Thursday, December 11, 2014

M-Step Sample is available for online evaluation



The new M-Step sample questions are out for educators, parents and students to checkout.  This is a sophisticated online test that takes place of the age old MEAP assessment in Michigan.  Questions are designed in the "smarter balanced"  design.  Recently, I administered a similar math interim assessment for Kindergarten and 1st grade students.  Let me just say that the first day of administration was not as successful as the second day.   Students were somewhat clueless how answer each of the uniquely designed questions.  Day two of the assessment was completely different, they knew what to expect and how to answer the uniquely designed questions.

So, how are we going to prepare out students for these assessments?  Two recommendations I can offer #1. have teachers start prepping students now (add the URL to your school website for easy access) with the sample online test (or search for online assessments with smarter balanced questions) and #2. make sure the students (and teachers) have more than enough time allotted to slowly go through sample questions in the student tutorial.

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

TYPING!

Begin with a test here to create a baseline for your wpm: Typing Test
Click on Start Test.  The site will keep track of your WPM (words per minute) and errors. Document your score and move on to:  BBC Dancemat---this is great because it shows where fingers go on keys in a fun way

Here is a list of other fun games (I will continue to add to these games as I find them):


Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Download the Free Full-Version Autodesk software - No Catch- Serioulsy Awesome!


Website: students.autodesk.com
Cost:  FREE  for students, teachers & Schools
Difficulty Level: High School Students 
Device: PC
Level- 7th-12th grades

Back in the day when I taught Business classes, I was assigned to teach AutoCAD. Students who have the engineering logic for that software adored AutoCAD.  Back then, it was thousands of dollars to purchase the software and provide to a lab of students.  Today when I heard it is now available for students, teachers and schools for FREE I was surprised and excited.  This program is outstanding for the engineering students and it is free (3 year license).  What are you waiting for??  I can 't wait to download mine.



Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Math On Time - FREE Math ACT Prep

Website: Mathontime.com
Cost:  FREE + options for paid areas
Difficulty Level: High School Students prepping for ACT
Device: PC
Level- 9th-12th grades

This is a great site for students who are preparing for the ACT test.  It offers many free videos that go over Math Practice problems for the ACT.  The videos are sectioned in 3 formats Easy (1-10 videos), Medium (21-30 videos) and Hard (41-50 videos).  I would highly recommend this site to any student prepping for the ACT!

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Day One Journal iPhone App Tutorial


One of my Favorites for my iPhone!



Cost: $4.99 (Well worth the $4.99)
Difficulty Level: Easy-Medium (depends on what you use)
Device: iPhone/iPad/Android
Level- Teacher

 Okay - I have to be honest, I downloaded this app a while ago while it was free and didn't start using it until recently.  I think this app is the BEST!  I can quickly and easily journal wherever I am- as long as I have my iphone or iPad.  Now, I am using this app for personal journal entries but I can see a HUGE benefit to using this in the classroom to document students work or learning of the day.  The awesome thing about this is that it is quick and easy to create.  You can choose to share to social media or keep for classroom use only.  There are many options to print and share.  I selected email as pdf and Day One emailed me a beautifully formatted pdf of my journal entries with pictures, locations and whatever else I opted to have stamped on the journal entry.  I wish I had started this when my children were babies!  This is a super sweet app and in my busy world it is so easy to use and document special events.   Give it a try and let me know what you think!  Watch the video above for a quick easy tutorial.


Thursday, May 22, 2014

Create an Edmodo account for your class!




Website: Edmodo
App:  Edmodo
Cost:  FREE 
Difficulty Level: Easy-Medium (depends on what you use)
Device: PC/Mac/iPad
Level- 2nd-12th grades

Happy end of the school year!  Teachers, are you looking for something to do this summer?  Join the bandwagon and create an Edmodo account for next year's class.  What is Edmodo?  It is when  students and teachers can reach out to one another and connect by sharing ideas, problems, and helpful tips. 

Over the past two years, I have helped several teachers within my school district join Edmodo.  Our Jr. High has achieved every teacher joining Edmodo.  What does this mean?  When students login to their Edmodo account, the teacher can send out reminders for homework, tests, field trips or just about anything they want their students to know.  It is awesome when numerous teachers register in the Jr. High and High School.  Students are then able to see all teacher's homework, reminders, etc within their one Edmodo login.  Teachers can upload files (homework, field trip notes, etc) and students can submit homework assignments and take tests and/or quizzes.  Edmodo has endless possibilities. 

I could go on and on about the wonderful uses of Edmodo.  Check out the "How to" video above.  It is very user friendly.  I currently have children in 4th and 3rd grade.  They are always grabbing my phone to check grades from Powerschool.  I can only imagine how great it would be if they could check the Edmodo app (or login to our computer) about reminders from their teachers.

Come on teachers- give it a try!  Your students will be so excited and you will be surprised how it will help you!

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Get started with Zoodles Kid Mode! Super Safe Browser for Children

One of my favorites!


Website: Zoodles
App:  Zoodles
Cost of App: FREE or for more options Premium version ($7.95 per month or $59.95 per year)
Difficulty Level: Easy
Device: PC/Mac/iPad

This is great!  I wish this was around when my children were younger. Zoodles is a "safe" web browser that provides educational games and videos organized by subject area. Children can easily use the browser with a couple of clicks to get them going.  This browser provides comfort to the parent without the feeling of having to supervise every move on the computer.  Instead of clicking on Internet Explorer or Chrome, children click on Zoodles and their name.  Off they go to learning on educational games and videos. I signed up in less than 3 minutes and had it running on my desktop.  Once you sign up, a shortcut will appear on your desktop and/or app on your ipad.  Teach your children to click on Zoodles (from the desktop) and their name and you will feel 100% safe with them online.  Love this website/app!


Thursday, May 15, 2014

Watching Youtube Videos in the classroom - without all the extra videos/ads on the side


Website: Quiet Tube
Cost of App: FREE
Rating by Jules: 5 star
Difficulty Level: Easy
Device: PC/Mac
Recommended Browser:  Chrome

If you use youtube videos in your classroom and are nervous about what may appear on the side or below your intended video, then quietube is an awesome option.  What I love about it is that you can drag the extension up to your bookmarks bar and have it readily available when you open youtube.  You don't have to copy and paste your URL to another site.  Just simply go to youtube, find your video and click on quietube.  It will eliminate all videos and adds on the sides and bottom.  It will however leave one advertisement at the bottom of the initial screen.  One the video is made to full screen, the ad disappears.   

Other youtube viewing options include:  ViewPure , Safe Share TV (makes you generate a link),



Quixey- Search Engine for Apps

One of my Favorites!
Website:  https://www.quixey.com/

Cost: Free
Difficulty Level: Easy
Device:  Across Platform

Did you know there is a search engine for Apps?  Quixey is a great alternative to using Google to search for apps.  I think it is even better than the app store because in the app store searches are very specific.  If you don't have the exact word for the app you are looking for sometimes apps are very hard to locate.  Quixey can do searches just like you would on Google but it gives only results to apps.   To share the app with your device, it gives the option to text a link to your phone or gives you a direct link to the app store app.  It also has a Beta (test) version for android out right now.  Very, very cool!

Wednesday, May 14, 2014


App: Brainfeed
Cost of App: FREE with limited videos
Paid In App available for more videos $6.99/year
Difficulty Level: Easy 1st-8th grade
Device: iPad
Need:  Connectivity to Wifi

This is a great alternative to youtube for children that want to explore videos.  This app has several categories to choose from including science, tech and design, english, arts & music, and many more.  I love this app because it has a handful of free videos offered for each category and if you want more you can pay for the "locked" videos $6.99 for the year.  I would so much rather give my children this to explore and play with than have them exploring the scary territory of youtube.   Many, many valuable videos to learn from on this app.  Highly recommended!


Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Taking notes while a video is running in Google Drive!

Jules loves this one!
Website:  VideoNote.es  
Cost of App: FREE
Rating by Jules: 5 star 
Difficulty Level: Medium
Device:  PC/ipad
Need:  Login for Google Drive
Wow!  This website is the next best thing to sliced bread!  It is so easy to use!  Simply provide students with a link to VideoNot.es and a URL link to the youtube, coursera, udacity, edX, KHAN, or vimeo video you want them to watch and take notes.   Students will have to sign into Google drive in order to take the notes.  This has awesome features.  When the students take the notes, google drive provides a timeline to match to the video where the notes are being taken.  Google Drive will also sync the notes automatically and students can share notes with their teacher and/or other students.  Very, very cool!

Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Google Connect with Virtual Field Trips via Google Hangout!


Website: Connect Classrooms with Google
http://connectedclassrooms.withgoogle.com/#
Cost:  FreeRating by Jules: 5 star
Difficulty Level: Easy
Device: Across Platform

This is great!  I wish I had found this site earlier in the school year.  We had a google hangout with a rocket scientist in Boulder, Colorado a month ago and the kids absolutely loved it.  We had to actually organize everything ourselves.  This website, Google Connect, provides you with prearranged "hang outs".  The ability to take a virtual field trip is a wonderful way to enrich your classroom.  Try it!  I don't think you will be disappointed.

Technical notes:  Our intermediate school district arranged the hangout in our distance learning room and it went very smoothly.  I would imagine you could arrange you own in your room as long as you have a google account, a web camera and a projector.

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Green Screen App by Do Ink- Super Easy to Create your own movie with a green screen



Cost of App: $2.99  (available at Volume Store 1/2 off for 20+)
Rating by Jules: 5 star
Difficulty Level: Easy
Device: iPad

Super sweet app for our Jr. High Students- High School Students.  It is very user friendly and the price is  very reasonable.  Are you concerned that you can't use this because you don't have a green screen?  No worries, use a curtain, construction paper or anything green to hang in the background.  Years ago, I had to have a special software to create green screen news casts for our school.  This app makes it oh so easy.  Load pictures and or video into the background of the videos.  Very profession looking results!

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

60 Apps in 60 Seconds....


Great Apps in 60 Seconds.....I had to pause to see a couple, but they all look great!  I have used several and ditto the recommendation!

Thursday, April 3, 2014

If you use Renaissance Learning in your school, this app is a must for iPads



Cost of App: Free
(School have
 to have subscription to Renaissance Learning)
Rating by Jules: 5 star
Difficulty Level: Easy
Device: iPad

Are you assessing your students with the Star program by Renaissance Learning?  We assess our students 3-4 times per year with this program.  We ran into some issues  in our K-1 building.  The building was not equipped with a computer lab.  There was just 5 stations per room.  This posed a serious problem when assessing the students.  That is when the iPad carts came into save the day!  We loaded the "Star" app on the iPads and we were able to assess the entire class!  What a huge saving s of time for the teachers!  The app works great on the ipads, the only negative part about the app is that the URL had to be manually put into each iPad in the star app.  It stores on the ipad, but if the student clicks on "settings", it can be easily removed.  Students loved taking the assessment on the iPads!  I highly recommend this app!

Friday, March 28, 2014

Rate my Professor! Tool for scheduling classes

Cost: Free
Rating by Jules: 5 star
Difficulty Level: Easy
Device: All

This is for all the teachers and/or college students that are still taking college courses.  My husband and I discovered this website from his current college experience.  He attends class on an extension campus and found that students were attending from other areas.  He asked why they were not attending at their local campus.  The response was "I go to campus with the best professors".  Rate my Professor is how they find out who is the best professor.  Rate my Professor gives you an inside review of the professor and what to expect from his or her class.  Could be a very valuable tool when scheduling classes.

Tuesday, March 25, 2014



App:  Little Bird Tales
Cost: $ 2.99 (50% off for 20+)
Rating by Jules: 5 star
Difficulty Level: PreK-6th Grade
Device: iPad

This is an amazing little app.  It is perfect for 1st grade students but can also be used PreK-6th grade- depending on students abilities on the iPad.  Our first graders produced some super cute little ebooks that they can easily share with parents via email.  This very user friendly app and the kids love it!   I am always truly amazed how fast the kids catch on.  In this app, the kids can use their own pictures (by taking a photo with the iPad), create their own art (by drawing pictures that go along with their story) and use their voices by recording their own where they become the storyteller.  If you link up to the Little Bird Tales website you will find Lessons linked to the common core standards for K-6th Grade.  Also they have a link to public created tales for more ideas.


Sunday, March 23, 2014

COPY! A great online hard drive that can be utilized on any device. Great Alternative if your Dropbox or Box is Full!


Website:  Copy.com
App:  Copy
Cost:Free With 15 Gig of Storage!
Rating by Jules: 5 star
Difficulty Level: Beginner
Device: Across Platform

Awesome alternative to Dropbox or Box.  Copy is a  free online storage for anything you want. If you are anything like me, I love to take photos and videos with my iPhone.  I had my iPhone set up to backup all my photos/videos to my dropbox.  Well, the 2 gig of space I have with Dropbox is beyond filled.  Now I download Copy and YES! I have 15 gig of space AND you can get more by referring friends!  Awesome way to store your pics and/or videos and this is a great resource for transferring them to your PC.  All you do is login on any device and grab any of your files/photos/videos with your login.  Highly recommended! Here is your invitation  https://copy.com?r=2zwhLI



Friday, March 21, 2014


Cost:Free- Today 3/21/2014  $0.99 normally 
Rating by Jules: 5 star
Difficulty Level: PreK-3rd grade
Device: iPad

Our kids in the K,1,2, 3 grades love this app.  I paid $0.99 per copy when I purchased it last fall.  Today you can get it for free!  It is great in that it shows the order of the strokes for creating the perfect cursive letter.  It also provides the lines just like if you were using lined paper. Great free app for today!

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

21 Things 4 Students Technology at it's best!





Website:  21 Things 4 Students
Cost:Free
Rating by Jules: 5 star
Difficulty Level: Beginner
Device: PC (There is also a 21things4iPads)
Rated: Everyone (focus is on 6th-8th grade)

If you haven't heard about 21 Things 4 Students then I am here to tell you it is the next best thing to sliced bread!  I have to admit I am a bit biased as I helped create some of the "quests" and was an integral part in the design of the webpage.  This website was created for the 6th-8th grade student but believe me when I say everyone can learn something new from this site.  It is completely free!  It has teacher resources and is linked to common core standards.  This site can be utilized as a self directed site for students or can be gone through together as a group.

Monday, March 17, 2014

MeL: The Michigan eLibrary - Super Resource for Kids


Cost:Free
Rating by Jules: 5 star
Difficulty Level: Beginner
Device: PC 
Rated:  Everyone

Attention Teachers, Moms, Dads, and Kids:  Researching just became easier when looking for information from validated sources!  All information on this site is checked and approved by Librarians and is credible information.  Instead of having kids and teens just "google" to research, students can go to this eLibrary and search through the hundreds of ebooks through the eLibrary.  Also, there is a listing of free educational sites for kids to access.  This site is filled to brim with information!

Monday, March 10, 2014


Cost: FREE
Rating by Jules~ 5 Star

Difficulty Level: Beginner
Device: Across Platform
Rated:  Social Studies




Here is a great Ted Ed Lesson that is already flipped for you to share with your class on the topic: How did trains standardize time in the United States? by- William Heuisler. One of our teachers uses this video in the beginning of the school year when they discuss westward expansion. This is a great lesson because the kids can watch and answer questions and re-watch if needed to properly answer questions. It is also awesome for teachers because it  literally takes a couple of seconds to flip it as it is already designed with questions (and answers). Teachers can add more questions and/or delete questions as needed.  As always with Ted Ed, if the students use their login then the teacher can track the results.


Friday, March 7, 2014

Screen Cast-O-Matic Easy Video creation for recording your computer screen

 
 
Website:  Screencast-O-Matic
Cost: FREE
Rating by Jules~ 5 Star
Difficulty Level: Beginner
Device: PC
Rated: Everyone
Materials Needed:  Java on your computer, Microphone if you plan to talk in the video

This is one of my favorite websites for creating professional development videos.  I create all my "how to" videos from this site.  It is one of the more user friendly sites available without having to download anything to your computer.  Simply click on the "Start Recording" button at the top and the screen of your computer is instantly trasformed into the background for your video.  I loved this website because I can record whatever I want to teach or show someone and save the file right to my computer (which is my choice most of the time), publish directly to Screencast-O-Matic (limited space) or publish right to YouTube.  Screencast gives the option to save at MP4 (Quicktime), AVI (windows media), FLV (Flash) or GIF (Animated gif) and it gives a full set of options for the size of the file.  This is a great option again for teaching anything you would like for people to have options for rewatching or being able to pause and/or rewind to follow along.  Great for the teacher flipping the classroom or even the student creating a "teach me" presentation.  Give it a try - you won't be disappointed.

Thursday, March 6, 2014

 

App:  Stack the States
iTunes Link:  Stack the States
Cost:  Free (limited) or .99 cents
Rating by Jules~ 5 Star
Difficulty:  Beginner
Device:  iPad
Rated: Everyone
 
This app is a staple on any device we own.  We started with the Free version, but the capabilities were limited so I purchased the full version for a whopping .99 cents~well worth the money!  This game is great for the 5-10 year old and even fun for the older kids.  It offers reading and comprehension skills.  It also includes deductive reasoning and visual recognition for answering the questions.    When the question is answered correctly, you get to drag the state down to stack on top of each other.  Once stacked to the top, you move on to another level.  What better to learn the United States! 



Tuesday, March 4, 2014

App News-O-Matic Super Cool Online News for Kids 7-11



App: News-O-Matic 
Website (for more information):  News-O-Matic-Press 4-Kids
Cost:  FREERating by Jules~ 5 Star
Difficulty Level:  Beginner
Device:  iPad
Rated:  Kids 7-11

What a cool App!  I found this app by default while searching the App Store for informational apps to add to our elementary carts.  I love this app for several reasons- 1.  very user friendly  2.  interactive  3. information is relevant to kids age 7-11, and 4.  there are five new/exciting stories each day.  I had my daughters try it out and they loved it as well.  The kids may create a login if they wish to and add their photo (although I have camera set off at our elementary). If the camera is turned off, they may choose a pre-composed photo (cartoon animals).  The five new news stories appear upon login or turning the app on.  Students may scroll down to see the previous days stories.  They can access each story with a tap.  Many of the stories are interactive by adding videos, pictures, underlined words that define the word and questions about the article for comprehension.  The stories also offer a "read to me" feature and a "go there" feature that takes them to a map of the world and pin points where they are and where the story is taking place.  Lastly, there are games that offer puzzles, mystery words and trivia about "on this date".  Overall, this is a fun app that kids will play with and not even realize that they are learning :-) !

Monday, February 24, 2014

duoLingo ~learn a language for free!

Website:  duoLingo
Cost:  FREE
Rating by Jules~ 5 Star

Difficulty Level:  Beginner
Device:  Across Platform
Rated:  Everyone

This is one of my favorite apps from the 2013-2014 school year.  DuoLingo is an across platform app/website.  You can use it on a pc, android, iPad and as a Google App.  It is very user friendly~simply create an account and choose a language (Spanish, French, German, I think there is more to come). DuoLingo creates a  tree that will guide you through different skills.  You will begin with basic word and various verb tenses and work your way to harder language development.  It also has the ability to socially engage with others that you may want to share or compete with for fun.  The cool/awesome thing about duoLingo is that it is FREE and it saves your activity- pick up where you left off.  This game may even hook you with the hearts it hands out.