Resource Depot

Screencastify is an extension for Google Chrome that allows educators to record and narrate over what is on their computer screen. It is a program that was built for schools, specifically designed from the ground up to be the safest, simplest video creation tool for teachers and students. It has many valuable uses for educators, among them:

Flipping the classroom. Teachers make learning more personal in their blended and flipped classrooms by recording:

• • Full and/or bite-sized lessons

  • Assignment solutions and explanations

  • Verbal student feedback

Thinking made visible. Screencastify helps make student voices heard and thinking visible through activities like:

• • Speech and language practice

  • Comprehension and reflection exercises

  • Interactive slide presentations

Saving time. Time is every educator's most precious resource. Many use Screencastify to free up time by recording:

• Professional development training

• Lesson plans

• Parent communication

Video Tutorials

Set-up and Record: This video show you how to set up your Screencastify account and record your first video.

Narrate: This video shows you how to narrate over your Google Slides presentation. It also walks you through the installation and setup of Screencastify, so if you have already done this, you can jump forward to 2:14 in the video - the instructions after this are specific to using Screencastify with Google Slides.

Taken from the Flipgrid FAQ page:

Flipgrid is a FREE video discussion platform from Microsoft that helps educators see and hear from every student in class and foster fun and supportive social learning. In Flipgrid, educators post discussion prompts and students respond with short videos, whether they are learning in class or at home.

Educator Step-by-Step Guide

Once you set up your free educator account at Flipgrid.com, you’ll first create a Topic for your class. A Topic is a discussion prompt for your students! Your students respond to your Topic with a short video, using Flipgrid's fun, social media style camera. Students can watch and comment on videos from peers, with you as the educator in complete control.

Step 1: Create a Topic

Topics start the conversation in Flipgrid. Just write a prompt and include anything you would like your students to review prior to responding, such as videos and links. Explore the Discovery Library for thousands of age- and subject-specific Topic prompts that you can use with your community.

Step 2: Set Access and Share

After creating your Topic, choose how learners will access it. If they have email addresses, add the domain (everything after the @ symbol in their email address). If your learners do not have email addresses, create usernames for each learner. Invite families and guests by adding a guest password.

Share your Topic by using one of the share buttons (Google Classroom, Microsoft Teams, Remind) or copy and paste the unique Join Code wherever you connect with your community.

Step 3: Learners Respond

After entering your Join Code, learners gain access by logging in via email or username.

Your learners share their voice by recording a short video with Flipgrid’s fun, simple, and powerful camera! It’s packed with everything they need to tell their story, including text, emoji, inking, boards, screen recording, the ability to upload clips, and more!

Other useful Flipgrid site:

• https://ditchthattextbook.com/catch-the-flipgrid-fever-15-ways-to-use-flipgrid-in-your-class/

Video Tutorial:

There are many Flipgrid tutorials out there. This one is good because it is really informative, and includes some extra, useful information like customizing the 'Flip Code' of your grids so they are easier for students to find, and customizing the visual look of your grid.

What is Pear Deck?

Essentially, Pear Deck is a way to turn your Google Slides presentation slides into interactive activities for your students. It is a formative assessment tool that was designed with the purpose of creating 100% engagement with students. It enhances the traditional stand-and-deliver lecture style of teaching (which students often find boring), and makes it fun and engaging for students, because they are actually interacting with the presentation!

How does it work?

Teachers create a presentation with Google Slides (or Microsoft PowerPoint Online), and use the Pear Deck Add-on. When it is time to present, they present through Pear Deck, where students will be given a code to join.

Teachers can ask questions, and students can answer anonymously - this is great for those students who don't answer questions during class because they are worried about being 'wrong.' The teacher can still see who answers what, which is likewise great for being able to discretely identify those who are having trouble with material.

Teachers can insert interactive activities that they create into their slide show, or Pear Deck has a slide library, where teachers can choose from pre-created activities.

How can you use Pear Deck in the classroom?

Pear Deck can be used in a multitude of ways in the classroom! There are a number of different posts out there detailing how it can be used in the classroom - here is a helpful one from the blog 'Ditchthattextbook.com.' It includes a list of 20 different ways to use Pear Deck in the classroom, including mind-mapping, retelling, labeling, predicting, and describing their thinking process. It also includes a number of video links to explanations of how to do different things in Pear Deck, like adding audio, running a slide presentation, and teaching a remote lesson.

Video Tutorial

This video is a good basic tutorial for teachers who are new to Pear Deck, which demonstrates how one teacher uses Pear Deck with a Google Slides presentation.

Kahoot is an interactive quiz-based app that students and teachers love to use! There is a free version (great for those on a budget), and a premium version that offers additional features.

How it works:

• The teacher creates a quiz (or chooses from one of the many pre-made options available). Creating a game of Kahoot! only takes minutes, and teachers can combine quiz questions with polls, puzzles and slides in one kahoot, or use Kahoot's question bank.

• The teacher hosts a game, and students play! This can be done in class, or via distance learning. Students are given a code to join a game on their devices, and questions and optional answers are displayed on the players’ devices. Play in class to take your lessons to the next level!

• Teachers can share kahoots with students to engage them after class, for example, directly in Microsoft Teams. By using a team space for your school, teachers can also co-create and share kahoots with colleagues.

When to use Kahoot:

Kahoot can be used in multiple ways and for multiple reasons. It is great for reviewing concepts, activating prior knowledge, preparing for actual quizzes/tests, teaching a lesson, collecting student opinions, and just for a fun way to engage students in the classroom! Students can also create their own Kahoots, to play in groups, or for the whole class.

Video Tutorial

This is a great (and only 5 minute) tutorial to help you get started with Kahoot.

Kahoot's Help Centre has a huge selection of articles on a variety of topics to help you if you get stuck. Find the FAQ page here.

Google Sites is a website builder offered by G Suite. Build beautiful and functional sites —without designer, programmer, or IT help. With the new Google Sites, building websites is easy. Just drag content where you need it.

When you create a new site, it’s automatically added to Drive, like your other files stored in Drive. You can edit a Google Site together with someone else in real time, and see each other’s changes live. Publish the site for everyone to see, or restrict sharing permissions and make the site accessible only to people you want to share it with, like vendors or suppliers.

Google Sites websites are responsive, which means they’re optimized for tablets and smartphones, too. You can get a website up and running in as little as 10 minutes!

Google offers a lot of support for its users. Here is a detailed, step-by-step guide that instructs users how to create, update, personalize, share, collaborate, preview and publish your site.

Useful Sites:

This site offers a variety of ways that both students AND teachers can use Google Sites in the classroom.

Video Tutorial

Here is a great basic tutorial for learning your way around Google Sites.

What is Read&Write for Google?

Read&Write for Google Chrome is a Google Chrome extension that is compatible with any device that can use Google Chrome. It claimes to boost reading and writing confidence across all types of content and devices, in class, at work, and at home! It is a paid program (though it does offer a free 30 day trial). However, this program is so helpful, and so commonly used, that many schools already have a subscription for it - ask your admin!

Wonderfully intuitive and easy-to-use, Read&Write for Google Chrome™ provides personalized support to make documents, web pages and common file types in Google Drive (including: Google Docs, PDF & ePub) more accessible. It’s designed to help everyone engage with digital content in a way that suits his/her abilities and learning styles.

Read&Write offers a range of powerful support tools to help you gain confidence with reading, writing, studying and research, including:

• Text-to-speech to hear words, passages, or whole documents read aloud with easy-to-follow dual color highlighting

• Text and picture dictionaries to see the meaning of words explained

• With speech-to-text, dictate words to assist with writing, proofreading & studying

• Word prediction offers suggestions for the current or next word as you type

• Collect highlights from text in documents or the web for summarizing and research

• Create and listen to voice notes directly inside of Google Docs

• Simplify and summarize text on web pages to remove ads and other copy that can be distracting

Teachers can get a FREE premium subscription to Read&Write for Google Chrome. To register and activate your subscription, go to texthelp.com/en-gb/products/read-write/free-for-teachers/ after installing the Read&Write for Google Chrome trial.

Useful Sites:

This is a fabulous quick-reference guide for all of the features that Google Read&Write offers.

Video Tutorial

This is a very thorough tutorial that walks you through and demonstrates how to use all of the features that Read&Write for Google Chrome uses.

What is CommonLit?

When you look up CommonLit, there is a tagline to go with it that describes it well: "CommonLit: a digital toolkit for increased literacy." It is a free digital tool that is designed to help students in grades 5-12 make measurable gains in reading and writing. Once you sign up, teachers have access to a huge, free library of high-interest, standards-aligned lessons and texts. It is an American site, so some content is more focused on American history, etc, and the standards it aligns with are Common Core - but there are many similarities between Common Core and Canadian curriculum expectations.

Content

This free library is fantastic! It is full of articles, short stories, and poems. A really interesting and useful feature is the text pairing - for example, if you are studying a certain novel in class, you can look up that novel, and CommonLit will provide you with texts that pair well with it. There are thousands of different pieces, including most short stories that teachers commonly study with students.

Assessment

Within the chosen text, CommonLit provides the option to assign students assessment questions. There are also guided reading questions, discussion questions, and annotation questions. The data gathered from these questions is stored by class, and can be looked at by individual student as well. It is organized into an assignment report in a way that teachers can gain insight into the types of questions students need help with, individually or as a group. It also displays/measures progress that students make as they continue to use CommonLit. On similar reading websites, this is often a premium, paid feature!

Useful site for using CommonLit in the classroom:

From weareteachers.com, this page provides a number of different ways that CommonLit can be used in the middle and high school classrooms.

Video Tutorial

Here is a great basic tutorial for teachers on how to get started with CommonLit. It walks you through the signup process, syncing your classes, creating assignments, choosing texts, saving favourite texts, finding paired texts for articles you like, viewing data from assessment questions, providing feedback, and understanding the assignment report.

What is Quill?

Quill.org is a FREE lightweight learning management system integrated with a suite of online apps that teach writing, grammar, and vocabulary skills to students. Students using Quill learn English grammar and vocabulary by fixing sentences, proofreading passages, and collaboratively writing passages.

How does Quill work?

Quill provides 10-15 minute exercises that help students build sentence construction skills. Quill automatically grades the writing and provides feedback and hints to help students improve it. The immediate feedback enables students to quickly build their skills, and it saves teachers dozens of hours spent on grading.

What are Quill's tools?

Quill Diagnostic: Identify Learning Gaps and Assign Personalized Learning Plans; Quill Lessons: Shared Group Lessons; Quill Connect: Combine Sentences; Quill Grammar: Practice Mechanics; Quill Proofreader: Fix Errors In Passages.

How can I integrate Quill into my classroom?

Do Now: Use Quill’s activities as a quick daily warm-up at the beginning of class.; Whole-Class Lessons: Lead whole-class interactive and small group writing instruction; Independent Practice: Use Quill after a mini lesson to reinforce your instruction; Homework: Assign Quill as homework for students to complete on a smartphone or a computer.

Which grammar concepts are covered by Quill?

Quill activities cover more than 300 grammar concepts such as Complex Sentences, Capitalization, Fragments, Compound Sentences, Adjectives, Prepositions and more. You can view a list of Quill's most popular activity packs here and you can view a list of the standards that Quill covers here.

How many activities are on Quill?

As of June 2019, Quill has created over 500 activities with 5,000 practice questions, covering Common Core topics for grades K-12. Each activity is approximately 10-15 minutes in length.

Video Tutorials:

Introduction to Quill: This video gives a simple demonstration of some of the features that Quill offers.

Creating a Class: This video shows how to create a class, add students, and manage your classes.

Assigning Activities: This video shows teachers how to create new units, find and select activities using filters, and to assign them to individual students, or as a whole class.

Viewing Results: This video shows how to view student results from Quill.

No Red Ink is an online, web-based language learning platform that is "on a mission to unlock every writer's potential." It offers a free and paid version, and focuses on improving student writing through interactive tutorials and lessons in grammar instruction. It offers:

High-interest content: Students often find grammar boring because the content doesn’t relate to them. That’s why No Red Ink generates questions from each student’s favorite celebrities, hobbies, TV shows, and friends. Imagine taking a quiz where your best friend’s name keeps popping up! It’s no surprise that students are engaged quickly.

Authentic assessments: The creators of No Red Ink believe that “playing with language” is an essential part of learning to write. That’s why they have students drag in commas, click words to capitalize them, throw out unwanted punctuation, and edit parts of sentences directly whenever possible. They also design exercises that have multiple correct answers, as there’s more than one way to write a sentence.

Blended learning: No Red Ink is adamant that teachers need the resources to help each student at the appropriate level – and that learners should be able to work at their own pace. The site allows students to practice independently so that teachers can differentiate instruction based on results.

Adaptive technology: One benefit of technology is the ability to adjust questions based on what students get right or wrong, drilling down to their underlying misconceptions. When learners get stuck, No Red Ink shows them tutorials that help them correct their mistakes and keep going.

Unlimited practice: All educators know that it takes a long time for students to fully grasp new skills. No Red Ink's site allows learners unlimited practice so that it can free up teachers’ time to focus on big-picture issues in students’ writing.

No Red Ink's site offers a great Teacher Help page, with lots of links to tutorials and instructions that address the ins and outs of using No Red Ink.

Video Tutorial

This tutorial is fabulous for helping you get started. It offers some little tips that are easily missed in written instructions, like how to preview what an assignment will look like on the student end.

Overview

Newsela is an instructional content tool that allows teachers to find articles with appropriate reading levels for their students. Newsela articles also feature questions and writing prompts that align with common core standards (so geared towards our American counterparts, but still modifiable for those of us in Canada). It offers a vast library of reading content that is easy to organize, categorized by subjects like War and Peace, Science, Current Events, Sports, Arts, Kids, Health, etc. It offers both a free and a paid version. For the free version, you get access to their HUGE library at different lexile levels, and you can assign articles and quizzes to students; with the paid version, you of course get all of this, but you also have access to a teacher dashboard, where you can see student results. According to the Newsela website, they offer solutions for every subject, student, and school. They offer the specific categories of:

• Newsela ELA

• Newsela Social Studies

• Newsela Science

• Newsela Essentials

• The Newsela SEL Collection

• Newsela Custom Collections

What teachers love best

Across subjects and solutions, great content can make all the difference. Engage every learner with thousands of real-world texts that feature diverse perspectives and people all students can identify with.

• Get visibility into usage and student performance with built-in activities and reporting

• Differentiate instruction easily with texts published at 5 reading levels

• Keep your lessons fresh and relevant, with up to 10 new texts added every day

• Search, filter, and explore content by subject-specific standard

Aligned to your standards

All content included with Newsela’s core subject products is vetted and aligned to state standards (so again, American based, but still usable and relevant in Canada). Teachers can search by standard or topic to find content that both supports their curriculum and is engaging and accessible to every learner.

Other Useful Sites:

Here is a link to Newsela's YouTube channel of their own instructional videos for different aspects of their platform.

This link here takes you to Newsela's Support Page, where again, they help you trouble-shoot any problems, or discover new elements with their detailed instructions.

Video Tutorials

Here is a quick introduction video, done by the fabulous Jennifer Gonzalez over at Cult of Pedagogy. (If you haven't ever checked out this blog, do so now!)

Here is a great tutorial on different ideas and strategies that can be used with Newsela during distance learning.

What is Kenn Nesbitt's Poetry for Kids?

Poetry4kids.com is a great site that has a lot of valuable poetry resources for teachers and students alike! Kenn Nesbitt is a children's author, who has created the site. It is full of his poems (mostly funny ones, which kids enjoy), poetry lessons, rhyming and rhythm lessons, a poetry dictionary, poetry games, podcasts, and more! Kids can explore the site themselves to find something to do, or teachers can follow along with the lesson plans, or provide students with specific links to visit. The page is well-organized, and really easy to navigate for learners at a variety of levels.

Videos

There are no tutorials for this website, as it is super easy to navigate, and doesn't require explicit instructions! However, Kenn Nesbitt has a YouTube channel with a number of his videos posted - videos include poetry writing lessons, interviews, and read-aloud poems.

What is ReadWorks?

ReadWorks is a FREE website offering resources for differentiated reading instruction, specifically comprehension. There's a range of nonfiction texts, activities, and assessments as well as an online platform teachers can use to track student progress. After signing up as a teacher, click on Class Admin from the top menu and create a class. Teachers can add students manually or via Google Classroom by sharing a class code. Using the drop-down menus, teachers will find all that they need to get started: class demo videos, classroom protocols, tips, and suggestions that will make it easy to implement or improve reading instruction. Once classes are created, teachers can begin curating reading assignments by grade level, Lexile level, StepReads availability, and whether or not audio is included. Teachers can easily assign passages, corresponding vocabulary lists, and Common Core-aligned question sets to an entire class or to individual students. An easy-to-use Assignments dashboard makes it simple to grade student responses, track progress, and provide direct feedback. Multiple-choice questions are automatically graded, but teachers will have to grade short-answer questions and, if they wish, provide written feedback.

How Can I Teach with This Tool?

• One of ReadWorks' most attractive features is its support for different classroom setups: Any lesson can be assigned digitally, printed out, or projected in front of the class. This -- combined with it being free and full of resources -- means any teacher looking to increase students' reading comprehension, provide extra support, or differentiate by interest or text complexity will likely find something useful.

• Use the Article-a-Day sets to establish a 10- to 15-minute daily reading routine that increases students' background knowledge and improves vocabulary skills. Assign Paired Texts -- chosen for different perspectives on the same topic -- to encourage more in-depth analysis, compare perspectives, or check for bias. Use the wide range of resources to create engaging whole-class reading lessons, literature circles, differentiated group work, or independent center work, or pull small groups to work on specific standards or skills.

• Teachers can even assign articles that include the audio narration feature, so students can listen to texts within a classroom listening center or on their device. This may be particularly helpful in supporting ELLs and struggling readers. Finally, assess students and give feedback by assigning sets of multiple-choice and short-answer questions. Keep in mind that the question sets are not customizable, so you may want to develop supplemental questions or activities to better meet students' needs.

Is it good for learning?

The content-rich ReadWorks platform easily lends itself to differentiation and supports students' development of vocabulary skills and background knowledge. Convenient features such as the ability to curate lists and view assignments over time make it easy to monitor student progress. Lessons are thorough, with familiar and easy-to-navigate sections, and unit activities include graphic organizers and worksheets that support extended responses and critical analysis. Passages within the Skills & Strategies category provide even further opportunities for differentiation and targeted instruction, covering a wide range of reading concepts including author's purpose, inferencing, plot, fact and opinion, and more.

In addition to its regular content, the site includes access to StepReads passages, which provide struggling readers with a more accessible, less complex version of authentic nonfiction or literary texts. Teachers can use StepReads to scaffold lessons and support students' needs without sacrificing quality. Many passages also include an audio option for those who struggle with written text or simply prefer to supplement their reading with audio. Reading passages include vocabulary lists, definitions, examples, and in many cases, Spanish cognates, making content particularly accessible to Spanish-speaking ELLs. Keep in mind that students can only access content that teachers have assigned, so consistency will be key in promoting development of students' reading skills across content areas.

Video Tutorials

For a quick overview of the basics of what ReadWorks can and can't do, please watch this 30 second video by Commonsense.org.

This video offers a simple walkthrough of how to use ReadWorks, as well as an introduction and walkthrough of ReadWorks Digital (a sister site, completely digital and great for distance learning).

What is National Geographic Kids?

By building on National Geographic's reputation for breathtaking photography and in-depth reportage about the world's cultures and exotic wildlife, National Geographic Kids provides an overwhelming number of high-quality visual learning tools. Profiles of animals and countries include videos, photos, maps, and facts. Videos are brief (one to five minutes) and include excerpts from National Geographic's nature films and exploration shows. The reading level is appropriate for kids as young as second grade and might even provide some motivation for reading instruction in class.

While National Geographic Kids isn't well-organized for teachers, it is a fantastic resource for students to explore their interests and follow their curiosity. The Homework Help section can provide additional information for light research papers or projects. Teachers can search, themselves, for resources that match topics they're working on in the classroom. Or, it is easy for kids to navigate on their own. They can just browse, narrow their browsing to certain areas, or do a keyword search for something specific. In-depth sections of the site include topics such as the 50 Birds, 50 States video series; How Things Work videos; Brain Games; and plenty of experiments. There are also countless animal videos, articles, and activities on history and culture. Allowing kids to search on their own, as well as using the site for targeted lessons or homework help, keeps students involved with guiding the direction of their own learning, which makes for lifelong learners.

Funny Fill-Ins

Funny Fill-Ins is a secdion of this fun site where you choose a scenario (beach, magic, snow day, etc), fill in a bunch of nouns, verb, adjectives, etc, and it writes a paragraph for you based on the scenario and your chosen words. Good for building some ELA skills, and entertaining others and yourself!

What is Google Classroom?

Google describes Google Classroom as "mission control for your classroom," and this might be the easiest way to think about it. Simply put, it's a platform that ties together Google's G Suite tools for teachers and students. It also acts as a digital organizer where teachers can keep class materials and share them with students -- all paperless-ly. From there, you can pick and choose the features you want to incorporate. This flexibility, and its seamless integration with Google's popular tools, is likely what's made Google Classroom one of the most widely-used edtech tools today.

How do teachers use Google Classroom?

Because it's a fairly flexible platform, educators use its features in a lot of different ways. With Google Classroom, teachers can:

• Streamline how they manage classes. The platform integrates with Google’s other tools like Docs, Drive, and Calendar, so there are lots of built-in "shortcuts" for classroom-management tasks. For example, if you post an assignment with a due date, it's automatically added to the class calendar for your students to see.

• Digitally organize, distribute, and collect assignments, course materials, and student work. Teachers can also post an assignment to multiple classes or modify and reuse assignments from year to year. If your students have regular access to devices, Google Classroom can help you avoid some trips to the photocopier and cut down on some of the paper shuffling that comes with teaching and learning.

• Communicate with students about their classwork. You can use the platform to post announcements and reminders about assignments, and it's easy to see who has or hasn't completed their work. You can also check in with individual students privately, answer their questions, and offer support.

• Give students timely feedback on their assignments and assessments. Within Google Classroom, it's possible to use Google Forms to create and share quizzes that are automatically graded as students turn them in. You'll not only spend less time grading, but your students will get instant feedback on their work.

How do I set up my Google Classroom?

The basic setup process for Google Classroom is pretty intuitive, even for first-time users. The Google Teacher Center offers several tutorials for getting started -- this is your best bet if you're looking for the most up-to-date videos and information. There are also plenty of do-it-yourself tutorials on YouTube posted by teachers and tech-integration specialists. Many of these teacher-created videos include practical tips and tricks they've learned from using the platform in their own classrooms.

Other Useful Sites:

• For more answers to frequently asked questions, please visit teacher.org's Teachers' Essential Guide to Google Classroom.

• To get detailed help directly from Google, please visit G-Suite's Teacher Center, which contains a large variety of Google Classroom-related resources.

Video Tutorial

This video tutorial will show you how to use Google Classroom for Beginners 2020. *** Please note the video description in YouTube offers timestamps to navigate to different parts of the video. Great for if you already know how to do something

What is Showbie?

Showbie is an app used by teachers to assign, collect, and review student work. It offers both a free and paid version. Showbie keeps student work organized by classes and assignments. At a glance, students can see their upcoming assignments and due dates so they can prioritize their work. This tends to be an app of choice for elementary teachers.

Learn Everywhere

Showbie keeps you and your students on the same page, whether you’re using your iPad, iPhone, or pretty much any computer or device with an internet connection.

Assignments Made Easy

SHARE ANYTHING: Instantly distribute documents, images, instructions and comments to your entire class, a group of students, or individual students.

CLASS FOLDERS: Create any number of folders within a class to keep your assignments and documents organized and easy to find.

PHOTOS + VIDEO: Grab an image or video from your camera roll, or capture a document on the fly with your device’s camera, then crop and adjust it in Showbie.

DOCUMENTS FROM ANYWHERE: Add documents from your computer, favourite iPad app, Dropbox or Google Drive in a couple of taps.

COMMENTS, LINKS + VOICE NOTES: Quickly add instructions, guidance, or links to assignments. You can even record a voice note with verbal instructions for your students.

ACCESS PRELOADED LESSONS PLANS AND ASSIGNMENTS! (BETA): Upload your own math or language arts content or select from hundreds of assignments and lessons plans, already loaded into Showbie.

The Right Tools for the Job

SMART DOCUMENT VIEWER: Showbie works like magic, displaying PDFs, images, ebooks, audio and video exactly the way you want.

PEN TOOL: Use the pen to draw right on your documents. Showbie Pro classrooms can use a wide variety of colors and line thicknesses.

HIGHLIGHTER TOOL: Call attention to details with the highlighter tool, without worrying that the original work will be obscured by your scrawl.

TEXT TOOL: You and your students can type text directly on the page, with control over font size, color, and alignment.

PINNED VOICE NOTES: Record audio and pin it right to the page. Capture your students reading, singing, or practicing a new language with a single tap!

Visit Showbie's Support Page for help with a wide variety of features!

Video Tutorial

Here is a great basic tutorial on getting started with Showbie!

What is Seesaw?

Seesaw: The Learning Journal is a robust digital portfolio and learning system where teachers can create meaningful multimedia experiences for students. Using Google, Clever, student emails, or a QR code, teachers assign tasks that engage students with a variety of work in the form of videos, photos, text, images, files, and drawings. Teachers follow up by approving posts, offering feedback, and, if desired, making items accessible to families via the Seesaw Family app (available online and via Android or iOS). Since teachers can view all students' submissions at once, it's an easy way to check for whole-class understanding. Teachers can also enable peer-to-peer feedback or create a class blog to encourage a richer, more connected experience. For added security, the blogs can be password protected, and teachers can opt to moderate posts.

Is it good for learning?

It's hard to find a tool like Seesaw that does so much to engage students and provide evidence of learning, especially one that offers most of its powerful features for free. Audio, video, and drawing options add tons of opportunities for differentiation and reflection, enabling teachers to accommodate a variety of learning styles without a lot of extra effort. Teachers can enable student likes, comments, and editing as well, providing opportunities for collaboration, peer-to-peer feedback, and social and emotional learning experiences. Notably, teachers may choose to moderate comments; while time-consuming, it may prevent inappropriate comments or inadvertently showing a student's struggles with writing or spelling. Teachers can use Seesaw to communicate easily with all students and parents. They have the option to review a feed of an entire class's work or view work by a specific student, which is especially handy for student or parent conferences.

While teachers may not like that there's no place to enter or track grades, doing so would feel almost antithetical. The focus is on mastery of standards, and teachers can monitor students' progress toward key skills (paid version) instead of pinning students to number or letter grades that fail to show the complete picture. Designed to show both process and product, Seesaw is a powerful way for kids to demonstrate evidence of learning over time.

*Note: information above taken from commonsense.org

Video Tutorial

This is a good basic tutorial that walks you through setting up a Seesaw teacher account, adding classes, posting content, etc.

What is Blackboard Collaborate?

Blackboard Collaborate is a web conferencing/webinar platform designed for use in online teaching. Instructors create virtual classrooms and online meeting spaces to share presentation material and communicate with participants via synchronous audio, video and chat tools. Webinar rooms include a collaborative whiteboard tool that allows peers and instructors to interact in real time. Desktop applications and web resources such as multimedia can be displayed directly within the web conference room. An interactive recording can be created for each session allowing students the opportunity to review material following the live online webinar. It is geared more towards older students, rather than elementary students.

This video offers a good, quick overview of what the Blackboard Collaborate experience looks like.

There is also a Blackboard Collaborate help page that offers detailed instructions/demonstrations of how to use their platform.

Video Tutorial

Here is a helpful (and brief!) video of the Instructor's Quick Guide to BlackBoard Collaborate.