One of my favorite tools to review vocabulary is Quizlet. There a so many resources that are pre-made and you can also copy these vocabulary sets to add, remove, or modify terms as you need. Previously, students could review vocabulary sets without creating an account and signing in to the website. I noticed this year that after the 9th word or so you need to sign in to see additional words. If you are looking for a free alternative to Quizlet that does not require student accounts I would recommend Tinycards by Duolingo.

Instructional strategies help students engage with various content in your lesson including articles, videos, and other interactive resources. They allow students to examine content through a different lens, collaborate with their classmates to learn how they are interpreting the material, and offer new ways for students to present what they are learning. Lets look at some examples of instructional strategies you can use with your students.

This year I have been supporting the New Media and Digital Journalism classes for high school students. In both courses students focus on creating content using a variety of digital tools for authentic audiences. Writing for authentic audiences is a great way for students to be more accountable for their published work. Recently I found a great article that provides several project ideas when writing for an authentic audience.

Memes are a popular part of internet culture that allows someone to communicate a witty or interesting idea about a topic. I’m sure you have seen memes using the Overly Attached Girlfriend or The Most Interesting Man in the World images. Students can create memes to demonstrate their understanding of a topic and share them with their classmates, school, or the world online. Adobe Spark is a great tool to help students create their memes.

When working with classes I’m always looking for current events resources and writing prompts that connect what we are learning to our everyday lives. These resources are great at the beginning of a lesson to demonstrate how the topic is relevant, to help students generate ideas about a topic, and to look at issues through a new lens. One of the resources I use for these activities is the New York Times Learning Network. This year, the New York Times Learning Network has expanded their resources to include a 7 unit writing curriculum.

Only recently have I been able to really wrap my head around how to use Twitter to curate resources. The constant stream of information can be overwhelming. There are a few strategies I use to organize my followers, search for information, and share content with my followers.

When you begin to use a learning management system it is important to determine how you will organize materials. There should be consistency in your class so that students understand where to find information and how to submit work. Google Classroom is a popular learning management system that integrates with other Google tools to share and collaborate. Let’s explore some of the different ways you can organize materials in Google Classroom.

There are many great instructional activities to increase student engagement when using videos in your classroom. Videos are also a great source of information for research projects. For longer videos it can be difficult to locate information again during multiple viewings. A tool to help search and find specific information in a video is VidReader.

Google Drive is a great tool to help students and teachers create digital projects. Google Docs, Slides, Sheets, and Drawings all work across different devices, allows for real-time collaboration, and make it easy to share documents between teachers and students. There are many innovative examples of how teachers are using these tools with their students. Here are some great templates teachers have shared that you can use with your own classes.

Spotify is one of the most popular ways to listen to music. For $10 a month you can listen to any song on the platform or if you can put up with recurring ads you can listen to music for free. Spotify has revolutionized the way people listen to music and find new music. Stephen Dubner from the podcast Freakanomics interviews Spotiy’s co-founder Daniel Ek about how Spotify got started as well as the positive and negative impact it has had on the music industry.