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With school districts starting the 2020/2021 school year online, parents and teachers are continually looking for online learning resources. Teachers have been tasked with delivering lesson plans and classroom activities as part of distance learning. Parents are trying to keep students on track with their studies and educational growth. We are here to help! This growing list offers a wealth of resources for all ages of students, parents, and teachers!

Go to:

Online Resources for Kids in Grades K-5

These sites have ready-to-use lesson plans and activities for a vast amount of subjects for younger students.

What It Is: This comprehensive program covers a wide variety of subjects for students aged 2-8 (Pre-K through second grade). It offers more than 850 self-guided lessons across 10 levels. A companion program focuses on teaching English as a second language for this age group.

What It Is: This MMO game gives kids something other online learning resources may lack: a sense of community. Students up to age 13 play games to learn across a range of topics (math, reading, social studies, science, and more), while also creating their own online persona and interacting with others in the game.

What It Is: Daily free resources and activities in American Sign Language and English, for young deaf children ages 3-10. They offer weekly activities based on their award-winning VL2 Storybook Apps to support bilingual language development. It is run by Motion Light Lab, part of a research center on Visual Language and Visual Learning at Gallaudet University.

What They're Offering: Free access to Motion Light Lab's award-winning VL2 ASL Storybook Apps. Every week, the Motion Light Lab offers a free Storybook App which includes daily offerings in ASL and English, live storytelling "sign aloud" on Mondays, and an ASL/English literacy lesson live-streamed every Wednesday on YouTube featuring deaf narrators and accompanying worksheets for a deeper dive into each story.

What It Is: BrainPop offers in-depth learning on topics across the curriculum for upper elementary and middle school students. Each topic includes videos, quizzes, related reading, and even coding activities. Teachers have access to planning and tracking resources too. They also offer BrainPop Jr., specially designed for younger kids.

What They're Offering: All schools get free access to their COVID-19/coronavirus online learning resources for talking to students about the topic.

What It Is: A character education video subscription series for K-2 students that highlight positive character traits, exemplified by prominent figures.

What It Is: A nonprofit and charity, Classroom Champions connects volunteer Olympians, Paralympians, Student-Athletes, and Professional Athletes to K-8 classrooms through a social and emotional based curriculum and mentorship experience.

What It Is: A fun and educational game-based environment where kids learn to code without any prior experience. After completing CodeMonkey's award-winning coding courses, kids will be able to navigate through the programming world with a sense of confidence and accomplishment.

What It Is: Turn writing assignments into something amazing with the illustrations, animations, and sound effects available. Kids can even write their own choose-your-own-adventure story!

What It Is: This research-based emotional skills program is designed for children ages 4-11 and gives kids practical tools for dealing with impulse control, frustration, and acting out. Emotional ABCs teaches children how to figure out what they're feeling, why they're experiencing that emotion, and how to make better choices for lifetime emotional resilience.

What It Is: Three beta-stage eLearning tools from the scientists in their R&D division to help improve reading, writing, and English language speaking skills.

What It Is: A science teaching resource that brings school science standards to life through fun and educational videos paired with lesson plans, activities, quizzes, reading material, discussion questions, and more.

What It Is: Using multimedia Interactive Posters, students can express ideas with ease by combining images, graphics, audio, video, and text on one digital canvas!

What It Is: Happy Numbers helps teachers deliver quality math instruction, monitor progress, and math growth-all remotely. Students can access Happy Numbers from any Internet-enabled device (even a smartphone!).

What it is: HearBuilder, from Super Duper Publications, is an online, research-based, foundational literacy program. It helps students in PreK-Grade 5 strengthen skills in the essential pre-literacy areas of following directions, sequencing, auditory memory and phonological awareness.

What they're offering: HearBuilder is available free for 60 days. Teachers, parents and therapists can access self-directed activities and short and targeted tasks for students, as well as tools to monitor student progress. HearBuilder is accessible at school or during distance learning.

What It Is: Highlights @ Home is a new, free service for families and teachers that delivers themed content bundles twice a week from the well-known children's magazine creator, Highlights.

What It Is: iknowit is a site with over 500 common-core aligned activities and math games for students in the elementary grades. The site keeps track of progress, offers graphical hints and explanations, and there are also animated characters to cheer students along.

What They're Offering: A free 30 day trial with unlimited access and no credit card required.

What It Is: A platform for reading comprehension passages and skill assessment in early education and home schooling.

What It Is: Mentoring Minds impacts millions of students every day by partnering with principals and teachers across the country to improve student achievement and teach critical thinking. Find educator resources that focus on the 9 traits of Critical Thinking.

What They're Offering: Free coloring book in English and Spanish, as well as a new animated video series.

What It Is: Mindsets Live Classes and Open Math Challenges help teachers & families keep learning going in math, science, & STEAM with fun and creative real-world problem-solving.

What It Is: This popular differentiated learning site provides instruction across a wide array of elementary subjects. Available for at-home instruction and classroom instruction, online training on effectively using the site is also available.

What It Is: PebbleGo offers safe, interactive online research resources on topics selected by their teachers for students K-3.

What It Is: Hands-on, minds-on learning can happen anywhere and everywhere. If you're looking for STEMspiration because of an unexpected homeschooling need, you're in the midst of an uncommon education experience, or you just want to have some STEM fun, Pitsco has great resources that are always available for free.

What It Is: Produced by RedRover, Kind News magazine is a Parent's Choice Approved Award winning children's magazine that inspires readers to explore the relationship between people and animals. It includes engaging articles, colorful illustrations, activities, and games to help kids explore the relationship between people and animals and develop knowledge and skills necessary for empathy and kindness.

What They're Offering: KindNews.org includes free lesson plans, links to past issues, and humane-themed books.

What It Is: Scholastic created the Scholastic Learn at Home website to provide students with an array of learning journeys that span various content areas. Subscriptions include several learning opportunities per day, including projects based on articles and stories, virtual field trips, reading and geography challenges, and more.

What It Is: Seekadoo is a safe, kid-friendly search engine app for children ages 3-13. Seekadoo's content database is carefully curated to ensure appropriate material for children and integrated ad-blocking eliminates tracking and monetization of children's data so their digital footprints remain private.

What It Is: The Square Panda Smart Letters playset engages children's tactile and kinesthetic as well as visual and auditory senses, because neuroscience shows that early readers learn best in a multisensory environment.

What It Is: An online learning tool which provides personalized math and spelling practice. It adapts questions to each student, using engaging games and rewards for effort and achievement to build their confidence, and is proven to accelerate progress. Teachers can set focused work to consolidate existing knowledge and get real-time feedback on each individual child, making it an ideal home learning tool.

What it is: Super Duper Publications has created an online library of its most popular print materials to provide access for teachers and parents doing distance and hybrid/blended learning.

What they're offering: The Super Duper Digital Library is available at a discounted rate of 199.95 for an annual subscription or $19.95 for a monthly subscription. It provides more than 365 standards-based online resources (with more being added daily) for students PreK-Grade 5. Resources include unique, engaging instructional games, cards, and worksheets to target specific skills, such as basic concepts, literacy, grammar, social skills, critical thinking, sequencing, listening, early skills, articulation, phonemic awareness, memory, motor skills, sensory integration, phonics, reading, and more.

What It Is: Super Star Online, by Help Me 2 Learn, is a supplemental reading, phonics, and math program featuring a wide variety of songs, interactive activities, and games in an engaging and easy-to-use format. Features include the Super Star Motivational and Data Tracking System.

What It Is: Super Teacher Worksheets has tens of thousands of printable teaching resources for Kindergarten through 5th grade teachers and parents working with Pre-K through 5th grade students. Topics include math, reading, writing, phonics, grammar, spelling, science, and social studies.

What It Is: A digital series that aims to give young people a fun and active way to use their imaginations while learning about the process of creating theater.

What It Is: A nationwide writing curriculum designed for teachers, administrators, and parents. It takes away the stress of finding and developing a curriculum for their students.

What It Is: A program for PreK-1st grade students and those with special needs to learn to write their letters, numbers, and shapes using fun visuals, rhythmic chants, and repetition.

What It Is: A web-based keyboarding program that teaches students how to type and has unique transdisciplinary Common Core and NGSS aligned content provided through its lessons.

What It Is: Virtual Field Trips specializes in K-8 social studies, life science, geography, and ancient civilization curriculum content. Their website has online learning videos and quizzes along with a list of the national and state Standards that the videos align with.

What It Is: An easy-to-use platform designed to empower K-8 students to master math content at their own pace.

Online Learning Resources for Grades 6-12

Use these ready-to-implement resources in your virtual classrooms for older learners.

BBC My World Media Literacy

What It Is: A complete web-based math curriculum designed to help students ages 8-13 deepen their understanding of math.

What It Is: Math lessons, skills practice resources, and at-home learning videos for grade 6-12 students.

What It Is: NativeAccent delivers spoken English skills practice with targeted feedback to students on their computers and mobile devices using advanced speech recognition and A.I. technologies.

What It Is: Software engineers from some of the leading technology companies, including Google, Facebook, and Amazon, are volunteering their time to help students learn how to code while schools are closed.

What It Is: Free, interactive virtual classes open to students, teachers, and anyone else interested in learning to code in a fun and engaging manner through game development. The program is aligned to ISTE Standards for computer science education.

What It Is: GeoInquiries™ are free, standards-based, online explorations of maps and data about a wide variety of content plus an initial introduction. Any school can also request a free account with logins for teachers and students, so they can create, save, and share content, with free Mapping Hour videos to instruct teachers and parents.

What They're Offering: Free online content and accounts for schools on an interactive mapping platform. Learn More.

What It Is: Everydae is an online SAT math prep program. 10-minute micro lessons match busy schedules. Built by industry experts with 17+ years industry experience.

What It Is: Teaches STEM and STEAM with a game design focus. GameSalad is best suited for 6th grade and up depending on student readiness. Detailed instructions for students and full lesson plans for teachers make a great introduction to coding.

What It Is: A unique cultural immersion resource for Spanish, French and German language learning for grades 6-12. iCulture offers travel videos, day in the life videos, current news articles, and songs that are all 100% target language, age and school appropriate, and include topics of interest to teens and young adults.

What It Is: Popfizz CS is a computer science education platform for grades 6-12. Popfizz offers a wide range of online student courses and professional development for educators.

What They're Offering: All their tools are easily accessible on their website for free.

What It Is: An interactive AP Biology course with engaging content and interactive activities in the form of quizzes and flashcards to provide immediate reinforcement of the material. Teachers can assign portions of the course to their students, and track their progress. Or students can work independently and track their own progress!

What It Is:Thousands of free study guides, test prep, and video learning resources.

What It Is: Resources include free trials to Vernier Video Analysis™ and Pivot Interactives, the Vernier Physics with Video Analysis e-book and extended demo of the LoggerPro software needed to complete the experiments, Scratch coding activities, experiment content and access from ADInstruments and LabArchives, and more than 200 experiments with sample data covering a large range of subjects. With these tools, teachers can help students form a deep understanding of key scientific concepts outside the classroom and laboratory.

What It Is: VidCode is an online coding and computer science curriculum specifically for teens. It teaches JavaScript, web programming, design, and more.

What It Is: Online close reading instruction, leveled authentic texts with comprehension quizzes, and gamified vocabulary for grades 6-12.

K-12 Online Learning Resources

These sites have lesson plans and activities ready to go on a variety of subjects for any grade.

What It Is: A comprehensive suite of digital solutions that significantly accelerate literacy and deepen learning across the content areas.

What They're Offering: Achieve3000 Literacy at Home Digital provides access to engaging non-fiction articles at 3 reading levels. Sign up for a free account here. Additionally, they are offering Literacy Printable Packets for students who do not have internet access at home.

What It Is: K-12 personalized online math instruction that provides each student with a unique study path through skills at each level. Individual study plans are prescriptive, adaptive, and automatically assigned

What It Is: An eBook hosting platform for schools and libraries.

What It Is: BoomWriter offers a variety of tools, features, and resources that lets teachers conduct fiction, nonfiction, and vocabulary-focused writing assignments. BoomWriter inspires students to write on any subject and integrates easily with existing curriculum. Try it for ELA, Social Studies/History, Science, and even Math.

What It Is: A digital portfolio that allows students and educators to shape knowledge and ideas into practical, usable, and shareable work. With bulb, educators can track progress, measure competency, and create dynamic curricula or use one of their templates.

What It Is: A PreK-12 educational company that provides a supplemental, and highly differentiated literacy digital curriculum with demonstrated efficacy.

What It Is: CCC! Streaming Media helps students visualize printed text and aids their understanding of complex concepts. The content has been vetted by educators and aligned to Common Core and state standards, and is supplemented with Teacher's Guides, Student Activities, and Knowledge Checks (quizzes).

What It Is: Century was designed as an intervention tool to identify and remedy gaps in a student's education. It uses artificial intelligence to tailor the learning experience to the learner, much like an actual teacher in the classroom would.

What It Is: ClassHook offers quality media clips on every conceivable topic. Pre-curated playlists make it easier to find what you need for the subject at hand.

What It Is: Crabtree Publishing Company is dedicated to producing high-quality books and educational products for K-9+. Through their website, different selections of their books can be accessed along with free online resources that are included in a Crabtree subscription.

What It Is: The Critical Thinking Co. publishes award-winning PreK-12+ educational textbooks, activity books, e-books, and apps that help children become better problem-solvers. The approach is unique: help kids develop foundational reasoning & critical thinking skills while learning the core subjects (reading, writing, math, science, and social studies).

What It Is: Discovery Education provides online textbooks, multimedia content, and professional development support for virtual classrooms and teachers. Daily DE offers supplemental learning activities, including virtual field trips and lessons, for both educators and parents that will update daily to align with a new educational theme.

What It Is: Innovative math and science online solutions that are fun to use and really work. Gizmos, Reflex, and Science4Us are used in classrooms in every state and over 50 countries worldwide.

What It is: Hip-hop videos and instructional activities that promote literacy and spark creativity.

What It Is: Follett offers over 1,000 PreK-12 titles in science, social studies, language arts, math, and more. AV2 World Languages features high-interest titles in 10 different languages with full audio support. Parents and students will find these resources interactive, easy to use and a great way for students to independently explore a new topic.

What It Is: Interdisciplinary, curriculum-aligned resources to support online learning from Pre-K through undergraduate; Live and on-demand training materials to help optimize existing resources; Professional development eBooks to help transition to and strengthen virtual learning and Authoritative Gale resources on health-related topics and global issues.

What It Is: A math practice program for concept mastery and retention.

What They're Offering: Free, unlimited trial usage for schools until July 2021.

What It Is: Original, fully-customizable musicals that not only enhance Reading and Communication skills, but also employ Arts Integration and Social Emotional Learning to encourage strong character development both onstage and off.

What It Is: A website loaded with standards-aligned lessons, games, and activities that will keep K-8 students engaged while learning from home.r.

What It Is: A highly adaptable program that teaches challenging life skills to school students with various special needs. The full program offers 39 lessons, 65 videos, visual components, and role plays around the topics of hygiene, social skills, relationships development, and health that can be implemented both virtually and face-to-face.

What It Is: InferCabulary is a web-based, research-backed, device-agnostic, K-12, fun, game-based, visual approach for teaching nuanced vocabulary that simultaneously improves students' critical thinking skills. InferCabulary is the opposite of rote memorization of definitions - they mimic the act of avid readership so students deeply learn words and improve comprehension.

What It Is: Do you Kahoot! Teachers have loved this fun online quiz game platform for years. Here's why we're into it.

What They're Offering: Kahoot! Basic is free for educators and students, but they're also currently offering their Premium distance learning tools for free. Learn more here- Kahoot!

What It Is: A weekly current events-based program. It presents engaging and important stories from around the world in a newsmagazine format.

What It Is: An online core supplement for grades 1-12 that was designed to be used in classrooms to help teachers with increasing responsibilities and numbers of students.

What It Is: At the Lerner Bookshelf, they've set up two collections of eBooks (Grades PreK-5 and Grades 6-12) that allow for unlimited simultaneous access by every student in a school. They also offer reading book lists, videos, educational downloads, information on authors who are available for virtual visits, and more.

What It Is: Listenwise teaches students to be better listeners using podcasts, comprehension questions, and quizzes.

What It Is: MAD-learn's web-based mobile app development tool is a holistic set of modules for students to experience the software development lifecycle firsthand.

What It Is: NGSS based science lessons for 4th-8th graders that can easily be done from home.

What It Is: This is the only online learning management system for teaching music at all age levels. Band practice might be off the table for now, but students can still work on theory, notation, sight-reading and more.

What It Is: The NASA STEM Engagement site offers STEM resources, activities, lesson plans, virtual field trips, and more! Also check out NASA Home and City to find out how space travel impacts your daily life.

What They're Offering: Explore the Hubble Telescope and listen to astronauts share their stories. All for free!

What They're Offering: All resources are free.

What It Is: News-O-Matic features five daily news stories specifically for kids, written at a variety of reading levels from grades K through 8. Every story is translated by native speakers from English into Spanish, French, and Arabic. And all these texts, at all levels and languages, are read out loud so kids can listen along. Teachers have access to a special dashboard to track students' reading progress, change their reading levels, and see students' answers to comprehension questions for each article.

What it is: PBLWorks, the leading provider of professional development for high-quality Project Based Learning (PBL), has created a free eBook to support high-quality Project Based Learning at home.

What they're offering: This Teachable Moment, a free downloadable eBook offers a primer on Project Based Learning (PBL) and 21 easy implemented, "follow the recipe" PBL projects, informed by educational research and designed for children of all ages. Projects such as creating a cooking show focused on family recipes and the history behind them, or creating a plan for a new school that meets our new reality, engage children in real-world issues and activities that matter to them while also teaching concepts like literacy, math and more.

What It Is: Perfection Next is a digital learning platform offering access to our entire catalog of digital resources including AMSCO Advanced Placement, Language Arts, Reading, Math, Science, Social Studies, and World Languages.

What It Is: A web-app that gives teachers and students a unique way to create stories, demonstrate learning, and enhance writing assignments - in any subject - through digital comics. Users can explore topics in Math, Science, Social Studies, History, English, Art, or any other subject. They can also choose images from popular content, books and movies like The Hunger Games or The Outsiders, plus other topics like the solar system, black history, or the environment - all Common Core aligned.

What They're Offering: All-access for free for 30 days during the COVID-19 crisis. Learn more here- Pixton EDU.

What It Is: Quill offers a set of diagnostic assessments and independent practice activities that focus on grammar, sentence construction, and other writing and literacy skills. All the while, Quill provides teachers with free, in-depth data reports on student performance.

What It Is: An online guided reading tool that "listens" while a student reads a selection aloud, detects when they falter, and provides immediate intervention in the form of correct pronunciation.

What It Is: Teachers and parents can keep their child's reading instruction moving forward with Reading Horizons' library of virtual webinars and lessons.

What It Is: Readorium helps students learn nonfiction reading strategies as they build rich background knowledge in science at school or at home.

What It Is: RoboKind's virtual coding course will help districts provide elementary and middle school students with engaging computer science content during this unexpected period of school closures.

What It Is: Rozzy Learning has engaging lesson plans and other resources for science, social studies, math, and STEM for K-8th grade.

What It Is: This brand-new virtual classroom platform integrates PowerPoint, Zoom video webinars, and Slido quizzes into one streamlined package.

What It Is: SMART Learning Suite is a virtual classroom platform that easily integrates everything you already have on Google Drive or in Microsoft documents. You can add videos and other online resources as needed.

What It Is: Join their expert staff in learning about awesome topics like 3D design, video game design, coding, and more all from home. Their staff deliver lessons virtually and are available live to help provide targeted guidance and assistance to students as they work through awesome activities and projects.

What It Is: Study Island provides standards-based practice, test preparation, and formative assessments in grades K-12. Students get feedback to guide their learning and educators get immediate data to determine who needs intervention and who is ready to move on.

What It Is: A K-12 publishing company that creates science and social studies curriculum to enable educators to improve their ability to engage students in a diverse classroom.

What It Is: With Tyto Online, students solve authentic science problems as they learn, using a video game to power their experience. 'Tyto Online' is NGSS-aligned, covering life science and some Earth and space science.

What It Is: These online learning resources are specifically for those who teach French, Spanish, and ESL. Students get audio and video, interactive writing and speaking exercises, and more.

What It Is: Students and families can access news stories about the world, politics, United States, science, sports, and more. Xyza also recently launched www.newsicle.co where students try and answer one news-related trivia quiz every weekday.

What They're Offering: Completely free and unlimited access to 1000+ Xyza: News for Kids articles.

Remote Learning and Virtual Classroom Platforms

These sites allow you to follow your existing lesson plans by creating your own online learning resources. Some also provide the platforms you need to host virtual interactive multimedia classrooms.

What It Is: With Bloomz, teachers and schools save time by having all the tools they need to communicate with today's parents and students in one easy-to-use (and free) app.

What It Is: Life Skills Academy by Conover is an online video library designed to be used outside the classroom so parents or guardians can help learners with disabilities learn how to function independently at home, work, or in the community. Based on the concept of video modeling, users watch someone do the desired behavior and then do it themselves.

What It Is: EduGuide saves schools time and money by efficiently multiplying their student support system, building self-motivation that keeps students learning, even when they are remote. EduGuide provides a simple way for every student to both be mentored by a caring adult and learn to mentor their peers on key social-emotional SEL habits that boost student success.

What It Is: Teachers can access a collection of learning paths from some of the most well-known thought leaders in education covering topics such as Understanding by Design, Habits of Mind, Social Emotional Learning, Cultural and Linguistic Diversity, Personalized Learning, and Growth Mindset.

What It Is: Get the most out of Google Classroom and other Google tools with this platform. They offer webinars and other resources to help teachers create and manage the best virtual classrooms.

What It Is: A cloud-based solution from Impero Software to help schools manage and record student safety and health information, from first aid to COVID-19 symptom tracking, to more complex mental health issues. Impero back:drop gives districts a way to keep track of and communicate about potential concerns safely and securely and eliminates the need for paper-based reporting systems.

What They're Offering: Impero has made Impero back:drop free indefinitely, helping schools fill a critical need for staying on top of student mental and physical concerns during the pandemic and beyond.

What It Is: A collaborative online image and video editor with a cloud storage Workspace. Teachers can make video lessons to send to students for remote learning, students can work together on a group project, and classrooms can share multimedia projects with each other.

What It Is: Projector App helps teachers project their real word notes onto a professional-looking, virtual blackboard.

What it is: PBLWorks, the leading provider of professional development for high-quality Project Based Learning (PBL), has created a free eBook to support high-quality Project Based Learning at home.

What they're offering: This Teachable Moment, a free downloadable eBook offers a primer on Project Based Learning (PBL) and 21 easy implemented, "follow the recipe" PBL projects, informed by educational research and designed for children of all ages. Projects such as creating a cooking show focused on family recipes and the history behind them, or creating a plan for a new school that meets our new reality, engage children in real-world issues and activities that matter to them while also teaching concepts like literacy, math and more.

What It Is: A cloud-based lesson delivery software service that energizes students with polling, timed assessments, interactive lessons, activities, and millions of immersive resources from educators around the world. ClassFlow is certified by iKeepSafe as compliant with federal and state requirements for handling protected personal information, including student data, and is safely used by over 4.5 million students worldwide.

What It Is: SafeToNet makes the digital world safer for children to explore and enjoy. Its award-winning AI-powered software safeguards children and their mental wellbeing when using their mobile devices, without sacrificing their privacy. The app provides an intelligent safeguarding keyboard and wellbeing tools that respond in real-time to help children make better decisions online, identify when they are under threat or distress, and prevent messages from being sent that could harm them and others.

What It Is: Free K-12 Math, ELA, Science and Social Studies resources! Create effective classwork and assignments that have been proven to increase performance. All content is designed to engage and challenge students at their own level./li>

What It Is: Keep your music students practicing at home with this online music classroom. You can track student progress, and they'll get instant feedback from the online tools.

What It Is: More than just a computer, classroom, STEM kits, or a project - SmartLabs are a comprehensive and immersive solution.

What It Is: StudyBee is a grading and student feedback system that extends Google Classroom functionality, with the ability to link assignments to custom or standardized educational objectives from the US.

What It Is: A collaborative presentation tool used for all grade levels that works perfectly for the remote classroom.

What It Is: An online bookmarker for educators. Committed to making personalized learning and educational technology easily accessible for everyone, everywhere.

What It Is: Companies across the world use Webex to keep their teams in contact remotely. They offer lots of tools that are ideal for taking your classes online.

What It Is: Rather than fighting smartphones, Wooclap turns them into an exceptional learning tool. Wooclap is a free tool to help maintain interactivity and effective pedagogy. Their goal is to capture the attention of students to improve their learning whether they're in the classroom or at home taking an online course.

What It Is: Project your lessons in group settings with Zoom. You can even record the sessions for students who need to review later. This video and audio conferencing tool has a chat functionality where students can ask questions as you teach.

Professional Development & Training

These sites assist with continuing professional development and curriculum for teachers.

What It Is: Nomadic is a digital learning pioneer launching a Remote Work Boot Camp to help newly remote folks get better equipped to face our current working reality.
Feeling overwhelmed? You're definitely not alone. Join fellow educators in the WeAreTeachers Chat group on Facebook to get support from others just like you.

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350+ Amazing Websites For Kids Learning at Home

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Looking for distance learning and online learning resources for kids, tweens, and teens at home? Parents and teachers, we've got you covered.

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You've never learned math like this.

Our step-by-step explanations help you master math from arithmetic to calculus, so you can spend less time stressing and more time crushing it.

SCAN

Use the Photomath app to scan a tricky problem. You can also manually input problems using our smart calculator!

SOLVE

Watch as Photomath instantly produces expert-verified solving steps for your exact problem.

LEARN

Use those steps to dig into the nitty-gritty and learn at your own pace!

What can we explain?

Photomath covers a wide range of math topics, so we can be your study buddy from second grade to senior year!

Elementary math

Algebra

Geometry

Calculus

Trigonometry

Statistics

Word problems

and more!

Start Learning

Problem-solving from day one

A dad was struggling to help his children with math homework. The solution he created has now helped millions of students around the world.

More For Parents

Damir Sabol

Founder

More than just an app

In school, one teacher is devoted to dozens of students. At Photomath, dozens of teachers are devoted to one student.

Photomath in the classroom

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Our step-by-step explanations help you master math from arithmetic to calculus, so you can spend less time stressing and more time crushing it. SCAN Use the Photomath app to scan a tricky problem. You can also manually input problems using our smart calculator! SOLVE Watch as Photomath instantly produces expert-verified solving steps for your exact problem.

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Extensive curated collection of resources on various biology, biotechnology, and life science topics and lab techniques.

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Explore Bio-Rad's array of free teaching resources that range from online videos to editable presentations and student activities that can stand alone or enrich your lessons.

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An elementary teacher who has worked for an edtech start-up argues that it's important now-with teachers and students working separately-to promote reflection and social connection as tools for learning.

Technology integration is a double-edged sword: While it can make us more powerful and help us overcome what appear to be insurmountable obstacles, it can also create more barriers if used improperly.

I've learned this the hard way, through trial and error. For three years, I worked for an education technology start-up company and network of micro-schools dedicated to personalized learning. While our goal was to help every child reach their full potential through individualized, digitally driven content, I learned over time that many digital tools have dehumanizing effects: They chip away at human connection, limit opportunities for heterogeneous groupings and cross-ability collaboration, and have kids turning toward screens instead of their teachers and fellow learners.

Most of us have little choice now about incorporating digital pedagogy into our teaching. But that doesn't mean we have to succumb to the dehumanizing effects of individualized or digitally driven education technology. We don't have to force students to use web-based adaptive tools or make them simply watch videos of us teaching. There are ways to humanize digital pedagogy, in an effort to preserve our students'-and our own-sense of humanity while we're all teaching and learning remotely.

These are my best suggestions for engaging students in learning using technology.
3 TIPS FOR KEEPING THE HUMAN ELEMENT WHEN USING TECHNOLOGY
1. Move away from industrialized curriculum and toward journaling: It seems to make sense to turn to web-based, adaptive tools at a time like this. They promise to make it easy for teachers to manage learning from afar, and might make it easier to give lessons a personalized feel by creating playlists of activities.

But we cannot let our curriculum start and end with these activities. Even though we must use digital technology for distance learning right now, this is also an excellent time to leverage open-ended tasks, complex instruction, and journaling, allowing students to post pictures of their journal entries through Seesaw or Google Drive.

Journaling might entail providing a math task with multiple solutions for students to solve independently. It might entail reading a story, and asking students to respond to a variety of journal prompts in a reader's notebook or thinking journal. It may entail free or creative writing, bounded by a genre study or journaling rubric that still allows the teacher to provide structured feedback and help students progress in their writing.

After students have time to work on their own, you can host a discussion online so they can share their work and have an opportunity to connect with one another over academics, just like you would in your classroom regularly.

2. Create opportunities for dialogue and discourse: Social interaction is a critical component of complex instruction. To fully capitalize on the benefits of complex instruction, we must create opportunities for dialogue and discourse, in an effort to keep kids thinking critically over the course of this quarantine. Many of us have audio or video conferencing capabilities at our fingertips. Google Meet and Zoom are just two tools that grant educators the ability to have live meetings with their classrooms. Doing so can preserve some semblance of normalcy and maintain the dialogue and discourse that we value in our classrooms.

But the need for this goes far beyond social interaction. True, deep learning happens not on a worksheet or through a series of decontextualized videos and closed-ended questions. Learning is a conversation; it requires human connection and interaction. In order to preserve the humanity of learning experiences when we're dependent on digital technology, it's important to think of these conferencing tools as a means for empathic extension-as a tool for connecting with others when face-to-face human connection just isn't possible or safe.

3. Build in opportunities for self-reflection: The current crisis is allowing all of us-educators and parents included-to reflect on what it truly means to learn. We are being reminded that learning is more about the process than the product. Sending home worksheet after worksheet is unlikely to result in fruitful learning that will stick.

I've been posting additional activities for my students through Seesaw dedicated only to reflection. In these activities, I attach a video that includes a "think aloud" in which I share my thinking on open-ended questions related to readings or solutions to open-ended math tasks from our math curriculum. At the end of the video, I ask my students to consider a few questions and record a video response:

What went well for you with this task?

What will you do differently next time?

How has your thinking changed?

All of these remind students that learning neither starts nor ends with the activity they've completed. It can-and will-be connected to future activities, and by taking them through the process of reflecting on the task, I create the expectation that they will need to apply new learnings to future tasks.

THE PRIVILEGE OF LEARNING ONLINE
Do not take this opportunity for granted. So many students around the world are unable to access rich learning experiences online for myriad reasons. We must acknowledge this privilege and do it justice.

In an era of social distancing, we're all searching for some form of social closeness right now. By humanizing digital instruction-and by using it as an opportunity to connect with your class-you're fulfilling one of the most important functions of schooling. You're providing not just meaningful and structured academics but community-social connection that is necessary and will be much appreciated by all involved.

Source: https://www.edutopia.org/

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Three Tips for Humanizing Digital Pedagogy

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An elementary teacher who has worked for an edtech start-up argues that it's important now-with teachers and students working separately-to promote reflection and social connection as tools for learning. Technology integration is a double-edged sword: While it can make us more powerful and help us overcome what appear to be insurmountable obstacles, it can also create more barriers if used improperly.

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Pronouns 1 Song - Learn Grammar - Learning Upgrade App

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VideoLink lets you share videos on YouTube easily, without distracting third-party content or advertisements.

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CNM K-12 Virtual Learning Environments - Training and Resources

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CNM K-12 Virtual Learning Environments - Training and Resources

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Bridges in Mathematics | The Math Learning Center | MLC

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The Math Learning Center offers a comprehensive standards-based math program as well as innovative supplemental resources.

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Over 1.1 billion simulations delivered

160interactive simulations

97language translations

3001teacher-submitted lessons

Founded in 2002 by Nobel Laureate Carl Wieman, the PhET Interactive Simulations project at the University of Colorado Boulder creates free interactive math and science simulations. PhET sims are based on extensive education research and engage students through an intuitive, game-like environment where students learn through exploration and discovery.

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Founded in 2002 by Nobel Laureate Carl Wieman, the PhET Interactive Simulations project at the University of Colorado Boulder creates free interactive math and science simulations. PhET sims are based on extensive education research and engage students through an intuitive, game-like environment where students learn through exploration and discovery.

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With such a rapid shift to online school, there were bound to be some mishaps ... and lessons learned. We turned to our community of teachers to ask what they're learning themselves about remote learning. Here are our favorite dos and don'ts of teaching online:

DO: Be prepared.

"Make sure you have good lighting so your students can see your face clearly; face an open window or put a lamp next to your laptop." -Scoon

"Check your background for anything you don't want to be visible in the video, or blur it if possible." -Cara

"Have a practice child who will log in and check links to make sure they work." -Beth

"I always send my students some activities to print in advance so they're not looking at the screen for the whole lesson." -Viral

"Make sure you clear your web browser before you do a screen share video." -Erin

"Start your meeting with everyone muted and ask them to sign into the chat box by answering an opening question (like a drill and you can take attendance this way also)." -Christina

"Hit record on all live webinar sessions. Tell the students and parents their session is being recorded, too. This will help them refer back to the video if they forget what you reviewed in the session with them." -Todd

DON'T: Overwhelm students.

"Assign way less work than you think you should. Students are going to take much longer to complete it due to tech issues, stress, and the challenge of having to learn mostly on their own." -Greta

"Give them less than a normal in-class day. They're going to be relearning how to schedule and manage their time so they'll be overwhelmed." -Skye

"I found using the chat box helpful for kids to type 'Q' if they have a question, and 'me' rather than raising a visual hand." -Lora

DO: Collaborate.

"We're lucky that kindergarten this year has five teachers, so we each take a designated day and write up the lesson for that day and share with the rest. That way we have a full week, and since we worked together, we know it will flow with what the last person did." -Kyoko

"Reach out to your community partners. A lot of internet providers are providing free internet to students right now and many are even supplying laptops and tablets." -Emily L.

DON'T: Make assumptions.

"We have to take into account that a lot of kids have other responsibilities when they're at home: other classwork, chores, helping with siblings, etc. It's not like when they're in our class and we have them for that allotted amount of time." -Emily L.

"Understand that some students haven't gotten the district access they were supposed to have to do their work."-Sarah

DO: Build community.

"I'm giving my students social time before class starts so that they can catch up with friends, show them their cool stuff, and be silly." -Angelica

"I do a daily question that is more meaningful to my students so we can start conversations. Discussions and building relationships were a big thing in the classroom." -Emily S.

DON'T: Expect perfection.

"Be patient. You may spend some time looking at their nostrils as they try and figure this out." -Gregory

"Remember that connections do break, especially if you're trying to remain online for an extended period of time, like an hour or more. Don't be surprised when it happens, but just take it as being a normal drawback of teaching online, like having a bee fly into the classroom." -Rick

DO: Give some grace.

"Allow yourself (and of course your students) plenty of grace. Many students have taken on additional responsibilities to help out at home. Many of us teachers have, too. Be mindful!" -Jennifer

"Our students are under a lot of stress just like we are. Just like this isn't a vacation for us, it's not a vacation for them. They are scared." -Emily L.

"Laugh at yourself and make mistakes. The kids need to know you are still the same person." -Dawn
What lessons have you learned from teaching online? Come share in our Plus, The Next Weeks of Online Learning Don't Have to Be Perfect. WeAreTeachers Helpline group on Facebook.

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With such a rapid shift to online school, there were bound to be some mishaps ... and lessons learned. We turned to our community of teachers to ask what they're learning themselves about remote learning.

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A Deck is a canvas where you can create an interactive lesson to engage students. You may add Activities and Paths to encourage students' progression.

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It's easy - simply create a link and share with people you want to join the call. No sign ups required. If you don't have Skype installed, that's ok, you can enjoy it on your browser. Invite up to 99 people (plus you) and enjoy free video calls using Skype.

Best of all, your SkypeLink doesn't expire and can be used anytime!

No sign ups

No downloads

Calls up to 24 hours each

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Free unlimited video calls & online meetings with one click | Skype

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It's easy - simply create a link and share with people you want to join the call. No sign ups required. If you don't have Skype installed, that's ok, you can enjoy it on your browser. Invite up to 99 people (plus you) and enjoy free video calls using Skype.

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Swivl - Video observations that strengthen and inform teachers

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Distance/Hybrid Learning - Swivl - Video observations that strengthen and inform teachers

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Easily record teacher AND student interactions for a holistic understanding of the classroom. With deeper insights, teachers are empowered to make meaningful changes in the classroom.

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Visual Math Learning

Understanding Mathematics
through
Insight, Concept, and Perception

Visual Math Learning offers free math lessons featuring an interactive on-line tutorial for teaching elementary mathematics and basic arithmetic for grades K-12 at the pre-algebra level. It is an instructional aid for parents, teachers, and educators of primary, elementary, and middle school students, as well as a resource for lesson plans, homework help, and home schooling math lessons. The tutorial includes games, puzzles, interactive diagrams, and computer animated virtual manipulatives that emphasize active learning concepts by visualization.

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Visual Math Learning: A Free Online Tutorial for Teaching Math

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Visual Math Learning Understanding Mathematicsthrough Insight, Concept, and Perception Visual Math Learning offers free math lessons featuring an interactive on-line tutorial for teaching elementary mathematics and basic arithmetic for grades K-12 at the pre-algebra level.

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Sample presentation from Bio-Rad Classroom Resources.

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Sample presentation from Bio-Rad Classroom Resources.

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Ancient Realms: The Kingdom of Korsah (Episode 80) (Acid Chillout / Deep Trance Mix)

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VideoLink lets you share videos on YouTube easily, without distracting third-party content or advertisements.

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Grids are the meeting place for your classroom, your school, your department or any learning community to discuss your Topics.

Start with an icebreaker, add weekly reflections, share book talks, explore STEM principles, give mini-presentations ... any Topic to ignite discussion!

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We re-engineered the service we built for secure business meetings, Google Meet, to make it free and available for all. In order to give people the security and reliability they count on from Google, we will be rolling out access over the coming weeks. Sign up to be notified when you can start using Meet for free.

Meet is designed, built and operated to be secure at scale-for everyone.

Users of our free Meet product will enjoy many of the same features available to our business and education users, including simple scheduling and screen sharing, real-time captions, and layouts that adapt to your preference, like the expanded tiled view.

For security reasons, you'll need a Google Account to use Google Meet. If you don't have one, it only takes a minute to create a free Google Account now.

If your organization uses G Suite, you already have access to Meet via meet.google.com. Admins simply need to enable Meet by following instructions outlined on our Help Center. If you're interested in getting G Suite for your organization, get in touch with our sales team.

Notify me

Thank you for your interest.

We'll let you know as soon as Google Meet is available for free.

Sign up for a Google Account while you wait.

For security reasons, you'll need a Google Account to use Google Meet. If you don't have one, it only takes a minute to create a free Google Account now.

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We re-engineered the service we built for secure business meetings, Google Meet, to make it free and available for all. In order to give people the security and reliability they count on from Google, we will be rolling out access over the coming weeks.

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Schools all over the world are closing their doors due to health concerns. So many of them are turning to eLearning, distance learning, remote learning.

Trying to make sense of it? Trying to just keep your head above water?

We've got you covered. In our eLearning, remote learning and distance learning page, we have lots of resources.

Get some ideas, tools and templates here. Then get started. You got this.

Quick Navigation

Click on any icon below to be taken directly to that section.

Remote learning templates

Google Slides Themes and PowerPoint Templates for Remote Learning

Created by Paula Martinez of Slides Mania

Weekly Planner for Online Lessons I

Now that educators, students and families are adapting to distance learning, planning your online lessons using Google Slides is a great option whether you are using Google Classroom or not. Almost everybody has a Gmail account and you can easily share the link to the deck with your students.

You can add all the multimedia files they'll need within the Google Slides file. Just one file for the whole week!

Weekly Planner for Online Lessons II

A new weekly planner for educators!

Paula Martinez, creator of Slides Mania, has added multiple links for you and your students to navigate it easily. Also added a Contact slide for you to put your information, so students and parents can reach you. And a Video Conference Hours slide, in case you are using Zoom or Meet, to put the hours there.

Choice board template for Google Slides

Besides the slides for 6 activities or choices Paula has added a section where students can write about what they learned, or maybe you want them to write about something else, your choice.

The good thing about these "students" slides is that they can all work on the same file. If you are teaching synchronously, you can see them work as they type, just change the view to grid.

Free Remote Learning Online Course

14 modules

2.5+ hours of video

Downloadable planning guides

Lifetime access

Forum for sharing ideas

Teaching with Google Slides and PowerPoint

Google Slides and PowerPoint are so much more than presentation tools. Google Slides and PowerPoint can be used as part of a lesson or use them to create and assign a complete lesson or unit.

Setting up your remote learning classroom

Remote Learning Tips from an Online Teacher

Do More with Google Classroom

Teach better. Save time. Make a difference.

The short how-to tutorials on Google Classroom are EVERYWHERE. But how do we teach well with it? In this book, you'll find practical ideas to do great teaching with Google Classroom and thrive.

Lesson planning for remote learning

The strategies you use to create quality in class lessons still apply when creating online lessons and activities.

Below are some resources to help you make the shift.

Make learning memorable!

Take your teaching to the next level by transforming your lessons into a memorable learning experience.

20 digital bell ringer activities to kickstart class

10 ideas for digital exit tickets

How can we make the most of the end of class? How can we tie a bow on a day of class to wrap everything up?

An exit ticket gives us that opportunity - much like bell-ringer activities help us kick class off effectively.

The name "exit ticket" makes it sound like you need a ticket to exit the room, but exit tickets are final quick check-ins with students before class wraps up. Here are 10 ideas for a meaningful ending to class.

Using Pear Deck for Remote Learning

Unique Online Learning Assessment Ideas

Distance learning with Kahoot

40+ FREE digital escape rooms (plus a step by step guide for creating your own)

Digital escape rooms, also referred to as digital breakouts, are a great way to bring gameplay and problem solving to any lesson or unit. They can be an exciting and engaging activity for the whole class or as an option for early finishers.

This post is full of everything you'll need to use free digital escape rooms -- or even create your own!

Want to use digital escape rooms to spark your students' imagination?

Check out our Getting Started with Digital Escape Rooms onlinecourse !

For just $19 you'll get:
- Video tutorials to guide you in getting started

- PDF guides to help you plan

- LOTS of example escape room ideas you can use as inspiration

- 25 digital escape rooms with lock combinations and companion resources in a downloadable PDF

- A step-by-step companion website with templates to help you and your students create your own digital escape rooms

- A resource locker FILLED with BONUS resources

Classroom video calls. You can do this. Here's how.

How to use Google Meet for elearning, online learning

How to create Google Meet breakout rooms for differentiated learning

Tips for successful video calls (shareable infographics)

10 tips to support students with slow internet

10 tips to support students with slow internet (shareable infographic)

10 no-internet remote learning activities

10 no-internet remote learning activities (shareable infographic)

FREE ebooks

Remote learning video playlist

These live videos take the best ideas from hand-picked guests and share them with you. We take the time to dive deep into important topics. Plus, we take YOUR best ideas and questions and insert them into the conversation.

Subscribe to the Ditch That Textbook YouTube channel for notifications on upcoming live videos! (Don't forget to click the bell icon for notifications!)

Upcoming Speaking

There are no upcoming events.

©2023 Ditch That Textbook by Matt Miller.

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Schools all over the world are closing their doors due to health concerns. So many of them are turning to eLearning, distance learning, remote learning. Trying to make sense of it? Trying to just keep your head above water? We've got you covered. In our eLearning, remote learning and distance learning page, we have lots of resources.

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ChemMatters engages students with real-world applications of scientific concepts they learn in the classroom.

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Google Slides

So often, people think of presentation slides as just that: a visual aid for delivering a presentation in front of an audience.

But these slide apps (like Google Slides and PowerPoint in Office 365) really are powerful tools for delivering interactive user experiences. They can also create visually stimulating products to deliver a message and valuable content.

By thinking outside the box with Google Slides, PowerPoint, and other similar tools, teachers can create unique learning experiences for students. Or students can create them to share with other students.

We originally curated 8 interactive Google Slides activities in this post but have found so many amazing ideas since then we knew we need to update!

Below you will find our original 8 ideas plus 22 (yes 22!) brilliant ideas contributed by the Ditch That Textbook community on Twitter in a recent #Ditchbook chat.

Here are 30 interactive Google Slides activities that use the unique features of online slide apps to create engaging learning experiences:

1. Create a PDF ebook

PDF files are about as universal as it gets. You can open them on almost any Internet-ready device. They're read-only, so publishing a PDF is a good way to distribute information to be consumed by reading. Google Slides is a great, simple PDF ebook creation tool. Create a slide presentation, change it to the dimensions you prefer, add content and finalize by going to File > Download as ... > PDF Document.

I created a PDF ebook to help you create PDF ebooks. (I hope that's not as ridiculous as it looked as I typed it.) Click here to check out a post all about it. Or, take a look at the original Google Slides file where I created it. (Feel free to make a copy by going to File > Make a copy ... but please don't click "Share" and ask for edit access.)

ANOTHER FREE EBOOK -- I wrote an ebook called "101 Practical Ways to Ditch That Textbook" as a gift to my readers. I created it using Google Slides, just like the ebooks I describe above. "101 Practical Ways" is a huge compilation of tools and tips, backed up with screenshots, icons, links and more. Click here if you'd like to get it!

2. Create an interactive "slide deck book".

This idea is inspired by Matt Macfarlane, a middle school history teacher from California. In true "Ditch That Textbook" fashion, he has turned from traditional textbooks to creating his own. He finds engaging content on the web and collects it in his "slide deck books." His students access them online and can click links to get more information. He gives students an "anyone with link can view" link so they're read-only.

3. Play a "Jeopardy!" game.

Jeopardy on a PowerPoint presentation has been a staple in many classes. It's also possible to create via Google Slides. Eric Curts, a Google Certified Innovator, created this template that you can copy into your own Google Drive to customize with your own questions and answers. Keep track of the score on a whiteboard/chalkboard, on paper or through some other means.

(Note: When a question is answered, it doesn't disappear from the board. You might want to display the game on a whiteboard instead of a projector screen. When a question is selected, draw an X through it with a dry erase marker.)

4. Create another game-show-style review game.

Google Slides can be used to create lots of different games. I used Google Slides in this file to create a "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" game. It was a simple one that can be played just by clicking through the slides. To create more complex games, you can create links to different slides in the presentation. (That's how the Jeopardy! game was created.)

5. Animate a concept.

Creating a stop-motion animation can be done relatively easily in Google Slides. This gives students the ability to animate and turn abstract ideas into tangible, engaging visuals. Create the first slide of the animation. Then make a duplicate of that slide. Make some small changes and then duplicate that most recent slide. Continue to make changes and duplicate until the animation is complete. Here is a link to a great stop motion science example (pictured below) showing how an electrical impulse in the body gets a muscle to contract, created by a student in Chris Baker's science class.

6. Create an "online course".

In a traditional online course, students can jump from section to section at will and progress through the pages of that chapter. There may be assessments to take as well. You can create that same experience in Google Slides. Create a slide presentation with sections of slides for each module in the course. The first slide can have links to the different modules of the course. You can even create questions on the slides for self-assessment or a link to a Google Forms quiz for a more formal assessment. See an example of an "online course" template here. (Make sure you click the "present" button if you want to "take" the course.")

7. Assess with self-grading quizzes.

Self-grading quizzes give students immediate feedback. They also let students practice as much as they'd like without depending on the teacher. You can create self-paced assessments that provide answer feedback with Google Slides. For each standard four-question multiple-choice question, you'll need five slides:

A question slide

A feedback slide for answer A

A feedback slide for answer B

A feedback slide for answer C

A feedback slide for answer D

On the question slide, for each possible answer, create a link to the feedback slide. Then, on each feedback slide, create a link to go on to the next question.

Want to see an example? Click here to see my quick one-question self-grading quiz.

8. Write a Choose Your Own Adventure story.

As a child, I loved these books, where your decisions affected the outcome for the character in the story. Google Slides lets you create similar experiences. They can be stories where the student can choose the path for the character. Students can create them, or teachers can create them for students. They can even be tied to any kind of class content. Tie the choices to answers for a question. (i.e. The character goes left if the student thinks the answer is 4.4 and goes right if the student thinks the answer is 7.2.)

I created a quick example of an impromptu, decide-on-a-whim vacation trip story where you decide for the main character. Click here to see that file (and feel free to make a copy and change the text for yourself!).

Here's another example, created by a student of Mandi Tolen's. Mandi's students tied storytelling to math problems using Google Forms. The same concept could easily be applied to a Google Slide presentation.

Get the tools, the practical ideas, and the inspiration to transform the way you use technology in the classroom!

Lesson ideas and downloadable templates

A companion webpage full of FREE resources (click here to access NOW)

Brand new PIRATE engagement hooks

Encouragement and motivation to start

Interactive Google Slides activities shared by the #Ditchbook community!

9. Create a narrated storybook.

Resources:

11. Brainstorm with digital sticky notes.

Resources:

15. Use Screencastify to create annotated movie or book reviews.

16. Make interactive Google Slides games.

A2 I've used slides lately to:
- make interactive games
- flashcards of facts (thanks to the slide randomizer tool idea I heard this week on the #gttribe podcast)
- introduce the concept of #hyperdocs for interactive lessons #ditchbook
- Julie P. Jones, PhD (@JuliePJones) September 27, 2019

17. Student reflections newsletter.

19. Have fun with magnetic poetry.

A2: Do I have to pick just one? I guess my favorite use would have to be either magnetic poetry or Caption That. Helps get the creative juices flowing! #ditchbook #shakeuplearning
- Angie Smith (@smittygetstechy) September 27, 2019

A2: So many ways to use Slides with students! A few of my favorites are for posters, linking between slides, and designing various other projects! Then, of course, all done with collaboration! #ditchbook
- Evan Mosier (@emosier3) September 27, 2019

A2 I live to give them thinking questions where we can collaborate to get an answer, I love creating differentiated lessons and allowing students to work on what they need. I LOVE creating comic books and putting them in iBooks #ditchbook
- Mandi Tolen (@MandiTolenEDU) September 27, 2019

Resources:

29. Get up and moving with a digital gallery walk.

Resource: How to Create Digital Interactive Notebooks in Google Slides

Have you (or your students) ever used slide tools to do more than give presentations in front of an audience? How? Which of these are your most likely to use?

For notifications of new Ditch That Textbook content and helpful links:

Are you looking for quality, meaningful professional learning that both equips and inspires teachers?

Matt provides in-person and virtual keynotes, workshops and breakout sessions that equip, inspire and encourage teachers to create change in their classrooms. Teachers leave with loads of resources. They participate. They laugh. They see tech use and teaching in a new light. Click the link below to contact us and learn how you can bring Matt to your school or district!

Ready to take your tech skills -- and student learning -- to another level?

Sign up for Tech to Learn online course! Just $49

©2020 Ditch That Textbook by Matt Miller.

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30 interactive Google Slides activities for classroom excitement - Ditch That Textbook

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Google Slides So often, people think of presentation slides as just that: a visual aid for delivering a presentation in front of an audience. But these slide apps (like Google Slides and PowerPoint in Office 365) really are powerful tools for delivering interactive user experiences.

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30 collaborative Google Apps activities for schools

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G Suite Apps are collaborative, which makes them highly powerful. They offer opportunities for students to engage unlike ever before. Here are 30 ideas

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Let's face it. When you're not present in your classroom, you miss your whiteboard.

It's convenient. Everyone in the room can see it. You can write text and draw pictures on it, then erase it clean in an instant.

When you're teaching remotely, the physical whiteboard may be gone. But the concept of using it to teach doesn't have to be.

In this post, you'll see 15 options for teaching remotely with whiteboards. With most of these options, you can ...

Start a video call using your preferred video call platform (Zoom, Skype, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, etc.). Share your screen so students can see your whiteboard.

Use a screen recording tool to capture video you can share with students later. Use a tool like Screencastify, Loom, Snagit, the Game Bar app in Windows, etc.

Have another idea for online whiteboarding for remote learning? Share it in a comment below!

10 Online Whiteboard Options for Remote Learning

Get the tools, the practical ideas, and the inspiration to transform the way you use technology in the classroom!

Lesson ideas and downloadable templates

A companion webpage full of FREE resources (click here to access NOW)

Brand new PIRATE engagement hooks

Encouragement and motivation to start

Do More with Google Classroom

Teach better. Save time. Make a difference.

The short how-to tutorials on Google Classroom are EVERYWHERE. But how do we teach well with it? In this book, you'll find practical ideas to do great teaching with Google Classroom and thrive.

Recording real whiteboards

If the real thing will work, you may not need to go digital. Grab an actual white board or a sheet of paper. Either of these options may work for you!

Use a real whiteboard

Use your phone as a document camera

This is a fun hack that's easier than you'd think! Start a video call. Then use a second device -- a smartphone is best -- and join the video call with it. Set the phone on a tall stack of books with the camera facing down at a paper (or small whiteboard). Instant document camera!

For notifications of new Ditch That Textbook content and helpful links:

Are you looking for quality, meaningful professional learning that both equips and inspires teachers?

Matt provides in-person and virtual keynotes, workshops and breakout sessions that equip, inspire and encourage teachers to create change in their classrooms. Teachers leave with loads of resources. They participate. They laugh. They see tech use and teaching in a new light. Click the link below to contact us and learn how you can bring Matt to your school or district!

Ready to take your tech skills -- and student learning -- to another level?

Sign up for Tech to Learn online course! Just $49

©2020 Ditch That Textbook by Matt Miller.

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15 online whiteboard options for remote learning - Ditch That Textbook

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Let's face it. When you're not present in your classroom, you miss your whiteboard. It's convenient. Everyone in the room can see it. You can write text and draw pictures on it, then erase it clean in an instant. When you're teaching remotely, the physical whiteboard may be gone.

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Math and the Mind's Eye

Math and the Mind's Eye (MME) units are a great way to introduce and extend visual models. This versatile collection can be taught in sequence or used individually as needed to supplement any curriculum. Hands-on explorations are easily adapted to fit changing classroom situations, diverse student backgrounds, and various grade levels. Each unit contains four to twelve activities that use models, manipulatives, sketches, and diagrams to develop and reinforce mathematical concepts and processes.

For more information about manipulatives and optional items see the Materials List. Also see the free Virtual Algebra Pieces app developed by Dr. Laurie Burton of Western Oregon University.

NEW: View overall correlations to the Common Core State Standards for Mathematical Content. Product pages for each unit include more detailed correlation information.
Math and the Mind's Eye downloadable PDFs were developed from printed archival masters. As a result, some PDF functionalities, such as editing, copying, and text search, are not available.

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Math and the Mind's Eye Math and the Mind's Eye (MME) units are a great way to introduce and extend visual models. This versatile collection can be taught in sequence or used individually as needed to supplement any curriculum. Hands-on explorations are easily adapted to fit changing classroom situations, diverse student backgrounds, and various grade levels.

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Mathematics educators have long known that engaging students in visual representations of mathematics is extremely helpful for their learning. When youcubed offered " How Close to 100 " as an activity for learning math facts with visual representations, teachers across the world were thrilled and responded with thousands of tweets showing students learning by playing the game.

Research shows the importance of visual thinking for mathematicians.

When researchers have considered the brains of mathematicians, and compared them with similarly high achieving academics who worked in non-mathematical fields, they find something fascinating (Amalric & Dehaene, 2016). We might assume that when people are thinking numerically, they are thinking "with language" and that high-level mathematical reasoning would draw from language processing areas of the brain. What the researchers found was that the brain activity that separated mathematicians from other academics came from visual areas of the brain - and this was true whatever the mathematical content. It was not only subjects like geometry or topology that caused activity in the visual brain areas, but algebra and calculations, with minimal use of any language areas. This led the researchers to offer the possible explanation that the mathematicians' achievement in math came from early childhood experiences with "number and shape."

Visual mathematics is an important part of mathematics for its own sake and new brain research tells us that visual mathematics even helps students learn numerical mathematics.

In a ground breaking new study Joonkoo Park & Elizabeth Brannon (2013), found that the most powerful learning occurs when we use different areas of the brain. When students work with symbols, such as numbers, they are using a different area of the brain than when they work with visual and spatial information, such as an array of dots. The researchers found that mathematics learning and performance was optimized when the two areas of the brain were communicating (Park & Brannon, 2013). (for math questions that encourage this use of visual and symbolic representations see our Tasks). Additionally, they found that training students through visual representations improved students' math performance significantly, even on numerical math, and that the visual training helped students more than numerical training.

What is Visual Mathematics?

At youcubed we provide many different mathematics tasks that engage students in visual mathematics. Through decades of work with students, teachers, high-tech companies, politicians and others we have learned that people are excited and inspired when they see mathematics as pictures, not just symbols. For example, consider how you might solve 18 x 5, and ask others how they would solve 18 x 5. Here are some different visual solutions of this problem.

Each of these visuals highlights the mathematics inside the problem and helps students develop understanding of multiplication. Pictures help students see mathematical ideas, which aids understanding. Visual mathematics also facilitates higher-level thinking, enables communication and helps people see the creativity in mathematics.

Mathematics is a subject that allows for precise thinking, but when that precise thinking is combined with creativity, openness, visualization, and flexibility, the mathematics comes alive.

Teachers can create such mathematical excitement in classrooms with any mathematics question by asking students for the different ways they see and can solve the problems and by encouraging discussion of different ways of seeing problems.

For an example of visualizing algebra see here.

When we don't ask students to think visually, we miss an incredible opportunity to increase students' understanding and to enable important brain crossing.

This extract contains excerpts from Jo Boaler's book Mathematical Mindsets, and her new, forthcoming book: Mathematical Diversity.

References:

Amalric, M., & Dehaene, S. (2016). Origins of the brain networks for advanced mathematics in expert mathematicians. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 113(18), 4909-4917

Park, J., & Brannon, E. (2013). Training the approximate number system improves math proficiency. Association for Psychological Science, 1-7.

Mathematics educators have long known that engaging students in visual representations of mathematics is extremely helpful for their learning. When youcubed offered " How Close to 100 " as an activity for learning math facts with visual representations, teachers across the world were thrilled and responded with thousands of tweets showing students learning by playing the game.

Research shows the importance of visual thinking for mathematicians.

When researchers have considered the brains of mathematicians, and compared them with similarly high achieving academics who worked in non-mathematical fields, they find something fascinating (Amalric & Dehaene, 2016). We might assume that when people are thinking numerically, they are thinking "with language" and that high-level mathematical reasoning would draw from language processing areas of the brain. What the researchers found was that the brain activity that separated mathematicians from other academics came from visual areas of the brain - and this was true whatever the mathematical content. It was not only subjects like geometry or topology that caused activity in the visual brain areas, but algebra and calculations, with minimal use of any language areas. This led the researchers to offer the possible explanation that the mathematicians' achievement in math came from early childhood experiences with "number and shape."

Visual mathematics is an important part of mathematics for its own sake and new brain research tells us that visual mathematics even helps students learn numerical mathematics.

In a ground breaking new study Joonkoo Park & Elizabeth Brannon (2013), found that the most powerful learning occurs when we use different areas of the brain. When students work with symbols, such as numbers, they are using a different area of the brain than when they work with visual and spatial information, such as an array of dots. The researchers found that mathematics learning and performance was optimized when the two areas of the brain were communicating (Park & Brannon, 2013). (for math questions that encourage this use of visual and symbolic representations see our Tasks). Additionally, they found that training students through visual representations improved students' math performance significantly, even on numerical math, and that the visual training helped students more than numerical training.

What is Visual Mathematics?

At youcubed we provide many different mathematics tasks that engage students in visual mathematics. Through decades of work with students, teachers, high-tech companies, politicians and others we have learned that people are excited and inspired when they see mathematics as pictures, not just symbols. For example, consider how you might solve 18 x 5, and ask others how they would solve 18 x 5. Here are some different visual solutions of this problem.

Each of these visuals highlights the mathematics inside the problem and helps students develop understanding of multiplication. Pictures help students see mathematical ideas, which aids understanding. Visual mathematics also facilitates higher-level thinking, enables communication and helps people see the creativity in mathematics.

Mathematics is a subject that allows for precise thinking, but when that precise thinking is combined with creativity, openness, visualization, and flexibility, the mathematics comes alive.

Teachers can create such mathematical excitement in classrooms with any mathematics question by asking students for the different ways they see and can solve the problems and by encouraging discussion of different ways of seeing problems.

For an example of visualizing algebra see here.

When we don't ask students to think visually, we miss an incredible opportunity to increase students' understanding and to enable important brain crossing.

This extract contains excerpts from Jo Boaler's book Mathematical Mindsets, and her new, forthcoming book: Mathematical Diversity.

References:

Amalric, M., & Dehaene, S. (2016). Origins of the brain networks for advanced mathematics in expert mathematicians. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 113(18), 4909-4917

Park, J., & Brannon, E. (2013). Training the approximate number system improves math proficiency. Association for Psychological Science, 1-7.

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Visual Math Improves Math Performance - YouCubed

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Mathematics educators have long known that engaging students in visual representations of mathematics is extremely helpful for their learning. When youcubed offered "How Close to 100" as an activity for learning math facts with visual representations, teachers across the world were thrilled and responded with thousands of tweets showing students learning by playing the game.