Here is a list of 10 free websites that I use year after year that make my job easier as a teacher!!
1. Spellingcity- this site is wonderful for spelling and vocabulary practice!! I add my lists every week, my parents have the link, and they click on that to practice with fun games with each list. They can also do fun vocabulary games along with the spelling and they can take practice tests. The sheets can even be printed for worksheets or writing practice.
Bonus- it links with Ipads in your room and the updated lists will show on those as well. This is great for Daily 5 each week!! I differentiate my lists accordingly and the students practice at their level with partners that also need that level practice.
1. Spellingcity- this site is wonderful for spelling and vocabulary practice!! I add my lists every week, my parents have the link, and they click on that to practice with fun games with each list. They can also do fun vocabulary games along with the spelling and they can take practice tests. The sheets can even be printed for worksheets or writing practice.
Bonus- it links with Ipads in your room and the updated lists will show on those as well. This is great for Daily 5 each week!! I differentiate my lists accordingly and the students practice at their level with partners that also need that level practice.
2. Xtramath- this site provides individualized fact practice and skill mastery tracking. The students take a placement test and after that session you can monitor their percentage and the facts they mastered and are working on within a grid format. The practice sessions are fun and quick and include a game. The site sends you class reports so you can easily monitor weekly progress. As the teacher you can print awards and move your students to different levels of operation as the year progresses. I love, love, love this site for differentiated fact practice that simply requires a desktop, laptop, Ipad, etc.
3. Class Dojo- kids pick cute avatars and you pick the reasons to give and take points. Once your classroom is set up it is easy to monitor, add and take points away, and it connects with families so you can send notes and they can closely monitor how their student's day went. Another advantage to this is that you can share your class with other teachers so when they go to specials or essentials it can carry over. Kids get excited by this with the points that they earn (you can have a point system in your room for earning rewards or prizes) and the sounds that it makes when positive points are given out. The easy connection home to families is a great tool and makes life easier as a teacher!!
4. Go Noodle- this site is an awesome assortment of brain breaks, stretches, dances, cool downs, and indoor recess fun. The added fun is the avatar you choose and the transformation he goes through with more points. He goes through phases and will eventually get to a final stage. At that point you can print out the coloring sheet and put a certificate on your wall. Then, you simply move on and choose another character. This site is awesome for a quick stretch and refocus!!
5. Remind- sign your families up for instant, quick reminders. You can quickly and easily send a text blast that school is cancelled due to inclement weather, an important project is due reminder, or let parents know of a change, etc. In this day and age with all the smart phones, it is very quick and easy to alert your families with this one.
6. Front Row- this is a new one for me but one I am very excited about! It is a free program that includes both Math and ELA. It is designed to give a placement test for your students and differentiate practice and content for each of them going forward. I am lucky to have access to a lab so I plan on having my students visit the lab regularly for a session in both reading and math. Then you can link your Ipads for additional practice or assign specific content for homework. It is also aligned to the common core standards, has fun coins and a store for the kids to buy things with their profits, reports are generated and provided to you the teacher, and it has shown to improve NWEA Map results which is a standardized test that my school uses to measure growth. I am also excited about the math real world problem focus as well as the cross curriculum articles on Science and Social Studies topics that are leveled to support a wide range of reading abilities while keeping the same main topic. Also, one final thing to mention, after your students take the placement test on a specific standard you can generate individual practice sheets that pinpoint each student's exact need for practice- awesome!!
7. Storyline online- this site is wonderful for a read aloud lesson, to use for reading comprehension strategies, or simply to play during down time like lunch or end of the day waiting for dismissal. Famous people read aloud lots of different stories and they also add their own input and connections to their lives. They are regularly adding new stories and the kids don't mind if you replay them, they quickly have favorites they request!!
8. ReadWorks- this free resource is awesome for building comprehension strategies! It is a wealth of resources for K-12 and is research based and updated regularly. It is easy to sort through what is available, tie into units/topics you are studying, and cross content into Social Studies and Science. I know in my classroom I do not have a good deal of materials for Science/SS provided to me and I need to supplement on my own. This is an easy way for me to select passages that support the content I am teaching along with all the materials such as graphic organizers, practice sheets, and text questions with written responses added in. I like the rigor levels. The read alouds and follow up lessons all use popular texts that at times I already have in my room and if not, I can easily find as a read aloud on youtube or at the local library. I really like the support of this site when it comes to easily teaching comprehension strategies using popular texts with printable materials ready to print and use.
9. Online Stopwatch- This site has a wide assortment of count down and count up options for you to use to display a time line to the kids or simply to aid you in getting to everything, getting it all in, and moving through your schedule within a set time-frame. The visual aids with several of the timers are very cute, kid-friendly, and fun to use. It is a great tool to use with students that are having a hard time getting things done, worry about how much time they have left, or just need the security of knowing when you are moving on prior to it happening. I know for me personally, I use this more to keep my lessons moving along and not get caught up in something and lose time in the schedule. :) It is also great to time rotations like workshop.
10. Watch Know Learn- This is an awesome collection of educational videos that you can sort by age, subject, topic. You can sort through the wide assortment available and just sort and pull the videos you find useful into your own online classroom. You can add notes and files for yourself to use with the videos you mark!!! Visuals and videos are exceptional additions to any lesson. The videos are rated so you already know how others feel about them. You can add videos to the site yourself and make them available to other educators. I love youtube but this site is so organized, easy to use and sort in advance, and make my life so much easier as a teacher!!! Best of all you can build classrooms for your students- differentiate your classroom, build a classroom for your grade level to pull from or your entire school to pull from, etc. I just found this last week and this is something I am SO VERY EXCITED to organize and get ready for the new school year!!
I hope this list of my top 10 websites is helpful to you!!! I would love to hear from you as well!
Do you have any FREE sites that you find invaluable as a teacher??
I am always surprised by all the awesome resources that are still out there that I do not even know about yet!! We gain so much as educators by sharing with one another!! We become the best US by constantly learning new things, reflecting on what works best for us, and developing into more efficient and effective teachers in the process!!
Do you have any FREE sites that you find invaluable as a teacher??
I am always surprised by all the awesome resources that are still out there that I do not even know about yet!! We gain so much as educators by sharing with one another!! We become the best US by constantly learning new things, reflecting on what works best for us, and developing into more efficient and effective teachers in the process!!