Bio
High school science teacher, creator of The Organized Binder www.organizedbinder.com
I teach: Biology, Human Biology, Integrated Science
Reviews
An indispensable tool, in particular for the hybrid or digital classroom! I set up Google Sites for each student and have them create, modify, add docs, update data on their site remotely as a way to teach digital and 21st Century Skills.
Great tool! Educreations allows you to flip your classroom in a simple, effective, and most of all FREE way! Easy to use screen and voice capture. If you are interested in a flipped classroom add Educreations to your toolkit for sure!
I love Acrobat X Pro! I use is chiefly to create savable and fillable PDF's that can be then be emailed to teachers and students. The obvious advantage is that the recipient and can type on the doc and save the work without altering the format of the over all doc. Think of trying to get students to type on/fill out a word doc you have created….OUCH! A bit pricy, but worth it is you use PDFs.
Note, I certainly do not use this tool to its full potential!
Only one thing to say, if you don't yet use Google Docs (and Apps) give it a shot! Google Docs are a perfect tool for the modern, flipped, and/or wired classroom. In combination with @Hapara you might just have a winning combo!
Easy to use flashcards. I always tell my students about quizlet if they use flashcards to study or not. The nice thing is that often time there is already a set created on the site for the topic one needs to study. Makes review for students very easy!
Great tool for reviewing or introducing a topic in a general sense. Not a tool to explore the depths of any subject or topic. Things I like: short, easy to use, students like characters, gaming-ish, short assessment at end.
As a department chair I use Dropbox with my department to share department docs and collaborative unit and lesson plans. The tool is easy to use and even the most luddite teacher can figure it out. If you place a folder in your public folder you can have students submit work easily.
I have used iMovie for a number of years now and students love it. I typically use this as a way for students to teach their peers what they have learned either in a unit or web research. I have students create a short movie and submit it to me. We then watch the in class in the form of a lecture. Learning curve is not too steep. What is nice is the rookie student to the program can create a basic movie while those who know the program in more depth can go further. Note, if you want to go bare bones just use iRecord, much much smaller file size.
Finally a reliable place to go and find curated STEM resources!!! Love it! And it is FREE…
If you want to inspire your middle school, high school, or higher edu students (or yourself), look no further!
I use wordpress for my blog and love its simple and easy to use interface. As a teaching tool, if used properly, it is very engaging for students. I have seen student blogs with thousands of followers all over the globe! Think of an ongoing formative assessment for the world to see.
I have not used Remind 101 yet but I told my students about it and they went nuts! They love the idea of me texting them a homework reminder.
I like Edmodo largely b/c all of my students are social media experts and therefore the learning curve is short. To have this platform as an alternative to Facebook, G+, etc. is great.