Resources for St. Mary School

Digital Tools for Practicing Speaking

There is no reason why we shouldn’t let students do a “rough draft” of talks. Whether it is practicing a mini-lesson or giving a small sample of a presentation or leaving a comment about class, we have to let students use digital tools BEFORE presentation day.

1) Sign up for Google Voice. It’s free. Visit https://voice.google.com/about  Any student that can get to a phone can leave a message for you. “I want to hear 30 seconds of the part of the speech where you are most proud of the voice you added” and so on. Call my number to see how it sounds: 720.383.7451

2) Let students use whatever recording tool they have. Every smart phone/tablet/laptop has some kind of recording app.

3) Suggest an easy online tool such as Vocaroo. No sign up just record, re-record, and send to your email. http://www.vocaroo.com

4) Use Padlet. There is a free version at https://padlet.com/ Think of like a cork board where sticky notes can be posted…except the sticky notes may contain words, pictures, links, video, and audio. Here’s the sample I showed at the workshop: https://padlet.com/erik_palmer/grabber  Double click anywhere on the “stars” and you’ll get options for leaving comments and/or practice talks.