iCivics

This website is a online game where students are playing characters that apply our American civics to everyday life. There are several topics to play, such as news (fake news, hidden ads, etc.), immigration, the rights of the people, how countries work, and how the president works. There is another aspect of this website, and that is helping the teachers with resources on teaching the students these lessons. There are curriculum units of the foundations of government, the constitution, civil rights, the legislative branch, the judicial and executive branch, state and local governments, and many more. This resource is really cool in using for both the teachers and students. For the students, it gives them the virtual life of living these things out. Also, the students learn what their rights are and how to defend them.This resource is getting the students engage by playing these games like video games and earn points. My generation is addicted to games, especially video game. So for people to incorporate these lessons into games, it does a duel objective. For the teachers, there are so many resources on this site to help them teach their lesson. They can spend all day using all the different topics the site has to teach the students. This is heaven for social studies teachers.

IXL

 IXL is a comprehensive online tool that provides math, language arts, science and social studies practice. The content ranges from PreK-12. PreK-1st grade only has the option of language arts, and math. For second grade and up, there are also science and social studies exercises. Kids can try the skill some skills for free, but to get the full access to the website you must pay a membership fee. Membership fees range from $9.95-$19.95 per month and $79-$159 per year based on the number of subjects your child wants to learn. One really cool feature of the website is the Continuous Diagnostics  tool. This is a great feature for parents, students and teachers. This page shows what the student has already completed, and uses the data to show what exercises the student should complete next. Another good feature is that after the question is answered, the student gets immediate feedback. If the answer is wrong, then there is an explanation as to why the child got it wrong. I work in a kindergarten classroom, and we use this website. The only downfall for younger children is them not knowing how to properly use a computer/laptop. The site does give verbal directions for each question, it's just the matter of whether or not the younger ones know how to click the button so it can tell them what to do. I would recommend working in small groups if you are working with young children on IXL, so you can guide them through if they need help. IXL has an app  for iPad, Android, Kindle Fire, and Chromebook. 

Square Panda

`Square Panda is an excellent resource for schools and parents to use when helping students begin to learn to read, spell, and pronounce words. It uses tablets and plastic letter to help children to learn to read, spell, and pronounce words that are provided by the app. These plastic letters are called Smart Letters and they are used to interact with the sounds, word, and animations that are given in the personalized learning environment that the app creates for the student. This is aimed at pre-k students mostly but would also be helpful in kindergarten and any group of students that are significantly behind in literacy skills. Teachers are able to monitor the progress of each student, use the data to find instructional opportunities and align the lessons in the app to the lessons used in the classroom. This can also be used at home in a similar way. This allows children to have a head start on their reading skills. The Parent Portal allows parents to track their child's progress and even put personalized pictures or custom picked words into the game for their child to see. This would be an excellent resource for both parents and teachers to use for young children to help them boost their skills in early literacy.

TIME

The TIME news website is a great source of information on current events and issues around the world. On the front page of the website, you notice tabs all the way at the top that read: U.S, World, Politics, Ideas, Health, Entertainment, Tech, and Business.

All sorts of learners can find useful current information that will help them make connections with what they learn in the classroom and their textbooks.  The section "Ideas" provides a very interesting collections of issues that the world currently faces, as well as history that is connected with those issues. For example, social studies students in secondary school are learning about xenophobia. In the Ideas section of the TIME news website, is an article labeled "How We Can Fight the Trump Administration's Xenophobia." Students can write a reflection paper connecting what they learned in their class with what the article discusses.

I really love the TIME news website, because it offers so much current information, and interesting ideas that can be used in the classroom to enhance student learning, by "bridging the gap" between the classroom and the real world.

TIME

Doceri

Teaching in a computer based classroom setting? Not sure how to share documents with the whole class? Doceri is the perfect presentation tool to use! The app includes screen recording, interactive whiteboard, and hand drawn graphics. You can make lessons more interactive by annotating whatever material being taught. For a complicated math lesson you can draw in different ways to understand equations making it easier for students to understand. Absent students? No problem! You can record the lesson and post it online for later use. This app is available on iOS devices, iPad, Mac and Windows.

iTunes

iTunes is a well known source for music from artists both new and old, but the site has much more to offer than just the newest singles. iTunes is one of the largest providers of podcasts, on topics like pop culture, entertainment, and especially education. The educational library of podcasts on iTunes is extensive and covers every topic from foreign language and English, to Math, Science, and Social Studies. 

As someone who listens to a lot of podcast I can attest to their educational value, and convenience as they can be taken anywhere and do not require the same kind of constant focus as a book, or long form web-lecture.

Finding the perfect podcast may be difficult, given the size of the library that iTunes has to offer, and I would never recommend presenting, or assigning a class to listen to one that you have not gone through critically before hand.

In the subject of history though I can give a few recommendations based off of the podcasts I have listened to: 

Revolutions recounts the history of the French and American, as well as Latin American Revolutions.

Hardcore History covers in immense and almost agonizing detail the history of WWI as well as other major historic events.

The Civil War Podcast, covers the US Civil War almost day by day, going over every detail, and explaining the battles and buildup to the war.

Using a podcast in the classroom may seem a bit unusual, however to my understanding it is no different than showing a film or video, and unlike film and video can easily be shared with the students through links (all three of the above are free to listen to).

Dash Bot from Wonder Workshop

I had the opportunity to use Dash Robots (the bigger one in the video) when I was a substitute STEM teacher. This robot is the coolest thing I have ever seen! It works off of coding and comes with free apps for iPads, tablets, or really any smart device. I mostly used only one of the 3 apps that the iPads I worked with had on them. It allowed students to create their own codes for the robot to complete. It also had the ability to lead the students through multiple training missions to become more familiar with the robots capabilities. Children can code Dash to drive across the room, dance, make different noises such as animal sounds, among other actions. All of the students absolutely loved this robot. Since it does work off of coding it gives the students practice with these skills and helps prepare them for a future with even more technology. The robots cost about $150 but it is well worth it. They are built extremely sturdy and would be tough to break without intending to. I babysit two of the students that go to the school I used these at and these robots are now at the top of their Christmas lists. I LOVE them! If you ever get the opportunity to use Dash Robots definitely do, it is well worth it.