New Tools to Reinforce Students Mathematical Skills

March, 2015
Looking for additional engaging ways to help your students understand mathematical concepts and reinforce their skills? Here are some teacher-tested tools that can help, from calculators to study groups to fun games.

Mathtopia 

Addictive like Candy Crush, but nutritious Math Facts and assessments for the brain.

Base Ten BINGO 

Play a bingo game using base ten blocks as virtual manipulatives.

Scalar 

A calculator that saves all of your past calculations on a virtual piece of paper.

Jasymchat 

Chat with classmates and share mathematical equations represented accurately.

NumberShire 

 A series of math games set in an animated whimsical Renaissance-style kingdom.


Want more? Check out these collections of tools.

Math Manipulatives/Games 

This one is curated by associate professor Brandi Leming.

Free Math Apps - All Grades 

This one is curated by media paraprofessional Natalie Thomas.

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Some Very Good Teacher-recommended Tools for Teaching and Learning English

March 10, 2015
Looking for some online tools to augment your English language lessons? Here are a few teacher-recommended resources to consider. One even comes from a high school student who built something he needed, showing what motivated students can do if they have the right skills.

Vocabulist

Created by a high school student, this free site finds correct spellings and definitions for any word in a document.

LyricsGaps 

 Learn a language by watching a music video. Includes karaoke mode, quizzes, and fill-in-the-blanks.

Read&Write 

A universal toolbar for any website or document (even Google Docs) that provides reading, writing, studying, and research support tools.

Six Word Stories 

 Read six word stories from other people for inspiration. Then have your students write their own on a blog or shared Google Doc.

Want more? Check out these collections of tools.

High School English Apps 

This one is curated by high school English teacher Kelly Slattery.

Literature, Writing, and Grammar 

This one is curated by instructional design administrator Kimberly Turley.

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4 of The Best Podcasts Creating Apps for Teachers

March 10, 2015
Podcasts are audio shows created with the intent to communicate an idea, tell a story, or to simply share audio recordings of whatever sort. In everyday sense of the term, podcasts are also used to refer to video recordings though many prefer to use the technical terminology: vidcasts or videocasts to refer to them. The educational potential of podcasts is huge and students can use them for a variety of purposes some of which include: delivering research content, creating and sharing audio (video) stories, recording and sharing learning experiences with others and many more.

To create a podcast you will need access to an audio recording app. Below are some of the best iPad apps you can use  to create podcasts. Check them out and share with us what you think of them.

1- VoiceThread

"Create and share dynamic conversations around documents, snapshots, diagrams and videos -- basically anything there is to talk about. You can talk, type, and draw right on the screen. VoiceThread takes your conversations to the next level, capturing your presence, not just your comments."
2- iPadio

"The iPadio app lets you record up to 60 minutes of high quality audio and then add titles, descriptions, images, and geo-locate your recording before it is instantly uploaded to your ipadio.com account or cross-posted to your Twitter, Facebook, Wordpress, Posterous, Blogger, Live Spaces, or LiveJournal accounts. Each audio clip also comes with its own selection of embed codes, which you can grab off your online ipadio account, meaning you can also put your recording on your website."
3- Mobile Podcaster

"Mobile Podcaster is an iPhone & iPad podcast publishing application that lets you record and publish audio recordings and podcast episodes (up to 15 minutes long) directly to your WordPress website (both Wordpress.org and Wordpress.com)."
4- Cinchcast

"With the Cinchcast app, users can quickly capture and publish a high quality recording of any length and attach an image and text information to the recording. The recording is automatically saved to the users account on the Cinchcast platform, where it can easily be published to any website or blog and can be syndicated to iTunes. Users can also share content directly on Facebook, Twitter, or with an email to any of their contacts directly from the app."

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A Good Tool for Reading and Summarizing Long Articles

March 9, 2015
Not having enough time to read a long article? Too LongDidn�t Read (TLDR) does the job for you and provides you with a condensed summary of the main ideas of the article. We have installed the app and tried it on few articles and it appears to work perfectly.

TLDR analyzes the content of the article and creates a synopsis of it. You can also highlight text to be TLDR�ed for use with comments or on social media. We have checked user reviews in the Chrome web store and noticed several people gave it good ratings. We thought you may want to give it a try and see if it works for you. Watch the video below to learn more about Too Long Didn�t Read app.

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6 Good Note Taking Chrome Apps That Run Offline

March 9, 2015
Today we spent sometime browsing Chrome web store looking for note taking apps that run offline. We came across several titles but most of them did not make the cut either because of technical glitches involved in their installation or bad performance behaviour when installed. We ended up with these four apps.

These extensions can be used to capture and jot down quick notes offline, record to-do lists, scribble notes, attach reminders, and many more.

1- Quick Note

This is a great app for lightweight note taking. You can use it to quickly add and edit notes. It also provides an integrated search functionality that allows you to do instant search for all your notes.

2- Memo Notepad

�Memo Notepad is a very easy and simple way to write your notes in Chrome. Your notes are saved as you type to your local computer, and you can also sync and backup your notes via the cloud service.�

3- Scribble

Scribble allows you to capture quick notes and thoughts in text format. You can add reminders, colours and to-do lists to your notes and store them in your browser to access them when you are offline.

4- Writebox

�Writebox is a off-line text editor for Dropbox and Google Drive. You can write text on your web-browser and sync your text with Dropbox/Google Drive storage. Writebox is very simple and helps you to concentrate your writing.�

5- Journal

Capture life moments, from everyday thoughts to useful travel logs, Journey helps you to rediscover the joy of journal writing through the warmth and humanity of the interface. Journey presents your life beautifully in calendar, photo and atlas view, allowing you to revisit the greatest moments of your journey anytime, anywhere.

6- Sticky Notes

As its name indicate, Sticky Notes lets you create beautiful sticky notes using different colours and customization options. The app is also integrated with Google Drive.

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10 Great TED Talks on How Our Brain Works

March 8, 2015
If you have sometime this weekend, you might want to check this list of TED talks on the human brain. The original list curated by TED contains only 9 talks but we also added our favourite talk which is that of Jill Bolte.   Jill Bolte Taylor, a neuroanatomist and brain scientist,  who one morning woke up to a massive stroke that was gradually paralyzing some of her brain functions including speech, movement, and understanding. In her popular talk "Stroke of Insight", Jill shares her story of what she went through in the process of regaining her brain functions.

These TED talks  will provide you with a window of insight into the secrets of the human brain, how it works, and how it �defines and connects us to the world and to one another.� Thanks to Christopher Busch from whom we learned about this list.

1- Stroke of Insight by Jill Bolte Taylor

2- The real reason for brains by Daniel Wolpert

3- The quest to understand consciousness by: Antonio Damasio

4- The mysterious workings of the adolescent brain by: Sarah-Jayne Blakemore

5- The origins of pleasure: by Paul Bloom

6- How brains learn to see by: Pawan Sinha

7- A map of the brain by: Allan Jones

8- A look inside the brain in real time by: Christopher deCharms

9- Growing evidence of brain plasticity by: Michael Merzenich

20- Could future devices read images from our brains? by: Mary Lou Jepsen


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Excellent Checklist for Online Professional Learning

March 7, 2015
Today we are sharing with you this interesting checklist designed to help educators, teachers and school leaders evaluate online tools for professional learning. This checklist is part of a toolkit developed by a group of educators that include Sheryl Nussbaum from whom we learn about it.

 According to the Office of Educational Technology, this checklist can be used for a wide variety of reasons. For instance, individual educators can draw on it to �select learning experiences in which to participate�, it can also be used by district leaders and administrators to help them �identify effective online learning options to recommend for their educators.

The learning events or categories included in this checklist are : webinars, hashtag Twitter chat, online conference, MOOCs, online courses, and online communities of practice. Based on the criteria provided for each category, you will be able to evaluate each learning event using  the corresponding color code: �red (does not meet the criteria), yellow (meets enough of the criteria), or green
(meets most of the criteria). �. There is also a notes section where you can add comments on your selections.

Professional Learning Checklist is available for free download from this page.

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7 of The Best YouTube Channels for Kids

March 6, 2015
Finding kids appropriate video content online is usually an arduous task especially when it comes to browsing a video library such as YouTube that contains millions of unfiltered videos. The good news is that Google attended to this problem by releasing a new service called YouTube for Kids that is entirely kids focused. In addition to YouTube for Kids, there are also a variety of excellent Youtube channels that provide interesting educational video content specifically tailored to meet kids learning needs. The last time we compiled a list of YouTube channels for kids was in 2012 and since then many new channels have seen the light and some old ones have disappeared.So we went ahead and create this new list that teachers and parents can use with their kids.

1- Youtube for Kids
YouTube Kids  is �a new family-friendly app that makes it easy for kids to explore a vast selection of videos on any topic.� YouTube Kids features popular children�s programming, plus kid-friendly content from filmmakers, teachers, and creators all around the world. YouTube Kids apps are available for both Android and iOS.

2- National Geographic Kids

National Geographic Kids playlists are an exciting way to discover the very best of YouTube. These playlists cover numerous topics including: animals, cool science, funny pets, and more.

3- Busy Beaver Videos

Busy Beaver Videos provides instructional videos to help toddlers, preschoolers, kindergatern kids and elementary school ESL learn English.

4- Simple Kids Crafts

As its name indicate, this YouTube channel offers doll crafts (Monster High, Barbie, Winx, My Little Pony, American Girl , Ever High, Polly Pocket and Lalaloopsy), reviews, general craft tutorials,gifts, cards, toys, games & much more. With over 800 videos that are 5 minutes or less, simplekidscrafts is is one of the most popular YouTube channels for kids crafts. Most of the crafts are easy,fast,simple,inexpensive & totally free.

5- MinutePhysics

MinutePhysics is a very good channel where kids can have access to a number of tutorials and video explanations covering physics and different science phenomena.

6- HooplsKidz

HooplaKidz is one of the most popular YouTube channels for kids featuring the cutest and coolest characters Annie, Ben and Mango singing and dancing to popular nursery rhymes and fun original children's songs!

7-  Sesame Street

Sesame Street has a huge library for best classic Sesame Street video clips featuring, Cookie Monster, Big Bird, Grover, and Oscar the Grouch and many more.

Other interesting lists published elsewhere:
Common Sense Media List
Kids Shows

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Google Announced A Free Online Education Conference

March, 2015
Google has recently announced Education on Air which is a free online conference about leading for the future and shaping today�s classrooms. This event which will take place on May 8-9 is open to anyone with an interest in education: teachers, administrators, students,parents, school leaders�

Education on Air is hosted online so you can join it anywhere you are with Internet connection. The conference schedule and list of speakers will be released next April. Here is what is in plan so far:

Day 1: Leading the future
�On Friday, May 8 from 10am-3pm EST, hear from educators, students and business leaders on the topic of leadership in education. Short keynotes and panels will help answer the question �how do we prepare our students for a future that is ever-changing?� Topics will include creating student ownership, leading change and fostering innovation in schools.

Day 2: Shaping the classroom today
On Saturday, May 9, join any of the 90+ sessions, run by educators for educators and held throughout the day across time zones. These sessions are designed to help you immediately in your school. We�ll have tracks for four groups: teachers, leaders, IT and general interest. Topics will include supporting literacy in early learners, successful device deployment and empowering digital citizens.�

Register here to stay updated about Education on Air proceedings.

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0ver 150 EdTech Tutorials to Help You Integrate iPad in Your Instruction

March 6, 2015
EdTech Teacher Tutorials is an excellent resource of educational video tutorials covering a variety of EdTech tools and apps. This work is created by Paul Hamilton and is available for free download from iTunes store. We have spent some time browsing through the numerous tutorials Paul integrated in this app and we found them really worth your attention.

If you are a teacher using iPad in your instruction, EdTech Teacher Tutorials is definitely a must have. It has �over 150 videos available for teachers teaching elementary and primary aged children. Covering lessons ranging from Literacy to Mathematics this is the best companion for teachers using iPads in their classroom.�As Paul stated, this app is developed to to encourage teachers to use iPads in ways for creation and that develop higher level thinking skills.

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A Beautiful Visual Explanation of Hashtags

March 6, 2015
Hashtags are social networking phenomena par excellence. They originated in Twitter a around 2008 and since then they adopted and integrated into many other popular social platforms such as Facebook, Google Plus, and Instagram. We have already shared several posts covering the educational potential of hashtags, most popular among them all is teachers� simple guide on the use of hashtags.

Today we are sharing with you this beautiful visual  we discovered through a tweet from Tom D�Amico. This visual, which is created by Quick Sprout and initially shared on The Seen, provides a very good explanation of what the concept of hashtaging is all about and how it works in different social media websites such as Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Google Plus. We invite you to have a look and as always share with us what you think of this work.

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Two Good Google Drive Templates to Create Fake Facebook Pages

March 5, 2015
Today we are sharing with you two interesting Google Docs templates that students can use to create fake Facebook pages for a famous literary character or historical figure. This is a good and fun way to engage students in research practice. These templates, created by Derrick Waddell, are available in the template gallery of Google Docs where you can download and use them on your own Drive.

The Fake Facebook templates provided here are created using Google Drawing meaning that when you click on �use this template� button associated with each of them, a copy of the document will be opened in your Drawing. From there you can customize them the way you want. There are instructions and suggested ideas to help students use each of these templates.

1- Literary Facebook
Students can use this template to create Facebook-like pages on famous literary characters.

2- Historical Facebook lesson
This one can be used to design a Facebook page for a popular historical figure.

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5 Great iPad Apps for Running Surveys and Polls in Class

March 5, 2015
Surveys and polls can serve a wide variety of educational purposes. As a teacher, you can use them to initiate quick formative assessments, gather informal feedback on your students learning, run mock exams, learn about students interests and learning pace to mention a few. You can also use them to evaluate your own teaching strategies and gain an insider look into your instruction. Upon your request, we have compiled some of the best iPad apps you can use to create  surveys and polls. Check out the list below and as always, share with us what you think of it.

1- AnswerGarden

This audience participation tool allows you to pose a question or a topic for your crowd to answer or comment on. The unique twist of AnswerGarden is that it cleverly combines the expression of the respondents� own answers with a Twitter-like confinement of 20 characters and a representation in the form of a word cloud. The end result provides a quick overview of all answers, ranked in popularity, which can then be used for further analysis or group discussion.

2- PollDaddy

Load your survey, rotate the iPad or iPhone�s screen and present Polldaddy to people you�d like to hear from in your town or city. The generous screen size and easy to use interface make it a cinch for everyone to take part and share their perspectives with you.

3- Poll Everywhere

The free Poll Everywhere mobile app is perfect for responding to polls, presenting polls, and clicking through PowerPoint presentations. Use it to respond to polls, poll an audience and Powerpoint clicker.

4- Survey Maker

Get feedback in the moment. Create your own simple surveys in seconds. Collect responses in person right on your iPad and iPhone, or poll via email, text, link, Twitter, or Facebook.

5- SurveyPocket

SurveyPocket provides the ability to administer user-created surveys offline. Once the iPhone or iPad has an internet network connection, the conducted surveys can then be uploaded to your Survey Analytics account. With this capability, surveys can be given without the concern of losing the survey data that is collected while offline. With each survey taken, while connected to the internet, the GPS location is also recorded to show where the survey was given.

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Excellent Random Name Selector Apps for Teachers

February 5, 2015
Below is a list of some very good name selector apps for teachers. The idea of such a list was born out of an email we received from a teacher asking about some recommended apps in this regard. We did some online research (we started with AppCrawlr)  and came up with the titles below. Some of the things you can do with apps below include: randomly pick student names and teams, divide students into different groups, create random teams in class and many more:

1- Kidpick

A fun and easy way to randomly pick kids and groups from a class. When kids are picked, teachers have the option to choose Correct or Incorrect to keep track of kid statistics and grades. Fun sound effects, easy to use, and the perfect way to check for comprehension!

2- Randpm Name Selector Pro

A Fun classroom management tool for Teachers, that will engage and entertain students. The Random Name Selector is a Fun (and fair) way to select students for that special task or to answer that question.

3- Random Student Selector

Randomly is an app made specifically for teachers and professors. It allows educators to enter their students into individual classes. They can then use the Random Name Selector feature to randomly call on a student to answer a question by one of two ways: Truly random, where repeated names are allowed, or a one pass � where all students are called once before they are called again.

4- Team Shake

Team Shake provides a technological and environmentally friendly way to choose teams for board games, sporting events, tournaments, school projects or anytime groups are required. The newest release brings many new features including full iPad support, balancing teams based on skill or gender, importing users from a file, enabling video output, and sharing teams via facebook or email.

5- StickPick

Pick a student at random with just a tap, swipe, or a shake -- but that�s just the beginning. Stick Pick suggests question starters for learners at different levels and also records how well students respond during classroom discussions. If a student is consistently scoring near the top or bottom, simply change the level so students aren't bored or frustrated. Depending on students' levels of English proficiency, they might be asked simple yes-or-no questions or to elaborate in longer sentences.

6- iLEAP Pick

Pick A Student is a simple app designed to help teachers pick students to help or participate in class. It supports multiple different classes and various options to choose students. Choosing a student randomly will pick any student from the class, and using turn based selection every student will be picked before any student is picked again.

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5 Good iPad Apps to Gather Students Feedback

February 4, 2015
A few weeks ago we published a list of  8 web tools teachers can use to formatively assess students. As you know, formative assessment consists of mini-quizzes and short tests geared towards gathering feedback about students learning. Teachers usually draw on insights gleaned from these assessments to inform their teaching and identify  opportunities for  further instruction.

For those of you who have already integrated iPad in their instruction, the apps below are worth considering. You can use them in class to gather feedback, run quick formative assessments, initiate instant question polls and many more. Most of these apps are also available for Android users.

1- Socrative for iPad/ Android

Engage, assess and personalize your class with Socrative. Educators can initiate formative assessments through quizzes, quick question polls, exit tickets and space races all with their Socrative app. Socrative will instantly grade, aggregate and provide graphs of results to help you identify opportunities for further instruction. Save time and visualize student understanding when it matters, now!

2- Nearpod for iPad/ Android

The Nearpod platform enables teachers to use their iPads to manage content on students' iPads, iPhones, iPods or Macs. It combines presentation, collaboration, and real-time assessment tools into one integrated solution.

3- Plickers for iPad/ Android

Plickers lets you poll your class for free, without the need for student devices. Just give each student a card (a "paper clicker"), and use your iPhone to scan them to do instant checks-for-understanding, exit tickets, and impromptu polls. Best of all, your data is automatically saved, student-by-student, at plickers.com.

4- BubbleSheet for iPad/ Android

BubbleSheet allows students to take assignments, tests, quizzes, and common formative assessments. Teachers can easily create and upload an assessment/assignment in any format (Word, PDF, etc) and deliver them automatically to the device.

5- iClicker for iPad/ Android

iClicker is a powerful formative assessment tool and intuitive student response system that allows for dynamic student-teacher interaction. Here is how it works: Instructors ask questions through any presentation application; students answer questions with a remote or smart device; instructors display results in real-time and
record responses.

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Two Powerful Google Drive Tools for Signing Your Docs and PDFs

March 4, 2015

There are several tools out there that claim to help users add electronic signature to their documents and PDFs but only a select few are really worth the try. We have been testing some of these tools and we have also checked different user reviews and came up with the titles below. We believe these are among the best Chrome tools teachers can use to electronically sign their documents. Both of these apps are integrated with Google Drive so you can work seamlessly on the files hosted there.

1- HelloSign

HelloSign allows you to easily sign your Drive documents online.�Choose any file in Google Drive and add your signature (or text, date, checkmark, etc.)  It�s that simple. You can sign and send any type of document (PDF, Word, Excel, etc.).� You can also use it to request signatures from others. You simply upload the document you want others to sign then assign the signature field and send off your request. When you integrate HelloSign with your Drive, you will get a special folder in your Drive for your signed documents and signature requests.

2- DocuSign

Similar to HelloSign, DocuSign also enables you to easily sign your documents and PDFs online. You can also use it to fill out forms and collect signature from others. �With just a few clicks, you can sign or send any document for signature right from Google Drive or Gmail. No printing, faxing, scanning, or overnighting required.�
Watch the video below to learn more about DocuSign

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Some Very Good Chrome Tools to Annotate and Edit PDFs

March 4, 2015
PDFs (portable document formats) are probably the most popular document format we use in our daily work as teachers and educators. As such, we deemed it important that we share with you this list of  some interesting tools to help you  do more with your PDF files.  These Chrome apps will allow you to edit, annotate, convert, view, fill forms and share PDFs. Some of these add-ons (such as the first two in this list) are also integrated with Google Drive.

1- DocHub

DocHub is a tool that you can use to perform a variety of tasks on your PDFs and documents. It lets you sign, edit and share your PDFs and docs. You can also use it to fill forms, merge documents and create templates.

2- Notable PDF

This is another popular app that allows you to both view and annotate your PDFs. Annotating features offered by this add-on include:  highlighting, underlining, strikethrough, posting comments and notes, add text and many more.It can also help you collaborate, gather feedback, and work with other people in real-time.

3- PDF Compressor

PDF Compressor is a very handy tool when it comes to reducing the size of your large PDF files.�The files you upload and generate on the site are deleted permanently from the server within one hour after the upload. �

4- Merge PDF

This is a very good app to use for combining multiple PDFs. The process is pretty simple, you either upload or drag and drop your files to the app�s interface and the upload will start right away. Once uploaded you then preview your pages, change their order or even delete whole pages. When done click generate and the app will automatically download the merged files to your Drive.

5- Image to PDF Converter

As its name indicate, this add-on lets you easily convert your images into PDFs. It works with different image formats and you can upload either a single image or multiple images.

6- Word to PDF

Word to PDF is another app by the same developer as the previous one. This add-on enables you to easily convert your document files into PDFs.

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