TeachersFirst - Featured Sites: Week of Jun 25, 2017
Here are this week's features. Clicking the tags in the description area of each listing will present a list of other resources with this topic. | Click here to return to the Featured Sites Archive
Flipped Learning Global Initiative - Flipped Learning LLC
Grades
4 to 12tag(s): learning styles (18), professional development (388)
In the Classroom
If you are considering flipping your classroom or have begun using this technique, bookmark this site as a resource for professional learning and collaboration. View webinars with your peers as you learn how to flip a classroom together. Have questions? Share your thoughts and ideas on the community forum to get answers from educators experienced in flipping their classroom.You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
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Just Delete Me - Robb Lewis & Ed Poole
Grades
K to 12tag(s): internet safety (112)
In the Classroom
Bookmark this site to get rid of any site registrations required for various classroom uses. Just Delete Me would be an excellent site to use as you wrap up your school year and clean up unneccessary information from classroom computers. Share this site with older students as part of your discussion of online safety and proper Internet usage.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Wakelet - Jamil Khalil
Grades
K to 12tag(s): bookmarks (47), collaboration (85), communication (136), curation (35), DAT device agnostic tool (143), multimedia (43), news (229), personalized learning (9), playlists (10), social media (53), social networking (68)
In the Classroom
The possibilities for using Wakelet in the classroom are endless! Create collections with tips for writing in different genres, current events, information about specific countries or cities, math games, and much more. Have students set up their own wakes as part of a research project. Put together a wake scavenger hunt to introduce a new unit or as a review at the end of a unit. Share wakes on your class web page for student use at home to review and practice class content. Having the ability to have a cover image and background for your wakes makes them much more interesting and easily identifiable, especially for young or visual students!Edge Features:
Parent permission advised before posting student work created using this tool
Includes Interaction w general public/ public galleries with unmoderated content
Includes social features, such as "friends," comments, ratings by others
Requires registration/log-in (WITH email)
Products can be embedded
Products can be shared by URL
Multiple users can collaborate on the same project
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Chatzy - Chatzy.com
Grades
7 to 12tag(s): chat (42), communication (136)
In the Classroom
Use this site to connect to other classes to open up discussion between your students in one convenient place. Safety is not a concern with this site, since only those with an email invitation/link can participate in a chat. (Your students need not have email. You can simply email the link to yourself and share it with students to enter into their browsers.) Teach good digital citizenship of chat etiquette while using this activity to learn. Connect with other classes to learn about other locations, learn various perspectives, find animals that are similar yet different, learn about the different books others are reading, or survey students on various economic, political, or environmental topics. Be sure to plan content ahead of time, so students have the opportunity to think through the material and formulate a response. Discuss appropriate ways to communicate to others prior to connecting with another classroom. Use Chatzy as a place for students to brainstorm and share ideas about a topic. Use as a simple help forum for students to ask questions of each other and of you. Share a chat room with parents once a month for a question and answer session at a scheduled time.Use backchannel chat on laptops during a video or student presentations. Pose questions for all to answer/discuss in the backchannel, or ask students to pose their own "I wonder if..." questions as they watch and listen. Keep every student engaged and THINKING as an active listener. The first time you use backchannel, you will want to establish some etiquette and accountability rules. The advantage of backchannel chat is that every student has a voice, no matter how shy. Use this in world language classes, ESL/ELL classes, or autistic support classes for backchannel chat. Challenge students to use their new language skills by acting out a scene from a video or describing the feelings of the actors. When studying literature, collaborate with another class to have students role-play a chat between two characters. In a history class, create fictional conversations between soldiers on two sides of the Civil War or different sides of the Scopes Monkey trial.
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Good.is - GOOD Worldwide, LLC
Grades
7 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): enrichment (9), news (229), newspapers (91), politics (113), writing prompts (57)
In the Classroom
Good.is is perfect for enrichment, research, or a current events class. Include it on your class web page (if you are comfortable with the description: a community of people who give a d---) for students to access both in and out of class. Have students try out this site on individual computers, or as a learning center. For students who enjoy current events, Good.is is a terrific source of up-to-the-minute positive stories from across the web. There is advertising, but it is not too intrusive. Use this site as one of several current event options when asking students to find real world connections to curriculum topics. You can always send students directly to the full articles on their original sites to avoid displaying the Good.is frame at the top. Use articles as writing prompts for blog posts or practice writing informational texts or persuasive writing.Comments
Great reading resource on current events!Ladisha, VA, Grades: 9 - 12
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IFTTT - IFTTT
Grades
9 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): communication (136), DAT device agnostic tool (143), organizational skills (90), social media (53)
In the Classroom
IFTTT can make recipes for students and teachers alike. Teachers can drop photos into Dropbox and automatically send them to a place they have chosen. This will help save time with classroom photos, field trips, and other events. Be reminded of birthdays for students and friends. Send amazing professional website bookmarks to your Gmail. Older students can receive emails or text messages about classes, tests, quizzes. Students can receive immediate feedback when they turn in assignments. Add tweeting to students' own personal learning networks. Have technology classes find unique and creative ways to create recipes to save time and improve productivity. What kind of recipes can you create? Hold an IFTTT "potluck" where you and your savvy colleagues (and students) swap "recipes" to save time and effort. Invite more savvy students to share a recipe a week with fellow students. The better-organized ones can perhaps teach others how to become more organized!Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Digg.com - Digg Inc.
Grades
7 to 12tag(s): debate (37), news (229), social networking (68)
In the Classroom
Try using Digg as a warm up Internet activity in the beginning of the school year by having older students sign up for their own account. Have them scan and read as part of current events teaching. The articles can be controversial which provides a great place to start debates. Are you beginning to integrate technology into your classroom? Use a tool such as WeJIT, reviewed here, or if you are a more experienced technology user try Virtual Debate, reviewed here, which has online examples and resources for conducting virtual debates, to formalize a debate topic. Digg also provides an excellent resource for research. Have students make a multimedia presentation using Genial.ly, reviewed here. Genial.ly allows you to add polls, videos, embeds, web links, PowerPoint, PDFs, and you can create a variety of formats like interactive posters, images, infographics, charts, presentations, and more.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Video: Social Media - Common Craft
Grades
K to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): blogs (66), podcasts (72), social media (53), video (256)
In the Classroom
If you are looking to learn more about various social media, check out this short video. Learn more about the "flavors" you could use in your own classoom. For research projects have students create a blog, wiki, or even a podcast and compare the pros/cons of each regarding communication and safety. Create podcasts using a tool such as podOmatic, explained here. If you use "centers" in your classroom, put the video on a "center" computer, do a "right click" on the video, select "save as" and save to the "center" computer.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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