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return to subject listing40 Interesting Ways to Use QR Codes in the Classroom - Tom Barrett
Grades
3 to 12tag(s): qr codes (17)
In the Classroom
Choose one of the ideas suggested in the slideshow as a starting point for using QR codes. Try additional ideas one at a time. Share the slideshow with other teachers and split up the ideas for each to become an "expert" in one of the strategies. Share your experiences as you learn together. Challenge your students to dream up other uses for the codes. As a service project, students could create a QR code school "tour" or add QR codes for students to use while waiting in the cafeteria line to access nutrition information about today's menu.You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
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Cropp.me - imagga
Grades
4 to 12tag(s): images (269), photography (130)
In the Classroom
Quickly and easily crop pictures and images to any desired size for use in projects and presentations. Share with students to use with projects and presentations for making images uniform in size.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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CurriConnects Book List: USA Regional Books - TeachersFirst
Grades
K to 12tag(s): book lists (161), states (122)
In the Classroom
Go beyond state "reports" to state experiences by encouraging students to select independent reading books. Looking for more information about the states? For history, economics, facts, famous people, and sights to see in each state, try TeachersFirst's 50 States, the perfect complement to these independent reading selections. Even younger students would enjoy a "tour" of the states using some of the easier books on this list. Maybe have a read-aloud tour featuring one or two states per week throughout the school year.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Seymour Simon: Award Winning Children's Author - Seymour Simon
Grades
2 to 8tag(s): animals (280), brain (54), butterflies (13), earth (185), earthquakes (44), environment (240), human body (93), hurricanes (35), insects (69), light (52), oceans (146), planets (111), plants (144), solar system (108), spiders (10), stars (65), sun (69), tornadoes (15), volcanoes (55), weather (163), whales (11)
In the Classroom
Enroll on the site using your email address. Access and use teacher guides along with Seymour Simon books during Guided or Independent Reading. View videos on your interactive whiteboard (or projector) to learn more about the author and watch ebooks. Share Seymour Simon's bio with students when using his books as part of a non-fiction unit -- perfect for Common Core informational texts! Challenge students to create a talking avatar using a photo or other image (legally permitted to be reproduced). The avatars can be used to explain or review any of Seymour Simon's books or articles from the Science blog. Use a site such as Blabberize, reviewed here, to create "talking" avatars. Create a link to the site on classroom computers for students to explore items such as the Science Dictionary or read and discuss items from the Science News.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Playfic - Andy Baio and Cooper McHatton
Grades
4 to 12tag(s): creative writing (122), creativity (92), digital storytelling (141), gamification (74), mysteries (19), puzzles (143)
In the Classroom
"Gamification" of learning is a hot topic in 21st century learning. Use this simple tool to make it happen. Use for any digital storytelling: fact or fiction. In social studies, have students create an interactive game based on life during the Depression or any historic era. Have them create a "Where in the world is ..." for geography. World language students could make a simple game (in the language they are studying) about daily life. Gifted students will love creating games on their favorite topics, so make this a research-and-create-a-game approach for independent projects. Science students could make a game about what might happen in certain weather or life as a fossil. Have your language arts students create mystery or survival stories or even a different ending to a story you've read together. Warning: all stories are PUBLIC and your students will be able to view other's stories. You'll either want to have a class account or monitor this closely.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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PDFescape - Red Software
Grades
K to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): Teacher Utilities (146)
In the Classroom
Use to alter documents that may have been saved as a PDF in the past. Save this site in your professional resources. If you work with students who request college recommendations or need to fill out forms for scholarships or jobs, be sure to share this tool with them!Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Wix - Giora Kaplan, Avishai Abrahami, Nadav Abrahami
Grades
7 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): blogs (66), game based learning (171), gamification (74), portfolios (22), social networking (68)
In the Classroom
Your students, 13 and over, may register by email if you want them to create a page to present a project, or for club web pages. Use a whole class account for students under 13. This program would be nice for developing student portfolios, small group presentations, even journals about career research. Create a Wix website page to publish biographical information about any historical figure in any subject area. Use Wix to create pages about characters in a novel. Create pages about scientists and their contributions including reactions of others to their discovery or invention. Research why these inventions were particularly important and the scientific knowledge that changed as a result. Create a page about artists, musicians, politicians, etc. using the same guidelines as above with scientists. Challenge students to step into the person's character to create an informative understanding about the person and their contribution. In upper elementary grades, have all students generate a starter page offline about a famous person (or people) you are studying. Then vote on one to publish as a class using this online tool. Have teens begin a "Me" portfolio in middle grades, one that they can continue to develop as they approach college and/or career. Encourage them to showcase links to online projects, favorite images they have taken or created, artwork, music, writing samples, and personal interests. This is the ideal way to build a positive digital footprint that students can actually use well into the future. If you teach gifted students, encourage them to add suitable projects from your class to their portfolio site, especially projects that involve connections with the "real world."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
Products can be shared by URL
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CurriConnects Book List: Immigrants and Immigration - TeachersFirst
Grades
K to 12tag(s): book lists (161), immigrants (33), immigration (64)
In the Classroom
Allow students to select books at their own level to understand immigrants and how their own ancestors may have felt upon arriving in the U.S. Perhaps have them write a blog post as if they had just arrived. Have students meet in literature circles as they discuss these books or hold an immigration day where students share the experiences they have read and how immigrants contribute to the many cultures in the U.S.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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CurriConnects Book List: Civil War and Slavery - TeachersFirst
Grades
K to 12tag(s): book lists (161), civil war (134), slavery (75), underground railroad (12)
In the Classroom
As you study the Civil War and slavery, let students select books from this collection of fiction and historical fiction. As we honor and move beyond the 150th anniversary of many Civil War events, what better way for students to make a more personal connection to the people who lived during those tumultuous times.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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CurriConnects Book List: The Way Things Work - TeachersFirst
Grades
K to 12tag(s): book lists (161), engineering (119), scientists (62), STEM (262)
In the Classroom
Have students choose a book they can connect to concepts you are studying in science class or have them choose a book of interest and generate a list of the questions they would like to learn about after reading the book. The non-fiction selections offer possible informational texts to practice Common Core science literacy skills. For more on text complexity and Lexiles''''®, see this information from the Lexile Framework.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Drama in the ESL Classroom - Jessica Davis
Grades
2 to 12tag(s): acting (18), creative writing (122), plays (27)
In the Classroom
Use this site as the starting point for group projects like having the students write and produce their own play(s). This is a great find for gifted students as well as students studying any modern language as the play writing and acting techniques can easily be adapted. Challenge cooperative learning groups to create videos of the plays they write and produce then edit and save them using using wevideo, reviewed here. Share the videos on a site such as TeacherTube reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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The Mind is a Metaphor - Brad Pasanek
Grades
7 to 12tag(s): literary devices (13)
In the Classroom
High school AP literature and history teachers or IB capstone classes will especially love this site. Share a metaphor a day as students are entering the class or on your class web site. Allow a student to choose one as today's Metaphor Master! Discuss the meaning together or use it as a quick writing prompt. Use the time period to discuss the historical context of the metaphor. Use these in your own presentations or require students to create a presentation explaining the metaphors you assign. Younger students just beginning to study metaphors can benefit from trying to interpret the metaphors as a group and presenting them to the class. Challenge students to try to create their own metaphors. Develop a class Metaphor Wiki for students to share metaphors. Not familiar with wikis? Check out the TeachersFirst Wiki Walk-Through.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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PDFmyURL - OpenTracker.net
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
Use this site to print any web page without all of the headings and other extras that generally appear. Make print outs for students to practice highlighting and looking for main ideas in informational texts (especially if you do not have an interactive whiteboard to do this). Upload PDF's to your website for student use of single pages of websites instead of having students go through unneeded pages. Be sure to show students that you must make a note of the DATE when you made the pdf, since you should always include the "date accessed" in a project bibliography entry for a web site. Talk about "fair use" in making web page copies for temporary use as part of research or class activities vs copying web pages to hang them up as locker decorations! This may be a good site to share with parents via your website. (Help them save paper and print only what they need, not an entire website.)Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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ClipChoose - ClipChoose.com
Grades
3 to 12tag(s): polls and surveys (46)
In the Classroom
Challenge students to create their own polls then search for YouTube videos to support or explain each response. Create a ClipChoose poll as a teacher or whole class. Have students respond then write a response using quotes from videos to back up their choice. Administer a poll, then use the data for graphing practice. Display sample polls (made by you or the class) and data for practice with interpreting graphs. Collect parent or student opinions about any topic. Take a poll at back to school night to find out what parents' greatest concerns or misconceptions are. Obtain quick feedback from students about which curriculum topics are confusing them. Allow students to create polls as part of critical thinking exercises such as how poll wording may bias the results. Encourage students to include polls in oral presentations to increase audience engagement. Teach students about types of propaganda using up to 8 example videos in ClipChoose. Ask students to select the one that demonstrates the use of a particular propaganda technique.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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3D Photo Cube - Hame
Grades
K to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): creativity (92), images (269), photography (130)
In the Classroom
This tool is obviously too complicated for your elementary students to use independently. However, it could be used as a whole group/teacher led activity with any grade level. Visualize photo cubes with pictures of special class events, field trips, or just the usual day! Change the cube daily, to feature different activities, subjects, or kids. Bring into subject area content and add public domain images to add visual information for the content you are studying. For vocabulary words, add images to explain. Use photo cubes to show the main idea of historical events, literature, or even math concepts. Make a photo cube with related or unrelated images and use as a writing prompt. Use photo cubes for sequencing practice. Have fun with extra curricular clubs and highlighting events. Begin your school news show featuring the cube from different places in your school during the day. Have older students create their own photo cubes to accompany poetry in an online literary magazine (using Creative Commons or their own images). Art students can create a cube with images of their own work as an opener to a portfolio web site. Share this tool as an option for a "visual aid" during speech units pr to present images as art of a research report. Embed cubes on your class wiki to support conepts such as environmental concerns or local history. Challenge gifted students to create visual "puzzles" where viewers must guess the word or concept that the images have in common. Teach creative flexibility!Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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PDF Converter - pdfconverter.com
Grades
K to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): worksheets (70)
In the Classroom
Ever find really neat activity sheets, but they need to be tweaked a little to make them work for your classes? This tool helps you save time by allowing you to edit PDF files in Word to avoid reinventing the wheel. (Beware of copyrighted materials, however). Science teachers can take lab activities and refine questions or add instructions as needed for their classrooms. English teachers can add standardized test prompts to preexisting general worksheets to tailor the activity to suit their state's test needs. This is a helpful utility for students entering contests or completing applications offered only in PDF form.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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AllSides - John Gable
Grades
4 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): elections (80), evaluating sources (28), media literacy (102), politics (112)
In the Classroom
This is an excellent site to easily find topics presented from various points of view. Use articles with students to demonstrate point of view in writing, bias in media, or for students to use as points for debates. Use an online tool such as Interactive Three Circle Venn Diagram, reviewed here, to create a visual comparison of different points of view.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Sub Hub - Rachel Friedrich
Grades
K to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): classroom management (128), newbies (14), substitutes (27)
In the Classroom
Regular classroom teachers might want to share this in their emergency lesson plans for subs. Substitutes, don't go into the classroom empty handed. Bookmark this useful website (or make it a TeachersFirst Favorite so you can find it anytime) and be prepared for the unexpected! New teachers and student teachers can learn from the many tips. If you are mentoring or working with a student teacher, share some of these ideas. For even more, be sure to check out Teachers First's Ideas and Resources for Substitutes here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Promethean Planet - Promethean, Inc
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
Before you try any of these activities, think about how you can make the lesson more student-centered. Find ideas in TeachersFirst's Hands off, Vanna! Giving Students Control of Interactive Whiteboard Learning . Browse the site for interactive whiteboard resources to download for classroom use. Bookmark and save favorites for later use. Download any resource, then tweak it to your individual needs. Have questions about creating Promethean Flipcharts? Post your question on the technical board to receive helpful replies. If you have a SmartBoard, be sure to check out the SmartBoard lessons and resources page located here. You will need to download the ActivInspire software (free).Comments
This is the go-to site for Promethean flipchart downloads. Most files were created by teachers. The only downside is that the files are hit-or-miss. There are many gems, but you might have to browse some not-so-great files to find them.Tim, , Grades: 0 - 6
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Rooh it: Instant Web Highlighter - RoohIt, Inc
Grades
4 to 12tag(s): browser (6), note taking (34)
In the Classroom
Consider using this tool as a way to direct students to specific points of web pages. Include directions in your notes. Assign specific tasks, such as pre-reading questions using the notes feature. Even without "sharing" a URL, use this resource to keep track of specific points for discussion later. Have students use this tool for research papers and other projects. Share current events with others, highlighting specific points. Simply paste the highlighted URLs into a word doc to save and reopen later. Use this resource as an organizational tool for content found on the web. Have students annotate their own pages including their own pre-reading questions, main idea sentences, or summaries using highlighting and notes on a text-based page. Have them explicate poetry, annotate motifs in online literary works, point out fallacies in arguments used in blog posts, or highlight evidence of bias in web page content. They can "turn in" their assignments to you or share them with classmates by URL.Keep a word document with the URLs to your annotated pages and notes about what they are if you plan to assign them to students. If you plan to use this as a TEACHER only, there are no safety/security concerns at all. Be sure to check with your IT department about installing bookmarklets and using this site on district computers. No registration is required. Encourage students to use this responsibly and not highlight information considered inappropriate for school.
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