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return to subject listingBystander Revolution - Take the Power Out of Bullying - MacKenzie Bezos
Grades
4 to 12In the Classroom
Use an interactive whiteboard or projector to talk to your class about bullying with these videos. Use this discussion to prompt a journal entry, skit, or other personal response on the topic of bullying and how to handle it. Exchange pencil and paper and use a blogging tool like edublog, reviewed here. Provide this link for parents to view at home with their students. Challenge cooperative learning groups to create their own videos addressing bullying issues. Replace paper and start with Story Map, reviewed here, for students to plan their skit. Share the skits on a site such as SchoolTube, reviewed here. Be sure to share this site with your school's counselors and anyone else who deals with students who are being bullied.You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
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Global Virtual Classroom - AT&T and Give Something Back International Foundation
Grades
1 to 12In the Classroom
Take students to another place; encourage them to understand other cultures and create global citizens by signing up to join GVC. After introducing GVC on an interactive whiteboard or projector, create a quick poll (with no membership required) using SurveyRock, reviewed here, to vote for which country or region to communicate with and share information. Begin a blog for each student to share reflections using a blog tool like edublogs, reviewed here. Consider asking the partner teacher to have their students blog, too, and encourage students to respond to each others' blogs. Students' writing improves when they have an authentic audience. Haven't started blogging yet? Check out TeachersFirst's Blog Basics.Another idea would be to use a projector and Padlet, reviewed here, and use the columns feature on Padlet to discuss and informally assess prior knowledge about the culture with whom students will be working. Padlet creates virtual bulletin boards. Once the project is underway, go back to Padlet occasionally, and add what students learned and whether it coincides with their original ideas. Before culminating the project, ask the partner class if they will fill in the areas and ideas missed on your Padlet. Consider starting a lunch time or after school club for students to have more time to participate in the Clubhouse.
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Ourboox - Mel Rosenberg & Ran Shternin
Grades
2 to 12In the Classroom
There is no end to the ideas for stories! Now you can easily publish and share them with Ourboox. At the beginning of the year have students develop stories to tell about their summer and share with classmates. Enhance and modify student learning and technology use (depending on the project requirement) by having students create: a photo story for history, showcasing great people or specific historical events such as the signing of the Declaration of Independence, in the arts, create a photo story of achievements of various artists. In science, create a photo story of famous inventors or have students explain their understanding of cell division. ESL/ELL students can use the site to recreate folk tales from their home countries. Encourage your older students to use this tool for digital storytelling projects created in response to research or extra study. This is a great find for gifted students who want to include art work and use their creativity in productive ways. No matter the subject of the story, they all need to be planned before creating a book. Have students do this either with paper and pencil or try using a digital storyboard like Story Map, reviewed here, or Storyboarder, reviewed here. If students cannot have their own email accounts, consider using a "class set" of GMail subaccounts (managed by you), explained here. This tells how to set up GMail subaccounts to use for any online membership service. This would provide anonymous interaction within your class.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Add Text - FlamingText.com Pty Ltd.
Grades
4 to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Use Add Text to add captions to images to create memes or posters for your bulletin boards. Use this easy tool with students during back to school time as a way for them to get to know each other. Have students upload a picture of themselves doing their favorite activity and label it with amusing text or a favorite quote (or song lyrics?). Have them upload images that represent their interests and character traits. Print the images with text for a back to school bulletin board. Use after a field trip for students to write captions on the photos they took. Be sure to share the photos on your class webpage, blog, or wiki. Haven't started blogging yet? Check out TeachersFirst's Blog Basics. For other uses, have students practice new words in a world language class by labeling and identifying images in that language. Help ENL/ESL students learn English by labeling the images. Create writing prompts using several annotated images. Have students create annotated images to explain key terms in science class. In ELA class, make homophone or vocabulary images to show the correct word along with a picture that explains it.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Comments4Kids - William Chamberlain
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
If your students blog, you may want to consider using Comments4Kids to encourage them to do their best writing, proofread, and learn how to tactfully and meaningfully comment on others' writing. You might want to consider using the hashtag #comments4kids in your Tweets. Read the 5 Smart Ways To Get Comments4Kids page to learn more. If you are interested in blogging but never have, you might want to check out TeachersFirst's Blog Basics For the Classroom. You also may want to use prompts from Thought Questions, reviewed here, as an easy way to get kids writing blogs. There are many other ideas for your students to blog about such as having science students display photos and information about lab work or research findings of a famous scientist. Language arts students can write about the main character in a book. Have literature circle groups create one blog to present the book and its different characters. Create blogs for current events, biographies, or explanations about curriculum topics such as plants.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Typewrite - Josh C.
Grades
5 to 12In the Classroom
Have your students set up collaborative groups for projects, lab data, and more. Anything students can do on a single computer; they can do collaboratively with this tool, accessing their work from any online computer. Be sure to test out this tool before using with your class. It may be a good idea to set up the groups with the teacher as a "member." Make sure you are protecting the safety of student work and identity and are within your school's Acceptable Use Policy.This tool facilitates teacher comments on student essays by not having to wait until students turn in their papers. Have them share links with you to their works in progress. Check essays online, monitor progress, and even make suggestions for revisions to provide feedback along the way and drive successful evidence support, proofreading, and editing skills. Challenge gifted students on their drafts and push their thinking further, adding questions or responses. Since most of us do not have time to provide such individual challenge throughout the writing process, why not connect them with other gifted students to collaborate and debate beyond just your classroom? Obviously, this tool is also fabulous for collaboration among students or teachers creating a shared writing piece at any level. You could even use it for parent input into draft IEPs.
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Dotstorming - Gareth Marland
Grades
2 to 12In the Classroom
Share your board with a projector or interactive whiteboard. Put the URL link on your website for students to access. If you don't want to share the link that way, then use a tool such as Stich, reviewed here, for students to type in (and reduce input mistakes). You may want to think about students using only their first name or their code to participate. Dotstorming does not show which posts belong to which student, so you may want to require that students identify their post and comment by putting their initials, their first name, or their code on their contributions to get credit. If you plan to allow all students to post to the wall or make comments, you may want to discuss Internet safety and etiquette and establish specific class rules and consequences.Use Dotstorming to collect WebQuest links and information to share with students. Assign a student project. For example, have students create a board about an environmental issue. They can include pictures, video, links, and other information to display. Use as a new format for book reports. Do your students have favorites such as music or sports? Create a board around these favorites or hobbies. Use a wall for grammar or vocabulary words. Create walls for debates or viewpoints. The voting is perfect for that idea! Post assignments, reminders, or study skills on a board. Do you use student scribes or reporters? Use Dotstorming to create a board with class news and updates.
Use Dotstorming as an "idea bin" where students can collect ideas, images, quotes, and more for a project. Require them to share a brainstorming Dotstorming board to show you the ideas they considered before they launch into a project. Have them brainstorm (and rank by votes) the possibilities for a creative problem solving or a "Maker Faire" project. In writing or art classes, use Dotstorming as a virtual writer's journal or design notebook to collect ideas, images, and even video clips.
Use Dotstorming as your virtual word wall for vocabulary development. Have students submit and share questions or comments about assignments and tasks they are working on.
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NewseumED - NewseumED.org
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
If you teach or even discuss civil rights, the First Amendment and its freedoms and ideals, current events, or the presidential elections be sure to look at the lessons provided here. The lessons will also help you show students how to tell facts from opinions in current events. Use ideas from the lesson plans to supplement your current teaching materials. Enhance learning and challenge small groups of students to create an infographic sharing their learning from the notes they took during a lesson. Use Infogram, reviewed here, to construct the infographic. If you plan on using one of the EdCollections ask students to enhance and extend their learning and develop a multimedia presention using Presentious, reviewed here, or an interactive poster with a tool like Genially, reviewed here, for one of the suggested Extension Activities.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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OmniLibros - Carthage College Center for Children's Literature
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
This site is perfect for finding reading material with settings from all over the world. Encourage students to choose a place that interests them, and then find books set in that location. Use this tool as an anticipatory set or "activator" to introduce a unit or lesson on a projector or interactive whiteboard about setting or geography. Be sure to share a link to this tool on your class website or blog for students to use at home.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Ocenaudio - ocenaudio
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
Use Ocenaudio in early grades to promote literacy by recording your students and creating an audio portfolio record of their reading. Use this tool with ESL/ELL students to practice fluency and hear themselves speak. Use Ocenaudio to record parents, principals, lunch ladies, librarians, relatives, and bus drivers all telling a favorite class story. During writing time, allow students freedom from the pencil to express their true creative voices. Also, dabble into digital storytelling to create a lesson in adding voice, emotion, and characterization. Record audio interviews at local nursing homes, fire stations, or museums to recollect times such as wars, the Great Depression, Civil Rights Movements, or as a primary source during memorable events. Record world language conversations as a student project. Make music class or the school band a gold recording!Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Keith Hughes Teaching Stuff YouTube Playlist - Keith Hughes
Grades
K to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Include videos during back to school preparation and planning with other staff members. Share with your student teacher as an excellent repository of teaching advice. Use these videos as examples for creating your own videos to share with your teaching colleagues.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Mobile Learning: Why Tech Savvy Educators Are Turning to Podcasts - Buzzsprout
Grades
1 to 12In the Classroom
Share this article with parents (or administrators) as an explanation and introduction to using podcasts in your classroom. Share with other teachers as part of your professional development sessions on learning technologies. Explore these other options for choosing your podcasting tools - PodOmatic, reviewed here, and Spreaker, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Ultimate Camp Resource - Ultimate Camp Resources
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
Bookmark this tool for the first week of school or any time that you want to experience some "team-building" in your class. Use this site to find games and activities for classroom icebreakers. Find ideas on this site to build relationships among students. There is even an Art Project section (scroll to the bottom menu to find it) that has lots of crafts for your makerspace! Share this site with parent helpers to find ideas for classroom parties.Comments
This is a valuable resource, not just for summer!Patricia, NJ, Grades: 6 - 12
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Instructables - Project Based Engineering for Kids - Autodesk, Inc.
Grades
K to 8This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Bring out the "inner engineer" in each of your students! During physical science units, visit this collection to get directions for students to build simple models to supplement content. You might want to visit the accompanying site How to Teach Project Based Engineering to Kids before getting started. Students can work in small groups to create a project. Different groups can demonstrate different laws of physics. Add this to your class website as a do-at-home project to encourage exploration at home. During language arts when focusing on using concise, clear, language, listen to the directions and use as a model. Enhance learning by having students write the scripts for creating other models using Google Docs or Microsoft Word. Using these online documents affords many benefits, including the ability to add comments, highlight information, and add links to online information. Extend learning by having students create a multimedia presentation featuring the directions and construction of the student model using Google Drawings, reviewed here. With Google Drawings, students can annotate, narrate, and add related links to an image. Not familiar with Google Drawings? Watch an archived OK2Ask session to learn how to use: OK2Ask Google Drawings, here. In gifted and talented classes or pull out programs, consider for a beginning of a deeper understanding of the concepts. Move forward with virtual field trips to see the "real" machines at work. Find ideas for after school clubs, camps, and more.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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GetEdFunding - CDW-G
Grades
K to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Create your account and explore GetEdFunding to find many grant opportunities. Apply for a grant using the tips provided in the Resources link. Be sure to share with your colleagues as an excellent resource for all grade levels and subjects. Consider creating a committee of interested teachers to divide up grant writing and win money for your school.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Buzzsprout - Tom Rossi
Grades
K to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Even if you aren't ready to create podcasts, share the How To Start a Podcast page with your students with excellent tips for creating any type of speaking presentation, create regular or special podcasts to share on your class web page or wiki to read/listen to in class AND from home, adding a touch of blended learning to your classroom! Have readers (perhaps older buddies) enhance their learning by building fluency and recording selected passages for your non-readers. Don't forget to have them listen and critique their podcast! Launch a service project for your fifth or sixth graders to record stories for the kindergarten to use in their reading and listening center. Have students 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." Have students create radio advertisements for concepts studied in class (Buy Dynamic DNA!). Have students write and record their own stories or poetry in dramatic readings. Language students or beginning readers could record their fluency by reading passages and listening to themselves. 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. Have your Shakespeare students 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.Edge Features:
Parent permission advised before posting student work created using this tool
Requires registration/log-in (WITH email)
Premium version (not free) includes additional features or storage
Products can be embedded
Products can be shared by URL
Multiple users can collaborate on the same project
Comments
Great resource for podcast novices like me! I love the step-by-step instructions to help with creating a podcast as well as the helpful tips and ideas for a podcast. Can't wait to begin using with my K-5 students.Christina, , Grades: 0 - 8
The podcasting 101 information is incredibly helpful for anyone wishing to begin podcasting. It also establishes tips that can be helpful for any speaker (as the description says).Patricia, NJ, Grades: 6 - 12
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GIMP - Jens T. Lautenbacher and Adrian Likins
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
Use this tool anytime photos need to be edited for use on class blogs, wikis, or in presentation tools found here. In primary grades, this tool could be useful for teachers to use to edit pictures from a field trip, science experiments, and more. Share the editing process with your younger students using your interactive whiteboard or projector. Edit together! Encourage older students to use this site themselves on images for projects or presentations. Use this tool in photography or art classes. Use the editor to edit pictures to fit styles of pictures when doing historical reports or to set a mood. Use text options for the photos themselves to tell the stories. Have students annotate or label Creative Commons online images of cells, structures of an animal, and much more.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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SRecorder - SRecorder Company
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
Use SRecorder to record instructions for using websites. Share how to perform problems, step by step directions for any project, and much more. Leave a video message for your substitute teacher or even your class! Create a video message to share with parents about current projects, clips from field trips, and more. Share on your class website for students to view at home.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Ranger Rick - National Wildlife Federation
Grades
K to 7This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
In the Animals sections, elementary students can conduct research on different kinds of animals including their place in the animal kingdom. At computer stations/centers have students look at the sets of animal pictures and identify common characteristics that are found for each set of animals to determine why they are categorized into each part of the animal kingdom. Use the interactive games as a center at an interactive whiteboard/projector. The games are fast and simple and can be used as a lesson opener to engage and capture the students attention.As a culminating activitiy, challenge students to write an adventure story where Ranger Rick and his animal friends have to get our of a sticky situation. Use a tool such as Printable Comic Strip Templates, reviewed here, for a nontech rough and final draft. If you're new to using technology with your students, or teach younger students augment techology use with ToonyTool, reviewed here, for their final drafts. To modify tech use in your class and for more experienced, older students try Make Beliefs Comix, reviewed here.
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401 Prompts for Argumentative/Persuasive writing - New York Times
Grades
7 to 12In the Classroom
English/writing, social studies, and current events teachers are sure to find something here for their students to write about. Introduce a few of the prompts and the winning student editorials using an interactive whiteboard or projector to get students interested. Have students define what concise means and what it should mean in their writing. Point out the good writing habits of the student winners. Students should read the NYT's article(s) that give information about the topic of the prompt(s). At this time, you could have students choose a topic, or you could select several from which students could choose. You could also use one prompt a day as an opener or closer quick write. Another idea would be to have students respond on a class blog to the prompts and then make comments on each other's opinions. Haven't started blogging yet? Check out TeachersFirst's Blog Basics.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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