Google crome extention project

Google Chrome Extentions Project

The Google Chrome Extentions project was exciting and very fun to do. It was one of my all-time favorite projects of the semester so far. I loved that the first thing we got to do was use our bitmoji's. I love any activity using bitmoji's because I believe it could make something that students would normally think was dull a little more exciting. For the bitmoji part of the assignment, we could choose any five bitmojis we wanted to use for that slide. In fact, our assignment was to choose any five bitmoji's we wanted and add them to the slide. I really liked this part of the project because I got to choose bitmoji's doing ridiculous things like sleeping, hanging from a cliff, swinging into the presentation slide from a vine, or using the swing and saying hello. 

Click here to see the task I completed 

 Next, we were required to create a greeting using Screencastify. This was an exciting part of the assignment, but at the same time, it was also extremely frustrating. It took me a very long time to record a video that was two minutes long because my computer kept on crashing and deleting videos that I had completed. The crashing of my laptop had caused me to start something over from scratch. Due to the technical difficulties I had, I don't think I would use Screencastify in my classroom. I would not want my students to work extremely hard on an assignment to lose it because they were having computer issues. Instead, I might use Screen-O-Matic as a substitute. I've had similar issues with Screen-O-Matic, where my computer has mistakenly shut off, but with Screen-O-Matic, I have never lost my work and continue where I had left off. 

Here is the greeting video I created using Screencastify

I was then introduced to one tab, which I have fallen in love with. It is straightforward to use, and I can click on the icon to save all of my tabs I used for the day. One tab would be an absolute lifesaver in the classroom. I love how organized it could make a teacher. Instead of having multiple tabs open at once, you would have the tabs open by day, making essential materials easier to find. I was also introduced to EasyBib and Bitly. In fact, in my google chrome project, I said this about one tab, Bitly and EasyBib. “I would absolutely love to use these tools to teach students and engage them in active learning. My favorite tool would have to be EasyBib. Especially for students who are not confident in their ability to create in-text citations or are unsure how to create different citations for different formats. One tab would be very beneficial to my classroom. As I am working on resources to use for lessons, I could make sure I have a tab for each day of the week to allow for easy access I’m not sure that I would use bitly because I feel there is no need for it as long as I teach my students how to hide the links in other pieces of text.” 

I was also introduced to Pear Deck, which is an Add-on in google slides. I absolutely love this Add-on, especially if it needs to be used in a virtual setting. I believe it is a great way to get students engaged and allows them to really interact with whatever I am teaching them. For the Pear Deck portion of the project, I had to use Pear Deck to introduce a lesson. The lesson I chose to introduce was a lesson on Lewis and Clark. Lewis and Clark's expedition is one of my favorite things to learn about and will undoubtedly be one of my favorite social studies lessons to teach. I really enjoyed this part of the project because I got to play around with Pear Deck and become comfortable with it before fieldwork begins. 

Click here to view my Lewis and Clark Pear Deck assignment

I also love how the last two slides of the project in google slides gave even more resources a teacher can use both in a virtual setting and a physical classroom. I believe these resources are extremely beneficial to any teacher because these resources will help you, the teacher, your students to the best of your abilities and help you improve in the ways you teach.