The Elements App

     The STEM resource I chose to blog about is the app called "The Elements". It was Created by Theodore Gray of Popular Science's “Gray Matter” column. Being a Chemistry nerd myself, this was an obvious pick, but of course, I was worried it might not cover all branches of STEM. After further investigation, I realized it did covered all the basics of STEM and, on-top of that, it covered the elements of STEAM as well. So obviously, it covers the elements and their scientific characteristics, but it also covers the mathematics behind molar mass, specific gravity, physics and "The Elements in Action" section (which covers reactions and chemical changes). It also shows the reasons we use certain elements for specific engineering jobs based upon cost, effectiveness, availability and toxicity. I would say this app could go as far as to incorporate the Art in STEAM because of it's beautiful presentations of the elements and would definitely spark an interest for students in the arts as well. With colorful images of more than 500 objects, "The Elements" features the stories behind the elements and founders of the periodic table, thus giving a bit of a history lesson behind the discoveries of the chemicals.

Each element has two pages of information with a spinning model with the element's chemical symbol and atomic number. This app is perfect for both newbie chemists and aspiring learners.

The only negative to this app is that it can be quite pricey, ranking in at $13.99 per download, however, I think this would be an excellent resource to have in the classroom. I was also curious as to if the company might give discounts to a classroom teacher if the school bought in bulk. 

http://apps.theodoregray.com/the-elements/

Raspberry Pi

This latest and greatest invention is used for remote sensing, data collection, and coding. This attached is a website provided for teachers to become more familiar with this resource.

Naturebytes NestBox

The NestBox uses technology that allows enabling people to live stream, capture video, photos and monitor nesting birds in their garden. The users record their observations via the online portal, creating interesting content and providing valuable monitoring data. Here is the link for more info

Socrative

Socrative is your classroom app for fun, effective classroom engagement. No matter where or how you teach, Socrative allows you to instantly connect with students as learning happens. Quickly assess students with prepared activities or on-the-fly questions to get immediate insight into student understanding. Then use auto-populated results to determine the best instructional approach to most effectively drive learning. Click here to start

                                    
      Go noodle is a fun active way to keep your kids, students and/or stay active. They have many different forms of dance/stretch and levels of dance/stretch.You can use it in the classroom,at home or even at work! It is very organized.They are organized by levels and categories. It has many other educational things around website and how to be a great person. It has a game approach you get different characters when you do more dances!

 Check it out fun fun fun and keeps you moving!

https://www.pinterest.com

     I love love pinterest. It is my google! The sky's the limit when it comes to pinterest! It can help you at home,work,school,kids, and projects. You can also buy things off of pinterest or they have links to buy. You can use it for lessons, projects, art, or class room arrangement ideas! I love this website and all the cool ideas it has. It has opened many doors for me!   

                                              

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9Ika9gLd6s

An online video creation tool that allows for a fun and creative way to relay information to your student's, classmates, or even at a staff meeting.It is Free, but you can pay for extra. This is a fun and creative way for teachers and students alike to present information.Students could create Powtoons instead of making som boring powerpoint. Teachers can do the same thing. A powtoon should keep your students more engaged than a boring lecture.

MrNussbaum.com

MrNussbaum.com is a website created by a Virginia public school teacher which features over 3,500 content pages that can aid teachers in teaching lessons in an interesting way. This resource provides teachers with many games, workshops, modules, exercises, and fun printable lessons that are split up on mrnussbaum.com in order of grade level or subject. If you want to access the games only there is a button to get you there to and they are organized by grade level. Mrnussbaum.com would be an extremely valuable resource in the grade levels that they supply material for which is kindergarten through 6th grade. There is so much material available on the website for teachers to use in aiding their students learning and it comes in a wide variety of subjects. Students would enjoy playing the games on mrnussbaum.com and be so focused on their computers or iPad or tablet, which supports most of the games on this website, that there would hardly be any behavioral problems and the students would remember the material a lot better than they would in another situation. I would highly recommend an elementary school teacher to check out mrnussbaum.com because they will surely find something related to their subject material that can help them teach their students in a fun way.

SMART Board

We've all heard about the SMART board before, but now it is only getting better. SMART board has 4 new products; 2000 version, 4000 version, 6000 version and the 7000 version. The 6000, according to SMART board, is their mostly used product in schools right now. There are older versions of their products, like the one I had in my high school but the new technology is sleeker and has less pieces. The cool thing about these new boards is the universal app: Smart Amp. Smart Amp allows any smart board to collect to any other smart board in the world. Schools in Canada, USA and the UK came together through their boards and were able to find a way to create sustainable light for people in the Dominican Republic. They could each edit the same page at the same time, share images in real time and communicate through their boards. This is breakthrough for researchers around classrooms to connect with others around the world

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90ZRMvdn_ZQ

https://education.smarttech.com/en/products/smart-board-interactive-flat-panels

Google Computer Science First

Google has a free program called Google Computer Science First (or Google CS First), that has brought Google Coding programming in partnership with the website Scratch to over 822,800 students. 29,200 unique clubs. and 22,100 community volunteers all over the United States. This introduction to programming claims to be very easy and fun for teachers, volunteers and students to use, with no added materials needed to be purchased after Google's free materials are attained. Examples of the coding programs are given on the Google CS First site, using many themes to encourage community between students such as Cartoon Network, Storytelling, Friends, Fashion Design, Art, Social Media, Sports, Music & Sound, Game Design and Animation. Videos are shown on the site, giving instructions in simple language for the students and volunteers to follow. The coding programs use the website Scratch, which is an excellent programming site developed by MIT for students to learn coding. This Google site encourages new clubs to be set up, as well as volunteer sign ups. This is another excellent Google resource.
https://www.cs-first.com/en/home

Lesson Planet

Lesson Planet is the search engine for teachers!

Teachers spend lots of time searching the web for lesson plan ideas, worksheets, and much more. You can think of Lesson Planet as basically a "Google" strictly for teachers. You can find 5 star rated lesson plans, worksheets, Power Points, videos, educational apps, etc. This search engine also makes it fast and easy for the teacher to find what they are looking for because you can narrow your results by grade level, rating, technology, special needs, or common core. 

All you do is go the website, "lessonplanet.com" type in whatever topic you are looking for in the search bar, and explore the many results it will give you. 

Using Lesson Planet does come with a price but it is very affordable for teachers! Once you sign up you can get a 10 day free trial to see if it would be helpful for you and then after that it is only $3/month. 

Keynote

Keynote is a presentation software application developed by Apple Inc. Keynote is the most powerful presentation app ever designed to let students make dazzling, eye-catching, and customizable presentation templates. The app includes a collaboration feature which allows students to work as a team on the presentation in real time on a Mac, iPad, iPhone, and PC. It lets everyone work at the same time from anywhere to create a presentation, students can see who else is working in the presentation, and allows them view changes in real time as well. By signing in to iCloud.com, PC users can view and edit the presentation. Keynote lets student play to the crowd using the live feature. Students can invite people in different places to watch the presentation in real time on the web. Besides it’s friendly user, keynote is also Microsoft PowerPoint friendly as well. Students can save keynote documents as PowerPoint files or import PowerPoint files and edit in keynote. 

Virtual Field trips

Skype Field Trips like video conferences, are a great way to bring a field trip to the class without leaving the school! Different experts can bring new information to engage your students and answer their questions during the lesson. These are virtual field trips (similar to a traditional video conference) in which the provider leads the lesson and the teacher facilitates the lesson from the classroom. There are many different topics available that range in subject, interaction level and grade level. Some of these can be offered through the Microsoft website. Many of these are even free!

Quizizz

Quizizz is an amazing resource that is very similar to Kahoot, but with some important differences. Firstly, entering questions is faster and easier, and includes options to format and customize the questions as well as add stock memes, or you can create your own! Secondly, a major difference is that students don't play off the main screen, but rather off their own screens at their own pace. They are still competing against each other, but this reduces anxiety in students who are intimidated by the fast pace of a Kahoot game. Lastly, Quizizz could even be used for assessment because questions can be randomized for each student. If your class loves Kahoot, try Quizizz!

https://quizizz.com/

Recordable Answer Buzzer

Many teachers want a cheap yet fun way to engage students in their lesson plans.  With Recordable Answer Buzzers teachers can engage students without costing themselves an arm and a leg. Recordable answer buzzer allows students to record their voices, sounds, music, and much more. It can be used to record birds outside on recess to apply to a science lesson, to music on the radio to relate to an instrument being used in music class, to even just students recording themselves or a peer reading a classroom book. The list goes on and on. It is a fun and affordable way to keep children wanting to learn. Students can play back what they’ve recorded at the drop of a hat.  It is great because it is also battery operated so students can travel with their buzzers. The buzzers come in a set of twelve in multiple colors. Each buzzer records up to seven seconds of sound. With so many options to use the Recordable Answer Buzzer it is a no brainer to purchase one for your classroom. Stores  and websites such as amazon are selling these buzzers for as little as $50.00 So what are you waiting for? Get the Recordable Answer Buzzer today!

Gamestar Mechanic: Where Students Create and Play!

Gamestarmechanic.com is a site that guides students through the process of making and sharing their very own video games! Designing games builds 21st century skills, problem solving abilities, art and aesthetics, writing and storytelling, and creates a motivation for STEM learning. There is a free version where students can create, share, and play their games. The premium version unlocks even more features and is only 2 dollars per student! 

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Teach Learn Lead

          TEACH LEARN LEAD

Starting out as a new teacher you are going to have many questions and will want all helpful advice you can get. Who better to get these questions answered by then other teachers? Teach Learn Lead is like Facebook but just strictly for teachers!
It was created to bring new teachers together and support each other along our journeys. You can connect with other teachers from anywhere in the country, and share relevant experiences. It is a free app you can download on your IPhone, Android or use on your computer. Also with this app, you can start discussions and polls to share lesson plan ideas or other career advice to others.

Lego Social Skills Club

One fun way to model and strengthen social skills for students- especially for those with Autism- is by facilitating a Lego Social Skills Club. Most people enjoy Legos, and this is even more true for many people young and old with Autism. Autistic people like to line things up, like things in order, like to focus on one thing; Legos easily fit that.

Social skills are an area of difficulty for Autistic individuals. What Lego Social Skills Club aims to do is fill the need of teaching social skills without the individuals even knowing that it is occurring. Students are placed in groups of three at a table with Legos and an project direction booklet. Each person is given a job; Student 1 is the Lego Finder, Student 2 is the Direction Giver, and Student 3 is the Builder. The students have to work together on the task to build the final product. Without forcing social skills or interactions, the students each have their job to do, communicate at their own level, and interact as they can to hopefully successfully build their project successfully. The group will feel good about their contribution, as well as their group work. The group does this three times, with jobs rotated so each student can be a direction giver, a brick finder and a builder. All of this is important, as the love of Legos and their drive to build a project helps them overcome any social skill issues they may have such as hesitation of communication, being near others, etc.

This model of Social Skill Group has proven successful at Autistic Centers such as Eastern Michigan University, studies have been done and books have been written on how to facilitate the system. I believe it would transfer successfully to GenEd students as well, as Legos are a universal tool of friendship and communication. Here's to Legos!

Kaplan FloorPlanner

Having a hard time trying to plan out the design of your classroom?

With FloorPlanner you can create your dream classroom with this FREE online classroom design tool. You can enter the exact dimensions of your classroom and then just drag and rearrange the products until you have your floor plan. This website is great because it has 3D results that give you a realistic view of what your classroom would look like in real life. 

To start designing your own classroom you just simply have to create a FREE account and then start designing! 

If you do not know where to start on the design process, FloorPlanner gives you example classrooms for what age level you have. (Ex. Toddler Classroom, Pre-K Classroom, Elementary classroom, etc.)

Example of a Kindergarten Classroom floor plan

Example of a computer lab floor plan

Fakebook

Fakebook is a website where students can create profiles that look like Facebook profiles but they are fake and on the Fakebook server. Students are forced to learn while they make the profile because they are prompted to enter in information such as family members and date of birth which would require research. Fakebook users can make posts and comment and like other users posts which could be used in the classroom by having students asking each other questions. Students can also post things like videos and pictures on other students walls so you could have multiple requirements for your students. Fakebook is very useful in History or Language Arts classes to have your students create a profile based on a character in the chapter you are reading or something or that time period or something along those lines. Students would enjoy using Fakebook because they are used to the format of Facebook and they would like using computers.

https://www.classtools.net/FB/home-page

SeeSaw

With today’s technology, it is no surprise that teachers are able to use apps to keep in contact with their student’s parents and guardians rather than the traditional ways of phone calls, sending notes home in cubies, and emails. Keeping in contact in this modern way has been not only more convenient and a time saver for teachers, but for parents as well. From one app, you can do it all. You can see weekly updates, check your student’s grades, and even keep in contact with the teacher themselves, asking them questions and voicing your concerns.

While this is great, wouldn’t it be nice to see the school day from your child’s point of view as well?

This is something that is made possible with SeeSaw, an app that has the opportunity to be student lead. With the use of SeeSaw, students have the ability to upload pictures and videos of what they have been working on that day to their own “page”, which is visible to their parents and the teacher, but no one else. This is a great way to avoid the “What did you do at school today?” question, getting no response from your child. Rather, you can ask specific questions, or give praise on something you saw that they did today.

Not only is this great for the family, but it can be very useful for the student as well. From be able to upload their own work, this gives them the opportunity to look back at things they have done in the past, letting the students reflect and watch their own growth, giving them even more confidence to continue to succeed. 

Vizia

Many students today enjoy learning through videos and short clips. With the easy to use and free website Vizia teachers can create video based quizzes for students. Teachers can edit the questions to be multiple choice, true or false, and even short answers. Students are to enter their name so scores are easily recorded. Unlike paper quizzes it is very hard for a student to make the excuse that they “lost” their copy of the quiz, it even decreases a student’s chances of cheating off peers. It is easy to use and fun for the whole classroom. Many students struggle to retain what they’ve learned from a twenty-page chapter related quiz. With Vizia students can watch a short video that their teachers chose to sum up a current lesson topic or concept quickly and effetely. Another great benefit to using Vizia is the zero copies of quizzes teachers must make for a quiz. So, save a tree and download Vizia today!

It's Lego Time!

Legos are so fun and interacting of any age group. Students can build so much with Legos and their creativity can go wild. Lego Education website has different resources that are available from preschool too elementary to middle school. At the preschool level, it is all about building character, social skills, and also beginning science and math at an early age. They focus on creativity, social and emotional development, early science, math, language, and literacy subjects. In elementary school, the resources trigger student critical thinking and it also encourages problem-solving skills. Subjects also include math, science, language arts, reflection and dialogue, and STEM. In middle school, they also focus on STEM. Students are more engaged in the digital world, and the real world and that is what the lessons emphasis on. Teachers can use these resources in their classrooms and it will be the beginning of a new future for many students. The educational resources will expand on student knowledge and their creative side in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math, (STEM)!

https://education.lego.com/en-us