When we are working in a day and age of technology and in the information era, we need to constantly keep ourselves updated on new and innovative technology uses. This is not only to keep our student's attention and give them a fun medium to access the curriculum. We also want our students to learn how to use different tools online and how to find valuable resources using the internet. Here are 6 different websites that may keep your students on the edge of their seats as well as help teach them the skills and strategies they will need to lead a productive life!
1. Our first site that teachers should be using is Kids Blog. This is a great site to use for your kids to communicate with one another and/or different classes through blogging. You have complete control over the blog and it is totally private. For our students who are living in a more and more technological world, this is a great tool for them to learn how to communicate with one another using the web. Sadly, many people with disabilities have very limited social lives once they have graduated school. I believe that it is very important for these students to know how to communicate via the web. Just like myself, a student could create a blog on whatever interests them and find people with similar interest through blogging or other social medias.
The way I have used this in my classes is at first I lead the student's blogging with articles I have found. Next they are to comment on one another's blogs. Then as the students become more and more familiar with the site, I have them start blogging and commenting about their goals, what they have learned in our class, how they will apply learning about using a blog, and discussing the day's objectives.
Planning:
2. If your like me and you are a complete scatter brain at times, Planboard can do you wonders with your organization of your class schedule and lessons. Planboard is an easy to use website that not only gives you a great formula to create your lessons but gives you a great scheduler as well. This website has helped me to create a more structured environment in my class by helping me structure my lesson planning.
Formative Assessment:
3. I have two excellent websites for formative assessment. The first is the one that I use of a near to daily basis. This website is called Exitticket. With this site you can create short or long quizzes that the students can take on their phones or on a computer very quickly. Once they take the quiz they will instantly go to your computer and you can see the results of your class as well as the result for an individual student. This is does a great job telling you if you need to reteach a lesson and it can provide very valuable data that is stored on the site. This site gives you a calender to plan out what mini quizzes you will give ahead of time. Exitticket is a great way to start and/or end the class period.
4. The next website I'm going to share with you is called Socrative. Although I am not as familiar with this formative assessment website, I have heard numerous wonderful things about it. This site can also be accessed by students using their phones and or a regular computer and it runs quite similarly to Exitticket. So which ever format suits you best you should use right away!
Curriculum:
5. Now I will get to the websites that can really help you with your curriculum and instruction! I know being in a self-contained special education classroom, there are many different levels that the students are at depending on the subject. It can be extremely hard to teach to all of these levels at once. The website Khans Academy is a brilliant tool I use in my math class on an almost daily basis (although it covers Language Arts, History, Science and Art as well). This is a completely free website that helps students find their level of need and it guides them through videos that were created by a former Harvard graduate. Some of these videos also feature celebrities like Lebron James to help peak the student's interest. The website helps student find goals that are suitable for them and it allows the student to earn awards once they have met their goals. The website gives the student a chance to practice their skills and receive help through hints and videos.
I have used this site as a station for my students during centers and as an extension for my kids who need to be extra challenging material. This site not only helps me differentiate for my class but it also takes great data on a vast amount of subjects and well defined objectives.
6. The final site that can be very useful for your classroom is Terraclues.com. This site may not look like much once you visit the site but it is a great tool to use for creating scavenger hunts and for allowing your students to create their very own scavenger hunts and play each others. You can create your own scavenger hunts by simply giving clues to the students about a location and than putting a marker on a Google map. The students complete the scavenger hunt by using Google Map and the clues you gave them to find the locations. Once they find a location you can write a quick blurb about the location and give a website that has more information on the location.
Quote of the Day:
“The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.”
