Teacher Resources

Teacher Resources 

Online Resources 

EdPuzzle 

 Edpuzzle is an excellent online resource for a French class, especially for the listening component. The website allows you to choose a video from their online library (mostly YouTube videos) or download a video file and integrate questions into your video to which students must respond. It is a great way of assessing student understanding and listening strategies. Edpuzzle is very user-friendly and easy to install. First, you have to create a classroom on Edpuzzle (as a teacher) and invite your students to join with your Google class or their school emails. From there, you create a video. You can choose from their video library or upload your own video, then you edit it. You can crop the video and add your own. From there, you can incorporate questions where you want them to appear in the video. After students will be sent the link and will get to watch the video, but unlike usual students answer the questions as they appear in the video, not at the end. This works great in second language classes because students are forced to listen and answer based on what they just saw/heard, not what they remember at the end.  Students can re-watch the clip that came before the questions as many times as they want, allowing them to work at their own pace. Once all of your students complete the questions, you can see all of their results in a spreadsheet. There is even an app that can be downloaded on students' devices if your students have iPads or iPhones, to make things easier.

Website: https://edpuzzle.com 

Quizlet 

Quizlet is a fun and engaging way to study or work on definitions, vocabulary, verb tenses and conjugations in a French classroom.  It is also a great free tool to give to your students at the beginning of the year because they can use it to create their own study notes for tests and quizzes. Quizlet is a great way to gamify your classroom the site offers 10 different gaming or study models to play using study set you’ve created. I am going to focus on Quizlet live because I feel that it is the most effective tool in a classroom setting. Quizlet live adds the element of competition amongst students. First you create a study set or use a study set that is already created. Then you make the game live, once all your students have joined you start the game and it randomly create teams. Students are given one of the terms and they have to choose the right answer (translated word, definition, conjugated verb etc.) from the options on their device, the catch is that only one person in each group has the right answer. The team to answer all questions correctly first wins and the game ends. This is a great skill-building tool because it promotes teamwork and collaboration, as well as, communication amongst students. It supports 21^st Century learning through the use of technology and the promotion of communication amongst the students; students have to work together in their teams to succeed and must communicate to find who has the right answer.  

Website: https://quizlet.com

Check out my Quizlet study sets (French) at: https://quizlet.com/Mme_Lucio1

Nearpod

Nearpod is an interactive presentation medium that allows students and teachers to present information is a variety of ways. Nearpod allows you to import files (pdf, ppt or jpg) or Google slides to transform plain slideshows into engaging presentations in minutes, by adding interactive activities/questions, websites, audio and videos right into your presentations. The website even allows teachers to deliver instruction to students by pushing content out to multiple devices at once. From their devices teachers can monitor their students in real time and see their answers and progress through the lesson and can request a report (PDF) at the end. Another great thing about Nearpod is that it can be used for distance learning, so your students can join your Nearpod session from anywhere using an active code. This free resource supports project-based learning, as it can be a creative way for students to present their project findings to their classmates. Nearpod also supports 21^st Century learning through the use of technology. It can be used as a formative assessment throughout a lesson to see what students are understanding through the embedded questionnaires.

Website:  https://nearpod.com

Educational Bloggers/Twitter 

Shannon Miller - @shannonmmiller 

Shannon Miller is a teacher librarian and has worked for the past 8 years At Van Meter Community School District in K-12. Shannon serves as an international consultant and speaker. In addition, she is a Skype Master Teacher and part of Best Keynote and EdSpeakers. Shannon tweets about resources for teachers and librarians and ways to integrate technology into the classroom and beyond. You can also find great resources and websites to follow that she re-tweets on her feed. In addition, she also has an award winning blog that can be found here, where she posts great links and resources for how to incorporate tech into the classroom and different workshops and training opportunities. This is perfect for the junior classroom because we need to start thinking of how to incorporate the use of iPads, smartphones and other forms of technology into those grade levels because students are already using them. Her passion for education, literature, social media and technology and how they can all work together is really what makes Shannon inspiring. She is a leader in 21^st century teaching because she promotes the use of technology in all classrooms at all ages and she uses social media to share her message!

Keri Ewart- @KeriEwart 

Keri Ewart is an educator with the Peel District School Board, a Brock University Instructor, as well as, PhD Student. Keri tweets about resources for teachers and ways to integrate technology and inquiry-based learning into the classroom and beyond. Keri’s Twitter is a great resource she re-tweet lots of links to websites, articles and resources posted by other and she also posts pictures and videos of different events she runs and activities her students do in the classroom.

She promotes “Technocizing” Inquiry-Based Learning, so using technology to promote Inquiry-based Leaning. Some examples from her classroom include; a Minecraft centered math unit that uses iPads, personal blogs and vlogs, critically analyzing anti-bullying campaigns, teaching coding, creating simple machines, Google hangouts etc. Keri’s passion for education, social media and technology and her dedication to Inquiry-based learning in the classroom at the primary 7 junior levels is what makes Keri such and inspiration. She is also a leader in 21^st century teaching because she promotes the use of technology in all classrooms at all ages through inquiry-based learning and the use of her classroom set of iPads and she uses social media (Twitter) to share her message and ideas!

Jonathan So- @MrSoclassroom 

Jonathan So is a grade school teacher from Milton, Ontario. Jonathan tweets about resources for teachers and ways to integrate technology and inquiry-based learning into the classroom, especially in Math. His Twitter is a great resource, he re-tweet lots of links to websites, articles and resources posted by others and he also posts pictures and videos of different activities his students do in the classroom and any presentations he gives. He also has great blogs that can be found here and here And a site that houses all of his resources: https://sites.google.com/raylawsonps.com/jonathanso/home and a YouTube Channel . 

Jonathan is inspiring because he is a passionate teacher who promotes creativity and exploration in life and in his classroom. His class and life are as he says “always in a state of inquiry”. Jonathan is also a leader in 21^st century teaching because he promotes inquiry-based learning and student discovery in his classroom, as well as, the use of technology in all classrooms at all ages. He also embraces social media and uses Twitter, blogs, YouTube and a Google Site to share his message and ideas.