Write and publish their work for an audience and share, collaborate and comment:
Google sign in and a teacher dashboard.
Use Classroom to share with students and try some of the powerful add-ons built-in to Docs.
Google sites is easy to access and upload Google products such as Docs, Drawings, YouTube videos, etc.
Blogger: One-click blogging for teachers or students.
Weebly for Education allows you to create very nice looking websites or blogs easily.
A collaborative story writing site that allows students to publish their stories for an audience.
Mo'olelo: A picture prompt writing tool created by Trevor Iampen from EPSB that uses great images to help students plan their writing, then inserts that plan directly in a Doc.
Improve reading skills and interest:
A book recommendation site for older students.
Young readers share and recommend books and create reading challenges.
A good resource for teachers with lessons, interactives for students and many activities for reading and writing.
Hundreds of news articles available at varied reading levels, with quizzes.
A reading comprehension resource with printable passages, lessons, and question sets.
Free reading comprehension site with leveled reading passages and questions and allows teachers to track progress.
A selection of articles for different age groups. A log in to assign articles and comment is also available.
Research, create mind maps and diagrams:
Learn languages or improve second language fluency:
Create mind maps, diagrams, flow charts or visual plans. Totally integrated into Google Drive and also available as an Add-on in Docs.
Simple and intuitive mind mapping tool with some great features.
Interactive research tool.
Fantastic language learning tool that can also be used to increase fluency for immersion students. If you want to learn a language, use Duolingo.
Display words in a visual format or word cloud:
ABCYA has a great word cloud creator similar to Wordle. Look at their Word Search and Crosswordmakers as well.
We all know Wordle. It works well...on a PC.
Visualize word frequency. TagCrowd shows the number of times a word is used.
Gather and analyze data, give and get instant feedback, be heard and interact:
Google Forms: create surveys and quizzes. The answers populate a Sheet. Add-ons such as Flubaroo in sheets will grade tests automatically.
No student devices? No Problem. Plickers is a student response tool that uses an iOS or Android app to read paper response sheets.
Student response tool for quick questions and exit tickets or get more in-depth with quizzes.
Black Gold teacher recommendation
Quizizz is a fun multiplayer classroom activity that allows all your students to practice together.
An excellent student response system
Create instant polls that students or an audience can respond to in a browser or on a phone.
Flippityallows you to create flashcards or a Jeopardy-style game from a Google Sheets template.
Convert worksheets into digital assessments, assign them to students' devices and track the results.
Create opinion polls or quick quizzes.
Create posters, visuals, infographics and websites:
Simple but powerful visual creation tool that is very easy to use.
Timeline JS allows you to make a very attractive timeline from a Google Spreadsheet template.
Similar to Publisher, allows you to create magazines, posters, brochures or newsletters.
Black Gold teacher recommendation
Fantastic for teaching design or making visuals. Great tool, but terms indicate no users under 13 years of age.
Simple infographic creator. Not too many options for templates, but it gets the job done.
Combine audio, video, text and links. The product can still look too busy but is easy to use with a Google sign in and a teacher dashboard.
Infographic tool with a Google sign-in. Notify parents if you're using with students under 13.
Black Gold Teacher Recommendation.
Has a trading card creator, CD cover creator and other photo editing possibilities but beware of excessive ads.
Create digital stories: Combine audio, video, music, pictures, drawings, maps, cartoons or any combination into a final product:
Students and teachers can upload videos and pictures then add audio or text comments and share with others. You can also collaboratively add comments to shared Voicethreads.
Annotate and save maps. Google's My Maps allows you to calculate distances.
Tell stories with Google Earth. 2D tours now work on Chromebooks!
An interactive whiteboard that allows you to record audio, video and add text or annotations then share or embed.
Create screencast videos quickly and easily with this Chrome browser extension. Here's an example of how one school uses Screencasts to make life easier.
Clipchamp allows you to record videos with your webcam in your browser and convert or compress video.
Similar to Pixiclip but even more simple. Create and post interactive whiteboard videos from the app or browser versions. Animoby is another similar tool.
Students use an amazing selection of art to inspire them to write a picture or long form book or a single page poem.
ABCya has many tools and this is a simple tool that allows students to create animated Gifs.
Explain Everything is a Chromebook-friendly interactive screencasting whiteboard app.
Make pictures interactive with links, videos, pictures and text.
Students create animated storybooks.
Add video narration to slides or pictures with your webcam.
Stop motion app available for Chromebooks.
Create presentations:
Create instant slideshows or videos by clicking 'upload'.
Create photo slideshows with music.
Slideshows.
Simple presentation tool.
Create animated video presentations. If you like Powtoon, try Moovly orAnimaker as well. Notify parents of use if students are under 13. Black Gold teacher recommendation
Great presentation tool but has a strict 13+ terms of service and requires parental notification for 13-18 year-olds.
Create comics, have fun with avatars, create storyboards:
Great comic creator but you must be 13 or over to use.
Blabberize is similar to ChatterPix for iPad. Make a picture speak with your recorded voice.
An app for Android or iOS that allows you to create an avatar and record your voice to make it speak.
A fun talking head avatar. Record your voice or use the text to speech feature.
Create storyboards with this free tool.
Comic creator
Create or edit video:
A free online video editor that can be used on Chromebooks. Combine audio, video, pictures. Notify parents of use if students are under 13. Here's an example of how one student used Wevideo for social studies.
Great video editor. Notify parents of use if students are under 13.
Very neat animation/presentation/movie maker similar to Powtoon. Notify parents of use if students are under 13.
Simple, straightforward and produces good quality movies. iMovie is hard to beat if students have access to iPads.
Use audio recording, text to speech, speech to text:
A browser-based audio recording tool.
Select and Speak or SpeakIt! are two good text-to-speech extensions that will read web pages and selected text in PDFs
Simple audio recorder that allows you to embed or download your files in a variety of formats.
Select and Speak is another good text to speech extension.
Kaizena (mini) is now also available in docs add-ons. A great way to give verbal feedback or have students practice fluency.
Good text-to-speech. Premium version is free for teachers. The highlighting tool is available separately as an add-on.
Docs now has a built-in tool to convert speech to text. Look under the 'tools' menu.
Use photo editing, design, screen capture and home design tools:
Add filters, text and other overlays to photos with this great photo designer.
Design buildings with 2D floor plans or 3D modeling
An online photo editor similar to Paint.
Find the hex number of any colour to use that custom colour in your creations.
Another great online photo editor.
Adobe's Color CC allows you to choose your palette for design and use the hex numbers easily.
Sketchpad is a very neat HTML5 drawing tool that works a lot like a Wacom tablet. Use a stylus or your finger to draw with any touch screen or interactive whiteboard.
A good screen capture tool that allows you to annotate your captures.
Another great online photo editor.
Backchannel while watching content, use virtual whiteboards, corkboards and shared spaces, doproject planning:
Built-in collaboration and peer feedback.
A microblog for backchannel discussions. 81 Dash is another option.
A virtual wall that allows students to collaborate and share their knowledge by writing or by uploading links, files or videos.
Another great virtual whiteboard for collaboration.
Stoodle is a collaborative real-time whiteboard. Here's an exampleof a Grade 6 class brainstorming on Stoodle. Answer Garden is an older tool that woks in a similar way.
An extremely versatile backchannel room with a lot of great features. Watch Richard Byrne demonstrate it here.
Add annotations and comments to videos:
Students take notes while watching a video and they are synchronized to the proper time when played back.
Add comments, slides, questions or pictures to videos from several sources or upload your own.
Crop videos, or add audio tracks, audio comments, multiple choice or open ended quizzes to videos.
The original tool for adding annotations, cropping, linking other videos, embedding comments and more into videos you share.
Create interactive videos.
Use instructional interactives: Games, manipulatives and exercises that increase background knowledge and skills:
The power of Khan Academy is in the teacher dashboard which allows you to track student progress and assign exercises based on the skill and outcomes you are covering in math.
Math exercises. Limits students to 20 questions unless they delete their browsing history.
An amazing collection of interactives for a wide variety of topics.
Create virtual flashcards and play a variety of games to help learn the material. Here's anexample of how one teacher in Black Gold is using Quizlet.
Spelling and vocabulary lists with accompanying games. Here's an example of how one teacher in Black Gold uses Spelling City.
Sheppard has some good learning games, especially for geography.
Learn vocabulary through online exercises.
Basic facts for math. Tracking student progress is easy and only problems that require practice are given. The format is not too exciting, though.
Exercises, videos and interactives on a variety of topics that you can assign to your class.
Math games with a teacher portal.
BBC's educational content. Contains many interactives though the updated site seems more difficult to navigate.
Connect with other classes, teachers, schools, museums, do virtual field trips:
Hangouts are great for connecting with other classes, museums, or individuals. Plus you can screenshare. Try a mystery hangout if you haven't yet.
A great resource for collaborating with other classes, getting guest speakers into your class or going on a virtual field trip.
Facetime can also be used for virtual field trips, connecting, or guest speakers.
Great for connecting with other educators, getting ideas, and as a virtual professional learning community.
Watch instructional media (video):
Fantastic short cartoons that explain any topic. Subscription site with some free videos. Free in French.
Great subscription site but it does contain a lot of good free resources.
More than just math exercises, Khan has a huge bank of videos on many topics.
Free educational videos for K-12.
A safe educational video community for teachers, students and parents.
Stream video with Learn 360. Black Gold has a subscription. Sign in to the Intranet to see the username and password. Needs to be accessed with Internet Explorer.
We also have access to Criterion on Demand for streaming media. Needs to be accessed with Internet Explorer.
Learn code and computational thinking, create games:
Interactive courses on how to program.
A visual drag-and-drop programming site.
Creatively engage girls with code
Design and program your own apps with step-by-step guides.
Online program to create 3D models that can be printed.
Free site and host of the Hour of Code with great activities dedicated to teaching computer science.
The Floors and Game Wizard apps allow you to sketch levels on paper, then scan them into the app to play on levels you've designed.
A visual programming site that allows you to create interactive stories, games, and animations.
A visual code editor that teachers students to code.
Learn to code by playing a game.
Classcraft takes gamification of learning to a whole new level.
Use augmented reality, QR codes:
Add augmented reality. Take a picture, add content and save your Auras so others can see them. The Guinness Book of World Records has an augmented reality component and so could your textbooks.
CoLAR allows kids to colour sheets then turn them into animated 3D characters.
Shortens your URL into a manageable goo.gl link but also gives you a QR code.
Classtools.net has a QR code treasure hunt generator.
More teacher Tools for communication, planning, classroom management, or workflow:
Streamline your workflow with Google Apps for education and Classroom. Here's an exampleof how one Black Gold teacher uses Classroom.
Lesson planning tool with Google login that allows you to embed media in your lesson plans.
Remind is a safe way to text message students and keep in contact with parents.
Create lessons with digital content to flip lessons or personalize instruction.
A social learning network that allows you to create classes and share content.
Build lessons around Ted Ed videos.
Attach rubrics to Google Classroom assignments using Doctopus. Here's how one Black Gold teacher uses Doctopus and Goobric with her students.
Students get real-time feedback on their behaviours and accomplishments.
Create free games, activities, diagrams. I especially like the fruit machine name chooser.
Need a brain break?
Interactive activities to get students active or to calm them down. Here's an example of how one teacher in Black Gold uses GoNoodle.
