Welcome back to a new school year!
With the increase of online learning material on the web, teachers often seek the online world, looking for quality teaching material to use with their students. Quite often we face the dilemma of having to create multiple students accounts. It is most critical for educators to consult with district Instructional Technology personnel to inquire about safe sites for students of certain age group. Teachers should find out how COPPA regulations are being implemented within their district. Most important for teachers is to know when it is necessary to request parental consent for using an online educational site. In my district, we ask parents to sign a consent each year permitting the use of online educational sites and accessing the internet within district firewall and secured network. And therefore; the rule of thumb is that if a learning site does not require more than student's name, (which can be an alias name), school/district generated email, and birthday, then there is no need to ask for additional parental consent. Tips for teachers:
Here's to a better start of your school year!
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Digital Reading Material For ClassroomsEducators are often hunting for reading resources and access to reading material. Open source/ free interactive Digital Reading material with built in comprehension questions are usually rare to find. Recently, I've come across some unique reading resources for any classroom. Read Theory and Schoolwide Zing are organizations providing free/open access to reading material. Educators can create a free account, set up a class, invite or add students to get them reading. A School wide account and access will require subscription with a reasonable cost. Read Theory is an interactive reading site that provides students with reading selections followed by comprehension questions. During their first login, students are prompted to take a pretest and then placed based on their performance. Students then are provided with reading selections that match their reading comprehension abilities. You might want to consider this free resource for your gifted students, students who need extra practice in building comprehension. Teachers may also choose to assign all their students into a class to get them reading. Articles are leveled using the Fountas and Pinnell leveling system. SchoolWide Zing Another open access interactive reading site. Teachers can create a free account, add books to library, then add students. Educators are provided with an access code to share with students who can in return login and access books added by their teacher. teachers can also create collections, add books to their collection. To assign specific books to students, teachers have the option to subscribe for a $10 per year membership. With the student user version, Students read books shared by teachers. As they read, they can take notes, answer reading responses, multiple choice questions or write reviews about a book they read. Teacher can monitor student progress as well through the “manage students” user menu option. Books are leveled using the Fountas and Pinnell leveling system. |
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