Useful Information In and Out of the Classroom 6/4/21

Here are some interesting sites that I’ve found this week, thanks to my PLN. As a teacher, I feel we have to keep up to date concerning research in our field and current issues in the education system. I hope some of these inspire you, inform you, and even have you asking questions. Thank you for coming by and visiting!

Note: Each resource is labeled with a level and subject area to make it easier to use.

Levels: E: Elementary; M: Middle; H: High; G: General, all levels; SN: Special Needs; T: Teachers

Subject Areas: LA: Language Arts, English, Reading, Writing; M: Math; S: Science; Health; SS: Social Studies, Current Events; FA: Fine Arts; Music, Art, Drama; FL: Foreign Language; PE: Physical Ed; C: Career; A: All

Catchy Words AR - “Meet a new word game made specifically with augmented reality in mind! Immersive experience without touching the screen. Just walk around, catch the letters with your device and solve the word! Loved by everyone! Catchy can be enjoyed by the whole family, regardless of age. Kids will solve the words and remember the spelling, but adults can help and show off their skills.” (L:G;SA:LA)

Dotstorming - “Dotstorming is a collection of tools that enable collaborative brainstorming, planning and decision making.” (L:T;SA:A)

Map Coloring - “When colouring a map – or any other drawing consisting of distinct regions – adjacent countries cannot have the same colour. We might also want to use as few different colours as possible. Some simple “maps”, like a chessboard, only need two colours (black and white), but most complex maps need more. When colouring the map of US states, 50 colours are obviously enough, but far fewer are necessary. Try colouring the maps below with as few colours as possible.” (L:G;SA:FA, SS, M)

Twelve Good Tools for End-of-Year Review and Practice - “If you're looking for some more ideas for review activities, take a look at the small slideshow…” (L:T;SA:A)

5 tips to improve your critical thinking - “Every day, a sea of decisions stretches before us, and it’s impossible to make a perfect choice every time. But there are many ways to improve our chances — and one particularly effective technique is critical thinking. Samantha Agoos describes a 5-step process that may help you with any number of problems.” (L:T;SA:A)

Original photo by Pat Hensley