Week 9 Tools

This week's tools were one of both review and exploration. Fortunately, I have heard of WhatsApp and GroupMe before this class. I currently use GroupMe to interact and communicate with my school counseling cohort. I just learned about Slack this semester through my Transition education class as another means of communication. All three tools are great ways for students to communicate and collaborate with each other if they need help with homework or work on group projects. I have even seen teachers use GroupMe to communicate with parents regarding important things happening in the classroom such as field trips, important testing coming up, etc. Nowadays, most everyone has access to a phone. These apps may be the best way to communicate with parents instead of teachers sending out newsletters like they used to in the 90s. 


The one tool this week that I never heard of before was Miro. However, once I started exploring, I was hooked. Our class has a timeline template currently running on this site; however, I loved the other templates the site offers. This site holds concept maps and flow charts. One template that I saw was the start/stop/continue retrospective. A teacher could use this template as a K-W-L chart before teaching a lesson. This would allow the teacher to determine what the class knows and wants to learn, not just one student. One template I loved on Miro was the emotions wheel. As a current school counselor, I deal with a lot of emotions. However, it can be hard for students, at times, to express their feelings. With this wheel, they can pick the emotion that best represents how they are currently feeling. Based on what they pick, I can offer support as needed. What I love about this is that it is online, and I am not continuously having to print emotion wheels out because I have misplaced them. 

I am excited to use these products in the fall when school starts. :)

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