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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 presentations (playable either as video or interactive slide show) covering different phonics principles.  Besides helping students learn to decode, Reading Bear also helps with developing reading comprehension skills using beautiful illustrations of over  1200 vocabulary items. Given its importance in helping kids and students develop their reading, I added it to the list of the best reading websites for kids and students. As students go through their presentations, they are offered a wide variety of quizzes and review activities to help them test their knowledge and consolidate their learning. Quizzes are randomly generated and can be taken over a single presentation or over all presentations. There are various ways Reading Bear can help you in your teaching. You can use it as a classroom suppl

Computer coding is becoming the 21st century literacy par excellence. More and more schools are teaching elementary kids computer science and programming. As the popular saying goes, learning coding is like learning a new language, both are better done early.  When kids learn to code, they also pick up a number of other 'incidental' skills along the way. Besides learning the technicalities involved in the digital world, kids also get to develop a number of  key skills including: critical thinking,  problem solving, strategic thinking, logical reasoning,  creative thinking, design thinking, systems thinking, and the list goes on. More importantly, coding skills come embedded in psycho-social competencies. In other words, as kids grapple to debug codes, they find themselves helping each other, learning from each other, and consolidating their interpersonal bonds. As a result, they develop their social emotional learning and enhance their sense of resilience, determination, persev

Christmas brings so many memories and delightful experiences. It is the time of year when everybody winds down and enjoys time with their family and loved ones. For us in education, Christmas is also a time for creating engaging and fun learning experiences for our kids and students.  Over the last few weeks, I have been working on a Christmas resource page where I want to include various educational activities, apps, and websites that teachers and parents can use to celebrate the holiday season. From secret Santa generators and Santa tracking apps to Christmas movies and Christmas coloring pages, Christmas celebration is always fun but can also be educational. In this post, I share with you some of the best places where you can find and access Christmas designs and templates to use in your PowerPoint and Google Slides presentations or in your cards and posters. Whether you want to create a Christmas themed presentation where slides are vividly decorated with shining Christmas orn

Celebrate the holiday spirit with these amazing Christmas movies. For the boomers among you some of these movies,especially the classic Christmas movies, will definitely arouse old memories and stir up feelings of nostalgia to an era where there were no mobile phone, Internet or social media, and where everybody would gather around the single TV set at home to watch Miracle on 34th Street, Home Alone, or A Christmas Carol. Yes, those were old good times. This post is motivated by a personal communication with a fellow educator in which we talked about our favorite Christmas movies. Out of curiosity, I conducted a quick online search to see what Christmas movies people watch the most during this holiday season and I was struck by the sheer volume of results. And as I did with Teacher Movies list, I decided to dig deeper and compile a list of some of the best Christmas movies of all time. The criteria I used to categorize these movies are viewers reviews and ratings as documented in

Mapme is a simple yet powerful tool students can use to create beautiful interactive maps that can be embedded on any website or blog. Students can customize their maps the way they want. For instance, they can add multimedia materials such as PDFs, 3D tours, photos, and videos. They can also use the 'categories' feature to organize their maps making it easy for others to filter maps and find locations.  For more interactive map options check out The 6 Best Tools for Creating Interactive Maps. Credit:mapme.com Mapme also offers a wide variety of drawing tools that enable students to draw lines and shapes right on the map. As for the design of the map, Mapme provides users with the choice to either choose from the collection of pre-made styles and layouts or create their own custom map styles. They also have the option to create their own marker images or select from the collection there. Additionally, the 'bulk import' feature allows users to easily import

Christmas is wonderful, and for all kinds of reasons! From those coveted family get-togethers to those cozy nights of classical Christmas movie watching, Christmas is the time of year that both kids and adults look forward to, impatiently. I have been working diligently sifting through tons of Christmas resources, trying out different apps and tools, and exploring new resources. The purpose is to create a resource section here in Educational Technology and Mobile Learning where parents, teachers, and students can access educational resources to use during the Christmas season. I have so far covered Santa tracking apps, Christmas backgrounds and wallpapers, Google Santa Tracker, secret Santa generators, and Santa apps. In today’s post, I share with you some of the best places where you can access free Christmas printables and coloring pages to use with kids as well as adults. All you need is to get some crayons, sharpen pencils, set up the activity table and let kids unleash thei

Where is Santa Claus right now? What is he doing? How long will it take him to come visit us?...These are all recurring questions you will be getting from your kids during this season, questions that add to the lovely experience of Christmas. While it is always great to provide answers and partake in kids' joy as they impatiently await for Santa’s arrival, you can also use the apps below and let them do part of the job for you. And yes, they can do it perfectly well. These are some of the best and reliable Santa Tracker apps out there. They provide accurate tracking information and offer simple and intuitive set-ups that you will enjoy. My favorite in the list is Google Santa Tracker which does not only track Santa but also offers a wide range of Santa themed games and interactive activities to educate kids (and adults) on different topics related to this festive season. 1. Google Santa Tracker Google Santa Tracker is Google's official Santa tracker. Besides the count

Do you know the name of the flowers you like? How about the name of the flowers or trees you walk by everyday on your commute to work, do you know their names? Well, now you can with the help of the plant identification apps below. I curated for you a collection of some of the best apps you and your students can use to identify plants, flowers, and trees by simply photographing them. To identify a plant, install one of the apps below, take a picture of the plant or flower you are interested in using the camera of your mobile device and let the app do the work for you. In addition to identifying plants by pictures, these apps also offer gardening guides and tips to help you take good care of your plants and flowers.  Apart from PlantNet which is free, the other featured plant identifier apps offer in-app purchases and provide different monthly and yearly subscriptions. 1. PictureThis PictureThis is a great plant identification app for both Android and iPhone/iPad. PictureThis make

Canva comic strip maker is a good tool teachers and students can use to create cartoons. Comic strips can be used for a wide variety of educational purposes including digital storytelling, simplifying a complex concept, practice writing and speaking, revise vocabulary, and many more.  The tool is simple and easy to use, no coding or design knowledge is required.  There is even a collaborative feature which students can use to work together on the same comic strip.  When the final product is ready, it can be shared on social media websites or downloaded to be printed and used in class. How to create a comic strip using Canva? To get started creating a comic strip, head over to Canva and choose whether you want to start with a ready-made template or create one from scratch.  Either way, the template will open in Canva editor where you can use the tools in the left hand panel to add elements, visuals, and various text fonts to your strip. You can insert and adjust frames, resize gri

i-Ready is an online instruction and assessment platform that covers reading and mathematics. As a teacher, you can use i-Ready to identify students learning needs, provide differentiated instruction, and monitor students learning progress throughout the school year.  i-ready provides students with adaptive tests to determine their grade level and to identify areas they need help with. Based on results from these tests, i-Ready provides individualized interactive lessons that address the learning needs of each student. i-Read also offers a wide variety of learning games designed to help K-8 students practice and learn math. Students can play these games after they finish taking lessons.  What is i-Ready Diagnostic? i-Ready Diagnostic is an adaptive assessment that matches the difficulty of test questions to students learning needs. As students answer correctly, the questions get more difficult and as they answer incorrectly questions get easier. The purpose of i-Ready Diagnostic

Google Santa Tracker is a platform developed by Google which allows people with Internet connection to track and find where Santa is. Since its launch in 2004, Google Santa Tracker has added a wide variety of interesting and fun features making it one of the best Santa trackers out there. Credit: Google Santa Tracker Google Santa Tracker offers a Santa Village where people get together to celebrate Christmas, play games, share resources, and have fun during the season. "On December 24th Santa’s Village transforms into a tracking experience where you can follow Santa and his reindeer as they deliver presents to kids around the world." Google Santa Tracker offers a wide variety of games and activities ideal for use with kids and students both at home and in class. These Santa-themed activities help kids learn and practice their coding skills, develop their geography literacy, build social emotional competencies, and enhance their cultural awareness. For more edu

It is about the time of year that Christmas magic is upon us. Indeed, during the last couple of years and more specifically since the outbreak of the pandemic, Christmas started to acquire a more digital character with Santa taking some of its fun to the cloud. In this spirit and to make the digital Santa happier, I went ahead and compiled for you some of the best Santa apps out there. You can use the apps for various purposes from arranging virtual video Calls with Santa Claus to watching countdowns to Christmas with beautiful backgrounds and soothing classical Christmas music in the background. These Santa apps will definitely amplify your Christmas magic this year. 1. PNP – Portable North Pole Surprise your kids with a video call from Santa and record their real-time reaction. Portable North Pole (PNP) allows you to do that and more. PNP is actually one the most popular Santa apps for personalized video calls from Santa. PNP’s Reaction Recorder allows you to capture your ki

Coding has become an important skill in today's education. Coding is not only about learning technical knowledge related to how computers function but is also about developing a number of interconnected skills and competencies that are key to students success in school and beyond.  As students explore the world of coding and grapple with programming languages to demystify the mysterious functioning of the digital world, they pick up a number of soft and social skills along the way. These include: critical thinking, design thinking, creative thinking, flexible thinking,  decision-making, problem-solving, strategic thinking, self-expression, logical reasoning, mathematical thinking, divergent thinking, systems thinking, and many more.  Coding also teaches students the importance of collaboration and effective communication. Students learn to work in teams, coordinate their efforts, and celebrate as they crack codes. Coding boosts students social emotional learning and enhances t

Interactive posters are great learning and teaching materials that you can use for a wide variety of educational purposes. From breaking down difficult processes to visual brainstorming, interactive posters are a good way to communicate visually and boost comprehension.   Below are some of my favourite web tools to use to create interactive posters and design engaging visuals. These are all simple and easy to use platforms that have a minimum to no learning curve. Also, these interactive poster making tools are student-friendly and can be used in educational settings in or out of class. 1. Adobe Express Adobe Express is a great tool to create interactive posters and visuals for your class. Its intuitive editor is simple and easy to use. You start by choosing a pre-made template from the library or start building your own from scratch. You can edit the template the way you want. You can add design assets, insert Adobe  Stock royalty free photos, icons, access over 2000 unique Ado

Christmas is around the corner and we definitely are looking forward to it. Family get-togethers and gift exchanges add up to the fun and joy we experience during this wonderful season. If you are like me and are entrusted with organizing a Secret Santa, the gift exchange generators below will help with your gifting assignments. Instead of using the time-honored tradition of drawing names from a hat, you can now do it online and anonymously, saving you the headache of having to figure out who will gift whom and helping you simplify your gift shopping and git management. These Secret Santa generators are free, simple and easy to use and most of them do not even require email. 1. Random Name Generator Here is a list of some of the best online random name generators that enable you to draw names for gift exchanges. The way they work is simple: you type in the name of the participants and spin the wheel to randomly generate names. For instance, the first spin you pick a giver and

Language learning has many benefits. At the socio-cultural level, a new language means being introduced to a new culture, new traditions and new ways of conceptualizing the world. When you learn a second or third tongue you do not simply learn its linguistic system but you also learn its underlying cultural codes. Languages are not empty vessels and certainly are not culturally neutral. At the cognitive level, the scientific literature abounds with research studies boasting the cognitive benefits of bilingualism and multilingualism. For instance, kids who speak two languages can "more easily solve problems that involve misleading cues". Another study published in Psychological Science and cited by Melinda Wenner reveals that "after learning a second language, people never look at words the same way again." There are several reasons why people learn new languages. There are personal considerations (e.g., individual interests, travel, etc), career or professiona

Christmas spirit is back again and we can already feel it around and among us. It is about the time of year we unleash our creative Christmas gene and celebrate the holidays with beautiful decorations and artwork. Christmas decorations are everywhere and you probably have already decorated your place. But how about your devices: phone and desktop? You probably want to share some Christmas love with them as well. Aesthetic Christmas wallpapers and Christmas backgrounds are great in this regard! Use them to "fill your heart and devices with the joy and gladness of reindeers, candy canes, gingerbread men, and mistletoe." The purpose of this post is to share with you some good places where you can search for and access free Christmas wallpapers and Christmas backgrounds to use on your phone and desktop. I know there are several other platforms that provide these resources but I only featured those I believe are reliable and student friendly. Most of these platforms are incl