Final Blog-Helpful Tools for Classroom

This semester I found a number of tools that I believe would be extremely helpful in an elementary school classroom. Some of the tools we learned about and used were blogger, turning point, animoto, activinspire, we learned how to make a virtual field trip, and glogster. It was really great being able to learn about all of these different tools that teachers can use in his or her classroom. I believe that turning point and activinspire would be the most helpful in an elementary school classroom.

            Turning point was something very different that I did not know could be done. It is practically an online quiz on something similar to powerpoint that students can take with small clickers. The quiz was very simple to make and did not take a long time whatsoever. We made a turning point quiz after we made the virtual field trip. All the teacher has to do is create questions, just like they would on a paper quiz, configure answers, and set up which answer is the correct one. Once the slides are set up the students just have to read the question and answers and press the button that correlates with the answer they think is correct. Teachers can put a countdown for each question to limit how long each student take on each question. This is helpful to make sure teachers stay on schedule. Once all the answers have been submitted, a graph will appear to show the percentage of what each student answered. Teachers are also able to put a symbol that appears that shows the students the correct answer after the answers have been submitted. Turning point is a great tool all teachers should use. It can be used as a review as a lesson or even as a regular quiz/test. It is very easy to create and students may not even realize that they are taking a quiz. It also saves paper! I would definitely use turning point in my future classroom.

            I cannot say that activinspire was the easiest and quickest project to create. It was very time consuming and very tedious. However, the end result turned out very well. Activinspire is an interactive powerpoint presentation. Students are able to write, type, draw, drag things, and create so many things write on the project. Students react so well to it because it gives them a chance to get involved in the lessons. They learn so much better when things are more hands on and not just listening to a teacher speak. Teachers can use activinspire for any subject and for any grade level. It could be used to teach an entire lesson as well as a review. I would absolutely use activinspire in my classroom. I probably would not create an entire project from scratch however. It is extremely time consuming. There are projects already made that have great activities on them and are on all subjects.  I would use activinspire as both a review and to start a new lesson. It really is great for both. All teachers should learn how to use activinspire and try and use it in their classroom.