Tools that pair well with AVID are highlighted with red text
December 13, 2024: Collaboration Breakfast: Books, Betsy, & Baxter's. Grab a donut and check out some of the best books of 2024. Here is our list of best books of the year broken down by categories. Here are our Top 10 most circulated titles Jan-Dec 2024.
November 8, 2024: The Cookoff! Our annual semi-friendly, semi-pro competition of staff chili, soup, and desserts paired with a delightful but brief PD session on the game-changing technology called NotebookLM, plus Google Reading Mode (hamburger dots /more tools / reading mode) and an update on new Mac tools in the LMC editing suites.
September 27, 2024: Salvatore's Chicken Spiedini and salad paired well with our presentation about school access for The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. Check out our presentation here.
May 17, 2024: Our annual summer reading learning lunch! Catering by Jazzy B's. This Canva slideshow has all the titles we mentioned (and hundreds more) and has links to GoodReads + new book posters to print.
March 22, 2024: AI part 4: AI Students can use on campus, featuring a demo of SchoolAI from both student and teacher perspective, plus discussion from teachers already using it. Google Slides from the presentation.
December 8, 2023: Books + Bagels: These links take you to a folder of printable posters of topics from art and music to fairy tale reboots as well as a Google Doc with links to Canva Templates for the posters and Goodreads links for each book.
November 7, 2024: New Young Adult Literature sorted by thematic units: Canva slide show from the presentations with links to lots of useful resources
October 21 PD Session 1: Library Resources for classroom teachers at LSN and MCPL
October 21 PD Session 2: What does the educational research say about 1:1?
May 20, 2022: Broncos Read re-boot + our annual summer reading recommendations. Catering by Longboards.
October 29, 2021 Show & Tell for the new Surface Book 3 computers the staff will get on Monday, November 2.
May 12, 2021: Our first learning lunch since the pandemic began! BreakoutEDU lets you build and play breakout games online with your students, either synchronously or asynchronously. Michael recorded this YouTube video for those who couldn't attend in-person. We had the Tacos Del Barrio taco truck serving street tacos and burritos for lunch!
May, 2020: This was our bring-your-own-lunch staff get-together during quarantine / lockdown in the spring of 2020. The topic was new books! Here is the YouTube video one of the sessions.
Travel and PD: Michael presented a session September 6, 2019 on how to get grants to travel in the summer for PD that doesn't require district paperwork. Food truck Friday with Taste of Brazil!
Great books to read! Michael & Nathan's topic for May, 2018 and May 17, 2019. Check out the LSN LMC's 60 second book trailers for some titles to consider. Food both years was Low Life BBQ.
Two great Non-Fiction books, summarized so you get the highlights! Factfulness by Hans Rosling and Courageous Conversations about Race by Glenn E. Singleton April 18, 2019 Chipotle!
Schoology: Library for Teachers Group 9-12. Library resources at a glance, many can be dropped straight into your Schoology lessons. Join code 3HNST-QGH2C. Topic November 2, 2018. Chili Cookoff!
Video Tools for Chromebooks and Classrooms: Topic Feb 23, 2018
Augmented Reality: Add video, messages, or web links to common objects in your classroom, like posters, book covers, and more. Topic November 3, 2017
Media Literacy Tools: Topic April 26, 2017 Get a digital version of the poster to print or post.
Makerspaces: February 24, 2017 Play with the LMC's Sphero kits, arduino and Raspberry Pi kits, and all the links on our Teacher Tech Playground page.
Breakout Boxes: Gamify your learning! We can design a game for your students based on your learning objectives. Click here to see breakout games the secondary librarians in our district have created. Topic for January 2016.
Makerspace: Robots, Spheros, Arduinos, and more: Students can learn how to code, program robots, build and program drones, or simply drive our spheros in order to learn directions in a modern language. The LMC also has iPad controllers, ramps, cones, and other equipment to help create a learning environment that’s right for your assignment. This link highlights current inventory of makerspaces at secondary schools. Topic for February 24, 2017
Virtual Reality: The LMC has 30 phones and carboard VR viewers that your class can use to take virtual field trips. Our phones work with Google Expeditions (click to see list of Expeditions). Topic for September 28, 2016.
May 2015: What's new in Literature (Summer Reading highlights)
Green Screen Multimedia: The LMC has two green screen studios to help your students and class groups create their multimedia projects. Paired with Macintosh computers in our editing suites, students can create nearly any sort of movie project. Our YouTube Help Videos cover a variety of movie creation questions. Topic for January 2014.
LSR7 AI Policy Starting with the 23/24 school year, this policy outlines expectations for student use of AI (including citations for AI use).
FutureTools: Website that has nearly 3,000 AI tools that are searchable and sorted by type.
AI Detection
Draftback chrome extension to make it easy to see revisions on student (or anyone's) work.
Turn It In features an AI detector. There is considerable debate about the accuracy of this tool, with independent testers claiming up to 15% of results as false positives
ChatGPTZero AI detector
Teacher Classroom AI Tools
Top 5 choices, then alphabetical:
NotebookLM: Create a 'notebook' to store an immense amount of data. AI will then use only the data you have uploaded to create lesson plans, study guides, and amazingly realistic 15 minute podcasts that sound like a real-life morning radio show. As of September 2024 this was not yet available on the R7 Googleverse.
MagicSchool.ai One-stop shopping for educators wanting to streamline essential tasks. Lesson plan, differentiate, write assessments & IEPs, communicate clearly, etc. Can also be used to create AI resistant lessons. One of our top picks.
SchoolAI: AI Chatbots for conversations with students, plus other tools
Bard by Google Chatbot developed by Google that pulls responses from the internet. Generates dialogue, similar to ChatGPT
ChatGPT The ChatBot that started it all (way back in December, 2022). Generates authentic dialogue in response to user inquiries. Teachers have access at school, students do not.
Canva Design can generate presentations, & create images with a single prompt. Canva Write is a chatbot.
Curipod Focus on interactive lessons, slideshows, discussion questions, exit tickets, would you rather questions, drawing prompts. A top pick.
11ElevenLabs Text to speech, AI voice generator, enables you to input text in one language (English) and export yourself speaking (in your own voice) in the language of your choice.
almanack.ai Creates a course from scratch. It can create everything from learning targets to notes to assessments. You can add a stimulus and have it create questions for that stimulus.
Brisk Teaching: teacher planning, AI checker, and feedback, level adjustment tool, drDF to Slides, among other things.
ChatPDF Creates an assignment with questions using a PDF
Claude: AI assistant that claims to be secure and accurate.
Goblin Tools Give this AI tool a task and it breaks it down into smaller steps. Can be used to help lesson plan, or help students with task time management.
Guidde: Chrome extension that allows you to easily create study guides, directions, etc based on what you have in your browser.
IMArena: Chatbot arena that pits two different chatbots up against each other for useable output. Best part of this tool is you might get free access to a paid version of ChatGPT or other AI.
MagicSlides: Convert PDF (or similar) to a slideshow. Freemium (three free)
Miro: AI powered collaboration platform, including mind maps and a lot of other features
Otter: Turn this extension on and it'll take meeting notes for you on Google Meet, Zoom, etc.
Project Read AI: "Your AI co-teacher for the science of reading." Generates decodable text / stories at any level. Fee based.
QuickDraw with Google: A fun pictionary-on-a-device game where you get several prompts of something to draw, then the program uses Google and AI to guess what you've drawn.
Quizalize Turns any quiz into a classroom game. Use a pre-made quiz, import your own. Offers differentiated follow-up based on student quiz results.
Slides AI: AI creation tool for professional, engaging slides from text.
Slidespeak: AI creation tool to convert PDFs, documents, or text to an engaging slideshow. Freemium.
Slidespilot: Convert PDF (and similar) to a slideshow with the magic of AI.
Speak Subtitles for YouTube: Chrome extension that allows you to convert subtitles from one language into realistic spoken words in another language.
Stable Diffusion Creates artwork and images in particular styles based on a prompt.
twee Designed to make lesson planning easier for English teachers. Generates dialogues, stories, articles, etc. Create questions for YouTube videos.
UBlock Origin: blocks ads on YouTube
Wisdolia Auto-generates flashcards from any YouTube video, webpage, or PDF.
All these tools come from (or help with) Google:
IORad: Chrome Extension that makes it wicked easy to create online tutorials for Websites. No screen shots. No recording. This does all the work for you! Editable, easy, and efficient.
Dualless: Want dual monitors, but only have one? This Chrome Extension allows you to split your screen into two parts, which is VERY helpful with classroom Google Meets. 100 second tutorial video here.
Google Meet Breakout Rooms: Chrome Extension. Send your students into breakout rooms while in virtual learning. Overview video here.
Black Menu: Extension that allows easy entry into the Google Universe without leaving the Web page you’re on. Easily access search, translate, Keep, maps, calendar, gmail, and so much more.
Boomerang Calendar: Shares your availability for meetings, etc. with one simple email; a very efficient way of getting a group of busy people to agree on a common time.
Google Fonts: Easily pick fonts for use in the Googleverse.
Google student programs: Educational opportunities across the Google Universe.
Google Tour Builder: Create “tours” using Google maps, YouTube, Images, links, & more.
Google Trends: As the name suggests, this Web page will show you what’s trending in Google searches, as well as where things are trending.
Hypothesis: Similar to Kami, this Chrome extension is a web-pased PDF markup tool. Teachers can use it, students might not be able to log into it.
Kami: District-purchased subscription allows you to markup PDFs and other documents.
Keep: Google product that allows you to right-click on any Web-based item and save it across all your platforms — including smart watches. Great for shared lists and a lot more.
Save to Google Drive: Chrome extension that puts a drive icon on your toolbar. When you find something online you want to save to your drive, just click the icon.
YouTube Video Editor: As the name suggests, you can edit video within your account's YouTube Studio.
Swank Video Streaming: Added in August 2022, Swank allows teachers to log in through this link to find full-length movies for use in the classroom (or assign as homework). You can assign links to videos, or segments of videos, to your students. They sign in with their Google credentials to access the assigned clips, but can only access the clip you've assigned. If requesting a new movie, be sure to include educational purpose or SWANK lincensors might not approve the request.
AhaSlides: Instant feedback during presentations, makes formative assessments interactive and fun on the fly.
AnswerGarden: Online tool (Website, not chrome app) that bills itself as “a new minimalistic feedback tool. Use it for real time audience participation, online brainstorming and classroom feedback.”
Bamboozle: Make educational games online, no student accounts needed.
BeeLine Reader: Creates a gradient overlay that enhances reading ability for readers at any level. Once you’ve tried this, it’s hard to go back to the old way of reading black type on a white background!
Blooket: Much like Kahoot!, this gamifies learning by engaging students in a fun online participatory event.
Classroom resources from the University of California- Davis: Michael created this Google Doc following an NEH workshop in Sacramento, CA. There are a number of great teaching tools for any classroom, plus links to resources specific to lessons on the Transcontinental Railroad.
Coggle: Idea and Mind- Mapping program that allows multiple collaborators to map at the same time. Easily embed images, links, and more to the maps.
Desmos: K-12 Math lessons
Edji: Clever extension that enables live, collaborative reading annotation
Edpuzzle: Interactive video lessons
Formative: Unlock interactive opportunities in lessons to create engagement
Free Rice: It isn't just vocabulary anymore. This app donates rice as students practice vocab.
Gimkit- A high school student built this after playing Kahoot and believing he could improve upon it.
Grammarly: Extension that check’s you’re grammer and spellling as you type. Clearly it wasnt used for this entry.
Kahoot: Classic interactive online quiz game.
Kami: District-purchased subscription allows you to markup PDFs and other documents.
Mentimeter: Interactive presentation extension, adds polls and interactivity to what you've already got
Nearpod: Classic freemium online engagement tool.
Noodle Tools: citation tool with paid subscription through the LMC.
Overdrive/Sora: app or extension that allows you to download content from the LSN LMC’s fiction eBook library to your device and read / listen offline.
Parlay- It provides content ideas for discussions, but it mainly is a data collector to encourage better classroom discussions. For instance in can help track student participation.
Perusal: Interactive social learning platform
Phet: Interactive simulations, specifically for Math & Science.
Pocket: Chrome extension that allows you to save articles for later, then aggregates them all in one place.
Quizlet Live: Through Quizlet, provides gamified instant feedback
Quizzez: Similar to Kahoot.it; this platform allows you to gamify learning. If you use Kahoot a lot, this is a fun change of pace. If you don’t use Kahoot, start with either of these to engage your students.
Scrible: Chrome extension. Save Websites, articles and more. Highlight and annotate within a Website.
Socrative: Chrome App for students and teachers. “Socrative will instantly grade, aggregate, and provide visuals of results to help you identify opportunities for further instruction.”
TeachingBooks: This is free to LSR7 teachers and students through your district log-in. Not sure how to pronounce an author's name? Looking for book trailers or summaries? There are thousands of great book-related resources in TeachingBooks.net
ThingLink: Chrome Web extension that allows students to easily create interactive image and video content.
Trello: team organizer, collaborative organizer. "Keeps all tasks, teammates, and tools together."
TurnItIn: plagiarism prevention teaching program. Teachers have access through school email as login; see a librarian with access questions.
Typing.com: This website offers a typing curriculum that is gamified.
Wakelet: A bookmarking site, similar to Pinterest, but better suited for education & classrooms. Free sign-in with Google.
Adobe Express (formerly SPARK) Professional-level graphics with templates and fonts from the maker of Photoshop. Free for educators.
Anchor Web-based Podcasting platform, now controlled by Spotify.
AutoDraw: You draw something with your mouse, it gives you a cleaner, better version or other options.
Awesome Screen Shot: Extension for easily taking screen shots of the whole or only a portion of your screen.
Bitable: Online video editor. Easy, but freemium.
Bubbl.us: Mind mapping, freemium
Canva: Create posters and graphics quickly and easily. See Adobe Express for a similar but more professional (and free) app.
Classroom Screen: Online Whiteboard
Dall-E 2 Image creation AI
Dall-E 3: The Bing AI image creation tool. Requires a personal Microsoft account (free).
Class Hook: Easily access and embed clips from popular TV and movies for classroom use.
Complexly: From literature to biochemistry, Complexly's shows cover a breadth of topics designed to get you thinking. Owned by Hank Green, of "crash course video" fame.
EdPuzzle: Create a free teacher account to create quizzes or checks for understanding within YouTube videos, voice-over existing videos, and a lot more.
Elai.io: Create corporate-style training videos by entering simple text. 60 seconds free.
Fotor: AI image creator
InVideo: text to video AI creation tool.
IoRad: This makes it wicked easy to create a how-to tutorial for web-based activities. You just click through the steps of what you want to show, and IoRad does all the screen captures and even voices it for you. If you love it there is a Google toolbar Extension.
Genial.ly: Similar to Canva or Adobe Express, this free tool lets you easily create interesting promotional materials or other projects.
Leonardo AI: Image creator. Freemium.
MindMeister: Mind mapping, collaborative sharing
Mindomo: Mind mapping, charts, graphs.
Photos: Beautiful, professional images for use in presentations, movies, etc. No-cost, copyright free, royalty free. Pexels or Pixabay. Frequently blocked.
Photopea: Free photo editing, similar to Photoshop, that works on Chromebooks
PikToChart: create nice graphics, charts, and pictograms. Freemium. See also Venngage.
Pixton: Create comics & characters easily. Also available in Spanish.
PlayPosIt: Similar to EdPuzzle. Post video and pause and designated spots.
Quiver Vision: Use iPads or student smartphones to make maps, flags, cells, volcanoes, and a whole lot more turn 3D.
ScreenCastify: Video recording tool for creating screencasts. The program records everything on your screen, or the part you want it to capture, while you do the voice over. Great for flipped classroom use! You can also make highlights and draw on the video.
Sketch.io Online whiteboard and drawing tool
ScreenPal (formerly ScreenCast-O-Matic): Video capture tool for recording screencasts, includes option to show you in a picture-in-picture box in the lower right corner.
Storyboard That: (NOW REQUIRES A SUBSCRIPTION) Storyboard That empowers users to create storyboards and graphic organizers with its award-winning, browser-based Storyboard Creator.
Suno: This alarmingly easy AI tool will create a catchy song in nearly any style based on your request.
TurnOffTheLights: Extension for watching videos; by clicking the shortcut everything that’s not the video gets darkened on your screen.
TypeWolf: Easily pick quality fonts for presentations, graphics, etc.
Venngage: Charts, graphics, pictograms. See also PikToChart.
Visme.co Create engaging presentations, professional infographics, and other stunning visuals online.
VideoNot.es: Take notes as you watch a video, posts to Google Drive.
WebCamera.io: Records video from the Web Camera and saves to your Google Drive folder
WeVideo: As easy as iMovie, but online. 5 minutes of free edited video a month.
WebWhiteBoard.com: This is exactly what it sounds like. Picture a community Google Doc that’s fully interactive and shareable, but instead of a Doc it’s a whiteboard. It’s that easy. Passwords / emails optional.
YooDownload: Download videos or audio files from the Web for use in student projects. Be sure to close all pop-ups right away by X-ing out of tab that opens.
Ziteboard: Chrome extension, Online whiteboard and folder manager
PROMPT WRITING HELP
Teacher's prompt guide to Chat GPT
Prompt writing 101 for educators
