Flipgrid is a tool that just keeps getting better! I love using it to have students create video reflections, share their learning, explain a concept, and interact safely with others. In it's latest iteration, Flipgrid now has Flipgrid Pals where you can connect your classroom with another classroom the way you would with penpals. Flipgrid is a fantastic way to flatten the walls of your classroom and make sure that each of your students' voices is heard.
Ever wonder what George Washington or Cleopatra would have texted if they lived in the modern world? Now you can have your students create these text message conversations with the SMS Generator. It is as easy as clicking + and typing in the message. When your student is finished with the message, s/he can get a QR code or an embed code. Imagine hanging these fictional messages hanging in your classroom while the students need to decise who is speaking, what they are referring to and what is the importance of the conversation! This will be a great activity for your Social Studies, English or History classroom.
Five-Minute Film Festival Twitter for Teachers
If you have 5 minutes, you have time for some professional development! Five-Minute Film Festival is a series of short videos about using Twitter to develop your PLN and features a playlist on everything from how to get started to how to follow hashtags and where to find the best in educational twitter chats. I strongly encourage you to check out these videos which I found courtesy of this article from edutopia..
Edmodo is a classroom management tool that allows you to share information with groups of students, classes, parents and other teachers. It has the look of Facebook which for your students and teachers who use it, will help them with the navigation. This teacher rollout guide offers links to getting started, sending information to your parents, ways in which you could use edmodo to connect with your students both in and out of class and much more to help make edmodo successful in your classroom. This link to Classroom Rollout Resources will allow you to view some archived (and sign up to view live) webinars on using edmodo in your classroom. I would start with the Introduction to Edmodo and then follow it with the Ways to Use Edmodo in your classroom.
Next Vista for Learning is a fantastic video site created for students by other students and teachers. It features hundreds of educational learning videos on topics ranging from Literature and Math to Health and Fitness. There are also videos from around the world so your students can learn about other cultures. Add this one to your teacher toolbox!
Instant Classroom by Super Teacher Tools
Instant classroom easily helps teachers manage their students. Need to create a seating chart-instant classroom can do that; need to group your students-instant classroom can do that too; how about randomly calling on students-instant classroom can generate a random order that you can project to your students. This tool is definitely one worth bookmarking!
I cannot say enough about this amazing resource brought to you by a leader in education: PBS! This site has everything you need for your teaching day, from lesson plans and videos to professional development for teachers and students from Pre-K to college. PBS Learning Media has videos and resources for every subject in your teaching day. You can narrow your search by subject, media type and language to find just what you need to enhance your teaching and the students' learning.
This "livebinder" contains everything you always wanted to know about Google and how to use it effectively that you could ever ask for or need. It contains pages upon pages of Google resources and links and lessons on everything from how Google search works to Google docs to Google Sketch-Up. It is a wonderful resource for you and your students.
Planbookedu is a website that allows you to create and manage your plan book for the school year. Now you won't have to carry your plan book to and from school, it is accessible from anywhere you ahve a connection to the internet. And, the premium feature for $20 annually (with group discounts) allows you to attach files and have multiple plan books concurrently. Having an online plan book will allow you to share your plans with your colleagues, substitutes and administrators.
This is one site you will want to make your homepage! It is a website with badges/links to sites on everything from recipes to literature, gardening to poetry and science. It is a fantastic resource for your school and personal life.
This is a fantastic resource for teachers of all subjects and grades. It was posted on **twitter** and is an amazing resource. Just click your grade-level and subject and a host of web tools and resources are shown. that is where I found **word magnets**, a fun way to turn your text into virtual magnets.
I honestly can't say enough about Pete's Power Point Station. It has absolutely EVERYTHING you could possibly ever need on EVERY subject you teach or holiday that comes around. It is fantastic! A note of caution: clicking on a topic will lead to more clicking. In addition to what you see on the colorful quilt-like homepage, there are 1600 additional topics. You'll want to use the alphabetized index to get where you want. Click here if you need something for **Presiden't Day**
This site has plenty of great activities and resources to take you through the year. In the "Free activities" column you are able to customize and create words for your seasonal or thematic word wall. For teacher who give quizzes or tests. click on the "Make a quiz" link under the Free activities column. For the kids, have them try the online jigsaw puzzles (which is especially great for fine motor skill development as well as spatial reasoning)!
Thinkfinity offers teachers a variety of lesson ideas and activities gathered from fantastic sites like **www.readwritethink.org** and **www.sciencenetlinks.com**. The lessons can be searched by subject, key word, resource type or contet partners like music and art education's**www.artsedge.kennedy-center.org** and math's http://illuminations.nctm.org/Lessons.aspx . As you can see from the list, this is just SOME of what you will find when you enter thinkfinity's home page. Every part of your curriculum including foreign language can be enhanced by the free lessons that you will find here.
Think You Tube for educators. Search around this site for videos to aid in your teaching of any subject. Great songs for math and science, videos on topics about the internet for middle schoolers and high schoolers. Truly a great resource.
You'll find this on the Language Arts page but I had to mention it again as a resource for teacher tools.
WOW! This site can probably be used to plan your whole day if not your whole school year. It has everything from quotes, to educational games and puzzles, ideas for integrating technology into your day in easy ways, lesson ideas and so much more I don't have time to tell them all.
Have fun with your class creating cartoons or cartoon books about any subject. Use this for any part of your curriculum. You will see how much fun it is for you as well as the kids to create characters, add backgrounds, props, thought and talk balloons to your cartoon panels. You need to register with an email address but it is free. Registering allows you to save to their site and share with your friends (you can choose to keep it private and it will only allow people you email to see your cartoon).
"A to Z Teacher Stuff is a teacher-created site designed to help teachers find online resources more quickly and easily. Find lesson plans, thematic units, teacher tips, discussion forums for teachers, downloadable teaching materials & eBooks, printable worksheets and blacklines, emergent reader books, themes, and more." You can download word wallwords, unit activities, theme resources, handwriting practice pages and lots more.
Rubrics for all subjects as well as the capability to create your own. I always found that kids work well when they know what to expect and parents know what the child should be doing. No more "I didn't know that was what you were looking for."
Do you have students who need a brain break, need to get some energy out, or need help to refocus? Do you have a class that loves to dance and move and want to incorporate that into your learning time? Go Noodle is just the FREE site for you! From yoga and meditation to guided dance and energizers, Go Noodle has everything you need to incorporate movement into your learning day that will enhance the wellbeing of your classroom community.
Don't have time to hit the bookstore, take a class or go to the library-- click on this site for teacher professional books that you can read online. Also on the site are videos and podcasts.
"TeachersFirst is a rich collection of (K-12) lessons, **units**, and **web resources**designed to save teachers time by delivering just what they need in a practical, user-friendly, and ad-free format. We offer our own professional and classroom-ready content along with thousands of reviewed web resources, including practical ideas for classroom use. Busy teachers, parents, and students can find resources using our **subject/grade level search**, **keyword search**, or extensive menus." This is such a great website with invaluable resources. It is so easy to use and is set up in such a way that you can find what you want in a matter of a couple clicks. I found great resources for the cyberbullying unit I was teaching but there is really something for every teacher whether you teach elementary, middle or high school social studies, technology or English as a Second Language.
What is a wordle you ask? A wordle or word cloud is made by typing in a list of words and then the wordle generator makes a colorful graphic of them. The size of the words in a wordle or word cloud is determined by the frequency of that word in the list (in mine, daughter is large because I mentioned it in two words). This is a fun way to talk about a character's traits from a book you are reading in Language Arts or a way to compile a class's list of what good behavior looks like. Use it in Social Studies to describe a country or historical figure.
Noodle Tools is an online bibliography creator with notecard-keeping capability. What this means for you and your class once you register with an email address (and I believe a fee) is that your students will never have to create a written bibliography again because Noodle Tools does it for you. All they have to do is fill in the requested, color-coded information and this site will generate the bibliography. For older students who know how to note-take already, Noodle Tools has the capability of keeping online notecards that are lined to the resource from where the information came. Kids take notes directly into this site.