Featured: 12-19-2013 Class Charts

With Class Charts you get data-rich seating charts and streamlined behavior management tools. It is even possible to collaborate with other teachers and work together to address behavior issues.

 

Class Charts lets you optionally include and display key data about each student which can be used to intelligently position students in the classroom to maximize learning. Use icons or photos to identify students.

 

The seating plans you create in Class Charts can also be a behavior management tool which you can use collaboratively with colleagues to track and analyse student behavior. Quickly give behavior points and get detailed reports of behavior for classes or individual pupils. 

 

You can add students individually with the Quick Add feature or you can upload a spreadsheet containing all student data. 

 

 

Class Charts uses industry-standard SSL encryption for data transfer and key database fields, safeguarding student information. They are registered with the Data Commissioner* and all staff have enhanced Criminal Records Bureau checks. 

 

 Watch a video overview of Class Charts

 

Class Charts works on any Internet-enabled device, so there is no software to download or install, and Class Charts is totally free to use.

 

*The UK’s independent authority set up to uphold information rights in the public interest, promoting openness by public bodies and data privacy for individuals.

 

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0

Featured: 10-24-2013 UClass

UClass is a global lesson exchange created by teachers for teachers.

UClass taps into an abundance of experience and knowledge by gathering, sharing, and crowd-sourcing planning globally. A huge collection of authentic classroom assignments is readily accessible.

When teachers connect on UClass, their classrooms can participate in dynamic global exchanges. Teachers may choose to open access to a global audience, allowing students to receive feedback from students around the world, thus fostering a powerful sense of global citizenship.

UClass lessons each consist of:

• a lesson outcome
• directions
• Common Core standard tagging
• a full lesson plan
• a worksheet
• an assessment
• and a multimedia link

Lessons are searchable by grade, subject, category, strand and standard.

 Watch a video introducing UClass

A teacher who has joined UClass can access lesson previews, but must purchase lesson credits to download the entire lesson. If a teacher creates a lesson, that teacher gets paid for each time it gets downloaded.

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0

EDge21 Extra: Common Core Implementation Gap Analysis

The Common Core Implementation Gap Analysis is a 25 question, 30-45 minute survey that assesses the status of your transition to the Common Core State Standards and facilitates critical thinking about the implementation process.

Because the CCSS Action plan is most valuable and effective when survey responses are representative of an entire district, rather than individual schools, only surveys completed at a district level will receive the free action plan.

Within 48 hours you will be contacted with a report on your transition and an evaluation of your results.

Your report is organized around eight core categories to create an action plan for successful implementation:

• leadership
• budget
• communication
• instruction
• college and career readiness curriculum
• assessment/data
• technology
• professional learning

This Common Core Implementation Gap Analysis survey is being conducted by Wireless Generation, Inc.

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0

Featured: 2/27/2013 Common Curriculum [Planning]

Common Curriculum is meant to streamline the lesson planning process so you can stop wasting time and go teach. Common Curriculum makes it easy to build, organize, and share your lesson plans.



View your lessons for the entire week at a glance, and plan with Common Curriculum in the context of the unit and week. Teachers are able to customize templates to suit their lesson plans. Changes to templates affect your entire course

Rearrange the sections of your lesson using a clean drag-and-drop interface. Add activities with the click of a button. Upload student materials to any section of your lesson.



Common Curriculum will automatically generate class websites from your lessons, keeping students and parents informed about homework, tests, and projects. Any sections of your lessons you mark public are published to your own class website.

Watch the video: Common Curriculum -- Plan the way you teach

Be better organized with all your courses in one place. Any lesson created and stored on Common Curriculum can be printed with the click of a button.

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION:http://cmp.ly/0

Featured: 2/25/2013 JumpRope [Assessment]

JumpRope is a tool designed to help teachers, schools, and districts move from traditional grades towards standards-based assessment.



Educators using JumpRope's web-based platform can implement standards-based grading through innovative assessment and feedback. JumpRope strives to enable teachers and schools to “engage students with active pedagogy, purposeful planning, and authentic learning experiences.”



JumpRope provides easy, fast, and powerful access to current, accurate information about attendance, character, and standards-based performance. Standards-based grading for every classroom is practical with JumpRope. Teachers can write their own standards, use state standards, or align to the Common Core.

Main features of JumpRope:

• Take attendance for each period of the day, and the data is visible in real time to other teachers.
• Stay up to date on student behavior and character development. Any teacher can write anecdotes on student behavior, assign a category and value, and request follow up from another staff member.
• Design curriculum based on the principles of backwards planning, and your curriculum plan automatically populates your standards-based gradebook.

Jumprope is free for teachers. JumpRope also offers a full suite of tools to help school staff and administrators with school-wide reporting needs, schedule creation, and management.

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0

Catch of the Day - Lessonopoly - Jul 12, 2010

Lessonopoly is a free website designed to facilitate teachers organization of activities both in and out of the classroom, creation and sharing of lesson plans, and connecting to other teachers in online communities.

Started in 2007, Lessonopoly was developed by the Silicon Valley Education Foundation which works across all 33 school districts in Santa Clara County (CA) to ensure public schools have the resources and expertise they need.

Lessonopoly was created and refined with input from teachers and strives to deliver a set of effective and easy-to-use, easy-to-learn tools for teachers.

 

Classroom tools available to registered teachers are a planning calendar, a personal lesson plan library, and a blogging tool. Resources to connect with other teachers include groups and a wiki tool.

Browse or search the thousands of available lesson plans by subject or grade level. You can even submit your own lesson plans to the Lessonopoly library.

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0

Catch of the Day - The Learning Network - Jun 11, 2010

The Learning Network has been providing teaching and learning ideas and resources for 11 years as a NYTimes.com sub-site.  It was recently remade as a full blog, but still offers the same core features while adding new ones.

Each weekday The Learning Network offers free educational resources related to articles, images, videos, and podcasts published in the New York Times.

The Learning Network has Lesson Plans across the curriculum based on New York Times content. These are categorized by topic such as American history, civics, current events, math, language arts, media studies, and more.

In the Student Opinion section, students 13 and older are invited to comment on issues in the news. Recent topics included "Who Are the Beloved Figures in Your School Community?," Does Your Generation Have Too Much Self Esteem?, and "Do You Have a Summer Job?"

Other featured content …

• Daily News Quiz
• 6 Q's About the News
• Word of the Day
• Student Crossword
• On This Day in History
• Great Ideas From Readers
• More

You can subscribe to The Learning Network's daily e-mail that includes summaries of that day’s Lesson Plan, Student Opinion question, and Word of the Day.

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0

Catch of the Day - Thinklinkr - 4 Feb 10

Thinklinkr, an outlining tool, is today's fresh from the sea catch

Using Thinklinkr you can create and share real-time, fully collaborative outlines in your web browser for free.

Thinklinkr Home Page

Organizing your thoughts into an outline makes them shape up and take form. Desktop outliners have been used by people for years to help them process their thoughts. Now Thinklinkr brings this same functionality to a Web 2.0 application.

Thinklinkr Screenshot

Thinklinkr features…

• Manage outline library
• Share outlines
• Real-time collaboration
• Revision history
• Undo/redo support
• Import/export to OPML
• Chat integration
• Cut/copy/paste
• Duplicate an outline
• Printer friendly

Collaborating on an outline with Thinklinkr lets you and your collaborators be on the same page. The outline structure lets everyone see what your thoughts are and puts them in context.

Thinklinkr Video Demo


Your ideas will grow and flow when you collaborate on outlines with Thinklinkr.

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0

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• Thinklinkr - Come Together To Think, Outline and Collaborate In Real Time (makeuseof.com)
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What Was It I Needed to Do?

Sometimes you just need a little nudge to be reminded to get something done. Here are four online services that can help.

task.fm

What makes task.fm different is semantic or natural language input. That means that instead of having to manually enter a date, time and event - like other reminder apps - task.fm is smart enough to understand and process your language just like another human can. For example enter "meeting with Jack next Tuesday at noon" and task.fm will recognize the date, time, event and will remind you automatically. If you are having trouble getting task.fm to translate your reminder, you can use the "advanced reminder" option to manually enter the date and time.

Unlimited email reminders are free. Task.fm charges a fee for SMS and phone call messages. SMS and Voice reminders cost 1 credit. You may purchase 20 credits for $2.

Superminder

Superminder is an online micro-application that will make sure you don't forget. It was designed with simplicity as the main focus. It's uncomplicated and should not confuse you with options you don't need. It looks good with a friendly, stylish interface.

Superminder can remind you by email but you can take it a step further by enabling your cellphone to receive your reminders. There is a fee for this feature, however. SMS reminders cost 1 credit, 15 credits will cost you $4.

Wakerupper

Wakerupper is a service to schedule telephone reminders. You enter text messages up to 140 characters which are then converted and delivered as speech.

No signup is needed for basic service. You can direct as many reminders as you like to any US or Canadian phone number. Basic service is free, but there is a premium version offering added features.

Wakerupper also offers a slimmed down version for mobile devices at http://m.wakerupper.com

Remindr

This one is my favorite. From a remarkably simple interface, Remindr allows you to send reminders via Twitter, email, IM (Jabber or Gtalk), and/or cell phone.

It's totally free and no sign-up is needed. You can direct your reminder to any phone number or any email address so you can send reminders to others as well as yourself.

A couple of notes on Remindr: Time must be set in 24-hour format (2:30 PM = 14:30) and to get reminders via Twitter, you need to follow Remindr's bot.

So, don't forget to check out these handy services soon.

Maybe It's Time to Refocus

In this article from Tech & Learning, Barbara Bray, president of My eCoach, suggests that if you feel overworked and stressed, if you can't keep your students interested, if things seem to be spinning out of control, it might be time to REFOCUS.

Bray uses REFOCUS as an acronym for:

• Recognize your strengths and achievements.
• Empower yourself by reliving peack experiences.
• Focus at the beginning of each week on the upcoming lessons and activities.
• Redirect Objectives that you were unable to meet because of time constraints or other challenges.
• Commit to following through on your new learning targets and planned activities.
• Unburden yourself of the need to be the "expert" and allow your students more responsibility for their learning.
• Surprise your students with innovation, imagination, and increased responsibility.

To learn more ... click here

Halloween-themed Lesson Plans

• All Day Nightmare- This book is a good fit for a reluctant reader because the story is spooky, the reading level is not overly challenging, and it is fun for students to feel like they have control over the story.
• Atmosphere & Symbolism in "The Raven"- "You will need multiple copies of the poem "The Raven" by Edgar Allen Poe for this activity."
• Bat Thematic Unit- The only Flying mammal?
• Cemetery Path- Students will read and predict what happens next. Students are to use their reasoning skills and imagination to predict the story's outcome.
• Creative Writing: Halloween Theme- "The students will identify practice incorporating the different aspects of a story (character, setting, plot, etc...) into their own seasonal story after reviewing these aspects."
• Frighteningly Fabulous Festivals- In this lesson, students explore the significance of holiday foods, first by researching Halloween-type festivals from around the world, and then by reporting on foods related to different holidays celebrated in their homes.
• Ghouls and Goblins- This lesson is based on a Halloween game or activity.

More ...
Halloween Lesson Plans