Integrating some technology

Elementary: From what I gather, many of you are choosing to keep your students in the classroom more this year than in years past.  
(High School: Lots of great tools in this video for you as well)

To that end, I came across this video from the S'More Technology blog that speaks exactly to that format. It's 20 minutes long, but well worth the time! 

http://librarylearners.com/smore-tech-week-1-tech-in-learning-centers/ 

So many great ideas, including many suggestions that teachers here are already using. 

Some highlights: 

Using Padlet to capture student artifacts (videos, text, links, photos) all gathered on one wall on which students can collaborate and create. padlet.com 

Using Voice - apps like Vocaroo capture student voice, as many students have more to say than write;) Vocaroo.com. Also useful if you want to include your recorded instructions at your centers. You can grab the link from Vocaroo and paste in your Google Classroom stream.

Student-centered news and stories: Sites like Newsela provide news stories at various lexile. Each lexile has it's own URL, so can assign individual stories to your learners based on their lexile. 

Wonderopolis.org has the Wonder of the Day, complete with videos, vocabulary words and a quiz. E.g. Water Witching http://wonderopolis.org/wonder/what-is-water-witching 

Uniteforliteracy.com has a handful of books that read to students. 

TheKidShouldSeeThis.com - Smart videos for curious minds - by subject. E.g. Up close fast fiddler - How a Violin is Played: http://thekidshouldseethis.com/post/speedy-street-violinist-an-up-close-look-at-how-a-violin-is-played 

Google Slides: Have students create a Google Slide, or assign through your Classroom. The Slide becomes their ongoing Journaling throughout the year. Each slide is a day of the week. Or, have one Google Slide show and student are assigned one slide on which to provide feedback or a vocabulary word, etc. Then, you have one Slideshow to share with the entire class, and each had a part in making it. 

So many more great ideas in that short video. I encourage you to subscribed or bookmark his blog too: learninginhand.com 

If you have any upcoming lessons, or ideas, or are thinking, "I wish I could do this (better)", please let me know! 

As he states, "Centers don't always need tech to be successful"

However, if you want to incorporate some, these suggestions are a good way to start.