Thursday, June 11, 2015

Technology Thursday {Symbaloo}


I'm linking up today with the gals at "Teaching Trio" for Technology Thursday to tell you about Symbaloo! If you haven't heard of it, it's awesome! 

With Symbaloo you can bookmark and manage all of the websites you want your students to use on one page and your students will have access in a simple click!! 

This is my class Symbaloo page. You can access it here if you want to check out how it works. It is also set as the homepage on all of my student computers. Every time my students go on the Internet, this page opens and they click on one of the icons to go to that website. No more stress or time wasted trying to get on websites!

I also love how Symbaloo allows me to manage what sites my students are using. My students are only allowed to go to the sites that are on our Symbaloo page. However, I do allow my students to suggest sites to me and then I will add them once viewed and approved. In fact, the sites you see at the bottom are all of my students' requests! 

I also love that I can monitor their use during computer lab time. That's why you see the cute little number guys designed by Maureen Kinney. One day a week my class goes to the computer lab for an hour. They must spend 25 minutes on a site in number 1, 20 minutes on a site in number 2, and then they get 15 minutes to spend on a site of their choice in number 3. 

You can also change the background colors of the tiles giving you the option to even color code sites if you choose to do that! You can insert your own images as I did with the numbers and easily drag tiles anywhere you'd like. Super user-friendly and simple! 

I'm even planning to create a personal one this summer and during this post the thought dawned on me of creating one with special Ed sites to share with all of you!! Hmmmm!

If you're not set up with Symbaloo, head over to their site and get started {here}! It's super easy. Just sign up with a username and password and start creating your personalized tiles! 


4 comments:

  1. I love Symbaloo for even my personal favorites!

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  2. I have seen Symbaloo used at my other school. It would be nice to have one with all of the SPED sites on it!
    Sebrina
    Burke's Special Kids

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  3. This is really cool! I think it's great for the little ones to have pictures/logos for website choices. My kiddos frequently have trouble at the beginning of the year navigating their bookmarks page to find what I want them to do. I'll definitely check this out! :)
    Happy Teaching,
    Cassie
    Adventures in Teaching (A First Grade Blog)
    My TpT Store
    Follow Me on Facebook!

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  4. Very cool! I've heard of Symbaloo, and seen other teachers using it...But you have inspired me to look at it and try using it in my class! Thanks for sharing!

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