Friday (12/18/20) I finished my first official semester of being a librarian during a pandemic. Wow what a semester it has been! There have been many downs, but also many ups. I have a reflection blog coming up, but I wanted to share my 5 Top Favorite Things of this first semester.
School background: We are a middle school hybrid model. We have virtual and in-person students and our student enrollment is about 850.
Nearpod is my absolute FAVORITE app to use for lesson planning and creating!
Our school is a Nearpod school, but it is a platform I would be happy to pay for because of how amazing it is. It is a platform that allows for interactive lessons, games, and ways to embed items. Students can access Nearpod through a web browser or an app on various devices.
How I use it:
-I create slides directly in Nearpod or use one of the many thousands of lessons already created and tailor it for myself
-I embed activities to keep students engaged such as Time To Climb, Matching, and videos
-Sometimes I just use it as slides while teaching
-I can give the teachers the embed code so they can embed into their Canvas course or give them the student link so the asynchronous learners can have access to the lesson as well
Canva
Being mostly virtual I love that I can use Canva for social media posts, flyers, and my monthly calendars. There is an option to embed and also share through links. Back in October I created my first calendar, and have loved making them ever since. I also currently use the free version, but have put in an application for the educator account.
How I use it:
-social media posts (there is even animation available)
-the phone app is pretty good for ideas on the go
-monthly calendars that have hyperlinked ideas
-embed items into my Canvas course
I will be honest, there are not many things I pay for when it comes to apps (I do pay extra for Google storage), but I do pay for Piktochart- and it is the BEST money I spend a year. Piktochart is fantastic for creating infographics, flyers, and other digital content. There is an educator discount that I use. There are plenty of templates, but it is also easy to start from scratch.
How I use it:
-Each six weeks I create an infographic of all that happened in the library
-Each month I create an "Installment" which is a newsletter that goes in all the staff bathrooms
-I share the links to the different infographics through social media outlets along with downloading PDF (which has clickable links)
-I also love how interactive it is when looking at the PDF and website (and I can keep track of how many times it was viewed)
My second six weeks infographic for the library
Flipgrid
Flipgrid is a platform that offers video discussions. Once a topic is created students/staff can add videos to enrich the conversation, share their own information, or record a response
How I use it:
-I have a Book Talk Tuesday topic and a What are you Reading Wednesday Topic where I post weekly book talks (it is also open to students to respond)
-I have a Staff Recommendation Topic for teachers to share their reads
-I have topics for Try It Tuesdays where students can share what they have tried
I like that I can see how many views these have and how I can easily share it to Twitter. I also like that I can control who posts and who sees videos
How I use it:
-I use it personally- audiobooks for my walks and in the car and eBooks for my Kindle (I don't have the self control to read on my phone)
-promoting to our students- all of our students have iPads- although it works in the browser- the app is amazing!
I know that 2021 is probably not going to be much easier, but I am jumping for joy that I can check 2020 off my list!
What are your top 5? I know that there are several other items that I use on a regular basis, but these have gotten me through this semester.
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