Chalk.com

Good Day Readers!

I know I have been gone for a while, but this school year has been crazy! Anyway, I have been working on some new ideas for the blog and this one can’t wait any longer.

I have found out next year I am going to be a combo teacher; (I was switched to a combo in January) and I DO NOT want to buy 2 lesson planners to allow me to plan for both grades. With this in mind I went online to find a free online lesson planner for teachers. First, there is a plethora of websites out there. The one I have been using is called Chalk. So here we go!

Product Information:
Chalk.com is an online lesson planner for teachers. Teachers can make subjects and schedules BEFORE you even begin putting lessons in. Teachers can upload templates, links, standards, etc. Whatever you need is right there for you. The program is free to use and does offer a school and district package if you are interested.

Glitchy Review:
I have been using this program for a month now. There are parts which I adore and parts which need to be improved. Overall, I like being able to display my lessons (when admin comes in they know what I am doing) for my students so they know what the schedule is for the day. It is colorful so each of my grade levels knows which colors are theirs and which ones are whole class lessons. I can schedule in recess, tests, assemblies, etc. in the schedule as needed. Students like it because they know what is going on and what to expect. We go through the schedule every morning and the day seems to run smoother because they have time stamps to refer to. When I am going to need to link a website, video, or document I can attach the link to the lesson and click it open when I need it!

The actual lesson planning in the system can be difficult for new users, but once you have things set up, it is quiet easy. In addition, you can save these lessons and use them next year! It will alter the lessons for the days to make sure the dates are correct for the current calendar year and will change NOTHING else! Makes it easy to plan the semester with lessons and alter for anything such as assemblies, field trips, etc. I can’t wait to use this feature next year!

With this feature in mind you do need to put in the leg work in the beginning. You do need to input the lessons and items you need. This will take time depending on your technology skill and amount of details you want in your lesson blocks. However, once this information is in, you can reuse later with a simple copy and paste of the semester!

Another thing I enjoy about this program is BEFORE you enter any lessons is you need to set up subjects and a schedule for your lessons. Subjects can be academic or non-academic subjects. For example, you can add Language Arts as academic and the program will allow you to add standards, lesson templates, and UNITS! I was able to input my units and this allows extra organization to your lessons! The non-academic subjects I have added were recess, lunch, assemblies, read aloud, testing (state testing), clean-up time, etc. The possibilities are endless. Once you have created these subjects you are prompted to make a Timetable (schedule) for your lessons. It has an option for alternating weeks (my school has 2) and will automatically upload them to the planner when you give them a start date. WARNING: It will start with week A and I messed this up and had to redo my weeks because the schedule started with the wrong week! LOL One thing to remember is: if you have to change the lesson for the day ONLY you do have that option and the program will label it as a special schedule.

The planner of this program is awesome. I could easily spend 5 blogs on this. As this is an overview, I will keep this simple. You have multiple views for the program such as time, day, week, month, and unit. There is a reminder table on the right and a month calendar as well. If you need to move a lesson you can do this as well. Again, something for another blog.

After all of these goodies in the program I was super excited to be able to plan where ever I needed to plan and just needed a laptop or computer. As I have been using this program there are a few things which need to be fixed. The copy moved lesson option is great, but I think a drag and drop feature would be better especially for teachers who are not all that tech savvy. In addition, there are times when I am planning and inputting lessons and the program has saving issues, which is frustrating when you put in the whole lesson and it is NOT saved. There is an app to go along with the website, this was mediocre at best. The app is limited to displaying your plans and that is it. This is good if you want your plans at your fingertips, but if you are like me the plans are up on a computer, and I use my phone for Class Dojo. I ended up removing the app because of the lack of use; however, some teachers like it. Option is up to you.

User Rating:
This program is definitely a level 3. You do need some tech savvy to remember how to access the different options. I would not use this program if you are not fully committed to using a digital planer and willing to put in the leg work.

Glitchy Review:
This program is a 4 out 5. There are endless benefits to the program with few set-backs. I could see myself using this from now on.

I do plan on doing more blogs on this website. Please let me know below if there is something specific in the website you want to focus on. As always comment below and let me know if there is something you wish to see on Glitchy Teacher blog! Enjoy!

Legends of Learning

Product Information:
Legends of Learning is a website where students go to play games to aid them in achieving the NGSS standards. Teachers create "Playlists" where they are able to pick and choose which games students play and for how long. Students then access the website and sign-in and begin playing. The games range from the introduction of material to (what I can call) assessment games. Teachers will then be able to see student progress within gameplay and achievement to the standard. This website runs different account types: free, school, and district. Additionally, they offer ways for teachers to earn coins to help maintain their FREE account. (This I will get into later.)

Glitchy Review:
Let me start off with this website seems to be in the beginning stages so you do need to go in with the understanding of that. With that being said they are doing a lot of great things and really have potential as their product ages with use and feedback. (I will come to the feedback later and you will NOT want to miss that!) So with that warning, let's begin!

First, the games are quite user-friendly I can see students of all ages being able to play these games in some way, shape, or form. The games seem to remind me of old arcade games where they are in 2D and "walk" from left to right. The developers seem to get this because there are some games where they play up this fact. For example, some games look like they are directly from the original Nintendo system. I loved this because it made the game easier to use. They were not focused on creating a Minecraft game but simple, fun games for students. These games do get the job done when it comes to engaging and teaching the student. Each game has a specific purpose either to introduce or begin a unit to the final assessment. The ONLY catch here is as the teacher you need to PLAY the game first in order to figure out which one is which. (Again, I believe this goes back to the fact that this is new and requires feedback to hopefully, organize the games better so teachers do not have to do this.)

Second, the website is super easy to use and creating a playlist is as easy as drag and drop. The website allows the teacher to visually see how much time the students will be on each game. The only catch is you have a limit of 30 minutes. Mind you this is only for the FREE account. Like all things, you get better options when you pay. This leads me to my third point.

Third, would be the different account options. Legends of Learning has a unique idea when it comes to accounts. While they do still have the FREE account for teachers, school, and district accounts; they do have some cool perks. As a teacher, I do have the FREE account, but they do have things in place to make it easier for teachers to keep and maintain a free account. When teachers play a game to test them out before students do if you review the game you get 30 coins which go to your account to allow your students to play more. Pretty nice, huh? (The coins are used to allow students to play. Please visit the website to understand the coin system more.) You do have the option to pay to add more coins should you need it. They really seem to have thought of different ways to aid teachers; something this teacher enjoys.

Overall, this website has a lot of potential and for what is available now really works! This website has many different ways of being used depending on what you want to use it for. Please go and check it out! Legends of Learning

User Rating:
I would give this website a user rating of 2 because there are some confusing parts, but it does have a lot of ease of use which is great.

Glitchy Review:
I would give this website a Glitchy rating of 3 out of 5. While, creating playlists is easy, there are a few things that they do not seem to explain all that well. First, I ran into issues adding students. In the help section, it showed a student list at the top of the page, however, it failed to mention in the beginning of the article, that this is only available AFTER the students use the product not before. Second, you have to play the games before to know what each one does. Should these get fixed I would change my rating.