Tools & Apps
- “If you use a tool every day then it becomes easier to grasp it’s building blocks. It becomes easier to apply the same tool to do many jobs. The more you use it the more creative you get.
- If you have multiple tools/apps to do the same job something is wrong.
Tools:
#1 
Thinglink - This tool can be applied in many different ways. Think of it as looking at a 360 degree picture of something. Then you are able to digital label that picture with little tags that when you scroll over them they give you more information. Here is a 3 minute tutorial that give you the low down. Thinglink Tutorial I saw this used in a 6 grad classroom when they were studying ancient civilizations. Students took images and created “hotspots” with links or additional information. It appears that it can be used in many ways. Check out this link to see some ideas of things you can do Thinglink Ideas I particularly like the first one, Digital Self.
Thinglink - This tool can be applied in many different ways. Think of it as looking at a 360 degree picture of something. Then you are able to digital label that picture with little tags that when you scroll over them they give you more information. Here is a 3 minute tutorial that give you the low down. Thinglink Tutorial I saw this used in a 6 grad classroom when they were studying ancient civilizations. Students took images and created “hotspots” with links or additional information. It appears that it can be used in many ways. Check out this link to see some ideas of things you can do Thinglink Ideas I particularly like the first one, Digital Self.
#2 
Remind - Finding the right tool to communicate with students, parents is crucial. Facebook, twitter, email, etc, it can be overwhelming. I REALLY like the simplicity of Remind101. Let’s face it our phones are simply another limb at this point. Anyone who says otherwise is lying or has way more self control than the average human, in which case we’d rather you just lied and stopped showing the rest of us up. No one speaks in person, drink the Koolaide and just text. Texting keeps the messages short and sweet and to the point. Here is a quick tutorial that gives and overview: Youtube tutorial If you are looking for creative ways to use this app look no further: Remind Uses
Remind - Finding the right tool to communicate with students, parents is crucial. Facebook, twitter, email, etc, it can be overwhelming. I REALLY like the simplicity of Remind101. Let’s face it our phones are simply another limb at this point. Anyone who says otherwise is lying or has way more self control than the average human, in which case we’d rather you just lied and stopped showing the rest of us up. No one speaks in person, drink the Koolaide and just text. Texting keeps the messages short and sweet and to the point. Here is a quick tutorial that gives and overview: Youtube tutorial If you are looking for creative ways to use this app look no further: Remind Uses
#3 
Library Thing Dewey Decimal Tool - As a novice librarian I can't get enough of this FUN tool. It’s just super fun to play with when you aren’t exactly sure where a book should be cataloged. When you go on the regular website it’s hard to find this specific tool. I wish it were easily visible, instead I always search for it on Google as Librarything Dewey Decimal Tool. It gives you a good start in trying to figure out where to catalog. Cross reference with other nearby libraries as well as other printed texts to make an informed decision.
Library Thing Dewey Decimal Tool - As a novice librarian I can't get enough of this FUN tool. It’s just super fun to play with when you aren’t exactly sure where a book should be cataloged. When you go on the regular website it’s hard to find this specific tool. I wish it were easily visible, instead I always search for it on Google as Librarything Dewey Decimal Tool. It gives you a good start in trying to figure out where to catalog. Cross reference with other nearby libraries as well as other printed texts to make an informed decision.
#4 SeeSaw or Google Classroom: Which One is Best?? This link will bring you to a VERY quick but convincing slideshow that recaps both tools and helps you figure out which is best. As soon as clicked on the SeeSaw tab I thought, wait this sounds a lot like other tools. This is exactly where my brain started to overheat so I sought refuge where we all do, I did a Google search. In short they are very similar but there are differences that stand out. For example, SeeSaw is mostly student driven where Classroom is purely teacher driven. SeeSaw is driven toward K-2. Classroom is driven towards 3-5. Which one do you use? Well you can use both but I’d be hard pressed to find value in both given their similarities. I would choose based on grade level.
#5: 
Quizlet: My 5th graders couldn’t get enough of quizlet. My daughters both use it regularly at their schools. It is incredibly versatile. It can be used across all content areas. Teachers can make quizzes to help students learn vocabulary and other basic concepts. One feature that I love is that images can easily be dropped into the quizzes which help students identify the vocab or concepts more easily. Kids like playing the interactive games and being the biggest scorer. No joke, kids are rushing to practice vocabulary and concepts. Students can also make their own quizlets. In particular you’ll hear middle school and high school students collaborating to make life easier for all of them as they all add to a quizlet ot help them study for a big upcoming exam. The best feature is Quizlet Live in which the whole class can play an interactive quiz game. It’s fast moving and the kids really look forward to it. Live games comparison: Quizlet Live, Kahoot, Quizz Keep in mind that Quizlet has far more functions than just Quizlet live, that’s just one portion.
Quizlet: My 5th graders couldn’t get enough of quizlet. My daughters both use it regularly at their schools. It is incredibly versatile. It can be used across all content areas. Teachers can make quizzes to help students learn vocabulary and other basic concepts. One feature that I love is that images can easily be dropped into the quizzes which help students identify the vocab or concepts more easily. Kids like playing the interactive games and being the biggest scorer. No joke, kids are rushing to practice vocabulary and concepts. Students can also make their own quizlets. In particular you’ll hear middle school and high school students collaborating to make life easier for all of them as they all add to a quizlet ot help them study for a big upcoming exam. The best feature is Quizlet Live in which the whole class can play an interactive quiz game. It’s fast moving and the kids really look forward to it. Live games comparison: Quizlet Live, Kahoot, Quizz Keep in mind that Quizlet has far more functions than just Quizlet live, that’s just one portion.
#6 
Make Beliefs Comix: This is just pure fun. I haven’t actually used it but I saw the products displayed at the end of a project and they were creative, colorful and so fun! In the particular case I saw it used students worked on a digital citizenship project and their final product was to create a comic strip that depicted. Here are 26 ways to use it in the classroom: 26 ideas Again, this is versatile enough to use across many different content areas. It is multilingual making it appealing for classroom with students who are multilingual.
Make Beliefs Comix: This is just pure fun. I haven’t actually used it but I saw the products displayed at the end of a project and they were creative, colorful and so fun! In the particular case I saw it used students worked on a digital citizenship project and their final product was to create a comic strip that depicted. Here are 26 ways to use it in the classroom: 26 ideas Again, this is versatile enough to use across many different content areas. It is multilingual making it appealing for classroom with students who are multilingual.
#7: Voki This is available in my district and I’ve NEVER heard of it so clearly I dug deeper right away. IT says it’s similar to a classroom management tool. Teachers can assign work, organize it etc. The big difference, they have these interesting talking characters that students can build. On the main Voki link that I posted you can click on the main video that’s appears right away and if you fast forward through you can see students using the tool. There is a boy who makes a husky dog and then records his voice as he works through the math problem. It seems interesting and the talking characters would certainly be fun for students to make avatars. It also looks like it is loaded with a bunch of lessons that you can customize. I’m thinking it seems like you would use it like a Brainpop lesson except you create exactly what you want which seems nice. It also seems like a lot of work to build your own mini video using characters.
#8: Classhook - This is an interesting site that I think could be useful. I didn’t know it even existed which is why all this exploration is so wonderful. Youtube Overview Essentially it’s a database of video clips from popular movies, shows, news etc. that teachers can search to find engaging clips to get the class hooked before the lesson starts. For example, I typed into the search bar “cyber bullying”. What I got was a clip from back to the future where Marty meets Biff at the soda shop. A bit of a stretch but maybe, just maybe you might want to catch kids attention about how bullying and how while it looks different than a giant noogie at a soda shop bullying is never acceptable, in person, online or anywhere. Maybe a funny clip from back to the future isn’t the way to go but, I’ll leave the clip choosing up to you. Seems like a fun sight to spice things up.
MUST HAVES: Things I couldn’t live without: The only one I don’t use regularly are Hangouts. The rest are embedded into my life for better or worse. I make almost all my forms and documents using slides. I used to make math worksheets on Google slides, formatting is so much easier with it.
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