S'Cool Tools of the Week: PearlTrees, ReadWorks, Playfully, Activate...

column | S'Cool Tools

S'Cool Tools of the Week: PearlTrees, ReadWorks, Playfully, Activate Instruction, DeansList

Nov 16, 2014

SILICON VALLEY TOOLS: We’re bringing 30+ edtech tools and entrepreneurs to the Silicon Valley on November 21-22--and theming this week S'cool Tools in kind! Here are five S’cool Tools that you can try out at EdSurge’s SV Summit. Join us!

Free! If you’re looking to use multimedia in the classroom but don’t know how to keep track of them, PearlTrees might help. Using the website, iOS or Android apps, you can organize your favorite web pages, files, photos and notes, and see what resources other educators rely on through the network and following features. Keep your mind-maps private, or share them with others to create Team Collections!

Free! Literacy skills aren’t limited to ELA classrooms. Using ReadWorks, you can help your students develop their reading comprehension across all subject areas. The nonprofit offers hundreds of K-6 units ranging from “Drawing Conclusions” to “Author’s Purpose” to Bridge to Terabithia, developed by researchers at the National Reading Panel and teachers across the country.

Free! Do you want your students to practice evidence-based arguments using online games? Try out Argubot Academy EDU and Argument Wars from GlassLab’s Playfully, which also provides lesson plans and a dashboard for teachers to monitor student progress. Plus, try out SimCityEDU: Pollution Challenge to help your students learn how to make environmentally friendly decisions. (Argubot Academy and Argument Wars are free; SimCityEDU requires a paid license.)

Free! Want to use free resources created and recommended by other educators? Through Activate Instruction, educators, students, parents and developers come together to share lesson plans that you can sync with your school’s SIS. Search resources by content type, grade level or academic standard, or follow the “playlists” of resources created by individual teachers.

Freemium: Character traits like perseverance and diligence are some of the most important things students can learn--and can seem impossible to grade and track. Using DeansList, you can give students points for specific good (and bad) behaviors, and send behavior reports home. Plus, use DeansList to communicate with parents about detentions, excellent performance, and more. To find out more about pricing, contact DeansList for a demo.

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