Looking for ways to enhance your child’s learning? Below are several educational websites to boost learning and improve computer skills.

One skill that will help your student in so many ways is typing. This skill is also called keyboarding, and it will be essential for our 21st-century learners. There is more technology use in the classrooms this year at ALL grade levels, so typing skills are a HUGE benefit to your child. Typing makes projects, testing, searching, publishing papers, etc. easier and more effective. If you can type quickly, you can get all of those great ideas down on the page! There are several FREE typing programs available online (see below).

Here are some fun, educational sites curated for our Mt. Bethel students. Please note that some of the websites and apps below may require a subscription or a small fee, but most are free!

Also, you have access to your teacher’s Clever page from home:

Clever Portal for CCSD Students – login with Active Directory using your CCSD Office 365 account login
- Clever provides access to many online learning programs such as Sora, BrainPop, and DreamBox

And if you’re looking for apps, here are several that check the “fun” and “educational” boxes. Links are mostly to the Apple App Store, but several are also on Google Play:

Adaptive Learning: Khan Academy Kids

Geography: Stack the Countries and Stack the States

Coding: Tynker, codeSpark Academy, Scratch Jr., Hopscotch, and Kodable

Creativity: Book Creator, Draw and Tell, My Storybook Maker, Puppet Pals HD, Superhero Comic Book Maker, and Chatter Pix Kids.

Logic: Cryptogram, Unblock Me, and Balance Benders

If you’d like to help your child remain on an educational app while on an iPhone, iTouch, or iPad, you can enable Guided Access. More information can be found here on the Apple website.

In case you aren’t familiar with me, here’s a little background: I started at Mount Bethel in July 2020 as the new Foundation-funded Technology Coordinator. What have I learned so far? 2020 might not have been the easiest year to have the word ‘TECHNOLOGY’ in your job title… That said, I’m not one to seek out ‘easy’. Instead, I like to make tasks easier for others, and I love a challenge!! Troubleshooting and problem-solving are two of my favorite activities.

During the school year, I start most of my days helping a teacher or parent with tech issues: a monitor won’t connect, the sound isn’t coming out of the interactive board, my child can’t get into [CTLS, Clever, Zoom, etc.], or my student can’t see an assignment. Solving the problem as quickly as possible is my primary goal, so teachers can get back to teaching, students can get back to learning, and parents can get back to their lives, too.

Managing the physical devices and our computer labs at Mount Bethel is also part of my job. As you know, we have hundreds of devices – iPads, laptops, desktops, etc. I keep track of all devices and make sure they are updated and ready to go when needed. What you may not know: most schools do not have the benefit of a dedicated person on-site to handle these tasks. Your support of your MBES Foundation helps make this dream a reality, directly impacting your child’s ability to maximize his/her learning.

Thanks to your donations, Foundation has supported numerous mission-critical initiatives – from trainings to equipment to staff to an amazing turf field to ANYTHING that helps enrich, empower, and excel our Mount Bethel students! CLICK HERE for more information on ALL the Mt. Bethel Foundation offers.

With gratitude for the opportunity the help students excel in technology,
Shawn Lieth, MBESF Technology Coordinator