Free & Simple Math Tools from the Math Learning Center

Math manipulatives are great, but sometimes they can be a teacher's worst nightmare: they're loud, they get lost, the students use them as projectiles, you can never remember what cabinet you stored them in from year to year, etc., etc.

Welcome to the 21st Century: the era of the virtual manipulative! They're mess-free! They're money-free! They're easy to use and totally amazing.

Some of the best free virtual math manipulatives are all in one place: The Math Learning Center's Free Math Apps page. Whether it's Geoboards, money pieces, or pattern tiles you're looking for, all of these math apps feature a simple layout. Each app comes in three versions: a web app (open right in your web browser!), and iOS app, and an Android app.

Each app includes annotation features that could be helpful for students with dysgraphia or written expression difficulties. They could also be great tools for teachers to quickly generate visuals to incorporate into other presentations. The possibilities are endless!

The Geoboard web app

The Fractions web app

Hemingway Editor - How Have I Not Seen this Before?!

Maybe I'm the last English teacher in the Western Hemisphere to discover the Hemingway Editor, but in case I'm not - here's a short plug for it.  

The Hemingway Editor is a free and simple online grammar editor. First, copy and paste your writing into the main text field. The editor will highlight certain sentences or words that are awkward or hard to read. It will also assign your text a grade level based on its complexity and length. From there, you can edit text directly on the website and copy it back into wherever it originated. Keep in mind that the site will not save your text or create any record of it if you exit out of it.   

Part of this tool's blessing is also its curse: the Hemingway Editor is simple, yet limited in its abilities. It catches adverb use, use of passive voice, awkward phrases, and run-on sentences. It does not catch punctuation errors, incomplete sentences, and other grammatical errors. It also does not teach about why it has highlighted certain parts of text, nor does it offer suggestions about how to improve particular parts of writing. That being said, I have found that this site is a quick tool to help me analyze my own writing. 

Using the Hemingway Editor yourself or with your students? Let me know!

Screenshot of the home page

Common Sense Media is a Great Resource!

I'm only starting to realize how much content Common Sense Media has: a lot. To be honest, it can be quite overwhelming to sift through it all. But then again, it's a site that does a lot of sifting through all the media that's out there. Here are a few helpful places on the CSM site that will get you started with what they have to offer:

 

You can search the "Top Picks" of the best EdTech Tools by subject matter, grade level, and academic skills.

The Digital Glossary is a must-have reference guide for all terms in the digital teen world.

Common Sense Media also engages in a good deal of research about media use among kids, tweens, and teens. If you create a free account with them, you can read their reports here. 

 

Do your eyes glaze over when students start referencing popular YouTubers? Do you know if this content is even age-appropriate? CSM just came out with YouTube Reviews! These reviews are a bit sparse, so I hope CSM will add many more of them to their library soon.

 

 

Podcasts: A Very Not Scary or Stressful Way to PD

If you're a resolution kind of person, perhaps one teacher-y resolution you could make is participating in more professional development. What dedicated teacher doesn't want to develop professionally? However, PD takes time and is often done wrong so it leaves you bored and resentful.

The solution? Listen to education-related podcasts! Podcasts are great because you can listen to them while you're doing other tasks, like organizing your classroom, exercising, or commuting. They vary in length (10 minutes to over an hour) and how frequently each new episode comes out (every day to every few weeks).

I subscribe to several amazing podcasts, including the 10-Minute Teacher by Vicki Davis,  House of EdTech by Chris Nesi, Out of School by Fraser Speirs and Bradley Chambers, and most recently Assist Learning by Jennifer Cronk. I listen to all of these podcasts either in the car on my commute or while running so I feel doubly productive!

The Education Podcast Network is a great place to start if you're looking for a certain type of educational podcast or just want to browse. I just use the Podcast app on my iPhone to access all of the shows I mentioned above.

Happy Listening in 2018!