Project Based LearningThis website can be used to learn about project based learning and its benefits. There are also lessons and numerous amounts of resources to help implementation in the classroom.
In my opinion, this website is extremely useful for planning in advanced. If you are one who plans out your year way ahead of time, this site is for you. I tend to make my units one at a time and by the time I am looking for something engaging for my next unit, the projects are too elaborate for a quick plan. However, it has lead to me some good ideas to introduce topics. I just haven't had the time to dig into the more detailed projects. |
The Answer SheetThis blog by Valerie Strauss is a part of the Washington Post. She shares links and articles about relevant education news and ideas. There are articles from what is happening in politics with education to something unique a teacher is doing in his or her classroom.
I have found a lot of the articles really interesting. As an administrator, one needs to stay up to date on what's in the news about education and it can also help find unique ideas for the classroom. The only thing I didn't like was that the search option was only for Washington Post as a whole and I wanted to just search The Answer Sheet instead of getting all related articles ever published by Washington Post. |
Pear DeckPear Deck is an interactive tool that allows for multiple devices to view a presentation. It allows for interaction from individual devices and the ability to also treat it like a normal Powerpoint. It also has vocabulary options where students can partner together to create flashcards.
This has been a really great resource for professional developments in large settings so that all can see what is going on as well as feel engaged. It's really easy to feel unimportant when you can't figure out what is going on and it feels like no one cares that you don't know either. Pear Deck has also been a fun interactive tool in my classroom. |
Teachers Pay Teachers |
Polygraph by Desmos |
BAND |
Every teacher and administrator needs to know about this site. It is a website in which teachers share lessons and curriculum with other teachers. Some are even free! Teachers make lessons and upload them to this site. They then offer it to any teacher for free to a minimal cost. You can find one unique lesson by topic or entire units. You can even find an entire year of curriculum for a subject. It is a life saver for quick lessons and new teachers who are struggling with developing lesson plans.
For me, this site helped me so much during my first year and while teaching a singleton subject, which is a topic in which you are the only one teaching. It really helped for collaboration and to help me know whether or not I am teaching the appropriate depth of knowledge. It was also great for teaching a topic that I wasn't quite sure about the best approach. |
Polygraph by Desmos is a fun interactive game for students to play in a math classroom. It is set up like the game of "Guess Who?" but with math. Students sign in and are partnered up randomly. Then, they select a graph but the other person does not know which one. Then, using what students know about the mathematical graphs, they can narrow it down to a certain graph that another student has selected by typing in questions
I like using this in my classroom as introduction to a new type of graph and seeing how students describe it. (Teachers get to see everything that is typed.) Then, I'll use their own language to define the new math terminology to actually describe the graph. I will also use it again where I give them a word bank and force them to use the real terminology the second time around. From my experience, my students have a lot of fun and are actually engaged in figuring out what the graph is. |
BAND is a great resource for communication. It has a desktop site and an app. It is super easy to use. It allows for files, videos, pictures, to do list, voting, messaging, and just about anything else you could need to communicate. It is a great resource to have all information on a mobile device.
I use it to stay in contact with both my dance team parents and dance team members. It allows messaging without the hassle of exchanging numbers. I share a photo with the dancers and all of their moms get the photo, too, which the moms absolutely love. It really has made communication way easier especially since parents and students are moving away from e-mailing. |