Joanna Gerakios
My list of the top websites for educators. To make the list the site must provide some sort of functionality that meets the needs of educators. It must be free or at least have a free version, be broadly applicable regardless of what you teach, and be user-friendly on both the front and back side. This list is not so much about finding content, as it as about adding tools to our toolkits.
Controlled social networking/learning environment for teachers and their students and parents. Pitt County Schools use www.pittcountyschools.edmodo.com. If it is your first use, see your media coordinator for your school code. Edmodo is my first choice because of ease of use and incorporation of badges and apps.
Contenders: OpenClass, Schoology
Socrative is a smart student response system that empowers teachers to engage their classrooms through a series of educational games and exercises via smartphones and tablets. Our apps are super simple and take seconds to load and run. Teachers control the questions and games on their laptop, while students respond and interact through their smartphones/laptops.
Similar programs with a few more features, but higher learning curve:
www.nearpod.com -- Also allows you to push your presentation to your students' devices; also offers a library of lessons
www.infuselearning.com -- More answer type options
More "gamey," no open-ended questions:
http://kahoot.it
Blendspace allows educators to blend their classroom with digital content. Combine websites, documents, videos and more into an interactive lesson.
LiveBinders is your 3-ring binder for the web, create an online binder for content curation. Great for research projects: gathering resources, organizing, making notes, as well as presenting.
Collaborative sticky-note board. Great for brainstorming, sharing ideas, and gathering input. (Formerly Wall Wisher)
Did I mention EASY?
Turn your Padlet into an online graphic organizer, upload a picture of your graphic organizer. Here are some you can try: https://drive.google.com/drive/#folders/0B1dBsIHctLm4aThTNkI0eVIxbDg)](https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/#folders/0B1dBsIHctLm4aThTNkI0eVIxbDg).
Ideas for how to use: http://www.ictatcc.com/linoit--padlet-wallwisher.html
Runners Up:
http://en.linoit.com/ (Linoit - start up a little more involved)
https://titanpad.com/ (Titan Pad - straight note-taking, not sticky notes)
Online screen recorder for one-click recording for free. Then upload to YouTube for sharing.
Runners up:
Screenr -- https://www.screenr.com/ Works on Chromebooks
Jing
Kidblog is designed for K-12 teachers who want to provide each student with an individual blog. Students publish posts and participate in academic discussions within a secure classroom blogging community. Teachers maintain complete control over student blogs and user accounts.
Runner up:
Blogger - for individual blogs, included with Google for Ed apps
Site/app (iPad or browser with flash) that allows you to record voice and notating over a digital whiteboard. Good for students or teachers. Start with a blank canvas or upload an image to annotate over. Library of public lessons you can "borrow" or embed.
Example: http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/water-cycle/683307/
Super east to get started and use. Simple, yet beautiful slide shows that encourage the presenter to focus on one concept at a time and not overuse words on each slide. Good for teachers or students.
Build a lesson around any TED-Ed Original, TED Talk or YouTube video
Tour: http://ed.ted.com/tour
Contender: Educanon-https://www.educanon.com/ (Site create and share interactive videos with time-linked activities)
Word Cloud Creator. Uses word frequency to pull out big ideas. Paste from a document, upload a file, enter URL, or type in your words. Use to start discussions, analyze text, represent concepts and lots more.
108 Ideas for how to use Word Clouds: http://goo.gl/TLyX0K
Many runners up: Wordle, Word it Out, Tagul, Tag Crowd
Honorable mention: https://www.visualthesaurus.com/vocabgrabber/
Vocab grabber lets you paste in text and it generates a suggested vocabulary list based on subject.
Kids LOVE this online cartoon maker! Great for student projects or teacher presentations--sign up for the educator version to have a class account. Has Edmodo app, can upload to YouTube, good tutorials on site.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plzUDmql_9M
Create online collaborative diagrams, thinking maps, and flow charts, etc. Integrates with Google account so that your Lucid Charts are in your Drive. Free upgrade for teachers. Click and drag functionality.
Demo example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLF8LqbWoCs
Runners up:
Bubbl.us, Cacoo, Google Drawings
Newsela is free for students to explore a world of nonfiction and test their comprehension. Updated daily with real-world news from major publications, students can participate in conversation about the most urgent topics of our time, all while becoming stronger readers. Each article at 5 Lexile levels, CC aligned, high interest.
