Monthly Archives: November 2016

//November

Tool Tip Tuesday: Wikiwand

Students aren't supposed to use Wikipedia as a starting point in their research, but let's face it, most of them probably do.  Wikiwand is a better way to use the content on Wikipedia with features like a persistent table of contents down the side of the page or the ability to preview in-text links by hovering [...]

By | 2017-09-12T10:40:19-05:00 November 29th, 2016|ePortal|0 Comments

Prioritizing Infrastructure over Devices

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  Here at ePortal we're thankful for all our customers and the opportunities you bring us to grow and improve.   We're also thankful for good networks that allow us to use our products, and we know that getting the right wireless network to keep up with the demands of twenty-first technology can [...]

By | 2017-09-12T11:04:10-05:00 November 24th, 2016|ePortal|0 Comments

Tool Tip Tuesday: InstaGrok

InstaGrok combines the best parts of a search engine and a graphic organizer.  Students enter a topic they want to search for and InstaGrok returns a concept web with topics and sources related to the input.  If students sign up for a free account, they have the opportunity to edit and save their concept maps [...]

By | 2017-09-12T10:40:28-05:00 November 22nd, 2016|ePortal|0 Comments

Education Superhighway

Every school pays for wireless, but not every school pays the same amount.  (And not every school gets the same amount of bandwidth for what they're paying.)  If you're curious about how what your school district pays compares to other schools in your area, use the Education Superhighway Compare & Connect tool to see if [...]

By | 2017-09-12T11:04:22-05:00 November 17th, 2016|ePortal|0 Comments

Tool Tip Tuesday: Spelling City

Very few students enjoy doing spelling practice but Vocabulary Spelling City allows you to transform spelling drills into something that they will enjoy doing.  On the app, students can practice sample word lists organized by grade level and complete fun word games like hangman and scrambles and complete spelling quizzes.  If a teacher registers for [...]

By | 2017-09-12T10:40:38-05:00 November 15th, 2016|ePortal|0 Comments

Chromebook Secrets

Looking to implement Chromebooks in your school but don't know where to start?  You can read the accounts of four school districts that employed a 1:1 Chromebook program with their high school students here.  They go over best practices and things they found that particularly worked for their students.  (And don't worry, ePortal works on [...]

By | 2017-09-12T10:40:49-05:00 November 10th, 2016|ePortal|0 Comments

Tool Tip Tuesday: Lexile Framework

Giving students lists of books to read tailored to their specific reading level is great to make sure they stay engaged but can eat into the limited time that you have to prepare for class.  The Lexile Framework provides a way for students to generate their own lists of books at their reading level and [...]

By | 2017-09-12T10:41:00-05:00 November 8th, 2016|ePortal|0 Comments

Students Vote 2016

NewsELA has published the results of its student election for this election season.  Detailed results and breakdowns are available for you to use this information with your class and if your class happened to vote in the poll, you can view your class's overall results and how they compare with other classes.  NewsELA also offers [...]

By | 2017-09-12T11:04:33-05:00 November 3rd, 2016|ePortal|0 Comments

Tool Tip Tuesday: FindTheData

One great thing about the internet is the ability for anyone to access large amounts of data.  Data aggregators like FindTheData present lots of information in ways that are easy for students to understand, organized visually into easily readable charts.  FindTheData also gives students the opportunity to select entries to compare across certain domains later. [...]

By | 2017-09-12T09:46:08-05:00 November 1st, 2016|ePortal|0 Comments