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Famous African Americans - Famous African Americans.org
Grades
6 to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
This is an excellent site to use as part of a biography unit to match biographies to individual student interests. Allow students to choose a category. Have them read several biographies from that category, then research an African American that hasn't been included on this site. Have students use these biographies as a model to write about the person they researched. Instead of using paper and pen to write down information, ask students to use Google Docs or Microsoft Word to begin research. Using these online documents affords many benefits, including the ability to add comments, highlight information, and add links to online information. Once research is underway, suggest that students use a bookmarking tool like Raindrop.io, reviewed here, to organize information. Raindrop.io includes the ability to add notes to bookmarks, making it easy for students to label and add information for later use. As a final project and to extend student learning, ask students to create their own book using OurBoox, reviewed here, that includes images, videos, and text. Math teachers could have students figure out which category has the most people in it, or what percentage of the site is dedicated to the category they are interested in.You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
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Book Lending - Catherine MacDonald
Grades
K to 12Visit this fabulous tool that offers no late fees and no lost books! Join in sharing and borrowing of ebooks for free!
This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Finally, a way to expand class libraries with no budget limits! Book Lending.com opens up different titles that your students are requesting. Provide an extensive, ever growing library to Kindle devices or any device with the Kindle app. A valid email is required with no late fees or lost books, and with an ever-growing list of books. Fill the passions of your most avid readers with a wide variety. Students will take an active interest in selecting and in completing their book within the time limit. Motivation has no limit as your students can chose a book uniquely for them. Encourage families to join in their reading adventures. Be sure to add this site to your class webpage, wiki, or blog for a great free resource that encourages and supports literacy. This site is a must share for all readers!Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Typeform - Robert Munoz
Grades
K to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
This free tool is a great way to identify a value or rating of various items. Use this in science class to poll students on various types of renewable and nonrenewable energies as cheap/expensive and clean/dirty for the environment. Poll students on types of cars, rating the cost and gas mileage. Follow up with research into the various makes and models. Poll about famous presidents and various influences on the economy and society. Compare characters in various novels in measures of motivation and other characteristics. In younger grades, gather data about students favorite animals and why (such as fluffy/ferocious) or favorite colors and mood. Learn more about your students through polling of various social and cultural topics such as fashion, movies, and songs. Use this to identify misconceptions and resistance to various subject areas. Identify foods and feelings for each specific kind of food in Family and Consumer Science or attitudes towards various sports. Conduct specific polls for Introduction to Psychology or Sociology about various topics and reactions to the topics. Use to poll students on project ideas or to determine reactions to current events. Older students may want to include polls on their student blogs or wiki pages to increase involvement or create polls to use at the start of project presentations. Use polls to generate data for math class (graphing), during elections, or for critical thinking activities dealing with the interpretation of statistics. Use "real" data to engage students in issues that matter to them. For Professional development, rate different technology tools for ease of use/difficulty and high/low value for instruction. Place a poll on your teacher web page as a homework inspiration or to increase parent involvement. Gifted students would love this tool to dig deeply into the multiple facets of issues they worry about.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
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Classroom Libraries - Teachers College Reading and Writing Project
Grades
2 to 12In the Classroom
Teachers can use this as a reference site, especially when preparing a new unit in another subject area and trying to find related independent reading or literature circle options.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Educreations - Educreations, Inc.
Grades
6 to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Use this resource to create homework help for students to peruse when they are stuck on their own trying to complete assignments. Create mini lessons for students to review or learn the material they may have missed. Consider allowing students to use your account to write a script and record mini lessons for use by other students. Even two recordings of the same lesson is valuable as information can be explained differently from more than one person. Be sure to include this link on your class website for students (and parents) to access at home.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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The Exquisite Corpse Adventure - Library of Congress, Nat'l Children's Book & Literacy
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
Explore new worlds in reading by introducing your students to The Exquisite Corpse Adventure. Children of all ages have played progressive story games for centuries, where one person begins a story, stops at a cliffhanging moment, and the next person picks it up and continues, and so on, until everyone in the group has the opportunity to contribute. Take a look at the website to become familiar with the episodes and then put your own spin on a similar project. It can combine the tradition of oral storytelling with the written form, and even include illustrations so that you can tap into students' range of strengths and weaknesses. Whether you choose to "tighten the reigns" by setting the parameters, such as including the use of vocabulary, grammar, and literary elements you are studying, or letting it evolve spontaneously, the possibilities are endless. Best of all, the contributors get to decide what happens next. Perhaps students could be involved in creating a similar ongoing story on a class wiki (learn more about wikis at the TeachersFirst's Wiki Walk-Through). The story can continue throughout the school year and culminate with a digital story presentation created with tools from Educational Uses of Digital Story Telling reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Today - Parenting Guides - NBC Universal
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
Share the Parent Toolkit with parents as an excellent resource for up to date information on education and parenting. Create a link to the appropriate grade level information on your class webpage to help parents understand developmental guidelines for their student. Share this site with colleagues during professional development to gain further understanding of academic and social grade level benchmarks.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Alison - Mike Feerick
Grades
10 to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Use Alison to find professional learning courses, learn the basics of a new language, or for personal development. Share Alison with students to learn skills not offered in school or share with ENL/ESL students to use when learning English. Use Alison with student cohorts interested in learning about a new topic or preparing for college-level courses.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Art Lessons and Lesson Plans - Ken Rohrer
Grades
K to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Bookmark and save this site as a resource for art projects throughout the year, especially if budget cuts have taken away your art teacher! Be sure to check out the link to Sub Lessons. Print and save a couple of these to have in your substitute folder for use if necessary. Share with your art teacher (if you have one) as a resource.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Study Smarter - Chegg
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
Use as a study aid for students. This is a great tool for older students (who own cell phones). Students can study their flashcards on the bus, in the backseat of the family car, or while waiting for their dentist appointment! Have students create individual accounts and collaborate with others or create a class account for all to use. Have groups collaborate on the creation of flashcards for students to use or have groups create flashcards for specific parts of the unit. Learning support students can take their extra help along with them.Edge Features:
Parent permission advised before posting student work created using this tool
Includes Interaction w general public/ public galleries with unmoderated content
Includes social features, such as "friends," comments, ratings by others
Requires registration/log-in (WITH email)
Products can be shared by URL
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turnitin - Source Educational Evaluation Rubric (SEER) - turnitin
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
Share this rubric with middle and high school students with your projector or on an interactive whiteboard. Ask students to suggest a popular site for referencing in papers and projects. Use the rubric together and evaluate the site. Break students into small groups and have them evaluate several sites. Make these sites you have already evaluated, and then have the students evaluate them until you know most students agree on what makes a Highly Creditable site compared to a Creditable or Discreditable site. At the end of the activity give a quick assessment. This way students who do not feel sure about evaluating a site have the opportunity to let you know. Consider using Quizalize, reviewed here, for a more in-depth assessment.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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SummarizeThis - Iris Reading
Grades
5 to 12In the Classroom
Introduce SummarizeThis to students working on research projects as a way to quickly determine the content and viability of using websites. Use to differentiate instruction with students. Use with learning support students as a resource to make content more accessible. Use the summaries when teaching how to summarize in an ELA class. Compare the summary you create as a class or in small groups with the "automated" one. Are there subtleties or important distinctions that this tool misses? As a challenge for your more critical thinkers, have them try to figure out what signals the tool uses to create its summary.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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A Google a Day - Google
Grades
4 to 12In the Classroom
Use this after presenting some of the lessons from "Google Web Search for Educators" reviewed here. Once you've been through several of those lessons, why not use "A Google a Day" for a beginning of the class warm up or an end of the class exit activity. Once you've done this for a while, you might want to switch things up and have students write their own questions (related to curriculum, of course) to challenge their classmates.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Immersive Reader - Microsoft
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
Take advantage of the many features included with Immersive Reader for any classroom use. You may need to discuss downloading this product with your school's IT department; however, it is well worth the effort. This product is especially helpful for ENL/ESL students and students needing additional help with reading. Use the language options for students to hear and view text in their native language. Use Immersive Reader to help students with Dyslexia or ADHD to decode and focus on the text by using the options included. Upload classroom materials for students to use for help in understanding difficult text.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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TEACHFLIX - Ditch That Textbook
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
Use this curated collection of videos to engage students in lessons in all subjects. Use EdPuzzle, reviewed here, to enhance the video content by adding comments, questions, and more within the video. Create interactive lessons with videos from this collection, formative assessments, and other interactive content using Pear Deck, reviewed here, to present material in a deeper, more robust manner. Upon completion of your lesson, extend learning by asking students to share their learning using a simple web page builder such as Straw.Page, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Gamification Resources - TeachersFirst
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
Create your own games for review and classroom activities. As a final assessment, challenge students to create their own games to share with their peers. Use this collection to find the best gamification tools on the TeachersFirst site!Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Respondo! - Ian Byrdseed
Grades
4 to 12In the Classroom
Use this site to create unique lessons and literature responses that require critical thinking responses from your students. Share with students and allow them to create their own response at the end of a unit when comparing two books or reflecting on one book. Use this site as a resource for incorporating different levels of Blooms Taxonomy into your classroom and for differentiation among students. Have students make a multimedia presentation using one of the many TeachersFirst Edge tools reviewed here. Some tool suggestions are (click on the tool name to access the review): Adobe Creative Cloud Express for Education, Vevox, Animatron, Renderforest, and Canva Inforgraphic Maker.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Sign Generator - Ryland Sanders
Grades
K to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Create signs to include with multimedia projects. Customize a sign for use on your interactive whiteboard with directions for seat work or to introduce students presenting projects to the class. Have students use the images to give short story summaries using only four to six words. Create a set of class rules using one of the templates, and then print and post them on a bulletin board.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Journeys in Film - Journeys in Film and USC Rossier School of Education
Grades
8 to 12In the Classroom
Take advantage of the free lesson plans for your classroom. These resources and videos are extremely flexible for classroom use. Use the film clips for current events, and to highlight events from the past. Use a video segment to get students thinking about their understanding of issues, solutions, and whether today's environment has changed from that of the past. View a variety of clips from one theme and discuss events in the clip or use a writing assignment to provide time to process the events. Discuss in what ways these clips are similar and other societal, economic, and political factors that affected them. Be sure to brainstorm how different people, in other areas of the world, would view these issues. Research these issues using resources from other areas of the world. Use Today's Front Pages, reviewed here, to see editorials and news clippings that are not of American origin. If you'd like to to create your own clips from these films try using a tool like EDPuzzle, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Online-Calculator - Online-calculator.com
Grades
K to 12Be aware: this site does include advertisements.
This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
There are many uses for this practical online tool, beyond the obvious ones for math class. Bookmark this site on your own computer for projection on an interactive whiteboard and make the link available on your class web page for students to access from individual computers. You can shrink the calculator window in the corner of your interactive whiteboard to use as needed. Use this tool in social studies class for quickly calculating years or months from important timelines or when figuring out geographical distances. In English or L.A. classes, quickly figure out the life span of authors or how long ago a story took place. In health or science classes, use the BMI calculator or get other accurate measurements. The stopwatch tool can be useful for any in-class, timed assignment.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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