Xtra Math and Sum Dog

If you are looking for a way have your students practice their math facts online both of these programs have something to offer. Since Fast Math only works in the labs, both of these program are alternatives to help students build a solid foundation in computation skills.


These programs both offer different benefits for student and teachers, so it will be important to consider the pros and cons of each before deciding on what is best for your students. I have only used the free versions of both of these, so please note that the paid versions might be more powerful and meet your needs in different ways.

Access to ebooks

With all the technology both here at school and at home, many of our students are using ebooks for their independent reading.  Students can access ebooks through Hennepin County Library.  Here are directions for families to access ebooks through the library.

*Please note this is something that needs to be set up AT HOME and not at school.

Epic! Books for Kids

Epic! is an extensive online library of ebooks for students.  It has been described as Netflix for reading.  There are lots of high quality ebooks and audiobooks that students can search for and customize their reading list.  Educators can get a free account to use with students.

Graphic Organizers

We often use graphic organizers with students to help them organize their thoughts.  As we move a lot of our resources to Google Drive and other digital formats, teachers are recreating these graphic organizers or searching for one to fit their needs.  Eric Curts, a trainer, consultant and Google Certified Innovator, created these graphic organizer templates that can be used in a variety of content areas.   They are especially easy to give to students to fill out digitally if you are using Google Classroom.

To use the organizers:
-Open the link
-Click on the blue button in the top right hand corner that says "Add to Drive"
-Open the organizer you want to use
-The documents are all set to "View Only" so before you can use them, you will need to make a copy.

Thanks to Christine Gagnon for finding this resource!

Class Dojo

This tool for behavior management can be customized for every classroom.  Teachers can use this to track student behavior, homework completion and encourage teamwork.  Class Dojo is not new, but they have added some new features like Class Story, a simple blog, that might make your classroom management and communication with families easier.

It is important to be thoughtful in how you are using this with students, and communicate your procedures to families.  Please let me know if you have any questions!

Study Island

We are fortunate enough to have access to Study Island which is a way for teachers to customize their students' access to practice and assessments in an online portal.  During our tech camp session we looked at an overview the tools and features in Study Island for differentiation, assessment, and intervention.  Study Island also works with NWEA to give students a learning path of just right content based on their fall MAP score.

Below is the presentation from the training.  If you have questions or come across issues while using this program please let me know!

Hour of Code

I took the liberty of registering our school to host an Hour of Code December 7-13!

What is Hour of Code?
"The Hour of Code is a one-hour introduction to computer science, designed to demystify code and show that anybody can learn the basics.  The Hour of Code is a global movement reaching tens of millions of students in 180+ countries.  Anyone, anywhere can organize an Hour of Code event.  One-hour tutorials are available in over 40 languages. No experience needed.  Ages 4-104."
-https://hourofcode.com/us

What can teachers do?
You can give your students the option to participate, or make it a class event.  The "hour" does not have to be one consecutive hour, it can be spread out over the week, and students can do it at home too.  The idea is to introduce students to computer programming, and give them an opportunity to practice some critical thinking skills.

There are a variety of resources available for students to learn the basics of coding.  I have come across three that I think would be valuable to teachers and students.  There are MANY other options, so if you find one please let me know so we can share with others!

Code.org

This website works well on any device.  Teachers have the option to create accounts for their students.  Students in grades 3-5 can use their google accounts to log in, and teachers of younger students can set them up to log in with a picture or secret word.  Students play games with high interest themes, such as Frozen and Minecraft, while learning code.

Khan Academy

You may have used Khan Academy to supplement your instruction in other subjects, and now they have a great mission on coding.  The motto of this website is simple, "You only have to know one thing: You can learn anything." With the videos and interactive support, students work to complete missions while learning the basics of computer programming.  If students already have accounts, they can use their account to save their progress, if not they can still work though the missions.

Kodable

This website and app is geared toward younger students.  There is more instruction required before students can understand what they are supposed to do in the game, but the website does offer free curriculum to teachers to aid in planning the lessons.  Unlike the other two resources, this one is much more dependent on teacher guidance, but for younger students this may be appropriate anyway.