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Got an Inkling? - Got an Inkling
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): creative writing (119), descriptive writing (38), expository writing (31), paragraph writing (15), persuasive writing (55), process writing (38), writers workshop (31)
In the Classroom
These prompts are perfect for writing in journals as quick writes or having your students develop one into a full story or essay. There are plenty of unusual ideas to get even the most reluctant writer moving. Once completed, have students create blogs. If you are beginning the process of integrating technology, have students create blogs sharing their learning and understanding using Telegra.ph, reviewed here. This blog creator requires no registration. The class can then collaborate by proofreading and suggesting ideas for others' stories. Just because these are "writing" prompts does not mean you can't use them for ESL/ELL or speech/language students to prompt them to TALK and use oral language. World language teachers can also use these to promote conversation/oral language.You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
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Voxer - Tom Katis
Grades
K to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): chat (41), communication (133), DAT device agnostic tool (144), listening (73), microblogging (17), multilingual (67), social media (54), speaking (22), speech (66)
In the Classroom
Extend classroom technology use by using Voxer with early readers in your Daily 5 literacy structure for oral reading and listening to others read. Archive students' reading fluency at the beginning of the year, making comparisons throughout the year. Send the Voxer sample readings to parents via email so they can hear the progress and your comments, too. Use Voxer with any language learning students, both ENL/ESL and world languages. Students can practice speaking and listening in their new language. Connect with another class in a country speaking the language your students are learning for rich, real-world discussions. Create small groups to discuss anything from current events, to how to complete a math problem, to contributions for group research projects. Middle and high school teachers can use Voxer for communication between classes posting a question about the reading they are doing, an equation in math, or a lab in science. Collaborate with another classroom across the state or in another country allowing students to discuss with other students not in their school. Reluctant writers could use this tool to brainstorm their thoughts for a writing piece. With students under 13 consider setting up a class account using a global login. Students would need to give their first name when contributing so you will know who is speaking.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)
Premium version (not free) includes additional features or storage
Multiple users can collaborate on the same project
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Unite for Literacy Library - Unite for Literacy
Grades
K to 8tag(s): audio books (23), independent reading (86), interactive stories (22), preK (258)
In the Classroom
This site is one you must bookmark if you work with young readers! Create a link to the site on classroom computers for students to explore and listen to books on their own. Unite for Literacy is perfect for use with ENL/ESL students for reading and hearing books in both English and their native language. Share a link to the site on your website or newsletter for use at home or use during remote learning. During remote learning, consider assigning your elementary students reading and follow up activities using Symbaloo, reviewed here. Symbaloo is an excellent bookmarking tool to use with elementary students due to the easy to use design and use of icons for identifying information readily. World language teachers can use this site to have students listen to books in the language they are learning.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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SMS Generator - Class Tools
Grades
4 to 12tag(s): book reports (28), creative writing (119), digital storytelling (144), writing (317)
In the Classroom
Engage students with what they know, text messaging! Inform students you will be creating a text conversation between two historical figures, fictional characters, scientists - anything from something the class is reading. On the whiteboard or with a projector display the SMS Generator. Show students how to use it by having them create the conversation. The text is not limited, but keep it reasonable. Besides using SMS Generator for presentations, it could be used to teach or refine social skills, practice writing in a new language, or explaining a math or science concept to a peer.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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KQED Education - KQED
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): independent reading (86), news (229), newspapers (91)
In the Classroom
Include a link to KQED Education on classroom computers. Be sure to help your weaker readers and ESL/ELL students by sharing the vocabulary words before reading, either on a handout or by projecting them on an interactive whiteboard (or projector). Highlight the vocabulary words in the text as you come to them. Teacher Librarians might want to keep this page open on computers for students who drop by the media center or include news notes from this site as part of your morning announcements. Do you have a student news show on your school TV channel? Find great material here for students to retell in their own words.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Ask the Judge - Tom Jacobs
Grades
9 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): bill of rights (28), civil rights (198), courts (19), digital citizenship (90)
In the Classroom
Ask the Judge explores many topics of high interest to teens; introduce it on an interactive whiteboard or projector. Then have students explore this site independently or in small groups. Have students create an annotated image including text boxes and related links using a tool such as Thinglink, reviewed here, to demonstrate different rights of teens. Share with school counselors as an excellent resource of information for students and as a resource for finding specific help in your state for youth who are in trouble. Use as part of a civil rights unit as you research real cases involving teens, have students find other similar situations and compare legal outcomes.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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PBS Kids Lab - PBS Kids
Grades
K to 4tag(s): addition (128), counting (60), data (147), estimation (34), game based learning (173), geometric shapes (136), measurement (125), numbers (119), preK (258), professional development (394), vocabulary (236)
In the Classroom
Create a link to learning games and activities on classroom computers. Post a link on your class website for use at home. Share information on the site with parents to assist them in helping their child with math and reading skills. Be sure to share the PBS Parents Play & Learn app that provides over a dozen learning games for parents to play with their kids, best of all, it is available in English and Spanish!Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Storyberries - Jade Maitre
Grades
K to 5tag(s): book lists (162), poetry (190), short stories (18), stories and storytelling (42)
In the Classroom
Bookmark Storyberries as an excellent resource for short read alouds or as a source for stories relating to many different emotions and themes. Share a link on your class website or newsletter for parents to use at home. Use this site on your interactive whiteboard or projector as you read aloud for students to follow along; occasionally stop and allow students to read portions of the book. Use this site as a resource for additional reading materials in the classroom by creating a link on classroom computers. Share Storyberries on your classroom website or in your Google Classroom for parent and student use at home during distant learning or extended absences.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Call Me Ishmael - Logan Smalley & Stephanie Kent
Grades
6 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): book lists (162), family (52), literature (218)
In the Classroom
Share Call Me Ishmael on your interactive whiteboard to listen to story reviews together with your class. Use these prompts as examples and models of information to include with book reviews. Enhance learning by asking students to think of prompts for a list of ideas in which books may shape your life. Use this site as a model and have students create an annotated image book review, including text boxes and related links using a tool such as Google Drawings, reviewed here. Google Drawings allows you to annotate an image with links to videos, text, websites, and more. Not familiar with Google Drawings? Watch an archived OK2Ask session to learn how to use: OK2Ask Google Drawings, here. Extend learning by challenging students to create their own videos using Adobe Express Video Maker, reviewed here. and share them on a site such as TeacherTube, reviewed here. Be sure to share a link to Call Me Ishmael on your class website for students to use as a resource for finding reading materials.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Typewrite - Josh C.
Grades
5 to 12tag(s): editing (90), proofreading (21), writing (317)
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 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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OmniLibros - Carthage College Center for Children's Literature
Grades
K to 12tag(s): book lists (162), cross cultural understanding (155), literacy (110), maps (207)
In 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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AppInventor - Learn to Build Android Apps - David Wolber, Univ of San Francisco's Democratize Computing Lab
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
This site is perfect for use with any computer coding course. AppInventor has many tips and guidance for the classroom. Materials target students from middle school and higher. Work together as a class or assign as a self-paced activity. Share with students interested in learning computer coding as an excellent resource. If your school has an after-school computer club, use these training modules to encourage interested students to practice on their own. Once students get the hang of beginning programming tips, encourage them to make apps for other courses such as videos explaining photosynthesis, book readings from authors, or different genres of music and art.Edge Features:
Parent permission advised before posting student work created using this tool
Requires registration/log-in (WITH email)
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Archive of Recorded Poetry and Literature - Library of Congress
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): authors (105), biographies (95), literature (218), poetry (190)
In the Classroom
Share recordings on your interactive whiteboard to introduce literature readings in your classroom. Take advantage of the many biographies on this site for use when introducing poetry and literature. Include information from this site when transforming learning & creating multimedia timelines (with music, photos, videos, and more) using Timeline JS, reviewed here. View all of TeachersFirst's Editor's Choices for Poetry Month here. Have students use Fakebook, reviewed here, to create a "fake" page similar in style to Facebook about an author or poet found on this site.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Plum Landing - WGBH Educational Foundation
Grades
1 to 3tag(s): conservation (86), earth (184), earth day (60), environment (238), game based learning (173)
In the Classroom
Capture student interest in environmental science, zoology, conservation, and ecology with Plum and her human friends! Use this site in science as a way to introduce the study of the Earth, biomes, or food chains. Share the videos on an interactive whiteboard or projector. Add to computers for center time. Use Plum's adventures to inspire further adventures involving the students. Use videos as a multimedia resource to supplement the science textbook. Use the adventures to inspire either narrative or expository writing. During Earth Day, students can explore your school community. Explore other science topics and modify student learning by challenging them to create comics using a tool such as Make Beliefs Comix, reviewed here, or a digital storytelling project with their own images, observations, and stories using Presentious, reviewed here. Presentious allows narrating and adding text to a picture. ENL/ESL and learning support students will find this site useful with reading support, video, and demonstrations. Have students research topics mentioned in the videos for deeper understanding. If you are beginning the process of integrating technology, replace pen and paper by having students create blogs sharing their learning and understanding using Seesaw, reviewed here. Share research and stories with other classes in your school, students' families, and on your class website or wiki.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.
tag(s): communication (133), digital storytelling (144), podcasts (81)
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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The Library of Congress Celebrates the Songs of America - Library of Congress
Grades
5 to 12tag(s): 1800s (73), 1900s (73), 20th century (61), poetry (190), songs (44)
In the Classroom
This site is a goldmine for finding music to accompany any American history unit! Use resources from the site as an anticipatory set or "activator" to introduce a unit or lesson on a projector or interactive whiteboard. Play music from the period you are studying during reading or research time. Allow students to explore the site on their own, and then share their findings with classmates. Have students create timelines (it can include text, images and collaboration) using Sutori, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Noteflight - Noteflight, LLC
Grades
4 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): musical instruments (47), musical notation (35)
In the Classroom
Share students' musical creations online! Demonstrate the art of composition while using Noteflight on an interactive whiteboard or projector. Explore different musical instruments and how they affect the tone and mood of the piece. During a multimedia presentation, have students create their own music. In Destination Imagination or Odyssey of the Mind, use your scores to showcase talent. In honoring multiple intelligences, highlight the students' with musical talent. While reading historical fiction novels, have students compose a song typical of that period with the commonly used instruments and style. Offer in your after school clubs for music, guitar, or band.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Milestones - GreatKids
Grades
K to 8tag(s): parent conferences (21), parents (58), professional development (394), video (260)
In the Classroom
Milestones is perfect for sharing with parents to explain grade-level goals and expectations. Share a link on your class web page or blog for parents to access at any time. Share one or two videos during your meet the teacher night or with individual parents during conferences.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Guide to Water - BBC News
Grades
4 to 7tag(s): earth day (60), environment (238), water (101)
In the Classroom
Use the articles for informational reading to help meet Common Core Standards. Be sure to assign a strong reader to a weaker one when reading in class. Use this site for Earth Day activities. View together and brainstorm ideas about how to save water at school and home. Have students brainstorm ideas on a collaborative bulletin board like Scrumblr, reviewed here, with a quick start- no membership required. Create a campaign for increasing water conservation in school and at home. Survey the school community on their water usage using a tool such as SurveyRock, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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