https://booktrackclassroom.com/content/intro 

 

Stories are paired with sounds to make the experience of an audiobook even more immersive and engaging. Students can read along with the stories, or just listen. The technology paces the story with the student’s reading rate. 

 

2) Raz Kids

 

 

Raz kids is part of Reading A-Z. It offered hundred of interactive, leveled ebooks spanning 29 reading levels. Students can listen to books for modeled fluency, read books for practice, and then record themselves reading so that teachers can check for progress. Raz Kids also aligns with Common Core and has tools that allow teachers to monitor what students are doing and assess. There are even online Running Records that save lots of time because students can complete them digitally. There are opportunities for home-school connection and there is 24/7 access so that students can practice anytime, anywhere. Books are also available in Spanish!

 

3) Whoooo’s Reading

 

 

4) Teacher Practices that Impact Reading Motivation 

 

http://www.readingrockets.org/article/teacher-practices-impact-reading-motivation  

 

This article talks about how important intrinsic motivation is for readers. 

 

5) Ten Ways to Cultivate a Love of Reading in Students 

 

https://www.edutopia.org/blog/cultivating-love-reading-students-elena-aguilar 

This is a great resource to revisit material before teaching it or allow students to learn on their own.

This site has so many great resources that I can’t even begin to cover them all. Math ed. research, teacher resources, and so much more!

An article on language use in math and how the “tips and tricks” that we often teach students are not helpful in the long run.

This site goes over all the CCSS’s for math and gives activity ideas for most of them. 

Great site with games designed to teach math standards. Including a page that tells you what each game relates to in the standards.

I was inspired by the video by Jo Boaler from Session (?) to find a video on growth mindset that my students would be able to understand. This video is easily comprehendible and teaches students that even when school work is hard, we still have try in order for our brains to grow. It’s a cartoon video so works well with younger students. 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zrtHt3bBmQ

2. Zones of Regulation

I'm sure many people of familiar with the Zones of Regulation. They are 4 different levels of emotions as represented by 4 colors. It is a way to communicate with students how they are feeling and how they can get to a better emotional state (Green zone). This link is a tutorial video on the organizations website.

https://www.socialthinking.com/eLearning/Webinar-Zones-of-Regulation

3. GoNoodle

This is a free site that has fun songs students can dance to for movement breaks. Some of the videos are educational and teach students spatial awareness. There are also mindfulness videos that can be used for calming moments. I am interested in using these calming exercises on an iPad with headphones for individual student use.

https://www.gonoodle.com

4. Centervention- Free Social Emotional Learning Activities

This site gives age appropriate lesson plans and activities to teach SEL.

https://www.centervention.com/social-emotional-learning-activities/

5. Playworks- Twelve Games to Teach Social-Emotional Learning

This is a list of active games you can play with students to build relationships and community.

https://www.playworks.org/resource/twelve-games-to-teach-students-social-emotional-learning/

-Nicole Hamblet

Greetings All! 

For my toolkit I decided to focus on tools that helped support a high level of engagement across content areas. 

1. Google Docs/Slides/Classroom

Google’s suite of utilities is an integral part of our classroom, as I’m sure it is in many classrooms, but what I love is how its integration is simple enough for students new to technology to explore how technology tools can be combined creatively. This organic process of exploration is a critical 21st century skill and sets students up to push further to find solutions for themselves.

2. Newsela
Next up is Newsela, which several teachers mentioned way back when I first started doing classroom observations as an integrated part of multiple subject areas in their classrooms. What I am finding though is that students have really rich questions after logging on to Newsela during their reader’s workshop period. Also, they spend less time searching for what they want to read next, and more time digging in to diverse topics. Comprehension questions also help them contextualize their reading and give them a feeling of pride when their answers are correct.

3. Razkids 
My students have begged me to do Razkids during reading, and it’s become a reward for completing other assignments. It’s a collection of ebooks and tools set that allows students to show their comprehension and fluency as they complete texts. The best part though is the points they get for completing text challenges, which they put towards pieces of a customized avatar. 

4. Sumdog
Much like Razkids in reading, Sumdog math games are the activity many kids are racing to complete their work for. Some are less interested in competing with other classmates, but for a segment of the class this could be math class if they had their way. 

5. BrainPOP
My last engagement tool is BrainPOP. I could watch BrainPOP videos all day because the characters that appear in the cartoons are so compelling, and I love the versatility of content that the site offers. It also offers games and quizzes, so you get interactive tools along with the videos that introduce new concepts visually, so you’ve got kids hooked from the start of a lesson or unit all the way up through the assessment. 

 
spellingcity.com

5. Reading a-z: A website that offers lesson plans, leveled books, and activities for fiction and non-fiction. The books are engaging and an excellent resource for struggling readers. Students can take home the printable books to practice fluency. 

readinga-z.com

 

 

This video discusses how students can learn through games in the classroom. Katie Salen discusses how lately, gaming outside schools takes all of children’s time. She believes that this shouldn’t be ignored or avoided, but that it should be encouraged in schools to help students think more abstractly and differently about concepts. 

2. “Game- Like Learning Principles”

 

https://www.instituteofplay.org/gll-principles 

This website is another resource I found really captivating and convincing for how gaming is beneficial to student learning and overall success. The website includes 7 principles with videos to prove why and how gaming is effective in the classroom. 

3. “Classroom Management with Game-Based Learning”

 

https://www.edutopia.org/blog/managing-in-class-gameplay-arana-shapiro 

This article may be helpful to teachers who need guidance and assistance in how to manage student behavior during game time in the classroom. The article highlights four specific strategies teachers can use to help them make game playing successful in the classroom. 

4. PBS Kids

 

https://pbskids.org/games/ 

The PBSKids games webpage has many different games students can play. There is also an app to access the games as well. There are math, vocabulary, reading, rhyming, teamwork and many other games. There is even an option to create games. Students could use this app during center time to support learning in any subject area. 

5. ABCya

 

http://www.abcya.com/ 

ABCYa is a website filled with an overwhelming amount of educational games separated by grade level. There are games across all content areas. Families and teachers can each create a login for their student to use in the classroom and at home. 

1.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikehX9o1JbI

 

This video talks about the process of social emotional learning. This is a relatively new idea, where students manage their emotions, have empathy, solve problems, make responsible decisions and maintain healthy relationships. Students begin to realize what is happening inside of them. This proved as a very interesting resource because it gives you an idea of what social emotional learning really is and why it matters. Research shows that students that participate in social emotional learning have better success in academics.

 

2.https://education.wm.edu/centers/ttac/resources/articles/challengebehav/sixprinciplebehav/index.php

 

This newsletter article used in Session 5, really helped me understand behavior management. This resource gives you six principals of behavior management to follow. They talk a lot about negative consequences not always leading to positive outcomes or changes in attitude. One principal stood out to me in particular, principal 4: cognitive control of behavior can be learned through the use of appropriate positive reinforcement systems. This is very interesting to me because it gives a deeper look into positive reinforcement. 

 

3.https://my.lesley.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-2071069-dt-content-rid-7216637_2/courses/18-FA2.EEDUC.6310.80.106145/CrackingBehaviorCode.pdf

 

This was one of my favorite articles that we read during this class, Cracking the Behavior Code. It gave a lot of insight into teachers using strategies in order to help their most difficult students. It talks a lot about digging deeper into the behavior and what accommodations teachers can use. This article takes a look at withdrawn learners and the oppositional learner. I used this for one of my assignments/discussion posts and will be using this as a resource during my teaching career. The ABC chart that also went with this assignment was also something I would like to sub-add to my toolkit. 

 

4.https://www.berkeleyschools.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Toolbox_Family_English.pdf

 

I found this online while searching for more information on Social Emotional Learning and how classrooms used it. This is the Toolbox Project done by Berkley Schools in California. It is a research-based, community tested, social and emotional learning program targeted to elementary age youth. This develops resilience, self-mastery and empathy for others. This starts with the teacher providing instruction on how to use the tools. There are 12 tools in this program, the breathing tool, quiet/safe place tool, listening tool, empathy tool, personal space tool, using our words tool, garbage can tool, taking time tool, please & thank you tool, apology & forgiveness tool, patience tool and courage tool. This project is taught formally through a comprehensive curriculum. The Toolbox Project also requires teachers, administrators, office staff, yard-duty aides and custodians learn the practices and languages of 12 tools. 

 

5.https://my.lesley.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-2071069-dt-content-rid-7216636_2/courses/18-FA2.EEDUC.6310.80.106145/Helping-Traumatized-Children-Learn.pdf

 

During session 6, I also read this article called Helping Traumatized Children Learn with supports my interest in social emotional learning. Because of this trauma, many of these children really need social emotional learning to be able to handle the emotions they have. This article gives examples of children who are acting out in school and but are facing many struggles at home. The article then discusses how to make your classroom a safe space for children who are experiencing these types of emotions. This is a great resource for teachers who are looking for help or interesting in learning more about students with trauma and the effect on learning. 

 

 

Increases Enjoyment."

4.https://readingrecovery.org/images/pdfs/Conferences/NC09/Handouts/Carry_Visual_Literacy.pdf
This article explains visual literacy strategies and why it is important. Many ways include: supports ELL's understanding, builds on experiences, we are already in a visual world. 

5.http://www.visual-literacy.org/periodic_table/periodic_table.html
A great example of an interactive visual literacy for science!