Resources

With Adobespark, add backgrounds to quotes or text.  Added Video Editor. Spark is Adobe’s solution to creating simple web graphics… and then some.   It’s incredible for creating quotes and graphics to be used for social media and on web pages.   With very little effort, you can create something that looks professionally created and is highly shareable.   They keep improving it, adding the ability to create simple web pages, and now animated videos too.   If you’ve ever seen the recipe videos that have taken Facebook by storm, then you know the type of videos we’re talking about.  Line up a series of clips, throw in some simple animations and a common theme, and you’ve got yourself a video!   It’s not a powerful editor; it’s not going to replace iMovie or anything.   But at the same time, it’s one of those sites that you really don’t need much technical know-how to get some impressive results.

CommonLit is a free digital tool that helps students in grades 5-12 make measurable gains in reading and writing. Teachers can go to CommonLit.org, create a free account, and access our free library of high-interest, standards-aligned lessons

EdPuzzle pulls videos from a lot of great sources including Khan Academy, National Geographic, TED Talks, Veritasium, Numberphile, Crash course, Vimeo and YouTube. Trim videos to only show the necessary content. You can also add quizzes and text to videos. The site gives great data on the backend.  There are quite a few sites that allow you to add inline notes and quizzes to your videos.  On the surface, EdPuzzle may just seem like another member of the pack.  However, it’s the backend tools that really make it stand out.   You can create classes of students (using the traditional class code method) and then assign videos to them.   Even better, at any time you can view your class list and which students have started the assignment, how many have completed it, and pull up their answers.  But that’s just scratching the surface!   You can see how many times the student watched the video, which PARTS of the video they watched multiple times, whether they skipped around or just jumped to the end.   You can also assign point totals (grades) and leave comments for the students.  It also ties in nicely with Google Classroom.   For all these reasons and more, EdPuzzle has quickly become one of the most popular apps for adding content and interactivity to videos.

Educandy is a wonderful site for creating educational games easily. Teachers simply enter questions and Educandy creates the game. Students play online or using the Educandy app. 

Factile is a free learning platform that lets teachers create engaging jeopardy-style quiz games for the classroom.

Flipgrid is a website that allows teachers to create "grids" to facilitate video discussions. Each grid is like a message board where teachers can pose questions, called "topics," and their students can post video responses that appear in a tiled grid display. Grids can be shared with classes, small groups, or any collection of users interested in a common strand of questions. Each grid can hold an unlimited number of topics and each topic can hold an unlimited number of responses. Topics can be text-based or include a resource such as an image, video, Giphy, emoji, or attachment. Customizable security settings help protect student privacy.  Flipgrid Remote Learning Guide

Incredibox is an online music maker that couldn’t be simpler.   By dragging and dropping various accessories onto your ‘boy band,’   you will create your own custom remix that is not only guaranteed to sound good, but is unique!  It’s a great site to use as an ice breaker or attention grabber. 

Learning Ally provides a wide range of services for individuals with print disabilities such as dyslexia and visual impairments, as well as the people who support them. This includes services for parents such as phone consultations, webinars, support networks and information on specialists and tutors; and services for teachers such as classroom management tools (Teacher Ally), professional development workshops and lesson plans.

Learning Ally also offers a robust digital audiobook library that includes the world’s largest collection of audio textbooks. The library, which in 2015 contained over 80,000 titles, includes a broad variety of specialty and academic subjects, from kindergarten through post-graduate and professional.  

NeoK12 Science contains educational videos, games, puzzles, and quizzes. Videos are available for almost any content area, and with one click, users can search YouTube for more videos. Users can also recommend that those search results be included on the listing at NeoK12. Listed with the videos are interactive quizzes and print-friendly materials. Once an account is created, the user has a dashboard available, showing videos recently viewed, quizzes taken, and interactives explored. Additional features include “What’s Up Today,” a daily assortment of historical events, word of the day, science news for kids, and contests such as a spelling bee, hangman, and funny comics about education.

PDF Candy provides users all over the world with free online and offline tools for working with PDF files (converting, splitting, merging, rotating, etc.). All services are provided at no cost and are ads-free. All tools are very easy to use. You can upload files from Dropbox, Google Drive or simply by drag and dropping them.

PearDeck is a wonderful interactive presentation tool. Engage your whole class with presentations you control from your computer. Students respond to your built-in questions using a wide range of tools.\

Every day on Pobble365, you’ll find an interesting picture, writing prompts and philosophical questions to spark a lesson. Use on your smartboard screen or print them out with our easy-to-use PDFs.

ReadWorks is an online resource of reading passages and lesson plans for students of all levels K-12. The company was founded with the goal of improving reading comprehension by bringing the latest in literacy teaching research into the classroom.

Rewordify is a free website that makes English easier to read. In some ways it is similar to a thesaurus, but allows users to enter not just single words, but entire sentences, pages, and even websites, for clarification. Passages are preferred, as difficult words are 'rewordified' using the context of the sentence. For example, paste in "The tempest raged outside while the throng huddled inside.", and it is 'rewordified' into, "the storm raged outside while the crowd huddled inside." Students can use this tool to make passages more understandable. Simplified words are highlighted for quick comparison with the original word(s). Teachers can use this as a thesaurus-like tool and vocabulary lists are generated from every use of Rewordify. Electronic flashcards and quizzes can be generated from difficult wordlists as well as printed versions for extra practice. Rewordify has tutorials and demos to clearly explain the power of this tool. This website can also be made into an app (instructions for this are available on the website). This can be an excellent resource for students of all ability levels.

Snap&Read is the Next-Generation reading tool for Google Chrome, iPad and more, that can cover the most diverse reading needs. It reads both accessible and inaccessible text aloud, it levels vocabulary, and it translates, delivering usage data to teachers who then can more easily assess students’ reading needs individually.

Socrative is a cloud-based student response system developed in 2010 by Boston-based graduate school students. It allows teachers to create simple quizzes that students can take quickly on laptops – or, more often, via classroom tablet computers or their own smartphones.

Sutori is a story sharing web app that LOOKS like a vertically aligned timeline… but really isn’t. Each point on the ‘line’ can be a variety of object types, including audio, video, images or text. They can also be interactive, with options including multiple choice, discussions, or ‘matching’ (align items in column A with those in column B). The net result is an open-ended platform that can be used for all sorts of student publishing, from portfolios to biographies to lab reports to timelines.

TEDEd is ideal for a flipped classroom model. TEDEd contains original lessons, created by instructors and animated by professionals. Lessons can be viewed conceptually (by subject) or thematically (by series). Each lesson employs the following scaffolding: Watch, Think, and Dig Deeper. “Watch” contains a quick multiple-choice quiz students can use for assessment. “Think” is a short answer question students can use for deeper comprehension. “Dig Deeper” provides additional resources for exploration.

Each lesson can be modified by clicking on the “Flip this Lesson” button. The teacher can edit the information, add questions, and add resources. When a lesson is flipped, a unique URL is created for that lesson. If students are signed into their YouTube account, they can track their progress through the lesson. As the teacher, you can view student progress through the lesson. In addition, you can use any video from YouTube and create your own flipped lesson.

TinyTap is home to more than 100,000 learning activities for students and teachers to use. You can search for games for your kids to play to better help them understand concepts, or ask them to create games of their own. TinyTap Market encourages students to learn by teaching, and provides the tools to help people develop their own games. Creators can even sell their games to gain recognition for their work.

The VideoScribe tool lets you create whiteboard-style animations—no design or technical experience needed. You can add images, text, music and voiceover to your animations.

Wabisabi is an online community for lesson planning, real-time reporting against standards, media-rich student portfolios, and sharing a vibrant collaborative learning experience with students and parents.

A Web Whiteboard he perfect tool for class brainstorming sessions. This is an online whiteboard app for computer, tablet, or smartphone.