After reading what many of you have responded to my recent blog posts, I dug a bit deeper into the Quizlet world and found it even more useful that I thought! I did a 5th grade Astronomy search to  see what would come up and I was surprised and thrilled to see how many vocabulary sets were already posted on the site! There were even some posted by some of the teachers who work with the students in my school! Ha! I was very intrigued to see how similar my definitions were to the definitions that other educators use. Although the general definitions were similar, a lot of the language used was different. Some of the definitions were a lot more complicated and some were on the easier side. I wonder if definitions and language used  is determined state by state or if it is by district. I know that I  use the definitions that are given by NY State. Many times, though, I have to actually further define words that are in the definitions so that the 5th graders can better understand the word. 

So, I officially have my first Quizlet vocabulary set to use with my class. I decided to start with Science since there seems to be a lot of new vocabulary. We are currently working on the Astronomy Unit and I included words that we have already discussed in class along with words that will come up this week. Once the words were entered, I created my class and now I will be able to add as many study sets that I want to include throughout the year. What is great is that, I won't have to create new study sets year after year. They will already be here unless I delete them! The name of my class is : Mrs. Quinn's 5th Grade J-D. Feel free to go to quizlet.com and find my class study set!
a What the students can do to begin is, look at the list of vocabulary words. They can 'star' words they want to study together, they can listen to the word and the definition or I can record my own voice with the word, definition and any additional information I want to share with them. Once they have entered the set there are many different activities to choose from. I will share one of them with you now. The name of the game is Scatter. In this game, all of the words and definitions are scattered throughout the page. The students have to drag the words to their corresponding definitions while a timer is displayed in the corner of the page. The idea is to clear the page and the timer will stop. After completing multiple rounds, the hope is that it takes less and less time the more familiar the words become. I like this because although it is a competition... it is against yourself and not other kids. Try it!

So I have successfully survived the first week back to school (barely). I was pleasantly surprised by the number of kids in my class who already know how to utilize the Quizlet website. I don't know why I am surprised seeing they are the ones who always keep me informed of the latest and greatest technology and learning tools. I went to the Quizlet homepage and found it incredibly easy to set up activities. It is a studying tool for students and has a variety of practice and strategies for vocabulary memorization. There are also mobile apps available for iOS and Android. This is a free online tool with an option to upgrade for an additional fee. It appears that the free version has PLENTY to offer for teachers, parents and students. The Quizlet mission, as stated on their website is that "Every person on earth deserves access to free, powerful, and inspiring learning tools- and our mission is to build them."

Signing up to use this program was very simple (see below) and once you join, it is very easy to start creating your class study sets.

Next, you will make vocabulary lists with words and definition that will only have to be filled out once. These words will become part of a set that can be used for various study games. Sets can be created and updated as often as you'd like and there is no limit as to how many you want to make and organize.

I am still trying to figure out how I want to use it in my classroom. I currently teach ELA, Math and Science. My initial thought was that I would use it for science vocabulary for each unit beginning with Astronomy. With the new Common Core Math, however, it may also be a good opportunity to introduce some new vocabulary for that subject, as well.

If anyone has used Quizlet and/or has any ideas as to how you think I should use it, please share! I am excited to start creating my study sets and I am hopeful that it will be as easy as it looks. To be continued...

INTRODUCTION:

Hello! I'm Melissa Quinn (Dardaris) and I was born and raised in the Syracuse area. I received my undergrad degree in Elementary Education from Oswego State and worked on my Masters Degree while teaching in the Jamesville-DeWitt School District. My Master's Degree is also from Oswego in Literacy Education. I have been teaching in the middle school setting for 14 years and I currently teach 5th Grade. Along with teaching, I also coach the modified soccer and lacrosse teams.  I love my job so much and over the past few years I have noticed that my students pick up on technology so quickly. I know that I need to get on board in order to best instruct them and be on their same page!

For my topic of discussion throughout this semester I will be focusing on Quizlet. This is something that many teachers in my building use and I am very curious about how it works and how I will be able to adapt an implement it successfully in my classroom. I thin that it has the potential to be a powerful tool to help facilitate my teacher and the learning for my students. If there is anyone in the course who is familiar with Quizlet, I welcome any ideas/advice that you have!