19Pencils: The Ideal Classroom

The time consuming task of searching the web for engaging educational content can be frustrating especially for busy teachers.  To help ease the time-crunch, educators will want to try 19Pencils, an educational website for K-8 classes that offers a high quality search engine rich with educational content only.  This educational resource library for teachers has been collaboratively developed by educators from around the world who have shared their teacher-tested materials.  Resources such as lessons, activities, interactive websites, quizzes, etc can be saved and managed using the 19Pencils website which allows teachers to create a collection of resources specific to their students needs.  

The 19Pencils service does not end with searching for resources however!  The true value of 19Pencils is found in the creation a class page where the newly found resources can be directly shared with your students in an easy to use thumbnail format!  




Additional Features of 19Pencils:

Once you have registered for a 19Pencils account, you can also enjoy the use of the following:

1.  Thousands of educational topics are available.  Searches can be quickly narrowed down with the use of the site's search filter.  Each day more and more resources are added by great educators worldwide.

2.  Adding your own content is easily done in one click of the mouse.  The best part is your resource is immediately shared with the rest of the 19Pencils teaching community.

3.  Within your Class Page, student progress and assignment completion can be monitored from the teacher account.  Also, you can create or add custom (single question or multiple choice) quizzes for your students.

4.  If you already have a class website - no problem!  A 19Pencils widget can be embedded into your existing website directing students to 19Pencils activities.  

19Pencils is still in beta meaning that feedback is welcomed as the website's intent is to assist teachers in the best way possible.  If you are a K-8 teacher and you are looking for a time-saving, educationally sound search engine for teacher-tested resources, I highly recommend trying 19Pencils!  Click here to get started!  

This post originally appeared on The De-tech-tive 4 Teachers.

InstaGrok: The Perfect Search Engine for Students

In this technological age we now live in, we are incessantly bombarded by vast amounts of information especially by way of the internet. The volume of information and the speed with which it can be communicated is daunting.  As a result, learning how to efficiently curate and collate information in an organized fashion is of utmost importance.  Students, in particular, will need to be taught key research skills.

InstaGrok is the perfect search engine to teach students research strategies as it is specifically designed to find educationally-suitable, age-appropriate content.  This is very different from other all-purpose search engines as InstaGrok immediately filters out any non-academic information.  Another important research strategy students must learn is how to conceptualize a topic into manageable and content-related chunks.  InstaGrok's mind-map feature is excellent for this as it visually breaks down related aspects of a topic into separate easy to understand bubbles.  Accordingly, the availability of these main features alone will greatly assist students to fully understand and successfully complete their research projects.   


Additional Features of InstaGrok:

The video below further explains additional features of InstaGrok.  Please note that to use InstaGrok, one does not need an account; however, to take advantage of  InstaGrok's full capabilities, it is recommended.




InstaGrok is an excellent research tool for students.  Click here to start your first search!

This post originally appeared on The Detective 4 Teachers.


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