Wow Wizer!

Looking to create digital worksheets? Wizer is an easy to use website for using digital worksheets. Create a free account and explore worksheets created by other teachers by subject and topic. You can also create your own. You can assign students these worksheets by a link, setting up a classroom, or using Google Classroom. Once students have submitted, you can view their answers.

Explore and Edit Teacher Created Worksheets

You can search a database of already made worksheets. If you like the worksheet you can assign it to students, but you also have the option to edit it. You also can make your own from scratch.




Create Your Own Digital Worksheets

There are so many options to include on your worksheet. You can add multiple types of tasks in each worksheet. Tasks like multiple choice, blanks, matching, etc. record the correct answer so once the student submits the worksheet, it is automatically scored.

Add Sound Recordings to Your Questions

My favorite feature is the ability to record a question. You can record yourself reading the question. There is no option to record the answer choices, but if you make a multiple choice question you can include all of the answer choices in the recording.

Assign to Students

Assigning Wizer to students is very easy and you have multiple options. You can share using Google Classroom or Edmodo. You can also use a link, pin, or embed code. You can open or close the assignment to keep students from completing it too early or after it is due. You can shuffle the question order and you can also turn on student feedback.

View Answers

Once students have submitted their work you can view answers to each question, see their  scores, and download a report. 

Check out https://app.wizer.me/ to get your free account! If you have any questions see your friendly ITRT.

Tween Tribune

EXTRA! EXTRA! Read all about it! Newspapers are a great way to inform students about what is happening in the world. But as we all know, they also have material that isn't appropriate or the reading level is a little too hard. But now, there is a newspaper just for students. It has interesting articles that are relatively short and easy to read plus you don't have to worry about getting the black ink all over you. Tween Tribune is designed for students to encourage them to read about world events. You can use it two ways: one-just have students go to www.tweentribune.com and read an article and comment in their journal or two-sign up as a teacher and create a class. Then have your students create their accounts and select your class. They will be able to write posts and comment on other posts. You have control of their posts and they do not get uploaded to the web until you okay it. They also offer lesson plans and ideas on how to use Tween Tribune. For younger students, reading it as a group is a great way to get them involved in real world events and thinking about solutions to world problems.

So check it out: go to Tween Tribune and see for yourself.

Announcing Projectables!

You may already be familiar with Reading a-z and Science a-z, but now they have even more to offer! They have added a great new feature called Projectables. With projectables, you can open a book in full screen to show on your whiteboard or, even better, on your SMARTBoard. Interactive tools are available that let you:

• underline or highlight key words and concepts
• mask parts of a page and ask students to fill in the blanks
• frame sections of a page to draw students' attention
• project Graphic Organizers, Process Activities, Quizzes, and Discussion Cards for whole-class instruction.

Projectable Teaching Tips offers lots of suggestions for ways that you can use this resource to deepen your reading and science instruction. To view any of these resources in the new format, chose a unit and look for the projector-screen icon beside each resource.

Watch for an email from your friendly ITRT with a short video introduction to this great resource!

Play of the Week--Project Gutenberg

If you are sitting on the sidelines and need a book to read, take a look at Project Gutenberg.

"Project Gutenberg is the place where you can download over 30,000 free ebooks to read on your computer, iPhone, Kindle, Sony Reader or other portable device."

If you have screen reader capabilities or software, then your downloaded electronic book can be read to you or your student.

With over 30,000 books from which to choose, I hope you find something to enjoy reading!!!!

Project Gutenberg

Teaching Students to Skim for Information

Do you hear your students moan and groan when you tell them to find the answer in their textbook or on a website? Is it because they think they have to read the entire textbook to find what they need. Fear no more, here is a fun way to show students how to skim. This is a murder mystery where students decide on which information is best to help them find the killer. They gather the evidence and then decide who killed her and why. It's best to do this as a group activity but print off the worksheet for everyone and then as you click on each place to go, let them decide what information is important to help them find who killed Angela.

Who Killed Angela? A Reading Mystery

Note: It does mention the word Lover as one of the suspects so it may not be suitable for young children.

iTunes for summer reading and listening!

Get ready for summer! Would you like to recommend some summer reading (or listening!) to your students? Or perhaps you need some books to listen to as you travel! This web resource has stories that can be downloaded to your iPod or Mp3 player: Lit2Go

Readings are sorted by reading level and with supporting materials, such as printable text of the readings and ideas for reading strategies. Links from the home page reveal the extent of these public domain files! Thanks to Jeremy Aldrich for sharing this rich resource!