Youtube is a great instructional resource because it offers a lot of instructional videos. One way that I like to use this resource is looking up catchy songs for students to learn. For instance, there is the Volume song (happy song parody) that engages students on a catchy and fun song. In my future classroom, I would use this tool so that students may publish their own videos. These videos will enable them to have some speaking practice. Students can produce videos related the things they are learning in class. Knowing that their work will be posted online can motivate students to do their best and the teacher may use these recordings as formative assessments. (Wright, 2015, p.175)
Powtoon is an excellent resource for the teacher who likes to create animations and engage students with animated cartoons. If you would like to create a video for your lesson plan, then this is one great technological tool. Students may also implement their knowledge by creating a Powtoon themselves. In the classroom I would create a project where students could create a cartoon that explains a math concept such as the acronym for K.F.C (Keep, flip and change) for dividing fractions. Students will be allowed to use their native language because it will enable them to use their linguistic and cultural background as a source of learning. (Garcia, 2014, p.16).This is a wonderful resource for teachers to create engaging games for students. Teachers may create a jeopardy game and transform it into a speed match game. If you don’t have the time to create a game of your own, you may search for games that have been created by others. I have had the opportunity to create math vocabulary games for my students and they completely love it because it’s engaging and competitive for it lists the top 10 students with the highest score on the speed match game. I would use this technology tool again because I don’t want to implement outdated and non-engaging vocabulary strategies for my ELL students. Beck et al. (2008) argues that “robust approaches to vocabulary development combine direct explanations of the meaning of the words followed by interactive, through-provoking, and entertaining activities to reinforce these meanings (p.160). In the future, I would combine this technology tool with meaningful classroom discourse to reinforce learning. |