Genius Hour

This seems like something that FL could do with some frequency... maybe Fridays (understanding that with the A/B schedule, that would only be every other week for most students). Check out the Genius Hour.

Time Magazine's Recommended Websites

Here are some fun and useful websites to help you through the school year! Yes, teachers have to eat... MySupermarket.com helps you save money too by putting all the stuff you want into your basket and then finding the best prices on the web.  You pay with one click.  I haven't tried it but plan to this fall. Here's another one related to food and saving money: Supercook. You enter random stuff in your kitchen and it gives recipe suggestions - I need to check it out!  Now, I have tried this one, Noisli.com, it generates sound and also colors for activities where you need something in the background, but not too much. This site: calm.com does the screen color thing but no sound as far as I can tell.  Here's site with a lot of funny posters but also some pictures that may be good for conversation in the FL classroom:  Imgur.com   Reading the news and wondering if your email address has been compromised?  Log on to haveibeenpwned.com/ to get some sleep (or not). Do your students sometimes make presentations?  Are you getting tired of the same old formats?  You can try this one: haikudeck.com and let me know how it goes. Want to get the class talking, laughing or start a conversation? Vine does it better than anything! Be careful, it's addictive. Pining for the good old days when you went to school and remember everyone sitting nicely in their seats, hanging on the teacher's every word?  Me neither, but if you want to teleport back, try The Nostalgia Machine to remember all those fun and pretty bad songs and videos. Good luck!

Formative Assessments

A light bulb just went off over my head.  Formative Assessments!  Here's a great resource: Dipsticks :)

Digital Dialects

Language games for learning languages.

Transformational Teacher

So what does it take to 'Transform' a lesson?  It sounds like the 'Pirate' movement from facts to creative leadership. Take a look at #bestyearever on Edutopia and the 9 Ways to Plan.

Memrise

Uses funny pictures and phrases for language learning.  Gets good reviews for 'contextual' learning and funny too.  What I've seen so far is a lot of cat pictures.  I like dogs more, so that only goes so far with me but hey, if it works, that's great! Memrise

GoNoodle Brain Breaks

I can't sit still for long, so how can I expect my students to sit and get all day? I always use Brain Breaks (I have a library of over 100, ask me for a copy). This website is a physical one, so it's something different and complementary to my normal routine. Try it. GoNoodle.

Wheel Decide

Teenagers and small children love the illusion of being able to decide what comes next. Here's the perfect tool to help class flow - Wheel Decide.

BYOD Toolkit

Yes, we are still working on the BYOD idea. Here's a resource to help (if we ever get to that place where students actually have an internet ready device that they can use in class).

Fake Ticket Generator

Want to make tickets for a classroom 'event'?  This Fake Ticket Generator may be just the ticket!

Meditation Replaces Bell Ringers

What if ... instead of a bell ringer, I used a meditation prompt?  Here is a blogger who did just that! 

Twitter Hashtags

Want to connect with other educators? Try these twitter hashtags!

Background Noise for Work and Classroom

Noisli Interesting uses for work and classroom.

Google Drive

Here is a resource for learning about Google Drive tips and tricks.

Map Games for the Computer

Here are some cool map games for the computer. click on the flag at the top to change the language.

Coding Games

There is a lot of talk about teaching coding to kids.  I'd like to try (it's only been 25 years!).  Here's a cool site called Code Monster.  I just started the lowest level with Java Script.  Neato.

News for Information and Translation

Short news briefs in many different categories, Tweentribute.  Newsela is good for reading stories in a variety of subjects.  Some of them have a quiz associated with it. Students use a class code for signup and grading.

Jeopardy Style Quiz Show

I'm looking at eQuiz Show to review students for upcoming exams.

Student Project Aids

Here are some ideas for student projects, online posters and such.  Maybe a good break from Glogster :)

Blue Slips - What a cool idea!

The Blue Slip
Thinking creatively, writing, talking about ideas/events - that's the good stuff of education!  I'm going to try it for the next 2 weeks :).  More later.