Staying Current

 There are just so many amazing websites and apps for teaching! How did I not know about these until now? My teaching habits are going to be receiving a major upgrade after this assignment. I simply cannot wait to begin using these tools in my lesson creations and student activities. I am fully embracing the makerspace philosophy and so many of the websites I have now discovered lend themselves perfectly to the implementation of makerspace in my classroom this year and in a school library in the future. These tools are wonderful sources to help foster students learning. As a teacher, it is crucial that my approach change from “the sage on the stage” to someone who is readily able to guide my students in the right direction to learn and grow at their own pace and interest level.

Gooru

This free Google educational search engine is a wonderful source of lessons. There are plenty of pre-made lessons to choose from in the content areas of science, math, social sciences, and language arts. There are lessons from kindergarten level to 12^th grade. You are free to choose from the shared lessons or you can create and share your own lessons. It allows students and parents the ability to access the materials and information at any time, provided they have internet access.

Engineering is Elementary

This website is an amazing tool for enhancing your STEM lessons and or your makerspace. There are classroom lessons for grades 1–5, engineering adventures for grades 3-5 and grades 6-8 for use in the classroom or for afterschool clubs. Parts of the lessons can be downloaded for free. But, in order to access the entire set of lessons for each unit the user must purchase them. For teachers just starting out in their implementation of STEM lessons or makerspaces, this is a wonderful source for getting the ball rolling and for getting students involved in creative thinking and problem solving.

Knowmia 

This is a free website and is also available as a free app. Students can easily type in the topic they are studying or interested in. It is a great tool for differentiating units of study as students from 4^th – 12^th grades can easily watch videos at their own level of understanding. Teachers have the option of creating and uploading their own lessons as well. The iPad app allows the teacher to create, design, import and edit images, add videos, imbed links, and record lessons for students and parents to access as needed.