Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a centralized website that pulled together the very best free online digital learning games and materials and tagged them by subject and grade level?
And wouldn’t it be great if these learning materials were selected and tagged by classroom teachers and education experts, and not just by anybody?
Wouldn’t it be incredibly helpful if the activities were matched to the specific common core standard they powered-up?
While we're thinking and wishing and hoping, don’t you want each activity to have a kids' star-rating system, so other kids could find and enjoy playing the favorite games? What about teacher ratings? And parent ratings? ("My kid played this game for hours and learned about the periodic table, but didn't bother to rate it.")
What if it had summer playlists for kids by grade and subject? Or reports for parents on what their kids like playing, so they could better understand their interests?
This would be an awesome database of tagged, rated, and play-listed activities. But, to be outstanding it would have to be kept up-to-date, and that's expensive. So, wouldn't it be nice if education philanthropists paid for the effort, and made it available for free, for the benefit of all families?
Happy times. This is available now at PowerMyLearning.org.
PowerMyLearning has been developing this database since 2010. It sources from numerous high quality sites like PBS Parent, Scholastic, and NASA. It has registered users from over 7,000 school communities throughout the 50 states. And, it’s available for use by anyone in any state – all that’s needed is a free account.
Here's how to check it out. Go to PowerMyLearning and create a free Parent account to login. You can search on an area of learning, like dividing by fractions, or on a book, like Diary of Anne Frank. Go to the grade your kid will enter in the fall, and discover what topics will be covered. Then, show your kids, and they can set up their own accounts.
Parents can put PowerMyLearning to use the whole summer through, as well as during the school year. More importantly, parents can use it to get smarter about digital learning materials and grade-by-grade common core topics. Once you understand this information it's easier to informally point out, during ordinary times together, the topics your kids will encounter more formally in school.
