Top 5 Websites for Teachers to Use in Their Classrooms

12 Puzzle and Quiz Creation Tools for Teachers There are many different sites on the internet that allow you to create your own puzzles and games to use either directly in class, or which can be linked to/embedded into your VLE. I’ve been doing some trawling ahead of a training session I am running soon, and here are a few of the best ones that I’ve found. There are others out there, but the focus specifically for my session was KS4 and 5, so these links are aimed at older students. If you have any other favourites, please add them to the comments! 1.

Storify your English classroom Washington Post Storify (Photo credit: cfpereda) This year, I’m teaching Year 10 English. In our team discussions early on, we decided to apply some SAMR thinking to modify a task that was normally completed as a paper folio, with pictures pasted in and students adding their comments as handwritten text or something that was computer generated pasted in. Over the past year, I’ve used Storify to help compile tweets and thoughts from conferences I’ve attended. 4 Ways To Improve School Communication Using Social Media In the past three decades, the presence of technology in the school and classroom has gone from practically nonexistent to being a vital part of the learning experience. As computers and other forms of technology filtered into the classroom, the ability to improve school communication via computer also impacted the way school districts kept parents and staff members informed. The rapid growth of social media offers communication opportunities that are not found so easily by visiting a school district website. Many of these websites, though they’re well-intended, require the visitor to click through several screens to get to the information they desire. As technology progresses, people are less willing to go through this process when more efficient methods of communication exist. The use of social media to communicate with students and parents can help everyone stay up-to-date with what’s going on and what’s coming up.

Effective Digital Learning I was asked yesterday what I considered to be the four components of effective digital learning. (Why four? The person who asked me wanted four, there may be more but this is the parameters I was given.) The question intrigued me. The focus was a little bit to do with tools to use for learning, but also pedagogy was an underlying core. 8 Great Sites for Reluctant Writers 8 Great Sites for Reluctant Writers 1. Storyjumper Storyjumper allows you to create online books using a plethora of characters, scenes, and props. Beyond Facebook: 5 Tips to Using Social Media in the Classroom Guest column by Erik Deutsch It’s not enough for instructors to just talk about social media; they need to make it part of the curriculum. While it didn’t even exist when I was a student, social media is now part of everyday modern life. Its impact is profound. We live in a brave new world with all sorts of new tools to communicate, as well as a new vocabulary. But despite its incredibly widespread adoption, social media has been slow to make its way into the university classroom.

Free Online Tools to Create Infographics Infographics and data visualizations have become incredibly popular ways to impart information while keeping your audience engaged. As a result, a slew of user-friendly, free online applications have been created which enable users to create their own information graphics. Here are five such tools that I think are particularly valuable: Wordle - Create beautiful and fully customizable word clouds with this free tool. Simply paste in your text and click “Go”, or specify your own color scheme, layout, and fonts. Failure 101 Today I heard the story of golf player and how he completely came apart in the final hole of the 1999 British Open. He went from having a 3 stroke lead going into the 18th hole to losing the championship because it took him 7 shots to get the ball in the hole. Since 1999, every time his name is mentioned it’s, “Remember, he’s the guy that choked big time at the British Open.”

In and Out of the Classroom: Using Social Media in Ways that Matter Because so many students use social media tools – and because so many faculty use the same tools in their personal or professional lives – it can be tempting to bring social media into the classroom almost by default, on the assumption either that social media technologies are needed to engage students or that they will boost student engagement simply by their use. But social media technologies aren’t silver bullets – they are tools that can support efforts to address common pedagogical challenges. Here’s an example. Perennial challenges in traditional (non-immersive) foreign language courses include a) how to best encourage student practice outside the classroom, where students have limited access to conversation in the new language, and b) how to aid students in moving beyond language “exercises” toward conversational fluency while within a classroom environment. In her paper on the subject, Antenos-Conforti documented the results of this pedagogical innovation: In This Issue

70 Things Every Computer Geek Should Know. The term ‘geek’, once used to label a circus freak, has morphed in meaning over the years. What was once an unusual profession transferred into a word indicating social awkwardness. As time has gone on, the word has yet again morphed to indicate a new type of individual: someone who is obsessive over one (or more) particular subjects, whether it be science, photography, electronics, computers, media, or any other field. A geek is one who isn’t satisfied knowing only the surface facts, but instead has a visceral desire to learn everything possible about a particular subject. A techie geek is usually one who knows a little about everything, and is thus the person family and friends turn to whenever they have a question.

100 Teaching Tools You Should Know About 5 Ways To Be A Better Public Speaker 7.15K Views 0 Likes If you've been asked to speak at a conference or host a seminar, you may be shaking in your boots. Not only is the thought of speaking in public nerve-wracking, but being in charge of a seminar that no one wants to at... Edudemic Is Giving Away 30 Free Citelighter Pro Accounts! How teachers use social media in the classroom to beef up instruction While plenty of their parents might see using social media sites like Twitter, Facebook and blogs as a leisure time activity, students today know better: These days, those web portals can be some of the best places to find information on the subjects they’re covering in school. In fact, professors have been integrating these tools into their curriculum with positive results. Elizabeth Hilts, an adjunct professor at Fairfield University, is a fan of using a class blog for her freshman and advanced English classes. “I set up class blogs ... these are designed to help students develop their 'writer’s voice' while providing them with an additional outlet for developing their opinions about complex topics in conversation with others,” Hilts says. Dr. Even Pinterest, the photo-sharing creative site, can be a boon for teachers.