Chromebooks... my new best friends

If I had to describe a Chromebook to someone who has never heard of it, I would problably say it's half a laptop, half a tablet. To me, it's the best of both worlds. It's portable, it's lightweight, it has a long battery life, it's cheap, it has a keyboard (I hate that tablets have no keyboards for students to write and edit texts) and, it makes teachers' lives a lot easier when combined with the use of Google for Education. No more "forgot to save", "forgot it at home" or "the dog ate it" excuses. Not only is it a great tool to support students' development of all three competencies, but it also is helpful with differentiation for special needs students and fast learners. This year, at our board, two ESL teachers have been experimenting with Chromebooks in their classroom. With only four Chromebooks per class, they have been using them mainly in workstations. We have developped a series of task cards to be used with the Chromebooks. They can be used in workstations, as a homework, as enrichment for fast learners or as a class assignement. You want to learn more about Chromebooks? Here are two interesting videos created by the RÉCIT: Portables infonuagiques au primaire and Portables infonuagiques au secondaire.