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Survey Legend - Jasko Mahmutovic
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
Share polls on a projector or interactive whiteboard to discuss and informally assess prior knowledge as you start a new unit. Ask questions about the material. Discuss in groups why those in class would choose a particular answer to uncover misconceptions. Use for daily quiz questions to gain knowledge of student understanding and as a means of formative assessment. Have student groups alternate to create a new poll for the next day. Place a poll on your teacher web page as homework inspiration or to ask questions to increase parent involvement. Older students may want to include polls on their student blogs to increase reader 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 interpretation of statistics. Use "real" data to engage students on issues that matter to them. Use visual polls to identify cells or other scientific images as a formative assessment.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
Products can be embedded
Products can be shared by URL
Multiple users can collaborate on the same project
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Jigsaw Planet - Tibo Software
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
Use these puzzles on your projector or interactive whiteboard! Each puzzle is timed as you put it together. Split students into teams to see which team can complete the puzzle the fastest. Instead of the typical PowerPoint type presentation to teach students facts, create a puzzle for them to put together and have them read the fact once the puzzle has been completed. Turn your classroom rules into a series of jigsaw puzzles for students to put together. Honor your star student of the week by creating a puzzle of that student. Just take a picture of the student and upload to Jigsaw Planet. Students can use Jigsaw Planet to create their own puzzles. This is a great place for them to study. They can upload spelling words, math facts, maps, etc. Students will love creating their own jigsaw puzzles. If you have a projector or an interactive whiteboard, have students create a puzzle all about them. They can create a collage of things they like in a presentation program, take a screen shot of it, and upload the puzzle to Jigsaw Planet. Students can put together each other's puzzles and guess who the student is based on the pictures. This would be a great getting to know you activity for the first week of school!Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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NetVibes - NetVibes.com
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
Demonstrate the power and uses of this site on your interactive whiteboard (or projector) with students to use as a resource for gathering research information. For example, create a dashboard on an environmental ("oil spill") or political topic. Gather current events from multiple sources into one place. Set up a dashboard on earthquakes or weather during science units so students can connect real world information with curriculum. Use this site for group projects, have team members work together to gather information, then share using a tool such as Crocodoc reviewed here. As a professional tool, create a dashboard for monitoring feeds from student activity on multiple web-based tools at a time (wikis, blogs, etc.). You can also create a dashboard on professional topics to keep yourself well informed.Edge Features:
Requires registration/log-in (WITH email)
Premium version (not free) includes additional features or storage
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AnswerBag - Joel Downs
Grades
8 to 12In the Classroom
Post a question as a homework assignment for student response using a specific url directly to that question. Challenge cooperative learning groups to create their own questions. Search for interesting questions already posted to use as a discussion/debate starter. You may want to preview the questions before using in the classroom as posts can sometimes contain language or content not appropriate for the classroom. Monitor use by using a whole class account to submit questions.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 embedded
Products can be shared by URL
Multiple users can collaborate on the same project
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ShowMe - The Online Learning Community - San Kim and Karen Bdoyan
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
Extend your blended learning classroom by sharing the ShowMe site (or individual videos) with your students to access at home for homework help using the Facebook, X, (was Twitter), email, or embed link on each video. List the ShowMe link on your class website. View tutorials on your interactive whiteboard (or projector) as a whole class. Encourage students to share links to specific videos they find helpful on a "Video Reviews" page of your class wiki. For a very real challenge, have students create their own simple review videos using the ShowMe app on iPads (if available) then embed them on your class wiki for a year-to-year student-made study guide! For examples of sophisticated topics simplified in whiteboard stick figure videos, see Common Craft, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Pigeon Presents - Hyperion Books for Children
Grades
K to 3This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Be sur to explore the "grownup stuff" area for activity ideas. After reading a Mo Willems book, show a video interview on your interactive whiteboard (or projector) to help students understand the work that goes into creating books and developing characters. Use the site when teaching an author study unit on Mo Willems books. Posters available on the site are perfect for use on classroom bulletin boards along with displaying student writing.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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ThinkExist - Harold S. Geneen
Grades
4 to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Use the site to have a quote of the day (or week) for your interactive whiteboard or projector. Share the site with students to use when in need of a quote for classroom projects. FInd writing prompt quotes based on a search term. In literature or social studies classes, look at the list of quotes by an author or famous person. Invite students to create online posters (or traditional bulletin boards) about the author/person using selected quotes. Use an online poster creator, such as Padlet (reviewed here).Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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edublogs - edublogs.org
Grades
K to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Save this site as a favorite for all of your blogging needs. Find very informative instructions on blogging, and follow the student blogging challenge lesson plans. 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. Peruse through the various subjects and discover how other teachers use blogging in their classrooms. Using the given PDFs on blogging start up, parent guidelines, incorporating into subject areas, and adapt to make them suitable for you. Look at a variety of examples to help devise your own unique style to meet your students' needs.Edge Features:
Includes an education-only area for teachers and students
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
Products can be shared by URL
Multiple users can collaborate on the same project
Includes teacher tools for registering and/or monitoring students
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The Story Starter, Jr. - Joel Heffner
Grades
2 to 6In the Classroom
Save this site in your favorites and link to it from your class webpage. For even quicker access, save this as a favorite on your Teachersfirst membership page to come back to whenever you are planning a pre or post reading/writing assignment. (If you are not already a member, join TeacherFirst for FREE.) These creative ideas are also great to file in your "emergency" lesson plan folder for a substitute teacher or when you are just looking for a spontaneous writing or journal assignment. Students may use it the traditional way by writing the story starter sentence on a piece of paper. With access to a class set of computers students could copy and paste into a word document or class wiki page and start writing their stories, poems, or journal entries. Enhance student learning by challenging them to share their writing aloud on a podcast using a site such as PodOmatic, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Quiz Factor - Quiz Factor Limited
Grades
4 to 12In the Classroom
Set up a computer or two in your classroom for those earlier finishers to take a quiz on a topic of their choice. Do you have students who have a deep interest in a certain topic or subject? Allow them to create a quiz for Quiz Factor. Have the student save the quiz, so you can view it before submission. This would be a great activity for some gifted students! Have students create quizzes after they have completed a research project. They could present their findings to the class, then allow the class to use their notes from the presentation to complete the quiz.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Thunks - Get Thunking - Ian Gilbert
Grades
4 to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Display a Thunk on your interactive whiteboard (or projector) as a discussion/debate starter. Have students choose a response and defend their answer. Allow students to discuss their answer throughout the week and survey responses again. Have students create their own Thunks to be discussed in class. Create a bulletin board and allow students to post comments and reactions to the question posed. Use a Thunk as a journal writing prompt. Make this page available for students who are "stuck" thinking of something to write about.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Zotero - Center for History and New Media at George Mason University
Grades
8 to 12In the Classroom
Depending on school computer settings, you may need to have tech support install the program for you. Use Zotero to collect and organize classroom resources. Share with older students as a resource for gathering and citing information. Demonstrate how to use the site on an interactive whiteboard or with a projector, including showing the quick-start video. One of the advanced features of the site is the creation of groups. Share this with students who may be capable of using the feature to collaborate with others.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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TED - TED staff
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
If you are looking for a clearinghouse that offers free inspiration from the world's most inspired thinkers, this ever-evolving site is perfect for engaging your students with digital videos of the global issues facing our world today. Use your projector or interactive whiteboard to project videos. Watch your students' enthusiastic reactions in science, social studies, or English classrooms as they view a TED video and then follow-up with a debate on the future or the impact of technology on society, or use them as a springboard for interesting writing prompts or to spark a discussion connected with a unit of study. Challenge students to do a compare/contrast activity using an online Venn Diagram tool (reviewed here). Most of the videos are less than twenty minutes, which makes it real doable to embed in a one-period class lesson.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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ICT Games - Literacy - James Barrett
Grades
K to 5This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Use your projector and interactive whiteboard to introduce the site. You might start with "The Wordy Woods," an interactive resource for displaying useful words. Start by checking the lists, and have students identify words they've already learned in class. Populate the "woods" with those first. Save this! Then, as students learn new words have them fill in the forest.ENL/ELL students with emergent literacy skills will benefit from this site by practicing spelling and reading skills. Make a shortcut to this site on classroom computers and use it as a center. Use a program like Symbaloo, reviewed here, to create link shortcuts on your student computers. Include a link to the ITC Games on your classroom website or blog for students to practice at home. This is a great site for students to use for additional practice on a skill that is difficult.
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Skloog - Skloog, LLC
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
This resource is best used as a teacher sharing tool for sharing links, RSS feeds, and other resources for students to use on specific projects or as general course links. Use this site to share with other professionals, team members, or parents. Use the categories to save bookmarks for different units you have in your classroom. Make your Skloog page the homepage for your computer, too.Consider having a category for student use for webquests, tools you want them to use, and creative commons images, music, etc. Also, create a category where students update with suggestions from class members. Use different colored alphabet tiles on a Skloog for younger, non-reader students. For example, give each subject its own distinctive color. They will also recognize logos well before they read!
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How To Make Digital Flashcards With Google Docs Spreadsheets - MakeUseOf
Grades
4 to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Create flashcards to share with your students. Students can run them from a computer or download an app that can read the two column format of a spreadsheet to view on the go. All information for using the flashcards is explained in this resource. Use for any subject matter for any age. Challenge students to create their own flashcards to use to study for the big test! This tool can be used in ALL subject areas.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Inside Story Flashcards - Inside Story, LLC
Grades
2 to 12In the Classroom
Display the site on your interactive whiteboard (or projector), turn off the definition under the flashcard and have students try to guess the meaning of the word. Split students into teams to see who can come up with the most creative sentence using the vocabulary word. Print out cards on card stock to use at a writing center as a resource for writing. Print out cards and have students separate by nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc. Have a word of the day and challenge students to use the word correctly throughout the day in the classroom. Secondary teachers may want to share this site with students preparing for ACT/SAT testing.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Power My Learning - CFY
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
Set up a teacher account so you can offer a "playlist" for certain students who may need skills reinforcement. If you want to know more about some of the specific activities within PowerMyLearning, TeachersFirst most likely has a complete review of them. Search the name of the game or site using TeachersFirst's keyword search for our full review. PowerMyLearning offers lesson plans for some activities and invites you to contribute your own, if you wish.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Picturing Words: The Power of Book Illustrations - Smithsonian Institution Libraries
Grades
6 to 10In the Classroom
History and English teachers studying the Medieval time period can show the primary source of the illuminated alphabet script on The Canon of Medicine. Then have students create a mini-bio for themselves, starting with illuminating the first letter of their name. Use this site to study how the power of pictures can enhance text. The Process section explains how the Gutenberg Press used wood blocks or metal cuts along with the letterpress to print a book with images. Have your students view the "Process" part of this site, and look at several books printed in the Gutenberg time period. You may want them to further investigate the workings of the Gutenberg Press and what it took to make a book (materials and time). Then have your students make a simple, illustrated book using a program like Bookemon reviewed here. Have them use a timeline tool such as Time Graphics Timeline Maker, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Draw.io - JGraph, Ltd.
Grades
4 to 12In the Classroom
Demonstrate creating a mind map or other diagram on an interactive whiteboard or projector, and then allow students to try to create their own. Use this site for literature activities, research projects, social studies, or science topics of study. Use Draw.io to create family trees or flow charts. Learning support students could team up to map out the important concepts from a unit visually as a review activity. Use this mapping website as an alternative to a traditional test, quiz, or homework assignment in literature, social studies, or science. Have students demonstrate their understanding by creating a graphic organizer about the main points or map out a step-by-step process (life cycle). Be sure they name their organizer BEFORE they start work with their name --or code name-- so you know who did it (they could EMAIL it to you!) or have them print their results to turn them in. Anonymously share and compare different students' "views" of a unit so students can "see it through someone else's eyes."Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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