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Showing posts from July, 2022

Online OCR- A Free Image to Text Converter

Online OCR is a free picture to text converter that enables you to easily extract text and characters from digital images  and scanned PDF documents including multiple page documents. Online OCR is easy to use and works right on your browser. No software download is required and you can even use it without registration.  There are different ways to use Online OCR in education. For instance, in language learning students can use it to extract target text from images and translate it to one's own language. Students can use it to learn new vocabulary items and practice language in real-life contexts.  OCR Online is also ideal for students with special needs especially those who are blind or have low vision. Teachers can extract text from digital images and scanned PDFs and use text-to-speech tools to have it read out-loud for them.  Besides its educational use, Online OCR  is helpful when travelling to places where you don't speak the local language. You can simply use your pho

The Art of Teaching Children- New Book for School teachers

Veteran, award-winning teacher Phil Done (32 Third Graders and One Class Bunny) has knocked it out of the park again with his recently released The Art of Teaching Children: All I Learned from a Lifetime in the Classroom by Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster. After thirty-three years of teaching children, mainly in CA public schools, Done retired from the classroom. It was then that he decided to write down everything he’d learned about working with kids. Filled with Done’s trademark charm and humor, The Art of Teaching Children offers guidance and wisdom, advice and assistance, encouragement and inspiration to all who work with children. From the first-day-of-school jitters to the last day’s tears, the book explores a teacher’s craft, the classrooms they work in, the curriculum they teach, the challenges they face, and the reason all teachers do it—the children. Part teachers’ guide, part shot in the arm, and part pep-talk, The Art of Teaching Children is for anyone who has eve

NaturalReader- An Excellent Online Text to Speech Tool

NaturalReader is a text to speech application that turns text into natural sounding audio. Using AI Powered Smart Reader, NaturalReader is able to detect and avoid unwanted text including image captions, headers, citations, footers, and URLs thus providing an optimal listening experience.  You can either copy and paste text or upload files to NaturalReader and have them read out loud. NaturalReader supports different types of files including PDFs, Google Docs, Kindle Book, text files, webpages, emails, Outlook, and many more. The app supports over 150 voices in more than 20 languages.  Premium subscribers can access best natural sounding voices. To further enhance your listening experience, NaturalReader offers a number of customizable features that allow you to individualize your listening experience. Besides choosing your favourite voice, you can also change reading speed the way you like. For enhanced focus, you can try 'immersive reading function which eliminates any distra

5 Good Apps for Writing Math Equations

Writing math expressions such as equations and formulas using standard keyboard has always been a complex task that often requires coding knowledge. However, apps and tools such as the ones below have made the task way easier. The purpose of this post is to share with you this collection of apps and tools that enable you to write and edit math equations and chemical formulas.  Some of these tools are also integrated with Google Docs Microsoft Office allowing you type your math equations into your documents and presentations 1. Math Equatio Equatio allows you to type or handwrite equations, formulas and quizzes. Some of the interesting features it offers include: compatibility with Google Drive tools (e.g., Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms, and Drawings), handwriting recognition, text-to-speech feature allowing you to hear your math equations out loud, chemistry formula prediction, the ability to create interactive digital quizzes, and many more. 2. MathType MathType enables you to

How To Use Puzzles To Improve Concentration?

Concentration is a complex brain function. It involves a combination of various cognitive abilities necessary for holding your attention on something without being distracted by anything else. Like any other skill, concentration is something that improves with practice, and what's better than 'solving puzzles' to improve one's concentration? Complete puzzles are usually considered to be large jigsaw puzzles that can be as big as 32 inches. Still, you can buy 1,000-piece puzzles and smaller ones, depending on your puzzle-solving skills, i.e., beginner or professional. Let's take a closer look at puzzles and their effect on concentration. 1. Number Or Word Puzzles Number or word puzzles are a fun and effective way to improve your concentration skills. The more you train your mind, the better you will be at focusing on what matters most. Number puzzles include things like Sudoku and Jumble. The idea is to fill the squares with numbers so that each row, column, a

Math Whiteboard Enables Students to Easily Write Various math Equations

Math Whiteboard is an educational web tool I learned through Eric Curts. As its name indicates, Math Whiteboard offers a fully functional math work space for students, teachers, and anyone else interested in turning their math knowledge into concrete concepts. The tool comes equipped with practical features that make math learning much more engaging.  Math Whiteboard embeds a powerful computer algebra system that supports complex calculations. Besides typing, users can also sketch or handwrite their math equations and move seamlessly between sketches, graphs and solutions. You can also import your PDFs into the whiteboard and use the tool's internal editor to annotate them. You can even "make your PDF assignment files your background'.  The collaborative features in Math Whiteboard allows you to share your whiteboard with students and work on the same workspace. You can create your own whiteboards to share with your collaborators. If you have a classroom blog or website

9 Good Online Math Tutoring Websites for Kids and Students

When children are in kindergarten and first grade, the math curriculum focuses on numberawareness and identification. Math for third graders can be more challenging since kids have to deal with fractions, decimals, and other complex math concepts that may prove novel.Unfortunately, teachers in the conventional classroom are often too busy to attend to all kids & needs. Access to online learning materials helps students manage their work/study schedules moreeffectively. Since kids will have a one-on-one interaction with tutors, they are at liberty to askquestions and seek a more profound understanding of concepts. To help narrow your search,here are ten websites where you can find a suitable online math tutor from kindergarten through high school. 1. Brighterly.com Educators at Brighterly are committed to providing only the most incredible learningopportunities for children. In the teaching process, these experts rely on tried-and-truetechniques like worksheets and practical e

Best Navigation Apps for People with Visual Impairment

The purpose of this post is to share with students with visual impairment or those who are blind (and anyone else who have vision problems) some of the best navigation apps to use to help them navigate their surroundings in a more accessible way. These accessible mobility apps provide voice-guided navigation data including turn-by-turn navigation to facilitate exploring one's surrounding environment. Almost all of these navigation apps provide audio notification and haptic interaction allowing for an unobstructed navigation experience. Since these apps are basically GPS based they need access to your location in order to provide you with accurate navigational data. Some of these apps can also work in the background even when the phone is locked which might decrease battery life. Users are advised to keep watch of how the app is draining their batteries.  1. BlindSquare BlindSquare is an accessible outdoor and indoor navigation app to help individuals with vision impairments n

Best Tools to Add Questions to Videos and Create Interactive Video Quizzes

Below is a collection of some of the best web tools that you can use to add questions to videos and create engaging video quizzes. Some of these tools include the option to track student progress and access stats on how students are interacting with your video quizzes. Go through each one of these tools and see which one works best for you.  1-Google Forms Google Forms is a simple yet powerful tool that enables you to add various types of questions to your videos and create video quizzes. The way it works is simple: Open the editor and start creating your quizz. Add question types and click on  'add video' button in the floating bar on the right hand side and paste the URL of your YouTube video or type in a query to search for a video. Watch this step by step video tutorial to learn more about how to make a video quiz using Google Forms. 2- Camtasia Camtasia is another good tool to use to add questions to your video quizzes. The way it works is easy: open your vide

6 Great Free Digital Art Makers

Below are some of the best digital art making tools that teachers and students can use to create a wide variety of educational artworks including beautiful graphics, icons, banners, brochures,... ....read more http://dlvr.it/STwycC

Blooklet- Enhance Classroom Engagement Using Games

Blooket is a game-based learning platform that allows teachers to create educational games to share with students. You can host live games that students can play using a generated ID or assign games... ....read more http://dlvr.it/STqY2f

Bouncy Balls: A Good Tool for Managing Classroom Noise

Bouncy Balls is a free web tool that helps you manage  your classroom noise. Bouncy Balls has an integrated noise meter that automatically detects different noise levels in surrounding... ....read more http://dlvr.it/STgdcB

Best Presentation Tools for Teachers and Students

The purpose of today's post is to share with you some of the best tools you can use to create engaging presentations without the need for any graphic design knowledge. All of these platforms... ....read more http://dlvr.it/STXTms

Best Spelling Apps for Kids and Students

Spelling is a learned activity that requires formal/informal teaching and practice. You may pick up the oral part of a target language relatively easily (depending on your cognitive capacities,... ....read more http://dlvr.it/STPpxB

Top Teacher-approved Websites for Kids

After I covered the best search engines kids can use to safely navigate the web, I am sharing with you another equally helpful collection of  websites for kids. These are platforms where... ....read more http://dlvr.it/STLQ5Q

Reading Bear: Free Phonics and Vocab Lessons to Help Kids Learn to Read

Reading Bear, an educational project of WatchKnowLearn.org, helps kids develop reading and vocabulary skills through presentations, review activities, and quizzes. The site contains over 50... ....read more http://dlvr.it/STKdmz

The 7 Skills Kids Can Develop from Playing LEGO

Since its creation in 1940, LEGO has grown into a worldwide phenomenon with ripples extending to the field of  education. LEGO was created in Denmark and started as 'a set of... ....read more http://dlvr.it/STJJtq

5 Google Drive Collaborative Features Teachers Should Know about

Google Drive is in a continuous flux in terms of the functionalities and built-in features it offers to its users. A great deal of these features are especially useful for us in education. In today's... ....read more http://dlvr.it/STJ3V2

Interactive History Timelines for Teachers and Students

Below is a collection of educational websites that offer interactive history timelines spanning world history from the early stages of the emergence of human life to the modern period. Whether you... ....read more http://dlvr.it/STHbt5

Best Platforms to Create A Classroom Website and Blog

Creating a digital presence for your class is now a required pedagogical investment to help you boost your teaching and enhance students learning. Now that the world is going digital, having a... ....read more http://dlvr.it/STFzCm

Best Teacher Movies of All Time

Best teacher movies is a list I compiled based on ratings from various authority sites such as Amazon Prime Video, Show Times, Ranker, among others (see the list of sources at the bottom of this... ....read more http://dlvr.it/STFmKl

CS First- A Free Computer Science Curriculum to Use in Your Class

The purpose of this post if to introduce you to this interesting resource to use when teaching kids coding. CS First is a free computer science curriculum from Google for Education... ....read more http://dlvr.it/STCDLc