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Thought Plan - Max Schmitt
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
Use Thought Plan to plan and organize your yearly schedule. All students will appreciate having an online time management account, but learning support students and disorganized gifted students need one. This is also a great tool for ESL/ELL students to help learn organization skills with very simple features. You may want to model using this online tool to help middle and high school students learn personal organization. Share this site the first week of school to get students started on the right foot! Make a demo account for a mythical student and organize his/her daily schedule together so students can see how it works. Share the steps on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Alternately, this idea will work with group projects where students need to learn to manage their project time.You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
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GE Focus Forward - GE & Cinelan.com
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
Use this site as an anticipatory set or "activator" to introduce a unit or lesson on a projector or interactive whiteboard. Have students explore this site independently or in small groups. There is one film about sanitation that refers to "poop," so you may want to avoid classroom giggles from less mature students by setting the tone for scientific viewing. Use as any part of a career unit, as a look at explorers and innovators, or when discussing character education. Be sure to include this site on your class web page for students to access both in and outside of class for further practice. Challenge students to choose a topic to further explore and create 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): Infogram, Marq (formerly Lucidpress), Powtoon, and Vibby.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Quizlet Diagram Maker - Quizlet
Grades
5 to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Try out some of the diagrams on the site before attempting to create one. Share a link to any diagram on your class website for student review and practice. When ready to make your own diagram start out simple and follow the easy directions to create and share a learning diagram. Once you become confident, invite students to create their own diagrams to use as a review tool or in place of a final report. Have student experts create a video how-to guide for making diagrams using Typito, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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The Vortex: A Sorting Game - Class Tools
Grades
4 to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Develop Vortex activities to review any topic and save for use as a classroom center. Have students create review Vortex games as a study tool. Be sure to demonstrate how to make and share The Vortex before having students set up their own. Ideas for categorization activities are unlimited but can include categorizing types of animals, literary elements in novels, habitats, characteristics of geographic areas, and much more.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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NPS for Teachers - National Park Service
Grades
1 to 12In the Classroom
Whether you want your students to go on a virtual field trip, are studying American history, you're using blended or distance learning, you want to give your students a different take on math, science, art, or many other topics you will find something here for you and your students.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Free Comic Maker.Com - Magazine Pro
Grades
4 to 11In the Classroom
Creating comics can have many practical and engaging uses in the classroom. Students can retell stories to demonstrate comprehension or show their knowledge of scientific processes in a way that allows them to be creative. Comics can also be used to enhance social and emotional learning skills by having students create scenarios they might encounter in daily life. Teachers may also wish to create comics to provide a fun way to relay information, or as an engaging set to a lesson.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Time Graphics Timeline Maker - Time.graphics
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
It may take some time for you to become comfortable with creating a timeline with this product. Share with students to allow them to explore the different options, then ask them to become the teachers creating and using this tool in various ways. Ask students to create screencasts using Free Screen Recorder Online, reviewed here, with directions for using certain features of the timeline. Add all of the student tutorials into a Wakelet collection, reviewed here, for easy access at any time. Create timelines to introduce material in any subject. If your school uses Google Apps or Docs/Drive, your students (or groups) can create their own very easily. Map specific battles in history (World War II or the Revolutionary War, perhaps?) Map significant scientific discoveries in the progress of understanding cell theory or genetics. Follow the works of various writers, artists, or musicians. Follow the life of famous people or noteworthy events such as elections, the Olympics, or even local history!Edge Features:
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
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Google News Archive Search - Google
Grades
3 to 12In the Classroom
This site provides helpful information on effective browser searches for any social studies, history, or English class. Create a bookmark for news.google.com on classroom computers so that students can quickly access web news content from 2003. Include this site and other effective and safe web browsing tutorials by creating a Wakelet collection, reviewed here. Include items in your collection such as tutorials, shortcut tips, and how to use exact terms for searches.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Text2VoiceOver - ResponsiveVoice
Grades
K to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Use Text2VoiceOver to add comments and instructions to any YouTube video (or your own video) your students view. Share specific tips, ask questions, or add additional details to content. Have students create a voiceover to share their thoughts on a video, or ask questions to clarify content.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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50 Mini-Lessons for Teaching Student Research Skills - Kathleen Morris
Grades
5 to 12In the Classroom
Bookmark this page to use as a reference when teaching research skills. Consider using this site as a beginning outline of research skills to teach throughout the year then divide each topic into a unit for planning purposes. Use digital tools to reinforce and enhance the lessons. For example, when using the ideas for teaching how to clarify questions, begin with choosing a topic idea. It states to write as many questions as you can for an idea such as koalas. Gather student ideas on your whiteboard, then create a word cloud using Wordsift, reviewed here, to highlight recurring ideas and thoughts. Use this information as a starting point for research, and ask students to share online information into Padlet, reviewed here. Ask older students to use Fiskkit, reviewed here, as a collaborative tool for sharing and discussing online articles. Fiskkit includes tools for sharing online articles and adding highlights and notes with others. Upon completion of research projects, ask students to share their learning using a multimedia presentation tool like Adobe Creative Cloud Express for Education, reviewed here. Have students include original work, images, videos, and more to share their research projects.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Documentary Tube - DocumentaryTube.com
Grades
4 to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Discover the power of documentaries while studying point of view, primary and secondary resources, and debate skills. Examine the aspects shown in documentaries and help students find structure to provide an unbiased research project. Challenge existing knowledge in many areas. Help students become active thinkers and become involved in current events. Sharpen your own understandings.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Where Do You Fit? Political Party Quiz - PBS
Grades
8 to 12In the Classroom
Share the Political Party Quiz with students to complete on their own as part of any election unit. Have them compare their responses to the platform of leading candidates. Ask students to write an editorial discussing an issue that is important to them, or have students write a letter to one of the candidates discussing an issue of importance.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Screencastify - Chrome Web Store
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
Create screencasts showing how to do various computer tasks or navigate websites. Demonstrate how to use a website or software for specific tasks within the classroom. For example, show how to use the comment feature in Word for annotating class notes, reading passages, and other items. Make how-to demos for instructions on using and navigating your class home page, class wiki or blog, or other applications you wish the students to use in creating their own projects. By narrating how students should navigate through a certain site or section, you can eliminate confusion, provide an opportunity for students to replay the information as a refresher for the future, and maintain a record for absent students. Software demonstrations add an increased flexibility with helping students who need it while allowing students to begin and work at their own pace. Added audio is a great asset for many students, including learning support and those who might need to access the material in smaller "chunks." Use this site for students to give "tours" of their own wiki or blog page. The presentation of their web-based projects and resources can be more engaging. Use screencasts to critique or show the validity of websites, identify a resource site they believe is most valuable, or explain how to navigate an online game. Social studies teachers could assign students to critique a political candidate's web page using a screencast. Reading/language arts teachers could have student teams analyze a website to show biased language, etc. For a powerful writing experience, have students "think aloud" about their writing choices as they record a screencast of a revision or writing session. You will probably need to model this process, but writing will NEVER be the same! Math teachers using software such as Geometer's Sketchpad could have students create their own narrated demonstrations of geometry concepts as review (and to save as future learning aids). Teachers at any level can create screencasts to demonstrate a computer skill or assignment, such as for a center in your classroom or in a computer lab. Students can replay the "tutorial" on their own from your class web page and follow the directions. As a service project, have students write and record how to screencasts to help elderly or less tech savvy computer users navigate the web, register to vote, or find important health information. Writing for such a project would fit right in with CCSS informational writing and digital writing standards in middle and high school.Comments
Great tool!Barbara, , Grades: 0 - 12
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Timeline Eons - Maani.us
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
Have students explore the timeline on their own, then research and share information on any given period of time. Encourage students to view future predictions on the timeline as a research project to find the basis of the predictions. Have students create a simple interactive infographic sharing their findings using Infogram, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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The Authentic History Center - Michael Barnes
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
The Authentic History Center is excellent for making history real. Share this information on your projector or interactive whiteboard (or speakers) during lessons on any time period of US History. Play Bing Crosby singing "God Bless America" to help students feel the pre-WWII era or nationalism. Make the Angry era of McCarthyism real by letting student explore the collection. Include this entire collection on your class web page for students to access both in and out of class. Use the sources for students to experience a multi-sensory tour of any era in U.S. history and create their own project about it incorporating the artifacts (with proper credit) and their own explanations. You could modify student learning by having students create a simple infographic sharing their findings using Livegap Chart, reviewed here. Or, have students create online posters about an era individually or together as a class using a tool such as Web Poster Wizard, reviewed here, or PicLits, reviewed here. Enhance learning by having students create timelines using Timeline JS, reviewed here. Timeline JS offers the option to upload and add photos, videos, audio, Tweets, and Google Maps making it interactive. If you participate in National History Day, this site is an outstanding start point. If you are the advisor for your high school play, bookmark this site as a great source for authentic era images and sounds. Need background music for a play (or video) set during WWII? Here it is!Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Grammarly - Max Lytvyn and Alex Shevchenko
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
Use this visual revision program with your students who are ready to refine and improve their writing. Have students copy and paste writing projects into the text editor for a final check for spelling and grammar mistakes after making their last revisions. Continued use of Grammarly helps students correct writing on their own after seeing common errors in their writing. Never send out a newsletter or post to your web page with spelling or grammar errors again! Use Grammarly to spell check and suggest corrections for any published writing projects. Although Grammarly offers premium accounts, the free features provide a robust set of tools for use in all classroom situations. Add the browser extension to class computers for students to click on an unknown word when reading on the web.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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ClassroomQ - Kyle Niemis and Dan Martinho
Grades
4 to 12In the Classroom
Simplify and organize your time with ClassroomQ. Use this resource during student work time in class, or for your blended class as a simple and quiet way to provide student help in a timely manner. Ask students to create a comment including their specific question to help you prepare to provide them the appropriate help (perhaps that is in the form of help from another student). Use ClassroomQ during review games and have students buzz in using this site and add their answer as the comment. Using it this way helps you know who came in first, didn't answer, or took longer to find the response. ClassroomQ also helps you understand the kind and number of comments created and assess areas where students need more help. Use this information to guide instruction. Consider taking common questions as a starting point for a follow-up lesson and have students complete some research on their own. Ask them to share links to additional help using a bookmarking tool like Raindrip.io, reviewed here. In addition to creating and sharing bookmarks, use Raindrop.io to add comments to supplement the provided links. As students become more confident in the material, enhance their learning and modify classroom technology by asking them to create simple explainer videos using Adobe Express Video Maker, reviewed here, not only as a reflection tool but also as a guide for other students with similar questions.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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I Love PDF - ilovepdf.com
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
Use this site to work with your PDF files in many ways. If you need just a page or two from a large PDF file (perhaps a worksheet to send home to an absentee student), easily extract it to send. Combine class projects received as individual PDF's to create a complete class book by merging all files. Combine several lessons into one complete unit by merging files. Make combined PDFs available as downloads from your class web page so students "get it all together." Teachers at all grades can use this tool, and older students may find it handy for their own use.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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U.S. Geologic Survey - Educational Resources - U.S. Department of the Interior
Grades
1 to 12In the Classroom
Take advantage of the free lesson plans and the wealth of information on this site. As you go through the lessons on this site replace pen and paper and have students create blogs sharing their learning and understanding using Telegra.ph. With Telegra.ph you just click on an icon to upload images from your computer, add a YouTube or Vimeo, or Twitter links. This blog creator requires no registration. If you are teaching younger students and looking for an easy way to integrate technology and check for understanding, challenge your students to create a blog using edublog.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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American Panorama - Digital Scholarship Lab, University of Richmond
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
Bookmark these interactive maps for use throughout the year to examine American issues in deeper detail. Share the locations using Google Earth, reviewed here, to get a first-hand look at the geography of the region. This tool is a great find for gifted students. Have them explore in-depth different changes to America over the past two centuries. Replace paper and pen and have them record what they learn using an online journal like Penzu, reviewed here. With Penzu you can add images or your own artwork as illustrations. Take this idea a step further and modify classroom technology use by having students make a multimedia presentation using information found in their research. Use a tool like Vevox, reviewed here. Vevox offers interactive features such as real-time polls and comments to keep viewers interested and involved in the presentation. Vevox allows adding polls, videos, embeds, web links, and PowerPoint.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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