Featured 6-12-2014: TypingClub School Portal

 

The TypingClub School Portal gives you the ability to completely manage your students' typing progress. You can setup your classes, design engaging typing lessons, and track student progress.

 

Customize lessons and create lesson plans using the TypingClub School Portal. Then assign lessons to your students within a user-friendly interface.

 

The student interface is designed to be clean, simple, and engaging. Helpful instructions guide students through every step. Students receive continuous feedback and are motivated to repeat each lesson to mastery before proceeding. You also have the option to add your own instructions to each lesson to further guide your students.

 

 

The TypingClub School Portal allows you to track the progress of your students class-wide and individually with a rich set of analytics data.

 

 Watch Improve your Students' Typing with Typing Club

 

The TypingClub School Portal is available in free and paid versions. The free version includes an unlimited number of students in up to three classes for two teachers, as well as access to Create/Customize Lessons, Lesson Plan Marketplace, and Typing Games.

 

 TypingClub School Portal's free iPad app, lets students use their iPad to sign into their account and continue practicing. Whether students use a browser or iPad to practice, you will still be able to view and track their activities.

 

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Featured 6-5-2014: European Schoolnet Academy

 

European Schoolnet Academy is a website where you can learn about innovation in education through online professional development courses for teachers in primary and secondary schools.

 

The courses offered by European Schoolnet Academy offer you an introduction to key concepts and ideas that can help you develop your practice as an educator as well as the opportunity to share these ideas and your experiences with your peers. These courses are completely free of charge.

 

It is the hope of the European Schoolnet Academy that by participating in these courses and by engaging with your peers "you will feel empowered and inspired to try out something new in your practice."

 

 Visit the European Schoolnet Academy YouTube channel

 

The two European Schoolnet Academy pilot courses starting in 2014 cover two key areas of expertise of European Schoolnet and link into their project activities: Future Classroom Scenarios and STEM education.

 

 

European Schoolnet is the network of 30 European Ministries of Education, based in Brussels. As a not-for-profit organisation, they aim to bring innovation in teaching and learning to key stakeholders: Ministries of Education, schools, teachers, researchers, and industry partners.

 

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Featured 5-20-2014: Amazon School Lists

 

Amazon School Lists is a new way for K-12 teachers to create and share online back-to-school supply lists with parents.

 

By using Amazon School Lists teachers will have more students better prepared from the first day of school and throughout the year.  A teacher creates student supply lists for his/her classes, posts them to the Amazon School Lists website, then sends parents an email with a link to the list. 

 

The School List form includes the option for teachers to comment on each item. For example, you can add a note that indicates a particular color marker may be needed, or that similar items can be acceptable.

 

Amazon School Lists lets K-12 parents know exactly what school supplies their children will need for class. They can view and purchase supplies from their children's own teacher's lists or suggested grade-level lists. Parents can view and shop directly from the list or print the list to take shopping.

 

 

Teachers may begin creating Amazon School Lists for fall 2014 back-to-school preparation immediately. Parents will be able to access school lists right now as well. At the end of a term, the supply lists for that term will be disabled. To re-use a list, a teacher can re-save the list with a new name and the new term date.

 

Note: Only registered Amazon customers can create or use School Lists.

 

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Featured 5-14-2014: ReMarkable

 

ReMarkable is a free iPad app that offers students an easy way to submit digital documents in many formats to teachers and professors for marking. 

 

The concept of ReMarkble is functional and practical for both students and teachers. Upon signing up, teachers get a unique email address that will be used by students to submit all work directly to the app. All assignments go directly into ReMarkable where educators mark all the work within the app.

 

ReMarkable accepts many document types including .docx, .pptx, .xls, .jpg, .gif, .pdf, and more.

 

The annotation tools are very intuitive and were designed with the needs of teachers marking student documents in mind.  The features of ReMarkable were reviewed by a panel of educators.

A customizable folder system gives teachers the ability to control and organize submitted files. Move, copy, and upload all files to various folders or to Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, etc.

 

 Watch ReMarkable’s Kickstarter video

 

ReMarkable gives teachers the convenience of accepting and marking papers anytime from anywhere.  Teachers will no longer have to carry home loads of papers to mark, all that's needed is an iPad running iOS 6.0+.

 

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Featured 2-24-2014: ZipGrade

Grade multiple-choice tests with ZipGrade using your iPhone's camera as a scanner.

 

ZipGrade is a fast, accurate, cost-effective way to grade tests in the classroom or wherever you may be.

 

You can grade, analyze, and store as many as 20 tests per minute on an iPhone 5. By giving teachers the ability to grade papers quickly anywhere, ZipGrade provides rapid feedback that can be used to better focus lessons and assignments.

 

Download free answer sheets in several formats and sizes from ZipGrade.com and print as many copies as you wish.

 

 

Results are organized for reporting and exporting as PDF and in Excel-readable format. Results are stored by students, subject, and quiz.

 

 See ZipGrade V1.1 In Action

 

ZipGrade is a free download from the iTunes App Store, with a 100 quiz demo; 27 languages including English, Spanish, French, Russian, and Chinese. Requires iOS 7.0 or later.

 

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Featured: 2-4-2014 Vocabulary Notebook

Vocabulary Notebook provides a a set of tools for schools and teachers to help students learn vocabulary faster using technology, making it more contemporary and engaging.

 

With the full Vocabulary Notebook for schools, students will have Cloud Accounts and teachers will have a dashboard to manage and get feedback about their students.

 

Key Teacher Dashboard features:

• Check your students' most important and unknown words.
• See interactive charts with stats about your students.
• See your student's tests scores and number of words.
• Suggest words to your students.

Vocabulary Notebook is easy for students to use. Just install the app and start to type those words you always forget. Change the importance of a word and mark it as "known" or "not known" whenever you want.

 

Students are able to filter words by importance or categories, for example, showing only words related to “work”. Sort words alphabetically or display only those words, phrasal verbs, or idioms that you don't know.

 

The test tool will randomly select words according to your filters and it will ask you to select whether you know them or not. Those words you don't know will automatically be marked as "not known", making it easier to take another look at them later.

 

Cloud Accounts and the web app synchronize with students’ mobile apps for iOS and Android. 

 Watch a video overview of Vocabulary Notebook

 

Teachers can discover which words students don't know as well as the categories they use most. With Vocabulary Notebook, teachers are able to send lists of vocabulary to their students.

 

With the Teacher Dashboard, you will see key information about your students. See stats like the number of words each student has, their average score in self-assessment tests, how often they use the app, and more. 

 

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Featured: 12-12-2013 Anki

Anki is a program which has been designed to make remembering things easier. Decrease the time spent studying, or increase the amount you learn.

People who need to remember things can benefit from Anki. It can be applied to study all kinds of content, supporting images, audio, videos, and LaTeX for science/mathematics.

Some possible uses for Anki might include language learning, studying for professional exams, memorizing names and faces, brushing up on geography, and more.

Features:

• The free AnkiWeb synchronization service keeps your cards in sync across multiple devices.
• Anki has a numerous options for customization, from card layout to review timing.
• Embed audio clips, images, videos and scientific markup on your cards, with precise control over how it's shown.
• Anki can handle decks of more than 100,000 cards.
• It's fully extensible with a large number of add-ons available.

 Watch an Ankitutorial

AnkiWeb is a free companion to the downloadable version of Anki and can be used to review online when you don't have access to your home computer.

Anki works on Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, Android, any device with a web browser.

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Male Teachers: A Vanishing Breed?

According to this infographic from Busy Teacher, the lack of male teachers has become a global epidemic.

The graphic includes statistics supporting this proposition, suggested reasons for it, and potential solutions.

Click the image for a larger view.

Featured: 6-4-2013 TeachersPayTeachers

TeachersPayTeachers is an open online marketplace where teachers buy and sell original downloadable educational materials, hard goods, and used educational resources.

TeachersPayTeachers's mission is to "empower teachers by bringing together those who create curricula with those who are seeking fresh new approaches in the classroom."

TeachersPayTeachers top resource types include printables, activities, worksheets, clip art, lesson plans, literacy center ideas, math centers, white board activities, powerpoint, and fun stuff.

You can sell original curricular materials such as lesson plans, unit plans, examinations, teaching guides, worksheets, etc. Upload your original files to the TeachersPayTeachers catalog, in one of the supported filetypes, and then set your own prices. TeachersPayTeachers takes care of the sales transactions and delivers instant downloads to buyers.

You can sell hard goods, too, both teacher-created and used educational materials. Selling a hard good works similarly except that you upload photos of the items instead of product files. You are responsible for shipping to the buyer after receiving an email with the buyer's shipping address. The cost of shipping will be reimbursed to you.

Basic Membership is free and offers a 60% royalty on gross sales less transaction fees. Premium Membership costs $59.95(USD) annually but offers an 85% royalty on gross sales and no transaction fees.

Joining TeachersPayTeachers as a buyer or seller or both can make your teaching career even more gratifying.

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Featured: 5-30-2013 The Teacher's Guides To Technology And Learning [Reference]

The Teacher's Guides To
Technology And Learning 

The Teacher's Guides To Technology And Learning by Edudemic are intended to offer teachers some of the best and most popular resources currently available.

In creating The Teacher's Guides To Technology And Learning, Edudemic has explored hundreds of resources in order to make their guides easy to read, use, and share.

The Teacher’s Guide To Flipped Classrooms

Because the flipped classroom is one of the most sought-after topics in terms of questions on social media, search queries, and more, Edudemic thought it would be useful to organize all of their many resources into one easy-to-use guide. It’s a curated list of many of the most useful flipped classroom resources.

The Teacher’s Guide To Copyright And Fair Use

Teaching students about copyright and fair use involves more than just telling them that they should be doing their own work, and not copying off the web. Plagiarism and copyright violations are significant issues in the classroom.

The Teacher’s Guide To The Library Of Congress

The Library of Congress is an incredible resource for teachers. The largest library in the world, it’s home to millions of books, recordings, photographs, and other materials, many of them original sources. This guide, written for teachers and education in general, promises to be an easy and solid resource to refer back to as needed.

 

The Teacher’s Guide To Choosing The Best Digital Content

Blended learning is becoming a noteworthy trend in education technology as teachers realize technology alone isn’t the 'magic bullet' of education. A blended learning environment means  mixing technology with standard teaching practices in order to enhance education.

Other available guides:

• The Teacher’s Guide To Twitter
• The Teacher’s Guide To Digital Scavenger Hunts
• The Teacher’s Guide To Pinterest In The Classroom
• The Teacher’s Guide To Keeping Students Safe Online
• The Teacher’s Guide To Badges In Education
• The Teacher’s Guide To Google Glass

The Teacher's Guides To Technology And Learning are always a work in progress. The current guides are always being updated and refreshed, and new guides are being developed.

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Featured: 5-23-2013 Planboard [Tools]

Planboard helps teachers simplify lesson planning with features like calendar sharing, schedule printing, coordinating lessons with your school schedule, and tracking standards alignment.

By allowing you to integrate and track Common Core and other standards, Planboard can help you ensure your students have the knowledge and skills they need to be successful.

Easily align Planboard with your school and classroom schedule. Select the number of periods and which days of the week you will be teaching. Planboard also supports day rotation, from A/B days to alternating weeks, and more.

Planboard can save you time by removing some of the repetition from your lesson planning process. Create a template that follows your day rotation. Automatically replicate your plans from the previous year.

Collaboration with teachers anywhere helps you create the best lesson plans. You can also find publicly shared lesson plans by searching for keywords or the standard codes that they need to meet. 

 Watch the video: Introduction to Planboard

Planboard is completely free including all features and 500MB of storage. The Pro version of Planboard provides 3GB of storage and costs $29.95(USD) per year.

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Featured: 5-6-2013 NEA Academy [PD]

NEA Academy is an interactive learning environment providing practical online courses to meet professional development and continuing education needs.

NEA Academy offers online continuing education and Master’s degrees that fit your budget, schedule, and needs. Based on your individual preferences, NEA Academy will provide content recommendations, course alerts, and additional material of specific interest to you.

 

The content of NEA Academy is peer approved. Material meets quality standards determined by NEA members. Video clips feature actual classroom teachers who demonstrate different ways to use the strategies you learn.

NEA Academy provides more than 40 degree programs with hundreds of courses, many in areas of high need such as special education, math, science, reading, technology, instructional design, and ELL.

NEA Academy tries to negotiate reduced rates for members. Master’s degrees, some from top universities, are discounted 5-20%. Some NEA-produced courses are totally free to members.

Watch a video: Welcome to the NEA Academy

With basic computer skills, time to devote to the class, and a computer with Internet access equal to the minimum requirements listed for the course, NEA Academy lets you learn at your own pace in the comfort and privacy of your own home.

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Featured: 4/10/2013 NCETM [Math]

Created in 2006, the goal of the National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics (NCETM) is to ensure all teachers of mathematics have access to high quality continuing professional development.

To do this, the National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics has been developing a sustainable program of continuing mathematics professional development. The NCETM supports teaching schools and other improvement agents in their work with schools, colleges, and teachers across England.

The NCETM encourages educators to learn from their own best practices by working jointly among staff and by sharing good practices locally, regionally, and nationally.

Collaboration takes place both virtually through the NCETM portal and face-to-face through a regional network of established self-sustaining CPD network meetings facilitated by the NCETM.

Principal features provided by the NCETM include:

• Online support for professional development.

• Portal resources such as the sector magazines.

• Online development modules.

• Support for providers of continuing professional development.

The National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics also funds and publishes research into effective mathematics teaching practices and continuing professional development.

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Featured: 3/7/2013 Math for America [Math]

Math for America is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to improve mathematics and science education in US public secondary schools by building a contingent of highly qualified STEM teachers and leaders.



Math for America teachers try to be models for other teachers. In this way, members of the corps hope not only to change the lives of their students, but also change the teaching profession itself.



Math for America rewards and supports new and experienced teachers and school leaders through fellowship programs based on three key principles:

• To teach math and science effectively, one needs a strong knowledge of their subject area, solid pedagogical skills, and a desire and ability to interact with young people.
• Generous incentives make it possible to recruit mathematically qualified individuals into teaching and to retain outstanding STEM teachers.
• By providing strong support services, including continuing education, mentoring and professional development, it is possible to inspire a commitment to a long-term career as a mathematics or science teacher.

Watch a video: Math for America 30 Second Spot

Math for America was founded in New York City in 2004. Now with nearly 600 corps members across its programs, it also operates in Berkeley, Boston, Los Angeles, San Diego, Utah, and Washington, DC.

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