Discover resources and strategies for teaching core content areas. Explore tips, tools, and activities to enhance learning across all subjects.
I stumbled across a new website the other day that has me excited. It’s called Recommend Me a Book, and its premise is simple. The site offers the first page of a book for you to read without revealing the title or author or showing you the book cover. After reading the first page, if you’re hooked, you can click a button to find out more about the book.
How the Site Works
While this is not earth shattering, I was very intrigued. This resource prevents the judgment that we sometimes make based on the cover of a book, and instead draws us into the words that the author has chosen. I found myself reading lots of first pages, trying to guess what the book was, as well as just enjoying the reading experience. And then I discovered that you can select a specific genre to read, such as historical or science fiction or children’s. I spent another hour just reading the first pages of favorite children’s books that I hadn’t read in a long time, and that was wonderful!
The website shows predominantly more well-known books. You can also have it show you just book covers, much like browsing in a bookstore. Once you find a book that interests you, you can click on the cover to get the first page. There is also a link provided to Amazon, in case you want to purchase the book.
Educational Uses
I think this site would be great for kids to use and become exposed to many new books that might interest them. Simply click on Genre in the top right and then select Childrens. Click the Save Settings button to keep it there for students. They also have a Young Adult section for older students. As a teacher, I would ask the students to write their own titles for the book after they have read the first page and then compare it to what the author chose. Since the books are given out randomly, each child in the class could be reading a different first page, which could lead to all kinds of sharing activities. They could design a book cover themselves, draw what they think the main character looks like or what the setting is, and make a prediction on how the books will end. For older students, they can dissect the first page to see how the author draws us into the story. Even if they don’t find a book that they want to read, they will still be exposed to at least the first pages of many well-known books.
But now they’ve released a new tool specifically for geometry, and it’s just as amazing. Although not as fully featured as a website like 
Most free books are in the public domain, but that doesn’t mean that they are not relevant for our students. But that’s not the only place to find free books. Some parents and students may benefit from signing up for a free month with a particular service even if they don’t plan to extend their usage beyond the complimentary time.
Many text-to-speech readers are available that can assist with ebooks. Your device and platform may determine which works best for you.
Hot off the press, these updated lists can give you and your students some direction of what author to check out, the next series to explore, and possibly a new genre to try out.
Making a book more enjoyable can easily be done by including some after-reading activities. Here are few to get you started. These are great to share with parents as well!
There’s been a lot of discussion over the last year about implementing genius hour in the classroom. Genius hour is the strategy of giving time for students to do self-directed learning on interests that they are passionate about. Google regularly provides employees 20 percent of their work week that can be devoted to “passion projects,” believing that this will better engage the staff and make them more excited about all of their work. There is nothing magical about the “20 percent” number; it’s more important that you give students some time for open-ended learning in which they can pursue their own interests. Here are a few resources to help you get started integrating this educational trend into your classroom.
that the option to access the Google Play Store on your Chromebook is enabled in the dashboard. You can check your Chromebook by going to Settings. Scroll down until you see the Google Play Store (beta) section. If the option is greyed out, then you’ll need to bake a batch of cookies to take to the domain administrator and ask if they can enable the feature. (Giving cookies increases the chances of having this feature enabled by 64 percent.) If you log in with your personal Google account on the Chromebook, you’ll notice that it is already enabled. But you do NOT want to use your personal account with your students and other teachers. For safety reasons, you always want to use your district account, even if that means bribing the domain administrator or waiting a few days for it to be enabled. 
Once the option to enable is made available, you’ll be able to enable it in Settings and manage Android preferences (similar to if you were setting Android preferences on an Android phone or tablet).
Yippee! You have it enabled. So where it it? Click on the Launcher icon which, by default, is the icon on the bottom left on the shelf. You will now see the Play Store (beta) icon. This beta Play Store is currently a stipped down version of the Play Store you would see if you accessed it through the browser. And yes, you will need to use the beta Play Store to install Android apps. When accessing the store via the browser, your Chromebook will not be an option in the dropdown list of compatible devices. Once you click on the beta store, you will recognize the various categories to help you narrow down what type of app you are looking for. If the developers have not completely finished updating the app in question, it may be available as a beta version. When I spot checked several of the Android apps I have on my phone, almost all were available and ready in the Play Store. You might even find that some app developers have made their product available as a Chrome app (that you install via the Web Store) and an Android app (that you install via the beta Play Store). Either way, once installed, they will appear in your launcher window.
Autodesk SketchBook – Whether it is illustrating, diagramming, or sketchnoting, you’ll find this to be a simple app to use. When done, save the image to your Chromebook.
Trello – More than just a to-do list app, Trello can help you keep track of projects. You can work alone or collaboratively with classmates to keep track of project-based learning activities.
Trading Cards – This isn’t your traditional trading card maker. Templates provided include fictional person, real person, fictional place, real place, object, event, and vocabulary. Once you enter information on the front and back of the card, you can share it as a photo to your photo gallery.
Pic Collage – Share your message with pictures! Pic Collage lets you start by selecting your photos and then adding them to a grid with templates (start with a themed background) or freestyle (begin with a blank slate and add to it). You can also easily add text and search for photos on the internet to add to your collage.
On April 25, Amazon announced a new Alexa designed just for children.