12/16/20 Wednesday Website: Newsela Daily Deck

Wednesday’s Website for December 16th, 2020 was shared by Kristin Smith, who shared out about Newsela Daily Deck. Newsela Daily Deck combines curated news articles with Pear Decks technology to engage students. As a teacher, you can pick from a large selection of articles that come with a pre-made Pear Deck for that article to discuss with your class.

A few other features:

  • Sparks student engagement
  • Tons of news articles/topics
  • Includes instructional strategies to prompt discussion

10/28/20 Wednesday Website: Pixton

Wednesday’s Website for October 28th, 2020 was shared by Rachel Sechrist, who shared out about Pixton. Pixton is a website where students, educators, or parents can create comics or storyboards for a class or at home.

A few other features:

  • FREE
  • It lets users create their own comics.
  • It lets you give text and speech bubbles to characters.
  • It lets you edit the shape and position of each comic panel.

Wednesday Website: Classcraft

This week’s Wednesday Website was shared by Ariel Mickey and Lydia Hess, who shared out about Classcraft. Classcraft, while it does not directly adhere to Centennial’s good model, is an example of classroom management in which each member of your class is a character and they earn or lose points associated with the longevity, much like video gaming.

It also allows teachers to randomly select students to answer questions in class! If they get their response correct, students can earn credit toward their “lives,” too.

A few other features:

  • The site can record your classroom’s volume level and award points to students if they are under a specific volume.
  • You can assign class activities within the site (it is linked with Google Classroom). Students are then awarded for their complete and correct work.