CUE 2016: Top FIVE… for now

Almost the End of CUE and here is what made my short list!

  1. Slack– a communication platform for teams and collaboration. Allows separate channels with different audiences and very useful search features. Great video-worth the 2 minutes!
  2. Drawp for School: Student friendly way to draw, type, record BUT what makes this program unique is the seamless method of sharing and the ability for teachers to assign work.
  3. Custom Search Engine by Google– Create your very own search engine with websites or domains that you approve! MY SAMPLE 
  4. Search for a Primary Source with Google Newspaper Archives It shows images of newspapers from a specific day- so many primary resources at your fingertips!
  5. Discovery Education STEM resources-Free curriculum and professional development for STEM

Hope you will have a chance to check these out.

Digital Resources for Reading…Epic! and Newsela

At my school we are on a quest to find more reading resources for our students to give them lots of opportunities to read at an appropriate level. We are especially identifying areas that provide more NONFICTION reading. Here are the two latest programs we have investigated that I would recommend!

Epic! is a digital library with both fiction and nonfiction trade books. The books are very high interest for kids, they just want to keep reading. Students can search by topic or look up specific authors or titles. Wide selection of books that can be read. Teachers can create student accounts to help guide the students reading choices. Teachers can see the activity of their students, books read, etc. This program is available both as an app and a website.Grade level Tk-6  Website link

Newsela aggregates current event news articles and provides each article at 5 different reading levels. Students or teacher can select the reading article. There are quizzes to accompany the articles. Students can write comments on the articles. Newsela syncs with Google Classroom to make it easy for teachers to assign articles or for students to turn in an article as an assignment. The Pro Version allows teachers to see more data about the students’ reading and to customize features for students. This is available both on the web and as an app. Reading Level 2nd-6th  Website Link