This page is a list of resources that I use in my classroom, that I recommend to my students to use to further their learning, use to communicate with parents, and use to communicate with my colleagues. Included with each resource is a description of what the technology tool can do and how I use it. To navigate to the resource's website, click on the picture.
Resources for Students
I use these technologies in my classroom when I am working with small groups and when students finish tasks before their classmates. I also recommend these resources to parents as tools their students can use at home for additional practice.
Freckle EducationFreckle Education is a website with math practice that adapts to the student's skill level. It is organized into the math topics covered for each grade level, so students can practice a math topic of their own choosing, or they can practice a math standard of the teacher's choice.
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ProdigySimilar to Freckle Education, Prodigy is a website that provides adaptive math practice. Students enjoy battling each other with math problems in this video game-like website. Teachers can assign students to practice particular standards.
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Khan AcademyKhan Academy has lessons, practice, and assessments organized by mathematical skills. Students can pick a skill to work through, which directly aligns with the Common Core Standards.
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Resources for the Classroom
These are some technologies that I integrate into my teaching.
DesmosDesmos is a free online graphing calculator. Graphing by hand can take my sixth graders a long time. When a lesson includes graphing, but the learning goal of a lesson is not graphing, I like to use Desmos to speed up the process and focus the learning on the other content.
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Kahoot!Kahoot! is a quiz game. Educators can find and use multiple-choice quizzes others have created, or they can create their own. I use it for students to review concepts and to formatively assess my students.
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EducreationsEducreations is an interactive whiteboard and screencasting tool. Teachers can use this application to record a math problem solution process. I use this tool to formatively assess my students. Students write their solutions while audio recording their thinking, and I can replay the audio while watching the students come to their solutions.
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SMART NotebookSMART Notebook is a digital whiteboard. In addition to the normal functions of a whiteboard (without the mess), lessons can be saved and used multiple times, free lessons can be found online, and there are fun interactive features that engage students. I create all of my lessons in SMART Notebook.
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YouCubedYouCubed is a website created to give teachers resources to excite students about mathematics. It presents mathematical research in ways that are accessible to teachers and has many math tasks available for free. Every year, I show my students the videos from YouCubed that explain a growth mindset at a level appropriate for middle schoolers.
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Resources for Families
I use these technologies to communicate with my students' parents on a daily basis.
Class DojoClass Dojo is a tool to connect teachers with parents. I use Class Dojo to motivate student behavior, track student behavior, and communicate student behavior to the students' parents. This website also allows teachers to share photos and videos with parents and has recently added student portfolios.
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WeeblyWeebly is a website builder. It is easy to use and update. I made my classroom website with Weebly, and I update it every day. I keep my syllabus, an embedded Google homework calendar, copies of in-class lessons, helpful videos, newsletters, and more on my Weebly website. Parents tell me every year that they love my website.
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Resources for Colleagues
Even though we are all in the same building, I have found coordinating with a team to be much easier with these two technologies.
Google DocsGoogle Docs is an online word processor in which multiple users can collaborate on one document. Every year, I create a Google Doc for my team to track academic and behavior interventions for our 140 shared students. It has been extremely valuable to see which students are in need of intervention in other classes and which interventions work. This document also has been useful in the multi-tier system of supports (MTSS) processes for identifying students for intervention or evaluation.
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SignUpGeniusSignUpGenius is an event organization tool. I use this with my colleagues to find meeting dates for 504 plans and Individualized Education Program (IEP) reviews that work for everyone. I have also used it with parents to organize volunteers for classroom celebrations.
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Photo Attributions:
Image 1: Freckle Education website
Image 2: Prodigy website
Image 3: Khan Academy website
Image 4: Desmos website
Image 5: Kahoot! website
Image 6: Educreations website
Image 7: SMART Technologies website
Image 8: YouCubed website
Image 9: Class Dojo website
Image 10: Weebly website
Image 11: Google Docs website
Image 12: SignUpGenius website
Image 1: Freckle Education website
Image 2: Prodigy website
Image 3: Khan Academy website
Image 4: Desmos website
Image 5: Kahoot! website
Image 6: Educreations website
Image 7: SMART Technologies website
Image 8: YouCubed website
Image 9: Class Dojo website
Image 10: Weebly website
Image 11: Google Docs website
Image 12: SignUpGenius website