Free Tools for Home Learning

Who would have thought??? Boosting StudentEngagement... With Rubber Ducks?

Using a funny object to monitor participation or as a writing prompt can help high school students relax and share their creativity.

Read the article linked here.

Tips for Principals Shifting Their Schools to Distance Learning

As Women History Month Come to a Cllose

How History Can Bring Us Hope Right Now

Many of us are anxious and afraid of what is next...

Great article 

Students Learning Remotely: Structuring a small group instruction session will help to engage students and make the experience more meaningful for them. It is essential to build in time for them to discuss information and ask questions.

Catlin Tucker

Words are a reflection of our thoughts. Positive words come from positive thoughts, negative words from negative thoughts. 

Remember this! Construction Paper Weaving

Take a square or rectangle piece of paper and fold it in half. Cut on the fold of the piece of paper. Make sure to keep at least an inch border on all sides of the paper. Then cut strips of paper. These strips will be used to weave. Make sure that the main piece of paper and the weaving strips are different colors of paper that look good together. Try making different, unusual patterns that catch the eye.

Lite Site of COVID-19

Remote Learning Resources for PreK-12 (Foundations for a Brighter Future)

Literacy and Language

Award-winning children’s literacy website where famous actors read books aloud! Author Dan Gutman will be doing a daily read-aloud of his newest My Weird School book Miss Blake is a Flake! Free elibrary for everyone – including children’s books in Spanish, Chinese, and more! Keep up the foreign language learning while learning remotely with Duolingo! Free reading comprehension tools for both parents and teachers. Astronauts doing read-alouds from SPACE!

STEAM and Creativity

Free, complete science lessons for K-5 including at-home activities. Eureka Math has online resources for grades PreK-8, plus typical high school subjects – Algebra I and II, Geometry, and Pre-Calculus. Not just for bedtime, Bedtime Math offers daily activities for kids K-5 to think about math in new and fun ways. An hour of code for pre-readers through high school, with Minecraft, Frozen, Star Wars, and more! Daily lunch doodles with beloved author Mo Willems, complete with activity pages! Activities to spark creativity – including “Finish This Comic!” and drawing/writing prompts.

History and Social Studies

Free American history lessons for grades 4-12 on a wide range of topics. A teacher has compiled 30 virtual field trips for students who are beginning to get stir crazy! Explore the Metropolitan Museum of Art from home, with supplementary projects to keep kids engaged. Bonus: Follow by reading From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler with OpenLibrary! Visit 12 famous museums from around the world! The NY Times Learning Network offers free resources for middle and high school students on geography, current events, and more. Civics and current events lessons for middle and high school students from PBS News Hour.

Physical and Mental Health

Mind and body wellness for at-home learning from health and physical education teachers. GoNoodle offers hundreds of activities for getting up and getting active! Looking for some focus and calm? Try GoNoodle's Good Energy series.

Resource Hubs for Multiple Subjects

Free, easily sortable resources for all subjects and grade levels – from warm-ups to full lessons and virtual reality adventures! Scholastic Classroom Magazines is offering cross-curricular daily projects for PreK through middle school, each with four thematically related activities.  PBS Kids is offering a daily newsletter with activities and advice while schools are closed!

Full Schedules

Khan Academy is providing full daily schedules for PreK-12, including lots of course content and ideas for brain breaks. A free schedule builder, plus an assortment of links with ideas to help you fill out the schedule.

Tools to Facilitate Remote Learning

Fun accessible apps to provide assistive technology during remote learning for students who are blind, visually impaired, deaf, dyslexic, or have other reading difficulties. Online platforms for teachers looking for the best way to interact with their students and share content during remote learning.

Advice for Caregivers at Home

Time Magazine: The Secret to Keeping Your Kids Happy, Busy and Learning if Their School Closes Due to Coronavirus NPR: Coronavirus and Parenting: What You Need to Know Now The Atlantic: How Parents Can Keep Kids Busy (and Learning) in Quarantine NY Times: 10 Questions Parents May Have About Coronavirus NY Times: What Are the Rules for Play Dates During the Coronavirus Crisis?

Now that you are Teaching Online

The following excerpt and list of tech tools are from The Chronicle’s Advice Guide “How to Give Your Students Better Feedback with Technology.” The authors are Holly Fiock, an instructional designer in the College of Education at Purdue University, and Heather Garcia, an instructional-design specialist at Oregon State University Ecampus.

Technology has the potential to make course feedback better — more effective, more engaging, more timely but that won’t happen automatically. Technology must be thoughtfully applied, not just used for the sake of using it. As an instructor you may have a variety of feedback tools already at your disposal, via your institution’s online platform or learning-management system (LMS), such as Google Classroom, Blackboard, Moodle, Desire2Learn, or Canvas… What follows is a list of applications and technologies found to be most useful in providing feedback. We do suggest that you first check with your department to see what is already available.

Free Tools

•  SoundCloud: An easy audio-recording tool that you can embed in your learning-management system so students can click an arrow and play your recording.

•  Vocaroo: A simple, PC-friendly tool for recording your voice. You can immediately get a link to the recording and give it to students.

•  Screencast-O-Matic: A screencasting tool that allows you to record up to 15 minutes.

•  Kaizena: A site that helps you provide verbal feedback directly on student documents and track their progress by comparing your feedback history over multiple assignments.

•  Screencastify: A screen recorder for Chrome that requires no download.



Paid Tools

•  VoiceThread: A learning tool that allows the instructor and the students to participate in a pre-uploaded presentation by providing text, audio, and/or video discussions.

•  Snagit: A screenshot program by TechSmith that captures both video and audio.

•  Camtasia: Another program by TechSmith that allows users to create video via screencast or direct recording.

•  Panopto: A program that provides recording, screencasting, and video streaming for users.

 •  Hippo Video: A all-in-one, cloud-based, video-management system that allows users to capture, edit, and share video, audio, and screen recordings.