ACPS Teacher Website Recommendations

ACPS teachers who were enrolled in my Advanced TSIP class were asked which new technologies they planned to use the most in the future.  Here is how some of them responsed.

 10 Marks is a free online tutoring service ... for teachers. Teachers can assign math practice problems that are aligned to SOL's and are all SOL based ... stem questions. The site offers an online tutorial that helps students when they get stuck or stumped by a concept. There are reports that can be printed or emailed to the students' parents that shows their child's progress with the skills. I have used this program in my classroom only a couple of times, but my students seemed to like it. I hope this explains a little about the program..it is really worth looking into and the best is that it is FREE!  
Michelle Conklin -4th grade mes


 I found writecomics.com. I think my students would enjoy this website. They can pick from a variety of backgrounds, characters, and write a dialogue. It seems easy to use and it will help my students with their writing skills. In the past, I have printed out comic strips for the kids to add the dialogue, but this website is so much more. They create and write it.  
Veronica Thompson - CES

After viewing the "Free Technology for Teachers" blog, I found a website I thought could be helpful in small groups and at home for some of the students. ABCya.com. I enjoyed this site because it was easy to manipulate and I thought the children could do well with this. Instead of using sight word cards to help children, they could play a game. I also really liked the keyboard user. I thought this could be very helpful to getting the children familiar with the keyboard. I know for many of us, this may seem second nature but as I have learned with my children many times, they use the mouse for most everything. Trying to get second grade students to type anything takes an extremely long time. For those reasons, I think this website could be extremely useful in the classroom and at home.  
Renee Ritchie - MES

I love ABCya.com. My students use it at the Smart board during center time. They choose a game and play it on their own or with a partner. My top group students are able to pick a different grade level to give themselves more of a challenge.  Dennise Johnson - AES

I, also, use ABCya.com and love it. I use it to differenitate with reading and math. I love the variety of educational games and the kids look forward to getting on that website. - Veronic Thompson - CES

I tried the Character Scrapbook at Scholastic. My students loved it! The are really into books that have crazy characters, so this was fun for them. They came up with great descriptions for the characters. Some of them had to have help typing in their response, but they caught on to the "drawing" quickly. I'm going to use this for an end of the year activity. Each student is going to pick a favorite book and do their own scrapbook of the characters to take home.  
Melody Howard - CES

 I found one [an iPad app] called Little Story Maker which is published by GrasshopperApps.com. On this site students can create their own custom books. The site provides templates for students to use and then they can use their own images and apply their own text. They can also record the text. You are able to save the created books in a library for future use. Students can read the books themselves or have the book read to them. We are always looking for apps for the Ipads and I think this would be a great tool to use with all of my students, but especially my students who find writing a challenge. This is a program I will explore with students as soon as testing is over. If I find it beneficial, then I will use it next year to promote writing since the 5th graders have to take the Standards of Learning assessment every spring.  Debra Lewis - CES

After reviewing several online resources I was extremely impressed with readworks.org I think all teachers who teach reading in the elementary school would benefit from this fantastic resource. It is a site that can be used by every grade level as a reference source. It has the reading skills with reading materials (passages and books. The passages are printable and have multiple choice(SOL formatted)questions. The passages are leveled by grade and Lexile level. There are lesson plans included. Check it out! Its free! - Stephanie Hale - CES 

I agree. I love the site, too. I used several of the reading lessons with my children. Colleen Kean - CES

Oh my gosh! I love that website. I am so glad that you posted about it because I wouldn't have looked at it otherwise. I am definitely going to be using the lesson plans and passages in my classroom now. This is something I really need to use for corrective instruction. Those students that are struggling with certain skills, I can easily go on this site and find some passages to help reinforce the skill that are missing. THANKS!  Danielle King- KES

After previewing many sites,and experimenting with them I have found several that I would to use with my students.I have used ReadWriteThink.org in the past for many useful purposes in writing and reading.One of my groups compared two characters using a Venn diagram online. They worked on it as a group and then printed it out for their notebooks.Dipity is a digital timeline that is really cool but seems more complicated than other ones I saw. Another digital timeline I previewed and really liked was Timetoast.It has a visual and text view with date, event titles and descriptions can be added. Great for sequencing activities.

I really love the idea of using Build Your Wild Self. I want to have the kids go make one and then use their picture to do some writing.  Colleen Kean - CES

The Little Bird Tales site is great because it allows the student to tell the story in their own voice. They can write it, read it, hear it, and illustrate it. The StoryBird is good too. It’s easy to use and has cool illustrations. My kids had a lot of fun creating a digital story. Colleen Kean - CES


I have loved Kidblog.org. My kids love it!! I post a few questions a week on what they are reading, a generic question (ex. favorite restaurant), and a higher order question for the kids to respond to. They seem more aware of their responses, which has improved their writing skills. I showed them how they can pick out their own icon and backgrounds to personalize their pages. They enjoy seeing what the other kids post and my responses. - Veronica Thompson - CES

Out of all of the websites and technology tools that I have learned about and been introduced to in the class, I would have to say that LiveBinders is my favorite. LiveBinders is a place where all of the websites and various items that I use can be placed into a live interactive binder. I am hoping to add my Virginia Studies notes into the binder over the summer so that my students can have access to the binder at the beginning of next year. This is great for students that have internet access at home. They will be able to access their binder online and it will avoid pages falling out and missing. I would recommend this site to anyone! :)  Michelle Conklin - MES

I like using using www.quizlet.com the best. It will help me teach vocabulary in a fun way. I love the idea that the students can play these vocabulary games on the I-Pad at our school.  -Ruth Tankard - MES

I loved quizlet as well. I found a huge assortment of vocabulary words for Virginia Studies that were already made up. I would love to have a classroom set of IPads that my students could use daily. The IPad app was a little different and interesting!   - Michelle Conklin-MES

I scanned through quizlet and immediately took a liking for it. I plan to use this site for science. I like that they have games with the words. You can't ask for more. Children love to play games. -June Gordy - KES 

Prezi is going to be so much fun to play with next year. I think that the kids will love how the presentation works and want to continue to learn with the presentation. Taylor Crawford - KES