the rest of the class.

3. The second way to infuse Google Slides into the first day of school is to use Google Slides Q & A.  Pose different questions about likes and dislikes, as well as finding what their interests are.  You can even prepare a pre-test to get an idea what the kids know or don't know about the subject.  Ask students to pose questions about the class itself as far as rules and procedures go.

4. Introduce the students to the world of blogging.  Use Kidblog to have the students blog about themselves.  They then share it with their classmates.  Have the readers pose questions to their classmates in the comments section.

5. In much the same way students use Peardeck, you can use Google Drawings.  Have students create illustrations about themselves.  They can search the internet to find pictures that represent who they are.

So there you go, just a few ways to introduce your students to the tech you may be using during the year.  Feel free to share how you use tech in the classroom on the first day of school.