Technology 101 Skills for Teachers

For the past three years I have been involved with Oklahoma A Plus Schools (@okaplus) as a teacher in their workshops and now as a “fellow” providing training for other schools.  The focus of A Plus Schools, in Oklahoma as well as other states, is summarized in the National A Plus Schools Essentials. These include:

Arts
Curriculum
Experiential Learning
Multiple Learning Pathways
Enriched Assessment
Collaboration
Infrastructure
Climate

A Plus Schools are focused on integrating the arts into and across the curriculum, but also much more. The focus is not just “art enhancement,” when a teacher adds an art activity to an existing lesson. Quality A Plus essentials integration involves teaching common vocabulary and skills involving multiple subjects, in activities which blend the content areas in engaging activities.

 

Since my classroom is 1 to 1 with an iPad for every student, I am very aware of the powerful ways technology can be used to support the A Plus Essentials. With so many schools now acquiring technology tools like iPads and Chromebooks, it’s become important for organizations like A Plus to help define what is important for teachers working to integrate technology into their lessons. Rather than simply “putting students on an app” to reinforce or teach basic skills, I am convinced technology tools should be used to enhance and amplify student creativity. Technology tools are used best in the classroom when students are making and creating, and these digital creations need to be shared both inside and outside the classroom.

Last weekend at the Oklahoma A Plus Fall Retreat, I worked with a group of other teachers to brainstorm ideas for an “A Plus Technology 101” workshop. I am writing this post not because I have all the answers to this question, “What do teachers need in an introductory technology workshop supporting A Plus Essentials?” but because I want to clarify my own thinking as well as get feedback from others.

What does it take to successfully integrate iPads into an elementary classroom? First, teachers need to have their own iPads to use, install apps, make and create. Teachers need to be supported and encouraged to use their iPads to make and create, because these uses do not necessarily come naturally for either adults or young students. Kids may learn technology skills more readily than some adults, but I have noticed many will not self-select creative iPad apps unless they are encouraged and/or required to do so by teachers.

Creating and making with technology is so important! With iPads specifically, teachers need to begin building their own sense of “app literacy” to know what is possible and what apps are appropriate for students’ developmental levels and needs. Teachers need to learn “workflows” for using different apps in sequence or together. Teachers need to learn vocabulary terms for iPads and apps, which include things like:

  1. Share Square
  2. Hamburger
  3. Save to Camera Roll
  4. Workflow
  5. Home Button
  6. Screenshot
  7. Photo Roll

In addition to developing app literacy and a shared vocabulary which can be used with iPads, teachers also need encouragement and support to create “channels” for saving and sharing student digital projects. These can be channels shared inside the classroom as well as outside. Our classroom website, classroom.shellyfryer.com,  is a Google Site we use as a “home base” for technology integration EVERY DAY at my school.

I also use QR Codes and our classroom digital portfolio, SeeSaw, to share links to videos and other digital curriculum sites we use in lessons. The website I use to create QR Codes on my classroom computer is createqrcode.appspot.com. I copy and paste these QR Codes into Google Documents I print for students to use at different learning stations. Students use the free iPad app i-Nigma to scan QR codes and directly view videos or visit websites I’ve selected. When sharing YouTube videos, I usually put the link into Safeshare.tv, and share its provided link with students. Safeshare video links do NOT include related videos or comments, which can be distracting and/or inappropriate. This use of QR Codes, SeeSaw, and our classroom website is very important from an Internet safety standpoint. I never require my students to search online for a curriculum link we are using in class. That could not only waste time, it also could present multiple opportunities for students to be distracted or see inappropriate web content. Search skills are important, and students do practice searching for images to use in their projects, but only on websites and apps built specifically for student searches. These include Pic Collage Kids (which has a built-in kid safe image search tool) and the website PhotosForClass.

In a Technology 101 Workshop, teachers need to also be introduced to apps which allow students to “show what they know” with media. This is very common vocabulary for my students and I in our classroom, and in the conversations I have with my husband (@wfryer) about technology. I have found, however, many teachers do not yet have enough app literacy to see the value and purpose of using digital devices in these ways.

Technology tools like an iPad can empower teachers to use “enrichment assessment” activities with students which can provide extremely helpful insight into what students understand, have synthesized, and can demonstrate. Last week I shared an after school workshop for Oklahoma A Plus which was titled, “Enriched Assessment & Experiential Learning.” Some of the apps my students and I regularly use to demonstrate understanding are Opinion, Book Creator, Shadow Puppet EDU, SeeSawPic Collage Kids, and iMovie. This year I have had to take things slower with my students using iPads, so we are not yet blogging, but will be using a classroom blog (we used KidBlog the past few years) to also “show and share” our learning.

I believe teachers need encouragement and support to help their students share their work both inside and outside the classroom. My husband and I shared a mini-keynote last summer in Austin at the iPadPalooza Conference, in which we talked about these platforms and their importance. For me, this includes SeeSaw, our classroom radio show, our classroom YouTube channel, and our classroom photos on Flickr. All of these are linked from our classroom website, which is publicly available.

After listing all of these different technology integration elements, it’s clear it would be hard to fit everything into a 1.5 hour workshop. It would also be hard to not overwhelm teachers.

After reading what I have shared, what do you think are the most important elements to include in a “Technology 101 Workshop” that only lasts an hour and a half?

241 thoughts on “Technology 101 Skills for Teachers”

  1. OK, you got it, after the Thanksgiving break, this will be the assignment in my Technology class at KSU. I am curios to hear what these future teachers think. They are early in their Teacher Ed program but at the end of the tech class. I suspect we might discover some interesting ideas from them. most will student teacher in about 3 semesters.

    1. Shelly,

      Awesome job here. I think that what you do for students is admirable and your husband and you share a passion that is exciting to see as a prospective teacher. Teachers who really care and are invested in what they are teaching are the most effective and enjoyable to be around. I really loved what you had to say about making all students feel like they are a part of something bigger as well, it really resonated with me and I will carry it into the classroom with me when I soon begin my student teaching.

  2. I really enjoyed your reading blog! I learned such cool techniques about art integration and also cute little projects that I might want to do in my classroom. You were very descriptive and helpful with each of the examples. I really enjoyed the bat project because each child can really show their personality through their artwork and they are so great to decorate the room with!

    1. I loved reading your blog! I have gotten so many ideas from your website that I could use in your classroom! I know I will continue to read your website to get ideas and to learn more about technology in the classroom.

  3. Hello Fryer I wanted to comment and say that your blog is both incredibly interesting and extremely helpful for beginning teachers in the field. I read your post and tweets about integrating art into the classroom and I have been thinking about ways to do that. Being a high school History major I have a lot of opportunities to include this in projects but I was thinking about doing something unconventional. I want to try and have an extra credit assignment involving students using their creative side to make art for the classroom. It has to be history related and the students would have to do research on the time period or history area they made art for. I really enjoy the layout of your blog too. You don’t clutter the sides with unneeded ads and your posts fill the screen very well. Your blog is very impressive and I’m excited to see what you write nexy.

  4. I really enjoyed reading this article and learning about all of the different ways that you are using technology in your classroom. I can’t wait to explore some of them further and someday use them in my future classroom.

  5. Shelly,

    This was an exceptional read! You have shown me numerous new ways to integrate technology into my future classroom. Some of the ideas you mention in this posting are simple, but could be so enlightening for students. I can’t wait to use QR codes and SeeSaw in my future classroom after browsing through some of the things you have done in your classroom with such apps.

  6. I love the idea of allowing students to “show what you know” with media. Since they are exposed to different apps, they can choose the way in which they present their information. I am a huge fan of providing different assessments for students to choose from, so adding the media portion would absolutely increase the student’s motivations, which would hopefully provide well thought out projects. This whole post is so insightful. I can’t wait to use this in my classroom!

  7. I really appreciated going through your website. Going into the educational system is a little scary but teachers like you who provide such great resources like this provide some comfort! Our world is quickly becoming very technologically oriented and our schools are headed that way too. It’s awesome to know that when I have my own classroom I will have resources and tools from experienced teachers like yourself to help guide me in the use of technology in my own classroom!

  8. Hi Shelly! Thanks for involving a ton of apps and bring some awesome ideas to light. I’m so glad that you made it clear that technology or creating shouldn’t just be an assignment in the curriculum, but an active tool that is used to make the learning all the more engaging. I also can see how applicable these concepts can be to a Secondary environment; sharing work is so empowering and important. This has encouraged me to find ways to display my future students’ writing!

    But I was curious to know if you allowed your students to interact with the artwork of their classmates or not? If so, how did you enact that, and how did it affect the dynamic among your students? I feel like this is also something that (most) parents would really enjoy; seeing their children’s work being recognized. How do you get them involved in the process?

    1. Yes, we do interact with each others art work depending on the focus of the activity. Using Seesaw as our portfolio allows students to not only post their own projects but to see their classmates projects as well. Later in the year we focus on making comments and interacting with each others work. I’m so glad your thinking about the many ways your can incorporate these ideas!

  9. Hi Shelly! Thanks for weaving together some awesome ideas, and a ton of great resources and apps to use. I so appreciate that you think technology and art/expression can’t just be summed up into one project in the curriculum; but rather it should be weaved into the day-to-day. It seems like it will be very time consuming to seek out all these apps and resources, and fine-tuning them to fit the needs of your classroom; but one look at your students’ projects lets me know it’s completely worth it. Thank you for the renewed inspiration!
    I can also see there are a lot of applicable concepts into the Secondary sphere; no matter your age, displaying your work is so important! Now I can’t wait to show off the writing talents of my future students, while using tech skills to showcase it even better.
    I’m curious, do you allow your students to interact with the displayed work of their classmates? If so, how does this affect the dynamics of the classroom? I hope that this would be a great opportunity for students to appreciate one another.

    1. Hi Darby: Shelly’s students are able to interact with each other’s work and ideas using SeeSaw. She has it set where the students can see each others work, “like” posts and also comment.

      In past years she’s also used KidBlog and her students have blogged, but she isn’t doing that yet this year. Some students commented on each other’s work on KidBlog, but I think they are interacting more in SeeSaw. One disadvantage for those of us outside the classroom is we can’t see those SeeSaw interactions like we could if they were on a public blog. SeeSaw does make it very easy for students to interact with each other, and those interactions (like posts) are also moderated by the teacher so everything has to be approved before it is visible by others.

  10. Wow, thank you so much for this blog! I feel like I learned so much from you on this short post so I can’t imagine what I would learn in an hour and a half. I read an article once called “Consumption vs. Creation” and I think it fits right in with what you are saying. We need to make sure that our students are creating things and developing their learning with their iPads (or other technology) not just simply taking in information. One thing I think would be important to include in your workshop is the top apps to use in the classroom to get a teacher started. I know the first year of teaching is quickly approaching for me, so knowing a few solid apps to focus on and utilize while I figure everything else out would be great info!

  11. There is a lot of fantastic information here! Thank you for sharing! One part I especially loved was the concept of “showing and sharing learning” through technology. I appreciated the insightful creativity you offered for ways to do this – both for individual students demonstrating their learning for the teacher and the class, and for entire classrooms presenting their work to a larger audiences through media. You’ve given me some great ideas and inspiration!

  12. Shelly,

    This was a great post for all teachers to read. You have shown that there are many ways to incorporate technology in the classroom. It is very important that teachers explore what kind of apps are out there for them to use. Using technology can enhance any lesson.

  13. Shelly,
    I found this blog post extremely helpful. I’ve been able to add to my list of apps that I can use in my future classroom. As someone who has only had an iPad for about a year, I’ve been amazed at the doors that technology has opened within the classroom. I agree with you that teacher’s developing their own sense of “app literacy” is key. Technology can be intimidating, but it’s a reality that our students are growing up in a technologically advanced world. We have a duty as teachers to best prepare students to be successful members of society – which now means providing them with the opportunity to utilize and explore technology. Thanks for letting us take a look into your classroom!

  14. I am in a technology class now since I am a future educator and I find it extremely helpful to learn all these new apps that I can use in my future classroom. All of the apps that you included in this blog we have touched bases with and created projects on. Things that I think you could include in your 1.5 hour seminar is all the different apps teachers can use in their classroom, links to ‘how-to’ videos on those apps you introduce, and maybe issues that teachers have come across using technology in their classroom and advice for the teachers in the seminar in ways to avoid these issues.

  15. In your blog, you wrote how “it is a big challenge to balance building relationships with her students, providing engaging learning lessons, and effectively using technology to showcase their learning.” You go on to say that building relationships with your students has to come first and it is your number one priority. I complete agree with you. I believe creating relationships with your students is so important. As a future educator, I hope I will be able to find that balance of building a strong relationship with my students, provide engaging lessons, and use technology to showcase their learning and work. Your blog has tons of helpful ideas and resources; I cannot wait to use them in my own classroom!

  16. Your view on technology is great, many teachers use different technology to keep students “busy” and to just have something for them to do but instead you show technology can really enhance learning. From that I like how you describe the importance of teachers knowing all of the different apps and buttons so that they can enhance student learning as well. It is also really interesting to see how you are implementing apps and different technology that we are learning in class as well. Some of them we haven’t used either so it has been interesting to see more apps that may be helpful to use in the future. For example, the different apps that you can use for students to search specific material so that they aren’t wasting time or looking up other things that they shouldn’t. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

  17. Reading your entry was very insightful. It is so helpful to be exposed to A Plus schools and what the program is geared toward. I underestimate the power of technology and the influence that it can have in the classroom. Reading your number one suggestion of the teacher owning an iPad put it into perspective. The students will be more engaged, stimulated, and eager to learn when it involves technology. Thank you for your work as an educator to your students and to your readers!

  18. Reading your entry was very insightful. It is so helpful to be exposed to A Plus schools and what the program is geared toward. I underestimate the power of technology and the influence that it can have in the classroom. Reading your number one suggestion of the teacher owning an iPad put it into perspective. The students will be more engaged, stimulated, and eager to learn when it involves technology. Thank you for your work as an educator to your students and to your readers.

  19. Shelly, thank you for a blog post that really got me thinking. To begin, I did not know very much about A Plus schools so I found it very interesting that there is a strong emphasis on art integration, especially when many schools are removing this. Thinking more specifically about your question, “what do you think are the most important elements to include in a “Technology 101 Workshop”?” I think that first placing an emphasis like you mentioned on all technology serving to empower and encourage creativity. Younger teachers are more likely to be readily bringing technology into their classrooms because the younger generation has grown up with these things. I think in a setting with different years of experience, it would be important to set a basic groundwork for understanding the skill set that your students will be entering your classroom with. If they have grown up iPad-in-hand then the technology climate of your class will be much different than if the teacher was learning alongside the teacher.
    You also wrote that “[creative] uses do not necessarily come naturally for either adults or young students. Kids… will not self-select creative iPad apps unless they are encouraged and/or required to do so by teachers.” While I think that this is somewhat true, there are current young students (and more coming into the schools as time goes on) who have extensive experience with finding fun apps that do things not even the teacher will know. A Technology 101 class should prepare teachers for working with students of all types of technology skill levels, without assuming that kids will/will not do something based on past students.
    After you have established the importance of knowing what level the students are at, I think covering the basic vocabulary is important before learning anything else. Then, transitioning into an explanation of apps and helpful websites once they know general terminology. Explaining things like Safeshare.tv and why these would be preferred to using a straight YouTube video could also be helpful for an introduction to technology in the classroom. Placing an emphasis on the versatility of technology and how it can help achieve high levels of Bloom’s, such as creating, could be a selling point for teachers that are still unsure. Overall, I believe that any of the points your brought up in this post would be helpful, regardless of the amount you could fit into an hour and a half. Thank you for the informative read and I wish you the best of luck as you continue to inform and support teachers.

    1. Megan: While it might seem logical to assume that younger teachers will naturally be more open to the use of technology tools for creative expression, I’ve found this is definitely not true across the board. Supervising teachers / mentoring teachers during student teaching have a big influence on new teachers, and I haven’t seen teacher education programs which put a big emphasis on placing student teachers with teachers that are effectively integrating technology. Just as it’s important to avoid a “digital native” assumption (kids are young so they are all naturally digitally literate) it’s also important not to assume that younger teachers are all naturally more open to technology use.

      Another thing to keep in mind is that, certainly in Oklahoma and I’d guess in Kansas now too, many teacher are entering classrooms with emergency certifications who don’t go through formal teacher education programs or student teaching. Those teacher have even less opportunities to be exposed to digitally integrated ways of teaching, and are likely to fall back on just “teaching how they were taught” which in few cases includes effective technology integration.

      Fortunately we do have opportunities now to attend EdCamps and connect with other educators via Twitter and social media, and there are opportunities (if teachers seek them out) to learn about creative and effective ways to use technology in the classroom. It’s not a natural or automatic thing for young teachers, however.

  20. Hi Mrs. Fryer,
    I found your blog thoroughly informative. I had never heard of Safe Share or Photos for Class but I think they are so great! I feel that I have learned a lot about ways to integrate technology into my classroom from reading your thoughts. I think it is important to stress the benefits of using technology, especially when students have so much screen-time these days. I like that you said that it gives students a voice. Thanks for sharing!

  21. I enjoyed reading your blog and finding great ways to integrate technology and art into the classroom. With so many schools moving towards technology, teachers must find ways to integrate it into lessons. You have provided a variety of resources that I can use in my own classroom.

  22. I really enjoyed your website. This blog post was very insightful and I enjoyed reading it. Some of the apps you have mentioned using I have used as well. The technology is so cool because you can do just about anything with it. These apps would be great for students to be creative and different. I gained a lot of new information and ideas from your website.

  23. This will make the second time I have came to your site and once again I enjoyed it. I really like how many resources you provide for your readers throughout your blog, I see a good portion of them being useful for the classroom in the near future. Not only is it just your work you have shared that makes this such a great sight; it is also all that you do! You have given so much for your students and school, it is very encouraging and inspirational.

  24. Shelly, I absolutely love your website. Your classroom page has extensive resources and ideas that are organized so clearly, and I loved looking through some student examples of work with technology. The different things you have them doing draws on such a wide variety of skills along with technology use, like the radio show talking about a certain topic and also the blog posts that allow them to choose a topic, and both are meaningful and very exciting! Your students are fortunate to get exposed to such a wide variety of experiences in the classroom.

  25. Shelly,
    This is a great post! I learned a lot about integrating technology into the classroom. I really found your descriptions of resources like Safeshare.TV to be very helpful. I think that when teaching a workshop about technology 101 it is important to include information about why teachers should integrate technology and ways to successfully do so. Knowing that there is research/proven success behind using technology would be a good start. It is also important to provide ways that teachers can actually integrate technology into their classrooms. Examples are always helpful too. Your post does a great job of doing these two things!

  26. I just want to start this comment with that fact that I have read your blog before and I am so glad I got to read more from you! I am super nervous about making sure I integrate technology efficiently and creatively in my classroom but your blog post are making me more and more excited to! I am so thankful for all your ideas and things to be used in classrooms. I especially liked the part about using QR codes. I think this is such a cool thing to use in the classrooms. I also liked all the ideas for the different apps to be using and why teachers should be using them! I can not wait to use these in my own classroom!

  27. Shelly,
    I have been following you since the start of the semester and you AMAZE me. Your blog is so inspiring and how you use technology is amazing. I have learned so much from you. I follow you on twitter so that is one way I learn from you but I have also learned from you when it comes to technology. I know that a lot of teachers shy away from technology but not you. You are so innovative and creative and you inspire me and countless others to embrace technology. Thank you for being awesome!

  28. I am a big adherent to the tenent that diverisfying learning styles and in turn the assignments that we give our kids greatly increases learning by stimulating intrensic motivation. I think you would strongly agree, and I really liked your emphasis on the use of technology to increase your students capacity to take hold of their own learning. I think the quintessential advantage of the iPad is the unlimited potential to make information your own. These projects allow students to find, process, and display information on their own terms, and that is admirable!

  29. I love all of your resources that you share on this page, it sparks my interest on each and every one of them. The bat ‘paper slide’ video is awesome. Thanks for sharing.

  30. I have enjoyed reading and looking through your site! It has given me some ideas that I will be taking to my future classroom with me! I really like how you stress technological involvement in the classroom. This has become a necessary skill in our world today. Even more than that, it is a way to allow creativity and exploration in the classroom. Students are able to experiment with different apps and techniques to create their projects. Then, they are able to share with their class and their community. I also liked how you spoke about bringing the students’ technology and creations and sharing them with the community outside of school. This is a great way to expand what the students learn to real life and why we need it outside of the classroom!

  31. I really enjoyed reading this post! I learned about new websites and apps I can use in my future classroom such as SeeSaw, Safeshare.tv, and PhotosForClass. It was also neat to see how you have used different apps in your classroom, including some that we have learned about in our technology class.

  32. Hi Shelly!
    This is the third time I have reviewed one of your posts and you never fail to impress me! The information and insight in your blogs are truly beneficial to future educators like myself. I really appreciate you taking the time to share tips and skills with all of your readers. I really like how you link examples from your Twitter so the reader has a visual as well. I look forward to incorporating some of your technology skills into my future classroom!

  33. Shelly, I enjoyed the many resources on your blog! I have added the links and names of apps and websites to my list of resources I’m compiling for myself–I want to be prepared for when I start teaching in two years! It was nice to see the use of an app, website, video, and webinar all in motion with the one bat project. I’m impressed at all the mediums used! I am also very interested in Positive Tomorrows. I had never heard of that kind of school and did a little research about it. I am extremely impressed with the school’s motives and the results they’ve experienced. I hope to see the continuation of Positive Tomorrows and perhaps more schools like it being established.

  34. I really enjoyed reading this post as well as exploring the rest of your blog – I found it incredibly insightful. I think it’s really important to give students to opportunity and means to “show what they know”. I also agree that it is important for teachers to develop digital literacies. This is something I will continue to do through college and the rest of my career. Thank you for sharing you tips and knowledge!

  35. Your website is providing so many great resources and ideas that I can’t wait to use in my classroom. I really enjoy how you encourage students to use their voices and be creative with their learning, helping them find a passion to learn. Especially how you give them an opportunity to show off their work. Their are many useful tools for technology use in the classroom in this article, and I am excited to explore deeper into the integration of technology and education.

  36. This article is really interesting! I found the part about basic technology lingo really eye opening, I thought I would easily know the basic words, but hamburger was a new one for me! I am still learning about how to use technology in the classroom and I appreciate that you include internet safety into the curriculum, because that is vital in a classroom environment. One important element I would include in a Technology 101 workshop is to take time individually to experiment with the apps and such on your own time, this is important because it is the only way to really understand the ins and outs of programs and apps. Spending time on exploring new technology will also help students because of experience troubleshooting and learning before introducing a new piece of technology into a classroom environment. Thanks for the inspiration!

  37. I love this post! What a great list of things teachers need to know to integrate technology in their classrooms. The links you included throughout were very purposeful and helpful to embellish your ideas. I also loved looking at your student examples- so creative!

  38. I love how you use technology in your classroom. I think pen and paper writing and creating is still very important to use in school, despite the vast amount of technology provided for students, so I really enjoyed your class’s paper slideshow which allowed for both kinds of creativity! I can imagine that the students loved having their art on display and getting to star in their own video, I also think that doing a paper slide show would be really beneficial for students who were absent or for students to use as a review resource (I’m sure the kids loved watching this at home, showing their parents, etc. making it even more beneficial for learning!). You have lots of great ideas and I really enjoyed exploring your blog page!

  39. I really enjoyed this read! As an upcoming new teacher I feel like this blog could be super useful to come back and look at as a guide in technology use in my classroom. I especially liked the book the student made about thanksgiving. This gives students a chance to build on their creative writing skills all while integrating the use of technology.

  40. Mrs. Fryer,
    Thank you for your blog and link to Enriched Assessment and Experiential Learning. What I appreciated most was that the Paper Slide Videos and Classroom Radio shows used technology, but didn’t make the specific technology the focus of the lesson. In classes I have been in, the technology (and getting it to fuction) becomes the focal point vs the curriculum/content.
    I will be using the classroom homepage in my classroom. I really like your clean layout and that the photos, videos and links upfront. To me, it looks like something that the teacher, students and parents can all use and reference.

  41. Mrs. Fryer,
    Thank you for your blog and link to Enriched Assessment and Experiential Learning. What I appreciated most was that the Paper Slide Videos and Classroom Radio shows used technology, but didn’t make the specific technology the focus of the lesson. In classes I have been in, the technology (and getting it to function) becomes the focal point vs the curriculum/content.
    I will be using the classroom homepage in my classroom. I really like your clean layout and that the photos, videos and links upfront. To me, it looks like something that the teacher, students and parents can all use and reference.

  42. There is a lot of fantastic information here! Thank you for sharing! One part I especially loved was the concept of “showing and sharing learning” through technology. I appreciated the insightful creativity you offered for ways to do this – both for individual students demonstrating their learning for the teacher and the class, and for entire classrooms presenting their work to a larger audiences through media. You’ve given me some great ideas and inspiration!

  43. Great article about technology in the classroom and really important for how fast it is growing in schools across the country. As a future teacher, one of the big problems I’m looking to overcome is how to increase student engagement and for students to actually be passionate abort what they’re learning and how they’re using it. I love how students were more willing and dedicated to their projects when they knew there would be an actual audience for it and not just their teacher. I think it’s that much more important for teachers to be “tech literate” so they can find apps and programs that will help them achieve what they’re passionate about. I agree that technology is just going to keep growing in classrooms, especially in elementary schools. Now what would be interesting to see is how technology and apps can be used in the secondary setting, especially in high schools.

  44. I would like to thank you for such an amazing website you are providing for future teachers, and especially for current teachers. I am a Junior in the College of Education so I am getting pretty close to being in the classroom on a regular basis and as everyone in my place, I am nervous. However, learning from you just simply from your website settles my nerves. I think technology has made such an immense change in the world of Education and I can not wait to learn from educators like you.

  45. Hi Shelly! I really enjoyed your post and all of the ideas you incorporated into it. I especially like all of the different platforms you use in your classroom, such as the radio show, classroom website, class blog, and SeeSaw. As a future teacher, I need all the help I can get when it comes to technology. It is crucial that I am able to keep my students interested, and I can do that through reaching out to other teachers about ideas for how to use technology in the classroom. You have amazing ideas! I think that the classroom radio show is something that I will implement in my classroom. This also helps create a classroom community, because all students have to work together! Thanks for all the tips and ideas!

  46. I’m really glad you shared the resource of SafeShare, because I’ve always worried about showing YouTube videos in my future classes because of the inappropriate comments, suggestions and advertisements. You provided lots of great resources and ideas for integrating technology into the classroom, I’ve definitely bookmarked this article to use for future reference!

  47. Your website is providing so many great resources and ideas that I can’t wait to use in my classroom. I really enjoy how you encourage students to use their voices and be creative with their learning, helping them find a passion to learn. Especially how you give them an opportunity to show off their work. Their are many useful tools for technology use in the classroom in this article, and I am excited to explore deeper into the integration of technology and education.

  48. I watched the video from iPadPalooza and immediately had to go find the other video you mentioned about the student who created a rap for volunteers. I was so impressed by his passion and your encouragement of his dreams. I love seeing kids knowing that what they’re learning truly is important and will help them achieve their goals. I’m already considering how I can implement this in my classroom.

  49. Shelly,
    I found this blog post being personally helpful for me. I looked into the SafeShare that you shared in your post and I think I would use it in my future classroom. I want to teach special education students and SafeShare limits the distractions that students can see. You also talked about the QR making for your classroom. I just got done doing a QR unit for my technology course and it made me open my eyes. I used to dislike QR codes and after this project it made me think of how easy it would be to get students to the same website without having them type in the whole URL. It was nice to see that it is being used in the classroom.

    Thank you, Shelly, for sharing your Technology 101 skills with us and it provided me with many resources that I am going to into more.

  50. Shelly,

    Wow what a great post! I like the idea about knowing the vocabulary terms for ipads and apps. Not only will this help me as a teacher but if I make sure my kids know these terms as well, it will make it so much easier when having students use ipads. I also like Safe Share and I will definetly be using that link in the near future when showing videos! Thank you for your great post and for providing a great resource for future needs.

  51. There’s lots of content in this post that’s extremely intriguing and also very relatable. When you talked about how the use of technology doesn’t “necessarily come naturally for either adults or young students”, I thought of my own lack of app literacy. I’m also currently in a technology education class and I wouldn’t have explored creative uses for apps unless I was required to do so (like you stated above).
    I liked how you mentioned safeshare.tv because i wanted my future students to express themselves through selection but the dangers of the Internet made me nervous on how to go about that process. I love the idea of students owning their learning like you talked about with show and share, and inside outside. I think that shows student voice really well, which your husband stated was something you are passionate about.
    Thanks so much for this post. I feel like I learned a lot!

  52. Mrs. Fryer,
    Thank you for your blog. Your website provides so many great resources and ideas that so many teachers can be using within their own classrooms. I really enjoyed seeing your encouragement of students using their voices and being creative with their learning. I love that you help them find their own passion to learn. I especially loved the concept of showing and sharing learning through technology. I was enlightened by the creativity you offered for ways to do this, both for individual students demonstrating their learning for their teacher and their class as well as for an entire classroom presenting their work to an even larger audience through media. You allow access and encourage so many technological tools that can be used in the classroom. I am so excited to explore and use the integration of educational technology in my own classroom.

  53. Shelly thank you so much for sharing your knowledge. As a future teacher, I enjoy learning as much as I can from those who have the experience. By posting this, you are helping so many others become better teachers as well. I like that you explain that integrating technology into the classroom works best in a classroom that is making and creating and that the technology should be enhancing and amplifying student creativity. I’ve never been a big fan of technology but after reading your blog, I’m interested in trying your ideas and suggestions in my future classroom. Thank you for inspiring me to try new things. I really love your philosophy of “helping students love learning again.” That’s such powerful message.

  54. Shelly,
    I think these are some great ideas and points! I am going to be a secondary teacher so what activities I will use technology for will probably be a bit different than you, but I can still see ways that I can use all of the apps you mentioned in your post. I will just use them in different ways. I will definitely be keeping track of your page and checking in occasionally for helpful hints. Technology is so prominent now that as a future teacher all of the resources can be almost overwhelming. At times it seems like there are too many options to choose from. This post helped me see what you use so that I can narrow down to some good apps with good examples on how they work. Even the apps that seem little kiddish, like safe searches and apps to play youtube without the other stuff, could be very helpful. I would use them as the teacher when I am playing a video for the class to avoid inappropriate comments and other videos. I know I have heard plenty of stories about videos being played in class with other stuff popping up and this seems like an easy tool to use to avoid this.

  55. I truly enjoyed reading the blog you’ve created. One thing I found very helpful was the resource of SafeShare. I think it’s super important to make sure students are protected from things that are inappropriate so I really appreciate that! I will definitely use this article to use for future reference!

  56. To start, I love your classroom website, it’s simple, organized and non threatening. I think teachers are intimidated by technology. They/we just don’t know where to start… so my suggestion is for each topic/lesson/ or unit, find 1 app and learn about it. They don’t have to teach their students, just themselves. This could be done with a group and just teach the group about the app. Then the next year/semester they may feel more comfortable integrating technology. It’s a great way for us to grow and continue learning.

  57. Shelly,

    Thank you for writing such a helpful blog. Once I begin teaching, I know I will use many resources that you have provided. I think that it is great how much technology you use with your students. I can only imagine how much fun your classroom must be!

  58. I think it’s wonderful that you are having your students create their own work on their iPads. I hadn’t really thought about students being able to do that so young, but these examples that you’ve given show that these activities and creations really help the students bring our their creative side and explore technology as part of a lesson. I like how you have a classroom home page that parents and students can check up on and parents especially can see some of the activities that their students get to perform during the school day. I also LOVE the hamburger tool! What a great way to describe that icon. Thanks for sharing these skills with us!

  59. Hi Shelly. I am honestly in awe of the work you do in your classroom and outside of it. I’m inspired by all of the ways you use technology in your classroom. There really is SO MUCH you can do when you’re willing to try and learn. What stuck out the most to me, and what I would want to know more about, is sharing and promoting student work on a platform that extends outside the classroom. I love what you have to say about students gaining a sense of worth when they know that their work is being seen and enjoyed by real people besides their teacher and classmates.

  60. Hi Mrs. Fryer, I just wanted to stop in and say how helpful this blog post was for me. I agree that it is so important that we as teachers inspect every app inside and out. Learning new technology isn’t always easy and it is important for teachers to be proficient in the technology they are using before they introduce it to their students. I also thought your list of iPad terminology was very helpful, I never thought to call the three dots on top of each other “The Hamburger tool” – it is probably my favorite new vocabulary word!

  61. I really enjoyed reading this and looking through your blog. I really think that the QR code things for classroom and assignment are great for learning to keep up with technology. I think a lot of the things i have read was very helpful for me as a beginning teacher because it shows a lot of different things i can do and learn about the technology of todays world and how i can incorporate it into teaching.

  62. Dear Shelly,
    I found myself connecting with a lot of the material you use in your classroom, such as QR codes, a classroom channel, and allowing the kids to be hands on with what they are learning. Throughout my years of schooling, I have felt I have always learned better with a hands on approach, rather then just sitting down and taking notes. by reading you blog I hope to be able to take some ideas like these and use them in my classroom, in hopes of making it a little more interactive.
    Thank You

  63. Shelly,
    Thank you so much for posting all your insight on this topic! I think it’s so vital that teachers are aware of how to use technology in their classroom as well as the importance of it. I think the use of technology really enhances students learning in so many ways.

  64. Shelly thank you so much for sharing your knowledge. As a future teacher, I enjoy learning as much as I can from those who have the experience. By posting this, you are helping so many others become better teachers as well. I like that you explain that integrating technology into the classroom works best in a classroom that is making and creating and that the technology should be enhancing and amplifying student creativity. I’ve never been a big fan of technology but after reading your blog, I’m interested in trying your ideas and suggestions in my future classroom. Thank you for inspiring me to try new things. I really love your philosophy of “helping students love learning again.” That’s such powerful message.

  65. Shelly,
    I am so thankful for your blog post! Acknowledging that teachers need support in implementing technology use in their classrooms is such an important topic that is so very rarely talked about. This is new territory for all teachers and we should be doing more to teach our teachers what technology is out there and how to use it in such a way as to increase the meaningful learning our students experience. Thanks again for mentioning this issue and for sharing these fabulous resources!
    Sydney

  66. Shelly,

    I love your passion and knowledge for teaching and creating lessons that are engaging and thoughtful! Since the beginning of my DED 318 class, I always admired your blog and ideas. As a future educator I plan to read your blog often and can’t wait to see what other helpful tips, advice and knowledge you will be able to share!

  67. Shelly,
    This blogpost is an excellent resource. I especially enjoyed learning about the importance of technology vocabulary and app literacy. Thanks also for sharing the web resources you use in your classroom, such as your classroom Google Site and SeeSaw. I have been following your blog since August and have benefited so much from seeing how you have taken 1:1 iPad integration and fully utilized it to enhance the learning experience of your students. I’m a college student in elementary education, and your list of technology vocab definitely taught me something I didn’t know before. I had no idea what “hamburgers” or “workflows” were until now. Thank you so much, Shelly! I am eager to implement these resource into my future classroom.

  68. Shelly, you’ve not only presented ideas, but also your implementation of them, and I really appreciate that you practice what you preach!
    I’m very invested in the idea of fostering creative skills, as you mentioned in thin post. As a future teacher of high-school chemistry, this is certainly going to be a struggle, but I can see that there are parallels and resources that can be implemented across all ages and contents.
    Thank you for investing your time in setting a precedent and proving guidance for teachers!

  69. Shelly,

    I love looking at all of the posts you make on your blog. You have provided me with a plethora of wonderful ideas. Also, you have provided me with so much motivation to strive to be the best teacher I can be. I watched the video from iPadPalooza and I loved how you talked about making sure your students feel like they have a purpose when doing assignments. I liked the idea of stepping out of the classroom and allowing them to have the opportunity for their voice to be heard not just by their teacher.

    Thank you for expressing your love for teaching and providing us with fantastic resources!

  70. I enjoyed reading this article! I liked how you said “technology tools should be used to enhance and amplify student creativity.” It is important in education that teachers try to give all students the opportunity to be creative in their work. The safeshare.tv also seems like a great idea to do everything possible to keep the students on track when they are using the internet as part of their assignments.

  71. Shelly I have found this post as well as many of your other posts to be extremely inspirational! As someone who is aspiring to become a teacher as well, it makes me excited to begin teaching so I can use all that I have learned in a classroom of my own.
    After reading this post and many of your other posts, I find comfort and confidence in my own teaching. You encourage me to look for new ways to teach my students and push them to think outside of the box.

    Thank you for sharing your wisdom !

  72. I have so much appreciation for your website! Being so close to being in the classroom myself, I am trying to find as many different resources as I possibly can. Your page is definitely helpful for me in being able to find various ways to incorporate technology into my own classroom. I feel that technology has brought many new opportunities for both students and teachers, and that it is truly helping our students bring out their full potential. Thanks again for providing these thoughts and resources, they really are beneficial!

  73. Hi Shelly, thanks for letting us students take over your comment feed for a bit! I appreciate the work you’re doing to integrate technology in the classroom to bring out student potential. I was pretty resistant to the idea of iPads and other devices in the classroom when I started learning about them; I saw them as a gimmick that didn’t really do much good and could prove more distracting than more traditional methods. But because of your work and others’, and your sharing your methods in formats like this post, I can see the potential these devices hold to allow students to better express what they know in more ways before. This is fantastic to see, and I thank you again for sharing!

  74. Hi Shelly! Thanks for this awesome blog post. This really helped me understand that technology could easily be enhancing my lessons, but it is better when technology is integrated into the assignment. Kids would definitely get more out of their learning experience! One thing I would love to hear about in your workshop would be some basics to get us started with using iPads in the classroom. What apps are a MUST? And how do we meet the needs of all different kinds of learners by using technology?

    Thanks for the very informative post! I will definitely be downloading some new apps to my iPad!

    1. Hi Jamie:

      Shelly shared a workshop last school year on iPad literacy apps which lists several they use a lot and she considers essential. Those slides are available on:
      http://classroom.shellyfryer.com/workshops/ipad-literacy-apps

      Apps she discussed include:
      Lexia Core 5 (free download, subscription required)
      myON Reader (free download, subscription required)
      News-o-Matic ($5, an EDU version is also available which requires a paid subscription)
      Raz-Kids (free download, subscription required for some features)
      SeeSaw (free)

  75. Hey there Mrs. Shelly Fryer!

    Thanks so much for all that you’ve posted on here! I have really enjoyed reading your blog, seeing all of the resources you’ve come up with, hearing your heart for your students and their wellbeing, and being inspired on how you have used technology effectively and thoughtfully!

  76. Thank you so much for writing about your thoughts and ideas about technology for teachers. Reading this makes me really excited to start teaching when I graduate! Reading your blog post allows me to think about how I want to implement technology into my classroom.

  77. Shelly,

    I also reviewed your website earlier in the semester and would just like to say that the way you think and care about your students is very eye-opening for a beginning teacher like myself! You always are looking out for the best of the best for your students and I love it! In this post, I really love how you said, “Technology tools should be used to enhance and amplify student creativity.” I believe this 110%. Technology, especially IPads should be used in the classroom to help students grow and achieve. Sometimes IPads are used to just have something to put into a childs’ hands, but are not used to enhance their learning in any shape, or form. Technology should be used to have students “show what they know” and should be incorporated correctly into the classroom for the students to prosper! Having teachers that will use technology to teach students life long knowledge can be very influential in the classroom environment, if done correctly!

  78. I enjoyed reading your blog and how you make sure to use technology as a way to enhance student creativity, not shove it out. Often times, technology can be seen as an easy approach to neutralize ideas or assignments, but with the apps and sites you’ve suggested, every students’ work is different. In your hour and a half seminar coming up, I think it would be beneficial to emphasize that technology does not drive out creativity, but that it can be used to grow it! I especially liked your bats week assignment and that students were still painting and being creative with their hands. Ways to blend the two are definitely important.

    I also would think it’s important to talk about how to keep students engaged when bringing in all these new devices and apps. If I put something in front of them with endless possibilities I feel that can be a quick stray away for distraction and lack of engagement. It would be great to hear your thoughts on that!

  79. Thank you very much for sharing Shelly!
    Earlier this semester I explored your blog, and I was able to learn so much from your posts and resources.
    This was a great post to read at the end of our “Ed tech” class because you explained why technology integration is important. I especially like how you talked about the best way for students to use it is “making and creating with it” and in order for that to be effective, teachers need to learn to “make and create” with technology as well. You always do a wonderful job of backing up your information with examples from your class or research. The insight and experiences you share are so good to read about as a pre-professional. I will definitely continue to keep up with your website throughout my teaching career.

  80. Shelly,

    You gave me a lot of things to think about when it comes to how I will incorporate technology into my classroom. I am excited to develop and create fun projects like the ones you listed and I think this are excellent examples of to create deeper level thinking.

  81. Shelly, your work in advancing how we use technology in the classroom is incredible! I have never before thought so deeply about how technology can change the game as far as the ways in which students are learning. It opens up so many possibilities, such as the ways students can demonstrate their learning and share it with the rest of the class.

  82. Shelly, I really enjoyed reading your blog! I think you make so many great points. I think your overall idea that teachers need to know HOW to use different forms of media is so important! This will allow them to see the value and purpose in using different technology options and it will help create a further effective and engaging classroom above all. I think you’re doing a great thing by sharing tips for teachers about HOW to use technology – not just WHAT technology sites/apps to use. Thanks for sharing these tips! I know that they are helpful to me and I’m sure they will help many other teachers to see the value in technology.

  83. When I was going through your site, I realized that the possibilites for tablets are endless. It is great that your are on the front lines of discovering some of these possibilities. One thing is for sure, I do not know anything about the options and features of tablets even though I have two and a smart phone.

  84. Shelly,
    I found your integration of personal examples of ways in which we can incorporate tech in the classroom to be particularly helpful. As a prospective English teacher, I tend to be hesitant about incorporating a lot of tech, but your post cleared some things up and convinced me I may need to do some digging before I say no to tech. If 1st grades can do it, so can middle and high schoolers.

    Thank you for sharing your Tech 101 skills. It was very helpful.

  85. Shelly,
    It is always so enjoyable to read your blog posts and I always learn so much! This blog post was especially interesting because there is so much technology out there and there is always more for educators to learn. Although I am a young educator, I do not consider myself to be tech savvy. This blog post has encouraged me to search for new ways to use technology in my future classroom and to constantly be trying to learn as much as I can about app and ipads because at the end of the day those things are going to help me educate my students so they can be the best that they can be. You are such and inspiration and I hope that my passion for teaching will reflect the same passion you have.
    Thanks!

  86. Shelly,
    Thank you for sharing your knowledge about using Technology in the classroom. I think it’s extremely important that teachers involve iPads and such in the classroom before schools are left behind in the digital age, and since more and more students are going to have this technology accessible to them, it’s important that they know they can learn from it as well and make learning fun. In the same boat, I would suggest showing the teachers that they themselves can have fun with the technology. I would think that if teachers started to have fun with their devices, they would naturally become more technologically literate because it’s something that interests them.

  87. I never realized how teachers need to know technology terms in order to effectively learn about and use technology in the classroom. I never realized the the Hamburger tool was the hamburger tool. Thanks for the useful ideas and tips.

  88. I really enjoyed this blog post. As a future teacher I have always worried about having students do assignments just for the sake of doing it and your blog post was really helpful with that. There were many apps containing helpful websites that makes sure technology is safe for students to use. As a society students have always been viewed as technology advanced but I agree with you that it is unlikely for them to discover news apps without being taught about them.

  89. Mrs. Fryer,
    Thank you for your blog. Your website provides so many great resources and ideas that so many teachers can be using within their own classrooms. I really enjoyed seeing your encouragement of students using their voices and being creative with their learning. I love that you help them find their own passion to learn. I especially loved the concept of showing and sharing learning through technology. I was enlightened by the creativity you offered for ways to do this, both for individual students demonstrating their learning for their teacher and their class as well as for an entire classroom presenting their work to an even larger audience through media. You allow access and encourage so many technological tools that can be used in the classroom. I am so excited to explore and use the integration of educational technology in my own classroom.

  90. Hi Shelly,
    I did a review of your website earlier in the year and really enjoyed the neat ideas I found while wondering around your site. While my knowledge of technology use in classrooms is young and still growing, I think the most important information to share in a 1.5 hour workshop with other teachers would be things like the vocabulary that you mentioned and also the use of apps like Pic Collage Kids for this reason: While I have come to see how very helpful technology is in teaching and expanding the minds of children, I firmly believe the amount of screen time our youth receive is questionable, at the least. I think if teachers were to be well-informed of using common technology vocab with their students as you suggested, it could make the process/project they are working on go much smoother and be less time-consuming. The use of apps like Pic Collage for Kids would likely do the same thing. If teachers are aware of how to efficiently use technology and help their students to do the same, it could still be just as effective, but less time-consuming. This way we are still implementing technology in a way that increases true understanding but not allowing our students to be stuck on a screen for long amounts of time. Again, I really enjoy seeing the ways you use technology to enhance education. 🙂

    If you have time I was wondering– about how much of the day would you say a typical class you teach is spent with students using iPads or computers? Thank you!

    1. From what I have observed as an occasional visitor in Shelly’s classroom, the iPad time varies depending on the task. Lots of the kids use iPad apps for reading time, since they can have apps read to them as well as use “highlighted text” to assist their reading. The students are often using their iPads for making and creating. They do use their apps for literacy support and math instruction/support too (Lexia and Front Row). I would guess they are often on their iPads doing something for 1/3 to 1/2 of their day, but that’s just a guestimate.

  91. Shelly,

    I really enjoyed reading another one of your blog post. This one in particular was extremely helpful and I learned a few ways to use technology in my future classroom without feeling overwhelmed. I do have a question on sharing projects and videos if they included the student in them, do you need to make sure parents have given permission to publish to the classroom website? Thank you for another great read and I look forward to reading more post in the future.

    1. Hi Jamie:

      Yes, the parents and students do sign a form at Shelly’s school giving permission for their photos and work to be shared publicly. The students whose faces and work cannot be shared are the ‘red shirts.’ Shelly and the other teachers at Positive Tomorrows are very careful not to share photos or work of these students. Often there are incarceration or domestic violence situations which require this prohibition of not sharing student photos or work, to protect the child and the family. They take this very seriously, as we all should regardless of our school situation.

      There are some example media release forms from different schools on the following website, which you are welcome to use as models or templates in the future. Most schools are using some kind of media release form like this, and many districts have “opt out” policies in which parents and students opt in to giving permission unless they specifically request to opt out:
      http://oklaed.us/policies-and-forms/

  92. Shelly,

    I really enjoyed your article not only because it is extremely relatable to what I am learning now as a future teacher, but it contained so many great ideas to integrate into the classroom! My personal favorite was the radio show, which I think I can integrate it up into a higher level social studies course. You sparked an idea of students creating a radio show for a selected event and sharing them with each other online so they are easily assessable. This would create an AWESOME study tool for students to listen to as they are on the go! Another thing I really enjoyed about your blog itself, is that you have a classroom homepage. I believe sites like this can bridge and engage parents into their children’s learning and plan to use one to create a cooperative classroom between students, myself and their parents.

    Best,

    Shannon Nolan

  93. Shelly,
    I really enjoyed reading this blog! I learned a lot of techniques about integrating apps into the classroom and it gets me excited to do this in my future classroom! I loved how you talked about allowing students to show what they know with technology in the classroom. Since the students have been working on different apps in the classroom, allowing them to freely use this and show me a project that works as an assessment would be so fun for the students! I’m very against having only paper/pencil assessments in the classroom so this helped generate some ideas! Allowing students to not only use these apps but being able to possibly print them and hang them in the classroom is such a great idea! Your blog really inspired me and I will be bookmarking it for future use! Thank you!!

  94. Shelly,
    I very much enjoyed reading this post. Technology in the classroom is something that fears me, as it was not something that was used in my duly classroom while I was in elementary school. This is a great article to show teachers the resources and apps that are out there to supplement students learning. Technology can be a great learning tool if incorporated properly. This is a great website for all teachers to reference.

  95. Shelly,
    I truly enjoyed exploring your blog as it encompasses much of what we have done in my Educational Technology classroom this year. I loved reading about how you have actually implemented QR codes in your classroom because one of our assignments was actually to create a lesson we could teach with 20 different QR codes. I loved your shared albums/pictures I think that is a great resource for parents/kids/yourself to reflect upon the journey you and your class has taken together.

  96. Shelly,

    Thank you so much for all the great resources and words of encouragement! I have taken note of certain videos and links that I saw important and that I think I would use in the future. Thank you for sharing your skills and knowledge with myself and the world!

  97. Hey Shelly!
    Thank you for the wonderful information. The examples you provide alongside the descriptions of the apps and how to use them are an excellent way to really get a feel for how I can use these resources in my classroom! I am excited to see more ideas and app suggestions so I can continue to develop my teaching alongside newer technology.

  98. Hey Shelly!
    Thanks for sharing your thoughts- you have amazingly creative and clear ways of teaching and integrating technology! I’ve bookmarked this page and will definitely be returning to it for ideas in the future!! Keep up the good work!

  99. Shelly,

    I really enjoyed reading your blog! I have been looking at your blog periodically throughout the semester seeing what new technology you are incorporating into your classroom. You always are providing unique and creative ways to incorporate technology into your classroom. I loved reading about the bat activity you most recently did. Thank you for sharing all of your ideas! Can’t wait to use some of the same technology you have been using in your classroom in my future class!

  100. Thanks for putting this blog post out! I think it was a wonderful opportunity to take a look at what teachers really need in short workshops. It is so hard to condense everything! I enjoyed your thoughts on it. I also really enjoyed the idea of sharing work creating purpose for kids in the classroom. I think that is a very powerful idea.

  101. Shelly,
    I have gained so much just from reading and reflecting on this blogpost! I love your passion for equipping students with the technology tools they need to enhance and amplify their creativity and effort. You also revealed to me a new perspective on offering many outlets to share students work publicly, so students feel their work has a purpose. I never would’ve thought of it like that before! I can’t wait to have my own classroom to provide these outlets such as a YouTube channel, digital portfolio, and website just as you have done with your classroom. I greatly enjoyed exploring your blog, and will definitely reference it in the future! Thanks for sharing and making the world of incorporating technology into the classroom a fun, supportive, and creative outlet for students!

  102. Shelly,
    Your passion for teaching is clear, and truly inspiring! I loved reading this blog post of yours. You gave me so many great ideas of how I could use technology in my own future classroom. As a future teacher, I am constantly looking for ideas and inspiration from other teachers about great things I can incorporate into my own classroom. You gave me so many new ideas, and I will definitely try to adapt to some. (Especially the class podcast, I love the idea!) I will definitely keep up with your blog in the future. Thanks for sharing so many awesome ideas, and for allowing us to take a look inside of your own classroom!

  103. Shelly, thank you for your adventurous spirit, especially in the realm of technology where many of us are still timid! I loved reading about your class’ experience with creative technological making. In regards to your workshop brainstorming, I feel as though vocabulary is becoming less necessary as children and teachers are immersed in a technological age as they mature. Perhaps that could take a lesser role in your workshops, since some of the terms (like hamburger too) we have are not yet universally established. From your perspective as a teacher of children who are homeless, do you still see a greater technological literacy in your students from year to year? Have you had to adapt your methods at all because of this?

    Also, I love the green screen videos! As you’ll see from my review of your post, I’m eager to set one up in my art room 🙂

  104. Hi Shelley:
    I have really enjoyed going through your notably impressive blog and classroom website. You really embody all of the great potential that IPads and technology can bring to the classroom.

    What has peaked my interest most is how you cross apply art into your lessons. Do you have any advice or recommendations for a student working on his Secondary Education degree and aiming to teach English , Speech, and Debate at a high school level?

    Thanks for everything, and keep up the great work!

  105. Shelly Fryer,

    As my path continues on becoming a teacher, I have had the pleasure to see many examples of great teachers. One thing I always ask myself when interested in someone’s teaching is “I wonder what they were like when they first started teaching?”. Although I’m not sure where your path started, I can tell you’ve had many educational experiences, of all sorts, and you have adapted to technocracy we live in today.

    The iPad has a plethora of resources and allows teachers to use those resources with a touch of a button, but you must be well versed in its capabilities to get the use of its full potential. After reading your blog I know this to be certain, but I am not discouraged, but rather motivated to learn more about the iPad, with practice and time of course.

    It is impressive to see what you have done with the iPad in your lessons. You seem to have a constructivist approach to how you teach, believing students learn best through actively constructing knowledge, and you blend the iPad into your approach splendidly. You don’t just rely on the technology completely, you still have students create projects. For instance, in the bat project, the students created art to help them make a real-life connection to the content being taught. Once the projects were done, you came in with the technology and recorded what the students had learned, most likely providing them with deeper learning in the material
    Also, it dawned on me that I never thought about the restrictions some students may have with technology in regards to not being able to share their material outside of the classroom. I found your versatile methods on helping students with this situation just shows the kind of teacher you are. The example of the using the Darth Vader helmet was thinking on your toes, and I am sure it really made that students day. I also never considered the channels where students can share their content. It would be wise for me to learn more about what platforms better suit public sharing, and what platforms better suit private/classroom sharing.

    Lastly, I appreciate you sharing your knowledge with the world. In class we talk about how teachers can get caught in this rhythm as if they were “going through the motions”, they become unmotivated, so in turn, their students become unmotivated. I guess what I am trying to say is that it is refreshing to see you not only stay motivated but pushing the boundaries of teaching.

    Regards,
    Lorenzo Delgado

  106. Having students search for images on only kid-focused sites is such a great idea to keep them from seeing inappropriate content. Growing up, working on a project meant diving into Google Images, and that was just a disaster waiting to happen! I’m really glad to see there are ways to keep kids today from having that experience as well.

  107. Your blog was awesome! It reaffirms everything I have learned about integrating technology in the classroom and makes me believe that I am going to be able to truly enhance student learning. I love that you showed us resources and shared a link to all of your videos. It’s amazing to see a teacher put their words into actions like you do! 🙂

  108. Shelly,
    Thank you for sharing your knowledge on technology in education. As a future teacher, this is both interesting and helpful. I think it’s such a great idea to have your students do a podcast and/or classroom blog. What a great way to help them get their feet wet in the world of technology.
    I found it very interesting that your school program focuses on integrating art! As an artistic person, I know I would have loved and excelled at lessons that incorporated art.
    I can’t wait to read more of your posts. Thanks again!

  109. Shelly,
    I have gained a new understanding of what A plus teaching is an how to use a hamburger button. I think is a great way to start learning and exploring new technology in the classroom. I also like how you keep going above and beyond your call as a teacher in the classroom by always finding new things to use in your classroom like a green screen.

  110. Hi Shelly!
    I have looked over your website a couple of times this past year and I always love what I see! This blog post is awesome!! I love adding ideas to my book of ways I can integrate technology in my future classrooms and this blog post really helped me out. I am very interested in the point that you made that technology should be used to enhance creativity. Because often we see teachers use iPads for students to play educational games to reinforce learning.

    Thank you, April

  111. Shelly,
    I really enjoyed reading this post! I think art integration is very fun and beneficial for students. The Crayon Resist Art of the bats is a beautiful project that I’m sure your students absolutely loved. It’s a great idea and I would love to do it with my future class. It’s also very cool that you did a virtual field trip with your class! What a neat way for your students to learn. I can learn so much from this post!

  112. This is such a cool blog post. First of all, I really appreciate you outlining all of the different technology that we could use. In my generation of teachers we have so much technology at our disposal but very few of us actually know how to use it or take advantage of it. I really appreciated the ideas that I got from your post.

  113. Hi Shelly,
    for my class I have had to review a lot of websites and yours is by far my favorite. First I love how well organized your website it is, it is so easy to find what I am looking for on your website. I also I liked how we were able to watch the videos of you speaking at conferences. But the thing that made me your blog my favorite was seeing videos of the kids in your classmates doing their projects. That is something that I thoroughly enjoyed.

  114. Hello!

    Coming from a future teacher who started out as an anti-technology advocate, this article is such a great reminder of how far I have come! There are a decent number of apps or programs that you mentioned that I have used this past semester to create projects or assessments. No longer an anti-tech person! In response to your question about a “Technology 101 Workshop”, I would start with a “Top 10” or “Top 15” education apps to get you going! (Of course there are so many more, but cutting the list down may help non-tech savvy teachers feel more comfortable with the idea) If they start with a short list and get more comfortable, you’ve sparked their curiosity, and with teachers, that’s the best possible thing you can do!

  115. Hello!
    There is so many different things I love about this post! The first thing is that you are really big on sharing the work your students have created. As you mentioned at iPadpalooza, it gives the students a sense of purpose and makes them feel like they are working towards something. I also loved all of the different ideas you provided for teachers to use to share their students’ work. This allows teachers to use several different ways to share the work or it allows them to find the one they are most comfortable with. Lastly, I really enjoyed reading about how important it is for teachers to have time to create and explore the apps they want their students to use. Teachers need to be able to understand how to use the apps to help their students and create examples for their students to show what the final product will look like. Thanks for this awesome post and all of the different ideas I can use in my future classroom!

  116. This blog is so awesome! Shelly, I really appreciate how you talk about the importance of app literacy for teachers. In a technology based society, chances are the students will know more about apps than we do! We have to keep up! I have enjoyed exploring the apps that you regularly use in your classroom because from the list you give I am only fully familiar with iMovie. iPads make creating so hands on and there really are so many tools and apps that enhance learning. Thank you for sharing all your great ideas!

  117. Hi Shelly,
    I enjoyed reading this blog post and learning about the use of technology in the classroom. I think that having a classroom website is very important, as is gives students a central place to locate assignments, links, videos, etc. As a college student, I rely heavily on classroom websites for turning in assignments, seeing my grades, leaving comments on discussion boards, and many other things.

    Having students utilize their creativity through technology is a great way for students show off their knowledge. By creating projects on an iPad, the students are able to share with their peers what they have done. This gives them something to be proud of and work hard on since they know that the rest of the class will be able to see it.

    I think that there are many great apps out there for students to use and I agree that it is important to push them for using various apps. I look forward to having my own classroom and implementing the use of technology.

    Thank you, Lindsay.

  118. Shelly,
    As a current education student, I have found your blog extremely helpful for inspiration and ideas of things to use in my future classroom. I have been curious about using a class web page much like yours to document student’s work and also easily allow them to share their work with parents or guardians. As a future Secondary teacher, I am planning on using a class web page also to post homework assignments, test dates, and other information to help students stay organized and keep parents or guardians involved. Your class web page is a wonderful example. I particularly enjoyed the shared class YouTube channel because it allowed students to take ownership in creating an educational project and getting to share it with an audience. Many of the apps you have mentioned with student examples of in this post are really fun and creative ways to get students engaged in their learning. I can envision how I could use such apps in my history class someday.
    I like how your passion for your students and technology integration comes across from reading your blog.

  119. Awesome job here. I really enjoyed reading this blog post! I think that what you do for students is exceptional and your husband and you definitely share a passion and desire that is exciting to see as a prospective teacher. Teachers who really care and are invested in what they are teaching are the most effective and enjoyable to be around. I really enjoyed reading what you had to say about making all students feel like they are a part of something bigger. This really resonated with me and is something will carry it into the classroom when I soon begin my student teaching.

  120. Hi Shelly,

    I really enjoyed your article! I really believe that the arts and technology are very important to have in the classroom. It is so important for students to express themselves freely and then by using technology, it makes it so easy for them to show what they know in new and innovative ways.
    iPads allow students to assess their knowledge in many different ways. They can interact with others through apps and easily access information through the internet. Technology is so important in our world and using it at a young age will give students the opportunity to expand on their knowledge and learn past the classroom.

  121. Dear Shelly,
    I have read over your blog several times and it amazes me with how much you love to teach children to love learning! I love the passion you have for children and want to pour into their lives. I just read your Technology 101 Skills for Teachers and really enjoyed this post. Something I thought was interesting is I am a young future educator studying at K-State and you would thing I would understand the vocabulary necessary in technology but as I was reading I realized some of the langauge such as “hamburger” I had never heard of and could have not explained to someone. Technology education is valid for everyone not matter the age. I look forward to exploring your blog more and getting mroe hints on how to create a technology class where my students are getting all the benefits of technology.

  122. Hi Shelly! This blog is truly awesome. I love how you shared and described all of the links and apps you have used in your classroom and showed examples. I myself did a digital story and absolutely loved it. I was able to create something of my own and make it personal. I think technology is a great tool for the classroom and I plan to incorporate it as much as I can as a teacher. I also love your passion for the students, you are inspiring! I look forward to reading more of your blogs and am so excited to check out these new apps I downloaded for my future classroom!

  123. Shelly,
    I truly enjoyed exploring your blog as it encompasses much of what we have done in my Educational Technology classroom this year. In my generation of teachers we have so much technology at our disposal but very few of us actually know how to use it or take advantage of it. I especially liked your bats week assignment and that students were still painting and being creative with their hands; ways to blend the two are definitely important. I also would think it’s important to talk about how to keep students engaged when bringing in all these new devices and apps. Thank you for writing this wonderful post!

  124. Shelly,
    I truly enjoyed exploring your blog as it looks over much of what we have done in my Educational Technology classroom this year. Today, teachers have so much technology at their hands but very few of them actually know how to use it or take advantage of it. I really liked your bats week assignment and that students were still painting and being creative with their hands; ways to incorporate the two are definitely important. I also think it’s important to talk about how to keep students engaged when bringing in all these new devices and apps. Thank you for writing this wonderful post!

  125. Hello Shelly!
    What an incredible difference you are making in these kids’ lives. It is truly inspiring to read about a teacher that puts so much love and energy into creating a classroom of engagement and meaning. I can see that you want the very best for your students. I agree it is beneficial to incorporate technology in the classroom in more effective ways than simply putting them on an app. Your students are learning how to use technology as a tool for spreading knowledge which is something I hope to do as a teacher in the future. Technology is becoming an essential skill to possess so teaching students from a young age how to use it wisely is so important. I foresee myself using many of the tools you have shared here on your website. Thank you for all you have done, are doing, and will continue to do!

  126. Shelly,
    I think it is incredibly important to use technology in education. Not only do students think it is fun, it is also a great way to teach. I absolutely love the idea of using QR Codes in a classroom, and using different apps and websites that allow students to “show what they know”! I also appreciate how enthusiastic you and your husband are with teaching. As a future educator it is really refreshing to see an educator who shares such a great passion for teaching. I also really liked the point you made about how it is important to care about the kids both in and out of the classroom. I think it is important for your students to understand that you not only care about their grades, but about their learning and them as a person as well.
    Thank you so much for sharing your passion for education and technology!

  127. I think the two most important things to cover in your workshop would be the apps you have the students use to safely practice searching for images and information online. The other would be the apps you use to monitor and enhance your students progress and understanding. By sticking to these two categories you will really be able to go into depth about some of the individual apps so that way those who attended the workshop will leave feeling like they really have a grasp on the most important ones, and can almost immediately start using them in their own classroom.

  128. Dear Shelly,
    I really like how you really emphasize the importance for your students to take pride in what they know and are creating as you stated in your video. I agree that students will give better effort when they know that there are other people that will see the work they do other then just their teacher as you said. This is also a wonderful example of how they will function in the world after school because when you do work at a job then everyone is going see it not just you and your teacher. What a wonderful idea to help inspire kids to really give it their all when they are doing projects.

  129. Hello Shelly,

    Reading through and exploring your cite has given me inspiration! I hope to use technology in my classroom when I become a teacher. I love and agree with your ideals, in that children need a strong community to grow. Every child should have a good support system, whether it is at home or at school. I hope to be a support for my students when I become an educator.

    I also really appreciate that you allow the students to talk about, make videos and projects about things that they are passionate about. I am sure it makes a huge difference in the amount of effort students put in learning!

    Thank you!

  130. Shelly,

    Thank you for this insight. I agree with you that the classroom should be more engaging! With the integration of technology, lessons wont be as boring. School projects with technology can be more creative. Technology can help the students learn better in many way. One of the hardest parts about integrating technology in the classroom is the teachers keeping up with all of the updates and terminology, but if the kids can do it, so can we, right? As a future teacher, I will keep this article in mind while lesson planning. Thanks!

  131. Shelly,
    First of all, I just want to thank you for your passion for education as well as your overall love and care regarding your students. I look up to you a lot. I myself, have a hope to teach in a self-contained classroom in a non-profit schooling system. So I genuinely admire you for your work in that regard. I really enjoyed digging deep into your blog. It is organized and easily followed. The thing that stood out to me most was how you create a comfortable and vulnerable learning environment for your students. I think it is absolutely necessary for teachers and students to create these environments because it ultimately promotes enhanced learning and growth in the classroom, but also as people.

    Also, I think it is fascinating how you integrated the iPad and other forms of technology into your classroom, all while remaining creative. I truly believe that creativity is one of the most essential aspects of learning. It is important for students to express themselves, and with the continuous advancements in technology, it is also crucial to include these advancements in student’s lives. I enjoyed reading about your approach in Technology 101 Skills for Teachers.

    Thank you again,
    -Matalyn

  132. Shelly,
    First of all, I just want to thank you for your passion for education as well as your overall love and care regarding your students. I look up to you a lot. I myself, have a hope to teach in a self-contained classroom in a non-profit schooling system. So I genuinely admire you for your work in that regard. I really enjoyed digging deep into your blog. It is organized and easily followed. The thing that stood out to me most was how you create a comfortable and vulnerable learning environment for your students. I think it is absolutely necessary for teachers and students to create these environments because it ultimately promotes enhanced learning and growth in the classroom, but also as people.

    Also, I think it is fascinating how you integrated the iPad and other forms of technology into your classroom, all while remaining creative. I truly believe that creativity is one of the most essential aspects of learning. It is important for students to express themselves, and with the continuous advancements in technology, it is also crucial to include these advancements in student’s lives. I enjoyed reading about your approach in Technology 101 Skills for Teachers.

    Thank you again,
    -Matalyn

  133. Hi Shelly,

    I really enjoyed reading your blog! You have amazing ideas that are so helpful to me as a future educator. Since I will be teaching soon I am always looking for new ideas to utilize in my classroom and your blog has been a great resource for these ideas. I really liked how you included the apps you use and how you use them on the Technology Skill 101 post. I can definitely see myself using apps like SeeSaw and iMovie in my future classroom. I also like how you share ways for students to be creative by using their iPads. I think it is very important for students to be able to get creative in the classroom and being able to connect this with technology is a great idea! I really appreciate your passion for education and how you share your ideas and knowledge with other educators. Your blog has been a wonderful resource for me and one I will continue to read while I am preparing to teach!

  134. Asking for feedback of what are the most important elements to be discussed in a technology 101 workshop is a great idea since not everything can be covered. I think you bring up a great point that teachers should be familiar with and experienced with using an iPad before they are able to help their students with theirs. As for the most important elements to discuss, I would suggest being sure that teachers know how to use things such as QR codes and what not, to ensure that students aren’t wasting time searching for a link. I’d also suggest covering good creative apps teacher should get familiar with and think about using in their own classroom as well, simply because they probably just don’t know about it and could potentially find it to be beneficial.

  135. Shelly,

    I really enjoyed this post! I am currently a education student and learning more about how to incorporate technology into a classroom. Your love of teaching is apparent and inspiring! This post challenged me to think beyond getting students to use technology and to actually have technology enrich what you are teaching! I think that that is truly the hardest part of utilizing technology sometimes, making it meaningful. Thank you for all of the amazing work that you do and for sharing your ideas! I look forward to implementing some of them in my future classroom.

  136. Shelly,
    I think this post is offers a very insightful look into technology and how to integrate it into the classroom rather than just using occasionally as a supplement. One of my favorite ideas was having a class radio show or YouTube channel. I think that would be something really engaging for students and give them the opportunity to create something meaningful that other people can hear or view.
    I also agree that its important to know your iPad in and out because it would be hard to explain to students how to do something if you’re clueless as well. I for sure didn’t know those dots were called a hamburger!
    Finally, after your mention of A Plus schools, I did some reading and looking around and I love the idea of blending content areas and integrating art into the school experience. I have always been interested by the idea of not separating our school subjects so rigidly!
    Thank you for your post!

  137. Shelly, you are truly an inspiration. The work you’re doing with your students is so admirable and your passion is so evidently shown by your blog. I definitely want to make sure my future students also know how important they are and that they are part of something more than they can see. I also love the way you are utilizing technology in your classroom and educating students in this way because this is definitely where our future is headed. Thanks for posting pictures and videos from your actual classroom. It really makes your ideas come to life!

  138. Your class blog page is very useful. This is something that can help get students involved. I would like to create a class blog for my future high school social studies classroom. We need more teachers like you!

  139. The way you use technology in the classroom is stellar. You are doing awesome things in the classroom! I really like that you share what your students are doing in the classroom on twitter. I generally consider myself to be “technologically challenged,” your post is great for someone like me. It is clear that you have a heart for teaching and for your students which is great for current and future teachers to read. With your website as a reference while student teaching and teaching, I believe that I can master technology in my own classroom.

  140. Hi Shelly,

    I really enjoyed and was inspired by reading your blog. I am currently an education student and am learning about how to integrate technology in the classroom, so it was great to read your thoughts and experiences of the importance of technology. One thing that I really resonated with was your key focus on students sharing their work outside the classroom. This is something that I feel like us future educators sometimes forget because we are so focused on learning everything that should be happening inside the classroom, but I agree it does not need to stop there. I will now have a different outlook when I am learning things in my education classes because this is stuff I not only have to apply inside my classroom, but can encourage my students to also use to show the community their work outside of the classroom. I think it is amazing that you are giving your students a voice, sense of purpose, and place among their school and community to share their ideas and progress. I hope that I can bring this to my future classroom so that my students are motivated, engaged, and have a voice. I look forward to reading more of your thoughts and ideas in the future.

  141. I really love this blog post! There is so much good information in this that will be really useful in my future classroom. I want to be able to integrate art and technology as much as possible in my classroom and your post gave me so many good resources to use. I absolutely love the idea of having students create their own book and then recording them reading it. I also really love the idea of using QR codes in centers in my classroom! Thanks for all the information!

  142. Hi Shelly,
    I’m a student at K-State in the College of Education! First I will say how much I enjoy your blog and look up to you! I will definitely be using your awesome ideas in my future classroom. You are so right about teachers having to develop their own sense of literacy for apps, especially in this ever changing world of technology. Along with this you enthusiasm for your students in and outside of the classroom is exactly how I strive to be. I am always telling my friends how I want to be the kind of teacher that I needed when I was younger, especially since I want to be a middle school teacher and that is a very tough time for students. Your blog has really helped me have fun ways to be able to incorporate technology in my future classroom! Thank you so much for sharing.

  143. I really enjoyed reading your blog and reading about new things to integrate into the classroom and how to do that is the most effective way. I think that the things you said in your post is right on that teachers need to be knowledgeable of not only the content that they are teaching, but also the resources that they are using such as iPads. If a teacher cant use an iPad in an effective way and show students how to use it also then what is the poin to using them in the classroom? I really liked your QR ideas and not having students use the search bar on their own. This post really taught me a lot more about iPads in the classroom and it was super enjoyable to learn about what you do! You’re a very inspirational teacher, thank you for sharing with us!

  144. Your use of technology not being just plugging students into an app is a really refreshing idea. I think apps can take the place of education really easily, but it was nice to see how you are integrating technology to enrich the educational experience. You present a lot of resources that can be helpful in a classroom and have a lot of links to explore and dig deep with.

  145. Your use of technology not being just plugging students into an app is a really refreshing idea. I think apps can take the place of education really easily, but it was nice to see how you are integrating technology to enrich the educational experience. You present a lot of resources that can be helpful in a classroom and have a lot of links to explore and dig deep with.

  146. Shelly, I love all of the fun ways in which you’ve incorporated technology into your classroom, especially the video that displayed your students drawings they had creating to go along with the story your class had been reading. What a neat way to put it all together for you students and others to see! I also appreciate you pointing out the importance of teachers knowing how to use this technology. I for one know very little about the different tools and apps that can be used in classrooms, much less how to use them to their full effect! Dont worry, I am slowly learning in my Edu Tech class at Kansas State University. I enjoy how excited you are to share your knowledge with others, and am happy to have discovered your blog 🙂

  147. I found this post very insightful. As a future educator, I am wanting to learn new ways to integrate technology. However, I did have some concerns about how it would be used. One of my biggest concerns was addressed in this post and that was the idea of students being able to get distracted (search sites they were not supposed to) and not do their work. The idea of not having the students look for curriculum links and providing it for them would help solve this problem. Thanks so much!

  148. I loved the suggestions you had for the classroom such as the QR Codes and having student driven blogs and radio shows. I think its very important to have student led activities in order to really engage them in what they are learning. Not to mention, having something tangible for others outside of their class to view makes the work meaningful and real – something they can be proud of. Integrating technology in the classroom lets everyone be more creative and gives so many options!

  149. Shelly,
    I really learned a lot from this post, so thank you for that. I appreciate that you are sharing so diligently these great resources for educators to use. As a future teacher I realize how much I will have to be literate with technology, but something that I didn’t think about was using the QR codes to direct students to videos or links are safe for students and that no inappropriate information shows up. Hank you for the tips and showing us ways to prevent such an incident from happening!! The videos and links on this blog will also be helpful to come back and review before I go out and student teach so I definitely bookmarked your page! Thanks again for putting all of the information out there for us and I know as a beginning teacher all the help we can find is useful.

  150. Shelly,
    I found your website very informational. I really liked how easy your website was to navigate and how you have several ways to get to different things such as your classroom youtube. I also liked how you addressed how important it is for teachers to help their students really be tech savy as technology is something that every student will have to have at least a basis knowledge of throughout their entire life in our current (and future) society.

  151. Wow! I love how you use technology in the classroom. I thought your classroom page was awesome I really liked how there were links to the YouTube channel, radio channel, and photos! I think how you’re using technology really makes the curriculum interesting and fun for the students. I can’t wait to incorporate teachnology in some of these ways in my future classroom.

  152. Wow, this is the most powerful and inspiring blog I have ever read. Your passion and drive to help these homeless children find that love for learning is truly unbelievable! I can really tell that your students are finding that love for learning by your classroom channel! Those are some really great projects and I loved watching them. You REALLY know your technology skills, that is for sure! As for me, I need a little extra work in that area. This blogged proved to be helpful in doing this. I love that you provided so many resources for educators to utilize and showed them exactly how you use certain apps/websites in your very own classroom! The fact that you provided links to every single one just makes it that must easier for educators to access these apps/websites! Thank you so much for sharing all these helpful tips and tools. I can almost assure you that I will be visiting your page again as I prepare to become a teacher myself!

  153. Wow! Reading this post was amazing. I love the different ways you incorporate technology in the classroom, it is truly something I want to strive for. I enjoy the way you show your students work on your twitter account, I also have my own teacher twitter handle and that is definitely something I want to do in my future FACS classroom. It was cool to see how you integrated the iPad into the classroom as well since this is something I am strongly wanting to do when I have my own students. You are the kind of teacher that makes me so happy to be going into the field that I am in.

  154. Hey Shelly,

    I went to a tiny high school (47 students 9-12th) in an older agricultural community. The community was always supportive in everything, but one area that the school could have really use some improvement in helping the students utilize technology. My senior year was the first year we got a grant to get labtops for us to use. There was 20 of them for all the high and middle school students. Reflecting how my education had changed in just that one year has made me realize that technology is not just the future, but future of education. Especially in Ag Ed. Each year the Ag Industry in depending more and more on technology. My goal is to help prepare the students for a career in the industry. Reading through your blog, I am excited and hope to have a one to one ratio for my students. I have so many ideas to have my students make IMovie, and also to use IMovie to introduce lessons. There is so much potential in utilizing technology in the classroom. I love your ideas and look forward to hearing more ideas that I can use for my students

  155. Shelly,

    I am truly inspired by your teaching! The way you use technology in your classroom to impact students’ learning is amazing. I loved reading and watching videos about your classroom and school. The fact that you are able to reach out to these special students and change their lives with technology is beyond words. It is great to have professionals like yourself that help reach the future of education. Your blog is very resourceful for an upcoming teacher like myself. Thank you for posting!

  156. Hello Shelly! Thank you so much for taking the time to write out this article to help other teachers. I am currently an education student and I find that I am pften resistant to using technology in the classroom because it can be hard or time consuming to become competent in the technology and know how to use it WELL. Despite having an iPhone for years, I must confess I had no idea what the hamburger tool was called, until I read your post! I think the most important thing I learned from your post was how to not just throw in an app in a lesson for refreshment, but to use technology in a way that increases and supplements learning, which is honestly the hardest part. Again, thank you so much for all the hard, wonderful work you do, and for sharing!

  157. Dear Shelly,

    You are such an inspiration to future educators and I plan to continue to follow you throughout my years of teaching. The way you integrate technology in your classroom is absolutely incredible. It was extremely helpful having all of the apps that you use with the links directly to them. This saves me so much time of trying to find them on my own–so thank you for that!

    Additionally, thank you for posting videos from inside your classroom! They are very helpful in visually seeing your ideas come to life. Your passion is clearly evident through your blog and I hope to reflect as much passion as you do in my future classroom! Thank you for your dedication to education and to your students! We need more teachers like you.

    Sincerely,
    Morgan Hauserman

  158. Loved this post! Really loved the emphasis put on technology only being used to enhance teaching. I also really liked the importance you put on using technology to build student’s creativity. Also, I appreciated how you promoted teachers being technologically active and literate! Thanks!

  159. I love learning more about art integration-and technology can be a huge help with that. I like the part where you discuss the support teachers need. Technology and arts integration can be daunting for new and seasoned teachers alike, especially if it is a new concept. I am always looking on Pinterest for new way to incorporate art and technology in my class, but learning from someone with experience is even more valuable!

  160. Shelly,
    Your blog is terrific. I enjoyed being able to see the different things that you have done. It’s so good to see a teacher not only talking about what needs to be done but also implementing them into their classroom.

  161. First off, thank you for sharing your ideas. As a future educator, I love the idea of integrating technology into the classroom in a way that fosters deeper learning. Using a QR generator and the Safeshare.tv program seem like a great idea to allow students to directly view videos without other videos or comments which might detract from the point of the video. Using the QR code to direct students directly to the content you want them to view without having them search for it seems like it keep students on task rather than getting distracted when they are searching for information.

  162. Hi Shelly!! I really enjoyed this blog post! It was really awesome to read more about technology and gain a better understanding that technology can truly enhance a lesson! Including technology in an assignment could have a great benefit for not only the students, but me myself as a teacher as well!
    It could really make the lesson much more meaningful to the students. iPads are really up and coming in classrooms everywhere, and I have been wondering for awhile what apps are the most crucial to having in the classroom!
    Thank you though again for this great post, I’m going to bookmark it to come back to from time to time!

  163. I really enjoyed reading this blog post! I found it so inspiring and motivational to incorporate technology into my classroom. I loved the way that you and your class learned about bats while also incorporating art into the equation. I feel like I gained some really great knowledge from reading this!

  164. Thank you for making such a wildly helpful website. I think my favorite part of this post was where you linked the “Show What You Know With Media” page. I loved picking my way through the examples and explanations of the projects. I had been struggling with finding ways to incorporate iMovie, and how to help my students make iMovies they could be proud of, so having that resource has really opened my mind to the power of the iPad. I also loved the list of “Makers Studio” apps.

    My main issue is figuring out how to transplant some of these apps into a secondary English Language Arts setting. Are there any apps in particular that would fit best in that environment? For one, I want to use that Ink Dot green screen app, and I was thinking it would be great for acting out Shakespeare plays.

  165. Hi Shelly,
    I enjoyed reading your blog! Thank you very much for sharing all these amazing information with us. I learned that it is important for teachers in 21 century to integrate technology with the classroom and students’ leaning! And I found your ideas are very creative and useful! With the development of the technology, I think the future classroom will be very colorful and more interesting. However, there might also be some challenges. I think I would like to use the technology wisely in my future classroom.

  166. Shelly,
    You are very insightful and a role model to all of us. Your work and information is going to be very helpful to me and I think to every future teacher (or present teacher) who visits your sight. I am very glad you posted your video from the workshop that you went to and explained why it is important to show the students’ work outside of the classroom and about ways that you can easily do so. I also love the ways that you utilize technology in the classroom and explaining the reasons as to why it is so important! Thank you for all you do and keep up the good work!

  167. Shelly,

    What you do for students is truly admirable! I am stunned by your caring and giving personality. You show that you truly care and want the BEST for students, regardless of where they come from. I love what you do and aspire to be like you someday! Keep on doing wonderful things.

  168. Shelly,
    Thank you for writing about and sharing your thoughts on technology in the classroom. I think it’s important for future teachers like myself to be able to read and see how someone with a lot of experience has been able to integrate technology successfully into their classroom. I really like the point that you made about having students share their work not only inside the classroom, but outside of it as well. I know this can be unconfortable for a lot of students, but it is important to get students out of their comfort zone at times.

  169. Shelly,
    You are so inspiring and your blog is amazing! I love all of the ideas you share for other teachers to take advantage of. I am an Elementary Education major and I love to see you using technology with these younger students. I really liked the point you made about how students sharing their work gives them a purpose and lets their voice be heard. I think it is important for students to feel like that matter and sharing their work is a perfect way to do this. I applaud you for all of the hard work you have put into this blog that allows other teachers to learn from and to implement in their own rooms!

  170. Shelly,
    Your blog was very insightful! By reading through and exploring all the information you’ve provided I’ve learned of many tools that I will be able to implement in my future classroom. You do an amazing job motivating your students to go above and beyond merely learning a subject. You inspire your students to be creative and productive students. I love how you implemented your students’ desire to rap into a school project to help out others. This shows how much you truly care about your students! I’m so excited to try and implement these new tools and activities you’ve shown me into my future classroom in some way.

  171. This is some great information, Shelly. Thank you! I loved your point about building app literacy. Just as we can’t read an entire library in a day, we also can’t suddenly understand all of the resources available to us through iPad applications. I look forward to being more intentional with this week to week so that I can better incorporate appropriate apps into my classroom someday.

  172. This is very interesting and inspiring. Thanks for sharing! I really liked your Thanksgiving QR codes activity. Being asked to explore your blog has been pretty neat to find the things that you are doing! I think incorporating a blog in a classroom could be a very cool idea actually. Several of these things I could see myself using eventually down the road at some point, depending on what grade level I end up teaching. Thank you very much for your work Shelly!

  173. Hello Shelly!

    I enjoyed reading your website! You gave me a variety of ideas for my future classroom! Even though I want to be a middle schoo math teacher, I will definitely incorporate technology and other resources into my lessons. Students should be able to explore and be creative with their assignments! Our society has technologically involved even over the past decade. There are many different apps teachers of all subjects can incorporate to enhance the students ability to learn! Thanks!

  174. Your website has a lot of great resources and was very intriguing to read about. I learned a lot from your posts and videos. Thank you so much for sharing all these wonderful tips with us.

  175. I like that you are making a push for app literacy and a shared language amongst educators. A lot of times someone can use slang and lose a group because they do not know what was being referenced. My favorite new vocabulary word is the hamburger tool. I had never heard of that before but I really like it. This website will continue to be a huge help to myself and other educators. It is truly amazing how much time you have put into this and you are an inspiration. Please continue to do amazing work and I wish you the best of luck in any future endeavors.

  176. Shelly,
    Thank you for sharing your thoughts, experience, and examples of how to use technology to enhance the classroom. As an education student, I really enjoyed getting to see the examples of what you are talking about and all of the resources you provided. The thing I resonated with the most is the idea of sharing the students’ work outside the classroom. I think it is so important to make students start feeling like they have a voice early because then they work harder, become more involved, and feel apart of their community. Being in the secondary field, I strongly believe in students getting involved in their community and giving students the tools to be active and informed citizens. This would be a great stepping stool for that because it will give the community a look in to what they are working on in school. I also love how you talk about how technology tools should be used to enhance and amplify student creativity. I think this is something very important to remember, because using technology in the classroom is as beneficial as teachers make it. A teacher that uses it for creativity, engaging activities, and projects is going to create more meaningful learning than a teacher that just has a student working in an app. Last, I found it truly inspiring that you teach at a school specifically for homeless children. What an amazing way to get students educated and passionate about something. I truly enjoyed your blog and hope that I can use this information in my future classroom!

    Brittany Rouse

  177. Shelly,

    You are truly an inspiration, especially to future educators like myself! I appreciate how many apps you have included that are safe routes to use with our students in the classroom. Many of them I had not heard of, and I have taken note of them to use once I have my own classroom. I also love how you talked about “red shirt” students, because this is a term I have not heard of, as well as something that I do not often think about. Being someone who enjoys using media as a way to show students engaging in learning, this is very useful information. I love how you used the darth vader mask to not only include the student in the fun picture but also to keep his identity anonymous. Thank you for all the time you are putting in to benefit the lives of so many! You are a blessing to many.

  178. Your student involvement with technology is amazing! I really think providing information about keeping kids away from inappropriate content and distractions is really important. It’s a great concern for a lot of teachers. I also believe the ups and downs of a classroom YouTube channel would be worth putting into that hour and a half.

  179. Shelly! It was really interesting to read your blog and you had some really interesting things to say and I learned a lot from reading it. One thing that really stood out to me was that you said that teachers need encouragement to have their students share their works and I think it is amazing that you had the mini keynote session to help encourage teachers. You are a great inspiration!

  180. Firstly I am deeply inspired by your commitment to your students and your ability to help them and see the needs of their very specific situations, I think you are wonderful. I also found this post so informative, there were nearly endless resources here which I will undoubtably come back to. I loved the videos but one thing I really loved here was the “hamburger tool”, I think that is so creative and genius! I’m sure the kids love it, along with everything you bring int o your classroom.

  181. Hello! I really enjoyed reading this blog post. I love how you are incorporating technology and using it to share what your students are doing. I think that this helps with keeping the students engaged and interested in what they are working on. I look forward to reading more of your posts and being able to incorporate some of this in my future classroom. Thank you for all of the great resources and examples.

  182. The fact that so many teachers have students get on different apps and try to learn that way is something you point out. I like how you point out that for technology to be used in the classroom properly it all starts with the teachers. I agree that it’s so important for teachers to put in effort and really get an understanding of everything that they will be showing their students.

  183. I really liked that you pointed out the fact that a lot of teachers will just put an iPad with random apps in front of the students. With all of the technology we have, we should be properly and appropriately using it to teach. This post gives some really fantastic ideas for using technology appropriately in the classrooms and they are all fun and engaging! I will definitely be bookmarking this page for future reference. Thank you for posting! 🙂

  184. I found this post very nice to read. I love the ideas and will hopefully be able to use iPads wherever I teach in the future. I love the idea of using iPads in order to integrate art. Also I never thought about using QR codes but I think using them would really interest the students and grasp their attention on a lot of lessons.

  185. You are truly an inspiration! I am very glad that I was able to read about what you do, and being able to read your blog about how you integrate technology in your classroom. This was very helpful, and useful information to me. I really liked looking at the Bat project you did with your students, and how interactive it was, and also how you used art integration along with it.

  186. I am definitely going to bookmark your website for when I become a teacher in just a few short years. I learned a lot! thank you for sharing all your knowledge to help us future educators!

  187. Thank you for providing us with many different resources to use for our future students! There are so many apps and programs available to use, it is very nice to know that educators are out here narrowing them down and categorizing them, also weeding out the good from the bad! I agree that teachers must also be involved in learning the technology along with the students. When teachers learn with students, I think it creates more of a bond between the two since they can understand the struggles that sometimes come with new technology!

  188. What a great read to get me intrigued to incorporate technology into my classroom! Thank you Shelly! I loved how you instantly said how the only way technology can be great in the classroom, is if the teacher knows how to use it. I have never honestly thought about it completely and that brought it into perspective for me. Also, thank you for showing so many different ideas to use in our own classrooms, its nice to have someone follow for some help!

  189. I enjoyed your website and found it insightful for future educators. As a future educator this blog gives great thoughts to what I can use for technology in the classroom. Thank you for sharing your experiences.

  190. Hello, as I was reading through your posts and insights I was really interested in the way that you are able to so seamlessly add different types of technology into different levels types of classrooms. I really appreciated the way that you explained everything and offered ways and options of how to do certain things and how even the simple things can lead to a lot of accessibility for the students in a classroom. For a future teacher this really explained a lot of things and I am excited to come back to it when I am planning and working on things for my own classroom. Thanks so much for your insight and work on this subject.

  191. Shelly,

    One of the most intriguing parts of your post, in my opinion, was when you talked about ways to minimize distractions for your students. Even being in college, I find myself becoming distracted by recommended videos on YouTube or other websites that come up in a search. By finding ways to reduce these distractions, I feel that you have made your classroom more efficient and effective because the students are staying on topic. I also felt that the QR code creator is a great tool for similar reasons, along with helping students find websites more quickly. I will definitely remember these tips down the road in my own classroom.

  192. It is great to see that you are taking integrating technology to a whole new level in the classroom. Knowing the everyday vocabulary of technology like you do with the iPads is not only important, but a lot of teachers do not take the time to do it. It is also awesome to see you emphasize the sharing of projects. This makes it useful for both students and teachers who are looking for new ideas. With today’s technology, it is very easy to share projects with others. Also using apps that relate to each other is so simple yet something that I never considered for classroom use, it is a great idea. I agree with you that technology is becoming more and more prevalent in our society, so it needs to be integrated into our classrooms.

  193. Hi Shelly I really enjoyed reading over your blog post! You are truly an inspiration to future educators your commitment to your students and the ability to see their individual needs is truly amazing. This post was also very informative, with all the different apps and resources that are safe to use in the classroom! I wrote down some of apps to even use in my future classroom! I really liked how you used creativity fun tools that allow your students to concepts and ideas in a fun engaging way!

    You are such a great role model for many teachers!

  194. I am so glad that I was able to read your blog. Reading this has given me great ideas to add technology into my classroom. I really enjoyed the idea of allowing students to explore the App Store to find out what they enjoy using. One of my biggest worries with technology in the classroom, is making sure that the students are using the iPads the way they are intended to be used as. But you provided excellent ideas and thoughts on this issue. Thank you so much for providing such great information for current and future educators in the classroom.

  195. I have bookmarked your website for future use as a teacher! I have been amazed over the last couple of months at how many tools are available to teachers. I will be one in a year and am making new discoveries every week about different things I will be able to use in the classroom. I learned several things just from this blog and hope to learn more in the future! Thank you for your work!

  196. This is some good work! You have done a job with these videos, and have uploaded some intelligent ideas. With an hour and a half to give a presentation, I would strive to focus your time on how teachers can be trained to integrate these ideas into their classroom. A good example that you could talk through is the bat project the students do in on of the videos above.

  197. Shelly,

    First of all, thank you for all you do for your students and the education field. If it weren’t for educators like you, this profession would be overrun with uneducated and unmotivated educators. In response to your question at the end, my bias as a future band director would lead me to advocate more for a workshop on arts integration. Having lived in Kansas my whole life, I feel like the arts have been sorely overlooked in favor of what supposedly makes our students score well on tests. Attending a workshop that covers ways to include the arts in everyday lessons (perhaps through technology as a medium) would be incredibly beneficial in my eyes.

    Also, that bat video was the cutest thing I had seen in a while.

  198. Wow! You had so many great tips and tools, this post was very educational for me as a new teacher. My favorite part was seeing all the different projects that you were able to have your students to buying integrating technology. I really liked the bat slide video that you had your students make because they all got the opportunity to share the information that they personally had learned.

  199. I love how you believe in incorporating the arts into your different lessons. I am going to be an art educator and I love to see people understanding the importance of art in all of the school subjects. I am for sure going to look back on your blog in the future when I go to bring technology into my art lessons! Thank you for all you do, truly an inspiration for a future teacher like me!

  200. Watching some of the videos on your YouTube channel were very interesting, I loved seeing the rap video your two students made that you talked about with your husband from iPadpalooza. Keep up the great work!

  201. Thank you so much for posting such a thought provoking article! Being a student studying Education, you hear a lot about the importance of technology integration in the classroom, and I believe this post really covers all the bases. This post really helped me understand how to integrate technology effectively, while also allowing it to enhance creativity! I will definitely be bookmarking your website.

  202. Shelly,
    One of the statements that jumped out at me from this presentation was a comment you made in a Ted talk. The main goal of you classroom was to make your students enjoy learning again, or maybe even for the first time. One of the main reasons I wanted to become a teacher was to show my future students that learning can be and usually is fun! There are so many ways to approach information and the approach used in your classroom is one I hope to also use further down my teaching path. Thanks for the inspiration, and keep teaching!

  203. Hey Shelly!

    I have to say that one of my biggest fears of being a new teacher is when my school is a one-to-one technology school. You have certainly blown that fear out of the water! Just seeing what you and your husband do for your students is just amazing. You are so interactive with your students especially with the bat project. I hope that I can be as fun and engaging with my lesson plans as you are. I never knew that technology could be used like this in the classroom. I really appreciate all of the tips and tricks that you shared. Your blog has definitely been officially added to my bookmarks! Thank you so much for all of the helpful hints hat I can use in student teaching and throughout my teaching career.

  204. Shelly and his is so neat!
    I think the most surprising thing I heard you discuss was vocabulary. Growing up using so much technology, I’ve never really thought of what the correct vocabulary for different tools and functions would be. I know the lingo I grew up with and still hear from peers in college. For example, I have never heard of “hamburger.” I actually thought you were maybe referring to screen orientation much like paper. When you showed what you were referring to I was surprised.
    My question to think about is how as teachers do we decide what vocab terms to use. I know that things the kids may refer to as one thing a tutorial may refer to as another and I know it as a third term. Would using terms the kids know be best?
    I also was interested in your comments on making sure students don’t have to search for a curriculum link, ever. My high school had laptops for each student and in middle school we all had one while at school. So we were all pretty used to using them for school. I never had a teacher demonstrate that kind of safety oversight. (I didn’t have them in elementary school though.) Wed have links sometimes from our noodle just to make it easier, but we often went and googled whatever site they wanted us to use or get to. Do you think it’s as necessary to ensure that students are able to get to everything from a main source in high school? It sounds great organizational-wise. Would students have a negative reaction to being handed everything?
    You had so many ideas and gave me lots of things to think about before I get to the classroom. Thanks so much for letting our class do this. I don’t know how you keep track of all the assignments and projects you do on so many apps and sites. It’s really awesome and variable.

  205. Hi Shelly!
    This was a very inspirational article. I always could use a little more information of how to use technology in the classroom. To me, it seems like a new thing having all these app readily available for our students and slightly overwhelming. But, articles like yours really help teach how to use technology effectively. I did notice that many of your idea seemed to be directed more towards 3rd grade in older, do you have any tips on how technology could be added into the younger grades?
    Thank you for all the great resources!

  206. I love how you not only are passionate about the use of technology in the classroom but you also have taken the time to explain how you use it so effectively. As a future educator I have been overwhelmed with so many things to include that I worry about it’s effectiveness and how it might all come together.

  207. I really enjoyed reading this blog post. I think that one of the things that should be taught in this workshop would be how to chose appropriate apps to go with different types of assignments. In my post I made of my website, I talked about a teacher in my high school who made us do an English assignment on an app that how barely any information about he subject. This would make a great topic and would inform teachers who may not know how to navigate an app and figure out ways to use it.

  208. Dear Shelly,

    You piece is very appealing to me as a future teacher. Technology is growing as fast as each generation of students grows. I think your blog is important to read because lots of teachers who have not integrated technology in their classrooms are not expected to. Teachers should know the importance of technology. Your blog makes me want to keep checking in on your training that we are able to see online. I really liked what you said about technology being useful if the students are creating and making. This makes the most difference in how teachers think about technology integration!

  209. Hello Mrs. Fryer,
    Thank you so much for a wonderful post. As a future educator, resources like this are invaluable. I can definitely see myself using many of the great apps you suggested. I will use the QR reader a lot. I can see how this can will help students get a better understanding of the subject. Thank you so much for helping out educators. Thank you so much for spreading your knowledge.

  210. Dear Shelly,

    This blog was very appealing to me as a future teacher. Technology is growing and often frowned upon. The generation of students that are growing are more engaged with technology. If it is used properly in the integration, technology can be a positive aspect to teaching instead of a negative one. The part that stood out the most to me was when you said technology is only useful when it is promoting creating and making.

  211. Dear Mrs. Shelly,

    Your blog was very appealing to me as a future teacher. Technology is growing as fast as each generation. It is sometimes frowned upon to used technology in classrooms, but your blog tells teachers that the right integration process with benefit classrooms. The part that stood out to me the most was when you talked about technology is useful when creating and making.

  212. I absolutely LOVED reading Shelly’s website and blog and could easily see myself having a website/blog for my future classroom as well one day! I especially enjoyed the Green Screen application that the students could use to create their own little movies about different topics they’d be learning in the classroom. I think it’d also be a great way to make a memory movie for the end of the school year for each student to remember their friends and also for students who leave before the end of the school year to send with them!

  213. I love that you emphasize that teacher should not just put students on an app, rather they should incorporate aspects of the iPad and different apps into the lessons presented. I have seen teachers use iPads only as a time to play games, but you’ve provided so many apps and different ideas so that teachers can use the iPad to a much higher potential. It’s always great to see examples of projects that teachers are doing with technology so that I can also incorporate some of those projects in my own lessons some day!

  214. Shelly,

    Wow! You are an inspiration. I loved reading through your blog and learning about everything you do for your students. I thought it was interesting how you pointed out that teachers need to learn with their students how to use the iPads. I have struggled a little with learning how to use all the educational apps and feeling comfortable with blogging. It is very helpful to read posts like yours and be able to learn about new resources and ways to make using technology more effective and run smoothly inside the classroom. I love how you incorporate so much technology and art into the classroom. I also learned about the “hamburger” IPad feature and other IPad Terms that are good to be familiar with.

  215. I thought that this was a great jumping off point for aspiring teachers. The apps and technology language that you talked about will provide a sense of confidence on when to start when incorporating technology into my classroom.

    Thank You

  216. Hey Shelly,
    Wow, I am impressed. I believe that I am pretty tech savvy and hope that one day that I may be able to use my “tech savvy” experience in the classroom. You, on the other hand, have it completely down and are doing exactly what I hope to do in the future. You not only use technology in the classroom to keep your students intrigued and engaged, but you use it efficiently. By never having your students search for QR links or other external links saves a good chunk of time. Great ideas that I definitely will have to “steal” from you. Great post!

  217. Hey Shelly,

    Wow, I am so impressed. I am striving myself to be a technology/business/art teacher when I graduate from college. I think of myself as tech savvy individual but you blow right past being tech savvy. You are the tech guru and I hope that one day I can be just like you. You’re not only using technology in the classroom but you’re using it efficiently to keep your students on schedule. The use of QR codes is something I would’ve never thought of. I’ll definitely have to “steal” that from you. Great post!

  218. Shelly,

    I really appreciated reading the importance you put on internet safety while using technology in your classroom. I hadn’t thought of creating methods to support that such as providing direct QR codes and using safeshare.tv to provide comment-free YouTube links. Your point about the comments and links outside of the video itself being a distraction is an issue I also hadn’t thought about. I as a teacher may not have thought of such distractions until they presented themselves in my classroom. I am thankful in learning about this possible road block prior to using applications and technology in my future classroom. I will be sure to explore suggestions from fellow teachers about technology usage alongside helpful apps and iPad uses for students. Lastly, reading the portion of your blog post regarding using iPads and technology for gauging assessments and learning made me think further into the subject. I have witnessed many students playing “educational” games that are supposed to solidify their knowledge in a particular unit or lesson, but I am also aware students use these games to occupy their learning time instead of studying or doing assignments. iPads are fun and engaging, but students need to be provided with apps that will further their cognitive development and show a full understanding of the subject rather than provide busy work.

    Thank you so much for your insightful blog post. I sincerely enjoyed reading it and learning from you!

  219. Shelly,
    I love how you said students shouldn’t just be give iPads, but instead should use their iPads specifically with certain apps. I also enjoyed learning about all of the different apps you mentioned!

  220. Thank you for this wonderful resource that you have provided for teachers everywhere! I look forward to referencing your blog through the rest of my college career and in my professional career. I have received many great ideas for my future classroom. Thank you so much again for sharing your thoughts and ideas with teacher professionals everywhere.

  221. Shelly,
    Wow! You have truly inspired me. As a college student studying education right now, I sometimes look past the benefits of using technology in the classroom. It can become frustrating and sometimes I feel it may be easier to just do things the old-fasioned way. However, you have really presented some great information and resources that I feel could be incredibly useful in my own classroom someday. Thank you for setting such a great example! I hope to be able to inspire people the way you do some day.

  222. Hey Shelly,
    I really loved this article! You really broke down how you use technology in your classroom and have made it easy for new teachers to follow along. I love the idea of QR codes. I can understand how it saves time and can’t wait to be able to do the same in my music classroom. Since musical ensembles have a lot of time spent to instruments on the face I can see how saving time would be a crucial thing to look at. When we only have five minutes to do a quick activity it helps to already have the link for the students. I am glad that you can share your ideas with the internet as a resource for those teachers who don’t know how to use technology in their classroom. Keep on doing what you are doing and I look forward to reading more of your articles.

  223. Shelly! Hello! I really enjoyed reading this blog! I am currently enrolled in an ed tech class at Kansas State University. I love learning about different ways that I can use technology in my classroom that I might not originally think of. Reading your blog, I took a few notes. You have some great app suggestions. I am excited to hopefully be able to use ipads in my classroom! Thank you for the ideas and inspiration for my future classroom! I definitely have your page bookmarked to use for future reference! 🙂

  224. Hey Shelly! I really enjoyed this article. There was so much good info on how you can incorporate technology into the classroom. I am definitely not tech savvy and articles like this help people like me out a lot. You are what I aspire to be with technology. Even though technology can be confusing and not always work, it is a great thing to incorporate into the classroom because the times are changing and we do need to keep up with it. Thank you so much for this article. It is really nice and helpful.

  225. Shelly,

    I loved reading your blog, I know your tips and tricks will come in handy for me once I start teaching. I have a question for you, though. I’m basically petrified of technology and if I had it my way, my students wouldn’t be allowed to have any devices in school. This is mainly because I didn’t grow up in a technology integrated classroom, so I’ve never seen it work. If you could give one tip to teachers who are struggling to integrate technology into the classroom, what would it be?

  226. Shelly,
    Your website is full of very useful information and your ideas for technology use in the classroom are extremely helpful! This post in particular contains a large amount of information which is broken up nicely for teachers (or future teachers) to begin thinking about how to apply it to their own classroom and lesson plans. I also liked how you said that creations with technology should be shared both inside and outside of the classroom. Because of social media and other various platforms, teachers can easily distribute or present their students’ work. This also gives students a way to gain recognition for their work and increase their self-efficacy. This also makes it clear to parents what students are doing in the classroom and that their children are receiving proper instruction. I will continue to use your articles as a valuable resource in the future.

  227. Shelly, I think you really nailed it on the head with this one! From observation in classrooms, I have seen some teachers just plop down an iPad in front of their students with no real purpose. I’ve also seen teachers really utilize the technology and create a purpose for it. The students always gain much more from the latter. I also agree that students feel much more pride in their work- and want to do a better job- when they know people besides their teacher and/or their parents.

  228. Shelly, this page, and this whole blog, is an incredibly inspiring resource for teachers. I agree that technology is such an amazing tool that can be used for such good things. But can also lead to lazy teaching. I love what you said about technology being a tool to enhance student activity, engagement, and learning. As a music education major, there is great value to many of the apps available for free on the App Store and many types of individualized projects that can be done with them. Thank you for this amazing resource and inspiring page!

  229. Hey Shelly! I really love how organized and informative this page is and how much it can help in the class room setting! I think the most surprising thing I heard you discuss was vocabulary. Growing up using so much technology, I’ve never really thought of what the correct vocabulary for different tools and functions all would be, I enjoy the point you made about having students share their work not only inside the classroom, but outside of it as well. I know this can be uncomfortable for a lot of students, but it is important to get students out of their comfort zone at times!

  230. Shelly,
    Thank you for creating this article within your blog. I really enjoyed the video of you and your husband giving a speech at iPad Palooza. Within the video I really got to see the power technology can have on a student, if harnessed appropriately. I never really concerned using technology all that much in my future band room. However, now, I cannot wait to share the work my kids are doing through the use of technology and not just concerts. I also really appreciate the wonderful resources you have suggested. I know that incorporating technology will not happen naturally, and will take some work on my part to learn the vocabulary of technology as well as become aware of the potential applications and programs I could use. Again, thank you for being such a great model with all of the ways you use technology in your classroom!

  231. Hey Shelly!
    I am a Kansas state student! But this article really struck me since I am on my way to become a teacher. At Kstate we are required, a you know, to take Ed tech. And that class in my opinion is a phenomenal tool that will help us future teachers learn how to intergrate technology into the classroom. But I think also reading this seldifies the importance of how big of a learning Impact it can leave on the student. But it also opens the doorway for the student to not only learning but to express themselves and to feel confident in themselves. I think what really impacted me is what you said in bold in the beginning of the article that technology should emphasize the learning. And I can’t agree more with that with all the tools I have been given in this class are to not help me teach easier but to help my studnets grasp knowledge easier.

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