TeachersFirst - Featured Sites: Week of Mar 29, 2020
Here are this week's features. Clicking the tags in the description area of each listing will present a list of other resources with this topic. | Click here to return to the Featured Sites Archive
ISTE Standards for Students - International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE)
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
Use the ISTE Standards for Students as a guideline to using technology in your classroom. Download the printable standards for use when considering what type of technology to use, how to use it, and your expectations for learning. Incorporate the ISTE Standards into your professional development sessions within your school. Consider unpacking one standard per month during professional development learning. Use a curation tool like Wakelet, reviewed here to share resources with peers relating to incorporating the standards. Encourage your peers to share their ideas for using the standards by using Flip, reviewed here as a conversation starter for your ongoing standards and technology discussions.You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
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Be Internet Awesome - Google
Grades
2 to 6In the Classroom
Discover the many free resources for teaching digital safety offered on this site. Share a link on your class website for parents. Include the interactive game as part of a computer center during Internet safety lessons. Use the free lesson plan to teach digital safety either as a one-time unit or as mini-units throughout the school year. Enhance learning by having cooperative learning groups create podcasts discussing digital safety information. Use a site such as Buzzsprout, reviewed here, to create the podcasts.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Telegra.ph - telegra.ph
Grades
2 to 12In the Classroom
Use this tool as an easy to use blogging tool in the classroom and in every subject area. Use in language arts classes to strengthen students' writing ability and 21st century skills. Teach about proper commenting etiquette on simple first blog posts. Use for student-written book reviews for the school library. Use as a tool for class or parent communication. Engage students in discussions on current events, independent reading, literature, and more. Ask students to play the role of a historical figure and write about their viewpoints or experiences. Use the site as a forum for any simulated or real task. Invite parents to join to give their points of view on upcoming elections or public policy issues by commenting on student posts. Share a blog in even the youngest of classes, for parents to use to learn about a specific unit of study, field trips, and more. Use this site in world language classes to have students write a blog entry in the new language. Include the principal or superintendent in class discussions of students' rights as you study the Constitution. Create incredible discussions of environmental, political, or economic issues. Create a standing assignment for elementary and middle schoolers on snow days. Have students write a post about the snow using Telegra.ph and share the URL on a class wiki. Post the various links on the class web page so students can comment on each other's posts after they come in from sledding.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Podcast Generator - Alberto Betella
Grades
1 to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Create regular or special podcasts to share on your class web page or wiki. Create a mini gallery of images taken during a lab or a portfolio of images from photography, art, or any other class. Add music and share as part of a digital portfolio. Looking for even more ideas? Use this tool in your blended or flipped classroom to record class assignments or directions. Record story time or a reading excerpt for younger ones to listen to at a computer center AND from home, adding a touch of blended learning to your classroom! Have readers (perhaps older buddies) build fluency by recording selected passages for your non-readers. Launch a service project for your fifth or sixth graders to record stories for the kindergarten to use in their reading and listening center. Challenge students to create "you are there" recordings as "eyewitnesses" to historical or current events. Make a weekly class podcast, with students taking turns writing and sharing the "Class News," encourage students to create radio advertisements for concepts studied in class (Buy Dynamic DNA!). Invite students to write and record their own stories or poetry in dramatic readings. Language students or beginning readers could record their fluency by reading passages. Allow parents to hear their child's progress reading aloud, etc. Compare world language, speech articulation, or reading fluency at two points during the year. Challenge your Shakespeare students to record a soliloquy. Write and record a poem for Father's or Mother's Day (or other special events) and send the URL as a gift to that special person.If you have gifted students who lean toward the dramatic, this tool is simple enough for them to create dramatic mini casts without needing a video camera. Have students upload their own images and write a drama to accompany them, showing what they have learned in independent learning beyond the regular curriculum.
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WordClouds - wordclouds.com
Grades
2 to 12In the Classroom
WordClouds is a terrific visual tool to share on an interactive whiteboard or with a projector. Paste in a passage or URL for a political speech to visualize the politician's "message." Analyze advertising propaganda by visualizing the language used in TV or print ads. Create word clouds of historical texts of inauguration speeches as time capsules of the issues of the day. Use this site as a way to help students see and memorize text, especially visual learners. Use it also when writing poetry or reading passages of great literature to "see" themes and motifs of repeated words and images. Have students paste in their own writing to spot repeated (and monotonous) language when teaching lessons on word choice. Students will be surprised to see what words appear to be dominant. ESL and ELL students will eagerly use this site since word order will no longer be a problem for them. Have students work in groups to create word posters of vocabulary words with related meanings, such as different ways to say "walk" or "said" and decorate your classroom with these visual reminders of the richness of language.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Believe It or Not? - NewseumED
Grades
8 to 12In the Classroom
Take advantage of the free lessons, discussion questions, sample articles, and worksheets offered for use in your classroom. Divide students into small groups and assign different discussion questions and activities to each group. Allow all older students to have a voice (and engage their interest) in the small group by using a chat service like Flock, reviewed here. Enhance learning by challenging the small groups to create a slide presentation using the free Microsoft PowerPoint Online, reviewed here, demonstrating information learned. With the online PowerPoint students can add videos, images and documents making them all interactive. Note: with Flock students can also start planning the presentation and keep the plan for 30 days. If you cannot make a field trip to the Newseum for the Gallery Guide Handout, you can do a Google search for Who Controls the News and find many free resources.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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The Educator's Guide to Building & Construction - HomeAdvisor
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
Take advantage of the many free lesson plans and activities to incorporate STEM activities and Maker projects into your classroom. Ask a parent volunteer, local contractor, or naturalist to come in and help with activities. If you are beginning the process of integrating technology, have students create blogs sharing their learning and understanding using Penzu, reviewed here,Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Flock - Cookies Riva FZC
Grades
8 to 12In the Classroom
Teachers can use the chat feature to communicate with parents or students. Collaborate with other educators on lesson plans and activities. Create groups of students during group projects for collaboration. Attach the directions to the chat and monitor the conversation by including yourself in the group and promoting good digital citizenship. Use the poll feature to check for understanding or use the chat as an exit ticket.Edge Features:
Parent permission advised before posting student work created using this tool
Includes social features, such as "friends," comments, ratings by others
Requires registration/log-in (WITH email)
Premium version (not free) includes additional features or storage
Multiple users can collaborate on the same project
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Digital Compass - Common Sense Media
Grades
5 to 9In the Classroom
This site is perfect to incorporate into any digital citizenship lessons. Complete activities together on your interactive whiteboard while making appropriate and inappropriate choices along the way. Create a link on your class website or blog for use at home. Be sure to share Digital Compass with parents to use as part of their online safety discussions at home. Enhance students' learning and create a simple infographic sharing their findings using Canva Infographic Maker, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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CommonLit - CommonLit
Grades
4 to 12In the Classroom
CommonLit is an excellent resource for literature teachers, speech and debate teachers, and history teachers. Share the site with students on an interactive whiteboard or projector, and ask the class what themes they would like to investigate. Under each theme are two questions. Divide the class into small groups with each group investigating one of the questions for one of the themes and reading the accompanying text. Differentiate for students by having students read on the same theme, but at their reading level. Challenge individuals, pairs, or small groups to create a graphic organizer for the story they read replacing paper and pencil and using a tool like Holt Interactive Graphic Organizers, reviewed here. You could take this to another level and have two groups read different selections on the same theme, use a graphic organizer to make comparisons for how the theme was presented, and then enhance learning by challenging the groups to present their findings to the class via video. Use a simple video creator like Adobe Express Video Maker, reviewed here. This site would also work when you have to make substitute plans unexpectedly. Just put the link in your plans and tell the sub what theme you want students to read about, or better yet, let the sub choose!Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Google Keep - Google, Inc.
Grades
4 to 12In the Classroom
Take pictures of things to do, buy, or finish. Create checklists of steps in a project. Place all of your notes in one place so you do not forget. Use this tool easily in your Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) classroom since all students will be able to access it for free, no matter what device they have. They could "keep" assignment information, reminders, and more. Consider creating a class account that can be used by all students. Spell out the use of the site and what is allowed and not allowed -- and the penalties. Even though all students have the same login, create different notebooks for different tasks that students can use to upload information to be shared by all. Create separate accounts for student groups who can then share their notebook with other groups. Use Keep to snapshot and share links, documents, files, and pictures for any group project or class work. Whole class accounts can be used by a class scribe during class and accessed from home for review, by absentees, etc.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Chartle - Zygomatic
Grades
6 to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
You will want to play with this tool before using it in class. Use it anywhere numerical data is collected and is best shown in a chart. Collect data in a science, survey, or math class and display it using different graphs to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using each graph type. Use for quick creation and sharing of created graphs. Create charts together easily on an interactive whiteboard when introducing the different types. Have students operate the board while others offer instructions on what to do next. Use graphs to portray different sets of data about a topic in a new and unique way. Use this tool to create graphs and charts for presentations and reports. Make quick charts students can share with others such as "How I spend my time" and "Places I have visited." During political campaign seasons, create charts to visualize better what the pollsters are saying.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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