Today I celebrate using new technology. I returned to school on Monday after being out last week Wed-Fri. Instead of teaching my students, I was a student myself at Teachers College. I attended their 2nd Annual Digital and Media Literacy Institute.
During the keynote by Heidi Hayes Jacobs, she suggested picking an app or a technology and trying it out for the week. In that spirit and because of the modeling of this website during the institute, I picked Todays Meet.
On Monday, I introduced it to my students through a read-aloud and called the "room" Readaloud212.
On Tuesday, a student asked if they could "say something" about their independent reading using Todays Meet. Duh! Of course!! So I set up the 2nd TodaysMeet room called IndepReading212. I set the room to stay opened for a month and for the rest of the week, reminded the students to "say something" about what they read that day during independent reading time in the IndepReading212 room.
On Wed, two girls picked the 2 copies of I Survived the Shark Attack and started reading it as a "club". I asked if they wanted me to set us a TodaysMeet for them to jot down their thoughts to share with each other. They loved this idea so I set up a room called CarolineEllieBookClub.
On Thursday, it was library checkout time. I asked if anyone else wanted to form a book club. I suggested that they could find multiple copies of books while at the library. MANY wanted to, so I set up six more rooms to hold onto book club discussions.
On Friday, another class joined my room for a lesson that ended 10 minutes early. Whenever I have time like this, I like to fill it with a read-aloud. I quickly created another room on TodaysMeet called MadelineReadAloud and had all 44 kids access the link. And in honor of Ludwig Bemelmans' birthday, I read aloud his book, Madeline. All in the room were engaged, enjoying an old favorite while using an iPad to jot their thoughts about the book on the TodaysMeet page!
I celebrate that I tried using TodaysMeet this week.
This is a very good example of PD going well. You learn and implement. I hope that the new tool continues being helpful
ReplyDeleteHooray for giving Today's Meet a whirl! I think it is a great tool for conversation. Thanks for celebrating this week.
ReplyDeleteRuth
Wow, I don't know this, but it may be a good one for my writing group, too. Will check it out. Good for you for starting right in with a new app!
ReplyDeleteToday's Meet has been on my list ummm for a long time. Thanks for the reminder.
ReplyDeleteLike Maria, I have been meaning to get to this...you have given me the nudge I needed!
ReplyDeleteIt is a great celebration when you learn about something new and try it with such good results. Then you write about the experience and inspire others to try it, too. Thanks for the idea!
ReplyDeleteI've used that one before and it's really a nice way to keep students chatting meaningfully in class. Yay for trying something new.
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