NPR (website and app) - National Public Radio’s website provides a treasure trove of resources. Within the NPR website are a variety of radio shows, blogs, and special reports that can be useful for every content area.
- Trying to find a quick narrative on a soldier’s story? StoryCorps is a great resource to find a two minute clip to introduce or close a lesson.
- Looking to show students the significance of math in the real world? Science Friday can help with that!
Livebinders (website and app)- Livebinders provides for simple curation of internet resources by providing a direct pathway to web-links you cut-and-paste into an online “binder”. The search feature allows users to share “binders” publicly so that teachers no longer need to recreate the wheel but can borrow ideas from others “binders”. Livebinders even allows users to collaborate, add documents and create subfolders to purposefully organize content. Recent updates also make it a powerful tool for flipping the classroom and project based learning. Here is a sample of how I used it for a 10th grade ELA research unit. Learn more about Livebinders by watching this How-to-Video.
Blendspace (website and app) - Blendspace is the ultimate tool for flipping a classroom, differentiated instruction, and project based learning. Much like Livebinder, it is a resource manager. Unlike Livebinders, it allows teachers to create lessons/modules they can then share with their real-life classes. Within each lesson teachers can create individual classes to track student progress throughout each lesson, leave feedback, and even create online quizzes within the Blendspace lesson. Here is an example of how it can be used to teach ratios, rates and proportions in a math classroom. Learn more about Blendspace by watching this How-to-Video.
There are a plethora of resources available online for educators. Many, like these, are free to use and simple for the technological novice to incorporate into his/her practice. Erie2 - Cattaraugus - Chautauqua BOCES provides a variety of workshops to help educators incorporate 21st century skills, tools, and resources into the classroom.