Engaging Apps for the Classroom - Flip

  

Link to Flip: Flip

Link to Lesson Plan: Grade 5 Review on Context

Reflection and How We Will Incorporate Apps into Our Future Classrooms

  This week, we collaborated with another teacher candidate on developing a lesson incorporating technology-based apps. I had the privilege of working with my critical friend, Morgan, and we were both eager to see how we could make a standard lesson more engaging with the program Flip. We struggled to choose just one activity for this lesson because there are many ways to use the app to meet curricular outcomes and standards. 

    We opted to work with the curricular outcome of context in our lesson and have students construct a flip video addressing the following context-related questions: Think of a time when the main character was faced with a decision. Why did they make the decision they did? What background knowledge or experiences helped you infer why they made the decision? Because this lesson is aimed to be a review for students after they get explicit instruction (usually the day before) on what context is and how it relates to different readings, we believed that these questions fostered critical thinking. Getting students to answer these questions in video form allowed them to use their creativity while providing them with an experience to explore how technology can be another form of expression.

    Getting to work with another teacher candidate for this lesson provided many benefits. We were able to work together to create an engaging lesson, bounce ideas off one another and talk about how this app could be used in our individual classrooms. It also opened my eyes to see how team teachers work together to design and facilitate lessons.  

    I enjoyed the process of presenting our lessons to our classmates and having other groups present to us because we learned how to incorporate different apps into daily teaching practices while learning how apps can be such an influential part of education.

    I would utilize this app in my future classroom in a variety of ways, whether it be introduction videos at the beginning of the year, book talks, summary of learning activities and so much more! This tool can also be used to differentiate writing activities. If students have difficulty physically writing, they can express their thoughts through video media. Another app that stuck out to me was Go Noodle. It incorporates movement into daily lessons and activities while relating to curricular outcomes. For example, getting students to engage in a water cycle dance. I would use this app as a brain/movement break while keeping students engaged with the curriculum.