15 Engaging Tech Resources for the Classroom

Here are some resource to use in the classroom. They all have a connection to implementing the Common Core in performance tasks and College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards.

VoiceThread  

This was a FAVORITE of many of my students. I wanted a way to spark my student’s interests in working with primary sources. VoiceThread allows you to upload images, movies/video clips, and PPTs into the program. There are some nice ones online that teachers of Special Needs students have been using to show their students progress. You can pose questions for the students or have them annotate on their own. Students like it for the animation and “fun” value…they stopped dragging their feet to work with primary sources. The writing tool is great for annotating text and political cartoons. Hint: to have students work with documents or text, copy or type the text into a PPT, save the PPT as a JPEG, upload the PPT JPEGS into VoiceThread. Here is a sample from high school students where I digitized and modified a Teaching with Documents lesson from the National Archieves. App available  

Prezi

Your presentations will come alive. You can import a PPT and modify it here. Alternately, you can type your text in directly and import video and images. Prezi allows you to set a motion path and rotate you text/images. This is great for uploading an image, political carton, or map and “hiding” your text (questions or notes). There a variety of teacher and student samples online. Students or other groups can also work on a Prezi collaboratively…Carreer Readiness. Hint: do not leave the Prezi open for others to edit out of the group. I had a student group working on a great Prezi and someone “vandalized” it overnight. We were so disappointed…they had done nice work in the computer lab. iPad app available

Glogster

Create electronic posters with Glogster. Teachers can create a Glogster to introduce a unit topic or detail a main concept. Students can also create a Glogster to demonstrate mastery and/or use as their visual in a presentation. Student creation of Glogsters is also a way to meet the Common Core Literacy Standards and Technology Integration.

Zunal

Create web quests with this easy to use website. Basically a web quest is an inquiry based lesson students complete online. You can sign up and create a free web quest. For a small fee you can create additional web quest. There is also a search feature to find web quests ready to go and use in your class. Students are given an introduction to the topic, performance task(s), resources, and a rubric for evaluation.

Scoop It

I LOVE this site. You become the curator of your own electronic magazine. Search for items online and Scoop then onto you topic page. You can add multiple pages to curate by topic, class, and more. Scoop it suggests articles based on the tags you give your topic page or you can add your own from the internet. The site also allows you to comment on the article/item and others can too. Not only is this great for teachers to use with their students, but students can also create their own magazine/journal and reflect on their article they’ve chosen. Other students in the class can comment too. This a great way for students to integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information, evaluate different points of view, produce clear and coherent writing, and use technology to produce and publish…all part of the Common Core Standards. A suggestion in using this in a global context is to have students use Newseum to find articles from around the world to curate. App available

                                                                                    Capzles

Create a visual timeline online with this tool. Add image(s) of an event, tag the date, and provide a description. There is also a comment feature to use with students…great for teachers and students to use. Another application would be to use it thematically such as a collection of Native American Art, photosynthesis process, characters in a piece of literature and so forth. App available

Study Blue

Students can create flash cards online. Very user friendly for the students. Study Blue allows students to have their flashcards in there hands anywhere they are if they have a smart phone. They can also be accessed online. App available

Photostory

Photostory is a free download for PCs to make movies. You can add images, save a PPT as a JPEG and import the slides, and upload music into your own movie. Editing options include transitions, adding text in color, setting motion paths in the Ken Burns manner, and setting the timing. It is a basic movie making program…easy for students to use. A teacher friend of mine was making one and then her early elementary grandson did his own. Great for students to create a mini documentary or content trailer. Here is an online tutorial.  

Weebly

This is a free and easy to use website maker. Also, if your students participate in History Day, this is the platform students must complete their websites in. They have a variety of themes and page design to choose from. You can pay to upgrade your site for more advanced features. Great for teachers and students to create an electronic portfolio or use for unit or topic assignments. App available

Google Docs

Ever had the problem of student work in a format that doesn’t open on your computer? Tired of emailing docs back and forth the collaborating remotely? Google Docs is your answer. Create documents, presentations, and more in Google docs and share…no more format issues. This also facilitates collaboration between peers and students in group projects. Teachers can also comment on student work and view when students have contributed. Sharing files between department members, PLNs, and students is made as simple as hitting the share button. You will need to have a gmail account to use, but that’s free. App available

Edmodo

Edmodo is a free class management system that functions like Facebook… student like this and have little problem navigating it. This is a great tool to post comments or question of the day and continue the dialog outside of the classroom. Teachers can separate students by subject, class period, or club. It is a closed site. Upon creation of your group, you are given an access code for your students to use when registering. Edmodo provides a variety of tools such as the ability to poll, quiz, continue discussions, and share information and resources. App available

Xtranormal

Choose from a variety of sets, music, and characters to create your 3D animation to share or download. There is a free version and ones for purchase. Xtranormal allows teachers to set up classes, issue a class registration code, and manage assignments. You or the student creates the script… I suggest having the students complete a story board before moving to the computer. Students generally are very apt to navigating the program and think this is fun…a nice way to trick them into working. This has a variety of ELA Common Core and content area applications… colleges are using this too.

Animoto

Turn your photos, video clips, and music into a video. Animoto allows you to create free 30 second videos, longer videos are available for $30 a year. Sign up for a App Available

Blabberize

Turn a photo into a talking image. Blabberize can be used as a hook or student assignment. Ideas for the classroom include having students select a figure and recording a speech, creating a song, poem, or narrative about a key figure, or having students research a person and then having them give their biography. App available

Tagxedo  

Take famous speeches, news articles, slogans and themes and turn them into a visually stunning word cloud, words individually sized appropriately to highlight the frequencies of occurrence within the body of text...a more creative Wordle.

History and Common Core Lessons & Resources

As I attend summer institutes and listen to lectures, I look up the documents, people, ideas that professors mention. This search often results in discovery of gold for my classroom… I have come across some great resources and thought I’d share them. The sites below contain a variety of topic background information, primary sources, literacy scaffolds, discussion questions, and connections to the Common Core.

America in Class

Collections of primary resources compatible with the Common Core State Standards — historical documents, literary texts, and works of art — thematically organized with notes and discussion questions.

Teaching History

Designed to help teachers access resources and materials to improve U.S. history education in the classroom, Teachinghistory.org has a wealth of history content, teaching strategies, resources, and research accessible available by grade level. Each grade level page also has material on thinking like a historian and using technology. Going Beyond the Textbook has thematic lessons with What does the text say? What do historians say?, What do the sources say?...great in meeting the Common Core performance tasks.

Library of Congress  

The library of Congress has classroom materials ready to go for teachers. You can search for material by state standards, lesson plans, themed resources, primary source sets, presentations and activities, or  collection connections. The American Memory Timeline  is great for students to use for class activities, lesson extensions, or projects.

Teaching the Common Core

The Gilder Lehrman Institute has created ten Common Core units in American History. Each unit has an overview, lesson plans, objectives, and materials. The lessons span Columbus to Martin Luther King Jr.

                                                                                    History by Era

This is another great collection by the Gilder Lehrman Institute. It is a collection of fifty individual introductions written by some of the most distinguished scholars of our day… historiography and the Common Core. It thus speaks to the reader not in one voice, but in fifty different, unique voices as each of these scholars interprets the developments, movements, events, and ideas of a particular era.

Each Era follows the same template so that readers can move easily from one to another. An introduction to the time period is followed by essays by leading scholars; primary sources with images, transcripts, and a historical introduction; multimedia presentations by historians and master teachers; interactive presentations; and lesson plans and other classroom resources. 

EDSITEment

The National Endowment for the Humanities has a collection of AP level lessons based on primary source documents that cover the most frequently taught topics and themes in American history.

Reading Like a Historian

Reading Like a Historian is a project of the Stanford History Education Group. It is high school history curriculum that is literacy-rich and document-based. The focus is on core content, critical thinking, and improving reading comprehension.

Exploration in American History

The Huntington Library examines three struggles in American history; independence, rights, and equality. Each topic has a timeline and a series of primary sources and explanations/context organized by subtopic.

American Democracy in Word and Deed
This TAH project worked with the UC Berkely History project to create a variety of history lessons aligned with California's grade 4, 5, 8, and 11 curriculum. They also have Common Core literacy resources targeted at reading and writing that can be used with various grade levels and across the curriculum.

Content Trailers

WOW! West Baton Rouge Parish Schools have created content trailers for grades pre-K through secondary and all subjects. "A Content Trailer is a short, 2- to 3-minute, media-rich experience from which a point of inquiry can begin. The vehicle is unimportant in the relationship to the concept. Providing students with the images and sounds that can be attached to the textual information that they will be exploring can provide a profound shift in the way learning is engaged. Content Trailers can be one tool to help the process of inquiry begin.

Engage NY

What is this Common Core educators are talking about? Engage NY has a wealth of Common Core resources that is helpful regardless of what state you are in- I’m in California.

LiteracyTA

Literacy TA has Common Core materials. They break the Common Core down to Reading in Action, Writing in Action, and Speaking in Action. For each of these they identify the standard with the appropriate literacy skills and application ideas and worksheets. While you do need to pay for the worksheets, if you hover you mouse over the image you get an idea of the handout…most teachers have something like these already. Many teachers are already teaching the Common Core, seeing the handouts help you to identify your activities/lessons to the Common Core.

                                                                                    Planbook

Planbook is an online planbook where you can input your lesson, notes, homework assignment, and select what state and Common Core standards apply to your lesson. You can give it a free trial and after that it is $12 a year. When selecting your standards, you can add state and Common separately. In doing this, most teachers will realize they are already integrating Common Core in the classroom. As states move into implementation of the Common Core, this is a great school for leaders of PD and teachers in identifying what they are doing in the classroom. If desired, you can create a teacher key to share lessons with other teachers or a student key to allow others (principals, parents, students, etc) to view your lesson plan.

Stepping into blogging & flipping

So, I was at the California 3Rs Leadership Institute and Debbie Granger from the Orange County Department of Education and I were talking. I mentioned various programs I had participated in and a variety of tech tools I use and am planning to use this coming school year. Also, I mentioned my plans to flip my classroom and showed her my website. Debbie asked if I was blogging about this- I said no- and she encouraged me to blog.... and here I am.

Let me back up a bit. I have participated in three San Bernardino County TAH programs over the past six years. It has been here that I have been introduced to tech tools for the classroom and transformed the way my class runs. My class is not the quiet direct instruction- listen to me lecture and take notes... no asking questions class. I have always tried to find ways to engage the students and challenge them- they would say too much at times. In my quest to keep my classroom engaging I have participated in a variety of programs in CA, nationally, and internationally.

One of the schools I was at in my district told me our students don't read much, nor do homework when I met with the principal and dept chair before I was moved there when I told them how I run my class. When I arrived at the school, students thought I was crazy when I told them they had to read, take quizzes, and complete projects. While they complained and disliked my approach at first, they came to see the value and realized they were learning and scoring higher that they had in the past. I DO NOT believe you lower the bar in lower scoring schools and/or high ELL student populations- you just have to become more creative. I went from getting the evil eye to being called "madre dos." Many even wanted to request me for their history teacher the next year. They thought I was crazy recording my lectures and bringing more tech into the classroom, but they went along and did great.

Next, I returned to my original and current teaching site. It is here that I have really embraced technology and  integrated more student centered activities. Over the past years, I have utilized PhotoStory to continue lessons when I'm at workshops and for student projects, web quests, streaming videos, Voicethread, Prezi, Glogster, Poll Everywhere, numerous interactive websites, and had my students create a historical music video to name a few items.

This year I really want to flip my class and utilize most of my classroom time for student centered activities- internet based and on good old fashioned paper. Technology will be a huge part of my class in the flip, meeting  the CCSS, and preparing the students to ready for the 21st century workplace. My students will be working in groups to create an electronic portfolio of the year. For each unit I am going to have them create an annotated timeline using Capzles or Dipity, identify key terms using Study Blue (electronic flashcards), link to primary sources and annotate them, and create a 4 Worlds chart for each unit. Students will also be able to create a video on the unit using Animoto or Xtranormal for bonus points. Kind of ambitious, but I know my students can do it!... How much gray hair will this add? I look forward to how things go- although I know I will hit a few speed bumps and an open trench or two... it took me a few years to get my student digital documentary assignment to where I'm pretty happy with it. Feel free to follow along this journey with me. I will be using edmodo (Facebook for education) for classroom postings, discussions, and turning in assignments using Google Docs- have all your students sign up for one as early as you can in the school year. Weebly will be the host for class notes, PPTs/Prezis, handouts, resources, review materials, and house the student websites.(APUSH site) More sites and ideas to come.....