Feed your brain and feed the hungry [Classroom, Geeky]

Nothing my students have done this year has received a better reception than Free Rice. I am very grateful to the people involved in the site. The site is the unique combination of study and philanthropy. In speaking with colleagues, I've found that many are aware of Free Rice and have used it in the past. Sharing it here serves two purpose: I want to ensure you know about it, and I want to update you on its features.

First an introduction. Free Rice is an online learning-aid first and foremost. It was originally created by John Breen as an SAT English Vocabulary study guide for his son in 2007. It has since added many different subjects and banner advertisements that donate money to the United Nations to pay for its namesake: free rice.

It's the perfect learning tool for my students because I see them in quick shots throughout the week, so we can spend 10-15 minutes on Free Rice before we share our Book Club updates. I have found that my students have access to many games that utilize the vocabulary they already have, but not as many to build their vocabularies. Free Rice presents students with a vocabulary word and four choices of synonyms. It tracks students levels and gives them harder or easier words depending on when they get words correct or incorrect. If a student gets a word incorrect, the student is given another chance a few words later. Most teachers I've talked to about Free Rice either had never heard of Free Rice or already knew about the vocab aspect. What they don't realize is that Free Rice added many new subjects, among them:

• Famous paintings
• World Geography
• Grammar
• Foreign Languages
• Basic Math and Multiplication Tables
• Chemistry Symbols

One other reason my students love to play Free Rice is that they are donating rice to feed the hungry while they play. They treat it as a competition to see who can donate the most rice.