EdTech Toolbox

Boom Cards

Interactive lessons for both in-person and virtual learning.
Highly engaging due to eye catching visuals and game-like design
Real time feedback and reports
I use Boom Cards in every content area of my classroom. It is applicable to anything we are learning at the time and many Boom Cards decks are free.
Specific examples in my classroom: I use Boom Cards to reinforce letters and sounds during our phonics segment. I use Boom Cards to encourage my students to write cvc words in preparation for sentence writing. Finally, I use Boom cards to provide students with additional addition and subtraction practice later in the year.
Boom Cards decks are designed with highly appealing visuals that make learning interesting and fun. My students love the immediate feedback regarding correct or incorrect answers.
Boom Cards is one of the easiest tools for my Kindergarten students to utilize independently.

Google Slides

Google Slides is an online presentation app that lets you create and format presentations, as well as work with other people.
It is useful for interactive lessons for both in-person and virtual learning.
I use Google Slides in a variety of ways in my classroom. I use Google Slides as a classroom management tool daily to display small group rotations. I also use Google slides to display Kindergarten Sight Words and Math Facts.
Virtually, Google Slides also serves as a host to many online libraries which allows me to share books with my students at home.

"Epic is the leading digital reading platform—built on a collection of 40,000+ popular, high-quality books from 250+ of the world’s best publishers—that safely fuels curiosity and reading confidence for kids 12 and under." -www.GetEpic.com
Get Epic provides me with a wide selection of books to teach from. I am able to read the books aloud in class or assign them digitally during virtual learning. This Ed Tech tool was especially helpful during virtual learning because it allowed me to cover Language Arts standards with little challenge.
My classroom library lacks in non-fiction books and Science resources. I use Get Epic regularly to teach English Language Arts but that increases to almost daily during a non-fiction unit.
Students love seeing the books full screen and that there is such a wide variety of topics to choose from. We have learned so much from reading this year!

Brain Pop is an online website with engaging games, animated movies, and activities.
This tool can be used whole group during lessons or assigned individually to students to complete through Google Classroom. It is perfect for virtual learning because students are able to receive engaging content at home through their Google Classroom account.
I mostly use Brain Pop to teach Science and Social Studies standards. However, I have found useful videos for every content area I teach. Brain Pop Videos also serve as perfect lesson activators to encourage my students to begin thinking about our lesson for the day. Another great feature of Brain Pop is the pre-made quiz attached to each video.
Brain Pop videos are very engaging to my students because they are animated; similar to a video game or cartoons.

"Spark students to learn, collaborate, and engage in active new ways." -Google
Jamboard is a digital interactive whiteboard that allows collaboration between teachers and students.
Jamboard is an excellent tool for encouraging student involvement during lessons. It is visually appealing and students love getting to add their input. One thing I love about Jamboard is that it encourages normally shy students to participate.
I use Jamboard collaboratively with my students to reinforce many of our English/Language Arts standards. Although Kindergarten students are not able to easily navigate Jam board independently on our Chromebooks, they are still able to work at my smart board. Specifically, students sort words and create new words during our phonics segment.
Being able to participate at the board increases engagement across my classroom because students love the opportunity to show what they know. Students do not want to miss their turn at the board, so they are highly engaged.