Five Apps to Get Students Excited About Journaling

Journaling can play an important part in the classroom for a number of reasons. Journaling helps students develop their writing skills and become a more confident writer. It's a great way for students to self-reflect. And, in the case of a free-form journal, it may aid in decreasing stress as they are able to pour out their thoughts and emotions. Journaling in the classroom is also a great way for students to reflect on their learning.

As far as journaling tools go, there are the obvious word processors such as Google Docs, Pages, and Word. But the following are five unique ways students can journal in the classroom:

1. Google Slides/Keynote: Presentation apps are an easy way for students to organize their journals and an easy way for teachers to review them. Simply use each slide as a day's journal entry. Let students edit the slide so they might include pictures, themes, and various fonts.
   
   
2. Seesaw: I've written how cool Seesaw is as far as keeping a student portfolio. In essence, it's a journal where students can reflect on their work by including pictures and video about what they're doing in the classroom. Take it one step further and post some of the student entries on the class blog included in Seesaw.
   
   
3. Kidblog: A way for students to not only keep a journal, but develop good digital citizenship skills by creating a blog. Kidblog is a blogging platform tailored for the classroom. With Kidblog, the teacher is in complete control. From who can see the posts to who can comment, Kidblog puts the teacher in total control of the blog.
   
   
4. Tag Journal: An iOS app that can be used for both note-taking and journaling using, text, voice recording, and pictures. The cool thing about Tag Journal is reflected in its name. You can "tag" your entries. A student may want to tag journal entries specific to what they're learning in class. For example, tag entries regarding the Civil War or World War II. It's a great way for students to organize their journal according to topic or subject.
   
   
5.  Paper by Fifty Three:  A unique way to keep a journal. Unleash students creativity and give them ownership of their learning with this iOS app. There's no end to what students can do with Paper. Paper enables students to be creative in documenting their learning by giving them the ability to draw using a variety of tools, annotate screenshots, incorporate photo's, as well enter text.

Get Interactive in the Classroom with Nearpod

Get interactive with Nearpod!  I'm always looking for new and exciting ways to present information to my students.  Being in a classroom with a class set of Chromebooks has opened up new possibilities to get my students engaged with the content.

One that I've been excited about lately is Nearpod.  Nearpod provides apps for iOS, Android, Windows, and Chrome OS, so it works on virtually any device with an internet connection.  So, what is Nearpod?  In short, it's a way for teachers to put together and present interactive presentations, which in turn, keep students engaged.  Gone are the days of students staring at a boring PowerPoint presentation (or Keynote if you're an Apple person) while the teacher spews out information.  

With Nearpod, students are engaged drawing, taking quizzes, participating in a poll, completing fill in the blank exercises, and/or writing short answers to questions that are posed by the teacher in the Nearpod.  You may have seen these features in other presentation software or incorporated them into your own PowerPoints, but Nearpod takes it one step further where you can take virtual field trips or examine particular items with Nearpod 3D.

Nearpod 3D includes subjects such as anatomy, the environment, ancient buildings, as well as the planets.  Nearpod 3D allows students to examine a picture from all angles while manipulating the picture.    You can insert a Nearpod Filed Trip, which is a virtual reality type tour of a particular place, such as the Acropolis in Greece or a pyramid in Mexico.  Nearpod also allows you to upload a video from Dropbox, Google Drive, or find one and insert it from YouTube.

Another plus of Nearpod is that you can take those old presentations you've been using for years and upload them into Nearpod and turn them in to interactive presentations that will wow students and colleagues.  Simply insert activities in your slide deck deck and boom, your old presentation has been updated for the 21st century student.

And, while the students are working on a particular Nearpod, you can monitor their progress.  It's awesome!  The teacher can control the pace of the presentation or, with an upgrade, let students proceed through the Nearpod at their own pace.

One of the things that makes Nearpod stand out is its sense of community.  There are many pre-made Nearpods that you can add to your own library, both paid and free.  So, if you find yourself in a pinch (perhaps you've taken ill) and want your students to use Nearpod but don't have one ready to go, you can browse the selections that cover your topic and add it to your library.

Nearpod also features what they call "collaborate."  Collaborate is a virtual message board where students post a quick answer to a question posed by the teacher.  Collaborate is a great way to start of a presentation while activating prior learning or reviewing from the previous day.

At the end of the session, you have the option to view and download  a report of your session for analysis and/or gradebook purposes.

If you can't tell, I'm excited about using Nearpod in my classes!  If your looking for a new way to engage your students in the classroom, or just want to add another option to your teaching practice, you owe it to yourself to check out Nearpod.  For more info, check out nearpod.com. 

Seesaw: A Digital Portfolio App for the 21st Century

Paper is out. Digital is in. Seesaw is an awesome digital portfolio and blog where students are empowered to document their learning in their class. It’s very easy for students to sign up. They can sign in using a QR code or through an email or Google account.

Students can capture their work in a variety of ways. They can document their work in a variety of ways. They can insert something from their camera roll or take a picture of a project or assignment and insert it from there. Seesaw also gives them the option to shoot a brief video about their work or project and insert it into the platform. They can include links to a particular website or draw on a blank canvas. Lastly, they can write a note or short essay and include it in their portfolio.

Students can collect their work from any device. They can leverage their PC or Chromebook camera. There is an app for Android, iOS, and ChromeOS. It’s great in both Chromebook classrooms and iPad classrooms as well.

Seesaw also provides the teacher with the option to create a class blog based on student work. The teacher can take student work and post it to the class blog, therefore, everything goes through the teacher before being posted to the class blog. The blog can be accessible with or without a code. This really gives students ownership of their work, knowing that there will potentially be many other people that will see it.

Another cool aspect of Seesaw is that parents can have access to their child’s work in Seesaw. So, instead of asking what their child did that day — they know! Parents can bring up an assignment with their child instead of the other way around.

Keeping with folders, student portfolio work can be assigned to as many folders as needed. For example, if a teacher wants to organize work according to topic or chapter, simply create a folder.

One of the ways that that Seesaw is worth its weight in gold is its usefulness at parent-teacher conferences. Instead of tracking down student work, simply take along your iPad or laptop and open up their portfolio. If a teacher wants to set aside student work for a parent/teacher conference, simply create a folder for certain work. It’s that easy!

If you’re looking for a digital portfolio for student work, look no further than Seesaw! For more info, check out Seesaw at http://web.seesaw.me/