ClassHook: using videos in class; new feature...

From Tech 4 Teachers:

ClassHook is a free service that helps you locate video clips to use in your classroom. ClassHook's best feature is being able to search for video clips according to subject and topic. Most of the video clips that you'll find on ClassHook come from well-known television shows and movies. 

Over the weekend ClassHook introduced a new feature that filters profanity from videos. ClassHook calls the feature "profanity skipping" and it does what the name implies. As a video plays back, any profanity in the clip is skipped. ClassHook developed this feature in response to teachers who said they had found a clip that would be useful in a lesson except for one two swear words. ClassHook's profanity skipping feature will let those teachers use those clips.

PARCC Prep resource: Prepfactory

Online PARCC test-prep is now available for grades 6-10 at Prepfactory.  Sign-up with your Google account, set up a classroom and share the link with your students in order to create assignments.

From Free Tech 4 Teachers site:
Just like their ACT and SAT study guides, PrepFactory's PARCC and SBAC content consists of interactive lessons, practice, personalized study paths, and teacher tools. One of the core elements of PrepFactory's programs is continuous diagnostics that are used to identify the content and the activities that students should spend the most time reviewing. In other words, PrepFactory directs students to work on the concepts they are having the most difficulty mastering.

Beyond the content, PrepFactory helps students familiarize themselves with computer-enhanced question formats. Technology enhanced questions present on the PARCC and SBAC are mirrored in PrepFactory's program, giving students and teachers an extra level of comfort on test day.

Making North America : Interactive Map

Making North America | Interactive Map

Discover how North America took its shape by visiting geological sites across the continent, searching for clues in the landscape, and viewing episodes from the broadcast series Making North America, in this interactive produced by NOVA. In Expedition, hunt for clues that help explain how geological forces shaped North America, find artifacts that reveal how the landscape influenced life, and search for evidence that exposes how humans turned rocks into riches. In Explore, click on map pins to study landscapes and watch video clips that cover relevant science topics. In Watch, stream the series’ three episodes: Origins, Life, and Human. This resource is part of the NOVA: Making North America Collection.

This interactive activity requires Adobe Flash Player.

Visit the program page here.

Newspaper Templates for Google Docs

A fun and engaging way to assess student knowledge and application is to allow students to create a project based on any given topic.  A common project for students at all grade levels is to create their own newspaper.  The following link offers templates for Google documents for students of all ability levels.  Working in pairs or individually students can create their own newspapers based on social studies and science topics (expository writing), review of books, an op-ed (opinion/argumentative), or report on current events (expository, cause/effect).  Printing and displaying on walls, creating online portfolios of work, and peer sharing are some ways to disseminate their work.

Please let me know how these work out for you.  I would love to see the student's work and share some pictures of their work here.

Be well.

Read Write Think's Cube Creators provide templates designed to break the writing process into six distinct parts. There are templates for writing biographies, mysteries, short stories, and a blank template that you can customize. Students enter the required information into the online template. When the template is completed, it can be printed with lines for cutting and folding to create an actual cube.

Medal of Honor

The Medal of Honor CDP is a resource designed by teachers to provide students with opportunities to explore the important concepts of courage, commitment, sacrifice, patriotism, integrity and citizenship and how these values can be exemplified in daily life. The depth and breadth of our students' insight and reflection after interacting with these materials has been remarkable. We are confident that you will find these resources to be as rich and engaging as we have.

Follow the link here>>

Google Resources (free templates!)

Using Google Suite applications can offer teachers an array of options when creating learning activities and assigning projects and assignments to students.  Yet, two of the most vastly underused, or misused applications are Google Drawing and Google Slides.
The following site offers a plethora of Google templates we can use in our classroom. 

Engaging Student Google Resources

They are all posted at view only, but if you would like a copy for yourself, go to File>>Make a Copy>> then just rename if you want.  Once you have your own copy saved to you drive, you are free to make adjustments and edits depending on your lesson activity.

Many of the resources are organized according to grade level as well.

Please let me know in the comments section if you found any of the templates useful in class, which ones, and how you used them.