Smart Notebook

Smart Notebook is an online tool that helps engage students with formative assessment, student collaboration, and various game based learning. This online tool can be used in daily lessons in all subject areas for every grade level. The teacher creates the actives and or assessments using their Smart board or tablet. Customized lessons can be created with in minutes for the students to use.  Teachers can easily share the link among their colleagues and can compare data from the given activity. Smart Notebook can integrate the student devices such as Ipads to expand their learning. The teacher can even record themselves giving a lesson so the students can play it at anytime. Children are actively engaged and they will not even realize that they are learning.

https://education.smarttech.com/products/smart-learning-suite/smart-lab

Coding

There was so much that I learned about coding last week in class. Coding is something that I thought was only for nerds, but it can be for everyone. It takes much practice and thinking, but I kinda have the hang of it. It's pretty hard, but I know have to think about how to put the right coding in to make what I want. What type of coding that I learned to do was a couple of things. One way of coding was making an online person of myself. I had to type a certain way of getting the figure onto the screen. It is pretty much like in the TV shows and movies. I had to type words, such as head, shoes, torsoe, etc. into each code sentence to get the figure. That coding was easy since each code was the same minus each different body word that I had to put. It was really the same type of command. The other coding was making ways for the Disney character Morlana to catch fish. That was hard since the patterns were different for the levels. It became harder on each level for each code. I had to use the straight, right, left, repeat commands repeating for each code.

Duolingo

If you need help learning a new language, Duolingo is the thing for you! Whether you use it on a smartphone or tablet with the app, or on their website for the computer, it a great way to learn a second language. It is free, and accessible to everybody. Not to mention, there are MANY different languages you can learn. For me, vocabulary is the biggest asset for Duolingo. I do not necessarily believe that this helps you speak fluently in other languages. I do however think, that it is very helpful, in the sense of learning basic vocabulary. Memorization is key. So in all reality, if you need to pass a test on basic vocabulary, Duolingo can definitely help you out with that!

Symbolab Math Help!

Are you stuck on a math problem?  Have you been staring at it for the last 30 minutes, hoping something on the page would move and you would figure out the answer?  Or do you just want to figure out how your professor got the answer to a problem and can't figure out how?  Well do I have the website for you!  Symbolab Math Solver offers free step-by-step solutions to get your answer.  They also provide practice problems, cheatsheets, and a graphing calculator.  All at the click of a button!  This website and app are extremely helpful in any math class.  You can use this for very basic math or advanced.  Besides having the website, you can download the app and get help from your phone!  The coolest part about this app, is if the question is too hard to write, or if you are just a lazy son of a gun like me, you can take a picture from your phone instead of writing in the problem!
Go download this app right now!!!

ABCya!

AbcYa! is an online educational game resource for preschool through 5th grade students. AbcYa! offers different types of games for different skill levels for each grade. These games help strengthen the student's knowledge and skills in each subject area by using fun games and resources to help them practice. This website offers more education based games than any other resource I have seen that has a similar purpose. It is a great resource for teachers to allow students to use during free time because it is almost guaranteed that the students are actually practicing educational skills rather than just playing a game that is not educational based. The strategy category of games does not offer educational games as much as the other categories but this is still a great area for students to play games during indoor recess or after school to practice mouse or keyboard skills.

Flipgrid

       We live in a world were pictures and videos are part of this generation's communication system. As a teacher we are always looking for ways to have our students engage with one another outside of the classroom. Flipgrid is a website that addresses this challenge. How this works is that the teacher creates a specific "grid" about a certain topic and post a question or discussion for their students to participate in. Using the code provided to access the grid, the students then answer the question but instead of typing out their responses they record a video of themselves and post it on the grid. The video recording range from a minute to three minutes. Students can then look at other responses and comment on each other's post. This a fun and entertaining way of getting your students to start thinking about certain topics that are being presented or as method for them to open up and express themselves without the pressure of doing it in front of a class. I think this would be very useful in a classroom because the students will enjoy doing this and be able to have well-developed responses.

 

Photomath

Photomath is a smartphone app that uses your camera to solve math problems. Photomath solves simple problems like long multiplication, as well as more complex problems that would take time to sit down and solve manually. Photomath is a free app, but it's subscription service allows users to view the steps Photomath took to solve the problem. You can also edit manually what Photomath is trying to solve, as sometimes it has difficulty reading handwriting or bent paper.

Splash Math

With so many different math games on the web it is hard to pick one that will work on all the math skills children learn from Kindergarten to fifth grade. Let me introduce Splash Math. This math game has over 205 lessons for children working on their early math skills as early as counting to their more complex  math skills such as subtraction, multiplication and division. Many teachers testify that Splash Math keeps children engaged and excited about learning, Splash math can even be used in inclusive classrooms for children with learning disabilities. Teachers and Parents are given a free trial to see if splash math will work for their family or classroom, Just Sign up below if you are interested. With common core state standards curriculum.  This award-winning website used in over 50,000 schools, is what you want to use to refresh those math skills on your early learner.

Splash Math Register



Success Story in Special Education Classroom

Avida-ED

Avida-ED is a program created by Michigan State University, and was the winner of the 2017 International Society for Artificial Life Education and Outreach Award. The software shows how evolution can occur in an organism through mutation, and changes in the organism's environment. As a result it is an excellent choice for use in a High school Biology Class, as it allows the student to watch evolution as it occurs, using various parameters to measure different variables, in a controlled environment. Though the program is rather complex it is easy to get a clear understanding of once enough time has been put in, and familiarity with the program has been established.

Though the program is not perfect, and can become rather repetitive with continuous, use the science behind the program is sound, and the educational potential cannot be understated. It may sound cliche, but this is the one of the few educational programs that I found to be genuinely fun to use, and despite the difficulties I had with it at first I believe it to be an excellent tool for teaching about evolution.

Avida-ED also comes with a tutorial which can help students and teacher alike build a familiarity with the basics of the program.

Experiences as a Writing Consultant

This semester I've been given a great opportunity to work in the UM-Dearborn Writing Center. If you're not familiar with the resource, here's the quick pitch: come to us if you'd like any form of assistance on a piece of writing you're working on. It could be a 15-page final project essay you'd like revised one more time before submitting. It could be a single paragraph response that you need help brainstorming. It doesn't even have to be related to a class. Bring us your resume and cover letter. We're here to help.

While my endorsement will be in Integrated Science, I thought it would be a valuable experience to work as a writing consultant. Foremost, these are small teaching sessions I can hopefully use to practice my craft. But it's not just the hours. Writing is important. Every discipline will require the ability to construct writing at some point. I would like to learn as much about the writing process as I do about teaching.

I may have only had a few hours in the center so far, but I think I'm already seeing dividends. The most significant of which is that I will need to work hard to become an expert teacher. It took me longer than some to figure out what I wanted to do with my life. When I decided to become a teacher, I felt very confident about it and people close to me immediately say things like, "You're going to be the best teacher!" or, "That's perfect for you!". My first few sessions in the writing center have been a good reminder that it takes a long time and a lot of effort to be really good at something. You don't just walk up to the plate as a rookie in the big leagues and hit home run after home run. I can't be discouraged when I feel like I struck out during a session. I need to be able to focus on how I can improve and that I will improve. I need to be okay with not hitting a home run. I need to celebrate the times that I just get on base. I need to appreciate the little victories, both the ones I have and those my students do. My goal is not to be 100% perfect all the time, start to finish. My goal is to be better today than the day before, to be better at the end of the year than I was at the start of it. One step at a time and we can all reach the summit.

GradeProof

GradeProof is a writing help app that can be download to your phone, computer and other mobile devices. GradeProof is also known as Artificially Intelligent Proofreading. As a person writes, the app instantly corrects a student's writing, such as grammar and spelling mistakes.

The app also provides students, or anyone writing, rephrasing suggestions to improve the clarity of their writing and help it flow better. I think students in primary, secondary and higher education can all benefit from this educational technology. Writing is done in all courses and students should be given tools, like GradeProof, to help them in improving their writing.

Click the link below to learn more and download the app!

GradeProof

Chegg Study

Chegg Study is an online study resource that primarily is designed to provided homework help to college students and advanced high school students. For $14.95 a month, a student can access step-by-step solutions to every problem in over 22,000 ISBNs. Most of the textbooks with step-by-step solutions are commonly used for introductory college courses, the courses that are often referred to as "weed-out classes". The $14.95 per month subscription also includes 30 minutes with an online tutor per month. The online tutoring is done though Chegg Tutors, which I used to tutor on and previously blogged about.

While I believe Chegg Tutors is a useful learning tool as it allows 24/7 access to a knowledgeable tutor who can explain material and coach students to the correct answer, I feel its companion, Chegg Study’s step-by-step solutions just give students answers without truly explaining the material. A student could copy all of the answers to their homework without really learning anything and would see negative results at test time as a result. For this reason, I do not recommend students use Chegg Study. I also recommend teachers and professors make an effort to create their own homework problems instead of assigning problems out of textbooks because very often the solutions to textbook problems can be found online.

Kahoot!

Having trouble getting your students engaged in class discussion? Nervous about introducing new lessons? Well Kahoot! is the learning game to turn to! Kahoot! is an educational learning game that can be used individually or as a class. When using Kahoot! as a class the questions show up on a projector/big screen and the students answer on their devices. While using this game individually it can be played in single-player mode on the app. This game can get students excited about learning new lessons or reviewing for an upcoming exam. Take a different approach to teaching and get your kids involved through Kahoot!

How to use:

1. Create account as either a student, teacher or other
2. Click on either a quiz, jumble, discussion or survey

3. Create the game by adding questions for your students/audience

4. Launch the game

For a more detailed explanation on how to use Kahoot, click on the link below:
How to Kahoot!

Kahoot website

Kahoot! brings children joy in the classroom

 Middle School Chemistry

 Are you a middle school science teacher looking for a free, inquiry-based lesson plans? Middle School Chemistry from the American Chemical Society is a completely free chemistry course for students in grade 6 through 8. It covers basic chemistry concepts explained with the process of scientific investigation. The entire course can be downloaded as a single PDF file of 691 pages or you can go one lesson at a time. There are six chapters with each chapter containing 5-6 lessons.

Each lesson begins with the important information a teacher is required to have, key concepts which will be taught, and students’ activities and how they are related to the key concepts. This is followed by the lesson objectives, materials required for the student experiments and teacher demonstrations and safety requirements.

Each lesson is written with “5-E” teaching strategy that involves five steps: Engage, Explore, Explain, Extend, and Evaluate. At the end of each lesson, there are 6 to 10 pages of printable text which summarizes what has been learned during the inquiry and discovery lesson. 

I recommend this website not only to all the middle school science teachers but also to parents who wants to involve in their child’s learning process. It should be noted that, although the preparation is minimal with easily available materials, it requires active participation of teacher /parents with discussion a big part of the game.

ClassDojo

ClassDojo is a free educational app that offers a wide-ranging suite of tools and services to simplify teacher-to-parent communication, to effectively manage classroom behavior, and to promote student engagement and creativity. Such an array of features makes it an excellent 'one-stop shop' to meet the needs of any classroom.

The app's messaging feature makes it easy for teachers to stay in touch with parents in a variety of ways. They can send texts to individual parents or post notifications about important upcoming dates to everyone. Additionally, teachers can share photos or videos, giving parents a 'peek' into the classroom and a chance to see "wonderful classroom moments" as they happen. This aspect has the potential to strengthen ties between home and school.

In classroom, teachers can promote positive student behavior by awarding Dojo points, which could easily be translated into prizes, privileges, or other incentives. Teachers can customize this feature, deciding what kinds of behaviors or skills they want their students to practice. This "gamification" aspect could certainly be highly motivating for young students.

Perhaps best of all, the recently added Student Portfolio offers a space where students can showcase their creativity by using in-app tools to complete assigned activities. Students can write journal entries, create videos, drawings, or diagrams all in the app. And to support these activities and promote additional student engagement, the comment system allows for immediate teacher and peer feedback.

Finally, the app's website provides additional resources to support teachers as they learn to incorporate the app into their classrooms. Certainly, this app would work well in any tech-friendly elementary classroom as it offers something for teachers, students, and parents.

No Fear Sparknotes

This is a class full of college students, so I would be shocked if no one has heard of this spectacular resource. No Fear Literature on Sparknotes breaks down older, classic texts that have difficult language, such as Shakespeare or Charles Dickens, and allows students to engage with the text in a way that helps them create a deeper understanding of the meaning. Now I know what you’re thinking, is a future English teacher really going to tell her students to log onto Sparknotes to do the reading assignment? Shouldn’t she be advocating for students to engage with the original text because when it’s translated into modern English some of the information is lost in translation? My answer for you is yes, yes I am. However, I strongly believe there is a way for teachers to encourage students to use Sparknotes as a supplement to the reading experience and not a substitute, such as administering reading quizzes that can only be answered with information from the original text. No Fear Sparknotes makes this possible. By displaying the original text on one side of the screen, and translated text on the opposite side, there is no longer a way to give students a free pass on their failure to do the reading because they “didn’t understand it.” This website is not a “cop-out,” it’s not cheating, it’s a resource to help students learn because at the end of the day, the only thing that matters is that they learned something, and not how they learned it.

Codio - Virtual Software Development Environment for Education

Having highly-skilled software developers and engineers will be a industry need for years to come.  As schools continue to integrate software development into the K-12 curriculum, looking for ways to reduce the boundaries for students to enter the programs will be a necessity.  Traditionally, there were high infrastructure demands for teaching software development: servers, high-end computers, large computer labs, etc. This made it difficult for schools to properly implement a proper development environment.  Codio is a great tool to reduce the capital boundaries facing schools. Codio is designed for Computer Science teachers to implement a shared virtual development environments for students. These environments can be pre-configured for a specific assignment and will allow students to access their code from any computer.  Being a cloud-based platform removes the need for an expensive, high-end computer for students, opening up the program to more schools. In addition to the student benefits, there are many great tools for teachers. Everything from code submission, plagiarism validation, grade tracking, group collaboration, and integration into popular education software (Blackboard, Canvas, etc.) make this tool a must have.  If I teach programming, I would highly recommend this platform to the administration, as it does have a school based subscription. Overall, I love Codio and have been looking for a reason to use it.

ABCya

abcya

Abcya is a great resource for kids. I love abcya because it is fun and interactive for kids at different grade levels. ABCya works on a range on concepts and skills for children to work on at every age. This website is easy to navigate for children and each game progresses to the next level as they. It has many uses at home and in the classroom. Especially for kindergartens who take standardized testing if they can follow the games and prompts on the screen while using a mouse to follow the directions than they are getting much needed practice. I use abcya at home a lot with all three of my children and they love the interactive games, they are fun.In addition to how fun it is all the games on abcya were created by certified school teachers for use in the classroom and at home. It is also all free.

MathGameTime

MathGameTime is a resource that offers free math games, math videos, and math worksheets for teacher, students, and parents. This web platform breaks down games into Grade Level from Pre-Kindergarten to 7th Grade. In addition, it provides with math games for learning Addition, Algebra, Counting, Division, Equations, Fractions, and much more! I believe all the resources are educational and age-appropriate. As a future teacher, I will not be opposed to using their Math Worksheets as Exit Tickets to evaluate if my students understood a concept. I would recommend this web platform to any Elementary Teachers. I would also recommend this website to parents. Parents can allow their children to play cool math games while learning math concepts at the same time.

MathGameTime

Edmodo

Edmodo is a secure social networking site that allows you to communicate with students. It also serves as a learning management tool. This website allows you to create a Classroom Community. Teachers are able to post assignments, create polls, and even post classroom notifications. Students are able to check upcoming homework due dates, quiz dates, test dates and much more! Edmodo incorporates technology in classroom which helps engages students and work collaboratively if needed. Teachers would need to create an account, register your class, and your students also, they are able to invite parents if they would wish to! If I would have an Edmodo account, I would invite parents because then parents are able to view and remind their children when they have upcoming assignments. Also, I would upload class notes/homework so if any student is absent they are able to log in to Edmodo and retrieve the notes/homework they missed on a specific date.

Edmodo

Keynote

Keynote is a technology tool developed by Apple to design creative and informative online presentations. This technology tool helps students incorporate tables, charts, photos, and slides within their presentations. Keynote helps to engage and incorporate the audience when giving a presentation.This tool is user friendly and allows you to generate multiple slides that will help to build your presentation. The app permits students to collaborate with each other in real time from anywhere.Keynote allows you to insert digital pictures and videos to cultivate the classroom. In an elementary school using keynote to present to the class manifests to the younger children that technology can be unitized for learning. Students learn how to be creative and become familiar using technology. Keynote is a very useful technology presentation tool that everyone can use in their everyday lives.                                                                                                                                                                                                                           
https://www.apple.com/keynote/
Audrey Asgarally

Study Island

Study Island is a fun, online website designed to prepare students for their state standardized test. Study island has been around since I was in elementary school, and now we use it in the school I work for today. Over 24,000 schools use Study Island in the United States. The content is all based on content that will show up on the students state test. Another great thing about this website, is that it gives instant feedback to the student. If the student gets an answer wrong, Study Island will give the student a description as to why that answer is wrong. It will also allow them to choose until they get the right answer. Study Island is also a great tool for teachers because it shows what the students have gotten wrong and therefore need more help on. Teachers can also adapt the content they want their students to work on. The last cool thing that about this website is that it has 3 different modes. Test mode, printable mode, and game mode. This website is the perfect way to keep students engaged and entertained while learning key standards at the same time!
                                                        

Big Think

Big Think is a website that features a variety of educational videos and articles across various subjects, such as Mathematics, Technology, Science, Humanities, etc. The presentations are done through video and are given by world-renowned professionals in the fields, such as Michio Kaku, a famous theoretical physicist, and Bill Nye, The Science Guy. Big Think also has a channel on YouTube, which includes a vast array of videos.

The videos are generally short, yet very informative. Viewers are also able to send in their questions and have them answered by the speakers. For example, in one video by Big Think, a viewer asked Neil Degrasse Tyson: Who is the greatest physicist in history? Tyson would proceed by explaining. why Sir Issac Newton is the greatest physicist in history.

The videos and articles are very engaging, and the speakers are usually very humorous, such as Michio Kaku. This website can be used in secondary education and higher education to help explain issues of relevance today and elaborate on concepts learned in the classroom.

Click below to visit the website today!

BigThink

Book Creator

       Are you a teacher that enjoys reading? Wouldn't be amazing to have books with your particular subject area? Is there a way to create your own? Well Book Creator has the thing for you. Book Creator is an innovative and creative website that allows users to create their own books in various shapes, sizes, and styles. You start off by going on their website: Book Creator. Once you sign up, the first thing you do is you choose what type of frame you want for the book. Afterwards, you begin editing your book with the various editing tools. Some of the amazing editing tools include importing pictures, a camera, a touchscreen pen, and they even allow you to record your voice throughout the book! Once you have finish letting your imagine run wild you can print it out or publish online where they will give you a private link to share with your students.
        This website could be used for students of all ages. Teachers could create books that assist elementary kids learn different sounds such as their vowels and consonants. High School English teachers could inspire their students to write a book about a specific theme or have them publish a book review. Science geeks could create a text on the different types of energy with interactive videos. The possibilities are endless. This website really focuses on engaging students to want to read more and learn more about a particular topic.

Chegg Tutoring

Chegg is a website where tutors can help students better understand any subject. This website is for any high school and college student. The subjects can be math, history, science, reading, writing, etc. This tutoring takes place on the Internet. There is a three step process in using Chegg. One, submit a question on any subject. Two, choose a tutor that best suits you in teaching the subject. Three, start the lesson of the subject. There are different way of learning the lesson. Video chat can be use and a whiteboard can also be used. Another method is text chat. Video chats are when the tutor and the student are able to see each other on a camera on an app of some sort, and are able to talk about the lessons that way. There is a whiteboard that can be used on Chegg where it is literally a whiteboard for the tutor can used it to explain lesson, such as math or science better. Text chat is basically texting between the tutor and the student about the lesson. Chegg does come with a cost, and it is fifteen dollars every week for 30 minutes on one-on-one. Cancellations can happen anytime.




https://www.chegg.com/tutors/

Newsela

Newsela is a helpful tool for teachers of all grade levels, from elementary and middle school, even up to high school. The site is dedicated to providing students and teachers with free and easy access to information across all subject matters from the arts and philosophy, to science and technology, through credible, reliable, and relevant sources.

The Website provides articles and news stories from around the world through websites like The Guardian, The Washington Post, The Smithsonian, PBS, and countless others. These articles are provided across many different reading levels allowing both students and teacher to find the ideal reading level of each student to best understand the information presented. Newsela also allows the students to take notes, and annotate as they read, as well as providing quizzes on each article to measure student understanding.

I have used this Website in multiple lesson plans, and never lacked for materials no matter how obscure the subject matter. As a result, this is a tool I advise for any aspiring teacher, as even in the worst case scenario, should it prove insufficient for your needs, the website is free so there is no downside to trying it.

Coolmath-games.com Critique

CoolMath-Game.com is a website that is popular with many elementary aged students. The website's name gives the initial impression that it provides math related games that students will think are "cool" and want to play and, by doing so, further their math skills. This website however is not exactly what many educators or parents would expect. While the website does provide some math related games, such as Sum Links 2 and Make 15, it also provides students with games that are skill, trivia, logic, and strategy based. While these skills could be beneficial to students and furthering their problem solving skills or memory some educators are beginning to not allow their students to use this website while in class because they want students to practice math skills, not play games that are not curriculum based. From an education viewpoint I agree with the educators that CoolMath-Games.com is not a great resource to give to students. The math related games are great but there is no way to make sure students are only playing the math games.  If there was a way for the teacher to limit the students to only the math related games this could be a great resource because the math games seem to be fun for the students and I believe they would benefit from them. This might be a good resource for students to be able to use at home or during indoor recess to play games that can help enhance their problem solving skills or they can on their own play the math games that will help them strengthen their math skills but should not be used as a resource for students to practice math during class time.