Teaching Creation

What is the author's position on a debatable topic from the text? How do you know? What evidence from the text can you cite?

Write about something in your life that feels uncertain right now. You don't have to solve it—just describe what the uncertainty feels like.

During meaningful conversations, students are forced to be accountable for positions, to listen, and to analyze opposing perspectives & ideas.

Learn to recognize and value nonverbal student engagement. From gestures to eye gaze, here are 6 ways students participate without speaking to build safety.

If teachers take advantage of the extension activities, students can get great in-depth instruction and practice in SEL skills needed for life.

These philosophy podcasts and videos offer entertaining introductions to key concepts and thinkers, but require some smart lesson planning for deeper learning.

For the next several months, each week I’ll be republishing posts from the past that I think readers might still find useful.  This post first appeared in 2017.   One of my popular – and most useful – “Best” lists is The Best Scaffolded Writing Frames For Students.  It’s certainly one that I consult regularly. I’m […]

For the next several months, each week I’ll be republishing posts from the past that I think readers might still find useful.  This post first appeared in 2017.     I’m not really sure how many of our students know who Bruce Springsteen is, but this is an amazing video for any who do (though […]

For the next several months, each week I’ll be republishing posts from the past that I think readers might still find useful.  This post first appeared in 2017. Editor’s Note: Lorin W. Anderson, one of the co-authors of the Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy, left a comment on my post earlier this week, “Knowledge” & Bloom’s Pyramid. […]

For the next several months, each week I’ll be republishing posts from the past that I think readers might still find useful.  This post first appeared in 2017.     Also see: HERE’S HOW I ADAPTED MY ELL BEGINNER’S STORY-WRITING UNIT FOR CONCURRENT TEACHING My previous post, Here Are The Ten Downloadable Graphic Organizers I […]

A fabulous resource for teaching about one of the most important fields in technology today.

The AIM Buddy Project is an enjoyable, effective program for teaching SEL concepts and making elementary students feel more connected with each other.

A variety of question types and on-the-spot analytics help teachers individualize test-prep practice.

Almanack AI is a good, helpful foundation for educational content creation but ultimately requires teacher expertise to ensure content is both engaging and educationally sound.

This tool opens up avenues for conversation and relationship building between teachers and students.

This approachable and contemporary content can help teachers and caregivers field tough questions, but the firmly progressive approach could prevent use.

Free podcast creation platform by Spotify that makes it easy to record, edit, and distribute educational podcasts.

Go for the videos, stay for the lessons: Annenberg Classroom saves teachers' prep time when teaching the Constitution, current events, or other civics lessons.

Eight years ago I began this regular feature where I share a few posts and resources from around the Web related to ESL/EFL or to language in general that have caught my attention. You might also be interested in all my Best lists on teaching ELLs. Also, check out A Collection Of My Best Resources […]

An absorbing experience that'll motivate students to piece together a family's story of survival during Nazi occupation.

A refreshingly modern way for students to explore how to filter and interpret info and media during breaking news events.

This tools offers a fun, simple, and safe way to hold real-time online discussions that might just increase engagement, interest, and even learning.

Free online music creation platform with recording, editing, and collaboration tools perfect for music education.

Versatile video-based curriculum inspires reflection and action.

If your school or home can afford it, Better World Ed is a well-done interdisciplinary curriculum that will expand students' global view.

Take advantage of the offerings of this professional community to improve the quality of your classroom instruction.

It's a pressure-free place to start looking for high-quality videos to supplement existing lessons in traditional, one-to-one, or flipped classroom models.

This is a top-quality creation tool that lets students of many ages and abilities publish their own digital books.

A neat tool for publishing online, possibly better suited to teacher content creation than student publishing.

These trusted lessons, a great fit for middle school, empower students to approach media more intentionally, but teachers might need to adapt.

Free design platform with AI-powered features for creating stunning presentations, infographics, worksheets, and visual content with thousands of education templates.

Cesar Chavez Day is recognized as a holiday by a number of states in the U.S., and falls on March 31st — his birthday (or a Monday/Friday that is closest to a weekend). You might be interested in The Best Sites For Learning About Cesar Chavez & The United Farm Workers Union.

A valuable series of modules to get kids thinking about how their choices help build strong character.

With some creativity, this interactive platform can support instruction and assessment.

Each week, I publish a post or two containing three or four particularly useful resources on classroom instruction, and you can see them all here. You can also see all my “Best” lists on instructional strategies here. Here are this week’s picks: Are you going for mastery or mystery? Rethinking assessment objectives with Tom Guskey […]

Anthropic's Claude offers thoughtful, nuanced responses perfect for educational content creation, lesson planning, and student feedback with strong safety features.

Microsoft's easy-to-use video editor with templates, stock media, and AI features perfect for creating classroom videos quickly.

This quick, easy way to consistently assess students' emotional health requires thoughtful implementation.

A thoughtfully planned, produced, and curated set of free resources bound to get kids hooked on learning to code.

Simplicity is the key with Coggle: Students can create elaborate mind maps and brainstorms in a matter of minutes, and the collaboration options are a nice bonus.

Flexible and collaborative lesson planning, calendar design, and classroom site creator save teachers precious time.

Students identify career values and use them to evaluate STEM options.

A useful tool for issuing digital badges.

Teachers will need to take time to build effective lessons, but if they do, this is a useful, relevant, high-interest resource for deconstructing identity and building critical thinking and empathy skills.

For teachers looking to make civics relevant to students, there's nothing else out there as extensive or relevant.

DPLA is at the top of the list of high-grade, online primary source collections if teachers make effective use of what's on offer.

With a Diigo educator account, teachers and students have a safe space to organize, customize, and share Web content while learning about a variety of subjects.

This text-rich app encourages students to conduct their own analysis of history, but the formats and graphics may prevent them from making a thorough analysis.

The National Endowment for the Humanities has put together an outstanding place for art, history, language, and literature.

Ten years ago, in another somewhat futile attempt to reduce the backlog of resources I want to share, I began this occasional “Ed Tech Digest” post where I share three or four links I think are particularly useful and related to…ed tech, including some Web 2.0 apps. You might also be interested in checking […]

As a tool for the flipped classroom or for student-led creation, a cool tool for teachers to create and share engaging video content.

Tools are designed specifically for teachers; site is unfancy but functional.

Excellent program for teaching young kids emotion identification, regulation, and social relationships.

Empowering tool encourages girls to explore engineering but is mostly static and best-suited for choosing courses and looking at colleges.

Meaningful and humbling take on interconnectedness, but in that existential sort of way that's highly individual and potentially hit or miss.

A stellar -- if somewhat pricey -- creation tool for the classroom.

These valuable materials empower students to understand and address difficult ethical choices -- past and present.

This site offers smart, fun resources for exploring the layers of meaning in media and finding causes to fight for.

Video discussion platform where students record and share short videos, perfect for building speaking skills and classroom community.

This site can support meaningful, primary source-driven examination of some of the most important events in U.S. history, but educators will need to dig a little.

This smart tool helps teachers gather a variety of student response types and then offer targeted feedback.

It's designed with student learning in mind, and teachers can encourage students to submit quality content and engage in reflective feedback.

Both teachers and students can create impressive presentations, but it may not be worth the price -- or the effort to learn and incorporate yet another platform.

The comics are impressive and the lessons provide useful conversation starters, but they'll likely need to be supplemented with additional material to be effective.

It's a great choice for students and teachers with needs beyond simple tweaking, cropping, and color correction, but requires significant self-directed learning.

Teachers looking to enrich their curriculum with high-quality, thought-provoking videos and photos will find plenty of inspiration, but may need to create or fine-tune some lessons.

In a genre of its own, GoNoodle is a ready-to-go, classroom-friendly exercise program that challenges students to get moving.

You pay for quality with Goalbook Toolkit, including access to clear, well-crafted learning goals and strategies that allow for far easier differentiation.

Thorough digital literacy curriculum offers mix-and-match options to fit any classroom.

A beautifully presented one-stop shop for compellingly curated and contextualized art, history, and culture resources, but it's lacking educator supports.

An amazing experience that brings the world to life, despite the heavy investment in VR required.

Wonderful and fun social-interaction game designed to teach cooperation and friendship skills needed for middle school and beyond.

A complete SEL solution with lessons, games, resources, and training that meet seemingly every need.

AI-powered video platform that creates personalized video content with realistic avatars, ideal for multilingual educational videos.

Offers a delightful and accessible way for kids to learn about the world's cultures.

Reliable connectivity helps you stay organized and informed throughout your visit.

This tool opens up digital text and the web to analysis, annotation, and discussion, whether inside a classroom or with the world.

IWitness allows students to reflect upon the past, looking toward today’s values and society. Students build knowledge about the past using a dynamic, specific tool.

I’ve been a longtime fan of the ESLvideo site  (see A Forgotten (By Me!) Gem That Has Been Rediscovered (By Me & My Students): ESL Video). Prior to AI, students could watch videos and answer questions about them. Then, with the advent of AI, it really seemed to pioneer ways to use it with […]

This is a fantastic, hands-on experience featuring practical advice and planning tips that'll satisfy many -- but not all -- students.

This is a strong resource for showing the power of journalism and research, and it'll engage most students; others will need teacher support.

This artful re-examination of the '92 LA riot can offer new insights and diverse perspectives, if students don't get too lost in the design.

This platform features excellent videos students will enjoy discussing, but teachers will need to prep students to make quality contributions.

Stay on top of the trends and take the fear out of media-making in the classroom.

If your classroom relies a lot on Google Docs, this might just be the feedback tool you're looking for.

Kami is an effective way to promote student interaction with texts, authentic documents, and pictures.

Collaborative online video editor perfect for creating memes, subtitles, and educational videos with AI-powered features.

This site will build high school students' future planning skills, but the design falls a bit short of offering a truly compelling learning experience.

Khan Academy's AI-powered tutor helps students learn through Socratic questioning and provides teachers with powerful lesson planning tools.

A valuable platform for students to learn about social and political issues while practicing digital citizenship and argumentation.

A go-to site for teachers looking for well-presented project ideas; kids will need opportunities to share work locally.

It's an invaluable teacher tool to help reduce prejudice and encourage tolerance in schools, as well as within society as a whole.

While it offers resources for kids headed to college, it's hard to envision them actually wanting a LinkedIn profile.

A fantastic resource that brings both historical and current event public radio stories into the classroom.

This amusing puzzle game encourages creativity, perseverance, and systems thinking, and with creative integration it can build interest in math, science, history, and literature.

A basic whiteboard with useful chat and video features for live sessions for small groups.

Students and teachers can use this tool alone or collaboratively to build and share stunning, effective visuals that stretch thinking.

This tool's dynamic presentations strike a nice balance between information and interaction.

A wonderful, endlessly detailed way to get kids engaged in the world of art.

Great for a quick bonding activity when led by a positive instructor.

If you're someone who needs mindfulness-based approaches, Mind Yeti's characters could be the right fit.

This impressive tool uses normed digital assessments to create a specific learning profile and provide authentic tools for individual learners.

This impressive program has ready-to-use and expert-vetted content that'll help advanced students engage meaningfully with foreign policy issues and processes.

This detailed yet easy-to-implement curriculum can provide classrooms and schools with a common language for social skills.

Unparalleled science documentaries offer a window into real-world scientific topics in a high-interest way.

As a truly unique resource that's worth using, teachers will need to create lessons that scaffold students' understanding of the complex issues found within.

NARA's website wasn't designed for kids, but they can definitely use it to research and learn about history, genealogy, and the U.S. population and government.

While there aren't ready-to-go curricular materials, this modern, well-curated, and well-contextualized digital collection is sure to inspire compelling lessons.

This a pricey tool but it's packed with a school year's worth of content and handy accessibility features.

This is a great tool to kick off critical discussions about news and social media.

While pricey, Newsela has ascended into an all-in-one destination for leveled, non-fiction reading.

Impressive resource opens access to quality materials for all educators.

A stellar program for exploring foundational concepts in history, humanities, critical thinking, and science with tons of support for teachers.

Kids get a sense of culture and global responsibility via kid-friendly articles and great multimedia.

Robust collection of learning resources covers an impressive array of topics.

For educators who have the time, drive, and buy-in, this program is a great data-analysis and character-development tool.

A simple PBL tool that promotes digital literacy and lets kids create flexible, accessible digital portfolios.

It’s an appealing platform that can improve formative assessment, particularly for teachers using Google Classroom.

Detailed social and emotional learning lessons provide teachers with almost everything they'll need to spark positive character development and reflection in their students.

This is a thoughtful, ready-to-go platform that facilitates authentic and safe cross-cultural collaboration.

This could be a powerful replacement for traditional search engines, though teachers would benefit from discussing AI literacy skills first.

Platform can motivate students to share subject knowledge in a way that blends art and literacy.

This platform simplifies lesson planning with an intuitive, easy-to-use interface.

A slow-paced SEL game for helping students understand the nuances of managing mental health.

Easy-to-use idea organizer can help with simple mind mapping.

With its zoom in and out capabilities, Prezi helps teachers and students go beyond traditional presentations to put important content front and center.

A thoughtfully-created collection of tools for teaching media literacy across the curriculum.

Project Zero at Harvard is one of my favorite teaching resources, and I’m sure that sentiment is shared by countless other educators. THE BEST RESOURCES FOR LEARNING ABOUT PROJECT ZERO’S THINKING ROUTINES is one of my more popular “Best” lists. They just unveiled a spiffy new website where you can access – for free […]

One of the most effective introductory projects involves building a realistic monthly budget.

Fun for students, easy for teachers, QuaverSEL uses the power of music to boost social and emotional learning.

This tool takes some mystery out of the financial aid process, and the ability to earn early may motivate financially strapped or otherwise reluctant students to dream bigger.

The activities feel productive. There is visible effort and time invested, but recognition is not retrieval.

All-in-one branding platform for creating videos, animations, logos, and websites with thousands of templates for educational content.

I often write about research studies from various fields and how they can be applied to the classroom. I write individual posts about ones that I think are especially significant, and will continue to do so. However, so many studies are published that it’s hard to keep up. So I’ve started writing a “round-up” of […]

Four research-based classroom management principles" relationships, routines, engagement design, and restorative responses.

A useful, if a bit repetitive, game to help high school students plan for the future and gauge how their choices impact many areas of well-being.

Compact, flexible lessons can help teachers introduce students to valuable social and emotional strengths.

Incredibly inspirational and helpful framework for building a sustainable, fulfilling future.

Riveting role-playing game reinforces relationship skills, but plan carefully so that students can save their game.

Kid will gain confidence as they review practice tests, videos, and SAT advice.

This is an instructional tool that could reinvent classroom workflow, especially for classrooms in the Google ecosystem.

Automatically creates step-by-step guides with screenshots as you complete a process, perfect for creating tutorials and how-to documents.

Students and teachers develop proficiency in vital social and emotional learning skills through well-designed, interactive learning modules.

I thought readers might, or might not, find this new regular post useful. Each week, I highlight several sentences, with links to their sources, that I find interesting/concerning/useful.  And they may, or may not, be directly connected to education.  I may also include my own comments or related links. This regular post will join […]

Free presentation templates specifically designed for education with beautiful designs and Google Slides/PowerPoint compatibility.

This thoughtfully crafted, open-ended curation and creation tool has a place in most classrooms.

This high-quality collection of museum resources -- ranging from artifacts to full-blown exhibits -- provides unlimited exploration for students, reliable primary sources for teachers.

This is a handy resource that, with some effort, will uncover resources for kick-starting curious learning.

Collaborative online music and podcast studio perfect for music education and creating audio projects with students.

If developing a growth mindset is an important part of your teaching practice, this is a solid choice.

It'll need some scaffolding, but for students ready for the subject matter it's a great -- if sobering -- way to illustrate to students the daily realities and struggles of poverty in America.

St. Patrick’s Day is on March 17th. You might be interested in The Best Sites For Learning About St. Patrick’s Day (and April Fool’s Day).

A versatile, full-featured online brainstorming collaboration tool that can facilitate small-group projects.

This is a site that offers both actionable resources and an active community for student voice and civic engagement.

With a super-simple design and tons of flexible features, this is an appealing and intuitive way for teachers and students to organize and share class content.

Creates beautiful how-to guides automatically by capturing your workflow, ideal for creating student tutorials and teacher resources.

This site's materials have the potential to supplement, augment, or even replace favorite units of study, once teachers dig into and master what's offered.

Platform for creating and selling online courses with built-in payment processing, student management, and course analytics.

Professional educators can watch, share, and learn in a continually updated environment.

This rich database of literary resources is a must-bookmark for teachers looking to extend learning experiences with books and their authors.

These varied games are great for introducing the fundamentals and practicing but aren't sufficient as a complete curriculum.

Text 2 Mind Map can be used as a helpful organizational tool, but would be stronger with additional content and added security.

Text adventures can be a blast to play and make, but the Quest game-making tool, while offering some decent support, can be tough to use effectively without coding experience.

This is a high-quality, surprisingly fun way to see how the Bill of Rights relates to everyday situations.

This is a much-needed curriculum that helps students explore complex concepts through low-tech lessons and high-interest projects.

Google has tried a lot of failed experiments with AI over the past two-or-three years, but their NotebookLM is one that seemed to work. They are constantly adding new features to it.  So, I’m just sharing the most recent resources as of early 2026, but will have to regularly come back and dump everything […]

As previous research has shown, preaching to young people about the dangers of gambling, sweets, AI, etc. are not very effective strategies. However, if you show them how corporations are manipulating them – that’s a different story. I recently learned that this concept is called “reactance,”  You can learn about it here and here. I’ve shared about […]

Teachers should use the extension activities in the lesson plans to take full advantage of the program.

A great resource to share and gather ideas on teaching with technology and media, but there are some bugs that need fixing.

Learn how to recognize when your well-being is out of balance and what practical daily habits can help restore mental stability.

Materials and activities support a thorough study of World War II, making this a valuable resource for both teachers and students.

One underlying assumption of a curriculum is that it's comprised of knowledge and skills that are both knowable and worth knowing.

This is an expertly scaffolded and pedagogically sound resource for developing critical reading and writing skills.

This is a powerful framework for building critical media literacy, but teachers might need to bring in some extra perspectives.

Course creation platform that helps educators build, market, and sell online courses with powerful customization options.

Here are some recent useful posts and articles on educational policy issues (You might also be interested in seeing all my “Best” lists related to education policy here): A Maine educator didn’t have a curriculum to teach a foundational reading skill. So she created one apnews.com/article/scho… [image or embed] — Larry Ferlazzo (@larryferlazzo.bsky.social) March […]

A great starting point for conversations about students' strengths; skip some of the digital content.

Multimedia timelines connect events visually, creating pathways for deeper analysis of any chronological story.

This is an excellent, cross-curricular news source that'll keep kids current and build their thinking skills.

An easy to use timeline tool for one-off projects, but for sustained use teachers will need to upgrade, and ultimately the features might not be robust enough.

This one-stop shop is best used for helping teachers plan engineering lessons and getting students involved with the community.

Twitter offers something for everyone: information, resources, and an easy way to connect with just about anyone.

This site has a decent library of movement and mindfulness videos that give kids an energizing way to help themselves and some charities.

Learning platform with thousands of courses for teacher professional development and supplemental student learning.

Teachers and students willing to invest some time will find tons of resources in this one-stop shop for nearly all things career-, college-, and interest-related.

Visual content creation platform for presentations, infographics, reports, and social media graphics with drag-and-drop simplicity.

A fantastic resource for teachers looking to integrate SEL into their classrooms and lessons.

Overview of associate, bachelor’s, master’s, doctoral, and professional degrees: definitions, and typical length/credit requirements.

Bloom's Revised Taxonomy is an update that, among other changes, revised the language and hierarchy of the Cognitive Process Dimension.

Bloom’s Taxonomy is a hierarchical classification of cognitive skills used to design instruction, assess learning, and promote higher-order thinking.

Cognitive Dissonance is the psychological discomfort that occurs when a person holds two or more contradictory beliefs, values, or attitudes at the same time.

Where does AI meaningfully fit into curriculum and assessment?

Impressive, unparalleled versatility makes this more of an instructional platform than a whiteboard, but it'll require a lot of up-front work to get comfortable.

This tool offers some perks over physical whiteboards, and while it has some room to improve, it's worth exploring now.

What worked in elementary school often assumes a level of adult scaffolding that middle school systems quietly remove.

Students will appreciate this 21st-century take on worksheets, and teachers will love all the different options for creation and assessment.

The United Nations has declared March 21st to be World Poetry Day. You might be interested in The Best World Poetry Day Resources – Help Me Find More.

Free downloadable resources encourage critical thinking and active learning in search of a more accurate picture of American history.

Interactive program with practice activities teaches SEL to young students.

A powerful and focused social problem-solving game designed to reach kids who need direct instruction.

This game-based curriculum would be an excellent addition to any secondary social studies.

inspirED delivers exactly what it claims: empowering, easy-to-search content for social and emotional learning.

I’ve used “Spot The Difference” images with English Language Learner students – it’s fine, and it creates numerous language learning opportunities when they have to explain the differences. You can read how I use them at Using “Spot The Difference” Pictures With ELLs and at Using ChatGPT’s New Image Creation Ability For Creating “Spot […]

What Guidelines Should Teachers Provide for Student AI Use? is the headline of one of my recent Education Week columns. The goal is to teach students to harness AI to bolster learning and preserve their work’s integrity. Here are some excerpts:

Zep is a new-to-me learning game site that has lots of similarities to the usual suspects – Wayground, Blooket and Kahoot. I first heard about when reading a study that found playing it helped with student motivation (there is similar research available for most of the online gaming platforms). The main difference – at […]