TeachersFirst - Featured Sites: Week of Jul 30, 2017
Here are this week's features. Clicking the tags in the description area of each listing will present a list of other resources with this topic. | Click here to return to the Featured Sites Archive
StoryTimed - storytimed.com
Grades
9 to 12
1 Favorites
0 Comments
StoryTimed is a shared story writing site. Contribute to two different types of stories or start your own. Contribute to a Closed Book story by adding to the last posting ...more
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StoryTimed is a shared story writing site. Contribute to two different types of stories or start your own. Contribute to a Closed Book story by adding to the last posting without knowing how the story evolved from the beginning allowing for stories to take twists and turns based on author's knowledge of one piece of content. Open Stories allow authors to view stories from the beginning as they create a cohesive tale from start to finish.
tag(s): creative writing (121)
In the Classroom
Create your own story on StoryTimed for your class or classes to write. Make both closed and open stories for student contributions with the same opening. Have students compare and contrast the finished stories and discuss how knowing the full story makes a difference vs just having a piece of information. Use an online tool such a Canva, reviewed here, to create a Venn Diagram to compare and contrast your finished products. Use examples of writing from the site for students to edit and view different styles of writing.Edge Features:
Parent permission advised before posting student work created using this tool
Includes Interaction w general public/ public galleries with unmoderated content
Includes social features, such as "friends," comments, ratings by others
Requires registration/log-in (WITH email)
Products can be shared by URL
Multiple users can collaborate on the same project
You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
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DesignBold - Hung Dinh
Grades
K to 12
2 Favorites
0 Comments
Design almost any photo project with drag and drop features and DesignBold's pre-made templates. Pick from template options including newsletters, posters, and much more. After choosing...more
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Design almost any photo project with drag and drop features and DesignBold's pre-made templates. Pick from template options including newsletters, posters, and much more. After choosing a template, personalize features including text, images, and backgrounds. When finished, download to your computer or create an account using your email to save on DesignBold's site.
This site includes advertising.
This site includes advertising.
tag(s): graphic design (50), images (262), posters (45), slides (45)
In the Classroom
Create a slideshow, invitations, or photo collages for any classroom presentation. In the younger grades, teachers would be the ones creating the project. However, older students could easily create one themselves! Enhance classroom technology by having students create their own DesignBold presentations. Have students use this online tool as they would any presentation tool or image enhancing site. Use this site for research projects about famous people from the past and present. Have cooperative learning groups create presentations about science or math topics. Have students create presentations to "introduce" themselves to the class during the first week of school. Link or embed the introduction presentations on your class wiki and have others guess who they are about. Use this tool with your 1:1 art class for students to practice design principles and techniques. Share student projects with parents and others via URL. Be sure to demonstrate HOW to use this tool on your interactive whiteboard or projector.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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ToonyTool - ToonyTool
Grades
2 to 12
5 Favorites
0 Comments
ToonyTool has a simple canvas to quickly create a single-frame comic, a cartoon strip, or an animation. With ToonyTool, you can add a dash of humor to get the message ...more
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ToonyTool has a simple canvas to quickly create a single-frame comic, a cartoon strip, or an animation. With ToonyTool, you can add a dash of humor to get the message across. Start your canvas and choose a single comic, a comic strip, or a video from the tab in the upper left corner. Choose one of their background pictures, or upload one of your own. Create a title or type part of your message in the Meme text bar. Choose a character or two, add a prop, and select speech bubbles to type a message. Everything is easy to move around by just dragging and dropping. At the bottom of the page, find tools to share and edit your comic. Share via print, download, email, or online. There is no registration required.
tag(s): comics and cartoons (53), communication (136), creative writing (121), digital storytelling (141), summarizing (22)
In the Classroom
There is a multitude of ways to use comics/cartoons in the classroom. For instance, create one-page discussion starters to help students keep up with current political issues. Use comics to show sequencing of events, for example, explain the sequence of a story, a science concept, or current event! When studying about characterization, create a dialog to show (not tell) about a character. Use comic strips for literature responses. Another idea - why not use the comics for conflict resolution or other guidance issues (such as bullying). Sometimes it is easier for students to write it down (or draw the pictures) than use the actual words. Emotional support and autistic support teachers can work with students to create strips about appropriate interpersonal responses and feelings. World language and ENL/ESL teachers can assign students to create dialogue strips as an alternative to traditional written assessments; summarize through a comic. Challenge students who move through other assignments more quickly to create a cartoon for review of a topic studied in class. Make a class book of the comics created throughout the year using Book Creator, reviewed here. Book Creator includes features for students to easily create digital books using their own text, videos, and images.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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JoeZoo - Carl Mascarenhas and Rakesh Kamath
Grades
K to 12
1 Favorites
0 Comments
JoeZoo is an assessment tool for creating rubrics, providing feedback, and guiding students to use 21st Century Skills. JoeZoo works with many LMS platforms (G Suite, among others)....more
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JoeZoo is an assessment tool for creating rubrics, providing feedback, and guiding students to use 21st Century Skills. JoeZoo works with many LMS platforms (G Suite, among others). The feedback tool provides many resources including highlighting text, pre-loaded feedback, and pie charts demonstrating feedback from different categories. Create and edit customized rubrics using the rubric creator. Be sure to watch the tutorial videos for full information on using JoeZoo in your classroom.
In the Classroom
Give your students timely feedback and save valuable time grading by adding JoeZoo to your toolbox. Click to input grades without leaving the document, students receive instant feedback through their JoeZoo add-on. Import your Google Classroom information into JoeZoo to further simplify and enhance your grading process.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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bulb - Bulb, Inc.
Grades
2 to 12
0 Favorites
0 Comments
Use bulb as a portfolio tool to showcase your work, share ideas, and ask for feedback. Sign up with your Google, Microsoft, or Clever account or enter your email. With ...more
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Use bulb as a portfolio tool to showcase your work, share ideas, and ask for feedback. Sign up with your Google, Microsoft, or Clever account or enter your email. With a free account you get all of the standard features, and can choose to publish ten portfolio pages and upload up to 2GB of content. After creating your account, click to take a tour, then in 140 characters tell members who you are, create a cover image (optional), and then choose to create a page or a collection (multiple pages). You can also create groups (with or without Google), and lots more. Click symbols at the top right of your name to get help, search, create pages or collections, and more. On the home page in the top menu bar, look at projects students and teachers have created. bulb is easy to use due to its drag and drop interface. Besides creating text, you can embed images and videos, and integrate with your Google Drive. bulb offers educators a special account that integrates your LMS, has a teacher dashboard, and dedicated manager and tech support for a very minimal fee per year.
This site includes advertising.
This site includes advertising.
tag(s): multimedia (43), portfolios (22), writing (315)
In the Classroom
Use bulb for student portfolios in any subject. Set up an account with your teacher name, email, password, and some basic information. Once you and your students' accounts are set up, share how to get around bulb on an interactive whiteboard or with a projector to get students started. When you (or your students) create group pages, anyone you invite can publish to the group. However, students will also have their own account and can keep pages private. Science teachers could have students write up their lab reports in a portfolio, and history teachers could set up portfolios for student report writing. Have teens and older students upload work throughout the year to create their own "me-portfolios." Create portfolios (with permission) to share younger students' work with parents and students during conferences. Use this tool to show finished projects or to show changes in a project from start to finish. Make a work prototype site and upload examples of exemplary work to share with students to set expectations for completed products before beginning a project. Create a link to this tool on your class website for students to share projects and information. (Get parent permission before posting students' work!) Have students take ownership of their own portfolios to show progress and products across several years. Have older students build portfolios to share as part of career and college preparation. Art teachers will want to share this as a portfolio option for their students.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Awesome ScreenShot - Awesome ScreenShot
Grades
2 to 12
1 Favorites
0 Comments
Awesome ScreenShot makes screen capture and annotation effortless! Click the camera icon, and Awesome Screenshot takes a snap of the whole page on your screen or any portion. You can...more
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Awesome ScreenShot makes screen capture and annotation effortless! Click the camera icon, and Awesome Screenshot takes a snap of the whole page on your screen or any portion. You can also upload an image from your computer, drag and drop, or paste from your clipboard to your account. Annotate the picture with lines, text, and shapes. Crop or blur out sensitive information before saving or uploading the image. Save to your account or get the URL to share via email, on your web page, etc. You can download video as WebM files and upload videos to your YouTube or Google Drive account. This tool supports images in PNG or JPG format. Awesome ScreenShot is available on the web. It works with Windows, Linux, and iOS 10.9 or later. It is also available as an extension for Mozilla FireFox and Chrome. The free account includes 20 recordings, unlimited recording length, 100 screenshots, and unlimited basic annotations.
This site includes advertising.
This site includes advertising.
tag(s): drawing (59), editing (89), images (262), tutorials (51), video (258)
In the Classroom
Use this tool anytime you need to edit photos for use on class blogs, wikis, or in presentation tools. In primary grades, this tool can be useful for teachers to use to edit pictures from a field trip, science experiments, and more. Share the editing process with younger students using an interactive whiteboard or projector. Edit together! Encourage older students to use this site themselves on images for projects or presentations. Use this tool in photography or art classes. Use the editor to edit pictures to fit styles of pictures when doing historical reports or to set a mood. Use text options for the photos themselves to tell the stories. Have students annotate or label Creative Commons online images of cells, structures of an animal, and much more. Beef up your blended learning arsenal by creating screenshots showing how to do various computer tasks or navigate websites, and posting them on your website so students can also watch them at home. Demonstrate how to use a website or software for specific tasks within the classroom. Make how-to demos for instructions on using and navigating your class home page, class wiki or blog, or other applications you wish the students to use in creating their own projects. By labeling how students should navigate through a certain site or section, you can eliminate confusion, provide an opportunity for students to review the information as a refresher for the future, and maintain a record for absent students thus extending your blended learning class. Social studies teachers could assign students to critique a political candidate's web page using a screenshot. Reading/language arts teachers could have student teams analyze a website to show biased language, etc. Math teachers using software such as Geometer's Sketchpad could have students create their own demonstrations of geometry concepts as a review (and to save as future learning aids). As a service project, have students create "how to screenshots" to help elderly or less tech savvy computer users navigate the web, register to vote, or find important health information.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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LanguageTool - LanguageTool.org
Grades
K to 12
2 Favorites
1 Comments
LanguageTool is a spelling and language checker for English, French, and more than 20 other languages. Copy and paste your text to check for spelling and grammatical errors. Use the...more
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LanguageTool is a spelling and language checker for English, French, and more than 20 other languages. Copy and paste your text to check for spelling and grammatical errors. Use the drop-down boxes to change language preferences. LanguageTool also offers browser add-ons for downloading on Chrome and Firefox, and add-ons for Google Docs, LibreOffice, and OpenOffice.
tag(s): editing (89), french (74), german (48), grammar (133), portuguese (22), spanish (105), spelling (95), writing (315)
In the Classroom
Use this visual revision program with students who are ready to refine and improve their writing. Have students copy and paste writing projects into the text editor for a final check for spelling and grammar mistakes after making their last revisions. Continued use of a language checking tool helps students correct writing on their own after seeing common errors in their writing. Never send out a newsletter or post to your web page with spelling or grammar errors again! Use LanguageTool to spell check and suggest corrections for any published writing projects.Comments
Good contentSajit, ZAC, Grades: 8 - 12
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Open Learning Initiative - Carnegie Mellon University
Grades
6 to 12
0 Favorites
0 Comments
Teach or learn through high-quality online courses offered by the Open Learning Initiative. Choose from available courses in a variety of subjects with full course information including...more
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Teach or learn through high-quality online courses offered by the Open Learning Initiative. Choose from available courses in a variety of subjects with full course information including topics covered, estimated completion time, and software required. Classes are free for independent learning; Set up and teach your own course by registering for an instructor account. Instructor accounts allow members to access tools to assess student learning and provide credit for course completion.
tag(s): chinese (44), classroom management (128), design (82), engineering (119), french (74), logic (164), OER (43), Online Learning (40), probability (96), psychology (67), statistics (114), STEM (263)
In the Classroom
Take advantage of content in courses to supplement your current lessons. No registration is required to access and view course information. Share this site with gifted students or students with interests in specific academic areas not covered in your current curriculum. Create a course and offer it to your students for greater interaction and learning through community building. Find great ideas from other existing courses. Teachers of gifted can use courses to challenge students in their areas of interest. You can also have gifted students create or collaborate on a student-made "course." Explore the topics for some new, engaging topics to round out your own expertise. Allow students to enroll in a course that would fit into their career goals as an exploratory opportunity in that field. The Open Learning Initiative would also be perfect for setting up directions and steps for any projects you require students to do for your class. The program will integrate with some learning management systems.Edge Features:
Includes an education-only area for teachers and students
Parent permission advised before posting student work created using this tool
Premium version (not free) includes additional features or storage
Products can be shared by URL
Multiple users can collaborate on the same project
Includes teacher tools for registering and/or monitoring students
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Credo Reference - Credo Reference
Grades
6 to 12
0 Favorites
0 Comments
Credo Reference is an extensive online research collection containing almost 900 online dictionaries, reference tools, and encyclopedias. Begin with a keyword search or by subject....more
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Credo Reference is an extensive online research collection containing almost 900 online dictionaries, reference tools, and encyclopedias. Begin with a keyword search or by subject. Use the drop-down box to narrow search terms to include images, topic, books, or mind maps. Choose the advanced search option to limit searches to meet your defined inclusions. Although login isn't required; creating an account allows you to save, print, and share search results.
tag(s): bookmarks (47), search engines (50)
In the Classroom
Bookmark Credo Reference to use on all classroom computers as a reliable and hearty search engine. Be sure to include a link on your class webpage for student use at home. Demonstrate on your interactive whiteboard different methods of searching and appropriate use of each method. Have cooperative learning groups research a certain topic and share their resources using this tool. Remind students that they will need to give proper credit for any resource they use in their research! To either teach about or give students a review of plagiarism and citing sources, use a tool like Plagiarism.org, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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