Web 2.0 Tool: Bloomz

Hi everyone! Today I am going to be writing about a really great tool called Bloomz. This is a website where teachers can safely communicate with parents, share class photos & updates, and coordinate through volunteer and conference signups. Click here to see a 5 minute tutorial created to teach you about key features of this tool. 


Now that you have seen a brief overview of getting started, let me tell you about 1 of my favorite features of this tool. One feature that I think would be so helpful in education is the ability to communicate with students parents as a teacher. This allows the teacher to message a parent if a student forgot their lunch, forgot their homework, or if their student is misbehaving in the classroom. The messaging feature in this tool also allows all parents of the classroom to create a group chat where they can plan carpools, schedule play dates/study dates, etc. You can see a screen shot of that feature below: 

As you can see, Bloomz can be very helpful to teachers, parents, and students as well. Being able to communicate with other parents in the class and having the option to contact a parent if you were the teacher can be a very helpful way to create communication within the classroom. I hope you enjoy Bloomz- go check it out!

Podcasting in Education

Hi everyone! Today I will be talking about podcasting and why it might be useful in education/classroom setting. When teachers create podcasts for their students, it becomes beneficial to them because when creating a podcast you are able to go more in depth with what you are talking about or what you want to get across to your students. Also, teachers are able to record tutorials that their students can listen to on their own. Teachers might also record students reading a story as a fluency assessment, or as a foreign language pronunciation activity. When students create podcasts it allows them to go more in depth with what they are learning about in a lesson. It also provides them with opportunities to get their point across to listeners on a certain topic that they are covering in class. 

The two unique podcasting tools that I used this week to explore podcasts were Audio Boom and iTunes. Two key and unique features that Audio Boom has is that you are able to record your podcast and once you are done recording it you are able to go back and edit what you would like to keep and/or discard from your recording. Another feature is that you are able to upload/drop a file that you already have recorded and saved on your computer, onto the website to create an existing podcast that you have instead of recording a new one. Two key and unique features that iTunes has is that once you listen and click on a certain podcast, you are able to subscribe to it and once a new podcast is posted on that certain show, it will notify you immediately so that you are able to listen to it right when it is released on that show. Another feature is that you are able to scroll all the way down to the bottom on that certain podcast show page on iTunes and see what listeners of that podcast show also subscribed to. That means that you are able to see what other podcasts would interest you depending on that certain podcast show you first listened to, allowing you to branch out and explore podcasts that are in some way similar. 

When creating my own podcast, I used the two tools listed above. iTunes and Audio Boom went hand-in-hand when I completed this task. I used iTunes to search educational podcasts from grades K-12 and found a podcast that interested me. I listened to this podcast and summarized it and also pointed out key examples that stood out to me during the podcast episode. Once I had those key examples and a summary, I recorded those by using Audio Boom, which created my own podcast about an educational podcast I found using iTunes. 


Here you will be listening to my podcast that talks about the podcast I listened to that I found through iTunes. This podcast includes a summary of the podcast that includes 5 reasons parents should be happy that their students are in a flipped classroom. I explain what a flipped classroom is and also what type of audience this podcast should be for. You will hear the 5 reasons and also two examples that I found interesting throughout listening to the podcast. 

Introduction To Blogging

Hey everyone! My name is Madison Mitchell and I am a Junior at Northern Kentucky University studying Elementary Education. I am from Cincinnati Ohio and I come from an incredible family of 4. My Dad, Mom and 18 year old sister have been my greatest support system during my years as a college student. In my spare time I enjoy spending time with my sorority sisters, hanging out with my family, and babysitting. I chose teaching as my profession because all of my life I have surrounded myself around children and have enjoyed every minute of it. I want to make a difference in children's lives and I feel that teaching gives me that opportunity.

I see blogs fitting into my classroom in many beneficial ways. One way being that as a teacher writing the blog, it creates a social interaction between the teacher and student, which makes the students feel more comfortable in the learning environment. The teacher can also post important websites on their blogs to help the students understand the assignment or topic better. When a teacher has a her own blog, he/she is able to express their ideas without being discriminated for it. Having a blog allows a teacher to share their ideas, good or bad, and get great advice on those ideas, or receive even better ideas from other teachers blogs. It also provides teachers with being able to read about other teachers experiences in their classrooms, which most of the time can relieve teachers in not feeling so down about how their students are acting. Parents can also have access to the teachers blogs, making the parents feel involved in what their student is learning. If a parent or student has a question about the homework on the blog they can post a question about it. It can also be helpful for a student to write a blog. When students use blogs for their writing assignments, it allows them to have their classmates view their comments and become the audience. That being said, when a student has an audience, it helps that student create better writing skills and encourages the student to collaborate about the topic they are blogging about. Blogging as a student also allows them to share their voice on the topic. It is very important in the world where each student should be able to voice their opinion and when students blog, it gives them the power to speak their stance and opinion.

I am now going to talk about a resource that I have found very helpful when it comes to teaching and students learning. This site is called Super Kids, which is an educational site for teachers to create worksheets for students from grades K-12. This website includes worksheet creators for the subjects of math and language arts. Under the math worksheet creator, teachers are able to choose from a variety of subjects in math that they would like to teach their students. These subjects include addition and subtraction, (which can be used in K-3) Multiplication and Dividing, (which can be used in 4-8) Pre-Algebra, (which can be used 9-12) and many more challenging math subjects. Under the Language Arts worksheet creator, teachers are able to choose from a variety of subjects in English that they would like to teach to their students. These subjects include PSAT and SAT Vocabulary Flashcards and Matching Game, Hidden words puzzles, Hangman (which allows students to study vocabulary) and Word Scramblers (which is great for using vocabulary, spelling and reading). 

Photo from Flickr user Erica Hargreave /Creative Commons License