Friday, February 27, 2015

Old Newspaper Articles

Richard Byrne found a way to find archived newspaper articles using Google News. It's a great resource for any student needing relevant information or for anyone curious about historical events.

Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Formative Assessments

I'm always looking for new ways of checking whether or not my students understand the lesson I've taught. Educational Technology and Mobile Learning provides 8 tools to formative assessments for students. These tools are a great way to see how students are doing and to know how to meet their needs.

Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Free Courses for Teachers

TeachThought released 50 Free Courses for Teachers. It's an excellent collection of college courses ranging from teaching pedagogy, content specific, technology integration, to language acquisition.  Many of the courses are starting soon so check them out!

Monday, February 23, 2015

Technology Integration

Here's an interesting read from Edudemic titled, "How Teachers will Change Future of Tech."The article brings up the fact that many students have anxieties based on their teacher's anxieties. If a teacher shows anxiety around a certain subject, students pick up on that anxiety. Also, it provides teachers with easy ways to incorporate technology so they don't express their anxiety with their students.

Thursday, February 19, 2015

Online Reading Program

Teach Your Monster to Read is a great example of game-based learning. Teachers can create free accounts for students, and the students are assigned a monster. They listen and read the sentences and move the monster according to what the sentence tells them. It's an excellent way for primary grades to practice sounds and reading full sentences during a game based exercise. Here's a full review from Free Technology for Teachers.

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Screenshots

I had a discussion with a colleague about screenshots on Chromebooks, and then today, I found this post from Richard Byrne. It's just a quick guide on how to capture screenshots on all different types of devices including Macs, Chromebooks, Windows, iPhones/iPads, and Android devices.

Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Google Add ons

Once again, Richard Byrne creates an excellent post about Google Add-ons. I'm always curious about what add-ons teachers use and how they use them, but I honestly don't have the time to try out numerous tools, but thankfully, Richard Byrne does. I'm very intrigued by the g(Math) add-on. It's a great way for Math teachers to have students use Google Docs to complete assignments.

Friday, February 13, 2015

App Reviews

After purchasing a new class set of iPads, I've been on the hunt for lessons, apps, and resources for using them. I stumbled upon a great site, AppEd Review, which allows you to sign up for FREE by entering your email. Once you sign up, you'll start to receive emails about how to incorporate apps into your lessons, how to locate apps, and how to evaluate the quality of apps. I'm excited to have something valuable sent to my email instead of the tons of junk mail I receive!

Thursday, February 12, 2015

Best of the Web

If you're not following Richard Byrne's Free Technology for Teachers, please do yourself a favor. He uses, reviews, and posts FREE educational technology resources available for teachers, students, and parents. On a recent post, he created a Google Slides presentation about the best resources on the web. Look through them and give them a try.

Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Black History Month

Edutopia recently posted resources for teaching about Black History Month.  All 6 of the resources are technology based history, an interactive library, infamous voyages, art galleries, and a link to the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center.  Do you have any resources you would add to this list?

Monday, February 9, 2015

PARCC test videos

A colleague of mine found the following video on an educational blog, Teched Up Teacher.  It's a screencast of the many nuances of the test many students will find difficult or may not realize at all.  He walks the students through the tech skills associated with the test including the drag/drop questions, scrolling through texts, checkboxes vs multiple choice questions, etc. It's an extremely valuable video for the students to see before taking the tests this spring.

Friday, February 6, 2015

Online Math Resources

According to Richard Bryne's blog, Free Technology for Teachers, CK-12 will now offer FREE elementary level math resources.  CK-12 has primarily offered middle school and high school level courses, but the additional elementary courses will provide videos and online practice for 1st-5th grades.

Thursday, February 5, 2015

5 Tools for Sharing Ideas

Richard Byrne's blog, Free Technology for Teachers, recently posted about tools used to for sharing ideas online (much like a corkboard).  I've used Padlet to have my students collaborate about assignments and discussions, but he posted about 5 alternatives to Padlet.  These are all great ways to get your staff, students, or community to collaborate and share ideas.

Tuesday, February 3, 2015

Math Apps for Fluency

Edudemic just released what they believe to be the best Math Apps for fluency.  The list includes Operation Math, Free Graphing Calculator, and DragonBox Algebra 5+.  Operation Math allows users to complete spy missions through math drills and is suited for ages 9-11Free Graphing Calculator speaks for itself.  It's a FREE graphing calculator which is typically a $150 purchase.  DragonBox Algebra 5+ covers the basics of algebra: addition, division, and multiplication.  Users must manipulate cards to isolate DragonBox just like isolating X to solve an equation. Dragon Box is heralded as the "perfect example of game-based learning." Read a full review of all 3 apps on Edudemic.

Monday, February 2, 2015

Black History Month

Edutopia created a list of resources for teaching students about Black History Month.  There is a resource for all age groups, but most of them are geared towards upper grade levels (grades 6-12).  Are there other resources you would add for elementary students?