Links You’ll Love
If you’re looking to integrate STEM into K-2, check out the PictureSTEM Project which offers units that use an engineering challenge and picture books as supports for learning science, mathematics, engineering, computational thinking, and reading.
If you’re looking for free sound effects, visit FreeSound. Everything is creative commons licensed, which means you and your students can use any sound in any project without getting permission from the creator.
If you need a common whitespace that everyone in a class can access, try Twiddla. Basically you create a space, invite others, and anything anyone puts on the screen can be seen by everyone.
If you’re a Google Slides user, you might want to check the Slides Toolbox add-on. It’s got some nice tools, gets great reviews, and is free to install.
BioInteractive is a very nice science site, with loads of resources including posters, videos and articles.
Links You’ll Love
If you’re looking for a way your students can create newspapers online, check out Printing Press. It is Flash-based, so I’m not sure it’ll work on an iPad, but it should be fine on a Chromebook.
ProjectPals is a task-management website that will support your students who are working on independent projects.
WriteReader is a very cool website where students can write books and include photos and narration. You can log in with your Google credentials and it will coordinate with classes that you’ve already set up in Google Classroom. It supports Hebrew text input. The website features images, or you can upload from the computer or search for them on the Internet. Books can be viewed online or downloaded and printed.
If you want to create games that your students can play, check out PurposeGames. It’s free to use, and you can create games like matching games, multiple choice quiz, and type-the-answer. You can also search from games that others have created.
Links You’ll Love
Can you show Netflix in class? Read this article and learn about this complex copyright issue.
If you’re looking for a fun winter activity, check out this winter-themed “magnetic” poetry activity using Google Draw.
We purchased Hapara this year for our 5th through 8th grade students. Primarily, Hapara is student management software that allows teachers to view (and control) what’s happening on student Chromebooks, but it offers much more than mere management tools. If you’re interested in how it can be used to support student learning, here is a resource.
Happy Hanukkah! Check out Six13’s adaptation of Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody
For another Bohemian Rhapsody-inspired song, check out this one about social media
Need some zen activities? Here are some fun websites with no value except they’re well, pretty zen to work with:
Links You’ll Love
The members of a process group I recently facilitated were excited to use this name picker in their classrooms, so I thought I’d share it here. Visit Classtools.net and choose the random name picker. It’s an eye-catching wheel that you can customize. You can also save it and remove names as you go. That site has lots of fun tools!
Check out this article from JTA about science and tech in Jewish Day Schools. Nice to be noticed!
During a faculty planning week presentation, a colleague mentioned the Cult of Pedagogy podcast and how much she’s gotten out of listening to it. Here’s a link to the website where you can read more and subscribe.
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.
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 