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Since our founding, The Learning Accelerator's belief has been that blended learning is an innovation with the potential to transform the education of millions of students in American K-12 schools. By using technology to help teachers and students more deeply understand and respond to individual needs, we think schools can better reach their goals: effective, equitable, and engaging learning for every student.

Google Earth can help you bring a world of information alive for your students. It can be used with all grade levels, and the possibilities are endless with your imagination! Students can use Google Earth to explore topics like the progress of human civilization, the growth of cities, the impact of civilization on the natural environment, and the impact of natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina. Teachers can use Google Earth demos to get their students excited about geography beyond the static map, or use different Google Earth layers to study transportation, demographics, economics, and in specific local or exotic contexts.

"Piktochart is a great web app that allows students to create products that other students will actually WANT to read. It lets students combine visuals, text and interactive web elements into a dynamic, eye-catching presentation. It's free (of course!). It's powerful. It has tons of options. And the products created by it can be shared in many formats. So why not jump in and give it a shot? Here are 20 ways Piktochart can be incorporated into the classroom."

I once heard class discussions described as "transient instructional events." They pass through the class, the course, and the educational experiences of students with few lingering effects. Ideas are batted around, often with forced participation; students don't take notes; and then the discussion ends-it runs out of steam or the class runs out of time. If asked a few days later about the exchange, most students would be hard-pressed to remember anything beyond what they themselves might have said, if that.

"Teachers know their students best. CommonLit is not a scripted curriculum - we provide high-quality materials, selected by teachers, to help professionals teach at the highest level. CommonLit is compatible with any curriculum or standards. Our goal is to challenge students to think deeply and answer important questions. We help teachers meet reading standards in every state. Engaged students learn more, do better on standardized tests, and become life-long readers. We help teachers get kids excited about the themes that run through life and literature."

"Personalized math and reading comprehension practice your students will love. By addressing student weaknesses and building off strengths, Front Row is designed to increase confidence and promote growth in ALL students, regardless of their ability level."

Mosa Mack Science is devoted to helping you move towards NGSS inquiry-based instruction with reliable, entertaining, and rigorous resources. What is Mosa Mack Science? Mosa Mack Science is a library of NGSS-aligned, inquiry units containing three lessons: The Solve: An animated science mystery and vocabulary manipulative The Make: A hands-on lab The Engineer: An engineering challenge that allows students to apply what they've learned to solve real world scenarios. The lessons focus on teacher support and include assessment rubrics, graphic organizers for students and prepared PowerPoint presentations. Where did Mosa Mack Science come from? Mosa Mack Science was born out of one teacher's frustration with the existing resources for middle school science educators. While teaching science in New York City, founder Lissa Johnson realized that the online resources were ineffective: they lectured her students and failed to make science relevant. Johnson wanted to fix this problem and created Mosa Mack Science to inspire a new generation of scientists. The Mosa Mack team now includes writers from This American Life, artists from Nickelodeon and expert curriculum creators out of the Stanford Scale program. Through this team, Mosa Mack Science breathes life into inquiry science.

"The Trading Card tool gives students an alternative way to demonstrate their literacy knowledge and skill when writing about popular culture texts or real world examples. This interactive allows students to create their own trading card about a real or fictional person, place, object, event, or abstract concept."

"Visible Thinking is a flexible and systematic research-based approach to integrating the development of students' thinking with content learning across subject matters. An extensive and adaptable collection of practices, Visible Thinking has a double goal: on the one hand, to cultivate students' thinking skills and dispositions, and, on the other, to deepen content learning. By thinking dispositions, we mean curiosity, concern for truth and understanding, a creative mindset, not just being skilled but also alert to thinking and learning opportunities and eager to take them"

10 technology/technical skills all students should have before graduating.

"Tablets for Schools recently commissioned research on e-safety  (done by Family, Kids and Youth, an independent research agency) with over 3500 students aged 11-18. We asked for their thoughts on what their schools and parents were doing with regard to internet safety."

"What does student engagement look like? I have received this question from teachers in a number of different forms. Often the words "apathetic" or "unmotivated" are used in place of "disengaged." But the point is the same. Many of us have had students in the classroom whose stubborn lack of interest or motivation threatens to undermine the positive learning environment we've tried to create. How do we turn this around?"

"The great part of integrating technology in the classroom is that it gives students a voice...sometimes a voice without having to be audibly heard."

"One teacher followed two students for two days  and was amazed at what she found."

"Edtech is making is easier and more efficient to help students at every level, and to bring even the most timid of learners out of their shells. Dr. Kenneth Shore, a psychologist and Chair of a child study team for the Hamilton, New Jersey Public Schools, explains that "Low self-esteem can lessen a student's desire to learn, his or her ability to focus, and his or her willingness to take risks. Positive self-esteem, on the other hand, is one of the building blocks of school success; it provides a firm foundation for learning."

"A checklist on the form included: reading a book, writing on paper, typing on the computer-and also using email, looking at Facebook, engaging in instant messaging, texting, talking on the phone, watching television, listening to music, surfing the web. Sitting unobtrusively at the back of the room, the observers counted the number of windows open on the students' screens and noted whether the students were wearing ear-buds."

"Some of the problems with students turning in their Google Docs to the instructor is they Do not put a correct header on the document They do not name the file according to the class nomenclature They forget to share the document with the teacher They forget to turn the assignment in I have a workflow that will solve this issue.  The autocrat script allows a user to fill out a Google Form and have the form fields be merged into a document and shared with the person who filled out the form."

"Students created a professional development resource relating to a technology tool of their choosing. Alternatively, students could also create a professional development resource that uses multiple tools to address a specific skill covered in the course. The product was organized so the various tools worked together toward a common goal rather than be just a collection of tools."

The Answer Pad (TAP) is a multi-platform BYOD (bring your own device) student dialogue system that focuses on real-time assessments. Teachers can register for free, create their class, and sign up their students.

Browse our free collection of news articles, poems, short stories, and historical documents for grades 5-12. Assign text-dependent questions to hold students accountable for high-level reading and writing. Analyze student performance and compare class reports on key reading and writing skills."