Curated Resources for Junior High School Education

This list of resources has been developed with an eye toward reliability, simplicity, familiarity, and value. The departments of Technology and Teaching and Learning will support the resources listed below by responding to teacher, student, and parent requests for help, providing district and building setup and maintenance, where possible, and providing PD sessions as possible.

This page will be updated as more resources are added.

Before you play with anything else . . .

Before you use a new digital tool not on this list with your students, consider these questions.

Is the student already familiar with this from the classroom? Yes? Use it! No? Well . . .
Is the resource similar to or a complement to something they use, like Scholastic online is similar to the paper resources? Yes? Use it! No? Well . . .
Is the resource simple to use for students and parents? Is it something that you cannot get with other, familiar resources? Are other teachers using it? If no to all questions, Reconsider. If yes to any one of them, it may be a sound idea. If yes to all three, use it!

We provide this list of resources because they are used in many classrooms in Sylvania schools, have wide support from many teachers, and are as simple as possible for students and parents. We also hear from teachers about the strong educational value they offer.

You are never prevented from using a resource you consider of value to your students. Use the consideration above in your planning, and then do the magic you do!

Resources for Classroom Management

Google Classroom

Google Classroom provides the tools to communicate with students and parents, assign work, link activities and resources, and keep grades. It is an organizational hub for remote learning. It is integrated with the full Google Suite of Apps used in Sylvania, including Gmail, Calendar, and Drive. The best part is that it is closed to users without Sylvania Schools accounts, making it one of the safest resources used in the district.

Google Classroom is always free and is being managed currently by the department of technology in Sylvania Schools.

Supporting Materials

Google's Training Center for Google Classroom

Google's Classroom support page

"Getting Started with Google Classroom," video by Pocketful of Primary Check out this provider's YouTube Channel with Google Classroom and other Google videos.

Class Dojo

Class Dojo is an online learning management hub, like Google Classroom. Dojo, though, provides an approach more suited to elementary interaction, including motivational awards and playful imagery. This tool also provides opportunities for social media-style communication with students and parents.

Class Dojo is free for students, families, and teachers.

Supporting Materials

Class Dojo's Print Overview and Video Overview

Class Dojo's YouTube Channel

Resources for Reading and Activities

Scholastic Learn at Home

Scholastic Learn at Home provides activities based in a reading. The student watches a story, reads a story, and the follows that with an activity. The resource is organized by grade level and includes two weeks of activities with 1 activity per day for the following bands: preK-K, 1-2, 3-5, and 6-9. Scholastic is promising to double that content. Additional materials are available in parent and teacher resource sections.

Scholastic is offering these materials for free with no account or password needed. Read this notice for details.

Supporting Materials

Ohio EdTech's Tour of the Resource on YouTube

Newsela

Newsela provides articles from national news publications, but it allows for students and teachers to select different Lexile reading levels. Each article is rewritten for higher or lower reading proficiency, allowing teachers to control the readability of a text. The services adds to this basic content quizzes and other supporting materials

Newsela usually offers a limited free version and unlimited pay version. for the rest of the 2019-2020 school year, the premium level of service is free to all. A teacher only needs to go to the home page to set up the premium access.

Supporting Materials

Newsela's "Getting Started" YouTube Playlist

Newsela's YouTube Channel

Newsela's Support Center

CommonLit

CommonLit provides reading content for grades 3-12+. This content comes packaged with ample supporting educational materials, including paired texts, multimedia, guiding questions, assessments, reading tools, and some accommodation tools. Teachers can integrate CommonLit with their Google Classrooms.

CommonLit is 100% free, and the service is providing webinars to support teachers during the period of closure. Check here for details.

Supporting Materials

Getting Started (scroll past the webinar information for step-by-step instructions)

Teacher Home

DocHub

DocHub is a plug-in for Google Drive that can turn PDF files into fillable documents. With this tool, you can turn that library of PDF's into activities students can complete digitally.

Doc Hub Basic is free, and Pro costs $4.99 per month. A free preview month is available, and teachers interested in Pro beyond that trial month should contact Alex Clarkson. Check here for details.

Supporting Materials

Web-based support

DocHub Extension

Hanin Kashen's Tutorial Video

Mr. Lee Teachers Tutorial Video

Resources for Math

Prodigy

Prodigy provides game-based learning of math concepts. Questions range from the first to third Depth of Knowledge levels and provide adaptive feedback.

Prodigy offers free memberships, but that free level does not provide unrestricted access. At this time, they have made no offer to extend free premium access, and the district is not in negotiation for premium accounts.

Supporting Materials

Guidance from the Prodigy Blog on Remote Learning

Quick Star Guide

YouTube Channel of How to Videos

Resources for Games and Assessments

Google Forms and Classroom Quizzes

Google introduced quiz features in Google Forms years ago. More recently, they embedded these tools into Google Classroom. Now, a teacher using Google for quizzes can create one in forms separately and share through their own means or create one in Google Classroom and make it a posted assignment.

Google Apps for Education are always free and are being managed currently by the department of technology in Sylvania Schools.

Supporting Materials

Want to see a quiz in action? Take this sample social studies quiz from Dave Budas and see the automatic grading feature! You can also access the Slides material from Dave's PD session here. Here's Dave's (6-8) and Keevan Hazel's (9-12) videos as well.

Jen Johnson's "Google Classroom Quiz Assignments and Locked Mode" for teachers using Google Classroom

Matt Bergman's "Creating a Quiz in Google Forms" for teachers not using Google Classroom

John R. Sowash's "Google Forms Quiz Locked Mode (Detailed Overview)" for insight into locked mode

EquatIO add-on for Quizzes to create math items and Texthelp's "EquatIO for Google: How to Use in Google Forms" to learn how to use it

Google's G Suite Learning Center for Forms Quizzes

Kahoot!

Kahoot! is a vastly popular online game creator. Teachers use it for fun games, formative assessments, and more. It is simple to create a game for students to use in practice on their own or for live interaction. Easily, a teacher could manage a game through a video conference live with students.

Kahoot! is offering its premium tools for no charge. Check out this page for details and access.

Supporting Materials

Kahoot! "How It Works" Page

Kahoot! YouTube Channel and Success Stories

Tom Driscoll's "5 Minute Guide to Kahoot"

Daniel Kopsas' "Kahoot quiz example from instructor and student point of view"

Resources for Video Production

WeVideo

WeVideo is a simple video editing tool that enables users to create their own movies. The resource offers the same basic film editing tools one would find in a professional video editing suite, but it focuses only on the basics. This makes it perfect for beginners and excellent for casual users. It also integrates well with Google Drive.

WeVideo is offering their premium service for free for educators during this time. This link will allow you to request this free account, and their turnaround is pretty fast. Current free account holders will find their account upgraded.

Supporting Materials

Guidance from the Prodigy Blog on Remote Learning

Quick Star Guide

YouTube Channel of How to Videos

Resource

Description

Account guidance

Supporting Materials

Link

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