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Tapestry - readtapestry.com
Grades
K to 12tag(s): DAT device agnostic tool (179), slides (65)
In the Classroom
Tapestry is perfect for use when creating and sharing short stories or poems. Use Tapestry to create quick slideshows for any classroom use. Set up a whole class account so students do not need individual logins. Easily share slides with information or (online) images on your website or blog to remind students about a project or assignment. Have students create presentations to "introduce" themselves to the class during the first week of school. Create a slide show to introduce any unit and have students guess what they will be learning. Create a Tapestry easily "on the fly" as a review resource to embed on your class website or blog. This site is perfect for your BYOD (bring your own device) classroom, since it is a "DAT." Make quick "cue cards" for students to read their lines off a projector, interactive whiteboard, or tablet for a video or school news broadcast! Paste your school or class announcements into slides and embed them on the class or school website.Use this simple tool for students to make book promos for the library/media center. Display them on tablets or iTouches! Even the youngest gifted students can create simple presentations to go beyond regular curriculum in your class. Be sure to show young ones how to copy/paste the url for their finished work to send it to you or mark it in Favorites on the classroom computer or iPad. Have them make slide shows telling a story, explaining about a famous person, and more. During a unit on plants, have students create a guide to plant care or a show about the world's strangest plants. Have them write and illustrate slides as book reviews for independent reading they have done. This tool is simple enough for any student who can read.
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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Classroom Authors - Classroom Authors
Grades
1 to 12tag(s): creative writing (164), descriptive writing (41), ebooks (43), process writing (48), writing (365)
In the Classroom
Research proves publishing improves writing skills. Use Classroom Authors for class newsletters, an anthology of student written stories, and creating "choose your own adventure" type stories. Use this tool for research or opinion pieces in world language classes, science, math, or social studies. Some teachers have their students write novels for National Novel Writing Month, and at Classroom Authors they will be able to publish them.Edge Features:
Includes an education-only area for teachers and students
Parent permission advised before posting student work created using this tool
Requires registration/log-in (WITH email)
Multiple users can collaborate on the same project
Includes teacher tools for registering and/or monitoring students
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Top Documentary Films - topdocumentaryfilms.com
Grades
7 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): advanced placement (25), animals (322), artists (77), biographies (91), drugs and alcohol (25), environment (325), evolution (102), hiv/aids (19), humor (15), media literacy (65), mental health (26), money (185), politics (97), psychology (66), religions (68), sports (99), vietnam (34)
In the Classroom
Use this site to find videos in a wide range of topics to share on your interactive whiteboard, on a projector, or as a link on your class web page. Use videos to demonstrate different points of view. Then use an online tool such as Interactive Two Circle Venn Diagram (reviewed here) to compare and contrast information. Have students create a word cloud of the important terms they learn from any film using a tool such as Wordle (reviewed here). Want to engage students WHILE they watch a video? Why not set up a backchannel chat using Todaysmeet, reviewed here. Be sure to ask your class if there could have been any bias in the video you watch together. What film techniques influence our thinking?Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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TinEye Labs - Idee, Inc.
Grades
2 to 12tag(s): colors (80), creative commons (23), design (88), graphic design (35), images (277), media literacy (65), psychology (66)
In the Classroom
Use this tool when you seek specific color(s) to coordinate with a presentation or other class project. Use it to talk about the emotional impact of different colors, such as during a psychology unit on perception, a media literacy lesson on advertising color, or a discussion of color schemes in art class. Be sure to discuss the ethical use of images with proper credit, including Creative Common images. Start by having students carefully NAME files as they download and save them (include the photographer's name and a title). Remind them that they still need to give credit even if it is Creative Commons. This is a great site for looking at contrast, analogous and complementary color schemes, and other artistic expressions. Use TinEye Labs to uncover various elements of graphic design found in images. Art teachers will love the many options for demonstrating different color palettes on a projector or interactive whiteboard. Use the photo examples from Tineye Labs together with a tool such as Kuler, reviewed here, or Colour Lovers, reviewed here, to play hands-on with digital color. Share this with your gifted students who are especially interested in art or design.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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OECD Better Life Index - OECD Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development
Grades
8 to 12tag(s): communities (37), cross cultural understanding (123), environment (325), politics (97), safety (92)
In the Classroom
A great classroom discussion starter, and perfect for displaying on an interactive whiteboard, the Better Life Index allows students to consider and debate what makes for a "better life." And once (or if) they can reach a consensus on those factors, where could that life be found in the world? Of course, once you discover that people are healthiest, for example, in Australia, what does that mean? Why are they healthy there? What community, government, and institutional factors make Australia healthy? Do they make choices other countries don't? This is a wonderful tool for guiding discussion about the public policy decisions made by citizens and governments, and how those decisions affect the quality of life. It would also provide powerful information for persuasive writing or debates. If you talk about utopias and dystopias, this is another way for students to decide what the criteria are for each. If you study world cultures, this site can provide a whole different lens to promote crosscultural understanding. Assign students to compare and contrast factors that matter most to them across multiple countries. Gifted students who are designing an "ideal civilization" can find meaningful data here to use as part of their plans.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Comics Head - Next Wave Multimedia
Grades
4 to 12tag(s): comics and cartoons (65), DAT device agnostic tool (179), digital storytelling (153)
In the Classroom
In classes with younger students, use a whole class account under teacher control. In a BYOD classroom, let students set up their own accounts and use the app versions. When studying characterization, create a dialog to show (not tell) about a character. Use the dialog box (bubbles) to explain the sequence of a story, a science concept, or school news! Create a political cartoon. Why not use the comic strips for conflict resolution or other guidance issues (such as bullying). Emotional support and autistic support teachers can work with students to create strips about appropriate interpersonal responses and/or feelings. Sometimes it is easier for students to write it down (or create pictures) than use the actual words. World language and ESL/ELL teachers can assign students to create dialog strips as an alternate to traditional written assessments. Let your creative (or gifted) students take the comics even further by making them into entire books!Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Trove - Rob Malda
Grades
7 to 12tag(s): news (262), newspapers (96), social networking (112)
In the Classroom
Use Trove to create student-navigated lessons or review materials for any topic. Create a whole class Trove account to follow Troves safely under teacher supervision. Allow students to set up their own accounts if over 13 and permitted under school policies. Have students work together in groups to create their Trove on current articles they can use in a research project. Have student groups create Troves of articles in the news related to the curriculum topic you are studying. For example, collect articles about disappearing habitats, design concepts that use new engineering materials, food and religion in a certain culture, or climate change and weather. Demonstrate a new math concept using articles found on the Internet. Create a class study guide for students to access before the big science test! Include Trove as part of your current events lessons and allow students to explore articles demonstrating different points of view. Use Trove as a professional resource for following current topics in education such as standardized testing or Common Core Standards. Speaking of Common Core, the articles collected in Trove could serve as practice with informational texts. Library/media specialists can collect Troves to teach students about using media in research projects.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Meeting Words - Meetingwords.com
Grades
5 to 12tag(s): editing (72), proofreading (25), writing (365)
In 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 on 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" but have students work from home for group projects. Make sure you are protecting the safety of student work and identity and are within your school's Acceptable Use Policy.Create an innovative, exciting revision experience for students to suggest revisions to each other's writing and instantly engage in the peer review process by using Meetingwords. 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 if 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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Booktrack Classroom - Peter Thiel
Grades
1 to 12tag(s): book lists (131), book reports (36), DAT device agnostic tool (179), ebooks (43), guided reading (47), independent reading (128), reading comprehension (123), reading lists (81)
In the Classroom
Click "Teachers" and scroll to the bottom of the home page to find free lessons. Work together with your music teacher to find classical music selections that make great background music. Have students choose a story and create a "read aloud" with music and sound effects. Challenge students to capture the feel or tone of current events articles, science articles, or poems they have created. Use music and sound effects to enhance historical events or battles in social science. At the end of literature circles, have students select the best events in a story and put music and sound effects together with them. Watch the short tutorials to create your class and to create a book with a soundtrack. FanFiction users may want to put sound effects or music to their own writing. In the library/media center, share BookTracks to interest students in some of your "old" books!Edge Features:
Includes an education-only area for teachers and students
Parent permission advised before posting student work created using this tool
Requires registration/log-in (WITH email)
Includes teacher tools for registering and/or monitoring students
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Audio Expert - AudioExpert
Grades
1 to 12tag(s): podcasts (57)
In the Classroom
Use Audio Expert 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 hearing themselves speak. Use Audio Expert to record parents, principals, lunch ladies, librarians, relatives, and bus drivers all telling your 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 a local nursing home, fire stations, or museums to recollect times such as wars, the Great Depression, Civil Rights Movements, or as a primary source at 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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LessonPaths - MentorMob, Inc
Grades
K to 12tag(s): classroom management (159)
In the Classroom
Browse to find ready-made activities for classroom use. Create your own playlists for organizing classroom resources found on the web along with tasks to do at each place. Create playlists for students to view and/or add to as a whole class activity. Some ideas include things that use energy, food groups, or groups of items for primary level vocabulary/practice (clothing items, farm animals, clock faces for telling time, etc.). In lower grades, create very simple sequences of activities for students to try from a class computer center or at home. Since your directions will require reading, keep it very simple! In higher grades, make playlists for different subjects or units where you collect videos, images, classroom blogs and websites, etc. Share your playlists with students and parents by putting the link on your class website. Have them work through the tasks at their own pace. Challenge your older students to create their own playlists with thought-provoking questions as a product from a research project. For example, they can compile information about a disease and how it is transmitted, asking questions at each resource. (What a great way for them to read informational text and then generate questions that go further!) Teachers of Gifted or regular ed teachers trying to design independent tasks for gifted students to do will love the flexibility of the playlist format.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Picfull - Picfull
Grades
K to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): editing (72), images (277), photography (157)
In the Classroom
Use this tool anytime that photos need to be edited for use on class blogs, wikis, or sites. In primary grades, use this tool 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 the project together! Encourage older students to use this tool themselves on images for projects or presentations. Use the editor to edit pictures to fit styles of pictures when doing historical reports or to set a mood.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Headslinger - James Bottorff and Mandy Bottorff
Grades
7 to 12tag(s): bookmarks (68), journalism (54), media literacy (65), news (262), newspapers (96)
In the Classroom
Find and share interesting stories with your classroom from many resources using Headslinger. Create folders of sources that supplement curriculum topics such as pollution, engineering, or space. This is a terrific way to collect articles during an election cycle for students to compare bias in various publications! Challenge older students to create their own Headslinger account and share news articles demonstrating different points of view or topics of special interest. Bookmark and save Headslinger to find and use interesting current events articles for classroom use. With the CCSS emphasis on informational text, Headslinger could provide an unlimited source of reading material. Create professional collections to keep track of trends and topics in education.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Scoot and Doodle - Scoot & Doodle, Inc.
Grades
7 to 12tag(s): creative fluency (7), creative writing (164), creativity (118), drawing (78), social networking (112), social skills (21)
In the Classroom
Use this wonderful collaborative, real-time drawing space, connecting your Google Plus account with friends, such as classes in other schools. Use this tool to illustrate, explain and teach remotely across the world. Use this resource for students to collaborate with other project members in their same school or in different schools. Sketch out plans for an engineering design together. Brainstorm solutions to environmental problems or sketch out the steps to a geometry proof. This resource is wonderful for homework help, especially in subjects where drawing can be beneficial such as science and math!Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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CraftArt edu - Craft Media Network
Grades
4 to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Find projects for holidays or that tie in with current units of study on time periods in history, different cultures, or literature being read in class. In world language classes, share one of the videos in French or German and challenge students to follow along with the directions. Then have them try to make their own how-to videos to practice new vocabulary. Use these videos as examples of digital writing for information and have student groups create one of their own. Share this site with your "crafty" students for indoor recess or use the activities in family and consumer science. Share this link on your class website for students to find crafty ways to share knowledge in unusual displays. Some of the videos might even offer ideas they could use as science fair projects testing the strength of different materials.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Timemapper - Open Knowledge Foundation Labs
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): timelines (58)
In the Classroom
Create Timemapper 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 about 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!Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Activities for Kids - Activities for Kids
Grades
K to 5This site includes advertising.
tag(s): crafts (39), directions (19), holidays (142), parents (57)
In the Classroom
Bring great ideas to your next PTO meeting with Activities for Kids! Feature this site during parent nights, open houses, and curriculum nights. Include this link on your class website for kids to access during snow days or vacations. Encourage teachers and students to use it in after school craft clubs or after school care. In math, work with fractions using kid friendly recipes. Use the blank checks for a unit on personal finance or as a checkbook reward system. In language arts, practice personal letter writing with the thank you notes or use the how-to activity directions as an examples for following directions. During thematic units, check for ideas in the party section.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Foodista - Foodista
Grades
3 to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Capture every student's heart (or stomach) with Foodista! Introduce on your interactive whiteboard or projector for learning how to write, read, and follow directions. This site is sure to make some stomachs grumble and some mouths water! In math class, explore or multiply fractions used in recipes. In science, FACS, or health class, explore the nutrition side of Foodista. Help students gain a better understanding of diabetes or food allergies. Use to create food for special celebrations of literature or in social studies as you study cultures around the world. Allow students to choose food for special class celebrations. In your FACS class, use the blog area as a weekly update for new recipe, home care, and nutrition ideas.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Hashify - David Chambers
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
Use this minimalist tool for a student scribe to keep track of key terms during a class discussion. Share the url with classmates for them to add their thoughts, as well. When brainstorming with a class, use this simple tool for students to add ideas or make lists. It is so simple it does not take up space with lots of fancy toolbars and gadgets. It also does not offer spell checker, so it could be a useful way to have students write without all the "crutches" of grammar and spell checkers.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Remind - Remind 101
Grades
K to 12tag(s): chat (51), DAT device agnostic tool (179), microblogging (40)
In the Classroom
Set up accounts for all your classes, and even your extracurricular activities, to send homework, project, and supply reminders. Remind students of upcoming events, practices, or things they need to bring to class or practice. You could also use this to communicate with parents (allow them to sign up for text message updates at back to school night). Share this site the first week of school to save time throughout the entire year. Remind parents of big tests, report cards, field trips, deadlines, back to school night, sneaker days, conferences, and more. Set up a faculty reminder group within your school for emergency closures and more.Comments
Love this site! I'm using it to send reminders to students about overdue library books and/or fines!Terri, VA, Grades: 9 - 12
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