Digital resources
General Interest
Alternatives to Google for Pictures Provided by Richard Byrne - a table of sites that have public domain(don't need to cite) and/or creative common images. Creative commons means that artists have shared their work for others to use, with citations.
BrainPOP.com - Videos about a multitude of topics, with pre-made quizzes, and opportunity for students to make own BrainPOP videos. You can create assignments for kids to watch movies as a review or preview.
Commonlit.org - Short texts organized by Lexile and grade level (K-12), both fiction and nonfiction - some paired and some with other related media. Text sets and lesson plans are also available. Integrates with Google Classroom.
CommonSenseMedia.org This organization rates apps, websites and tools, has curriculum for digital citizenship and educational articles. It also has a great page on tools for formative assessments.
Edpuzzle - allows you to edit and annotate videos. You can even add questions and track your kids' responses. Large library of available videos or add your own!
Fact Checking - here's an article referencing 8 sites to use to fact check the news.
Google Classroom Infographic - great one page tutorial on the possibilities and how to for Google Classroom. They have expanded their features, so it is worth another look if you don't use it. I find it very helpful for student communication and accountability.
K20 Learn - University of Oklahoma - A site with 115 instructional strategies that can be searched by grade level, purpose, groupings, time, placement in lesson. It also has complete lessons in 4 subject areas (English, Math, Science and Social Studies).
KQED Above the Noise- Above the Noise, a YouTube series for teens, cuts through the hype and dives deep into the research behind the issues affecting their daily lives. The series investigates controversial subject matter to help young viewers draw their own informed conclusions, while inspiring media literacy and civic engagement.
Learning for Justice - Free resources that will help you bring relevance, rigor and social emotional learning into your classroom
National Park Service - Teacher Resources Lessons that are linked to the common core in literacy, social studies, science, and math. They are searchable by Common Core Standard, Subject and Grade Level. Many use primary sources, and all have lesson plans with materials.
Newsela.com - Articles that are leveled by Lexile on all different topics and current events. Use your Google id to sign in. Integrates with Google Classroom.
Nonfiction Minute - 400 word essays written and recorded by children’s authors on a wide ranging list of topics.
Parlay- Discussion-based learning tool.
PBS Learning Media - PBS Learning Media offers free, standards-aligned videos, interactives, lesson plans, and more for teachers in grades K-12. Integrates with Google Classroom.
Researchitct.org - State of CT - access to e-books, audio books, popular magazines, newspapers and other resources/databases
Scholastic Digital Magazines - Access the LMC's digital subscriptions to Scholastic magazines such as the New York Times' Upfront, Junior Scholastic, and Scholastic Scope. Log in or create an account using your school email then email me for the access codes to the magazines you would like to access.
State Library - extra copies of books to borrow for up to 3 months.
Tween Tribune - From Smithsonian Magazine, articles for kids through teens in all content areas.
US Census Bureau - Lots of statistics for student use, lesson plans, US States information
Wonderopolis - Question/answer based site that has great explanations and links to good sources about a variety of topics.
Literacy
Actively Learn - Similar to Newsela. Articles with Notes, Vocab and Questions. Integrates with Google Classroom.
Blog entry with 165 books for Middle Grade categorized by obstacles the main character faces
Capstone Interactive Books-lots of great interactive books username: whisct password: school
CommonLit.org Free online reading resources for K-12 teachers and students. Very useful resource for fiction/nonfiction texts, text sets, and lesson plans. Integrates with Google Classroom.
Infographic of synonyms for the word 'very'
PBS Learning Media - PBS Learning Media offers free, standards-aligned videos, interactives, lesson plans, and more for teachers in grades K-12. Integrates with Google Classroom.
Scholastic Digital Magazines - Access the LMC's digital subscriptions to Scholastic magazines such as the New York Times' Upfront, Junior Scholastic, and Scholastic Scope. Log in or create an account using your school email then email me for the access codes to the magazines you would like to access.
Teach Rock- is a standards-aligned, arts integration curriculum that uses the history of popular music and culture to help teachers engage students. Innovative lesson plans developed by experienced educators and top experts in the field foster genuine learning in areas including social studies, language arts, geography, science, STEAM, general music and more. TeachRock has crafted engaging and meaningful material for every classroom, and developed exciting professional development workshops to share it with teachers. All for free.
Teen Kid News - Video News for Kids
Tween Tribune - Fun articles at several reading levels from Smithsonian Magazine
Social Studies
Actively Learn - Similar to Newsela. Articles with Notes, Vocab and Questions. Integrates with Google Classroom.
C-Span.org - A ton of videos on Government from special events like State of the Union to Daily Press Briefings and Congressional Meetings
Capstone Interactive Books-lots of great interactive books username: whisct password: school
CommonLit.org Free online reading resources for K-12 teachers and students. Very useful resource for fiction/nonfiction texts, text sets, and lesson plans. Integrates with Google Classroom.
Digital Breakout based on Hamilton
Discovery Education - Virtual Field Trip - Constitution Day and Tour of the Library of Congress. Starts Sept 16. Register.
PBS Learning Media - PBS Learning Media offers free, standards-aligned videos, interactives, lesson plans, and more for teachers in grades K-12. Integrates with Google Classroom.
Primary Source Resources (particularly about Connecticut history)
Teaching how to spot "fake news": - With resources from schooljournalism.org - there are lesson plans and tips for students
Newspaper Navigator from the Library of Congress-Database of historical newspapers.
Scholastic Digital Magazines - Access the LMC's digital subscriptions to Scholastic magazines such as the New York Times' Upfront, Junior Scholastic, and Scholastic Scope. Log in or create an account using your school email then email me for the access codes to the magazines you would like to access.
Teach Rock- is a standards-aligned, arts integration curriculum that uses the history of popular music and culture to help teachers engage students. Innovative lesson plans developed by experienced educators and top experts in the field foster genuine learning in areas including social studies, language arts, geography, science, STEAM, general music and more. TeachRock has crafted engaging and meaningful material for every classroom, and developed exciting professional development workshops to share it with teachers. All for free.
Teen Kid News - Video News for Kids
Tween Tribune - Fun articles at several reading levels from Smithsonian Magazine
Wonderopolis - What is a civil right? With link to activity - Good discussion for MLK Day, also Black History Month or Inauguration Day
Science/Math
Actively Learn - Similar to Newsela. Articles with Notes, Vocab and Questions. Integrates with Google Classroom.
Capstone Interactive Books-lots of great interactive books username: whisct password: school
CommonLit.org Free online reading resources for K-12 teachers and students. Very useful resource for fiction/nonfiction texts, text sets, and lesson plans. Integrates with Google Classroom.
CurioCity - STEM resources for educators
Discovery Education - Virtual Field Trip to the State Department to find out how governments are cooperating on issues like overfishing and marine pollution. Register -Starts Sept 14.
NASA for Students - Learning resources from NASA for students in grades 5-8.
PBS Learning Media - PBS Learning Media offers free, standards-aligned videos, interactives, lesson plans, and more for teachers in grades K-12. Integrates with Google Classroom.
Scholastic Digital Magazines - Access the LMC's digital subscriptions to Scholastic magazines such as the New York Times' Upfront, Junior Scholastic, and Scholastic Scope. Log in or create an account using your school email then email me for the access codes to the magazines you would like to access.
Science News for Kids - Articles about a wide variety of science topics. It's a program from Society for Science & the Public.
Teach Rock- is a standards-aligned, arts integration curriculum that uses the history of popular music and culture to help teachers engage students. Innovative lesson plans developed by experienced educators and top experts in the field foster genuine learning in areas including social studies, language arts, geography, science, STEAM, general music and more. TeachRock has crafted engaging and meaningful material for every classroom, and developed exciting professional development workshops to share it with teachers. All for free.
Music
Civil Rights Movement Songs - Lesson Plan - Integrate music with social studies with this lesson about music from the Civil Rights movement.
Teach Rock- is a standards-aligned, arts integration curriculum that uses the history of popular music and culture to help teachers engage students. Innovative lesson plans developed by experienced educators and top experts in the field foster genuine learning in areas including social studies, language arts, geography, science, STEAM, general music and more. TeachRock has crafted engaging and meaningful material for every classroom, and developed exciting professional development workshops to share it with teachers. All for free.
Tech Tools
Canva- Graphic design program. Recommended for Infographics and poster projects. Publish to the web instead of paper.
Flipgrid.com - Have students respond to questions/prompts by making a short (up to 1.5 minute) video. Very easy to do with a Chromebook.
GoFormative.com - Create formative assessments using multimedia. Links to Google classroom. Looks very cool!
Iorad: Tutorial builder for making interactive screencasts.
Padlet - Students can share their opinions post it style. They can also add video and audio.
Plickers -The article linked describes a free product called Plickers which sounds like a great alternative to do a quick check in on students' thinking when they don't all have devices. (Look at the bottom of the first page). Plickers uses your iPad or iPhone to scan the students' responses. Each student has a unique Plicker card with multiple choice a,b,c,d options on them. The unique shapes protect student privacy, I've included the link to the Plickers site with more information.
Socrative.com - Create quizzes or ask discussion questions. Can be automatically graded, also can vote on top answers for discussion responses.
Professional Development
Google Educator Certificate - Teachers can study and take tests to receive a Google Educator Certificate. There are two levels. They also offer a Google Trainer certificate, but that requires in person workshops.
ISTE Certification - International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) just announced a certification program for educators. You can add your name to a mailing list to be notified as workshops become available. Here are some
Sources for Reading, Listening and Viewing
Audible - Free audio books to listen to!
BrainPop - Movies about all topics - All Ages username: wmsbpop password: brainpop20 . Integrates with Google Classroom.
Brookfield Public Library - free e-books to read via Hoopla or Overdrive.
Capstone Interactive Books-lots of great interactive books username: whisct password: school
CommonLit.org Free online reading resources for K-12 teachers and students. Very useful resource for fiction/nonfiction texts, text sets, and lesson plans. Integrates with Google Classroom.
E-books in our library catalog - we have about 100. Under "Materials" in Search - select e-books.
Epic! Reading - Reading online, audio books, free trial (parents)
Newsela - Keep up with current events (Chrome & Apple App available). Integrates with Google Classroom.
PBS Learning Media - PBS Learning Media offers free, standards-aligned videos, interactives, lesson plans, and more for teachers in grades K-12. Integrates with Google Classroom.
Scholastic Go! - Encyclopedias at 4 different levels plus world newspapers, dictionaries and atlases
username & password: whisconierms
Scholastic Digital Magazines - Access the LMC's digital subscriptions to Scholastic magazines such as the New York Times' Upfront, Junior Scholastic, and Scholastic Scope. Log in or create an account using your school email then email me for the access codes to the magazines you would like to access.
Teen Kid News - Video News for Kids
Tween Tribune - Fun articles at several reading levels from Smithsonian Magazine
Activities for Fun and Learning!
DC Kids Camp - Information about Activities on Twitter and Instagram - Learn to draw and create comics from the masters! @dckids on Twitter and Instagram
Drawing! - Drawing lessons with 2 illustrators:
Hour of Code - Coding puzzles, games and lessons - All ages
Kahoot - Play at home with up to 10 friends for free (check with your parents, choose Basic option)
Typing Club - free typing program