EDU585-Helping Students Become Independent Learners

Helping Students Become Independent Learners

I’m always looking into ways of helping my students become more independent and help them take ownership of their education. Currently, my students struggle a lot with that. A lot of them couldn't get the education they deserve in their own countries. Therefore, they lack confidence and they want words of affirmation from me every day. It breaks my heart seeing that. Thus, I decided to take advantage of having technology available in my classrooms and help them take over their learning little by little.

Therefore, I’ve created a digital classroom through Google Classroom and I added documents, videos and other things my students may need to be successful in my classes. I try my best to use something called Hyperdocs. It’s amazing how students can click on those letters marked in “blue” and access all kinds of information I want them to access. It gives them a sense of security and ownership of their own learning. It, also, gives me a peace of mind as well.

For instance, I have created a hyperdoc through Google Docs that will help my students figure out “What is Persuasive Writing?” on their own. I will be there helping them and correct them along the way. However, I will make sure they know they are in control and help them boost their creativity by guiding them. In this case, I didn’t create a choice board but more of a table with hyperdocs that they can use to find answers and examples. I included websites that I want them to look at to find the answers since they would be lost otherwise. I think this hyperdoc is perfect to help my students feel more empowered and not overwhelmed by too much of it since they still need my guidance. I will be trying this hyperdoc this coming week or the next so I will have to report back on how it went afterwards.

Here is a little snapshot of the document I’ve created:

Comments

Trying Canva

“Design Anything. Publish Anywhere” After reading Katie’s blog post . I decided to give Canva a try. I like to try new things and push myself to learn new ways I can teach more effectively. I think Canva will be a great teaching tool to use in my classrooms. Katie does a great job explaining what Canva is so please feel free to click on her post to learn more about it. Basically, Canva is a graphic design tool that anyone can use to make amazing designs for any kind of project you have in mind. It’s easy to use and what intrigued me the most was that you can make your presentations look amazing and professional without paying money. However, there are fonts or images and other things that Canva might charge you for but they aren’t too expensive. My Experience with Canva I started by linking my Google account with Canva. It was super easy and straightforward to do. As a side note, Katie’s video helped me a lot and also I found this other video that I liked as w...

Formative Assessments

Teachers should always remember to create some time to reflect on their own teaching and focus on the need of their students. Therefore, I believe that formative assessments are a way of helping our students accomplish their academic goals. Formative Assessments help students have an idea of where they are academically and what they need to get to mastery. The formative assessment tool I chose for my pre and post-assessment is called Quizizz . I picked this one because students tend to like it more than Kahoot or Socrative. The pros of using Quizizz is that it is student paced and I can display on my smartboard where my students are as far as getting the items right or wrong. It gives me and the students a quick snapshot of how much they know about the topic. For this week’s assignment, I want to assess how much my students know about infinitives (grammar). They should know it, but it is always good to double check...

Using Google Slides Add-ons

Trying Something New Last time, I used Quizizz as my formative assessment tool. It was all multiple choice questions so I decided to give Pear Deck a try. I wanted something more interactive and that would help my students think more outside the box. Also, I heard that Pear Deck is similar to Nearpod. I used Nearpod before so I was curious to try this new add-on to Google Slides. I started it by watching the “How Pear Deck Works” video since I already had the Pear Deck add on to my Google Slides. However, if you do not have it here is the link that shows you how to create an account with Pear Deck and add it to your Google Slides: https://help.peardeck.com/article/168-create-a-pear-deck-account Furthermore, I like that the students have the option to be anonymous while participating in class. This will make them feel at ease. I don't remember if Nearpod has that option. I think they do but it is always good to also ha...

Elisabeth Park EDU 585 First Blog

Search This Blog