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Love this for her English and Brain neuroscience resources.

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Bookmarking this one for some great Business tools, as well as insight into Digital Technologies, which I would love teaching at some point down the road.

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Requires Facebook login.

This is an online community of senior business teachers in Queensland who share resources, support moderation, and offer insights into questions relating to the senior syllabus

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Upload your TLAPS/Units - CQU share drive

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Upload your TLAPS/Units - CQU share drive

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I have created a shared Google Folder where, as a cohort, we can upload our TLAPS/Units of Work completed in the Junior and Senior Secondary Subjects (that I know we all spent SO much time on!).

Hopefully this will give everyone access to some resources as they undertake placements and begin teaching.

I have put mine in Business/English

Upload yours, or send them to me and I can add for you.

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Laughter minimises stress, anxiety and depression. So why not laugh at screaming goats when needing a little humour rehab?

Videos of babies laughing are another great option!

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Leave a comment to say hi!

This is the Padlet posted on the Google Site I created for Blog Post 3 (Business Creation task) - link here

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Overview

Sutori is an interactive presentation tool created by a group of educators. It is hosted online and allows students to create and collaborate on shared presentations, invite audience engagement through quizzes, discussion forums, and polls, and embed external digital artefacts and links to other sites, all in one platform. Presentations on this platform can be shared privately by invitation or published publicly, accessible on Sutori and through search engines.

Sutori has been selected for its ease of use for students with varied digital self-efficacy, its suitability for supporting participation and accessibility through features that allow students to record audio and embed alternative artefacts, its compliance with protecting the privacy and security of student data (Sutori, n.d.), and its capacity to support transformative learning through features that allow for collaboration, creativity, reflection, peer feedback, and publishing for wider audiences. Additionally, the analytics feature allows teachers to monitor comments in protection of student safety and wellbeing, and gain insight on levels of student interaction and contribution, collecting formative data.

In the learning sequence, Sutori is utilised by students to collaboratively curate resources and artefacts, define the problem, brainstorm and present solutions, provide peer feedback, and publish to a wider audience, including the presentation of solutions to the participating business.

Transformational Digital Pedagogy

Through problem-based learning, Sutori allows for transformational digital pedagogy by:

Serving initially as a curated collection of shared resources and definitions as students define the problem, brainstorm solutions and generate questions

Positioning students as creators of artefacts and knowledge, whether completed directly in the platform or through the use of embedded digital artefacts (video, images, links, blogs, files)

Allowing students to work collaboratively to solve real-word business issues on a platform that allows multi-authoring

Supporting student agency and ownership over learning as they make decisions about how the tool is used to collaborate and present solutions

Developing student skills in a presentation tool that can be utilised across the curriculum, as well as in authentic business contexts

Promoting digital literacy through the embedded use of free images on Unsplash.com and the ‘References’ feature

Facilitating peer feedback through commenting, with students refining work based on recommendations

Enabling students to present solutions to the identified business through live presentations (face-to-face or online), or through a published link accessible to peers, community and industry

Beyond the classroom, students’ completed presentations are a positive addition to their digital footprint and an artefact for an employment portfolio. Ideas presented may also see real-world application if taken on by the business to achieve efficiencies.

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Portfolios, unit previews, self-paced courses, digital notebooks, multimedia lessons, timelines... and much more!

For social studies teachers

The structure of timelines, the simplicity of slides.

Inspire curiosity

The perfect format for inquiry-based instructional strategies. Motivate discussion and spark new ideas.

Critical thinking

Upload primary and secondary sources to train students' eyes to analyze and make connections.

Collaboration

Students work together as they address problems and make decisions as a team to reach a common goal.

Perfect for History, Geography and Sociology

For English, Language and Arts teachers

Writing and multimedia assignments have never been better.

Enhance literacy

Rich-editing features make Sutori a valuable companion for continued reading and writing development.

Creativity

Just the right amount of options to see creativity flourish for all types of learners.

Communication

Sutori's visual nature show the breadth of ways to convey ideas and knowledge.

Templates, lesson plans and more!

For STEM teachers

Showing the process of learning

Structured learning

The canvas to organize content. Set up templates for a cohesive learning experience.

Self-reflection

Students demonstrate their approach, outline their learning and reflect along the way.

Engage

Add formative quizzes, polls and any type of media to build fun activities with your students.

Some ready-made lessons to inspire you

Growing in classrooms across the world.

2,359,762Teachers & students

"With a super-simple design and tons of flexible features, this is an appealing and intuitive way for teachers and students to organize and share class content."

Read the review

Sutori 💙 Cares

Education is the key to a better world and we want to play our part in supporting educators.

Check out our ambassador program and the meaningful and impactful learning initiatives Sutori supports.

Learn more

Who we are

We're a tight knit team of three friends (including two brothers) who have come a long way from recreating historical events on Twitter.

Learn more about our story and how we seek to empower educators in their teaching and keep students' data secure.

Learn about us

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Sutori is a collaborative tool for classrooms, ideal for multimedia assignments in Social Studies, English, Language Arts, STEM, and PBL for all ages.

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This is a great guide on Hattie's HITS, with practical ways they can be implemented in the classroom.

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Bloom's + Knowledge dimenions for learning objectives

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Bloom's + Knowledge dimenions for learning objectives

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This read and table from Iowa state overlays Bloom's Revised Taxonomy with the knowledge dimensions (factual to metacognitive). It can be helpful in creating learning objectives that combine the two.

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*Anderson, L.W. (Ed.), Krathwohl, D.R. (Ed.), Airasian, P.W., Cruikshank, K.A., Mayer, R.E., Pintrich, P.R., Raths, J., & Wittrock, M.C. (2001). A taxonomy for learning, teaching, and assessing: A revision of Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives (Complete edition). New York: Longman.

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Anderson, L.W. (Ed.), Krathwohl, D.R. (Ed.), Airasian, P.W., Cruikshank, K.A., Mayer, R.E., Pintrich, P.R., Raths, J., & Wittrock, M.C. (2001). A taxonomy for learning, teaching, and assessing: A revision of Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives (Complete edition). New York: Longman.

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Cool Australia Sustainability Lessons & Resources

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Cool Australia Sustainability Lessons & Resources

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Cool Australia has a library of curriculum aligned lesson plans that focus on real-world  environmental, social and economic sustainability.

This is an amazing site for integrating the sustainability cross-curriculum priority into a range of subject areas. I adapted the 2040 lesson for a Year 8 persuaive writing unit.

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2040 is an innovative feature documentary that looks to the future, but is vitally important NOW! Director Damon Gameau embarks on a journey to explore what the future could look like by the year 2040 if we simply embraced the best solutions already available to us to improve our planet and shifted them rapidly into the mainstream.

In Australia: Order the Schools Version of the 2040 DVD. The Schools Version includes an educational license and is for Australian primary and secondary schools that wish to utilise the film as a learning tool or host free on-site screenings for the school community.

In New Zealand: Order the Schools Version of the 2040 DVD. The Schools Version includes an educational license and is for New Zealand primary and secondary schools that wish to utilise the film as a learning tool or host free on-site screenings for the school community.

If you are teaching in either New Zealand or Australia, you can now organise a virtual screening of the film for your class. To enquire about this option, simply email schools@whatsyour2040.com and the 2040 team will help you set this up! If you have already bought a DVD of the film and you have a ClickView account, you can email the team for permission to upload the film to your account to make it more easily accessible for your teachers and students.

Cool.org, GoodThing Productions and Regen Pictures would like to acknowledge the generous contributions of Good Pitch Australia, Shark Island Institute, Documentary Australia Foundation, The Caledonia Foundation and our philanthropic partners in the development of these teaching resources.

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Explore the link between empowering women and girls and addressing climate change in this Year 9 and Year 10 English lesson on sustainability. Through video and role-play, students will develop targeted solutions to gender inequality using analytical tools.

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Great starter webpage for flipped classrooms and student creation

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How automation saves Calendly's team 10+ hours a week

How Fellow onboards wholesale customers 4x faster

Create your first Zap with ease

When you want to build a simple, free website, it can be tricky to find the right builder. Some only let you have one page, while others make you dig around menus to figure out how to use them. What if you just want to drag and drop some text and images in a decent-looking layout?

As usual, Google has your answer: Google Sites.

What is Google Sites?

Turn forms and surveys into business growth

Google Sites is Google's website builder. When you pit Google Sites vs. WordPress or another advanced website builder, it won't really stack up-it has way fewer features. But it still has what you need to create a blog, portfolio, business site, or company intranet. It's also simple enough for non-business users to create websites for their families, friends, and classrooms.

In fact, you can get pretty polished with Google Sites. Site Builder Report shares some professional-looking Google Sites examples, like the site for Dr. Xu Chu's petrology group:

Is Google Sites free?

Yes! You can build a Google Site at zero cost. Plus, since it doesn't have pricing tiers, you get all of its features for free.

How to use Google Sites

Go to sites.google.com and choose one of the options at the top to start a new site: use a template, or start from scratch. You can switch to Google Sites' classic editor at the bottom-left of this page, but this tutorial will explain how to use the new editor.

Since my cats need to improve their online presence, I'll make a website for them as an example. As you build yours, use the preview option in the top-right menu to see what your website will look like on different devices.

Create a header

Every new Google Sites page starts with a premade header. At the top-left of that header, you'll find a field that says Enter site name. The name you enter here will appear on your website, but you can give your site a private name on the main Google Sites page where you go to edit your sites.

When you hover your mouse over the site name, you'll have the option to add a logo that appears to the left of the name. It comes up small, so use a simple and clear image.

Go to the lower-left of the header section to edit your header. Select an image to use as your background, then choose from four header types: cover, large banner, banner, or title only. The first three options present your background image in various sizes, while the last only uses header text.

The lower-right corner of the section has options to adjust the image for better header readability and lets you choose where to anchor (center) your image. There's no set Google Sites header size. Instead, it takes your image and adjusts it to different resolutions based on where you anchor it. I suggest using the highest resolution you can, then checking how your header looks on different devices using the preview option.

After you decide on your banner size and background image, work on the header text. Click on it to edit its style, size, font, and alignment. Drag the dots at the top of the text box to move the box left or right (but not up or down). Or delete it if you don't want any text.

Want to add an image on top of your header image? Double-click anywhere on the banner, then use the circle menu to add from a URL, your Google Drive, or your computer. You can also use the menu's middle button to add extra text boxes.

Choose a theme

Click the Themes tab at the top of the menu on the right to modify your site's design. Each theme has a few preset color schemes and fonts.

Looking for more control? Click the + icon under the Custom category to make your own theme that Google Sites will save for later. You can modify fonts and colors to your heart's content.

Add text and media

Time to dig into Google Sites' website building elements. Click the Insert tab in the right bar to add the following elements to your site:

Basic elements: The top section of the Insert menu lets you insert a text box or images, embed HTML code, or add Google Drive files. You can also access these options through the circle menu by double-clicking anywhere on your site-in-progress.

Content blocks: These premade blocks of text and images save you time on adding individual elements and arranging them.

Collapsible group: A collapsible group consists of a header with collapsible text lines underneath. You can change any combo of header and body text into a collapsible group by clicking the Collapsible toggle that appears when you click on their text boxes.

Table of contents: Google Sites' tables of contents automatically generate links that jump to different sections of your website using text from each section. You can remove items but can't add them.

Image carousels: Add two or more images to an image carousel that you can navigate using the dots below it, or have it automatically cycle through the pictures.

Buttons: Create a link button that draws its font and colors from your theme.

Dividers: Google Sites creates simple dividers with a design based on your chosen theme.

Placeholders: A placeholder section holds space for an image, YouTube video, Google Calendar, or Google Map.

Just like the header text, any text box you add through these elements has options to change its format and size. Click the three dots on the right end of the editing bar to edit line spacing, add an indent, or create code-style formatting. The keyboard shortcuts you use in Google Docs to edit text also work in Google Sites.

Incorporate Google elements

It wouldn't be Google if it didn't integrate well with other Google apps, and sure enough, Google Sites lets you add content from other Google tools through the Insert menu. Each Google-related option will take you to a menu to find the file or interactive element you want to share. Choose from these options:

YouTube: Embed a playable YouTube video into your website.

Calendar: Share your calendar in weekly, monthly, and agenda views.

Map: Insert an interactive Google Map of the address you choose.

Docs, Slides, Sheets, and Charts: Add a Google file in View mode to your page.

Forms: Display a Google Form that visitors can fill out on your site.

Insert a Google Sites contact form

Google Sites doesn't have a native contact form option. Instead, you have two options to insert one from an outside source:

Google Forms: Make a contact form in Google Forms, then use Google Sites' Insert or circle menu to add it.

Embed code from a third-party app: Check if your favorite booking app or has an embed code option, then use the Insert or circle menu's Embed option.

Arrange columns and sections

Rearrange your elements at any time by clicking and dragging the dots at the top of each one. New elements appear at the bottom of the page, and you can drag them next to existing elements to create columns.

Tip: To keep your images in their original aspect ratio, drag a corner to start resizing them, then press your Shift key to resize with the same ratio.

You can move single elements to the left or right, but you can't change their vertical position within a section. For example, I can't line up these headings with the center of each image:

Click and drag the dots on the left of the section to move it. There, you'll also find options to change its background color, duplicate it, or delete it. Switch up your section background colors to add emphasis and break up visuals.

Add and manage pages

Finished with your first page? Add more from the Pages tab in the right menu. Go to the + icon at the bottom of the menu to add a new page. This button also lets you add an outside link or a menu category to your header menu.

Move page names around on the Pages menu to change their order in your website's menu. Drag a page under another page or a menu category to make it a subpage. On your site menu, a subpage appears as a dropdown menu item below its parent page or category.

Click the three dots next to a page name to make it your homepage, duplicate it, add a subpage, hide it from the menu, or delete it.

Tip: If you want to copy something from one page to another, select that part of your site, press command + C or Ctrl + C, then paste it onto the new page.

Publish and collaborate

Now it's time to share your hard work. Click the Publish button at the top-right of the screen. As you publish, you can set the end of your custom URL. You can also hide your website from Google results if you want to keep it private.

After you publish, you can visit your site at sites.google.com/view/yourwebaddress, as you can see under the Web address bar in the picture above.

In the future, hit Publish whenever you make changes to your site and you're ready to share them publicly. Whenever you re-publish a site, Google Sites will show you the differences between your new edits and the currently published site.

In classic Google fashion, you can also share your site with others and set them as editors or viewers. Click the person icon in the upper-right menu to add people and set their permissions.

If you have multiple folks working on your website, you can check its version history by clicking the three dots in the upper-right menu and going to Version history. This option works similarly to Google Docs' version history feature, letting you check old versions and roll back your site.

Congrats on building a website! Here's how mine turned out.

Frequently asked questions

Can I have a custom domain in Google Sites?

Yes. You can set up a Google Sites custom URL through the Settings > Custom domains option. This feature lets you hook up a domain through Google Domains or a third party.

If you plan on using your Google Site for professional purposes, a custom domain will give it extra polish. Plus, it's pretty cheap to get one-about $15 a year.

Does Google Sites have widgets?

Google Sites doesn't have widgets outside of its Google apps options, but you can add any outside option with an embed code. Look for an Embed or < > option for the widget. The Embed feature in Google Sites can only use HTML code.

Not into it? Try a different free website builder

If Google Sites is the first free website builder you've tried, give others a shot to see what features you prefer. Zapier's picks for the best free website builders include some pretty feature-packed options if the simplicity of Google Sites isn't what you're looking for.
This article was originally published in March 2018 by Matthew Guay.

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What is Google Sites? An in-depth guide | Zapier

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What if you just want to drag and drop some text and images in a decent-looking layout for your website? Google Sites has what you need. Here's how to use it.

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Google Sites is a free site builder from Google. But you know that already, since you research its pros and cons. So let's get straight to the point.

Google Sites Advantages

It's free, simple, secure, fast, and it's a part of the Google ecosystem.

Pricing

Google Sites is a free website builder. Period. It doesn't have a traffic, project, or time limitation. A paid plan for Google Sites does not exist. Well, at least for now!

Everything you need to start using Google Sites is a Google Mail account. Just like any other tool by Google.

Simplicity

You need an hour to become a master in all Google Sites features. The interface is intuitive, and all the options and tools you meet inside are familiar. Besides, Google Sites doesn't have a ton of them - just essentials to build a nice-looking basic website with a clean design.

Security

Google Sites security is as strong as the security of your Google account. The main point here - you don't leave the Google environment. You don't have to share access with a 3-rd party, expose your credentials, create new accounts and passwords.

To level up your account security, you can set up 2-step verification and use an authentication app (also provided by Google).

Speed

When it comes to load speed, Google Sites is not the best platform, but it's definitely in the top 5-especially considering that you don't need to tune a server or CDN. Everything just happens.

Google Sites is not using many scripts and does minimal image compressing to make your website faster.

Watching your image size is the only advice you can follow to make your Google website even faster, especially on mobile. Large images are the pain point for Google Sites, so make them light.

Ecosystem

Google Sites is fully integrated with all other Google products - Google Docs, Google Drive, Google Analytics, Google Search Console, Google Mail, etc. And not only do they work together and exchange data, they feel almost the same. This means that managing all Google tools is as easy (or hard) as one of them.

On top of that, you'll find out that your Google Sites website is nothing more than a file on your Google Drive (basically, Google Drive is your server). And you can copy, share or delete it just like any other file. Although, downloading Google sites is impossible - there's no such option.

Google Sites Disadvantages

The downsides of Google Sites are design features, marketing features, 3rd-party integrations, SEO, ecommerce features.

Design

This is true, but at the same time, contradictory. Google Sites hold simplicity at its core. That's how the developers what it to be. Giving Google Sites more design options will lead to making it more complicated and, as a result, more difficult to master and use.

The platform could use more blocks, background settings, button styles, or even basic animation. Many things are missing. But are they essential to create a website?

In practice, you can create a neat website for almost any purpose with what Google Sites have to offer and go online instantly. Then, if it all goes well, you can search for more complicated, in terms of design options, platforms.

And don't think that Google Sites developers don't have design options on their "to-do" list. They add them, but very slowly. It took them months to give us more text editing options. Imagine we couldn't choose fonts some time ago.

Marketing

Another gap for Google Sites is marketing features. Although they have some, more are missing. Google Analytics and an Announcement banner are pretty much it. There're no pop-ups, subscription boxes, live chat. You can't even add tracking pixels (like Facebook pixel). And although you can use Google Forms as a subscription box replacement, it's not a business approach. So we conclude that Google Sites are not ready to host serious online businesses.

However, it's not that bad at the end of the day! Google Sites allow adding widgets - code injections that can be anything!

Google Sites don't have plugins, like WordPress, add-ons, or extensions. But it has an Embed block that allows you to embed a link or a piece of code to the website that can be almost anything - a live chat, a shopping cart, a subscription box.

But be careful using code injections as they significantly slow down the load speed.

Ecommerce

As for now, Google Sites do not have an ecommerce feature. Meaning, you can't accept payments via Google Sites. Of course, you can add images with text and buttons and call it products, but to make money from them, you'll need another platform.

Google Sites is a website builder, not an ecommerce platform. But you can use it for landing pages. And use another platform for selling your products on the subdomain.

But with growing ecommerce, something's telling me that Google won't be waiting on the side of the road for long. And integration of Google Sites and Google Shopping tab (with Google Merchant Center) is yet to come.

SEO

What Google Sites could really benefit from is SEO. Created by the search engine, Google Sites don't have so many essential SEO settings like meta title, meta description, open graph settings, redirects, sitemap, robots, schema.

All you can do is name your website, use on-page markdown (where H1 = page title) and edit page URLs.

WHAT?

Well, it is what it is. At least for now.

Closing

With all my respect and love for Google Sites, this is not the best website builder on the planet. But if you're looking for simplicity, a quick start, and can marry different solutions using domain infrastructure, you're going to love Google Sites.

Google Sites is for those who don't want to think about website building but need a spot online - freelancers, creators, writers, small local businesses.

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Google Sites Pros and Cons: for Businesses and Individuals

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Google Sites is a free site builder from Google. But you know that already, since you research its pros and cons. So let's get straight to the point.

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Move over PowerPoint!

Students can create presentations and present via video recording. A link to the presentation can be shared online. Presenter view and notes are also available.

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Starting or joining Canva Live sessions - Canva Help Centre

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Make your presentations more interactive by using Canva Live.

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Best as a presentation tool for interactivity and collecting formative data as a teacher.

[Membership Disclaimer: Nearpod is free for individual teachers, but with limited features and storage. For student use, a school membership is required. View full membership inclusions here.]

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As educators, we are continually challenged to uncover innovative approaches that ignite students' curiosity, promote their active participation, and ultimately enrich their learning experiences. These techniques serve as timeless pillars of effective teaching, enabling us to create dynamic and interactive learning environments that empower students to thrive academically and beyond. So let's get into it. Here are 4 ways to increase engagement and student participation.
New to Nearpod? Sign up for free to access these activities. Explore interactive activities, standards-aligned lessons, and more!
4 Ways to increase student participation

1. Rich media in interactive lessons

Experiences like labs, discussions, and even field trips open up the door for hands-on, minds-on learning. These experiences are often students' favorite part of a unit and drive engagement and participation even after the activity is over. With Nearpod, you can move from passive to active learning by adding Virtual Reality (VR) Field Trips, Interactive Videos, and simulations to drive connections and encourage participation through exploration while embedding questions that spark critical thinking and creativity.

VR field trips

Our 350,000 VR field trips bring the world into the classroom, and now they are bringing the world into the homes of students. Our immersive VR experiences can be used on any device with or without VR goggles.

Simulations

Simulations can also be part of making those real-world connections. They engage students and the enrich learning process. Simulations allow students opportunities for exploration and hands-on, minds-on learning. With Nearpod's integrations with PhET, you can easily embed math and science simulations into any lesson!

2. Engagement around formative assessments

Checking for understanding throughout your lesson not only drives student engagement but also gives teachers real-time insights into student learning. When classrooms aren't physically together, it's even more important for students to be able to show what they know and for teachers to get a pulse on what their students have learned. On the other hand, during regular in-person learning, not all students raise their hands. Nearpod provides the opportunity to hear from all students.

Formative assessment is a hallmark feature of Nearpod and student participation. You can choose from a variety of question types that give students multiple ways to demonstrate learning (and have fun!). Examples include Poll, Time to Climb, Draw It, and more. These activities are engaging for your students and provide you with reliable data on their level of understanding.

Add Nearpod's formative assessment features to any point of your lesson or video for pre-determined checks for understanding, and hear from every student for every activity!

3. Fostering classroom community

Class community is an important part of increasing participation and engagement. With Nearpod, you can build classroom routines and foster class community, even from a distance.

Gamification

One way to create a class community is through routines that bring joy (and sometimes even a little competition) to your classroom. Try using our Time to Climb quiz game as a way to assess students' prior knowledge or as a summative assessment at the end of the week. This can be built in a moment of structure that the whole class will look forward to, and the competition and excitement will engage your students, no matter where they are. You can create your own or use our premade Time to Climb quizzes from our Lesson Library.

Collaborate Boards

Our interactive virtual discussion board, the Collaborate Board, is a great way to encourage student interaction. Students contribute responses by posting them to the prompt on a message board. Responses can be text, images, or both, meaning that student participation can happen at anytime, and you can hide student names for anonymity. Collaborate Boards are great for:

Priming class discussion

Brainstorming ideas

Reflecting on a skill or concept

Sharing experiences

Quick SEL check-ins

You can also add any of your favorite collaboration tools to your Nearpod lesson with a weblink.

Flocabulary

Another routine way to build community for class participation is by incorporating Flocabulary hip-hop videos to reflect student interest and identity during instruction. Flocabulary is a great way to introduce a new topic and teach vocabulary. You can leverage the supporting activities, like Vocab Cards, to reinforce what students have learned and provide opportunities to express creativity. At the end of a unit, students could use Lyric Lab to write their own rap about the topic they've learned. Flocabulary videos can be added inside Nearpod lessons or used on their own.

4. Interacting via video

Interactive Video

The interactivity teachers and students value in Nearpod slides-based lessons is now available for videos! Video instruction is such a powerful tool for teachers. However, video on its own can be passive; students sit and watch rather than interact with the information.

In the classroom, you'd pause and ask questions at key moments during a video. With Nearpod, you can pre-determine these checks for understanding, even during asynchronous instruction, and every student has the opportunity to respond on their device.

Upload a video of yourself teaching, find the perfect video on YouTube, or check out our library of over 1,000+ videos with questions already built in!

Nearpod with Flip

Nearpod now has integrated with Flip, taking video-based conversations to a new level. Flip is like a discussion board that uses video rather than text. You can use it for:

Book reports

Reflections

Teacher-student conferencing

Class debates

Students can also record themselves answering your questions. Then, you might have their classmates like and share the videos. Using Nearpod with Flipgrid can help students feel more connected with each other.

By embedding Flipgrid into your Nearpod lesson, students have a seamless experience. Easily include Flipgrid after a media source to capture student reactions and add in other question types. Students access, all with one link!

Putting it all together

Ensuring student engagement and participation is even more of a challenge than ever. With these four ways to increase student engagement and participation, your students (and you!) will be eager to log in for the next lesson.
New to Nearpod? Sign up for free to access these activities. Explore interactive activities, standards-aligned lessons, and more!

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4 Ways to increase student participation

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Elevate learning with 4 essential teaching strategies and activities to increase student participation and engagement in the classroom.

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Year 8 - First Nations Curriculum Resources (Business & Economics)

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Year 8 - First Nations Curriculum Resources (Business & Economics)

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Resources to support the integration of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cross curriculum priority

Topics:

Indigenous businesses & Cost-benefit analysis

Indigenous trade

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Skip to content

How Indigenous ecological practices can help reduce emissions

Our resources cover a wide array of topic - not just history. For example, this Year 10 science resource provides a lesson plan that explores how First Nations approaches are being used in the fight against climate change.

Ready-made resources that save you time and help engage students

Make a difference in your classroom with easy-to-use, ready-made resources that will help your students understand First Nations stories, experiences and perspectives.

Everything is ready to go

Save you time

Authentic learning

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Curriculum resources for teachers. Confidently bring First Nations stories, cultures and histories into your classroom with our free curriculum resources, covering key learning areas from Foundation to Year 10.

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A great auto-generated budgeting tool to introduce students to the basic concepts of budgeting. The web version is pre-populated, but you can download the excel file and customise it for your classroom needs.

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A: Yes. To add your own items, go to settings and choose "enable custom items". You cannot change the label of the default items in the budget planner. But you can add your own sub items by clicking on the [add] link. You can also change the currency symbol under settings.
Q: Can I set a monthly budget and compare this with actual income and expenses?
A: No, the budget planner gives you a snapshot of what you spend your money on. We suggest you update your budget with actual income and expenses on a regular basis to make it as accurate as possible. If you are looking for something more detailed, you could consider buying bookkeeping software.
Q: How do I create and access multiple budgets?
A: Click on the menu in the budget planner header. Select 'Create new budget'.

Any budgets saved onto your computer or mobile device will appear in the menu.
Q: How can I print my budget or save it as a PDF?
A: If you're using a desktop/laptop, use the print menu in your browser or press Ctrl+P on a PC or Command+P on a Mac. Your print menu should also allow you to save/print as a PDF.

If you're using a tablet or mobile:

Using Chrome on Android, click in the Chrome menu (three buttons), and choose Share, then Print. You can then select PDF as your printer

Using Safari on iOS, press and hold the Home button and Sleep button to capture a screen shot. Then tap on the screenshot that is captured and change to Full page option. Then you can tap Done and save as PDF.

Q: How can I share a PDF of my budget?
A: Follow the steps above, and then attach the PDF to an email, or on a mobile device use the share menu after you have generated a PDF.

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Our free online budget planner helps you track, plan and prioritise where your money is going.

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Use the idea in this article for students to explore and interesting example for analysing the 4P's of marketing

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In short: Burmese python meat has been found to be the most efficient protein ever studied.

Rapid growth was observed in pythons on a diet of food waste.

What's next? The meat is not commonly sold or eaten in Australia, but a butcher says he would meet demand if a market emerged.

Python snake meat could be a super protein on dinner plates in years to come, research suggests.

A study published in the Nature journal has found the meat to be highly efficient, environmentally friendly source of nutrition that can be raised on waste proteins.

South Australian butcher Matt Fox, who sells exotic and game meats in Mount Gambier, says he has had a "handful of customers" ask for snake meat.

He said he was not selling python at the moment, but would if a market emerged.

"If there is demand for it, for sure," Mr Fox said.

Highly efficient livestock

Pythons are farmed for their meat in parts of Asia.

The study observed Burmese python snakes that were fed minced meat sausages consisting of stillborn piglets and chicken heads.

Hatchlings on the diet grew to a length of three metres and weighed 15 kilograms within a year.

"They are more efficient than any other livestock animal studied to date," the study's lead author Daniel Natusch said.

"They're gluttonous by nature - like a labrador, they just keep on eating."

Cold-blooded advantage

Dr Natusch, from Macquarie University's School of Natural Sciences, said the reptiles were an efficient source of protein because of the way they processed food.

"Warm-blooded animals waste about 80 to 90 per cent of the energy they get from their food in heat production," he said.

"Cold-blooded animals such as pythons don't have that constraint - they're able to allocate far more of the energy they get from their food into things like growth."

Another positive trait is the ability of snakes to survive without food for long periods.

"Several animals in our study were only eight months old and yet they had gone four months of their lives - 50 per cent - without eating anything and were continuing to grow," Dr Natusch said.

"That has real-world implications for a future where we expect increasing drought, heatwaves, climatic and economic volatility and supply chain breakdowns."

What is the taste like?

The taste of snake meat was not part of the study, but Dr Natusch said to him it tasted similar to chicken.

"To be perfectly fair, it is quite bland ... it depends on what you season it with," he said.

"It's a very lean meat ... so very, very low in fat.

"I think it is a bit of a leap for people to go straight to snake, but you get a celebrity chef on it and do it well, you're going to convert a lot of people because it tastes absolutely fine and it's very versatile."

Mr Fox has been a long-term advocate for variety in the meat people consume and hopes people will be open to trying the different type of protein.

"Meat is just meat at the end of the day," he said.

"Once people do try things, most of the time they're pleasantly surprised."

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Python found to be the most efficient form of livestock ever studied - so would you eat snake for dinner?

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Farmed pythons grow fast on a diet of waste and produce a sustainable meat that a researcher says tastes a bit like chicken. Snake is consumed in many places around the world - will Australians give it a try?

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Article for Unit 1 when discussing entrepreneurship, or entrepreneurial traits in the creation of business ideas for Unit 2

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Chris Cotton has always had an entrepreneurial flair and has been successful in a number of business ventures, both here and overseas, including running a large brick paving and asphalting business. He was involved in the manufacture of the first polyurethane liquid-based waterproofing membrane in Australia. Six years ago, Chris embarked on a new journey to disrupt the F&B space, helping thirsty consumers and foodies mix their cocktails or prepare their favourite dishes quickly and easily by launching a range of natural citrus juices in convenient pouches.

CC: Returning to Australia after living overseas, we wanted to bring to market a juice as close to nature as possible that could be on hand for any occasion, so you need never run out. We determined to provide a great alternative to concentrated, reconstituted, diluted or imported juice. We started sourcing all our juice locally and packing it into foil pouches.

After all, what's more refreshing on a hot day than a gin and tonic, lime and soda, or blood orange with sparkling spring water or lemonade? We know how often people run out of lemons or limes and how costly they become when they are not in season. We put our minds to it, given how thirsty we always seem to be, and created pouches of lemon, lime and blood orange juice so you can enjoy a gin and tonic or lime and soda anytime using our juices at a consistent price. We also wanted to offer a long shelf life and our process allows for a 'Best Before' date of 18 months from the time of manufacture.

We were motivated to be able to offer a product that is great to have on hand for cool drinks, cocktails, marinating meat, adding to salad dressings or sauces, or when cooking Asian or seafood dishes. Just replacing the tonic in a gin and tonic with soda and adding 30 mls of blood orange creates a refreshing summer cocktail. Lime juice is an essential ingredient for a margarita or mojito and so the list goes on.

CC: The business launched in Melbourne in 2017, as soon as we were able to ensure a regular supply of juice, source suitable packaging and establish a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility.

Due to its popularity in cocktails and other drinks, blood orange juice was added to the range in November 2021, thanks in no small part to the fact that it can also add extra flavour in a marinade or sauce for fish and seafood.

"The main marketing strategy has been to gain in-store visibility."

COVID was something of a 'blessing' for the business as many of the population isolated in their homes naturally turned to cocktails to help them get through the extended lockdowns, and Really Juice became part of the cocktail repertoire for a growing number of people. Over this period, we also enjoyed the custom of many new start-ups in the online cocktail kit supply space, and sales to them continue. At-home cooking also became a popular pastime, so Really Juice enjoyed a spike in sales alongside its prime function as a cocktail ingredient.

CC: The biggest challenge as a small supplier is to gain market coverage. We made a decision early on not to supply the major supermarkets, as we wanted to supply a quality product to our customers consistently without the business pressures of dealing with the majors. Hence, we found specialty distributors in each state to supply to independent supermarkets and specialty stores such as gourmet food stores, fruit and vegetable shops, fishmongers etc., where shoppers are more likely to browse and are looking for those kinds of products.

Beyond our distributor network countrywide, we are also the proud suppliers of pouched juices to Harris Farm Markets in NSW and Queensland. Harris Farm Markets offers us an ideal route to markets, as they specialise in the supply of a large range of fresh fruit and vegetables and speciality grocery products through their network of more than 26 stores.

CC: The main marketing strategy has been to gain in-store visibility with merchandising in the fruit and vegetable section so shoppers can choose between fresh limes and lemons or the Really Juice alternative. We know that this delivers the best sales results. This has been augmented with point-of-sale material and price promotions. The packaging design is, of course, critical to attract attention, with a large image of the fresh fruit on the front panel, enhanced by a colour-coded cap to ensure the product is noticed. The shelf-ready packaging that is created from a perforated box has also been instrumental in ensuring the product can be easily merchandised.

CC: Having a product as close to nature as possible was fundamental to the creation of Really Juice and its differentiation from other juice products. The only thing we add to the squeezed juice is 0.01 per cent of ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) to slow the colour of the juice changing over its shelf life. It was also important to us that we sourced the juices from Australian-based suppliers - all the fruit in Really Juice's products is sourced from Sunraysia, a district renowned for its horticulture that straddles the northwestern Victorian and southwestern NSW border. When we started out, we were the first company producing Australian sourced citrus juices in pouches.

CC: Really Juice is well suited to bottle shops and foodservice suppliers, so this is an area of distribution we have been exploring, with some successes to date. We need to continue to support our distributors and encourage them to place Really Juice front and centre when promoting their ranges. We have found offering the salespeople incentives to increase distribution is a very effective way to boost revenue and will continue to promote ourselves in this manner. There is also an opportunity to export, and we are working with parties in China, Papua New Guinea and Thailand. Our products are already available in Singapore through that nation's specialist wholefoods retailer Little Farms Group.

This article first appeared in issue 43 of the Inside Small Business quarterly magazine

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Really Juice bring a cocktail of flavour and convenience - Inside Small Business

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A serial entrepreneur, Chris Cotton is seeking to disrupt the F&B industry through his natural juice venture.

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Online community of teachers offering insights into effectively using AI for teacher tasks. Some platforms can be supportive for reducing workload.

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In this Canva presentation, Teacher Ali McCrary highlights the uses of AI for educators

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This is an example GIMKIT that has been developed by Wes Warner for Snr Business U1T1.

GIMKIT is another gaming platform for students to practice understanding of concept

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Gimkit is a game show for the classroom that requires knowledge, collaboration, and strategy to win. Get started for free!

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A paid resource, but this is a great way to bring positive psychology into the classroom to promote flexible thinking and train minds to see the positives in situations. I personally love these for brain breaks, or as a way to transition students into the new classroom space and have them begin switching on.

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On The Plus Side gives children and adults a safe and fun way to develop positive thinking, see the humour in adversity and find new ways to look at a situation and therefore, its possible solutions.

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A really great full curriculum that can be filtered by grade level ad digital citizenship topics.

Some additional interesting topic areas in this space include :

Media balance and well-being where "Students go beyond screen time to explore the impact their digital lives can have on their well-being and relationships while learning to balance media in their everyday lives."

Cyberbullying, digital drama & hate speech where "Students take on these tough topics and play the active role of upstander to build positive, supportive online communities and combat online cruelty."

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Interactive lessons and activities for all students!

Use digital citizenship lesson plans to address timely topics and prepare students to take ownership of their digital lives. Browse lessons by grade and topic below, or see an overview of the curriculum.
We've got more new lessons! Explore all lesson plans or check our lesson collections!

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DigCit Curriculum | Common Sense Education

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Research-backed digital citizenship lesson plans help schools navigate timely topics, such as cyberbullying, online safety, privacy, and media literacy.

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Use the toolkit from the QCAA to assist in explicitly teaching these processes to your students. The posters are great to display and support students to understand the processes contained in verb use.

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Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority

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The Years 7- 10 cognitive verb toolkit aims to support the explicit teaching of thinking during the Junior Secondary phase of learning. The suite of resources provides school leaders and teachers with advice and guidance around each of the common cognitive verbs identified and associated thinking process.

The Years 7-10 cognitive verb toolkit: Teacher overview introduces the three key resources for each verb.

This toolkit includes:

an information sheet about each cognitive verb and its location in the curriculum

a phase-appropriate classroom poster for Years 7-10.

Download the full toolkit (zip file):

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The Years 7- 10 cognitive verb toolkit aims to support the explicit teaching of thinking during the Junior Secondary phase of learning. The suite of resources provides school leaders and teachers with advice and guidance around each of the common cognitive verbs identified and associated thinking process.

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Unsplash images are free to use, but attribution is requested.

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Beautiful Free Images & Pictures | Unsplash

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Beautiful, free images and photos that you can download and use for any project. Better than any royalty free or stock photos.

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This lesson from Nearpod can support students to build their digital citizenship as they explore the legal and ethical dimensions of respecting creative work.

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Guidance for schools on developing AI capabilities.

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Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority

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The QCAA recognises that artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly changing the way schools engage in teaching, learning and assessment. To provide high-quality curriculum, assessment and reporting services, the QCAA is committed to using evidence-led and research-based decision-making practices to respond to the opportunities and implications of AI and generative AI.

The following guidance documents have been developed for schools, students and parents/carers, to support and guide the development of policies, resources and general advice about the responsible use of AI particularly, generative AI. As AI continues to evolve, the QCAA will continue to lead in a principled and evidence-informed way to support the development of digital literacy, promote academic integrity and examine the implications for assessment.

The guidance documents provide information about:

useful AI and generative AI terms

ethical scholarship strategies to inform school assessment policies

privacy and accuracy considerations to inform teaching and learning.

Senior secondary

School Assessment policies

The QCE and QCIA policies and procedures handbook is available to assist schools to develop policies to outline the requirements and expectations to manage the teaching, learning and assessment for all subjects or courses of study.

These policies support schools in promoting equitable and credible outcomes and include:

academic integrity

integrating learning and assessment

developing a school assessment policy.

Australian Curriculum

Queensland schools plan, teach, assess and report using the Australian Curriculum in Prep-Year 10. The QCAA provides advice and resources to support teachers to implement the Australian Curriculum and these resources can be adapted to suit a specific school context.

Useful resources to support the use of AI:

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The QCAA recognises that artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly changing the way schools engage in teaching, learning and assessment. To provide high-quality curriculum, assessment and reporting services, the QCAA is committed to using evidence-led and research-based decision-making practices to respond to the opportunities and implications of AI and generative AI.

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Digital Citizenship articles and resources

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Digital Citizenship articles and resources

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"It's not all about the likes"

Explore articles and resources from the NSW Government for teachers and students on understanding the impacts of online behaviour, thinking critically, and protecting student safety, privacy and wellbeing.

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Positive information about digital citizenship aimed at students, parents and teachers, for the NSW Department of Education.

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An educator's guide to teaching students about their digital footprint, presented through a series of 4 videos:

1- Introduce your students to Digital Footprint

2- If we looked you up online

3- what is a Digital Dossier

4- What digital footprint tells others

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We would recommend that you share with your students this GREAT video as an introduction to the topic digital footprint .

2- If we looked you up online

3- what is a Digital Dossier

4- What digital footprint tells others

More resources on Digital Footprint

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A Great Guide on Teaching Students about Digital Footprint - Educators Technology

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1- Introduce your students to Digital Footprint We would recommend that you share with your students this GREAT video as an introduction to the topic digital footprint . 2- If we looked you up online 3- what is a Digital Dossier 4- What digital footprint tells others More resources on Digital Footprint 1- Cybraryman's page...

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AITSL Spotlight: Evaluating the evidence for educational technology

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AITSL Spotlight: Evaluating the evidence for educational technology

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This spotlight highlights the impact of educational technology on students' digital literacy.

Key messages include:

Despite the increase in the availability of educational technology (edtech), Australian students’ digital literacy skills have decreased over time. Students need to be taught the skills relevant to acquiring digital literacy: practising digital safety and wellbeing, investigation, creating and exchanging, and managing and operating content.

Implemented well, edtech has the potential to deliver greater benefits to several student cohorts, including those with disabilities, those learning remotely, and students from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

However, despite the likely benefits, there are potential drawbacks associated with the overuse of technology, including the negative effects of screen time on student learning, as well as indirect effects (such as impacts on anxiety and social relationships).

Teachers' perspectives, including the value they place on edtech, can influence its effective use. Confidence and ability to use edtech also have a significant impact on student outcomes.

School-based professional learning (PL), especially PL that is collaborative and includes applied practice, is particularly effective for improving knowledge of, and attitudes towards, edtech and its importance for developing the digital literacy of students.

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The term 'digital native', introduced by Mark Prensky in 2001, is used to describe young people who have been surrounded by digital devices for their entire lives. Prensky proposed that young people born after 1980 were, by virtue of growing up in an increasingly digital world, "native speakers of the digital language of computers, video games and the Internet" (Prensky, 2001). This idea continues to hold some attraction today, even though substantial research has since refuted this concept (Bennett & Maton, 2010; Eynon, 2023; Facer & Furlong, 2001). Responses from 1,876 Australian teachers, principals, and other relevant educational staff to a survey in 2019 demonstrated educators were aware of the limited digital literacy of many students (Gonski Institute for Education (GIE), 2020):

Still surprised at students' lack of in-depth understanding of the digital technologies they use.

Students are not as tech savvy as people imagine. They can access apps but cannot perform basic search functions or basic computing functions.

Despite the growth in the number of apps that can be used to create online content, many students are just passive content users.

GIE, 2020 P. 22

Thus increased use of digital technologies by children and teenagers hasn't corresponded to an increase in the digital skills or literacy of these students (GIE, 2020 P. 22), despite almost 20 years elapsing since Prensky first coined the phrase 'digital natives'. Evidence from national and international assessments further refutes Prensky's suggestion that young people are innately developing high level information and communication technology (ICT) skills by virtue of living in a digital world (Fraillon, 2019).

In Australia, the digital literacy of students is assessed periodically via the National Assessment Program - Information and Communication Technology Literacy (NAP-ICT Literacy). Commencing in 2005, this assessment has typically been undertaken on a 3-yearly basis, although the assessment due in 2021 was delayed until 2022 due to COVID-19 pandemic (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA), 2023a). In 2022, only 55% of Year 6 students and 46% of Year 10 students reached their respective proficient standard for NAP-ICT Literacy (see Figure 1). Concerningly, the 13% of Year 6 students and 5% of Year 10 students at level 1 have trouble with very basic digital skills, such as opening email attachments, copying and pasting a column in a spreadsheet, or finding specific information on a webpage.

Figure 1. Digital literacy of Australian students, as measured by the 2022 NAP-ICT Literacy. Source: ACARA (2023a).

Students have been increasingly immersed in a digital world over the last two decades, but the digital literacy of Australian students has not improved over time. For example, the proportion of Year 6 students reaching the proficient standard has typically hovered around 55% throughout this period (Figure 2; ACARA, 2023a). Furthermore, the proportion of Year 10 students who reach the proficient standard has declined over time, from a high of 66% in 2008 to a more recent low of 46% in 2022 (Figure 2).

This demonstrates why students need to learn about digital literacy throughout their school years. The Australian Curriculum Version 9.0 includes Digital Literacy as a general capability (ACARA, 2023b), emphasising its fundamental importance for students' future lives. The Digital Literacy capability encompasses four elements (Figure 3; ACARA, 2023b), with a greater emphasis on students maintaining their digital safety and wellbeing than was seen in the previous general capability of ICT Literacy (ACARA, 2021).

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evaluating the evidence for educational technology - part 2

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evaluating the evidence for educational technology

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Evaluating the evidence for educational technology - Part 2 - enabling learning

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Evaluating the evidence for educational technology - Part 2 - enabling learning

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Practical ways you can incorporate the habits of mind in class. Also, be transparent about your problem solving process makes it easier for students to understand and start this as well

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Edutopia is a free source of information, inspiration, and practical strategies for learning and teaching in preK-12 education. We are published by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization.

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This Australian nature music track was something my dentist was playing while I was in the chair. The visuals and music are beautiful and relaxing. This is something I would use in class to settle students before beginning a lesson, possibly accompanied with some mindful breathing. It could also be used at any time if noticing heightened emotions or in a home form class. Teaching students skills to regulate their nervous system is something I try to integrate.

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Gentle Relaxing Meditation Music • Beautiful Nature Australia, Instant Calm (Amazing Australia) ★ 84

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Year 7-10 General Capabilities - Business

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Year 7-10 General Capabilities - Business

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This PDF document maps the general capabilities for each year level, aligning with content descriptors. Digital literacy is not mapped, despite being easily integrated into the Businesscurriculum.

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My students on placement showed me this game and love it.

Guess a 5 letter word, then use the correct letters remaining to guess the correct word. Great for a brain break or as an activity to engage and focus students as they come in after the bell.

Using a printed template students can also create their own and play with friends.

This brain teaser may boost cognitive skills and reduce stress, but be mindful that it can be addictive!

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Guess the hidden word in 6 tries. A new puzzle is available each day.

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Year 7-10 General Capabilities - English

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Year 7-10 General Capabilities - English

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Interestingly reflection (part of critical thinking) and digital literacy are not mapped.

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Article - What Students should know about their brain

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Article - What Students should know about their brain

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This article is good for high-school students and discusses what the different parts of their brains do, and what actions they can take for optimal functioning and memory.

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How to Teach Neuroplasticity to Kids: Activities and Resources

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How to Teach Neuroplasticity to Kids: Activities and Resources

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This site is directed at younger kids, but has some good approaches to teaching students about neuroplasticity and growth mindsets.

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How to Explain Growth Mindset to Kids: Neuroplasticity Activities

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Neuroplasticity is the science behind growth mindset. When kids understand neuroplasticity, their perception of their own abilities changes. It becomes much easier for them to understand growth mindset and embrace mistakes, obstacles, and challenges. In this article, we’ll provide helpful resources…

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I absolutely love poetry slams and have found a few slams that have been a great way to open discussion on various English topics. This one includes Sara Mansour's 'My Australia', used for a Year 9 unit on Australian Identity

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"My Australia" - Sara Mansour | Spoken Word Poetry | Bankstown Poetry Slam

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Button Poetry also has some great slams! I used 'Pocket Sized Feminism' by Blythe Baird in a Year 11 unit on the misrepresentations of gender.

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poetry "slam poetry" slam "spoken word" neil hilborn "freestyle poetry" "poetry slam" "poetry videos" "spoken poetry" "rudy francisco" "sabrina benaim" "sara...

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Help us expand what we do (closed captioning, multilingual subtitles, nationwide tour & more!): http://bit.ly/buttonpatreon Subscribe to Button! New video daily: http://bit.ly/buttonpoetry Click here to see some of of our upcoming classes, products and more: https://buttonpoetry.com/instalinks/ Button Poetry is a Minnesota-based organization dedicated to developing a coherent and effective system of production, distribution, promotion and fundraising for performance poetry.

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Rosebud AI - Journaling for personal growth

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Rosebud AI - Journaling for personal growth

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I found this ai app very interesting and can see its use in helping students with reflective processes and goal setting. Students can respond to generated prompts, or create their own. The AI then generates insights about their journal entries and also offers recommendations for goal setting.

This platform does protect user privacy. Students can choose to share individual reflections.

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Rosebud: Best Online Journal for Mental Health | Feel Better in Minutes

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Rosebud’s therapist-backed platform combines AI with interactive journaling, habit-building, and emotional support. See significant improvements in just 7 days.

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A little addition to the above Wordle post. This one allows students to invite and compete against friends.

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These free organisers can be a huge time saver from having to create your own. Some also have information on how to use them in the classroom, along with visuals. In tools like Canva and Nearpod that have 'draw' options, these could also be uploaded as a background for students to work on.

Thanks to Cas for the share!

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Help your students classify ideas and communicate more effectively with these free graphic organizer templates, available for download. They can be used to structure writing projects and help in problem solving, decision making, studying, planning research, and brainstorming.

Printable Graphic Organizers

Select a blank graphic organizer from the following categories depending on your curriculum needs.

Sequence of Events

Main Topic and Key Details

Compare/Contrast

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Free Downloadable Graphic Organizer Templates

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Use these free graphic organizer templates to help your students communicate more effectively by classifying ideas, structuring writing projects, and more.

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Auto-generate a word for Pictionary games. Students in my homeroom enjoyed getting competitive with this. Divide the room into 2 teams and have students rush from back of the class (carefully!) to the board to draw the word.

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If you love Pictionary or Pictionary Air, you've come to the right place. This is especially true if you're looking for random Pictionary words so you can play the game. The Random Pictionary Word generator is helpful if you don't have a gameboard and cards around, but you'd still like to play the game with your friends. Our free online Pictionary word generator does exactly that by letting you and your friends play the game even if you don't have the game cards handy. If you're looking for more fun games, please also check out our Never Have I Ever questions and our Would You Rather questions.

How Do You Play Pictionary?

The joy of playing Pictionary and Pictionary Air is that the rules of the game are simple, but executing them is a challenge and inevitably produces a lot of fun and laughter. Basically, the goal of the game is for one person to draw a picture without using any letters, numbers, words, gestures, verbal cues or nonverbal cues, and their partner has to guess what word corresponds to the picture being drawn. In order for it to be fair for both teams, generating random Pictionary game words is a great way to keep the playing field even.

How Many People Can Play Pictionary?

While there really isn't a limit on how many people can play, the ideal number is four people (which is also the fewest number of people you need to play the game). This allows for two teams of two to compete against one another. If you happen to have more than four people, it's possible to create more teams or have a larger number of people on each team so that nobody is left out of the fun. For example, if you have eight friends that want to play, you can make four teams of two players or two teams of four players.

What are the Rules of Pictionary?

The rules of the game are pretty simple. One person on your team is designated to be the first person to draw a picture of whatever random Pictionary word is generated. Once they see the word, they have 5 seconds to think before they begin to draw. Once they begin drawing, they have 1 minute to try to get their partner to guess the random word. If the partner succeeds in guessing the correct word being drawn, the team gets a point, but they get zero points if they don't. Team two does the same thing, then the person drawing is switched for round two. After a designated number of rounds, the team with the most points wins.

Random Catchphrase Generator

We didn't stop there! You can also play the game Catchphrase by turning the tool into a random catchphrase word generator. Go to the games drop-down menu and choose "Catchphrase" as the option. This will change the random words to a random Catchphrase word list allowing you to play Catchphrase as much as you like. If you're a Catchphrase game fan, utilizing the random Catchphrase generator option will bring you hours of fun.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you make sounds while playing Pictionary?

What is the difference between Pictionary and charades?

How much time do you get in Pictionary?

Can you play Pictionary without the game?

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The Pictionary word generator can be used to play Pictionary or Pictionary Air anywhere. It also has a charades word generator and catchphrase word generator options to play charades and catchphrase.

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Autogenerate a letter and categories. Good way to get students' brains fired up and focus them before a lesson, or have a bit of fun mid-way through. Customisation on this is very limited, but you can add your own categories.

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Free to use, art-inspired creative writing tool. I personally like the creative writing prompts and can also see the creative options for the Year 9 poetry unit that we will do this term.

Students can explore their creativity, get inspiration from the work of others, and also publish to an online community for feedback.

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Storybird - Read, write, discover, and share the books you’ll always remember.

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Become a better writer with Storybird’s creativity tools. Online courses, challenges, and reader feedback will help you improve your writing.

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Another great quizzing platform. My personal favourite feature is generating questions from a PPT!

I'm also intrigued by the capacity to generate lessons with interactive features, similar to what Nearpod has, but need to explore this more for functionality and cost.

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Quizizz - The world's most engaging learning platform

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Find and create gamified quizzes, lessons, presentations, and flashcards for students, employees, and everyone else. Get started for free!

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A great blog that has a list of PPT Bomb Game templates that are editable based on your needs. My high school students have loved playing jeopardy. Great for review and injecting a bit of fun and competition into the class.

Mario is a big hit for younger classes!

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Thank you to those who created these templates!**

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This is an example GIMKIT that has been developed by Wes Warner for Snr Business U1T1.

GIMKIT is another gaming platform for students to practice understanding of concepts

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Gimkit is a game show for the classroom that requires knowledge, collaboration, and strategy to win. Get started for free!

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Similar to Kahoot, though I do prefer this interface. There are pre-made quiz sets or you can import your own.

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Random name generator - Class helpers & TAPPLE

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Random name generator - Class helpers & TAPPLE

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I often use TAPPLE in my classes to select non-volunteers and like that you can remove student names from this once selected. Also, the 'WOO' and confetti are fun and add a positive spin on selection.

Thanks for the share Charmaine!

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Enter names, spin wheel to pick a random winner. Customize look and feel, save and share wheels.

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The Seven Principles of Positive Psychology That Fuel Success and Performance at Work

This is one of my favourite books based on positive psychology. It is meant for a business context, but has some really great take aways for you and your students, especially on training your brain for happiness.

It takes 3 positive thoughts to cancel a negative one. At the end of each day challenge yourself to think, or write down, 3 things that made you smile, that you did well, or that you are grateful for. Training the mind to find happiness over negativity.

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1-Page Summary 1-Page Book Summary of The Happiness Advantage

Most people think that happiness comes after success, and that success comes after hard work. But we've had the equation all wrong: Happiness isn't the result of success-it's the cause of it. The Happiness Advantage, published in 2010, is an introduction to this formula for success, based on research in neuroscience and the relatively new field of positive psychology. Author Shawn Achor offers insight as a leading expert on the connection between happiness and performance, an author of multiple books on the topic, and the founder of a research and consulting firm that optimizes people's achievement through positive psychology.

Using research and personal anecdotes, Achor covers the following seven principles in this book:

1. Reap the benefits of happiness: Happiness promotes productivity and success, and employers and managers can use these principles to achieve results in the workplace.

2. Leverage the power of a positive mindset: Your mindset affects your efforts and your actions.

3. Train your brain to see the positive: When you develop a positive thinking pattern, you program your brain to focus on the positive and optimize the benefits of positivity.

4. Learn and grow through adversity: Adversity is inevitable, but, if you stay positive during challenging times, you will not only carry on, but also learn and grow through the process.

5. Stay in control through incremental achievements: Focus on small, manageable goals to keep you in control and build your confidence and motivation.

6. Create positive habits: Maintain healthy behaviors by turning them into habits.

7. Optimize the benefits of social connections: Social support raises your happiness and productivity.

The Happiness Advantage really encompasses many advantages, including:

Improved creativity

Stronger relationships

Better health

Increased energy

These benefits raise the quality of your personal life, and they also optimize your success at work. The principles of the Happiness Advantage have brought positive results even in the most stressful environments, including among big bank employees in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. Whether your circumstances make it hard to be happy or you naturally have a lower happiness baseline, the seven principles explain how to be more positive and why it's so essential to your success.

Principle #1: Reap the Benefits of Happiness

The benefits of being happy are deeper than feeling good-happiness has measurable, lasting effects on your mind and body:

1. Positive emotions release [restricted term] and serotonin, which make you feel good while also activating your brain's learning centers. This effect improves your ability to think quickly and creatively, analyze, problem-solve, organize and store new information, and be open to new ideas.

2. Positive emotions also reduce stress and anxiety in a phenomenon psychologists call "the undoing effect." Some amount of stress is inevitable in life and in work, but when a stressful situation is imminent-for example, you have to make a presentation at an important meeting this afternoon-you can mitigate that stress by focusing on happy memories or watching a funny video.

3. Happiness improves your physical health. In one experiment, researchers surveyed participants about their levels of happiness, and then injected them with the cold virus. The following week, researchers found that the happier participants fought off the virus more quickly and had fewer objective symptoms than their less happy peers.

Raise Your Happiness Baseline

Your happiness fluctuates all the time, but you can actually take steps to permanently raise your happiness baseline. Consider incorporating some of these happiness-building activities into your day-to-day routine:

Meditating: Five minutes of meditation a day can make you more calm and aware, and, in the long term, permanently rewire your brain for greater happiness, boost your immune system, and lower your stress.

Building up positive anticipation: Getting excited about an upcoming event activates your brain's pleasure centers as much as actually having the experience. Think about experiences you're looking forward to, and make plans that you can get excited about.

Giving back: People who perform acts of kindness are much happier than people who don't. One day each week, try to perform five acts of kindness-they can be small and simple, but they should be deliberate.

Cultivating a positive environment: Your surroundings impact your mindset, so fill yours with things that make you happy, such as pictures of loved ones.

Exercising: Exercise releases feel-good endorphins in your brain, increases motivation, reduces stress and anxiety, and promotes focus.

Investing in experiences: Spending money on activities (such as musical events and group dinners) or on other people creates more meaningful and enduring happiness than spending money on yourself.

Tapping into your talents: Using a skill that you excel at or making the most of an ingrained character trait (such as a love of learning) can lower depression and increase happiness.

Happiness Optimizes Work Success

The cognitive, emotional, and physical benefits of positivity mean that it also promotes productivity and success at work: Happy employees are more focused and innovative, suffer from less stress, and call out for fewer sick days. Managers and executives are in the best position to promote happiness because they can influence company policies and culture, they interact with many people, and they set an example for their employees. Company leaders can make their employees happier and more productive by:

Providing services such as health benefits, gym memberships, and on-site daycare.

Frequently recognizing and encouraging employees' good work....

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The Happiness Advantage Book Summary by Shawn Achor

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The most detailed book summary of "The Happiness Advantage" by Shawn Achor. Get the main points of "The Happiness Advantage" with Shortform book summaries.

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I use TAPPLE in my classes as a check for understanding, and way to ensure that all students are participating instead of flying under the radar. I have used this so far up to year 10 and had UNO cards with my students' names and photos on them. Other teachers I have seen also use popsicle sticks.

Teach First

Ask a Question (a specific question about what you just taught them)

Pause (wait time to engage all students so they are mentally preparing to answer)

Pick a Non-Volunteer (use data mining by picking on at least 3 students each time)

Listen to the Response (determine the student’s level of understanding)

Effective Feedback (Echo—when the student response is correct, Elaborate—when the student response is tentative or partially correct, Explain—actually, re-explain, when the student answer is incorrect)   *As a teacher, you always want each child to go away with saying and knowing the correct response!

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I used this for my Year 3 class in Guatemala and it was amazing for praise and behaviour management. It also has a feature to assign points to groups during collaborative work.

I was just having a conversation with a friend that teaches primary in Cairns and she mentioned that it hasn't worked for her previously because the school's IT system blocks it due to it being an American site. I will have to explore this a bit further and also check its suitability for my secondary classes as I believe it is meant for primary.

This blog is a starting point for its use in high-school.

Thanks for the share Ryan!

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Decorate your classroom and more with these helpful ClassDojo resources

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Here are some great question starter examples from Illinois State University for each level of Bloom's Revised Taxonomy.

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The following documents are the Teaching, Learning, and Assessment Plans for General Senior Business. a great starting point for planning lessons with recommended resources. Be mindful that not all resource links are accurate and you may need to supplement with other engaging ICT.

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Interesting insight on PBL pedagogy for Year 7s who generally have not thought as creatively or have lower technical skills. This could offer insight into a Year 7 unit integrating technology to solve a local problem like ocean plastics.

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What do you do when you are starting a new school and want to incorporate PBL as one of the key pedagogies? The answer is: treat the exercise as a PBL project in its own right! This is exactly what Prahran HS, one of Melbourne's newest highest schools, has recently done. In this installment of eduSTEM review, Jonathon Wouters (former Learning Specialist at Prahran HS) explains the school's novel approach to developing their PBL curriculum, as well as some of the key lessons they have learnt in Year 1. These lessons are particularly relevant to making PBL work with younger students - in this case, Year 7s - who come to PBL with less background in creative and creative thinking and fewer technical skills.

Getting started - leverage Design Thinking to develop your PBL program

Stage 1: Empathise - What was the context?

Starting a school affords one the opportunity to envision a school for the local context. At Prahran High School (PHS), opening our door to a cohort of Year7 students in 2019 meant we could build the kind of school that the community and staff wanted. After the principal Nathan Chisholm wrote the vision and values (curiosity, creativity, character, and challenge) in mid-2018, we knew we needed to found a school for the future. That meant realising our values, in part, through Project Based Learning (PBL) and the Design Thinking process. We knew that these would provide opportunities for innovation, collaboration, and the other skills and capabilities we deemed vital for the 21st century.

Stage 2: Define - What were we trying to achieve?

While there was a growing sense of where we were taking this unique and exciting problem, we needed a question to drive our thinking in the right direction. We understood that we needed PBL and Design Thinking to be a critical part of the fabric of PHS and come Year 9 that students would be exercising agency through innovation and problem solving. Our question was along these lines; How might we make Project Based Learning and the Design Thinking process an integral part of our approach to learning at Prahran High School?

Stage 3: Ideate - How were we going to achieve it?

In response to the question, a subject called Design Lab was envisioned. Design Lab is project-based learning that is driven by the Design Thinking process and is an integration of curriculums from Critical and Creative Thinking, Design and Technology, and Digital Technologies.

Stage 4: Prototype - What did we do?

2019 has been the year to prototype Design Lab as a program and concept. Our first prototype project was the challenge of re-conceptualising and redesigning a laneway within the school grounds that had not been part of the initial school design and build; this challenged students to engage with the space, identify how that space could be used to promote the physical and mental wellbeing of students, and then plan and model what they wanted it to look like and contain. The second project focused on the problem of ocean plastic waste; students explored the different factors contributing to the problem, existing innovative approaches to tackling the problem, and then developed and prototyped their own strategy for reducing ocean plastics.

Stage 5: Test - What did we learn?

Over the duration of three terms we have learned a number of vital lessons that we continue to ponder and unpack. These lessons have been particularly pertinent in terms of driving our understanding of how we go about kick-starting PBL with Year 7. In sharing these it is hoped that our inquiry leads you to a deeper understanding of your own PBL journey.

What we learned about fine-tuning PBL for Year 7s:
Lesson 1: Provide prompts and guard rails
One of the things that attracts most teachers to PBL early on is the level of independence that students have in solving questions and framing their problems. However, one of the challenges that you face almost from Day 1 when using PBL is the question of how much agency Year 7s can actually handle. We feel that there is a critical point at which too much agency become unproductive. We believe that agency needs to be developed through explicit teaching, through participation in positive experiences relating to exercising agency, and through deliberate scaffolding that is gradually removed. Students in Year 7 do not yet seem to be able to engage in a PBL experience where all the choices are up to them. Hence we tried to gradually release responsibility to them and in so doing build up their capacity through Years 7 and 8, so that in Year 9 they are able to exercise a great deal of agency in their learning. One of the ways we did this was through creating meaningful frameworks to guide students' thinking. We found that typically students in Year 7 cannot create strong driving questions in the define stage. When we scaffolded this process for them, we were scripting their thinking and that makes the quality of their thought more tangible.

Lesson 2: Consider starting with problems or project themes that have defined solutions
We realised that some problems lend themselves more to one stage of the Design Thinking process. Take for example the laneway problem; while a great challenge, it does not really allow for students to engage in a variety of ways to solve the problem (ideate). The problem is essentially defined for them in the brief and they engage in solving an already defined problem (the brief was specific to the predetermined functionality of the laneway space). Thus, while the Empathise stage was still relevant and important, it was not so in the same way that exists in other situations where, through empathising, various ways of defining the problem emerge. In turn, by limiting the empathise phase, we were able to place some natural limits on the Ideate phase as well. This had 2 benefits:

Allowed students to develop foundational Design Thinking skills: By placing limitations on the problem and possible solutions, students developed an introductory understanding of each phase of the design thinking process, as well as the skills and processes related to each phase. This "beginner" experience ensured that they were ready for a broader, more complicated challenge second time around. In essence, this embraced the concept of "levelling up" that is central to the attractiveness of computer games.

Ensured that students got to the "pay-off" reasonably quickly: The Design Thinking or PBL phase which we have found that hooks students the most is the hands-on stage of prototyping. Ideally, in the students first project you want to nail this stage, since this serves to impact their perception of future projects. A good experience here will have students excited about future projects. As such, a theme that allows you to avoid getting too bogged down early on, so that you arrive at the prototyping phase sooner rather than later, will ensure that students become PBL fans! Having said that, don't rush! Students will tend to want to rush straight to solution mode, often at the expense of developing the critical thinking skills that ensure that their product or solution adequately solves the problem it is meant to address. As such, finding the right balance between this tension will be one of your early goals; smart selection of your theme will allow you to do this.

Lesson 3: Provide students with examples to spur creativity
We have learned that exposure is key to creativity and that students' capacity for creativity is improved through exposure to previously unknown content and ideas. We found that this was not something they could do without us. We needed to see the empathise stage as an opportunity to expose students to different and new ideas. In the proceeding stage where research was required, we even went as far as providing students with research rather than having them find it themselves. As part of the exposure we always tried to engage them with interesting ideas. We have found that widening the boundaries of their exposure to creative ideas is actually how creativity is fostered. As part of this, we provided students with a framework for thinking and creating new ideas. It was a framework drawn from English where it was being used for writing, but we wanted the thinking processes behind the model to be transferred across contexts. The model is below:

Lesson 4: Front-load technical skills
We noticed that there is a significant correlation between the solutions to problems that students are able to produce and the skills, especially technical skills, they possess. When we front-loaded technical skills in the empathise or define stages (or even prior to the problem being introduced), students' ideas improved and so too did their prototypes. While it seems obvious that prototypes progress as skills sets are developed, what we learned was that the possession of skill sets actually plays a role in driving the creative confidence of students and thus impacts on their imagination.

Conclusion

At Prahran High School, our solution to the question of how to make PBL and the design thinking process integral to our school is still being tested. We realise that as we tinker with our current solution, we need to remember to engage playfully and be open to continual rethinking of what we design. In a way, our question has begun to shift to one that is more sustaining:
"How might we remain continually open and playful as we imagine and reimagine PBL in our context?"
Jonathon Wouters, Former Learning Specialist Prahran High School

What do you do when you are starting a new school and want to incorporate PBL as one of the key pedagogies? The answer is: treat the exercise as a PBL project in its own right! This is exactly what Prahran HS, one of Melbourne's newest highest schools, has recently done. In this installment of eduSTEM review, Jonathon Wouters (former Learning Specialist at Prahran HS) explains the school's novel approach to developing their PBL curriculum, as well as some of the key lessons they have learnt in Year 1. These lessons are particularly relevant to making PBL work with younger students - in this case, Year 7s - who come to PBL with less background in creative and creative thinking and fewer technical skills.

Getting started - leverage Design Thinking to develop your PBL program

Stage 1: Empathise - What was the context?

Starting a school affords one the opportunity to envision a school for the local context. At Prahran High School (PHS), opening our door to a cohort of Year7 students in 2019 meant we could build the kind of school that the community and staff wanted. After the principal Nathan Chisholm wrote the vision and values (curiosity, creativity, character, and challenge) in mid-2018, we knew we needed to found a school for the future. That meant realising our values, in part, through Project Based Learning (PBL) and the Design Thinking process. We knew that these would provide opportunities for innovation, collaboration, and the other skills and capabilities we deemed vital for the 21st century.

Stage 2: Define - What were we trying to achieve?

While there was a growing sense of where we were taking this unique and exciting problem, we needed a question to drive our thinking in the right direction. We understood that we needed PBL and Design Thinking to be a critical part of the fabric of PHS and come Year 9 that students would be exercising agency through innovation and problem solving. Our question was along these lines; How might we make Project Based Learning and the Design Thinking process an integral part of our approach to learning at Prahran High School?

Stage 3: Ideate - How were we going to achieve it?

In response to the question, a subject called Design Lab was envisioned. Design Lab is project-based learning that is driven by the Design Thinking process and is an integration of curriculums from Critical and Creative Thinking, Design and Technology, and Digital Technologies.

Stage 4: Prototype - What did we do?

2019 has been the year to prototype Design Lab as a program and concept. Our first prototype project was the challenge of re-conceptualising and redesigning a laneway within the school grounds that had not been part of the initial school design and build; this challenged students to engage with the space, identify how that space could be used to promote the physical and mental wellbeing of students, and then plan and model what they wanted it to look like and contain. The second project focused on the problem of ocean plastic waste; students explored the different factors contributing to the problem, existing innovative approaches to tackling the problem, and then developed and prototyped their own strategy for reducing ocean plastics.

Stage 5: Test - What did we learn?

Over the duration of three terms we have learned a number of vital lessons that we continue to ponder and unpack. These lessons have been particularly pertinent in terms of driving our understanding of how we go about kick-starting PBL with Year 7. In sharing these it is hoped that our inquiry leads you to a deeper understanding of your own PBL journey.

What we learned about fine-tuning PBL for Year 7s:
Lesson 1: Provide prompts and guard rails
One of the things that attracts most teachers to PBL early on is the level of independence that students have in solving questions and framing their problems. However, one of the challenges that you face almost from Day 1 when using PBL is the question of how much agency Year 7s can actually handle. We feel that there is a critical point at which too much agency become unproductive. We believe that agency needs to be developed through explicit teaching, through participation in positive experiences relating to exercising agency, and through deliberate scaffolding that is gradually removed. Students in Year 7 do not yet seem to be able to engage in a PBL experience where all the choices are up to them. Hence we tried to gradually release responsibility to them and in so doing build up their capacity through Years 7 and 8, so that in Year 9 they are able to exercise a great deal of agency in their learning. One of the ways we did this was through creating meaningful frameworks to guide students' thinking. We found that typically students in Year 7 cannot create strong driving questions in the define stage. When we scaffolded this process for them, we were scripting their thinking and that makes the quality of their thought more tangible.

Lesson 2: Consider starting with problems or project themes that have defined solutions
We realised that some problems lend themselves more to one stage of the Design Thinking process. Take for example the laneway problem; while a great challenge, it does not really allow for students to engage in a variety of ways to solve the problem (ideate). The problem is essentially defined for them in the brief and they engage in solving an already defined problem (the brief was specific to the predetermined functionality of the laneway space). Thus, while the Empathise stage was still relevant and important, it was not so in the same way that exists in other situations where, through empathising, various ways of defining the problem emerge. In turn, by limiting the empathise phase, we were able to place some natural limits on the Ideate phase as well. This had 2 benefits:

Allowed students to develop foundational Design Thinking skills: By placing limitations on the problem and possible solutions, students developed an introductory understanding of each phase of the design thinking process, as well as the skills and processes related to each phase. This "beginner" experience ensured that they were ready for a broader, more complicated challenge second time around. In essence, this embraced the concept of "levelling up" that is central to the attractiveness of computer games.

Ensured that students got to the "pay-off" reasonably quickly: The Design Thinking or PBL phase which we have found that hooks students the most is the hands-on stage of prototyping. Ideally, in the students first project you want to nail this stage, since this serves to impact their perception of future projects. A good experience here will have students excited about future projects. As such, a theme that allows you to avoid getting too bogged down early on, so that you arrive at the prototyping phase sooner rather than later, will ensure that students become PBL fans! Having said that, don't rush! Students will tend to want to rush straight to solution mode, often at the expense of developing the critical thinking skills that ensure that their product or solution adequately solves the problem it is meant to address. As such, finding the right balance between this tension will be one of your early goals; smart selection of your theme will allow you to do this.

Lesson 3: Provide students with examples to spur creativity
We have learned that exposure is key to creativity and that students' capacity for creativity is improved through exposure to previously unknown content and ideas. We found that this was not something they could do without us. We needed to see the empathise stage as an opportunity to expose students to different and new ideas. In the proceeding stage where research was required, we even went as far as providing students with research rather than having them find it themselves. As part of the exposure we always tried to engage them with interesting ideas. We have found that widening the boundaries of their exposure to creative ideas is actually how creativity is fostered. As part of this, we provided students with a framework for thinking and creating new ideas. It was a framework drawn from English where it was being used for writing, but we wanted the thinking processes behind the model to be transferred across contexts. The model is below:

Lesson 4: Front-load technical skills
We noticed that there is a significant correlation between the solutions to problems that students are able to produce and the skills, especially technical skills, they possess. When we front-loaded technical skills in the empathise or define stages (or even prior to the problem being introduced), students' ideas improved and so too did their prototypes. While it seems obvious that prototypes progress as skills sets are developed, what we learned was that the possession of skill sets actually plays a role in driving the creative confidence of students and thus impacts on their imagination.

Conclusion

At Prahran High School, our solution to the question of how to make PBL and the design thinking process integral to our school is still being tested. We realise that as we tinker with our current solution, we need to remember to engage playfully and be open to continual rethinking of what we design. In a way, our question has begun to shift to one that is more sustaining:
"How might we remain continually open and playful as we imagine and reimagine PBL in our context?"
Jonathon Wouters, Former Learning Specialist Prahran High School

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Fine-tuning PBL for Year 7 students - PBL Curriculum | Cura Education

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Cura Education's hands-on, real-world project-based learning (PBL) units bring your classrooms to life

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I like the idea presented for a PBL for Year 8 as it aligns with my passion for integrating the sustainability cross curriculum priority. I will explore this further for my sequence.

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Trade Map provides - in the form of tables, graphs and maps - indicators on export performance, international demand, alternative markets and competitive markets, as well as a directory of importing and exporting companies.

Good for Year 9 Business: AC9HE9K03

the reasons Australia trades with other nations, and the patterns of trade between Australia and Asia

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Students can explore where our imports and exports flow through, and their volume and value across ports and airports, with this interactive map.

Another great resource for Year 9: AC9HE9K03

the reasons Australia trades with other nations, and the patterns of trade between Australia and Asia

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Watching this space to see all of the amazing resources she posts.

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A great source of posters and class activites.

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Concept maps, quizzes, and presentation tools!

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I will likely start my exploration of this with the AI & Deepfakes lesson, especially with my Year 8s looking at persuasive advertising and Year 11s on the misrepresentation of women in Media

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AI will change the world. Who will change AI?

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Khan Academy has a great high-school course on Growth Mindset.

Thanks maddisonwestbury for your post about Khan and its informational courses!

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Growth Mindset | LearnStorm | Khan Academy

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The LearnStorm growth mindset activities are fun and age appropriate, providing a structured way for students to explore the science behind the idea that “You can learn anything.” Along the way they’ll earn special badges and contribute to their overall class progress in LearnStorm. The activities w…

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Khan has a range of life skills courses suitable for secondary students. Those I think will be useful in my classes include:

Growth Mindset

AI for education (teacher course)

Financial Literacy

Social Media Literacy

Internet Safety

Thanks again maddisonwestbury for the recommendation in your padlet!

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College, careers, and more | Khan Academy

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Learn for free about math, art, computer programming, economics, physics, chemistry, biology, medicine, finance, history, and more. Khan Academy is a nonprofit with the mission of providing a free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere.

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Thanks again for a great resource maddisonwestbury

Such a great tool for teaching financial literacy, including investments, insurance and superannuation. I also love that it can create competition through the leaderboard function.

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Financial education made easy for secondary schools

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This is one my Year 8 English class turned me onto. They can plug in their speech and it generates printable palm cards that can then be taped onto cardstock for use when presenting.

If using these along with a presentation, it is handy for students to add a 'change slide' note on their palm card so they remember as they present.

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Free Palm Card, Cue Card, Debate Card & Flash Card Generator

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Easily generate palm cards instantly for any event. Instantly convert speeches from Word Documents into Palm Cards in a matter of seconds for Free with EPC.

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Interviews on current issues for English class discussions and writing topics.

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The show that puts you at the centre of the conversation. Join host Stan Grant and a panel of punters, pollies and pundits to talk through the issues of the past seven days and set the agenda for the week to come.

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Ziplet for exit tickets and bell ringers

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Ziplet for exit tickets and bell ringers

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Thanks for the share Michelle Williams. I'm looking forward to seeing how I can incorporate this on my upcoming placement to assist at the start of class and to gauge understanding.

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Lesson reflection exit tickets help teachers understand how well their students have understood what was covered in a lesson by asking them directly.

Rather than focus on a specific piece of knowledge from the lesson (as with formative assessment exit tickets), lesson reflection exit tickets instead ask students to reflect on their learning from the lesson.

By asking a general question, teachers provide students with a broad opportunity to identify what they understood and where they require further help. And we know that students need their teachers to be responsive to their learning so they can help to move them forward.

Not only does a lesson reflection exit ticket provide valuable data to inform teacher planning, but it also empowers students to take ownership of their learning by self-assessing how well they understood the lesson.

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Determines general comprehension gaps from a topic or lesson

Supports subsequent revision and lesson planning

Gives students an opportunity to reflect on their learning and

Gives students an opportunity to ask questions if there is a comprehension gap

Follow up with students who may need additional support

Revisit material when comprehension was low

Reflect on what the data is telling you - and consider how you might incorporate this into future lesson plans

Consider any support you may need to offer students to help them reflect on their learning progress

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Try these check in ideas with your students: Ask students to reflect on the lesson to determine further support

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Another great share from Michelle Williams. I like the idea of using this as bell work where students can collaborate on finding the correct groupings of words.

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Connections - Group words that share a common thread

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Group words that share a common thread. A new puzzle is available each day.