Showing posts with label ELA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ELA. Show all posts

Sunday, February 16, 2014

8 (free) websites to create cool student projects online

Creating an online project is a great way to help students to demonstrate that they have learned something. Below you will find 8 websites that offer great options for any teacher and all are free to use. The first five have screenshots of examples that I created.

Fake Movie Poster
Creating a movie poster is a great school project. With this simple website, the task is that much easier. Students simply upload an image, add a few details for the text and then share their completed poster with the teacher. This project works is a great for history, science, or as a final project after reading a novel.

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Photovisi
Here is another website to create great poster projects. With this site you can add many photos to create a collage or other types of posters. The site features many templates as well as a wide selection of other enhancements to make stunning posters.

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Be Funky
This site is better known for its photo editing but it also allows users to create photo collages. You select your layout, add your photos and then add text and your project is done. Final products can be saved to your computer, shared to Flickr or other social media sites.


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Poster My Wall
Yet another terrific site for creating poster projects for the classroom. The site is easy to use and navigate. Just select a template and change or add content as you desire. Every aspect of a poster template can be changed and you can add more pictures or text if you need. Once done there are a variety of ways in which the final poster can be shared including email.

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Mural.ly is a fantastic online tool that appears to be intended for business but would work really well in the classroom. The site allows you to create online poster like presentations by adding pictures, text, websites, documents, and a host of other bells and whistles. The site also allows others to collaborate on the poster with you by a simple email invite and then they can join in. Mural.ly is a great resource for group projects and it is free to join and free to use.


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Word Draw is a site that offers free professional looking templates for newsletters, flyers, labels, and resumes. The sites newsletter templates are categorized for education, business, family, holidays, and by month. The templates must be downloaded and are compatible for all versions of Microsoft Word.
These templates can also be utilized for a class newspaper, projects or even reports. 

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Tackk allows you to create online posters that can be shared via email, social media or be embedded onto a webpage or blog. As soon as you arrive on the website you can start creating your poster by editing their ready made template. You can easily add a title, body text, pictures, videos, and even songs. You can add content from You Tube, Instagram, Vimeo, Sound Cloud, Hulu, and Spotify. Creating an online poster with Tackk is so easy to do. 

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With Picovico, you can turn simple photographs into cool videos. Once you sign up (it's free) you begin by choosing a video template and then adding your pictures from Facebook, Flickr, or your computer. You can set the order of your pictures, add captions to them and add text slides if you wish. Next you add music, either from their library or add your own from your computer. Your last step is to add a video title and any additional text and you're done. Completed videos can be uploaded to You Tube or Facebook and can even be embedded into a website or blog. The site does have a 30 picture maximum but that is long enough for most people.




Monday, December 30, 2013

9 sources of news for kids that you may not know about

Newspapers have always been an excellent educational resource for teachers. Now with the Common Core's focus on reading non-fiction material, they are more valuable than ever. Many of the classrooms that I have visited have been using either Time for Kids or CNN Students News and with good reason as both are terrific resources. Below are nine additional websites to consider when incorporating news into the classroom.

Newsela
Newsela is an awesome site that I previously shared and it helps students develop close reading and critical thinking skills by offering current event articles with varying levels of text complexity. Lexile levels of an article range from 2nd grade up to 12th grade which allows for differentiation within the same classroom. The articles are categorized by war/peace, science, kids, money, law, health and arts. Many of the articles are accompanied by quizzes that provide quick feedback. Newsela is currently in beta and is free for all teachers.

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Science News for Students
Science News for Students features a collection of science related stories. Each week several new stories are added to the site. The stories come from a wide range of science disciplines as well as math and technology.


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Dogo News is a current events website designed for kids and teachers. For kids, the stories are interesting and written at appropriate level. For teachers, each article is identified for grade level and Common Core Standards and is accompanied by key vocabulary. An added feature is that each story is tagged for its geographical location which can be located on the site's "map" tab.

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Tween Tribune
Tween Tribune  posts age appropriate news stories found on the internet for students grades K-12. The stories are sorted by age group and there is spanish section as well. At the end of each story, students can respond by leaving comments or take a quiz.

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National Geographic News for Kids
One of the great features on National Geographic's Kid webpage is their news story section. Their stories range from science, people, animals, and even history. Each story is accompanied by additional resources related to the story which can be found to the right of the article.

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Our Little Earth
Our Little Earth is a free digital newspaper for kids that is published every two weeks. The news stories come from all over the world and are age appropriate for most learners. They do have "extra" activities that accompany each addition which do cost money. Their policy is "pay us what you want" and you get a one year subscription to their "extra" activities.

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Teaching Kids News
Teaching Kids News looks like a real newspaper and it read like one as well. The website shares stories from the areas of news, entertainment, sports, science, arts, and politics. Their content contains media literacy activities and is targeted to learners grades 2 - 8.

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Discovery News
Discovery News has a huge collection of stories gathered from a variety of sources. The topics range from science and tech to animals, history, and adventure. Each story ends with an area that allows students to react to what they have read. Stories can be search by category or by using the site's search bar.

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The Why Files
The Why Files is a website that I have shared earlier which helps students understand science through current events or maybe it helps kids understand current events through science. Each story explores is explored from a science perspective and includes pictures, diagrams, and charts to help students understand the topic. In addition to news, the site contains a classroom activities pages with discussion questions and quizzes from stories found on the web page. There is also an interactive section where students can learn about science based concepts through games and activities. Due to its focus on current events, the Why Files is just as useful to social studies teachers who may want to use it for current events and infuse some cross curricular science content.


Friday, November 15, 2013

Newsela - A Powerful Common Core Literacy Tool

My school's media specialist recently showed me Newsela and I was awestruck. This website helps students develop close reading and critical thinking skills by offering current event articles with varying levels of text complexity. Lexile levels of an article range from 2nd grade up to 12th grade which allows for differentiation within the same classroom. The articles are categorized by war/peace, science, kids, money, law, health and arts. Many of the articles are accompanied by quizzes that provide quick feedback. Newsela is currently in beta and is free for all teachers. I think you will find Newsela to be a valuable resource for your students.


Thursday, March 14, 2013

CK-12.Org - An online learning environment for teachers and students

CK-12.org is a non-profit organization dedicated to education. Their website offers a large collection of resources for students and teachers like Brain Genie which I previously shared. The bulk of their resources are math and science centered where students can learn about chemistry, physics, algebra, and geometry just to name four. They also offer resources for other content areas as well including history, English, and SAT prep. Their website is free to join and offers a wealth of learning resources and activities. Their site offers articles, quizzes, interactive lessons, videos and students can keep track of their learning as they complete lessons and activities and members can upload their own resources to the site as well. If you are a teacher or a student then do yourself a favor by going to CK-12.org and signing up.


Monday, February 25, 2013

Huge Collection of Graphic Organizers

There are many places on the web where you can find graphic organizers but it may take searching through several sites before you find the right one. The next time you need a graphic organizer, start here at this collection of graphic organizers from the Vermilion Parish. They have collected the best organizers from around the internet into one large collection for you to use. Just about any teacher from any grade should be able to find this site useful. I'd recommend you browse this library of graphic organizers and I think you will like what you see.


Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Problem-Attic - An Easy Way to Create Review Tests

The school year is more than half over and end of the year state exams are looming. If you teach science, social studies, math, or ELA at the secondary level then you should really take a look at Problem-Attic. With this site you can quickly and easily create review tests and quizzes as well as flash cards for your students to use. Problem-Attic has a test bank of over 80,000 questions from old New York State Regents exams as well as science, math, and social studies state assessments from around the country. It is free to join and so simple to navigate. You name your test, browse their huge question bank, select your questions, format the test, and you are done. Problem-Attic is a fantastic tool for teachers because it will help you save your most valuable resource, your time.