International Dot Day is an annual celebration of creativity, courage, and collaboration, observed on September 15th. This day encourages students around the world to embrace their artistic side and make their mark, starting with a simple dot. In 2026, Dot Day presents an exciting opportunity for educators to engage intermediate and middle school students in […]
Category: general classroom
Starting the New Semester with Success: Integrating Daily Reading Routines
As the new semester unfolds, teachers across the globe are gearing up to welcome a fresh cohort of students into their classrooms. The start of a new term is a golden opportunity to establish routines that not only instill discipline but also promote academic growth. One such effective routine is the integration of daily reading […]
Why use Exit Slips? Different types, uses and examples
What is the purpose? Exit tickets in the classroom can serve several purposes. First, they provide immediate feedback on student understanding. By asking students to complete a short activity or answer a question at the end of a lesson, teachers can quickly gauge whether the material was effectively communicated. This feedback is crucial for informing […]
Back to School Syllabus
Why use a class syllabus? Why did I start using a class syllabus? To be honest, I never used a class syllabus until my administration required it. Our school required a class syllabus for each class, to be published online, and in a central location. Parents could go to one place on the school website […]
Using Digital Picture Frames in the Classroom
Digital picture frames are versatile tools that can be used for various purposes in the classroom. They provide a modern and engaging way to display images and videos, making them ideal for creating an immersive learning environment. There are many different uses in the classroom. Showcase Student Work Digital picture frames can be used to […]
8 Ideas for The Last Few Minutes of Class
Losing 5 minutes of instructional time a day over a 180 day school year will result in a loss 900 minutes or 15 hours. The precious minutes at the beginning and end of class add up! Sometimes your great lesson ends a few minutes before the end of the hour. This blog post gives you […]
Jumping on the Boom™ Bandwagon
I have jumped on the Boom™ bandwagon. I would like to encourage you to check it out! They are fun for your students and rather addictive to create. In today’s post, I would like to provide some answers to common questions to help you navigate the opportunities available in Boom™. What are Boom cards? Boom™ […]
Problem-Attic: Review of a Free Teacher Tool and Question Bank
What is it? Problem-Attic is a database of more than 200,000 questions free for teachers to select, arrange, format, and print. Search the question bank, scroll for your target question, click and add to your document. Where do the questions come from? Questions come from state assessments (more than 25 states), New York Regents Exam, […]
DogoNews
The website indicates DOGO Media is a “network empowering kids to engage with digitial media in a fun, safe, and social environment. It states DOGO translates to young or small in Swahili, but there is nothing small about this free website. (Note all information in this review is about their FREE resources. Check the website […]
classroomscreen.com
School has only been going a few minutes, and already I have a bunch of tabs open with apps running, trying to keep my classroom organized and efficient. Laurens Koppers, a teacher in the Netherlands, solved my multi tab problem with a useful, free resource classroomscreen.com. His goal was to “use a free and simple […]
Gimkit
Looking for an alternative class game to increase engagement and track class data? This resource was created and maintained by a high school student from Seattle. Teachers create “kits” and students use their own devices to answer questions, earning game money for correct answers or losing money for incorrect answers. Students can spend their money […]
NetSmartz
What’s It all About? NetSmarz is for students from kindergarten thru high school, parents, teachers, law enforcement and community leaders. It is sponsored by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. According to their website, they have three goals: educate children on how to recognize potential internet risks engage children and adults in a […]
Ways to Use Wordle and Alternative Programs
If you haven’t used Wordle, you are missing out. What is Wordle? Wordle generates “word clouds” from the words you submit. The size of the word is determined by how important it is. Words entered into the source more times appear larger than words entered fewer times. Wordle is common in education but does require […]
Overview of Review Game Zone
Use educational online gaming to supplement your classroom instruction and provide assessment data. Review Game Zone is personalized to meet the needs of your classroom. The teacher inputs the questions, indicates the answer and presto an educational interactive game is automatically created. Create a free account at reviewgamezone.com and try one of these games. With […]
Pear Deck Promotes Engaged Classroom
Looking for a way to build engaging and informative assessments into your lessons? Add Pear Deck you your presentations! Advantages Works with google slides Templates for bell ringers and exit slips Custom questions including text, number responses, multiple choice, drawing* and draggable* responses * available on Pear Deck Premium Student answers can be displayed with […]
Rewordify Review
I really began to use Rewordify extensively when writing passages to differentiate instruction. My Day in History units (see end of article)provide a 9-10 grade level passage, an 8 grade passage, and a 6-7 grade level passage on a topic related to something historical occurred each day. I usually begin writing the most difficult passage, […]
Kahoot Review
Kahoot is a game-based platform for teachers to review concepts and make learning fun for your students for free! Kahoot was developed by a professor at the Norwegian University of Technology and Science. To sign up for a free account, go to https://kahoot.com and sign up to use this tool. There is also an iOS […]
Quizizz
Quizizz allows teachers to present, review, and assess students at all grade levels in a self-paced online environment. It contains a library of teacher created public quizzes or teachers can create their own. Students enjoy and stay engaged while using Quizizz. To create a quiz, teachers select create a quiz, enter a name, language, an […]
Review of Socrative
This highly engaging tool allows you to improve instruction and student learning while assessing students with real-time results. The free version allows you one account with 50 students. (A pro version is available for up to 10 classrooms and 150 kids). To begin, click the launch and then quiz icons. You can navigate to the Socrative […]
go formative.com
goformative.com is a free site for teachers to get live results from formative questions from a class. Formative has pre-made questions or teachers create questions and give students the “quick code” to direct them to the specific questions for their class. The exciting part that makes this program different is the LIVE RESULTS! 1. After going […]