October 25

Websites Worth Sharing: MyOn Alternatives

I know many of you no longer have access to MyON this year. If your students are missing reading online books, here are a few options for them.

Unite for Literacy: https://www.uniteforliteracy.com/

This one has the option of having the story read aloud or not and many books have Spanish and Ukrainian print options. Click on the “English” pencil icon on the top left to change to Spanish or Ukrainian and see which books are available in those languages. There is also narration available in MANY languages. Click on the Globe icon at the top to see all of the options.

Loving to Read: Has over 1000 free books for a variety of levels Preschool-Third grade and up. This one does NOT have audio options which is good if you want to transition your students to reading on their own without the audio support. https://loving2read.com/

Epic Books: Epic has over 40,000 books, audiobooks, and learning videos, but it requires that teachers set up an account and can be a bit more complicated to navigate. https://www.getepic.com/educators

Vooks: Animated books in a video format https://www.vooks.com/pages/educators/ . Free for teachers, but you have to create an account and it appears to only work for teachers- so would be a whole class activity. Don’t want to hassle with an account? Check out their Youtube channel which has many of their book videos available. https://www.youtube.com/@VooksStorybooks/featured

Wilbooks: Mostly non-fiction books for Pre-K through 3rd. The interface is a bit clunky (but sure to expand the reader to full screen), and there isn’t an audio option, but this is a good way for students to conduct research like animal reports. Not all resources on this site are free, so stay away from the menu on the side and stick to the one in the middle.  https://www.wilbooks.com/free-resources-free-online-books

Project Gutenberg: These are books in the public domain, so they are older, and the interface is very basic- but there are some wonderful classic stories for more advanced readers like Secret Garden, Treasure Island, and Black Beauty. The free Read and Write toolbar can be used to have these stories read aloud. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/bookshelf/20?sort_order=downloads

October 25

Websites Worth Sharing: Phonics Resources

I had a teacher request online phonics resources. This is what I shared with her:

Phonics Hero– Their core curriculum is free for teachers, but you have to create a Teacher account to access this. There is an add-on phonics curriculum

Weblink: https://phonicshero.com/free-for-teachers-new/

Phonics games: https://phonicshero.com/phonics-games/

The paid curriculum- you can get a trial

https://phonicshero.com/no-prep-phonics-lessons/

Teach Your Monster to Read:  https://www.teachyourmonster.org/

PBS Media– search results for ELA/K-2/Reading Foundations

https://kcts9.pbslearningmedia.org/search/?rank_by=recency&selected_facet=subject:1880,2104&selected_facet=media_type:Interactive&selected_facet=grades:K-2

Some samples:

Word Walls- https://kcts9.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/124f0c1d-e1c9-4476-8fec-8403c1fa640d/word-walls/ (on the side you’ll see word walls 2- these are sight words)

Zach and Friends: https://kcts9.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/d83ce154-e598-43d0-bf7a-ee96d200a3fb/zach-and-friends/

Read Write Think– Here are some of their primary interactive activities for phonological awareness: https://www.readwritethink.org/search/grades/796/grades/796/learning_objectives/788/grades/796/grades/796/learning_objectives/788/type/643/grades/796/grades/796/grades/796/grades/796/learning_objectives/788/learning_objectives/788/type/651

Starfall– Most teachers are familiar with this, but I’ll add it as a reminder. https://www.starfall.com/h/ltr-classic/

I know some teachers who use the free version of SplashLearn: https://www.splashlearn.com/features/teachers

Have a favorite of your own to share? Paste a link in the comments below.

September 27

Apps Worth Investigating: Google Screencast

Because our Chromebooks have been upgraded to a newer operating system, we now have access to the Screencast App that Google has included with the more recent updates. This software has a lot of features that Screencastify had, and a few more editing options. One promising feature is a build in transcription tool. The wonderful thing is we don’t have to pay for it. This won’t work on your laptop, only a Chromebook, but if you are logged in with your account the videos created will be accessible in your Google Drive.

This brief video shows you how it works: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mp1TcpJfF4&t=3s&ab_channel=GoogleforEducation

If you’re interested in more details, here is a video from Eric Curts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHyPcIHvlxo&t=2s&ab_channel=EricCurts

Or if you prefer a website rather than a video  https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/11972236?hl=en

August 3

Microsoft Translator

Here is a tool that can support translation services at ANY time of year, not just during conference week.

The video showing how it works is less than two minutes.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/translator/education/parent-teacher-conferences/

I created a help sheet with tips and screenshots in case you have someone who wants to try it out.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1s35yf_lg7sLJf42M_tIgXMLHk2J5yg8sjj_bxy8gyvQ/edit?usp=sharing

May 4

Website Worth Sharing: Math Whiteboard

There is a cool site called Math Whiteboard  https://www.mathwhiteboard.com/ that provides an easy way to demonstrate math concepts on a computer. If you have an interactive whiteboard, it’s even better because you can use the pens to draw on the whiteboard. This video will give you a quick idea of how it works: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSCcGRwVmno

In addition to having tools that convert your writing to equations, there is also a built in number line tool/slider and a way to generate graphs and solve problems. Another video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pLpTIxCT78&list=PLWwtTmqjOBP_U9kw4OGWIrDSpCIjqC1uY&index=2

A fun feature is that your students can “join” your whiteboard via a link that you can post in Google Classroom, so you could post a few problems and have small groups generate their answers for all to see. You can also create multiple pages like in Google Slides or PPT so each group could have its own page. If you have worksheets that are in pdf format, you can literally just drag the file onto the page and it will become the background.

To learn more, I recommend this Playlist by “What the Trig” (who has a delightful British accent). They are mostly for secondary level, but the first couple- the overview and number line (also linked above), would be helpful for elementary. These videos are short and to the point, but reveal a lot of tips and tricks that aren’t obvious: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWwtTmqjOBP_U9kw4OGWIrDSpCIjqC1uY

If you want to take a deep dive into this tool, one of my favorite tech integration experts, Eric Curts, has an hour long webinar that was posted to Youtube: https://www.mathwhiteboard.com/whiteboard/?d=SBOKPA

May 3

Extensions with Exploring: Draftback

If you assign essays and suspect that a student is using an AI tool, such as Chat GPT, you might want to look into Draftback, an extension that will show you, keystroke by keystroke, how an essay is written. Google Version history (In a Google Doc got to File>Version History>See Version History) will show you when a block of text comes in all at once, but Draftback will show you in real time whether the essay was typed or whether a block of text was copied/pasted.

I have blocked Chat GPT and other AI tools (you can unblock them in Classwize, if you’d like to have your students learn more about them) but there isn’t anything to stop them from accessing these tools on their home computer and pasting it into a Google doc. By looking at Version History and using Draftback, you can observe their process to confirm your suspicions when a document seems a little too polished and generic for a particular student.

Here is the extension you can install: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/draftback/nnajoiemfpldioamchanognpjmocgkbg

Here is a video on how to use it. It’s short and informative, and I think you’ll find it worth your time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRFmGI3bYWs

April 27

Website worth sharing: Chemix

 

This website came up in a recommended list of sites, and I thought I’d share in case you don’t already know about it. It has all kinds of clipart images of lab equipment that you can drag onto a digital canvas to create diagrams. If you click on the Help menu at the top of the screen it will walk you through a quick tutorial. Once you have created it, you can download the image, paste it into a document for printing or slideshow for a presentation.

https://chemix.org/

 

April 17

Website Worth Sharing: AI Art Generator: Skybox

I’m not sure if you have explored any of the AI Art generation sites, but they are definitely interesting. I spent a little bit of time with the Skybox site developed by Blockade labs. https://skybox.blockadelabs.com/ You can start with a prompt with the Create New tab. I entered “Bee Friendly Flower Garden”. Once it generated that, I clicked on the Remix This tab and added on “cascade mountains in the background”. The result had some funky structures, so I remixed it again and added “no structures” to the request. There is a dropdown menu where you can choose from a variety of options including “Anime Art Style” which is what I chose for my output. I’ve attached the results.

 

It might be interesting to have your students come up with a digital background and find something to put into the foreground to create their own images. I tried this out using Google Slides by inserting my design into the background of the slide, and then searching for free images of bees and a beekeeper, removing the background of those images using the https://www.remove.bg/ website and popping them into the slide. Here is the result (nothing special, just a fun exercise J https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1SQjeSitpgbgiuEBgrOpDjNlCrHmp96HibWnbvVEi9eY/edit?usp=sharing )

 

There is a fair amount of controversy regarding the use of AI to generate content because it is essentially a remix of what the software has found on the Internet, BUT the sweet spot seems to be using it as a starting point and “remixing” and refining the output into something totally new. That might be a nice challenge for your students.

March 2

Netflix Documentaries on Youtube

While Netflix doesn’t allow subscribers to stream videos in public settings, they do make some documentaries available for teachers. I found a Youtube channel that has several of these available. They published this during COVID, but have left it up. Thought I’d share in case you weren’t aware of these. There are videos from the following series, and a few stand alones.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvahqwMqN4M0GRkZY8WkLZMb6Z-W7qbLA

Series:

Abstract: The Art of Design

We The People

Amend: The Fight for America

Our Planet

Explained

Full Features:

13th

Chasing Coral

Knock Down the House

Period. End of Sentence

The White Helmets

Zion