Alabama Virtual Library Resource Demonstration- Kristy Bettis

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ldx6yXz_vS6yXXWDgiYPw_dDK6cqNidP/view


The Alabama Virtual Library is a site that's filled with some much information and resources. I decided to look at the elementary resources and clicked on the link; Discovery Library by Britannica. This particular resource would be one that I would use for my K-2 students. It's early childhood friendly and the books are full of color, so it would catch the students attention. Each book can be read at school, as well as online by almost any device. The students can be monitored by the library administrator at any time. These books are e-books and can be printed as well. The librarian can tie these books to the MARC system in their particular school. This resource can be implemented in a lot of classroom standards and activities. I would use this resource in the library by reinforcing different skills that have be taught in class and in the media center.

AVL Demonstration - La'Vonda Thomas

https://youtu.be/iiDjBJbUheM

The Alabama Virtual Library also know as AVL is a resource database that is free and can be accessed by anyone. It gives a wide variety of resources that can help research a topic or just simply look up a children's book. The Alabama Virtual Library is really easy to use and navigate and will assist you if you need help. I am a Kindergarten teacher and this was my first time really using this resource. I liked how smooth it was and because I read a lot of children's books this would be very efficient for my read aloud because sometimes the library doesn't have the book I'm looking for. This is a great tool for anyone that wants to look up credible sources or reliable information.

Jason Mallet - Alabama Virtual Library Demonstration

Link to video:  https://youtu.be/dtZeSC67pHo


I chose EBSCO's History Reference Center as my database to use. I earned my BA in History and earned my Masters in North Korean economy, so I feel this will be beneficial for teaching my advanced ESL students when I teach classes on these two areas. This resource focuses on history in all areas. It offers general search of articles on a wide variety of history topics. It also offers help on how to properly do research and cite used articles. This is recommended for students in high school and college. I will be using this with both groups when I begin teaching again. I am hoping to teach a course just for how to write a research paper, and honestly the tools offered in that section of the website would be extremely helpful. I will also be showing it to my students in my advanced ESL classes related to history on how they can easily find articles to help with their research.

Please forgive my fast talking; I recorded this several times and each time it went well over 3 minutes!

AVL Screencast- Constance Bass

AVL Screencast -Business Insight essentials

I used the resource Business Insight Essentials for my AVL Screen cast. Business Insight Essentials is a resource with information on  thousand of publicly traded companies. This resource shares information about the companies history, financial data, market share and SWOT analysis. It also  allows you to compare financial data among its competitors in a particular industry. I would be able to use this resource in many of the career development training, as well as in a business setting regarding competitors and industries norms.

AVL Screencast Brandace Sims

Link to screencast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5ikXoYHEYQ&feature=youtu.be

The resource I used is PebbleGo.  PebbleGo is a resource with thousands of articles, activities, and videos created for K-3 students. It offers kid-friendly information in six different areas: Animals, Biographies, Health, Science, Social Studies, and Dinosaurs.  The site offers support for nonreaders by providing voice over annotations and audio text.  I could use this resource in my 2nd grade classroom to support my students with informational text and also for research projects. The content maps provided in the educator resources would be very beneficial when assigning topics to my students.

AVL Demonstration - Spencer Tinman

AVL Demonstration - Brittanica School: Middle

I used Screencast-O-Matic for my virtual demonstration on Brittanica School: Middle.  This resource is a kid-friendly encyclopedia that covers any topic that you could think of as a K-12 educator.  It allows for safe research to be performed by students and gives teachers a central place to find and store resources.  The most exciting thing for teachers that it offers is the "Lesson Plan" and "My Content" resources.  These allow for teachers to get new and creative ideas on teaching topics that they're not as comfortable with and allow for the resources to be stored in one place.  As an educator, I would use this resource to gather the available resources or find new lesson plans for certain topics and assign research projects using the vast database of this encyclopedia. 

AVL Demonstration - Amy Franklin

AVL Demonstration - Personal Finance

When browsing the Alabama Virtual Library, I found a great resource for personal finance. The eBook, Household Spending: Who Spends How Much on What contains financial data organized into several categories such as health care, housing, transportation, and entertainment. This would be an appropriate resource for high school or college students learning about personal finance. I plan to use this resource when teaching personal finance to future finite math classes.

AVL Demonstration - Mysti Nichols

AVL - Professional Development Collection Demonstration

The Alabama Virtual Library provides a very extensive list of databases. One of the search engines that I find most interesting is the Professional Development Collection which is found in the Colleges and Universities tab. This database allows one to search for journal articles and videos on various professional development topics easily and quickly with resource refinements. This could be a very useful tool in any profession especially right now when we cannot attend conferences and workshops as planned.

App Review- Kristy Jones-Bettis

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.3.2
Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.3.2.A
Capitalize appropriate words in titles.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.3.2.B
Use commas in addresses.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.3.2.C
Use commas and quotation marks in dialogue.

   App #1

   Squeebles Punctuation

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=uk.co.keystagefun.SqueeblesPT&hl=en_US

Squebbles Punctuation is an app that covers a grammar and punctuation for students ages 5-11. The app covers four skills: punctuation placement, Its or it’s, possessive apostrophes, and contraction capers. The price for this app is $2.99- $3.99 and can be purchased through google play and the app store. It’s compatible with many devices. The site credibility was concrete, because it gave real time reviews from parents and educators.

App #2

Grammaropolis

https://www.scholastic.com/parents/books-and-reading/raise-a-reader-blog/5-apps-to-help-kids-learn-grammar-punctuation.html

Grammaropolis is an app that has a variety of ways on reaching the learner. It has games, singing, examples, stories, and etc. The students are able to use different devices to get gain access to the app. The app is free, but in order to use all parts, there’s a fee that embedded in the app to gain more access. The app covers ages 8-13 and seems to be a great source to use after teaching an ELA lesson for remediate and enrichment students.

App #3

Punctuation Marks

https://www.educationalappstore.com/app/punctuation-marks

Punctuation Marks is an app that can be used through an iPad or iPhone. This app allows students to fix sentences and correct the capitalization on different words. The cost off the app is $3.99 and the age range is from 3^rd- 12^th grade. The students will be able to identify and highlight different parts of a sentence. They will become comfortable in placing punctuation marks in the correct areas of a sentence.

My Choice: 

Out of the three apps I reviewed, my favorite app is Squeebles Punctuation. This app allows the students to build up their knowledge by levels. Each level will challenge the students more each time. This is an app that can be used from Kindergarten until fifth grade. Students will be able to use this particular app for intervention or enrichment. It also can be used as a way to remediate the students after a skill has been taught in whole group.

App Review -LaVonda Thomas

Standards: kindergarten ELA

b. Recognize that spoken words are represented in written language by specific sequences of letters. [RF.K.1b]

d. Recognize and name all uppercase and lowercase letters of the alphabet. [RF.K.1d]

1.Starfall  

https://www.commonsensemedia.org/app-reviews/starfall-abcs

Cost: Free 

Age group: 0-5, 4+

Device capability: iPhone, IOS Devices, Android 

App Summary: 

Interactive alphabet app that teaches children their alphabet by using letter and letter sound relationships. I would use this as a review in my class to focus on a specific letter that we might be discussing. 

2.Letter school 

https://www.commonsense.org/education/app/letterschool

Cost: 9.99

Age group: 0-5, 4+

Device capability: iPhone, IOS Devices, Android 

App Summary: 

This app is an interactive alphabet app that teaches kids the fundamentals of letter formation with fun animations. I would use this in a small group setting to work on letter formations 

3. ABC Gurus 

https://www.familyeducation.com/fun/mobile-apps/10-best-apps-help-kids-learn-read?slide=1#fen-gallery

Cost: 1.99

Age group: 0-5, 4+

Device capability: iPhone, IOS Devices, Android 

App Summary: 

This app is a learning interactive app that teaches kids letters and phonics by giving them creative things to customize each letter.i would use this as a remediation of the letters and letter sounds for those who are really struggling. 

Out of all these I think the one I would use the most would be starfall. I love how it gives examples of letters and letter sounds and ties phonics into the program. It could work in a whole group setting on a one on one session. 

App Reviews - Spencer Tinman

SC College- and Career-Ready Mathematics Standards

6.NS.6 

Extend the understanding of the number line to include all rational numbers and apply this concept to the coordinate plane. 

a. Understand the concept of opposite numbers, including zero, and their relative locations on the number line. 

b. Understand that the signs of the coordinates in ordered pairs indicate their location on an axis or in a quadrant on the coordinate plane. 

c. Recognize when ordered pairs are reflections of each other on the coordinate plane across one axis, both axes, or the origin. 

d. Plot rational numbers on number lines and ordered pairs on coordinate planes.

Khan Academy - https://www.educationalappstore.com/app/khan-academy

The Khan Academy app is a one stop shop for all things K-12+ education.  They have videos, articles, practices, quizzes, etc. for any topic you can think of.  The app and website are both free of charge for students and teachers alike.  Students from middle school to college would benefit the most from this app as they would be able to navigate it and use it best. The app works on android/apple devices but there is a website too that works on all browsers.  The review I posted is from the Educational App Store, which has over 3000+ reviews and is used by parents/teachers alike to find quality educational resources.  Their goal in founding was to make it easier for people to find good tech through the sea of what is available and enrich the education of younger students.

CK-12 - https://www.educationworld.com/app-review-ck-12-math-and-science-ipadiphone

CK-12 is a free app that focuses on K-12 math and science skills.  They have videos and practices for students to complete but also include lessons for teachers to use. The targeted audience is in the name as K-12 students would benefit the most from this app.  The app works best on iPad and iPhone. I used a review from Education World for this application because of it’s almost 25 year history of assisting teachers with useful resources.  They have also won many awards including “Best of…” lists from USA Today, MSN, Apple, and more.

GeoGebra - https://www.commonsense.org/education/website/geogebra

GeoGebra allows students to work more “hands-on” than the previously listed applications.  The main use is for graphing and modeling in mathematics from middle to high school+.  I chose it for this standard because I have used it as a way for students to use the coordinate plane and manipulate it and plot different points.  GeoGebra is a free app that is compatible with iOS, Android, Windows, Mac, Chromebook and Linux.  Common Sense Education was the source I used for this review because it has a history of teaching about credible sourcing.  A website that focuses on internet safety and credibility and has a specific section for educators is a trustworthy place. 

My Choice:

I use all three of these in my classroom to teach this standard to my sixth grade students because they are free and can be used in concert to fully teach the topic.  The all in one approach of Khan Academy and CK-12 are a beautiful thing for a teacher.  The manipulative nature of GeoGebra is a great way to deepen my students’ learning and is a powerful tool for my more hands-on learners.  Out of the three options, I would choose Khan Academy because it can do a little bit of everything well.  If you were inclined to do so, you could teach the entire standard with the resources available on Khan Academy.  The resources go from introduction videos to practices with examples and explanations and go all the way through a Unit Test.  The Khan Academy app is a little more user friendly than the other two options as well which is massively important for teachers.  We want our students to spend their time learning the material that we are teaching and not on learning how to use the application.  The combination of these factors is what led me to choosing Khan Academy over the other options.

App Reviews - Amy Franklin

ALCOS Grades 9-12:  Algebra II with Statistics

Standard 16:  Identify the effect on the graph of replacing 𝑓(𝑥) by 𝑓(𝑥) + 𝑘, 𝑘 · 𝑓(𝑥), 𝑓(𝑘 · 𝑥), and 𝑓(𝑥 + 𝑘) for specific values of k (both positive and negative); find the value of k given the graphs. Experiment with cases and illustrate an explanation of the effects on the graph using technology. Extend to polynomial, trigonometric (sine and cosine), logarithmic, reciprocal, radical, and general piecewise functions.

Mathway

https://www.commonsensemedia.org/app-reviews/mathway

Mathway solves a variety of math problems in the areas of algebra, trigonometry, calculus, statistics, etc. Mathway is free. However, in-app purchases include detailed solutions and live tutoring. Subscriptions range from $19.99 monthly for steps (detailed solutions) to $149.99 annually for steps and live tutoring. The intended age group is middle school through college. Mathway is compatible with iOS 9.0 or later, as well as iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. Common Sense is a nonprofit organization that provides educators and parents with reliable information and education regarding technology for K-12 kids. Their website offers credible, up to date, information regarding their mission, how they rate and review, as well as information about their Board of Directors, Board of Advisors, Partners, etc.

Wolfram Alpha

https://www.commonsense.org/education/website/wolfram-alpha

Wolfram Alpha solves a variety of math and science problems. This app also provides lessons on a range of topics, including history, art, linguistics, etc. Wolfram Alpha costs $2.99 with in-app purchase options ranging from $0.99 to $65.99. The intended age group is middle school through college. Wolfram Alpha is compatible with iOS 12.0 or later, as well as iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. Common Sense is a nonprofit organization that provides educators and parents with reliable information and education regarding technology for K-12 kids. Their website offers credible, up to date, information regarding their mission, how they rate and review, as well as information about their Board of Directors, Board of Advisors, Partners, etc.

Photomath

https://www.commonsense.org/education/app/photomath-teacher-review/4060661

Photomath solves a variety of math problems by simply taking a picture of the problem. Photomath covers math topics such as basic math, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, and calculus. This app is free. However, in-app purchase options range from $2.99 to $59.99. The intended age group is elementary school through college. Photomath is compatible with iOS 11.0 or later, as well as iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. Common Sense is a nonprofit organization that provides educators and parents with reliable information and education regarding technology for K-12 kids. Their website offers credible, up to date, information regarding their mission, how they rate and review, as well as information about their Board of Directors, Board of Advisors, Partners, etc.

Of the three apps selected for review, I like Mathway the best. For this standard, the Mathway graphing feature would allow students to explore different functions of the same family on the same coordinate plane. This feature would allow students to explore how the value of k affects the graph of 𝑓(𝑥). Also, when graphing multiple functions on the same coordinate plane, the graphs are displayed in different colors, making them easily distinguishable.