Why technology is important in the classroom

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• iPads/ Chromebooks: I believe strongly for my students to able to work on their own and using an iPad or Chromebook is a great way for they can start to work independently. When we allow students to work on iPads this allows for more of a customized experience in the classroom. Every student has a  different learning style, and iPads can perform as a multipurpose learning tool that they can customize based on their certain needs.

•Go Noodle: From my observations with the younger elementary school students I've noticed how important brain breaks are to students. Brain breaks provide an opportunity to increase student attention and harden their focus by providing a break from instruction to get out of their seats to move and stretch with music, videos, and games. I've learned that a child's attention span is only as long as however old they are, for example, if a child is 5 years old their attention span is about 5 minutes. These will be used every single day in my class to help the students get their wiggles out, so they will be able to focus better in class. I can also make these fun learning opportunities as well. Whatever we are learning about that day/ week I can find something related to the lesson to reinforce what they are learning while having fun.

• The app Remind: Remind is a great way to communicate with parents. I've grown up throughout my school days using remind, and it's a helpful way for teachers to communicate through a simple text message that can go out to anyone who is signed up. This can be a great solution instead of sending emails because sometimes emails don't get seen as often. This app will help me stay in touch with my parents and be able to communicate with them much easier.

• Class Dojo: Class dojo is a great form of classroom management. Class dojo can help with increasing the student"s cooperation with their teacher and motivate the students to earn virtual points that will be rewarded for good behavior. I also love the idea of students competing for points this can help motivate them to do good things in the classroom. I see this as positive reinforcement for classroom management and a way that students can be rewarded mentally.

• Kahoot:  I just love Kahoot and I think it's a great way to be able to assess what the students are learning with some friendly class competition. Instead of just traditionally testing the students with pencil and paper I would love to spark their excitement and test their skills and where they stand with comprehension of what is being taught. Kahoot will show me after each question how many people are answering correctly or incorrectly. By seeing the results after each question, I can know if the class is understanding the content. By seeing what is being answered incorrectly, I can know what we need to go back and cover again in the lesson.