The tool that I started using since I signed up for this class is Symbaloo. I can download the page to any computer at school. I find myself searching other Symbaloo web mixes to find new sites for my students to use. My students use the page daily at our math and literacy stations. I also shared my Symbaloo page with the other kindergarten teachers. They weren't familiar with this tool.
Symbaloo allows students to choose where they would like to go when they use the computers. The computer screen looks like a cellphone screen full of apps. Previously, I chose one website that all students would use for that week. Starfall was a favorite because it has such a wide range of skills. Now, I can use each activity within Starfall was a separate icon.
Now, the screen allows students to choose what skill they want to review. Right now, I have the icons grouped by literacy or math. I have literacy at the top and all of the math sites at the bottom. I started out with only 3 or 4 choices for each- but within a couple of weeks I was able to search other web mixes and now have over 30 tiles to choose from.
Students that still need help with rhyming or letter sounds can choose to go there - but my above grade level readers have more choices to work on blends or digraphs, or read a book, or write a story.
Now, I can create pages for various levels of math or literacy in the classroom. I can see how adding more pages and levels will help individualize learning. My goal over the summer is to have a literacy page - maybe even two different pages for literacy at different levels. I can do the same for math. I feel that using this tool is in the modification range of the SAMR model.
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