Have you tried Educreations yet?
At the beginning of last year I started a classroom blog that was tailored more to my fourth graders than to their parents. I posted photos of anchor charts as well as educational online games to keep them coming back to it on a weekly basis. Then, later in the year, when the PTO bought all the teachers at my school iPads, I was determined to put mine to good use. I wanted an app that was going to enhance my instruction in a new way, and that's when I found Educreations.
Educreations is like recording yourself teaching a whole class lesson on a white board, except your audience won't see you. They'll hear your voice and see what you draw. You can also embed pictures into your presentation, and on the iPad you can add text (typed) instead of writing words.
It takes a little bit of practice to find the possibilities and limitations to the program. For example, I love that it lets me pause my recording so I can collect my thoughts after each slide. However I don't love that if I make a mistake in the recording I can't go back and redo it! There have been a few updates to Educreations, such as the addition of an eraser tool (because users begged for it) and you can now use Educreations on your computer as well! I love a product that is regularly updated based on user feedback. It's rare when a product is FREE. That's right, it's a free app.
So how has this changed my teaching? Well, although I'm not sure my district would approve of going the flipped classroom route (hard to do when not every child has internet access at home) it really has helped my kids learn some tricky, multistep processes in the following ways:
- Kids love anything novel. Sitting in front of the computer (no, I don't have a projector either) for 4 minutes to watch a video is more interesting than the other 179 math lessons at the rug listening to me. Suddenly no one needs to go get a drink of water!
- If a child needs reteaching, all they need to do is go back over to the computer with a small group of students and rewatch it. Obviously I am available to answer questions, however sometimes, as one boy told me this week, "I just want to watch it a bunch of times until it REALLY sinks in!"
- Two words: Sub Plans!
- Two words: Homework help.
- If a student is absent of course they can watch it at home and learn without spreading their germs around!
If you're not sure you're up to creating videos, keep the following in mind:
- Don't feel you have to make a video on EVERYTHING. I started out with the idea of 2 math procedures that I really wanted kids to see in action because historically their written notes just weren't enough. This year I added another video for a third concept.
- You don't have to make videos for your class to benefit from Educreations. The site is searchable, which means there are TONS of free, public presentations available. You can show them in class or link up on your classroom website. Once you start finding great videos you'll get a good sense of what you really want in a video, and then you can rethink the idea of creating your own.
To get you started, here is a video I created to help my fourth graders multiply 2 digit numbers by 2 digit numbers.
It's a nice lead in to some hands on practicein class (this is a paid for product). By keeping the direct instruction short, sweet, and engaging, we can get into the practicing quicker, which I love. The work you put in creating or researching videos will make your job during class time much easier; you can focus more on the kids' learning than the subject matter itself.Teachers Pay Teachers Store
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