ABCya's 100 Number Chart Offers a Fun Math Activity for Kids

From time to time I like to feature offerings from the sponsors of Free Technology for Teachers. ABCya.com is the longest running sponsor of this blog.

ABCya's 100 Number Chart offers a simple online activity for elementary school students. The chart offers "beginner" and "challenge" activities. In both activity levels students have to drag numbers into their proper places on a number line. In the "beginner" level students are shown a number line of ten numbers at a time. In the "challenge" activities students are shown numbers 1-100 and have to drag the missing numbers into place in the number line.

Applications for Education
ABCya's 100 Number Chart isn't a revolutionary online activity by any stretch of the imagination. That said, it is a well-designed and fun little practice activity for young students. ABCya's browser-based activities are now written in HTML5 which means that they will work on iPads and Android tablets.

Remind Launches Stamps and Voice Messages

A couple of weeks ago I shared the news that Remind (formerly Remind 101) was planning to launch voice greetings and a feedback option. Those services are now available in the Remind mobile apps.

You can now create short audio messages to send to students and their parents. Messages can be up to fifteen seconds long. Voice messages can be sent to individuals or to groups.

Stamps is the new feedback mechanism available through Remind. Students and their parents can now reply to your Remind messages by selecting one of four stamps to indicate that they have received your message and their thoughts about your message. For example, a student can use a question mark stamp to indicate that they don't feel prepared for an upcoming quiz.

Applications for Education
Much like I pointed out in yesterday's post about ClassDojo's voice message option, the Remind voice message option could be a better option than a text message when you want to convey your enthusiasm for the improvement that a student is making in your classroom.

Kaizena Adds Tags to Voice Comments for Google Documents

Kaizena is a great add-on for Google Documents and Google Presentations. Kaizena allows you to add voice comments to Google Documents and Presentations that are shared with you. Earlier this month a notification feature was added to Kaizena. Today, Kaizena added a feedback tagging option.

Kaizena tags allow you to select a portion of a document or presentation at tag it with a skill, a Common Core standard, or an element from a rubric.

Kaizena can be added to your Google Documents through the Add-ons menu in Google Drive.

Applications for Education
Tags can be combined with voice comments. Use voice comments to explain to students how they met a standard that you have tagged in one of their documents or presentations.

StoryMap JS - Create a Mapped Story to Save in Google Drive

StoryMap JS is a nice tool for creating mapped stories. On StoryMap JS you create slides that are matched to locations on your map. Each slide in your story can include images or videos along with text. As you scroll through your story there are simple transitions between each slide.

StoryMap JS integrates with your Google Drive account. To get started with StoryMap JS you have to grant it access to your Google Drive account. StoryMap JS will create a folder in your Google Drive account where all of your storymap projects will be saved. With StoryMap JS connected to your Google Drive account you will be able to pull images from your Google Drive account to use in your StoryMap JS projects.

Applications for Education
One of the best examples of StoryMap JS for classroom use is found in the Manifest Destiny storymap featured on the StoryMap JS homepage. StoryMap JS could be a great way for students to create visual summaries of historical events and themes. Students could also use StoryMap JS to create short historical fiction works.

Students Can Create Study Planners on ExamTime

ExamTime is a neat service that students can use to create flashcards, mind maps, and practice quizzes to help them study. In addition to creating review materials students can create schedules for studying on ExamTime.

Through the ExamTime study planner students can create schedules for reviewing study materials for all of their courses. The study planner allows students to create recurring calendar events to study a particular topic at a given time every day or week. The video below offers an overview of the ExamTime study planner.