The Games section consists of different review games that are customizable for the teacher. The games range from Jeopardy, to Who Wants to be a Millionaire, to original board games. Once you click the game you want to use, you can add your own questions and answers so students are able to review the content which they need. You can also view games in the library that are created by other teachers. Since I don't usually give tests in first grade, aside from the quarterly math tests, I don't use this feature as often.
The Tools section is the one I use most often. Here, you are able to create seating charts, a random name generator, student groupings, and a timer/countdown. By creating a free account, you can save a class list so you are easily able to form groups and use the name generator without constantly uploading your student names.
For Fun has a few games and sites that allow the user to get information on the world. There is a population counter, a random fact desk, and flash lottery to name a few. These are resources used to help enrich the curriculum in classrooms.
The final section is Webmaster Tools. This links you to a sister site called Classroom Update. On this site, you are able to create free classroom websites. This is a useful website for those looking to create a free and simple site, but the number of layout options are limited and it seems less user friendly. I still find Weebly to be a superior website creation site.
If you have some time, check out Super Teacher Tools! I hope you find a lot of useful resources that you can incorporate into your classroom too!
I tried using this site for the seating chart feature (because Aspen's sucks), and I thought it was awesome at first. However, I realized that sometimes it erases your classes, despite your logging in. Have you ever had that problem? I got so frustrated with typing in everything like 3 times and then losing it that I completely abandoned using the website. I like the games feature though. I hadn't used that before.
ReplyDeleteHey Sam, I didn't really like the seating chart feature either, though for different reasons. I have my desks set up in tables, with desks facing different ways, and the site seems more suited to rows of desks. I also have empty desks in the room as part of some of the tables and I wasn't allowed to add that feature. I've never had a problem with my class list being deleted. I have my last years class and this years and don't have a problem. But I see it being really annoying if you had to keep uploading the names. Let me know what you think if you try out the game feature!!
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