Web sites and tools:
Ten Great Tools for Telling Stories With Pictures -
A PDF Handout
Hemingway App: A Proofreading Tool for Writers. The online version is free. Copy and paste text from your Google Doc, Word file, etc...
GroupTing Makes It Easy to Organize Volunteers for Group Events - Organization events, class parties, PTO events, and more.
Read more about it here.
Kahoot:
If you are not familiar with Kahoot -
Kahoot provides a fun way to gather feedback from a group through their phones, iPads, Chromebooks, or any other device that has a web browser and an Internet connection.
Quizalize is a newer quiz game platform similar to Kahoot.
Read more about it here... it's worth looking at to have in your quizzing toolbox.
Create your own Green Screen videos on a budget using an iPad!
This doc gives you some FYI on the items needed.
eBooks:
Teaching digital citizenship?
This site (National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.) has some great resources K-12 for digital citizenship including cell phones, Internet safety, protecting yourself online, and more!
Their video resources are divided into topic and age groups.
Google Apps Tips and Tricks:
Want to add voice comments to Google Docs?
This chrome app can do it for you for free.
Table Formatter is a free Google Docs Add-on that lets you add a little color to your tables in Google Docs.
Rather than setting up notifications on every document you share, you may just want to know if any document in a particular folder is being edited. Although this functionality is not yet built into Google Apps, there is a Chrome Extension I found that will do it. Simply select the folder you want to keep track of and you will receive an email every time a file contained in that folder is edited or even if a new file is added to the folder.
Google Sheets - rowCall is a great add-in for Google Sheets. rowCall sorts rows from your main sheet by the column you select and creates individual sheets for every unique cell in that column. (Think about using a form to grade kids via a Rubric for assignments, etc... )
Add-on Video tutorial
Ever deleted a calendar event by mistake and wanted to get it back - just like you can in Gmail and Drive? Now you can: today we’re adding Trash functionality to Google Calendar on the web, providing an easy way for users to view, permanently delete, or restore individual and recurring deleted calendar events
Stormboard - Online Brainstorming & Collaboration
Brainstorm, organize, prioritize and act on the best ideas, in the same room or around the world, on a real-time sticky note whiteboard. They offer
free educational accounts1
Google Classroom: If you are not using it... you are missing out. It's only getting better!
Classroom Cards is a collection of 19 flashcards for learning to use Google Classroom. Print them out and give them to new teachers or use them for your own personal studying. Created by Educational Technology experts, this is the quickest way to master the platform.
GOOGLE CLASSROOM IS NOT AN LMS. IT’S BETTER. - Interesting short article that caused me to shake my head in agreement especially with this quote:
"Teachers are better off working in Google Drive than investing time building courses in an LMS the district might ditch a few years down the road. Even if Google Classroom goes out of vogue, all teacher files will still live in Drive. I know a teacher who has invested countless hours putting multiple choice questions into Moodle. If only he used Google Forms for assessment instead! "
Already using Google Classroom and the Chromebooks... Then this Extention is for you! Every student on the same page- Save class time navigating to websites with the new
Share to Classroom extension. “Push” a web link to your class and voila, the Chrome extension opens the page immediately on every student’s device.
IOS Apps:
If you teach Chemistry - You have to check out this app!
Elements 4D by DAQRI (It's free) You need to
print out these blocks to use with the app. It's a great augmented reality app that brings chemistry alive.
YouTube Resources:
SciShow- SciShow is a YouTube channel that discusses science news, history and concepts. With equal parts skepticism and enthusiasm, they go a little deeper on popular science topics.
CrashCourse- CrashCourse provides educational videos aimed at secondary students. Playlists for past courses include Astronomy. World History, Biology, Literature, Ecology, Chemistry, Psychology and US History.
Awesome use of Technology with just a couple of Chromebooks in a K-2 classroom!
There are a lot of success stories in our district... but I have to share this one today. Ben Lueders (@ItsBen_aWhile) wrote a grant for a couple Chromebooks in the K-2 art classroom. Here was his latest update on the Chromebooks:
They have been proven extremely successful with various classes ranging from kindergarten to second grade. It has been a great tool for my classroom management, and has already been used as a resource during class time, without any interruption of the class! Here is a picture of a first grader who was absent during an important part of one of our lessons. All he had to do was bring his paper over to the Chromebook, and watch my pre-recorded video of the lesson plan, and follow along. I am excited to see how positive the classes have responded to the computers, and can't wait to use them even more in the classroom as the year progresses.
Thanks for the update Ben, and keep up the great work with technology!
And one more...
Holly Gifford has been using the
Osmo with our iPads in the K-2 Media Center. What a great learning tool... and the kids love it! Thanks Holly!
