Ms. Capati's Technology Tools
Technology we will be using this year in Kindergarten!
Dear Parents and Guardians!
I am so excited to introduce the three main technology tools that we will be using to enhance your child's learning this year! This newsletter will explain how we will be using the technology tools in our classroom. All of these tools are wonderful and very easy to use. Also, if you are ever having difficulties with one, feel more than welcome to ask! I am always happy to help!
Dreambox
Students love Dreambox, because it contains math games that adapt to the learner's level of knowledge! Students learn math through DreamBox Learning by guiding a self-selected avatar through games, as well as animated adventures and challenges. I especially like DreamBox Learning because it is a highly adaptive math learning program that adapts content to individual students and provides teachers with feedback. Thus, this allows me to meet as many of my students math needs as possible. It also allows me to better see what individuals are struggling with. We will be using this technology tool in the afternoons, when we are rotating math small groups. It will be one of the thirty minute centers that the students may rotate to.
Kahoot!
Kahoot is a collection of questions on specific topics. Created by teachers, students, business-people and social users, they are asked in real-time, to an unlimited number of “players”, creating a social, fun and game-like learning environment. students love this game, because it is similar to an interactive game show with music and timers. We will use is in our classroom to make learning more exciting! I also want to use it to make quiz taking less stressful. So many students nowadays suffer from anxiety when it comes to test or quiz taking. I plan to use Kahoot to decrease this anxiety and make test taking more natural and relaxed. Kahoot will also allow me to check for understanding and critical thinking using dynamic item formats. After completing a full lesson, before starting a new concept, the class will take a quiz on kahoot. This will prepare them for the actual test, and allow the students to become a little more relaxed.
Xtramath
Xtramath is a free web-based resource designed to help kids master basic math facts. The organization's website offers effective, efficient, adaptive and intrinsically rewarding supplemental math activities – entirely for free.This means that this is a great activity that students can practice at home or at school. It offers kids the opportunity to learn about addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Games, activities and tests focus on helping kids develop fluency of basic math facts, in order to build a foundation for future math skills. As speed and accuracy are important elements of math fluency, games and activities focus on both. We will use this tool in our classroom everyday! When students arrive in the morning they will do their morning work, then when they finish they can get on Xtramath. Whenever they finish an assignment and have extra time, they are allowed to get on Xtramath. Thus they are never wasting any time! Also, this will give the students more individual help, because it gives the students problems that are on their level.