Power My Learning

Power My Learning is a portal to games, activities, videos etc for children. The site is free and sorts the content by American grades as well as by subject matter; math, language arts, science, art & music, computer programming, using technology and your life.

The Power My Learning web site details (below) what a free account gives you access to.

A free account grants access to a world of smart and engaging resources…

• 1,000+ thoroughly vetted academic games, interactive simulations, and videos

• Easy-to-find activities tagged by subject, grade, and Common Core Standards

• “Playlist” feature to sequence activities and individualize learning by student or class

• Lesson plans to incorporate activities into instruction

• Detailed reports for teachers, parents, and students

• Badges and Playpoints to reward student usage

• Flexible platform that can be used in school, after-school, at home, or anywhere in between

There are many 'How to' guides available in the Educators section including such things as creating a class, assigning a playlist (check them out).

Before being able to use the site, children must register; and if they are under 13, they must provide an email from their parent or guardian. A parent can also sign up; then the site is able to provide usage reports so parents can see what kind of things their children are exploring. 

Children earn points by exploring the learning games, simulations and videos. They can also say how good something is by voting on the material that they just played. If they like an activity, the site offers up suggestions for others activities that are similar.

A great site to use in the classroom 

Reading programme

I have been helping with entering data from a research project about a reading programme which is becoming widely used here in New Zealand. Availll is a research based literacy programme for the classroom. It uses films in a series of scripted lessons to teach skills in three areas of literacy:

• comprehension strategies
• vocabulary
• fluency

Availll was developed by Dr. Alice Killackey (previously from Northern Arizona University) who had found, when teaching in the classroom in 2001, that while students had a good understanding of video they did not have good reading skills. She was inspired to use the students' strengths in video to bring up their weaknesses in reading. A range of activities were created, tested and re-tested with dramatic experimental results.

The researchers have found that students are highly motivated to use the programme. Originally this programme was only available in New Zealand but is now available internationally at a very low cost. For those teachers who are looking for a reading programme to motivate their children this is very worthwhile. Some of the books used are available as free downloadable ebooks.

A list server I am on is currently discussing the use of this programme and here is what one teacher had to say:

We found that the students were all very motivated and they found it
exciting to 'read' a DVD. After a term of the programme we found
students listening skills had improved and when we did the PROBE testing
we found most students reading and comprehension levels had improved by
between 1 and 3 years (great result after a term)