Professional Development For Technology
I use a lot of apps, online and offline, for my day to day teaching. Below are the links to them and links to instructions on how to use them (when available). Click on the name of the app or program to go to the site. Some of the instructions I created, some I am borrowing from other sources, but with credit given. Please email me if you have any other questions regarding any of the links I've provided or the apps that go along with them. Clicking the titles of the apps will take you to their websites.
General Classroom Tools (distributing work, grading, etc.)
EdPuzzle is a free app that allows you to take videos from multiple sources, including YouTube, and add questions, comments, and voice narratives to them. This app is best used when you have access to 1-to-1 computers, and it will work Chromebooks. You can take video quizzes and embed them in the video itself, and it allows you to grade their responses. You can get diagnostics on class performance, and can create multiple classrooms. It is also great on sick days, so students can still get the instruction you want.
The site is very easy to use and you can access all of the other videos other educators have made. For those who are more project based, students could create their own YouTube video to educate people, and build a quiz into it using EdPuzzle. Here is a video that walks you through some of the site:
Flubaroo is not actually a stand alone app (something you use just by itself). You use Flubaroo with Google Forms and Google Spreadsheets. If you created a test or quiz in Google Forms, by adding Flubaroo to the spreadsheet that the form creates, you can autocorrect student answers and send them their grades immediately. This add-on can make your life a lot easier, but it takes some time to figure out.
An excellent way to share, grade and return assignments to your students. Blends well with Google Drive (document/form/presentation creation) and Flubaroo (grading tool for Google Forms). Allows you to create classes, send announcements, give students assignments with due dates and to lock the assignments once the due date has passed. If not locked, any assignments turned in after the date show up as late. You may also grade student assignments and email them their grades.
I will try to provide writing whenever possible, but here is a video on how to use Google Classroom:
Google Drive should be your personal teaching library. You can create, store or share documents, spreadsheets, forms, presentations, drawings and more. Anything created here can be shared in Google Classroom, and copies can be made for the class, or you can have them all access a single document.
The following link will take you to a site which has many wonderful walkthroughs for how to use Drive:
This is a filter tool for YouTube. If you're worried about inappropriate ads or comments showing up, copy your YouTube url link and paste it into ViewPure. It clears all inappropiate or distracting material, making for a cleaner, safer experience for students.
Classroom Behavior and Communication Tools
ClassDojo will help you keep track of student behaviors, and gives students and parents immediate access to how they're doing in class. Especially good for students with behavior plans or for schools and teachers trying to emphasize Positive Behavior in the classroom. You can upload student rosters, create specific behaviors to reward or correct, and even link students between different teachers so that everyone at a school site and have an idea of how students are performing. Students and parents can be sent messages and they are allowed to view the weekly stats. Teachers and administrators can access longer lengths of time and can message the parents and students when needed. There is a mobile app that can be downloaded, so teachers don't have to go to their computers to add points, they can do this from anywhere in the classroom on their phones.
Free behavior management in a different way, GoNoodle offers tons of interactive videos to stimulate movement in the classroom. Short videos or long, whatever you need to reinvigorate your classroom before starting the next activity. Tends to work better with grades 6 and down, though the meditation videos are great for all ages.
Learning Tools
(For Math and Science Subjects): This a a FREE online textbook creator/aggregator that allows you to customize a textbook for your classroom and share it with specific classes or individual students. It has pre-made content for most subjects, but teachers, schools or districts can fully customize, add content, delete content or create brand new content to be used by many. Most topics include reading, videos, simulations, questions, study guides and flash cards for most ideas and vocabulary. While the initial creation and setup might take a while, once created it is much stronger than traditional textbooks as it can be updated, shuffled or deleted to go with changing standards or new curricular goals. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
This article site allows you and your students to access current event articles and older that have been reading level adjusted: Standard news level and then grade specific options, usually as low as 3rd or 4th grade. Teachers can create classes and assign specific articles to read and take quizzes on. They can also create collections of articles and share these with students. This is especially helpful when introducing a new topic in class. Quizzes are for reading comprehension only, but teachers can see statistics on student performance.
This site is a great grammar tool. Teachers can create classes and give assignments based on specific grammar concerns they have with their students (punctuation, run-on sentences, capitalization, etc.). The site is nice as it allows students to have individually tailored questions. On signing up, they take an interest survey and then their questions always involve those interests. If they love soccer, then get prepared to see some soccer specific punctuation assignments. Most assignments are based on correction or placement. Quizzes and tests can also be given to students.
This site is a great site for science and math teachers that who want to use simulations for class. Fully compatible on chromebooks, this is a helpful tool to illustrate important concepts.
Read&Write is a great tool that is added on to your Chrome web browser. By adding the extension and then beginning it, students or teachers can highlight text online and have it read to them. I have not had a chance to use this yet, so please leave comments on what has worked or what has not.
A fairly cheap, but very excellent green screen app. Students or teachers can do videos or pictures and insert, very easily, any image that they want as a background. Great for original presentations, innovative projects or just to have fun.