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Digging into Summer: Technology

It’s been a few weeks since I’ve been able to link up with my girls for the Diggin’ into Next Year linky. This week is all about classroom technology. 
I love technology but unfortunately I don’t have much in the current school that I teach at. My first year of teaching I got spoiled. I had a promethean board, my own laptop, iPads, a document camera and so much more. The second school I taught at I wasn’t as fortunate. I had a mimio in my room, an iPad, and we could check out a set of iPads for our kids to use. Now in my current district, I have a mimio board and a document camera. I’m unable to use my iPad because we don’t have wifi in our building. Our internet is wired to our computer so most of the apps I have on it do not work. Last year I struggled a little because I’m such a technology driven person. I am very thankful for what I do have though. 
So let’s start out with some things I did to incorporate technology into my classroom. 
I am a HUGE Class DoJo fan. If you haven’t heard of DoJo, let me tell you what it is. Class DoJo is an online classroom management strategy that is FREE! That’s right folks. F-R-E-E! Once you create your account and add your students, each one is assigned an avatar. You can award students for good and bad behavior with a point system. Parents can sign up to and track their students behavior each day. Every Friday, it automatically sends parents their child’s behavior report for the week. It is fabulous. I didn’t even do a behavior log in their folder last year. The site did everything for me. 
There is also a FREE app so if we went to lunch or library I could easily give or take away points from the app.You can read more about the site and how I used it in my classroom by clicking here. There is also a freebie
I also started using Remind 101 last year. This is an online website that allows you to text parents messages for FREE! You create an account and it gives you a code to give to parents so they can sign up to receive the alerts. You can send out reminders throughout the year without having to give out your phone information. 
Here’s an example message I sent out at the end of last year. Every parent that I had sign up received this message. 
The site is so nice because it is quick and easy. I’m always forgetting to send home reminder notes. This allows me get in touch with parents when I forget something. 
I am super excited to say that my class will be getting a set of iPod Nanos for our listening center this year! I submitted a Donors Choose project at the beginning of the summer. I never thought it would get funded but with the help of family, friends, and some great followers my project was funded. I will converting my entire book/CD collection into digital files so that is a huge project I have coming up soon. I can’t wait to get them all set up.  As soon as I do, I’ll be sure to share. 
So how do you use technology in your classroom? 
Head on over to Where the Magic Happens to see other great technology ideas! 

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