Digital Resources
The libraries of NIST maintain an extensive list of online resources that are meant for all students, parents, and staff to use. The list and shared access codes can be found on the Digital Resources page of the NIST Libraries page in the staff portal.
Online Subscriptions
NIST teachers use a variety of tools to enhance their teaching and learning. Please review this list before adding in your own tools which are similar. If you have something that is not on the list, please let IT know so that we can consider it.
- EdPuzzle – edpuzzle is a site that allows you to take any video and make it into a lesson
- FlipGrid – Flipgrid is an excellent way to have a shared discussion in video format with comments.
- Kami – a document (Google Docs, PDF) annotation tool that integrates completely with Google Classroom.
- Newsela – this is an excellent tool for discovering a wide range of fully searchable resources including; news articles, primary sources, text sets, videos, novel studies, fiction, poetry, pre-made assignments, tasks and quizzes, the ability to create your own assignments, assign tasks etc. to your classes and track student progress. Newsela materials are also great tools for differentiation, being available in a range of lexile reading levels. Here is the NIST Guide for Newsela for teachers. “What if I already use Newsela?”:
There are 3 options…
1. Sign in with Clever and sync the classes. If you are not using Newsela to track assignments, statistics or reading progress – archive your old classes and continue with the Clever sign in
2. Sign in with Clever and sync classes. If you wish to keep your tracked assignments, statistics and reading progress, you can then email Newsela Help and ask them to merge your classes.
3. Continue to use Newsela with Google login. Not recommended.
- Padlet – excellent tool for collaborative brainstorming or idea gathering and sharing.
- Quizlet – we have a 20 user license only for this tool. Engage your students in and out of the classroom, with interactive study material, learning activities and games.
- Screencastify – There is a wonderful Google Chrome extension called Screencastify that allows you to record your whole screen or just one tab along with your webcam and your audio. The school has unlimited Screencastify premium licenses. If you create an account at Screencastify with your NIST email, you will get the premium version. Here is a NIST guide for using Screencastify.
Software
- Adobe Creative Cloud is available to teachers if they need it. Please put in a Help Desk ticket to request the software. The school only has a limited number of licenses, so please make sure that you really need to use this software.