Tool Kit Fall2 2012

Great resource for ESOL and students with disabilities to practice Dolch words, vocabulary, conventions with interactive games. Can set up a class for less than $50. Can make individualized lessons/assignments for each student for them to work on at home with personal sign in. Much easier to differentiate homework.

I have used this site before, and have made made lists for each of 3 different spelling groups in my class. They log on weekly and complete games and quizzes with their words. I know that with the paid account you can track student progress, do find this data helpful? Are the other options worth the $50 fee?

This is a great resource for making handwriting worksheets, journal writing worksheet, and general handwriting practice.  This is a great tool that prints great!

Hi, Dan, it is an interesting debate. I too wonder about this subject as well, especially it is so hard to learn the Chinese handwriting, I found a couple of my students excel in writing if they can type, but they can't write any Chinese characters by themselves. I guess I will continue to teach the handwriting, however I am glad if I don't need to one day. I myself hardly write anything with a pen or pencil anymore.

I too wonder about handwriting. I believe that you need it for your signature, but also need to understand the letters to read handwriting. I have worked in 2 school districts now that don't teach it because of the use of computers and technology. I still feel that we need to be able to sing our name for important documents. I work with kids that can't read my handwriting when I make comments on the papers I grade. Why should I only print when I was taught to use handwriting? Should I teach high school students handwriting? We have several debates every year about this as teachers.

Great site for kids who are at the level of introductory typing and technology.  This site is great because it incorporates reading, writing, and mathematics.  Many of my students are older, but are just learning how to type.  

Love this site! I especially love the typing and puzzles site (which I play all the time). A great way to work on mental skills online.

This is a great website for preparing visual representations of information. It is similar to Prezi and Glogster, but is easier to use and has a variety of tools (object, maps, people, banners, landmarks, etc.) and features (background, text, shapes, etc.). There are also many templates to choose from.

Mark, If you choose view in web browser and then cut and past the URL, when you click on it, it will take you back to your creation. I have created pages and then linked them on my teacher page for kids to access. I haven't had students do their own, yet, but it was so simple I am sure they will have an easy time.

I like this, as you mentioned, it is very easy to use. I can see using it with class brainstorming where we all collaborate together. Any other ideas on how to use it?

SlideBoom is a great next step for PowerPoint presentations. This can be used as a teaching tool for information presentations and for students to explain or annotate their own PowerPoint information. It is easy to use and helps auditory and visual learners. This also takes the pressure off of students who are uncomfortable or nervous presenting in front of the class.

Sandy I have to ask a couple things about this site. As I looked at the site without making an account is the site free? Is there any copyrights issues with this site? Lastly would you let a student forgo giving a verbal presentation in class to show a video of it they have made using this tool? If so, I feel we again are let students hide behind technology. In return they will loss human traits such as being able to speak to a group of people without fear. I will say I do like this site as a resource for teacher to pull from, just not so much for student use.

Hi Patrick, There are different levels that offer more "bells and whistles" but you can use the basic service free. I am not sure what you mean by copyright issues... What I posted is shared, so I guess anyone could use it. I believe that I am the only one who can edit. I find that students use PowerPoint incorrectly and read what is on the screen, instead of explaining the visual/minimal information that should be included on each slide. I usually have them make notes on each slide that the have to say/read to the class. Some students have great difficulty at first, so I do allow them to record their voice. This is done with the understanding that it is a first step to becoming comfortable with speaking live. Some students make the leap and others require baby steps...

great for student's who are working on specific spelling goals. My students love this site because of the interactive games. PBSkids.org is also great for younger students or developmentally younger students who are motivated by shows such as Arthur and Between the Lions.

Is it me or does it seem like it is easier for kids nowadays to learn in that they have so many opportunities. I remember learning spelling and practicing for the spelling tests and all we had was the guidance of the teacher, a pre-test and then the final test. I don't even remember watching TV shows that taught me how to spell or count. Kids are lucky!

Lexipedia is a great website for students to explore word usage and vocabulary development. A word that is entered is broken into all of the possible parts of speech. Under each part of speech there is a definition for its use and an example. The parts of speech are color coded. Synonyms and antonyms are also given. Easy to use and very visual.

As kids are becoming more and more visual learners, I think that this is such a great tool for them to really understand how words are broken up into different parts of speech. I have found that so many students-even at the HS level- aren't really able to differentiate parts of speech and I think that this could be a really helpful tool for them.

This website offers a variety of quick grammar practice games. Most can be played in under five minutes. This is a great site to use as an engaging warm-up activity. You can choose a specific focus area and within each area, you can also choose an appropriate skill level.

I think that your description of this site is perfect and I think that it is a great place for warm-up activities and short at-home practice quizzes whenever they need a little refresher.

This site offers maps that are easily manipulated. A variety of information is available, from population density to resources to climate. The site is easy to use and provides great visual information.

Wow is all I can say. I have used Google maps for years. I can tell you I will now be using this site from here on out. I love the different map types and the distance tool. The marking is also very nice. This sites map are so up-to-date that I will be taking this site to my SWAT commander and showing it to him, as this site gives us all the tools right at our finger tips we as SWAT need for planning. On the teaching side, this site does everything I would have students do by hand on a printed out map. Know I can get much better measurements from my students along with neater looking work. Thank you so much for sharing this wonderful site.

This National Geographic web site seems to have an endless amount of teacher resources. After exploring the maps, I ventured off into animals, plants, and other more grade level appropriate topics for the K-2nd environment. Great lessons and information especially in areas of Science and S.Studies.

Great website for visualizing geographical information. Tis site provides teachers/students the ability to zoom in on specific areas of the world and add layers of information (agricultural products, mineral resources, etc.) It provides very visual information and is easy to use and kid friendly.

Wow, quite a find. I could have my students create a family map with this or map population centers or internet gateways. Felt really easy to use and share. Thanks for sharing this one. Mark

Creatly is a great website for creating graphic organizers. I would use this to demonstrate how ideas are connected or to give students a visual representation for organizing information. There are a wide variety of templates to get started and tools to build your own graphic organizer. Great for visual learners. It is a little overwhelming at first. For students, I would model several times before offering it as a tool for students to use independently.

Great site and I think that your suggestion to model for the students first is a wise one.

This is a great tool for teachers to use when diagramming/mapping out lessons for students. Students can easily access diagram templates and create their own for projects. Seems easy to navigate and will be helpful for those with difficulty with organizing thoughts for written expression or creating projects.

Jing is an easy to use application for screen capture and annotation. This is a great tool to add to your teacher website of use in class when walking students through how to set up an assignment or use a website. It is easy to use and provides both auditory and visual support.

Hi, Sandy, I used Jing for creating my instruction videos for my flipped classroom. However, I do find some limitations when I used this tool. First of all, it only allows 5 minutes recording if you don't buy the pro version, secondly, students have problem viewing the finished videos sometimes, and the video format is not convertible for other use, for example uploading to Youtube. Quicktime is a much cheaper and better way to do screen recording, the quality is excellent, and there is no time limit, once you finished the recording, the video can be easily shared or saved in your own computer.

Text Compactor takes large amounts of text and summarizes. It also has a text-to-speech feature. It is easy to use and allows you compact or condense the full text down to a specified percentage. I am not sure that it is always accurate in determining what parts of the original text is most important but it does a decent job. The text-o-speech feature is a robotic voice but it is audible. This would be a great resource for students with difficulty with decoding and/or have difficulty pulling out the salient information in a paragraph.

Sandy thanks for sharing this great tool with us. As a working adult I find it hard sometimes to find just what I want to place into a summary of work. In Law Enforcement you have to do this a lot. This tool is the answer to my and many student's problem. Giving its easy to use steps and links to translators and text-to-speech this is a all-in-one tool for students and adults in the working world. Thanks again for sharing.

Interesting tool for shrinking a volume of text. The voice is rough but understandable. Should work well for summarizing passages in a long text, and helping struggling readers. Good tool.

This is one of my favorite resources for simplified kids news.  You do not need a membership to read or print the articles.  It provides news stories that are motivating, but at a level that is appropriate for my level students.  The printable version removes the ads, and is clear and simplified.  

This is a great resource. It is difficult to find news articles that are current, compelling, and age appropriate. The few articles that were on the site today when I visited were great, especially "Unveiling Europe." Reading non-fiction is a part of our curriculum, but we do not do enough of it because of the lack of appropriate materials. Problem Solved! Thanks.

This is a great site for geography info.  Quizzes and games engage students while they demonstrate their knowledge.  A great game is "Go West with Lewis and Clark".  My kids are motivated by the animals and pets section, they love expolring for their free choice time.  

Ani, I love this site. I have visited it before but forgot all about it. We just finished with the Geography Bee; I wish I had used the site to show my students the Alex Trebec video clip and where to go to preview questions. Some of the games also look interesting. Thank you. This is a great resource site for kids and parents.

This site is filled with tutorials to help teachers and students use the assistive technology within Microsoft Office Apps. I would have never know all of the help Microsoft gives student right inside of their own program without this site. Awesome tool!!

This is a great site for ME! More often than I care to admit, I need to call or e-mail our school tech person to explain how to "undo" something I accidentally did. A very helpful resource! Thank you for sharing your discovery!

Justia is best online site for finding Federal law and State laws on one site. Justia even gives students a link to research US case law. Students can find code of laws for all 50 States. Justia also very easy to use with little distractions on the site.

Definitely a useful link, with so many sites like Wikipedia, we need to find sites like this for students to go to where we know the information is 100% accurate. A cool activity for students using this site might be to assign each of them a state and present laws that they found interesting or maybe a bit strange.

This article explores some of the most famous teaching approaches of Autism.  Although at my school we do not currently use any of these strategies, it is important to be educated on various approaches.  

This article touches on many good points. I have used ABA and PECS in previous careers and thought this article did a good job of presenting them.

This site is used to research South Carolina Legislature. Main use is for law students to be able to locate SC state law. This site can be a great source no matter learning level of the student, as it can be used programs such as Text to talk programs or Readabiliy.

What a great resource for you. On my perosnal toolkit I have the colorado department of education and nevada state department of education. I might have to add the Nevada state Legislature link to mine. Thanks for sharing.

This is a fun resource that lets you add voice to photos. This can be used in a number of wonderful ways. It can bring life to photos for students with vison problems. It can also help eductors understand how student look at different items, as they can add their thoughts to different photos. In Law Enforcement class student could add crimes scene notes right to the photos.