Riveting Resources: Pt. 1
So sorry everyone for being MIA the past few weeks-the start of the school year has definitely been a handful! BUT I’M BACK and have a series blog post coming your way :) I have compiled some great resources and tips to share with you all, and to start this series, here’s part one: teacher resources!
Free year of Vooks for teachers-Vooks is a streaming library of animated children’s storybooks, and they are providing teachers with a free year subscription to their website! I’ve personally signed up myself, so I know it is legitimate. Although I probably won’t use it as a fifth grade teacher, this would be great for primary grades, as well as teachers with young children of their own! It is a simple process-just fill in information like your name, school you teach at, grade, etc. and then they verify your information and send you an email with your account information to confirm your account. It only took a couple days too to get that confirmation email.
GoNoodle-this is a fantastic, FREE brain-break website. There are tons of videos----from yoga to goofy dances and everything in between. With virtual learning, now more than ever the kids need breaks from sitting and staring at a computer screen. When I see my students losing focus, I stop, pick a video, share my screen and they love it! Even the kids that don’t like the videos, I make sure they are up and out of their seat during this time. ALSO-even though these videos might look too childish for let’s say fifth graders, THAT’S NOT TRUE. My fifth graders love it just as much as little ones do! But even if your older students aren’t into the cheesy dance videos, there are still yoga videos, mindfulness videos, and even videos to just play some music during a break. (side note about GoNoodle-there are versions you can pay for on this website, but I just made a free account and it has all the settings I have needed/wanted as an educator).
Kahoot-this is a game-based learning platform that the kids LOVE! You can either create your own game with questions to test student knowledge on the content you are teaching, or even look through the games that other people made that are made public. I have searched for a certain topic before and found games where the content is the same as what I am teaching-then just made a copy and edited it as needed. This website I have used in the classroom and during virtual learning, and the kids love it no matter what! I highly recommend! (side note about Kahoot-there are versions you can pay for on this website, but I just made a free account and it has all the settings I have needed/wanted as an educator).
Padlet-this website is personally one of my absolute FAVORITES! On this website, you can make boards for many different things. I started using this website when I would have my students make Superbowl predictions a few years ago. I made two columns, one for each team, and the students would add a note to which side they thought would win, then on the note, type their name and their guess on the final score. The kids had a blast! Once virtual learning began, I created a Padlet where my students could post notes with positive things they wanted to share with their class. I called it “Our Positive Padlet” and it was a huge hit! I changed the settings so students could add to the Padlet with the link, and did not have to create an account in order to do so. I also chose the setting where it wasn’t public, so no one could search for it and find it. I encouraged the students to post on it whenever they wanted to share something with the class, and read each others notes if they needed something to cheer them up or just wanted to see what others had to share! My favorite use of Padlet so far has been when my fifth graders last year had to have a virtual promotion ceremony. I encouraged the students to dress up with their families, enjoy their special day and take pictures, then post them on the Padlet so as a class we could share in this special day just like if we were able to celebrate in school! I had almost ALL my families participate, and the Padlet was FILLED with pictures of my students and their families celebrating their fifth grade promotion. It was so special to me to see all of them that day in the pictures, since we couldn’t be together because of the pandemic. Most recently, I came up with another creative way of using Padlet-creating a virtual bulletin board! Every year, usually I have the students fill out an All About Me sheet at the beginning of the school year and we hang them up on the bulletin board in the hallway. This year couldn’t be any different, so I saved all of their All About Me PDFs as they turned them in, and posted them on a Padlet in neat rows! Then I shared the link for the Padlet with the parents and students (I changed the settings so they could only view, not add or edit the Padlet this time)!
(side note about Padlet-there are versions you can pay for on this website, but I just made a free account and it has all the settings I have needed/wanted as an educator).
Nearpod-this site I just began using this year, but it is a phenomenal tool to use during virtual learning. This website lets you convert google slide presentations to an interactive lesson presentation for the students. There is a free version, however the county I work for purchased a subscription to this website. So I am not completely sure what features that I have access to are not available in the free version, but it is still definitely worth checking out! You can create presentations directly on the website, or convert an already made google slide into a Nearpod. When you use a Nearpod presentation, the presentation gives students a website to go to and a code to punch in (if you use Canvas as a teacher-the student can sign into the Nearpod presentation right in their Canvas classroom as well). Once the students type in the code and join the presentation, on their screen it will display the presentation. As you flip to the next page, it will change the screen for the kids. This is great for virtual learning because the students cannot go ahead when viewing the presentation. Also, you can add interactive slides so the students can participate through answering questions, posting on a collaborative board, and more (interactive slide submissions by the students are also saved so you can access them later if needed)!
These are just some of the many resources/tools I’ve used lately and come to love, but there is so much more out there! Currently, the county I work for has us using Canvas as our platform for learning-so I also have a lot of knowledge on that as well. Please feel free to comment below or contact me (go to the contact page to do so) with questions on the resources above or Canvas! I’d be happy to provide more information or answer questions on any of these resources/tools.
Anything I can do to help a fellow teacher out!
If you have any other wonderful resources you have found helpful and useful for teaching, comment and share below!! Stay tuned for Part 2 of the Riveting Resources blog post series-next up…..
Parent resources!
