Classroom digital tools are a hot topic of conversation among teachers these days. Many districts are debating whether their schools will go back full time or if there will be a hybrid schedule.  Nonetheless, teachers want to prepare for the “just in case” scenarios. Teachers want reliable, engaging digital tools.  Specifically, English Language Arts teachers are searching for digital websites and resources that help their students with annotating, reading and writing skills, grammar practice, among other English skills and techniques.

I wanted to share with you a few digital platforms and resources for the English Language Arts classroom.  I used and found these tools extremely helpful during distance learning.  Regardless of what your school district is doing in the fall, it is important to have a list of go-to digital tools in your back pocket. Distance learning is now a part of teachers’ vocabulary.  They have to be ready for the distance learning scenario at a moment’s notice.

Digital Resources for the Classroom

Here are three of my favorite digital tools for the English Language Arts Classroom-

Kami– Have you used Kami? It is an amazing digital tool for the English classroom. Kami is a Google Extension™ one can easily download to a Chromebook or Chrome extension bar.  What is so incredible about Kami, is the teacher uploads a PDF assignment, and it allows the students to highlight the text on the PDF. It also allows the students to listen to the text, annotate, write, and make notes on the document. Teachers can assign work through Kami, and the students can turn it in Google Classroom™.

Google Meets Grid View– During distance learning, many teachers were using Zoom; however, many districts were finding issues with the platform, as it was not safe.  Districts were and are using Google Meet because they are GSuite subscribers, and the students are 1:1 with Chromebooks. One of the nice features about Zoom is it provides a grid view of the students who enter a meeting.  For a while, Google Meets™ did not have the grid view features…but now they do.  You can now download this Google extension, and you get the same features of the grid view Zoom is offering. I love seeing all of my students’ faces in the meetings and creates the personal connection.

Quill– Quill is one of my favorite digital websites I used during distance learning.  I worried my students would digress in some of their grammar, punctuation, and mechanic skills, and this website came to the rescue. Quill provides free writing and grammar activities for elementary, middle, and high school students. What is incredible about Quill is the teacher can build an assignment for their students or s/he can assign a diagnostic test to see where the students are lacking in skills. Quill makes it so easy because if the teacher is using Google Classroom™, s/he can just connect his/her classes right to Quill. You will love it!

The ELA Success Summit

Are you looking for MORE engaging, exciting digital tools, resources, and insights for the English Language Arts Classroom?

My dear friend, Kristy, from 2Peasandadog and I, put our creative minds together and created the ELA Success Summit. Together, we had discussions about what we thought English teachers will need for the upcoming school year. Since online learning may continue, we put together an online conference focusing on digital tools, resources, websites, and insights to help teachers in the classroom.

In this online summit, registrants will receive 20+ videos ranging from creating in Google Slides™, writing and reading in the digital classroom, using Google Forms™ for assessment purposes, classroom discourse, and so much more! Registrants will also receive the replay of the videos for two months, and s/he can watch them at his/her leisure.

This summit will give you a tremendous amount of information, incredible planning ideas for the new school year, as well as relieve some of your stress and apprehension you may have with remote learning.

If you are interested in learning more about the ELA Success Summit, you can check it out HERE!

If you ever have any questions or want to reach out, please feel free to email me at englishohmy@gmail.com!

Talk soon,

Kim

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Displaying students’ work creatively has become a challenge with distance learning. On a normal day, our students look forward seeing their work displayed on the bulletin boards in the classroom. However, with distance learning, students cannot see their work displayed. What would you do if I told you there is a solution to this?!??! Yes, that is right. You can implement digital bulletin boards.

Currently, activities are assigned in Google Classroom, completed by our students, and poof, the students return the work into the vast Internet cloud, to never see it again. For some students, seeing their work presented in the classroom encourages and reinforces their effort, integrity and hard work. How can teachers display students’ work digitally? Digital Bulletin Boards.

Virtual Ways to Use Digital Bulletin Boards

Displaying Students’ Work- Are you working on a writing assignment, poetry or a creative assessment? When your students turn in their work and you assess it, take screen shots of their work. Or, you can actually save a Google Doc or Slide as a JPEG, by clicking on FILE–>DOWNLOAD–>SAVE AS JPEG. You then can upload all of your JPEGS into a blank bulletin board JPEG in Google Slides. What is really exciting is you can link your bulletin board Google Slides to the large documents by creating a hyperlink in the Google Slides.

Create Weekly Agendas- Our students find it difficult to navigate the Google Calendar. There is sometimes 10-15 assignments assigned in the Google calendar, in addition to the Google Meets. You can display your week of activities on one digital bulletin board. Then, you can attach it right in the Google Classroom feed.

Create a “To-Do” or a Reminder Board-Send out your bulletin board with sticky note reminders. This is a creative way to remind your students what they need to do or projects that are due.

Add Your Own Flair to Your Virtual Bulletin Boards

Teachers miss their bulletin boards in their classroom. There is an excitement when I decorate my bulletin board. Guess what?!?! You can add your own flair, colors and creative niche to your digital bulletin boards!

Add Borders– Just like your regular classroom, you can add your own flair to your bulletin boards with vibrant, fun borders. Look at these-

Insert Sticky Notes PNGs-Want to remind your students of an assignment or a project? Add a Sticky Note PNG.

Add Frames Around Your Students’ Work-If you are looking to display your students’ work, add some of the creative frames around their work!

Create Your Bitmoji!–Bitmojis are all the craze right now in the digital classrooms. Adding an avatar to your bulletin board makes them even more personal. If you want to add a Bitmoji, you will have to create an account on the Bitmoji site. You then can download the extension for Google Chrome and easily insert your avatar into anything!

Free Sites to Help You Create Your Digital Bulletin Boards

These websites will help you in your creation of your bulletin boards-

Pixabay

Pexels

Unsplash

Don’t Have Time to Create Your Own Virtual Bulletin Board?

I know. Time is of the essence right now, and it is hard to find time in between distance learning and teaching to create things from scratch!

Don’t worry, I have you covered. I created Digital Bulletin Board templates to get you started. This product comes with borders, frames, sticky notes, digital stickers, push pins, and of course ideas! This is all ready to go in Google Slides.

There are so many ways to use these bulletin boards, and I know your students will appreciate seeing their work digitally! Get creating!

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Enjoy the heat, the beach and the sun!

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