Classtrak
Classtrak is a free website for teachers who don’t need a whole LMS (learning management system), but would like an online resource to post home-based projects. It’s a useful tool that can help students and parents keep up.
With Classtrak, you can list home-based projects by name alongside a description of it and its due date. You can also add downloadable resources that students can use to help them complete the project, such as notes, games, etc. No more, “I forgot” or “I lost the sheet”—students can find everything they need right inside the site, and check it whenever they need to.
To use Classtrak, sign up for a free account. Once you’re signed up, you can create a class and invite your students and their parents to join by code.
If you are interested in acquiring the resource for your whole school, you can request a demo and quote here.
In Your Classroom
- Working on a project in class that needs extra supplies? Post a reminder in Classtrak so that students will remember to bring in what they’ll need. For example, if you are planning on creating Seder plates in class, ask each student to bring in their own sturdy plastic plate for decorating.
- Continue the learning at home. Build on in-class lessons by creating family based activities that enhance your student’s understanding. For example, if you are learning about the Haggadah, invite students to ask each of their parents and siblings for their favorite Passover memory, and bring them in to share. Remind them about the project using Classtrak.
This is a “Technology Tuesday” post via Behrman House, edited by Ann D. Koffsky . You can find more Behrman House Technology Tuesdays here.
Classtools
Classtools is a free website that offers some useful tools you can use to add pizazz to your lessons.
Here are some of my favorites features on the site:
- The SMS text generator page lets you easily create an image of a phone displaying bubbles with SMS texts of your choice. Once you save it, you can print it as a single image onto paper, or you can share a unique URL with your students for them to see your pretend text dialogue appear line by line.
- The Fakebook page allows you to create a fake Facebook profile page.
- The Movietext page takes the text you enter, and uses it to create a StarWars-like movie intro.
- Fruit Machine is a random name or word generator. You enter a list of words and then click to start a slot machine type animation that spins around and then randomly stops on a word.
In Your Classroom
- Ask students to use the SMS text gernerator to create an imagined text conversation between two biblical characters.
- Students can use the fakebook page to design a profile page for a historical figure or hero.
- Use Movitext to introduce a new topic, provide writing prompts or even display students’ names at the beginning of the school year.
- Try out Fruit Machine the next time you need to randomly select a student for a task, or organize teams.
This is a “Technology Tuesday” post via Behrman House, edited by Ann D. Koffsky . You can find more Behrman House Technology Tuesdays here.
Links You’ll Love
This article has some great tips for using Google extensions in the classroom.
The Chrome music lab has all sorts of fun music experiments. You can explore rhythm, melodies, soundwaves and more.
We do a lot of prototyping in the innovation studio: creating, critiquing and revising are a natural part of what happens when you’re creating for the 3D printer or Silhouette cutter. For more on design thinking in the classroom, see this article.
Links You’ll Love
Tizmos is a site that’s similar to Symbaloo, where you can create a visual landing page for your students with easy-to-use links to often-used websites.
Jewish Learning Matters is a website with tons of resources for educators. It’s a project from the Miami School of Education and Social Work. Check it out!
Google Keep
Google Keep gives Google users an online space for note keeping, image saving, and more. You can make lists (complete with checkboxes), save images or even draw. The interface is intuitive and looks like a bulletin board with color-coded notes that you can move around with your mouse. Google Keep also gives users the ability to:
- add collaborators
- set a timer to receive reminders about a note
- send notes to Google Docs
- read a photo of a printed document and extract the text
If you have a Google account, you have access to Google Keep.
In Your Classroom
- Google Keep is a great way to organize research. It’s highly visual, and it makes it simple to arrange and rearrange text.
- Want to transfer your Google Keep notes into a Google document? Just go to Tools > Keep to access your notepad and drag applicable items to the Google document..
- Collaborating on a big project? Use Google Keep to make lists, assign tasks and set reminders.
- Since Google Keep is on the web, it’s synced across devices, and is accessible at school and at home.
- Like using Google Keep? Consider installing the Chrome extension. It will making it easier to save web content such as images or text within Google Keep.
This is a “Technology Tuesday” post via Behrman House, edited by Ann D. Koffsky . You can find more Behrman House Technology Tuesdays here.
Google Sites
Google Sites is an application that you can use to build your own website. It has intuitive tools and options that allow you to customize your site and design it in exactly the way you want.
If you’re familiar with Google Forms, you’ll note the similarity in the tools and options right away. There’s a menu that pops up on the right, and allows you to click and easily add text, images, Google docs and forms, YouTube videos, calendars and map locations to your site. You can also select from several design themes which will assign a specific look and set of font choices to your website.
Like all other Google products, options for collaboration are built into Google Sites, and you can easily share your site with others and work together to build it.
When you’re done designing your website, click on “Publish” to get your site on the web and to see the URL. You can even preview how your site will look on phones, tablets and laptops.
In Your Classroom
- Google Sites makes it easy for students to collaboratively create websites. It even supports multiple editors working at the same time.
- If you have a number of Google docs to share with colleagues, consider creating a website with them posted on it. Having your materials on a website will make them easily accessible and all in one place. Just share the URL with those you would like to see the documents. Also, when you click “Publish,” be sure to check “Request public search engines to not display my site” so that your site will not appear in search engine results.
- Create a website about your class. Post images of projects, student work, and schedules of upcoming events, and share the URL with parents.
This is a “Technology Tuesday” post via Behrman House, edited by Ann D. Koffsky . You can find more Behrman House Technology Tuesdays here.
Links You’ll Love
Dogo is a website that supports kids and teachers “engaging positively with current events, books, and movies.”
We Are Teachers has some great Pi Day activities – and they’re not all just for math class!
Google Arts & Culture has partnered with the British Library to bring the magic of Harry Potter to the classroom. This online version of a Harry Potter exhibit includes the series’ original illustrations, a history of witchcraft and wizardry, fantastical beasts, and much more. You can view over 190 items and 10 exhibits right on the Google Arts & Culture site. Step aboard the Hogwarts Express here.
Links You’ll Love
The Librarians’ Internet Index is amazing! This is a searchable, free, curated list of websites maintained by, well, librarians. The site has links to a number of reliable databases as well.
Tes Teach
Tes Teach (formerly known as Blendspace) is a free website and app that provides tools that can help you create interactive, digital lessons. By dragging-and-dropping, you can easily combine web content with your own files into one digital presentation.
If your content can be digital, then it can be included in your lesson: YouTube videos, quizzes, website links PDFs, photos from your photo library, Dropbox files, Google Drive files—all of these and more can be assembled into a lesson using Tes Teach.
Once your lesson is complete, you can easily share your Tes Teach lessons via social media or by link. You create the lessons using your regular computer, and students can view them via computer or via personal devices by downloading the accompanying, free iOS or Android app.
Tes Teach also has a library of many lessons that have already been created by other educators, and they are there for you to access and share with your students. There are even many lessons about Jewish subjects as well.
To begin, sign up for a free account. This will give you access to the Tes Teach digital dashboard.
In Your Classroom
- Tes Teach is a great way to share student-created videos with the class
- Tes Teach lessons is an excellent tool for use in a flipped classroom, or for set induction lessons.
This is a “Technology Tuesday” post via Behrman House, edited by Ann D. Koffsky . You can find more Behrman House Technology Tuesdays here.
Booksnap
Booksnaps can be a fun way for students to share their thoughts about books or texts.
Students can create a booksnap by taking a photo of the text that they are reading, and then adding their own thoughts, drawings and comments to the image. They can underline text, circle text, and add emojis and other doodles to the image to illustrate their thoughts and questions about the text.
Educator Tara Martin, who created the idea of book snaps, had her students use Snapchat to create their book snaps, but you can use other tools as well. (get it? booksnap = book + snap). For example, PicCollage Kids is a safe, kid-friendly photo editor that can be downloaded for $1.99, and Google Draw is another good choice.
Booksnaps are meant to be shared among classmates to facilitate discussion, and students should be aware when creating them that they will be shared. Booksnaps can be shared using many different tools such as Padlet or Seesaw.
In Your Classroom
- Booksnaps can be a great way to have students reflect on the siddur. Ask each student to create a booknap about the sh’ma, and share them with one another.
- Learning about Purim? Invite students to make a booksnap from a piece of the Megillah.
- You can learn more about techniques for using Booksnaps in the classroom here:
This is a “Technology Tuesday” post via Behrman House, edited by Ann D. Koffsky . You can find more Behrman House Technology Tuesdays here.
About
Debbie Harris is the director of educational technology at the Sager Solomon Schechter Day School in Northbrook, IL. Involved in Jewish education for over thirty years, she has an education degree from Northwestern University with a concentration in instructional media and a master’s degree in professional Jewish studies from Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership. She is skilled in using and teaching desktop publishing, video editing, presentation and animation software; and consults and presents regularly on integrating technology into Judaic studies. Her students podcast, blog, edit video and create claymations. She co-chaired the technology track for CAJE 33 in Vermont, is a SMART Certified Trainer for SMART Notebook, and a 2011 recipient of the Grinspoon-Steinhardt Award for Excellence in Jewish Education.
When not learning, teaching or writing about technology, Debbie likes to sketchnote and craft. She likes to knit, do calligraphy, sew, watercolor, paint fabric and just generally play with fun toys like scrapbooking supplies and anything with texture. Debbie travels to California every summer to paint tallitot with high school aged campers. Finally, she is incredibly proud of her two daughters; Lori, who teaches English at a community college; and Allie, who is the director of the URJ’s Camp Newman in California.
Look for her at:
Debbie Does Desktop
Flickr
Twitter
Diigo
YouTube
Ravelry
Email Debbie here
MuseForJews 