My grades are submitted, and the full days of classes are over. A few more days and my summer vacation begins in earnest. Wrapping up the year certainly invites reflection. Here are some of my successes and failures from this year’s technology integration.

REMIND: Props to that great program! This allows teachers to connect to their students through texting without anyone knowing other people’s cell phone numbers. You can have your messages delivered to your cell phone or pick them up online. For my cell phone oriented students, this was a great way for me to contact them with announcements or updates.

However, that made my integration of TWITTER more of a flop. Students did not engage on Twitter as much as in previous years. I use Twitter for posting original content or retweeting pertinent ideas. However, I also used it in the past to get messages to my students. Remind replaced that function.

Also, I found out that my students do not use #hashtags. That was a rude awakening for me because #Ilikemakingpointsinhastags. They read my tweets, but they rarely replied or retweeted. Few students this year leveraged the power of Twitter for their own PLN. Part of that was due to the Internet connectivity issues we endured since March, but this is something I need to set as a goal for next year! #bringbacktwitterTuesdays

NEWSELA: Props to my administration for investing in that program. However, the delay with the PA state budget prevented us with getting this up and run

ning until the second semester when the time seemed to slip through our fingers. So that’s a flop, too. However, it is definitely a goal for next year to get all teachers inserviced on this program. My principal has a great idea for using this as part of our PSAT/ SAT student preparation, and I am excited for that.

KAHOOT: Props to this engaging and fun way to get kids involved. But I flopped with this because I never even used it until last week. Tsk tsk. Goal for next year–more Kahoot sooner!

PIKTOCHART: A great tool for my students to use for creating infographics, this program definitely deserves props. Kids used it in AP for goal setting in the beginning of the year and several times in Digital Literacy. I want to use more infographics next year, and having been inspired by Kelly Gallagher, I will attempt to redefine the way I teach Digital Literacy by having more smaller projects before the big one.

HAIKU DECK: Props to this beautiful app. I love Haiku Deck. The kids love it. Even though it seems like a simple tool, something for younger children perhaps, this app let me bring home the power of visuals and less text. Props to those students who got closer to understanding that less is more for a visual presentation and that their oral presentation is better when it is conversational. Definitely need to work on helping more kids understand that.

Interestingly enough, I realized that when I create presentations, my level of confidence is inversely proportionate to the number of words I put on a slide. The more words, the less confident I am. Is that a prop or a flop?

EDUCREATIONS: Props, props, and more props. Here is an opportunity to help students practice their oral presentation skills. Again, our Internet issues impacted the second semester students from working in depth with this, but this is a definite keeper in the classroom.

GOOGLE CLASSROOM: Props to infinity and beyond! As a previous Schoology and Edmodo user, and a former Ning aficionado, I initially thought Classroom was somewhat thin in what it would allow me to do with my students. I was wrong. I love it. Okay you have to use Drive with it, but I love Drive, too. I can give assignments, collect assignments, post work, assign conversations, personalize the page and many more things. The only bad part is it is hinkey when you assign work but forget to “give each student a copy”. I would like to see that made easier than having to delete and recreate the assignment, but that really is my fault (flop again) for being too eager pressing enter.

IPADS: I did not use them much at all this year, and when I did it was often problematic with the sign ins for my students. I love iPads, but only as single user devices. That’s a prop for sure. But sharing iPads is more difficult for my students who use technology every single day. If I only had a cart of iPads, I would use them every day, but I would prefer each student to have his/her own.

CHROMEBOOKS: PROPS, PROPS, PROPS. This is my second year with a cart of Chromebooks. These have gone through multiple students every day for two years straight, and I only had ONE key come loose on one device. They are fast, they are clean, and they are effective. In a perfect world, every classroom teacher would have a cart of Chromebooks. That would provide a 1:1 environment without the kids losing, breaking, or forgetting their own device.

Overall, it was a very good year as far as technology in my classroom. What are your thoughts about your tech use this year? I would love to hear from you.

Edutopia