Have a look at the district kits available to bring coding and ADST to life in your class.
Interested in borrowing a kit? Here is the link to sign one out for the 2023/2024 school year.
Please note, a separate Google Form will need to be completed for each different item being requested. Due to the demand, each teacher will be able to sign out only one kit at a time and a maximum of 2 kits during the school year. If you request more, you will be put on a waitlist and will be notified if the extra item you’ve requested is available 2 weeks before the loan period. If you need more than 2 kits (if you are a Teacher Librarian for example), please fill the Google Forms and contact us.
In NLPS, we are obligated to follow the terms outlined by FOIPPA (Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act). Many online applications and extensions involve the exchange of personal information such as, (but is not limited to):
In order to make technology use easier and safer for teachers, learning coordinators, in collaboration with IT and the Privacy Officer have vetted apps for privacy. These websites, apps and extensions for Chromebooks and PCs have been organized into two categories:
The following applications have been vetted for safety and privacy. These are the ONLY web-based applications that are approved for student-use in NLPS. Prior to introducing these applications to students, review the specific considerations and guidelines by clicking on the icons below.
They are organized into two categories:
Parental consent is obtainted for the Tech Bundle at the beginning of the school year. Classroom teachers can check in MyEd to see if consent has been obtained. (Instructions)
Please email thelearningline@sd68.bc.ca to find out more about the vetting process.
Our top picks for that focus on competencies, student thinking, and/or inclusive practices!
We can help! Email The Learning Line if you need some support getting started.
Regardless of consent requirements, be aware of specific considerations to protect privacy.
Our top picks for that focus on competencies, student thinking, and/or inclusive practices!
We can help! Email The Learning Line if you need some support getting started.
Regardless of consent requirements, be aware of specific considerations to protect privacy.
Are you thinking about adding a new app to your school or class iPad? Review these considerations before offering the app to students.
The goal of the SAMR model is to support educators in assessing how the integration of technology either enhances or transforms learning.
To truly move beyond substitution and augmentation, we have to redefine the learning environment.
The Design Thinking process is the foundation of the ADST curriculum. It gives a framework to find solutions to real problems in creative and empathetic ways.
Practicing these competencies can be done in many different situations and will trigger the need to learn more about a technology in an authentic context.
In ADST, we want to look at the process at least as much as the product! The core of any design should be the user. We need to know and to care about the ones we helping or creating for.
Start with a problem to solve or a need to fulfill. If you start with a solution or a product in mind, you won’t even consider what might be the best (or the only!) option your user really needs!
You need to fall in love with the problem, not the solution!
What else?
You don’t need to be an expert in every technology and with every tools to start!
Here are some links to explore some key areas.
Have you thought about our district kits?
You can borrow the following kits to support your challenges!
A Makerspace is a collaborative and creative environment where students can have access to tools, equipment and material to explore, innovate, build, and experience hands-on learning.
Other Maker Challenges for Students – the John Spencer Playlist
Read&Write extension for Google Chrome offers diverse tools to increase text accessibility in many environments including Google Applications, webpages and PDFs.
It is for everyone!
View our guide.
Lessons for teachers and students on digital literacy and safety online.
A compilation of K-12 lessons curated by NLPS Teacher Librarians
School guide to enroll and activate students’ Learn68 accounts
Coding activities from beginner to advanced.
Nimbus Chrome Extension is available for all users and allow screenshot & video recording.
Learn how to get started with Read&Write for Google, access resources and strategies to embed RW in your learning activities, and find out the steps to use it with PDF files.
Complete guide to learn more about the Maker movement and on how to bring it into the classroom aligned with the BC ADST curriculum. The toolkit present in details more than 30 cross-curricular problem scenarios grounded in experiential and constructionist approaches.
The Taking Making into Classroom website includes more resources and support material, including some in French.
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Chrome extension to block ads and pop-ups on YouTube and websites.
Creative Cloud is a collection of 20+ desktop and services for photography, design, video, web, UX, and more. It is primarily used in secondary schools for web design, graphic arts, yearbook publishing and drafting.
Book Creator is a simple tool to create ebooks on iPad, Chromebooks and on the web. Users can add text, images, audio and video content on any page. It provides multiple modes of engagement with the content they are creating.
An online platform for teaching the basics of computer science to students in cross curricular activities.
Desmos provides flexible and gamified ways to learn mathematics while allowing students multiple ways to show their understanding. Can be used synchronously or asynchronously to let students work at their own pace.
This paid app has English lessons (available for online use), flashcards, and resources for ESL Students.
Flipgrid is a great tool to plan for diversity in a teachers classroom. It allows teachers to pose questions providing a differentiated approach to students sharing their responses. It gives students a voice and a way to express themself in a rich and authentic way.
IXL can be used to personalized math and analytics to assist teachers.
Note: IXL does not directly align with the BC curriculum in the terms of meeting the curricular competencies but could be included in a rich numeracy program.
Google Applied Digital Skills is a free, flexible video based curriculum that prepares students of all ages for the growing number of jobs that require basic digital skills.
Google Jamboard is a google product that can be used for collaboration and interaction between teacher and students and between students. Just like a Google Doc or Slide, it can be attached to a Google Classroom assignment as well as being used during videoconferences.
The Khan Academy is a web application that provides free video tutorials and interactive exercises.
Madame Mo est une application pour travailler la conscience phonologique en français.
Mots sans mots cible les difficultés courantes de l’orthographe en français.
Minecraft EDU is a sandbox environment where students shape their world using blocks. It is highly engaging, adaptable to any subject area, and supports collaboration, and critical thinking.
Nearpod is a web-based and iPad compatible platform that allows K-12 teachers to present interactive lessons, quizzes, and virtual reality-based activities to their students.
Newsela is an online news-as-literacy platform that features current, high-interest articles on everything from current events to myths and legends. All articles are available in five Lexile levels, ranging from third to 12th grade and include quizzes and writing prompts.
Nimbus allows users to take screenshots and screen recordings as a means to share and illustrate their thinking.
Padlet is an online bulletin board where invited contributors can share, collect, and collaborate by posting text, images, links, documents, and audio or video recordings. It provides multiple modes of engagement and real time collaboration.
Pear Deck is a presentation platform that allows teachers to collect and save student responses in a live session in order to gauge student comprehension.
Quizlet is an online database of flash cards that can be practiced using 9 different study activities. While students can browse for study materials from users around the world, many teachers make and share custom study sets just for their classes. There are other great features for teachers, too, including Quizlet Live, a team-based quiz competition that turns study sets into a collaborative classroom quiz game.
Read & Write for Education provides tools such as highlighters, voice notes, thesaurus, word prediction, speech to text and text to speech to support students with written work.
SketchUp for School is a 3D modelling app that allows for students to create 3D models, drawings and plans. It supports core competencies, the ADST curriculum and cross curricular activities.
Scratch is a block-based visual programming language and website is used as an educational tool for coding.
Sora empowers students to discover and enjoy ebooks and audiobooks from their school, their public library, and shared collections. Teachers can assign titles and track individual student reading progress
Web application that lets users create Storyboards or other visual communication from an image bank in a drag-and-drop interface. It can be used in multiple creative ways and across the curriculum. Storyboards can be saved to the account and downloaded in different formats. In Storyboard for classrooms, teachers manage the privacy setting of student work and can make it viewable only by the teacher or give the ability to student to share work within the class.
Boom Cards are interactive lessons created by teachers. Using our platform, teachers can create Boom Cards of self-grading exercises that are gamified for students.
ChessKid teaches the game of chess with lessons and play. Each player, regardless of mastery level, can learn from lessons and videos that cover a wide range of topics, such as an introduction of each chess piece, opening offensive and defensive strategies, and common attacking patterns.
Code.org offers a fun, creative platform for learning basic coding and computer science! Computer Science Fundamental courses teach students computational thinking, problem solving, programming concepts and digital citizenship.
Teachers can assign lessons or students can create individual projects in the different labs.
Edison is free website used as an educational tool for coding the Edison robots.
Email to thelearninline@sd68.bc.ca to check for availability.
Duolingo is a game-based language learning tool. Instructional practice activities covers: reading, writing, speaking, and listening. Students can also practice conversational, situational language skills in the Stories section.
Duolingo offers a consumer and a “for schools” version, and both applications are governed by the same privacy policy.
Use Duolingo for schools so teachers can create student accounts with aliases (email addresses are not required for creating student accounts).
Epic can be accessed via the internet or via the free app, during school hours, providing students with access to a variety of fiction / non-fiction ebooks, narrated books, audio books and videos.
EPIC should be used in combination with many other ways for students to access print / stories and is one part of a student’s comprehensive literacy program.
Teachers MUST NEVER share parent email address with Epic.
FreshGrade is a digital porfolio platform that can be used for Communicating Student Learning.
Email thelearningline@sd68.bc.ca for support.
Je lis is a K–4 comprehensive levelled reading resource for French Immersion.
Kahoot is a student-response tool that allows teachers to run game-like quizzes and build presentations with embedded quizzes. Teachers can either create their own quizzes or find, use, and/or remix public quizzes. Kahoots can be presented live or assigned for self-paced learning.
Teachers create an account and will be asked for personal information such as: email address, username, password, location, interests, picture, organization, title/position, age, etc.
Knowledgehook is an interactive math tool for students in grades 3 through 12. The practice tests and assessments are called Gameshows, which students join from their own computers or a mobile device. Teachers can choose from the existing Gameshows, or they can create their own by entering a set of questions.
Knowledgehook can be used to enhance a math program but should not be the primary mode of delivery.
Make Code is a free online platform for coding Mircro:Bits.
To check for availability of robots, email thelearningline@sd68.bc.ca
Mathletics is an online math program made for hybrid classrooms and home learning. Give your students fun practice, fluency activities, and challenge their thinking with problem-solving / reasoning questions.
An adaptive math-practice game set in a fantasy role-playing universe, students customize colorful, anime-style avatars and send them off to the Wizard Academy to prepare for battle. Wizard spells are powered by math problems. As students progress in their math skills, so do their characters, learning new spells to use against enemies.
This program should be used as a supplemental resource.
Raz-Kids is a website that gives students access to a virtual bookroom of more than 400+ ebooks. Students can choose between listening to their books, reading them aloud (and recording their reading), or simply reading silently. There are also comprehension quizzes for each of the texts that include a set of multiple-choice questions, as well as a constructed response question. Students earn stars for practice and achievement that can be redeemed to customize their own Raz Rocket or to create a personal robot avatar (Common Sense Media).
Raz Kids can be used as one of many resources in a classroom to teach reading
Teachers MUST NEVER share parent email address
Reading Eggs is a paid game-based application for teaching beginning reading skills including phonological awareness and phonics.
The subscription can also be accessed through a free iPad app.
Note: This page represents that Reading Eggs has been vetted through a Preliminary Privacy Impact Assessment for privacy and student safety.
Purchasing a Reading Eggs subscription is a school-based decision and funds will come out of school-based accounts.
Sphero is a free iPad app used as an educational tool for coding the Sphero robots.
Email thelearninline@sd68.bc.ca to check for availability.
SplashLearns is a game-based platform that targets math content for kindergarten through fifth grade based on US Common Core standards (which differ from the BC curriculum).
Teachers can create an account, assign various concepts to either the whole class or individual students, and then track student progress using a detailed reporting system. They can also enable home access so that students can practice at home and their parents can see their progress. In addition to the website, SplashLearn is available as paid app, as well as individual apps split into each grade level. (Common Sense Media)
Splash Learns is used to complement instruction in Numeracy and is not be be used as the only opportunity for Mathematical thinking.
Stop Motion Studio is an iPad app for students to create animated movies.
Teach Your Monster to Read is an early literacy game available as an app (iOS, Android, Kindle) and on the web. Kids play as an alien monster whose spaceship crashes on a deserted island. Missions focus on learning letter and vowel sounds, featuring a series of mini-games spread out across several islands displayed on a colorful map that visually tracks progress.
This game will be used to complement literacy instruction and is one of many tools used. It’s free to play these games on the website. Be aware that mobile devices require a paid app.
Be aware that this app originates from the UK and sounds are pronounced with a British accent.
Tinkercad is a free, kid-friendly online computer-aided design (CAD) program where users can design, modify, and print 3D objects by combining or substracting multiple simple objects to make more complex shapes.
Typing Pal is a simple and efficient web-based program for beginners and intermediates who want to touch type at full speed!
