gotFeedback – An AI Tool for Providing Feedback on Writing
gotFeedback is a new tool for providing your students with feedback on their writing. As the title of this post stated, gotFeedback uses artificial intelligence to help you provide your students with feedback on their writing. To use gotFeedback you can either upload a document (PDF or Word) or paste the text of a document […]
Create Writing Prompts With Spinner Wheel
In reviewing my Google Analytics earlier this week I noticed that “writing prompts” was one of the most frequently searched terms on FreeTech4Teachers.com in the last month. That was the inspiration for a new video about how to create a random writing prompt generator. In this new video I demonstrate how to use Spinner Wheel […]
How to Spell “No One” and Other Fun Lessons from Drawings Of…
Lillie Marshall is an English teacher, writer, and artist whose work I’ve seen on social media for many years. So when she reached out to me last week to tell me about her new project called Drawings Of… I was more than happy to take a look at it. Drawings Of… is a website full of […]
SplashLearn – More Than Just Fun Math and ELA Practice
When an email about SplashLearn splash landed in my inbox last week I didn’t give it much thought because I get dozens of pitches every morning and because at first glance I thought it was just another rote practice app. It turns out that I was wrong about it just being a rote practice app. […]
Readlee – Know How Your Students Read Online Assignments
Every once in a while a new edtech service comes along that as soon as I try it I know that it’s going to be a hit. That’s exactly how I felt when I tried Readlee for the first time last month. Readlee is a new service that lets you create online reading assignments for […]
Reading Progress + ReadWorks in Microsoft Teams = Awesome!
This fall I’ve been seeing a lot of people Tweet about how much they like the new Reading Progress feature in Microsoft Teams. Not being a regular Teams user myself, I didn’t give it a good look until this week. I wish I had looked at it sooner! Reading Progress in Microsoft Teams gives you […]
ReadWorks Adds an Offline Mode for Students
ReadWorks is a non-profit service that I’ve been recommending for years. It is a free service that provides high-quality fiction and non-fiction articles and lesson plans for K-12 ELA teachers. Every article on ReadWorks is accompanied by a Lexile score and a suggested grade level. Any article that you select will also be accompanied by […]
Future Me – A Good End of 2020 Activity
The end of the year is near and, if my scrolls through social media are an indicator, many of people are ready to put 2020 in the rearview mirror. Before kissing 2020 goodbye consider taking a few moments to write out what you want to accomplish in 2021. Of course, you could have your students […]
Actively Learn – Find & Create Engaging Reading Assignments and More
Disclosure: This is a sponsored post that I wrote for a new supporter of FreeTech4Teachers.com. A few years ago I stumbled upon Actively Learn while walking through the ISTE conference. I was immediately impressed by what they were developing. At that time it was just getting started as a new platform through which teachers can […]
A Halloween Writing Contest for Middle School Students
A couple of weeks ago I shared a selection of Halloween-themed ELA articles available through ReadWorks. As Halloween gets closer, it’s only nine days away, consider having your students participate in a Halloween writing contest that ReadWorks is hosting in collaboration with Quill. How the Run Should End is a writing contest for middle school […]
Find Halloween ELA Articles on ReadWorks
Last week I shared a Halloween-themed physical education lesson and instructions on how to find and modify Kahoot games about Halloween. Those of you who are looking for Halloween-themed stories to use in ELA lessons could do well to turn to this collection on ReadWorks. The bulk of the Halloween collection on ReadWorks features articles […]
Fraidy Cats’ Book of Courage – An eBook of Writing Prompts
Make Beliefs Comix is a creative writing platform that I have recommended for years. The core of Make Beliefs Comix is a free set of tools that students can use to create their own comics in multiple languages. Here’s a video overview of how it works. In addition to the comic strip creation tools, Make […]
Wonderopolis Now Includes Immersive Reader
Wonderopolis is a great site for finding interesting articles to spark your students’ imaginations. I’ve been a fan of the site since I first discovered it more than six years ago. At its core Wonderopolis offers more than 2400 interesting articles for elementary school and middle school students. Each article covers a different topic that […]
A Modification to Book Trailer Projects
Over the years I’ve written plenty about book trailer videos and the tools that students need for making book trailer videos. For the most part, the book trailers that I’ve made and those that I’ve seen have been designed to entice the viewer to read the book featured in the video. This week I read […]
Add Video Comments to Google Documents
e-Comments is a Google Chrome extension that offers three great ways to add comments to Google Documents. You can use e-Comments to add canned text comments, you can use it to add audio comments, and you can use it to add video comments to Google Documents. All three options are equally easy to use. Add […]
ReadWorks Offers a Split Screen to Help Students Complete Assignments
ReadWorks is a free service that provides high-quality articles and lesson plans for K-12 ELA teachers. Every article on ReadWorks is accompanied by a lexile score and a suggested grade level. Any article that you select will also be accompanied by a list of key vocabulary terms and suggested questions to give to your students. ReadWorks […]
Make Trading Cards for Historical and Fictional Characters
Read Write Think Trading Cards is a free tool that students can use to create trading cards about people, places, and events both real and fictional. You can use it in your web browser, as an Android app, or as an iOS app. In this video I demonstrate how to use Read Write Think Trading Cards in […]
ReadWorks Now Offers Illustrated eBooks
ReadWorks, a fantastic free service for ELA teachers, recently added new illustrated ebooks to their library. These illustrated ebooks can be used in the same way that all other ReadWorks ebooks can be used by you and your students. That includes distributing ebooks to your students through a ReadWorks classroom and or through Google Classroom. […]
How to Create Custom Greeting Cards on Storyboard That
A few years ago Storyboard That introduced a great little feature for making greeting cards. Initially, it was only available for a few holidays, but now is available for all of the major greeting card holidays. This is a feature that anyone can use on Storyboard That. In the following video I demonstrate how to […]
Fiction vs. Non-fiction – A Canva Infographic
This morning I was browsing through Canva’s gallery of free design templates looking for one to use for an upcoming course that I’m teaching. That’s when I stumbled into a this Fiction vs. Non-Fiction infographic template. As you can see below, the template could be printed as used as is. Better yet, you could have […]
BookSnaps, Passage Snaps, and a Flex-time PD Model
This week I am hosting some guest bloggers. This entry is from Jerry Schneider who shares a couple of good examples of using a “flex-time PD model.” In an effort to make professional development more flexible and adaptable to the needs of our teachers, our school district is trying something new. Teachers in our school […]
Meaningful Reading Engagement with Quote Cards
This is a guest post from Noah Geisel. “Quote cards were fun way to be more creative with it and manipulate it instead of just writing it down.” — Cruz, 20. My Digital Media & Learning class is driven by critical thinking and analysis. There’s a lot of reading and reading reflection, and I wanted students to […]
Edji – A Great Tool for Literacy and Critical Thinking
This week I am welcoming some guest bloggers. This one is from Eric Hills. As a tech coach, I love spending time trying to find tools that are easy to use, can enhance student learning, and are engaging for students. Edji checks all three of those boxes for me. I’ve learned about so many amazing […]
Is Your Feedback Really Effective? – This Google Docs Add-on Will Tell You
Anyone who has ever spent a Sunday afternoon grading essay after essay has at some point wondered, “did anyone listen when I explained homophones?” This usually happened to me around the 27th essay of the day. It’s at about that point that it’s a fair question to ask, “is my feedback effective?” That’s the question […]
A Good Tool for Writing Reflections on Stories
Scholastic’s Character Scrapbook offers a good template that elementary school students can use to write about and reflect on the characters in their favorite stories. The template is quite simple to use. Students enter the name of a story and the name of their favorite character on the first page. On the next pages students list […]
Parts of Speech Quest
ABCya offers hundreds of fun and educational games for elementary school kids. Parts of Speech Quest is one of the games that was recently featured on ABCya’s homepage. Parts of Speech Quest is a series of nine games that, depending upon your age, will remind you of Legend of Zelda or Minecraft. Each of the […]
Supercharge Student Self-Editing Skills with this Writing Checker for Google Docs
Analyzing your own writing with a critical eye can be hard to do. I know, I try to do it every day and I still miss things that a fresh set of eyes quickly picks up. Like me, students often struggle to critically analyze their own writing. Peer editing is one solution to that problem. […]
700 More Writing Prompts from Make Beliefs Comix
Last week I shared an ebook of writing prompts from Make Beliefs Comix. That ebook is just one of many free writing prompt resources offered by Make Beliefs Comix. This morning I explored the site and found more than 700 writing prompt pages. All of the pages are designed to be printed and given to […]
Storybird – Fantastic Art to Inspire Writing
Earlier this week I was browsing for new Chrome extensions to try when I stumbled upon the Chrome extension for Storybird. The extension itself doesn’t do much more than just direct you to the Storybird website. But trying the extension did remind me of the great art that you can find in Storybird. The artwork […]
Two New Ways for Kids to Create Stories on WriteReader
WriteReader is one of my favorite tools for elementary school students to use to create multimedia stories. The outstanding feature of the service is the option for teachers to write corrections directly beneath a students’ original writing in their ebooks before publication. Students can record their voices on the same pages that they write on […]
Halloween Articles for ELA Lessons
ReadWorks is a popular service that offers a huge library of standards-aligned ELA lesson plans for K-12. You can search the ReadWorks library according to grade level and topic. Throughout the year ReadWorks publishes curated collections to align with holidays and other major events. This week ReadWorks published a collection of forty-two articles and lesson […]
A Halloween Writing Activity for Elementary and Middle School Students
Earlier this week I shared a bunch of Halloween-themed math and science resources. If you’re looking for a writing activity that has a Halloween theme, consider having students create Halloween cards. Storyboard That offers great tools for creating Halloween comics that your students can then quickly turn into printable Halloween cards. Watch my video below […]
Seven Good Places to Find Writing Prompts
Anyone who has ever taught language arts has heard, “I don’t know what to write about” from a student or two. If you’ve ever heard that from a student, take a look at the following sites and apps to find writing prompts. Emoji Prompts uses emojis as writing prompts. To generate a prompt just go […]
Why Should You Read Poe? – A TED-Ed Lesson
Halloween is a little more than a month away. It is during these next five weeks that a lot of students will be introduced to the work of Edgar Allan Poe. A new TED-Ed lesson examines what made Poe’s macabre work timeless classics. In Why Should You Read Edgar Allan Poe? students can learn about […]
ReadWorks Now Integrates With Google Classroom
ReadWorks is a free service that provides standards-aligned reading lesson plans for K-12 classrooms. In addition to lesson plans ReadWorks offers a huge libray of fiction and non-fiction literature that you can search according to topic and grade level. All articles in ReadWorks are listed with a lexile score and suggested grade level. ReadWorks has […]
Ten Ideas for Classroom Podcasts
On Sunday I published a video that shows how quickly and easily you can create a podcast on Anchor.fm. If you watched the video and you’re ready to get started, your next step is probably to generate ideas for your classroom podcast. Here are ten ideas that I brainstormed to help you and your students […]
Front Row Introduces New ELA Practice Activities
Front Row is an excellent service that provides differentiated reading materials and practice exercises in K-12 classrooms. Front Row offers articles and exercises on topics in math, science, social studies, and language arts. The latest update to Front Row features new ELA skills practice activities. The new ELA skills practice activities on Front Row are […]
Use the ClassTools Power Search to Find Educational Games
ClassTools.net is one of my favorite places to find free educational games and templates for creating educational games. Russel Tarr, a history teacher and developer of ClassTools, has made so many games that the site now needs a power search function. You can use this search function to find games and templates according to the […]
Using NoRedInk to Spice Up Grammar Lessons
NoRedInk is a service that helps teachers create differentiated grammar lessons that are personalized for each student. Teachers start by creating a free account, adding their classes, placing students in those classes, then adding different types of assignments to the classes. NoRedInk has three core features including curriculum, assignments, and student data. The curriculum library […]
Front Row Offers Differentiated Resources for Social Studies Instruction
Front Row has developed a great reputation over the last couple of years for the differentiated math and ELA resources that it offers to teachers and students. This week at ISTE 17 I sat down with the CEO of Front Row to take a look at the new social studies resources that Front Row is […]
Two Tools That Help Students Analyze Writing
On Twitter Clint asked me for a recommendation for a tool that his students can use to analyze writing. Two tools immediately came to mind. Those tools are Hemingway App and Analyze My Writing. To use Hemingway, found at Hemingwayapp.com, just paste some text into the Hemingway editor and it will provide you with a […]
Teach Your Monster to Read – Now on Android and iPad
Teach Your Monster to Read is a great series of online games designed to help students improve the speed and accuracy with which they recognize letters and sounds. The website gets its name from the friendly monster avatars that students help learn to read through the course of the games. The Teach Your Monster to […]
How to Use ReadWorks Digital – Create, Share, & Grade Reading Assignments
A few weeks ago ReadWorks teased the launch of a new platform called ReadWorks Digital. Yesterday, ReadWorks Digital finally launched to general public. ReadWorks Digital is built upon the popular ReadWorks service for finding articles aligned to grade level, lexile, and Common Core standards. ReadWorks articles are accompanied by reading comprehension questions, vocabulary lists, and […]
Front Row – Adaptive Math & ELA Practice for K-8 Students
Disclosure: Front Row is currently an advertiser on FreeTech4Teachers.com. Front Row is a service that offers teachers a nice way to deliver practice math and ELA activities to their students. The central feature of Front Row is that students are given practice activities based upon their individual needs. To get started with Front Row teachers […]
Three Fun Phonics Games from Teach Your Monster to Read
For the last few years I’ve been a fan of the online learning game called Teach Your Monster to Read. The game is designed to help students improve the speed and accuracy with which they recognize letters and sounds. The game gets its name from the friendly monster avatars that students use in the game. […]