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WAP 8 - Classroom Management: Online Stopwatch

At first, I thought exploring “classroom management” in a technology course meant we would be investigating apps to track and reward good behavior or apps to make and use behavior charts. This does not sit well with me, because I am not convinced of the value of overtly rewarding good behavior. I feel it undermines intrinsic motivation to do the right thing.

But as a whole, classroom management includes the domains of space, time, routines, attention, momentum and discipline. Discipline only one small piece of that puzzle, so I chose to look at apps that would help me with the other areas, thinking that better routines and use of time would increase attention and hold on to momentum, especially with this year’s class that is particularly full of energy.

They all work at different paces, so I often lose students when they finish at different times. By making them more aware of how much time is allotted for a task and how much time is left to complete that task, hopefully they can learn to adjust their pace accordingly.

We have tried using a kitchen timer for this purpose by announcing how long they have to work on a project, and telling them they have until the timer rings to finish. However, no one can see the timer once it is set, and when the alarm sounds it sets off a chorus of screaming - totally breaking up our momentum.

I’ve known for a while that a large visual timer would help, but have never taken the time to investigate them until now. In this course, I have heard much about Children’s Countdown Timer from my colleagues and it looks perfect, but it is for android or ipad/iphone devices and I want a PC or web-based solution that I can easily project on my smartboard. After trying out a few, I found Online Stopwatch which is easy to set up, very customizable, and has a wide variety of visual representations for the passage of time.

To start, though, I will use the simple clock shape because I like how the sweeping hand shows how much time has elapsed, and students can easily see what percentage of the time is left.  A five-minute timer looks like this after 4 minutes have gone by:

The other representations, though fun, are much more subtle in their illustration of time passing, so I will stick with the clock or the egg-timer for now.  The others might be too fun to watch, and I certainly don't need any more possible distractions.

An added bonus I found with this application is the random name picker capability. This is a help I didn't even know I needed, but when I saw it I immediately thought of all the times multiple children asked me to do something and I am put in the position of choosing.  This never feels fair to anyone.  I entered my list of students, bookmarked the page, and next time this happens, I will spin the virtual wheel to choose.

I think the addition of Online Stopwatch capabilities to my classroom routines will be very beneficial to our classroom management strategies.

WAP 7 - Assistive Technology: Boardmaker

In our classroom this year, we do not really have any children with special needs that would require specialized assistive technology. What we do have, though, are a number of dual language learners, and also young children for whom social skills are not intuitive. They all need to be taught. As I have discovered in the field of education, many things that were developed for children with special needs are often very helpful for all children in general. Since I have heard a lot over the years about the power of Boardmaker, I decided to use this Weekly App Practical to see if I could employ Boardmaker to address these concerns in my classroom.

I signed up for the 30 day free trial, downloaded the Boardmaker Studio software, and was immediately amazed and overwhelmed at the same time.  It was very apparent that I could not just poke around and adequately figure out all this application had to offer, so I took advantage of their comprehensive training opportunities and spent an hour with the Boardmaker Studio Basics webinar.

            

I learned that Boardmaker Studio was an installed piece of software that allows you to create print or play activities on computer or smartboard using Picture Communication Symbols. You can create offline in Boardmaker Studio, and then manage online via BoardmakerOnline.com. You can create from scratch or use one of many (over 600!) templates already available that you can customize to your purposes. In my opinion, this is one of the most powerful features of the product.

In very short order, following the clear instructions in the webinar, I was able to create from scratch a visual aid for my not-quite-English-speaking children to make their requests for help known at lunch time. 

But I also discovered that Boardmaker is not just for printing. There are robust capabilities to create all manner of interactive projects that involve sequencing, making choices, checking off completed tasks and the like.  I searched the templates for a suitable one to accomplish my second goal, and found this sample for the sequence of events involved in washing hands.

Using something like this template as a starting point, it would be quick and easy to create numbered steps for many preschool skills we teach - like joining a group, interrupting, asking for help, etc, with help from the book Skillstreaming in Early Childhood that was introduced in our Classroom Management course.  That would be a great addition to our toolbox for social/emotional training.

At $100 to $200 a year, though, (depending on whether I want a personal or professional license), Boardmaker is a commitment!  I had better complete these projects quickly before my trial runs out, or convince my higher-ups that we need Boardmaker going forward.