Gallery of Links
Introduction
Below you will find links to various tools, resources, and websites that are used extensively throughout the various courses that I teach.
Google Apps & Microsoft Tools
Google Classroom is a course management system website that allows course work to be displayed and accessed for teachers, students, and parents. This site is very easy to use and is completely compatible with Google Drive which is why I use this site for my classes. Google Classroom also doubles as a drop box for my students to submit the majority of their class work.
Google Drive is an online file storage system that offers users the ability to create, store, and share a multitude of media such as Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides. Our school uses Google Chromebooks and each student is provided their own Google Drive through their school account, which makes Google Drive the primary tool for our students to create, store, and share their work.
Microsoft Live Drive is another online file storage system that offers users the ability to create, store, and share a multitude of media such as Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Live Drive is essentially the same tool as Google Drive. I offer this tool to my students to give them an option as some are more comfortable using Microsoft Office and this drive provides users with that capability.
Other Web Tools
Weebly.com is a web-hosting site that I use in the same vein as Google Classroom as I use it as a course management site. I use weebly.com in combination with Google Classroom because it allows me a wider variety of media and visual options than those that are offered by Google Classroom.
YouTube is a video-sharing website. I use YouTube in a variety of ways within my courses. First, I often use videos that have been uploaded to YouTube to supplement my instruction. Second, I use YouTube as a place to upload screencasts of my lectures so that my students have access to an audiovisual version of any lecture that I have done in class.
Padlet is an online discussion board that allows teachers to create an easy to use discussion board that can be done in real time in class or outside of class. Padlet boards can be easily embedded into Google Classroom or a weebl.com page and provide a collaborative place for my students to have an informal or formal discussion over a topic.
Piktochart is an site that allows users to create their own infographic posters. The site is easy to use and gives students another avenue to create a poster/presentation that is visually stimulating, while also providing an interactive option to it as well.
EDpuzzle allows teachers to creative their own interactive videos for their students. Videos can be taken from the site or uploaded by the teacher, who then inserts their own audio or questions for their students to interact with in the form of a quiz. Each student’s answer is sent directly to the teacher’s account. This tool is very easy to use in combination with YouTube.
Screencast-o-Matic is a video capture website that allows the teacher to create their own videos and upload them online. This site is great the video-capturing of lectures and uploading them to YouTube or Google Classroom for students to view. Also, due to the site’s large time limit and ease of use, it is a good site for students to use in creating their own video captures of a presentation.
Course Resources & Links
Vox.com is an online news site that offers a wide variety of topics for a teacher to use. The website allows students an outlet to view current events both in article and video form. The site is very good if you are trying to find current event subjects to discuss due to the wide variety of articles and documents that linked within the article. This site is also very good for finding resources for historical topics, such as maps and pictures.
CNN.com is a great news site to use for current events in government/civics class. This website is my preference and others may be used for the same effect. What sets this site above the others for my purposes is their “This Week in Pictures” galleries that can be generalized or content specific (i.e., politics, sports, etc.) These galleries are perfect for giving students an opportunity of viewing events and actions from around the world that they would otherwise never see. They also serve as a great opportunity for your students to discuss their interpretations of the pictures with their fellow classmates.
The AP College Board is a great site for all AP teachers. This site offers a teacher community for each AP subject that allows teachers to ask questions to other AP teachers and share activities/instructional strategies with each other. The AP teacher community is an essential collaborative resource for all AP teachers so they can help prepare their students for the AP test.