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OverviewEven with multiple staff support, special needs students continued to be challenged in the areas of content and engagement. I was faced with students whose previous math experiences had been disparaging. Thus, they were apprehensive and reluctant to ask for help fearing to look "dumb" in front of their peers. Fortunately, I was in the first semester of the Innovative Learning program and the timing could have not been better. In order to begin our research, we were asked to identify a problem or an area of growth to keep track of for the duration of the semester. I wanted to know, if introducing a different learning modality (Google Classroom) could possibly increase students motivation to learn.
The short study was conducted in a period of two weeks, I prepared the students by providing hands-on activities to explain fraction concepts, practiced problems on the board. Then introduced Google Classroom and implemented it with other Google apps for educators. In hope of increasing student engagement. At the beginning, students were unsure of the new learning method, as the days followed, the majority of the students jumped on board with the new innovative approach. At the end of the study, students were more motivated to learn math content with the use of Google Classroom. |

A few of the best tools/apps I have used and explored with my students.
Google Classroom- workflow management system aim to help teachers organize assignments and content with easy access online platform.
Kahoot!- is a game-based learning platform. It can be used to gauge students’ previous knowledge, for formative assessment.
Newsela- lessons have been designed with important Common Core math standards in mind.
Adobe Spark Video- It is a video storytelling application. It combines graphics, audio recording, music, text and photos to create short animated, narrated videos.

Be sure to visit the Lessons and How -tos link, where I have linked lessons on technology, lessons from other websites, and in the How -tos link I have uploaded Youtube video tutorials on how to set up Google Classroom. The References link has useful resources, which I have explored and used in my classroom. Lastly, the Assessment link connects you to formative and informative assessments, with a brief description on informative tools helpful when assessing special needs students.
I created the infographic above to showcase the benefits of using technology in the classroom. Especially now that information is instantaneous and at the reach of our students' fingertips. How can we incorporate technology to make learning relevant and meaningful in the classroom?
The infographic was easy to create using Canva.com
The infographic was easy to create using Canva.com