EDUCADE: Lesson Plans & Teaching Tools

EDUCADE Beta is an online community designed to help you create what you want for your students and share your work with other educators. You’ll need to sign up to create lessons, resources, and materials, but it is free. You can search for lessons by subject, tool type, topic, and platform, or you can enter a keyword. Available lessons will be listed, along with a summary of each. Lessons include objectives, Common Core alignment, resources, 21^st Century skills, step-by-step guides, and more. As an example of what’s available at EDUCADE, take a look at the lesson featuring electrical engineering for Grades 4-9. It uses MaKey MaKey circuit board kits. Impressive.

Free High Quality Flipped Video Tool

Bridget McCrea’s article in t|h|e Journal tells how teacher Natasha Rausch struggled with finding the right app for her lessons. When introduced to Knowmia Teach, she not only embraced the tool, but also made suggestions for improvement to its developers. She wanted to “incorporate a camera and video recording option so that teachers could record themselves over the slides...” FaceTime was added and other changes were made to make the product even better. Rausch says that the app helps her not only with homework videos, but also with materials to help students review content, lessons for use when she must be absent, and much more.

Projects: Photos Editing on the iPad

As students look more and more to report creation on mobile devices, a photo-editing tool has become a must. SnapSeed is a photo editing app that comes highly rated and at the right price—free. It has a simple interface and options such as crop, size, rotate, fill and stroke, text, wrap, gradient, fade, lens flare, and camera fill. Although, it is not a full-featured photo-editing tool, it’s said to be able to create wonderful images. SnapSeed was named the best mobile photo app of 2012 and the iPad App of the Year. If you are looking for photo-editing apps that have more options, take a look at Photogene ($2.99) and Adobe Photoshop Touch ($9.99). These and other photo apps were recommended by John Paul Titlow at Readwrite.com.

 

For additional recommendations for photo-editing apps, search the App Store for Fun with Filters.

Should We Ban the Words “Technology Integration”?

Gary Shattuck, Tech & Learning CIO Advisor, knows that technology is being used in classrooms, but he is concerned about how it is being used. He says that technology is usually an add-on to lessons, not essential to them. According to Shattuck, while we are using technology to engage students, many of us are not using technology for the type of engagement in which technology is embedded into lessons. To solve this problem, Shattuck suggests we forget the words “technology integration”, which leads us to view technology on a “superficial level”.  Shattuck, the director of technology and media services at Newton County Schools in Georgia, says that lessons need to be “meaningful and purposeful” and that technology should be embedded, not simply integrated, into lessons.

TED Ed: Lessons Worth Sharing

Take the tour of TED Ed to see how you can use videos that are on the Internet to create super lessons.  On the site, you can also look at lessons others have created, and if you think you can use them in your courses, you can change them to fit your students and your curriculum. Lessons are listed by category such as mathematics, health, literature and language, social studies, and science and technology. Some of those that are called “Best Flips” or exceptional lessons featured are: Atoms from A to Easy!, Pi with Pies, The Secret to Rising Sea Levels, The Dawn of Art, and What is Nano?

Educreations: iPad Lessons

Educreations has free computer and iPad software that helps you create and save iPad lessons and make use of lessons created by others.  Your lessons may include photo slides, diagrams, animation, and audio.  You can set who will be allowed to view your lessons. At Educreations you’ll find Featured Lessons, and subject area lessons in mathematics, science, Social studies, English, world languages, and the arts. Originally for teachers, this software may now be used by students to create reports and study notes.  The software is very easy to use, useful for teachers and students wanting to create iPad files, and convenient for learning from the lessons of others.

Lessons Go Virtual at LearnZillion

Individualized learning sounds like a good idea, but unless teachers have computer programs or apps that keep up with where students should be when, individualization is difficult to achieve. To help teachers allow students to work at their own pace, former teachers Eric Westendorf and Alix Guerrier co-founded LearnZillion. The partners and their team are creating free lessons that come in the form of YouTube-type videos. The lessons which are approximately five minutes long “are illustrated by hand and voiced by a real teacher.” A “Dream Team” of 100 master teachers was selected to work on the project. So far, lessons are available for Grades 3-9 in mathematics, but other lessons are on the way. The idea is similar to that of the popular Khan Academy, with the difference being that LearnZillion’s lessons are based on the Common Core Standards and may later be sold as a service to schools wishing to have lessons tailored to their students. The partners say that the lessons posted online, however, will continue to be free to those who wish to use them. Khan Academy lessons are free.

The Search Engine for Teachers

Whenever you need an idea for a lesson, think LESSONPLANET, which features over 400,000 teacher-reviewed lesson plans and worksheets.  Some of the categories for lesson plans are 21^st Century Learning, language arts, career education, health, languages, physical education, social studies, math, science, career readiness, world history, and visual and performing arts. LESSONPLANET offers a free 10-day trial so that you can see if the lessons included will be of benefit to you. If you like the service, you can sign up for about $45 a year.

Pets in the Classroom Grants

The Pet Care Trust offers no hassle grants to teachers who wish to bring pets into the classroom. According to the Trust, “Kids benefit from exposure to pets in the classroom in ways that help to shape their lives for years to come.” The grant program for 2010-2011 included Kindergarten through Grade Six, but has been extended for 2011-2012 to Grades Seven and Eight. Thousands of aquariums, small animals, and reptiles have been provided for classrooms. Grants may be for pets (such as hamsters, fish, snakes, turtles), pet foods, pet supplies, and pet environments. They are redeemable at local Petco, Petsmart, or other stores as specified in your grant application. Grants are for 50% off the cost of the animal, food, cage, aquarium, etc. Apply online before June 30, 2012.

Artsonia: The Kids Art Museum

At Artsonia, teachers, Preschool through Grade 12 can sign up to post their students’ art online. Joining and posting on the site is free. In addition to including artwork from over 12.5 million students, the site features thousands of lesson plan starters. There’s even an iPhone App available for Artsonia, so students, teachers, and family members can browse the Artsonia museum galleries on computers or iPhones. Parents and friends of artists can go online, vote for their favorite artwork, and make comments about it.  Comments must be approved by teachers and/or parents before they are posted. The site includes a gift shop where children’s artwork can be transferred onto products such as magnets, bookmarks, tee shirts, tiles, coffee mugs, etc. and purchased.  Schools receive 15% of any products sold.