Monday, October 30, 2017

BrainPop

BrainPop is a website for grades K-12 that has over 1,000 short animated videos that help explain a certain topic to students. The videos appeal to visual learners, they learn better when they actually see the topic being worked out. Some of the topics the site offers are math, science, English, social studies, and even engineering and technology. The engineering and technology tabs can be helpful towards high school students who are taking a body shop class. BrainPop is used in more then 20% of U.S. schools. It is a popular application because you can use it on a smart phone or tablet and it is free.
 

Sunday, October 29, 2017

A great website for students and teachers-IXL


IXL is an American educational website, it offers an educational practice for K-12 students to practice educational material in an interactive way.  In the learning section, there are Recommendations, Diagnostic, Math, Language Arts, Science, Social studies, Spanish, Common core, Awards. My favorite part of this website is Math and the skills for each grade. Last time when I was tutoring, my students were using this website to do their math practice. When they entered the wrong answer, it showed: “sorry, incorrect…” and then showed students the correct answer at the button and other related examples. In the analytics section, it has IXL analytics, Analytics at school, Analytics at home. The last section is Inspiration section, it has: Welcome, Case studies, Research, Elite 100, Professional learning, Printables, IXL alignments, Webinar schedule. It is a great website, but it is not free! 
It costs $9.95 per month for access to K-12 Math.  
It costs $15.95 per month for access math and English core subjects. 
It costs $19.95 per month for all access.

Saturday, October 28, 2017

Cram


Growing up my parents always would pickup school supplies at the beginning of the year, and they almost always brought home a set of flashcards. They were and still are great tools to use when it comes to studying, but we now live in an electric era and thankfully there’s a new website that allows us to make flashcards without having to run by the shop. Cram is an online flashcard resource that has a large data base of different subject flashcards that allow a person to memorize, study, and prepare them for future tests and exams. If the large selection is still not in your favor, they still got you covered!  There is also a “create your own flashcard” that allows a person to customize it to their liking. You can set a title, subject, description, font, language and just like the average flashcard it has a front and back to make it legitimate. Once the flashcard is created, the user will be able to decided whether their cards can be put in to the data base for others to see. They also are able to Import the flashcard as a set to a flash drive, google drive, or any data base that allows for saved information. Cram is a great tool for all age groups and its mobility makes it convenient to hands on students.


Wednesday, October 25, 2017

Learn a language while growing a pet Mimrise

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Memrise is an educational app for languages. Let say if you do not have the money to pay for a teacher to study the new language you wish to learn with mimrise. You have a choice between 88 languages. If you can not find the language you are looking for you can search for it. This app give you phrases, grammar, alphabets,audio and native speakers to help you master your language. You have different level until complication and while you are learn you are creating an alien pet as you grow so does your pet.
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Stelum - A Segway into a Whole New World of Learning!

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     Stelum is website that sets out to be simple, and make complicated concepts (such as molecules, for example) easy to understand in concise, image-filled snipets of articles that the site calls "Simplexes". Have you ever wanted to know who the Dalai Lama is? Well, after you read a brief, page-long summary that covers the major questions of "Who? What? When? Why? How?" you'll know more about him for sure! These are great icebreakers, and can lead into a lesson about a topic (that would go into further detail on said topic) seamlessly. You might have to watch out for the usual qualities of the Internet, however, as anyone can make a Simplex. This is not 100% a bad thing, though! You could perhaps even assign a group of students to make a Simplex as a project, which would be a nice change of pace if they are use to long, drawn-out papers! You can sort the website by categories as well, which can range from a great list of topics, teaming with Simplexes for each! From Technology to History, look no further for a transitional tool! You can subscribe to any user that makes content, so perhaps you could even set up a group where students can read your Simplexes from home in order to get prepared for a new topic, or summarize an old one! Stelum and Simplexes make school simple!

BoomWriter


BoomWriter is a free group writing site where students develop and enhance their writing, reading, and vocabulary skills. Here they can also assess each others work by checking for spelling and grammar issues. Students and teachers can work together to create a story and when finished can publish it free of charge.

Wordbrewery is Alchemy for a Second Language!

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     Wordbrewery is a website that is useful for anyone of any age that is looking to learn another language. It's easy, educational, and free to use! All you have to do is sign up on their website, select a language and what level you'd like to begin at, and BAM! It starts churning out sentences for you to translate! Most of the sentences on there are added by users (with some regulations in place to keep any inappropriate words out of the mix), and you can add some, as well! It makes the learning practical, applicable, and simple. After all, all it is on the screen is nothing but one sentence at a time. You can even pick what topic would be highlighted in the sentences you choose, which could range from culture and travel, to business, to politics! This could be useful for you Business majors out there! Language teachers all over could suggest the site to supplement what they learn in class, as students could use it at home, or on the go! Many languages are covered here, from Spanish to Arabic, with many levels of difficulty to choose from. Also, it encourages you to keep going forward, as it keeps track all the words you've encountered. Lastly, the site allows you to highlight words to give you the direct translation of it in English. If you are looking for a place to watch the magic potion to language bubble up, check out Wordbrewery!