The Flocabulary Blog

May 13, 2019
Cayley Ross

Flocabulary & Nearpod, EdTech Power Duo: How do both platforms increase engagement?

If you know Nearpod, you know why we’re so excited about becoming part of their fam — engagement for days! But in case you’ve never used or even heard of Nearpod, here are some firsthand accounts from Nearpod and Flocab co-users to help you understand why they fit together perfectly. Before you combine two tools, you have to know why they’re valuable individually. Below, we asked what makes Flocabulary and Nearpod so great as standalone classroom tools.

Read on!

April 26, 2019
Lindsay Rothfeld

Power in Poems: Engaging students with poetry instruction

For April’s #FlocabChat, we talked about how poetry can help students hone a variety of skills, such as analytical thinking, artistic expression, creative writing and public speaking. There are so many ways that poetry can be used in the classroom, and more than that, there are many mediums (like hip-hop) whose texts can be read and analyzed as poetry. Flocabulary offers several lessons about poetry, but as many educators in our community point out, Flocabulary's content is poetry. To delve into why, see some of the chat's highlights below. The chat was led by Platinum MCEducator Megan Forbes, or as…

Read on!

April 19, 2019
Lindsay Rothfeld

Q&A with Jaden, Our Black History Rap Contest Winner

We are thrilled to announce that we've selected our winner of the Black History Rap Contest: Jaden. Jaden J. is a gifted poet, and with over 1,000 submissions, his immediately stood out for its emotional power and imagery even in its opening line and impressing us with his lyricism all the way through. Jaden seamlessly wove together John Lewis's biography, the broader historical context, connections to today and the impact he has had on him personally. In his video, it's also clear that Jaden is a talented performer. We can't wait to meet him in person when he records his song with…

Read on!

April 19, 2019
Cayley Ross

Black History Rap Contest Results Are In: Meet our Winner + Finalists

No doubt you’ve heard about, and maybe even participated in, our Black History Rap Contest. If you’ve been following along, you know that we’ve selected our finalists and you are probably biting your nails in anticipation of finding out the winner.

Read on!

February 27, 2019
Cayley Ross

Test Prep with Flocabulary: 6 Tips for Navigating Testing Season

As high-stakes testing season approaches, the classroom can become a whirlwind of test prep. With these tests drawing nearer and nearer, it’s important for teachers to focus on more than just content because there's more to being prepared than just knowing all the answers. Students must be able to deal with stress and anxiety, have good studying habits and practice the act of taking a test itself. But how do you address these skills in the classroom? We asked teachers this very question, and here’s what we found.

Read on!