USD 475 Technology Task Force
Easy Technology Tools for
STUDENT ENGAGEMENT
Abby Gigous
K-1 Instructional Coach
Seitz Elementary
abbygigous@usd475.org
Enhancing Your Instruction
Before
During
After
As we go, feel free to share your own ideas and classroom experiences
BEFORE
Fun, easy and engaging ways to begin your year or lesson
Getting to Know You..
SIMON
Follow the patterns of the lights and
sounds. Great to work on active
listening in the beginning of the year,
as well as following directions.
Bouncy Balls
Most likely your student do not
know what you expect when
it comes to noise level
throughout the day. Use this
tool to help students monitor
noise in the classroom.
Every weekday a new
Wordle is posted for you
and your students to view.
First things first....
Not just Wordle, it’s “Guess the Wordle!”
Wonderopolis
Once you think you know
the answer, hover over the
Wordle to see if you are
correct.
The Wonders of the Day will
help you find learning
moments in everyday life. This
is site is run by the National
Center for Family Literacy and
can help directing passion in
learners and igniting their
wonder.
If not in the classroom, maybe
you can use this with your own
children?!
First things first....
transl8it!(trans-late-it)
This site is simple to use. Just type
in your SMS, text, emoticon, smiley,
slang or chat room lingo and let
transL8it! convert it to plain English
-- OR -- type in your phrase in
English and convert it to SMS TXT
lingo slang!
Possible uses: Post learning objective or essential questions
DURING
Fun, easy and engaging ideas to use during instruction
No more pulling sticks...
Student Selector
Tools
Engaging Student Selectors
This tool has options to save your
class(+), remove names once
selected, clear darts after each
throw, and reset names. You can also
increase the rate of your dart throw.
What a fun student selector!
Not as many options as the
dartboard, but still fun for your class.
The user controls when the selector
stops and starts.
Click for Game of the Month!
Random Names and Groupings
http://www.superteachertools.com/
Click above link and below links
for Miss Gigous’ Class
Creates your own link!!
Create Groups of 2-10 Quickly
Buzzers Rock!!
Buzzers are great when playing review types games. Here is
a set of online buzzer tools that will get your kids excited
and begging to be called on!!
This buzzer will quickly show which team
tapped in first. Also has game show sounds
and flashing lights!
Not as flashy, but still fun for students with
“Chan!” and “Chan! Chan!” noises!!
Buzzers Rock!!
Buzzers are great when playing review types games. Here is
a set of online buzzer tools that will get your kids excited
and begging to be called on!!
Personalize this buzzer with the topic and
team names. There is also a timer option.
Click on ‘note for teacher’ in the bottom
left corner for helpful tips.
Spice it up for Christmas!! This version has
fun animations and music!
Buzzers Rock!!
Buzzers are great when playing review types games. Here is
a set of online buzzer tools that will get your kids excited
and begging to be called on!!
Get even more teams involved!
This is from the same website.
Use this as a scoreboard or for
graphing purposes.
FRIDGE MAGNETS
For a variety of activities such as alphabetizing,
spelling, vocabulary, poetry
Fridge Magnets
from BookBox
Magnetic Poetry has 8 online
kits! All have the ability to
add more words, start over,
save, and share your poems!
http://www.twittermagnets.com/
As they are working....
Motivate your
students to
manage their
behavior and
work
productively
with this live
video feed.
Wild Earth TV is a
site that streams
(mostly) live
video of animals
in their natural
habitats from
several sites all
around the
world.
Love YouTube, but worried about what might pop up?
View Pure is a simple little tool that strips
YouTube viewing of all of the
distractions of related videos,
comments, and promoted videos. To
use View Pure just copy the link of a
video into the "purifier," click create,
and your video will be displayed on a
blank white background.
This is a very nice surprise and a
must see! Celebrate the 100th
day with a video of people
aging from year 1 up to 100!
Click ViewPure image on left to view the pure version.
Tools for Teachers
I  a Good Timer!
http://www.online-stopwatch.com/classroom-timers/
Seating Charts and
Room Arrangements
Teach your students how to search the web
http://www.google.com/educators/posters.html
AFTER
Fun, easy and engaging things to do and use after instruction
Spell with FLICKR
It's super simple- just type in the words you'd like and it's
searches through Flickr's pictures to find letters for you. If
you don't like one of the letters, just click on it to get a
different one. Each of the letters must be saved
individually by right clicking or you must take a screen
shot of your word.
GEO Greeting
On this site you simply type in a word and it finds
buildings that when photographed from above,
look like letters. Such a neat idea!
Iconscramble
This site is similar to the rest. You simply type in a
word and icons with your letters pop up! Hover
over the icons to find their roots!
Why read
Online stories??
 Students love it
 Great for snack time
 Complete some quick
progress checks
 Build fluency with
repeated readings
 Many times students
can read along.
Check out these sites
Why read
Online stories??
 Students love it
 Great for snack time
 Complete some quick
progress checks
 Build fluency with
repeated readings
 Many times students
can read along.
?
But wait…
There’s More!
Since we have some time still.....just a few more sites worth sharing!!
Just Gotta Share....
Study Jams, from Scholastic, is a fantastic
collection of over 200 learning resource
collections. Study Jams are videos, slide
shows, and step by step explanations for
science and math that will have your
students discovering everything from
invertebrates to the water cycle and the
rule of divisibility. Each Jam includes a
teaching video/step-by-step/slide show, key
vocabulary, and a test yourself section
where they can practice what they have
just learned.
Math Pickle is a great site full of math
videos for kids grades K-12. There
problems are called $1,000,000
problems and include both
Powerpoints explaining the problems as
well as handouts for kids to use when
solving the problems.
Just Gotta Share....
Easy Technology Tools for
STUDENT
Have fun,ENGAGEMENT
its contagious!