S'Cool Tools of the Week: Mars Generation One, Go Smart, NBC Learn,...

column | S'Cool Tools

S'Cool Tools of the Week: Mars Generation One, Go Smart, NBC Learn, Pupil Performance Portfolio

Oct 19, 2014

TOO COOL (PERFECT FOR SCHOOL): Here we go again! We've got our favorite edtech teacher and administrator tools for the week right here, as highlighted in our Instruct newsletter. Our fave S'Cool Tools are:

*Free! Could your students get excited about attending a middle school on Mars? (We sure could.) In Mars Generation One; Argubot Academy EDU, designed for iPads, the creators of SimCityEDU combine STEM and ELA, as students work together to make decisions about how to govern their city on Mars. No permission slips needed for this interplanetary field trip.

*Free! Kids get antsy when sitting at a desk all day--and we can’t blame them. Give your students a way to shake out the wiggles and stay healthy with Go Smart, from the National Head Start Association. Go Smart provides physical activities for students up to five years old--create a profile to personalize activities, and access their recommendations here.

*Freemium: Want to make historical events come alive through video footage? Pearson and NBC Learn have teamed up to offer you over 17,000 education videos specifically designed for K-12. Show your students history from the Great Depression to the Recession. Get your 30-day free trial here, and if you wish to continue, a member of the NBC Learn team will be in contact with you during the trial term to discuss possible next steps.

*License: If you’re looking to share your students’ progress towards Common Core standards mastery with parents, Pupil Performance Portfolio could help. The $5.99 tool, designed for iPhones and iPads by two elementary school teachers, allows teachers to rate a student’s performance in relation to a specific standard over time and provide feedback to families, similar to tools like MasteryConnect.

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