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Literary X (formerly Twitter): 100+ of the Best Authors on Twitter - Mashable
Grades
4 to 12In the Classroom
A whole class X (formerly Twitter) account can follow favorite authors and authors' read through of class novels. The class can direct message them with questions about the book: how they came to write the story, are the characters based on anyone the author knows, and any other ideas your students might come up with. In literature circles a different member of the group each week can X (formerly Twitter) the author of the book as part of the "author analyzer" job.You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
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Six Word Stories - Pete Berg
Grades
5 to 12tag(s): Teacher Utilities (183), writing (323)
In the Classroom
Have a contest and challenge your students to submit the best 6-word story after finishing a novel, play, or poem. Try creating some together on interactive whiteboard, brainstorming first to generate possible words from which to choose, then dragging to rearrange them into a meaningful story. Make a six word story "sidebar" at the side of your class where students can work together with a partner on the IWB to generate new stories as summaries for an act of a Shakespeare play or in response to a sonnet. In a journalism class, try this for a twist on headline writing. Introduce poetry writing by having your students try their hand at expressing an emotional experience in just 6 words. ESL/ELL students often create unusual combinations in writing; why not have them display their creativity here in an acceptable form? Share this site with world language teachers also.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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TV411 - Math - Adult Literacy Media Alliance
Grades
4 to 12tag(s): charts and graphs (170), financial literacy (91)
In the Classroom
Share this site on your interactive whiteboard or projector as practice or review of current math topics. Provide a link to games on classroom computers for student practice. Spanish teachers may want students to complete a lesson in Spanish to provide real-world language practice. Share this site with parents through your classroom website or blog to provide review materials at home.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Phrase Up - Phrase Up
Grades
4 to 12tag(s): figurative language (17), vocabulary (238)
In the Classroom
Introduce this site on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Then students can use it independently. With grammar classes, you can find interesting synonyms, parts of speech, and definitions while finding ways to fix incomplete sentences. Great ideas for providing details or work with sentence variety accompany each entry. Improve your students' skills with similes and analogies. In writing classes, begin writing prompts with Phrase up results. Phrase up results can start and expand brainstorming in all subject areas. Create your own Phrase up collection with a collection of lists of science, math, and social studies vocabulary for the year. ESL students can learn the nuances of English by trying incomplete phrases and exploring the different ways words can be used. Have ESL or grammar students make simple posters of suggested phrase completions to show different word meanings or idioms used in a variety of ways. Be sure to include this link on your class website as a reference.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Big Huge Labs - Big Huge Labs
Grades
K to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): collages (17), editing (93), images (260), maps (215), multimedia (51), photography (121), posters (43), thesaurus (22)
In the Classroom
You can choose images from Flickr, Instagram, Dropbox, your files or provide a URL. This tool is so simple with very few steps for creating. Simply upload your photo, select from a few options, and then create.Check out the Big Huge Labs educator account. Easily pre-register students to avoid creating logins, view and download their creations; view the site advertisement free. You will find information about the Educator Account here.
Options here are endless. Find out what students understand about a concept by creating a 6 word story. Students find a suitable picture and sum up the concept in 6 words. Students can use the Motivator tool, reviewed here, to create. Place their creation on a blog, wiki, or web site and have students write about how their understandings of the concept have changed throughout the study of it. Create Badges for field trips and other activities. Use the Trading Card Maker, reviewed here, to identify what a student understands about a concept. Create trading cards of the many species that exist in the world or of places to visit, past leaders of nations, or states and other countries. Create vocabulary trading cards. Use social networking in the classroom? Create an Avatar to use on these spaces. Reading a book or viewing documentaries? Create Movie Posters to share information or to inform others about various times in history. Whatever you use this tool for, it is powerful for students to use a great image and word captions to display their knowledge.
Edge Features:
Includes an education-only area for teachers and students
Parent permission advised before posting student work created using this tool
Requires registration/log-in (WITH email)
Requires registration/log in (NO email)
Products can be embedded
Products can be shared by URL
Includes teacher tools for registering and/or monitoring students
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Image Detective - Library of Congress
Grades
5 to 12tag(s): logic (161), photography (121), scientific method (48), world war 1 (77)
In the Classroom
Share the photos on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Use the series of steps on this activity to teach students the skills of observation, deduction, and drawing intelligent conclusions. Have students do this activity in pairs in a computer lab. The steps are available to use on paper or printable in pdf format, so students can select their own mystery photos and create a similar activity away from the computer. ESL/ELL students can benefit from using the steps in this process. Images will help them understand material better, and they can also create their own presentations. Have students bring and exchange mystery photos; see if the conclusions they draw match the family stories the photo owners have. Science teachers can use this photo activity to teach about scientific method and, in particular, making observations. Start with the offerings on this site, then try it with more "scientific" images.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Weebly - Weebly
Grades
2 to 12tag(s): blogs (65), communication (129), portfolios (23), writing (323)
In the Classroom
If you plan to have students create their own web pages, under your account, no email is needed for them, and they will have a special log in page. You will have to enter each student's name, username and a password. What's nice about Weebly is they will print out a list for you to give to students with their log in information. Though you can make your site private, you want to be sure not to use student's real names. Use a code or acronym. Suggestion: You can use the first two letters of the students last name, the first three letters of their first name, and if you have multiple classes, have them put the class period or code after the last letter. This works well if you're going to be grading web pages, since most grade books are in alphabetical order by last name.Possible uses are only limited by your imagination! Create your own Weebly website for parents and students where they can stay updated about what is happening in your classroom, where students can submit their assignments, contact information, and anything else you might want to put on your website. You can add up to 40 students on one free website, so students can use their pages for projects and assignments. There is a free blogging tool that you may want your students to use for writing assignments, reflection, or reading journals, just to name a few ideas. You can have everything you need on one Weebly website! Find more specific blog ideas in TeachersFirst's Blogging Basics ideas.
Try using Weebly for: "visual essays;" digital biodiversity logs (with digital pictures students take); online literary magazines; personal reflections in images and text; research project presentations; comparisons of online content, such as political candidates' sites or content sites used in research (compared for bias); science sites documenting experiments or illustrating concepts, such as the water cycle; "Visual" lab reports; Digital scrapbooks using images from the public domain and video and audio clips from a time in history -- such as the Roaring Twenties; Local history interactive stories; Visual interpretations of major concepts, such as a "visual" U.S. Constitution. Imagine building your own online library of raw materials for your students to create their own "web pages" as a new way of assessing understanding: you provide the digital pictures, and they sequence, caption, and write about them (younger students) or you provide the steps in a project as a template, and they insert the actual content of their own.
After a first project where you provide "building blocks," the sky is the limit on what they can do. Even the very young can make suggestions as you "create" a whole-class product together using an interactive whiteboard or projector. Consider making a new project for each unit you teach so students can "recap" long after the unit ends.
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Vocab-u-lous! - Education World
Grades
7 to 12Be aware: this site has several advertisements, some pop-up.
tag(s): sound (72), sounds (43), vocabulary (238)
In the Classroom
Just try to take the dictionaries away from your students when you project a Vocab-u-lous activity sheet on your whiteboard (or projector) or hand them the printable version of the worksheet. These are useful for SAT preparation and other tests that assess vocabulary, as well as building a strong vocabulary necessary for better reading comprehension and oral and written communication. When using this activity with a class set of computers, provide a link from your class web page to a reputable online dictionary. For additional practice, provide this link on your class website for students to access at home.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Karaoke Channel Online - Stingray Music USA
Grades
2 to 12tag(s): songs (44)
In the Classroom
Create a classroom signup for students to use under your supervision. An email address is required for registration. You could create a class registration. If you plan to have students register individually, you may want to create your own Gmail account with up to 20 subaccounts for each group of students (by code name or number) within your classes. Here is a blog post that tells how to set up GMail subaccounts to use for any online membership service. Project this site on your interactive whiteboard or projector during music class. ESL/ELL students may benefit from being able to use language in song. Use the singing as an opportunity to look at song lyrics as a form of poetry. Use in world language classes or in primary grades (some song classics for kids!) and for ESL/ELL.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Todoist - Todoist
Grades
4 to 12tag(s): calendars (37), DAT device agnostic tool (146), organizational skills (88)
In the Classroom
Your students need to know about time management skills. odoist will help you teach them and give them practice. Any student would appreciate having an online time management account, but learning support students and disorganized gifted students need one. You may want to model using this online tool to help middle and high school students learn better personal organization. Make a demo account for a mythical student and organize his/hers together so students can see how it works. Share this site on your interactive whiteboard or projector the first week of school to help students set-up their own accounts. Parents may appreciate learning about this site also. Use this site professionally to keep yourself organized!Comments
What a fabulous organizational tool for teachers and students!Melissa, , Grades: 0 - 5
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TypeIt - Tomasz P. Szynalski
Grades
4 to 12tag(s): french (75), german (49), spanish (108), spelling (98)
In the Classroom
Have students creating projects in your language class? Now online posters made using Sway, reviewed here, or interactive timelines created using a site such as Sutori, reviewed here, can include the markings that are part of the language. Mark this one in your favorites and make it available from your class web page for students to use it any time, in and out of class.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Just Free Books - justfreebooks.info
Grades
2 to 12tag(s): audio books (26), book lists (166), ebooks (43), literature (220), reading lists (77), search engines (48)
In the Classroom
Offer this site to students who wish to use digital devices to read. Keep in mind that many of the selections are older, in the public domain due to the expiration of copyright. ENL/ESL and SPED students may benefit from being able to hear or see books in a different way. Use the texts you find as language to analyze or manipulate on your interactive whiteboard to teach reading comprehension skills, parts of speech, transition words, vocabulary study, and writing style. Allow students to copy/paste text into the whiteboard software so they can "work with words" from literary works instead of worksheets.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Quicklyst - Shantanu Bala
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): note taking (36), organizational skills (88)
In the Classroom
If you do not approve use of Wikipedia, you will want to state this up front to your students. Before turning your students loose with this program, use your interactive whiteboard, projector and Quicklyst to show them how to put information in their own words. Then you can have them use Quicklyst to take notes for any type of summarizing or research. Create separate accounts on Quicklyst for student research groups. Students can then easily share their notes with their group members. Create a class account, and use your interactive whiteboard and projector along with Quicklyst to have the class create a study guide for a test on any subject. These can be saved and used for notes for a final test. If there is a common class password, students will be able to access the notes from home.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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lino - Infoteria Corporation
Grades
K to 12tag(s): bulletin boards (15), collaboration (90), collages (17), creative fluency (5), creativity (86), DAT device agnostic tool (146), gamification (79), note taking (36)
In the Classroom
Use this tool easily in your Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) classroom since all students will be able to access it for free, no matter what device they have. Students can use this when researching alone or in groups, sharing files, videos, and pictures quickly from one computer to another. Have students write tasks for each member of the group on a sticky so that everyone has a responsibility. Show them how to copy/paste URLs for sources onto notes, too. Use lino as your virtual word wall for vocabulary development. Use a lino for students to submit and share questions or comments about assignments and tasks they are working on. Use it as a virtual graffiti wall for students to make connections between their world and curriculum content, such as "I wonder what the hall monitor would say finding Lady Macbeth washing her hands in the school restroom... and what Lady M would say back." (Of course, you will want to have a PG-13 policy for student comments!) Encourage students to maintain an idea collection lino for ideas and creative inspirations they may not have used yet but do not want to "lose." They can color code and organize ideas later or send the stickies to a new project board later. In writing or art classes, use lino as a virtual writer's journal or design a notebook to collect ideas, images, and even video clips. In science classes, encourage students to keep a lino board with (classroom appropriate) questions and "aside" thoughts about science concepts being studied and to use these ideas in later projects so their creative ideas are not 'lost" before project time. A lino board can also serve as a final online "display" for students to "show what they know" as the culmination of a research project. Add videos, images, and notes in a carefully arranged display not unlike an electronic bulletin board. This is also a great tool to help you stay "personally" organized. Use this site as a resource to share information with other teachers, parents, or students.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Shmoop: Picture This - Shmoop
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): literature (220), slides (43)
In the Classroom
Give students some background knowledge before they start reading for a unit. Put the slideshow on your own site so the captions don't show. Then use your projector or interactive whiteboard to show the images to the students while they jot down what they observe and infer about each image. Once the students have finished, have a class discussion based on what they observed and what this says about the topic. Then click on "full size." This will take you to Shmoop to see what the captions say about the picture. At this point you can click on one of the orange tabs at the top to read the summary for the topic, view a timeline, etc.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Isabel's ESL Site - Isabel Perez Torres
Grades
2 to 12In the Classroom
After you have checked out the site, offer individual portions to ESL/ELL students as review and supplementary activities. Share the site with modern language teachers as well. Consider providing this link on your class website for students to access both in and out of the classroom.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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What's Your Learning Style? - Edutopia
Grades
4 to 12tag(s): learning styles (18), multiple intelligences (7)
In the Classroom
Have your students open a word document and save it. Then have them take the quiz, without signing up. Use the "Print Screen" feature on the computer to have the students copy their test. They can then paste it in their word document. Next have them look to see what is their most dominate style, and have them copy and paste the description for that style first, then their next dominate and so on. Not only can your students use this when trying to figure out final projects for assessments, but if they are having trouble with tests, they can look and see what might help them when it comes to study time. You can also use the results to group students or for them to select a "study buddy" before tests! Many of the styles include possible careers for students to pursue.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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reencoded - reencoded
Grades
2 to 12tag(s): writing (323)
In the Classroom
Using photos as prompts is good for the students who have writers block, are having problems visualizing what they want to convey in words, or for young writers just starting out. Giving students a photo helps them to form a story and makes their ideas more concrete. Use your projector or interactive whiteboard to project one of the photographs and have students envision the photo as a video that has been put on pause. Ask students to come up with ideas for what happened in the video before it was paused, and what will happen once the video is on "play" again. Have students annotate the picture with the ideas the class comes up with using FotoFlexor, reviewed here, and then let them get started writing their story to go with the photo. You could do several of these and make a class book of the students' writing. For this you might want to use Book Creator reviewed here, to publish student writing and to give your writers workshop publishing a professional flare.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Madlibber - Sean Huber
Grades
2 to 12In the Classroom
Create a Madlib using Madlibber and share it with your class using your interactive white board and projector to reinforce curriculum topics such as types of plants or famous inventors. Either show the students how to make one about the curriculum topic, or have students operate the board/computer while others suggest words to fill in the blanks in one you have prepared. Madlibs can be used in so may ways: teaching parts of speech, reviewing for a quiz, introducing a new subject, or even as a "Cloze" reading story. Use this site as a station on one of the computers in your class. Put the direct web address (URL) for your Madlibber on your class web page, since some of the public Madlibbers may not be appropriate for your students. Give extra credit to those who work outside school to create classroom-appropriate madlibbers for others to use as review (and share the direct links on your class web page).Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Idioms Illustrated - Tricia Fuglestad
Grades
8 to 12tag(s): idioms (30), vocabulary (238)
In the Classroom
Add this site to your classroom computers and send-home newsletters to help clear up the meanings of often confusing idioms with a humorous touch. Although the focus is on very young or ENL/ESL students, the cleverly done drawings approach of the videos might serve as a model for student creations of vocabulary word explanations. World language students, similarly, could create similar videos or in class presentations using the draw it, tell it technique to explain new vocabulary words. Challenge students to create a video of other idioms they come across, and share it using a site such as SchoolTube, reviewed here).Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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