Chrome books in the classroom

Technology isn’t going anywhere, it’s here to stay!  How are you using it in your classroom?  I know a lot of k-2 teachers use ipads but in the upper grades we are pushing them to also use chrome books since the state tests are on those starting in third grade.  So, I have some tips to help you out if you are a beginner in the chrome book world.  

Welcome to another edition of 

Let me preface this with telling you that I’m not that techie.  I mean really I’m not.  I ask a lot of questions and try really hard and usually need even more help.  But, the key is I try.  I’ve been teaching 23 years and I didn’t grow up with a phone at any age.  When I had my first child my husband was a football coach and he wore a beeper in case I went into labor…so yeah, I’m old! 

Since I’ve moved into teaching third grade that is unfortunately focused on ‘ the test’  I have to be cognizant of my students typing skills.  Let’s be honest these tests are brutal and if they don’t have sufficient typing skills…well I’ll have criers.  For real, the test is hard enough if they can’t type a paragraph or short answer I’m done for…they’ll give up and type 4 sentences when I know they are capable of writing 3 paragraphs.  So, I do start every chrome book cart time with typing practice AND using the ‘home row’.

I don’t know all the latest and greatest activities to do with chrome books, I’ve never been to a CUE conference but I wanted to share what I do as a mediocre tech person to encourage some of you that are in my same boat.

#1

First of all you need a plan.  If you get the chrome cart twice a week you CANNOT go in without a plan.  Treat your chrome book time like a regular lesson you would teach.  In my plan book I have a specific plan on the days I use chrome books.  We may be finishing up a research project or using a digital resource from TPT.  We might be working on a google quiz I created to reinforce our work on fractions or prefixes.  

#2

If you haven’t tried out Kahoot you are missing out!  Kahoot is amazing and it is a sure fire way to get your students excited about anything.  It’s easy to search for pre made Kahoot games that you can use in your classroom.

 #3

Learn what you can about Google classroom, Google slides, forms, quizzes, etc.  I know many districts now offer after school trainings on this and some even send teachers to Google summits.  Go for it.  You will learn incredible ways to use Google maps, go on virtual Google field trips, etc.  Google classroom is easy to set up and use I promise!

#4

There are so many websites out there that offer FREE educational activities for your students.  You may need to research a bit, in fact I encourage you to play the game yourself before you have your students use it to see if it’s a valuable teaching tool to reinforce learning or a glorified fun, game they can play that is meaningless.

#5

Set up a time to SKYPE with an author, they often accept pre sent questions so if you plan well and send your questions out ahead of time your student may just hear their name and their question during the SKYPE session which is pretty cool.  

There are endless ideas and activities you can do with your students when they have their chrome books.  My biggest bit of advice is to plan and review before you even start a session with the chrome books.  Plan ahead so your time and more importantly your students valuable time isn’t wasted.  

I hope these ideas were helpful, if you have some fun sites, drop them below and we can all share.  

OH before I forget:  If you have never heard of Kiddle you MUST check it out.  It’s a kid friendly search engine that we use all the time.  So if your students are researching something you never have to be afraid anything inappropriate will come up because it’s filtered.  Even if your district has a filtered wifi this is like double coverage.  It looks something like this:

As always, 

happy teaching !