Over 800 Free Dynamic Math Worksheets for Teachers

May 28, 2014
Math Aids is undoubtedly a treasure trove of free dynamically created math worksheets. It features more than 895 unique worksheets for all grades from kindergarten to grade 12. These worksheets are organized into 74 math topics all of which are accessible through the left hand column.

Math Aids is free to use and does not require any sign-up. Just head over to its main page and sift through the topics listed on the left. Each of these topics features a wide variety of worksheets. The great thing about these worksheets is that they come in a format that allows you to customize them on site by adding text, changing values..etc to suit your specific teaching needs. After you finisih customizing your worksheets you can then print or download  the PDF version which usually includes answer keys.

Math Aids does not only provide you with ready made high quality math worksheets but also allows you to create your own worksheets to use with you students. If you are a math teacher, a parent or home schooler interested in measuring your learners mastery of basic math skills or giving them extra practice, then Math Aid is definitely a must have.


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A Great Mindmapping and Notetaking iPad App Is Now Free- Was $4.99

May 27, 2014
MagicalPad HD has gone free today for a limited time. It used to cost $4,99. The MAC version of this app whose regular cots is $39.99 s now 30% off. I hope you would grab and install the iPad app of MagicalPad HD since  it's free because the powerful features it provides are just what every teacher needs to take his/her productivity level to the next stage.

MagicalPad HD is a robust note taking app better even than the free Evernote app. MagicalPad HD combines 5 key functionalities : creating notes, creating outlines, visual task management, powerful outlining and dedicated task review.

 MagicalPad HD allows you to create notes, brainstorm ideas, make lists, and design outlines and mindmaps. You can integrate into your notes things such as pictures, drawings, outlines, mindmaps and text boxes.This app also provides an advanced set of mind mapping tools that enable users to create  awesome mindmaps and outlines and easily convert them into different formats.

MigacalPal HD embeds a visual task manager that is similar to a dashboard where you can easily manage your notes , add icons, tangs, set due dates, reminders and add tasks and attachments to topics. Users can also track their tasks and edit and mange them anytime they want. Final products can be exported in various formats including OMPL, PDF, JPEG, RTF, and TXT. They can also be shared via email, Dropbox, Google Drive, iCloud and Evernote or through social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook.

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11 Fantastic TED Ed Talks for Your Students

May , 2014
One of the wonderful video resources I have been recommending for teachers and students is TED Ed video library on YouTube. This library features a wide variety of educational videos curated specifically for education community. These TED Ed videos are explanatory tutorials and animations  that cover a given topic . Many of these animations are created by educators and teachers in partnership with professional animators.

TED Ed videos are ideal for flipped classroom learning. Teachers can sift through the videos created by other teachers and share them with students on TED Ed website. TED Ed allows teachers to build a lesson around any of these videos. They can also add questions to the videos that students can answer  and get instant feedback on their answers. For those of you interested in learning about how to create flipped lessons using TED Ed, I would recommend reading this visual guide.

I have spent some time in browsing TED Ed video library and compiled this list of videos that you can share with your students. I have also added the links to the lessons attached to each of one of these videos.


1- How sugar affects the brain - Nicole Avena

View full lesson here

2- Sex determination: More complicated than you thought - Aaron

View full lesson here

3- How do we smell? - Rose Eveleth

View full lesson here

4- The mystery of motion sickness - Rose Eveleth

View full lesson here

5- How tsunamis work - Alex Gendler

View full lesson here

6- Questions no one knows the answers to - Chris Anderson

View full lesson here.

7- How big is the ocean? - Scott Gass

View full lesson here

8- How art can help you analyze - Amy E. Herman

View full lesson here

9- Why is glass transparent? - Mark Miodownik

View full lesson here

10- How did English evolve? - Kate Gardoqui

View full lesson here

11-The power of simple words - Terin Izil

View full lesson here

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Terrific Rubric to Help You Create Rubrics for Your Class

May 27, 2014
Rubrics serve a wide variety of purposes most important of which is to guide the instructional process in class towards a set of predefined goals. Although most of teachers subsume the function of rubrics in solely assessing and evaluating students learning, I like to think of rubrics as guiding frameworks, a sort of road map that demonstrates the aims and objectives we want to achieve behind a certain task and features the set of requirements to be met for this task to be finished successfully. In this broad sense, you can create rubrics for assessing students learning, for creating lesson plans, for using classroom time, for reading materials, for writing assignments and any other pedagogical activity that needs some organizing structure.

Related: Two Useful Web Tools for Creating Rubrics

In her popular graphic " Rubrics, Why Use Them? Why Embrace Them ?" Mia featured some important reasons why teachers should consider integrating rubrics in their teaching. Some of these reasons include:

• Rubrics enable teachers to better focus each learning event to address the rubric elements
• A rubric allows teachers to assess based on the expectations in the rubric
• A rubric lets the learner know what is expected from the beginning
• Rubrics are tangible in writing.
• Rubrics provide teachers with a determined goal which they can more easily explain.
• Rubrics specify each assignment element so the learner can focus.
• Rubrics allow learners to compare their work to the rubric before submission.
• Rubrics are specified and uniform for all learners, leaving little room for unfair grading
• Rubrics can be used as a guide for teachers to address, and give feedback for each issue in an assignment.

Creating a rubric is also a task that needs a rubric to guide and organize it. To this end, the folks in BIE designed this wonderful rubric entitled " Rubric for Rubrics" in which they outlined a set of criteria  you need to respect in order to create an effective rubric. These criteria are divided into 5 categories and each of these categories is assessed against three levels: Below, Approaching, Meeting.

The first category is about "selection and clarity of criteria. The second one is about the distinction between levels or columns. Next comes the criterion of quality of writing followed by another criterion on "student involvements " and the final category is about "the use of rubric to communicate expectations and guide students".

Next time you want to create a rubric for some sort of pedagogical activity in your class, make sure the criteria outlined in this rubric are clearly defined within the rubric you create.

You can access and download the rubric from this page.

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Over 800 Free MOOCs to Help you Grow Professionally This Summer

May 27, 2014
The summer vacation is around the corner and while it is a great time for us to have a break from the classroom routine, it is also the convenient time for us to do things we always wanted to do but we were not able to because of lack of time and busy time schedules.You might have plans for some freelance reading, learning a new digital literacy, writing a short story...you name it, but whatever your plans are you should always keep in mind that as teachers we are constantly looking for new opportunities to expand our knowledge and grow professionally. Your plans should always operate within this framework.

Image source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/gforsythe/

Yes summer vacation is a golden opportunity for you to learn new things and MOOCs ( Massive Open Online Courses) are among the top choices I would recommend. If you haven't tried a MOOC before then grab one this summer and explore the learning experience it provides. It is definitely worth trying. Open Culture features a list of more than 800 MOOCs from top universities from all around the world. The majority of these MOOCs offer " certificates" or " statements of completion" (not a university credit). You can sift through this list and pick out the ones that interest you. Courses in these MOOCs are organized by start date and some of these courses (called evergreen) are not time bound and you can start them anytime you want. Evergreen courses are featured in the bottom of the list.

Related: MOOCs Explained for Teachers

If you find the number of the MOOCs featured in Open Culture too overwhelming then consider this curated list I made specifically for teachers and educators. These are some great MOOC courses that  will start next June.

1. Technology in A Foreign Language Class (NI) - Canvas Network - June 3 (5 weeks)
2. Tangible Things: Discovering History Through Artworks, Artifacts, Scientific Specimens, etc. (CC) – Harvard on edX – June 2 (5 weeks)
3. 5 Habits of Highly Creative Teachers (NI) - Northwest Colorado BOCES on Canvas - June 2 (5 weeks)
4. Understanding Research Methods (SA) – University of London on Coursera – June 2 (6 weeks)
5. Programming for everybody
6. Model Thinking (CC) – University of Michigan on Coursera – June 2 (10 weeks)
7. Evolution: A Course for Educators (NI) – American Museum of Natural History – June 2 (4 weeks)
8. Education in a Changing World (SA) – Open2study – June 2 (4 weeks)
9. Teaching Adult Learners (SA) – Central Institute of Technology on Open2study – June 2 (4 weeks)
10. Decision Skills: Power Tools to Build Your Life (NI) - Decision Education Foundation on NovoEd – June 16 (6 weeks)
11. Crafting an Effective Writer: Tools of the Trade (SA) – Mt. San Jacinto College on Coursera – June 20 (5 weeks)
12. The Addicted Brain – Emory on Coursera (NI) – June 23 (8 weeks)
13. Teaching Goes Massive: New Skills Required (NC) – University of Zurich on Coursera – June 23 (3 weeks)
14. Assessment and Teaching of 21st-Century Skills (SA) – University of Melbourne on Coursera – June 30 (5 weeks)

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A Wonderful Blogging Rubric for Teachers and Students

May 26, 2014
For those of you using or planning to integrating blogging as an instructional activity in class, the rubric below from the University of Wisconsin Stout is definitely a must have. This rubric is available for free and can be downloaded in PDF format.

Photo credit: Langwitches.

This rubric is intended to help you evaluate students blogs along a set of pre-defined academic criteria. Students can also use it to self assess their blogging and identify the extent to which their blogging activities align with these academic criteria. This rubric use six criteria to evaluate students blogging activities. These are :

1- Content and Creativity
This is supposed to assess students content in terms of the depth of insight, understanding, and argumentativeness of the viewpoints expressed around the topic.

2- Voice
This one assesses students writing style in terms of clarity of tone, awareness of the audience addressed, and the word choice employed.

2-Text layout and use of graphics and multimedia
This criterion checks students incorporation of multimedia materials in the composition of their blog posts.These materials include the use of graphics and images, the use of captions and annotations with pictures, and quality of graphics used.

3-Timelines and Tags
This one checks whether the students update their blog content, how often they do so and whether they categorize and tag their posts appropriately.

4-Citation
This is to check for the citation practices of students: whether they appropriately format and cite sources and how they deal with copyright materials and permissions.

5- Quality of writing and proofreading
This last criterion assesses students written responses in terms of grammatical, spelling and punctuation errors and whether or not their writing style  facilitates communication.

The rubric is available for download from this page.

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What Is The World Wide Web? A Beautiful Short Animated Explanation for Students

May 26, 2014
Over the last weekend, I spent some time sifting through the videos shared on TED Ed youTube channel looking for videos to feature in a post I shared earlier today. What is The World Wide Web is one of the videos that stood out to me from the rest. It is basically a short  animated explanation (a little over 3 minutes long) of what the world web means. As I watched it I figured that this is exactly what students need to watch to better understand the concept of the world wide web. This video is also available as a TED Ed lesson to use in your class.

This animation is created by Twila Camp and beautifully illustrates some of the key ideas related to the WWW that are used  in everyday language. Here are some of my highlights from this video:

The world wide web Vs Internet
Although the terms are used interchangeably, the  WWW is not internet. Internet is simply the way in which computers connect to each other to share information. When Internet first emerged, computers made direct calls to each other. Today, computers communicate seamlessly through the use of networks.

The communication enabled through Internet has many uses such as : emails, file transfer, and conferencing but the most common use is accessing the world wide web... watch the video to learn more about the components of WWW and how they are used to give access to knowledge and information stored in the cloud.

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