The best applications for teaching basic programming skills—no geek cred required to use them successfully in your classroom or library. Other apps enable kids to build 3-D models, which they can print, too.
From Scavenger Hunts to Photo Sharing, Fun Apps to Calm the Back-to-School Jitters
By on September 22, 2013
Early in the school year is a good time to help kids get into the swing of things and get to know one another and these apps can help.
Summer Project? Six Tools to Upgrade Your School Website
By on July 17, 2013
School’s out—and time to enjoy some serious lounging. Summer is also a time to consider your Web presence. If your website could use an upgrade, consider these tools to give it a boost for back-to-school—and save you time this fall.
Blogging for Reluctant Writers: Have students share their ideas using sound and video
By on July 8, 2013
Here Richard Byrne covers sound and video applications that enable students to blog—without writing, from SoundCloud and Animoto to a new audio slideshow tool called Narrable.
The Best PowerPoint Alternatives for Creating Great Presentations
By on May 20, 2013
We’ve all endured “death by PowerPoint.” It’s a painful experience for the audience and probably not all that fun for the presenter either. To help students deliver effective presentations—free of those deadly bullet points—SLJ columnist Richard Byrne cites his go-to applications.
Getting Kids Engaged with Primary Sources | Cool Tools
By on April 22, 2013
Primary resources can help bring history to life for students. Make the most of first-hand accounts and other primary source content with tools such as the National Archives’ Digital Vaults, video tour included.
Top Tools for Upgrading Your Resume | Cool Tools
By on March 18, 2013
It’s spring, a time when students start looking for summer jobs or internships—and that requires some attention to their resumes and portfolios. In this month’s “Cool Tools,” Richard Byrne taps the best applications for creating an online showcase of your best work.
Alternative Search Tools: These options to Google will help students become better researchers
By on February 28, 2013
Cool Tools columnist Richard Byrne presents some free options for research that don’t require a login, along with a few quick tips to aid student searches.
Planning Common Core Lessons?: Free, Web-based applications can help align your plans with the new standards
By on January 31, 2013
Ready or not, here they come. At almost every school I visited this year, teachers asked me to address the Common Core (CC) standard in my workshops. Planning lessons with CC in mind presents a challenge, but it doesn’t have to be difficult. These sites are designed with the express purpose of helping plan lessons around Common Core.
Mobile Apps Make Student Assessment Easy and Interactive | Cool Tools
By on December 17, 2012
Regardless of what curriculum areas we teach, observing and assessing our students is something that we all do every day. Thanks to mobile devices like iPads and Android tablets, recording our informal observations and formal assessments has never been easier.