What's a good app/website to use in your classroom?

In today's digital age, educators are inundated with so many tools and resources. It's often hard to figure out what is good to use and Common Sense Education is a great site to help you out with this.

Why Common Sense Education?

• Comprehensive Reviews: Offers unbiased evaluations of edtech tools, helping educators make informed decisions.
• Digital Citizenship Curriculum: Provides age-appropriate lessons to instill responsible online behavior in students.
• Professional Development: Features webinars, articles, and training materials to enhance teachers' digital literacy.

Classroom Application: Imagine integrating a new app into your lesson plan. Before implementation, consult Common Sense Education's reviews to assess its suitability. Additionally, utilize their digital citizenship lessons to prepare students for responsible usage.

Common Sense Education isn't just a resource; it's a partner in fostering a safe and effective digital learning environment.

Certified Media Literacy Educator

Media literacy is something that I feel is very important, but I sometimes struggle with how to teach it in a meaningful way.  The students seem to think that approaches so far have been corny.  I've found that this course has some better resources (hopefully my students will find these less corny 😉)

PBS has a Media Literacy course for educators to develop and hone literacy skills across several forms of media and communication.  These skills are important to help your students grow. The PBS Media Literacy Certification gives you tools to implement lessons that help students foster media skills.

The modules in this course include: Evaluating Online Information, Analyzing Media, Creating a Code of Conducts, Evaluating Online Tools for Classroom Use, Making Media for Classroom Use, Assessing Student Media, and Implementing Media Projects (an option for either Early Childhood or Upper Grades).

If there are modules that you don't feel comfortable with or don't want to take the whole course) PBS offers courses that focus on just one of the modules.  Even if you don't directly teach media literacy, these skills are important for all teachers to have.  We all use the internet with our students and we need to be able to ensure that we are guiding them in the best way possible.