TeachersFirst - Featured Sites: Week of Mar 2, 2014
Here are this week's features. Clicking the tags in the description area of each listing will present a list of other resources with this topic. | Click here to return to the Featured Sites Archive
CYKE - CYKE
Grades
K to 12tag(s): autism (35), mental health (43), preK (423), adolescence (14), emotions (82), adhd (50), bullying (85), behavior (73), divorce (12),
In the Classroom
Be sure to post this on your website for parents to consult at home. Bookmark this site on your personal computer to use as reference for many emotional health topics, issues, and treatments. There are interactive games for you to use for quiet time activities or rewards (The Land of Cyke) in your Pre-K through 2nd grade classes. Use some of these activities on your interactive whiteboard or projector during class meeting while you are discussing some of these topics in your classroom (such as bullying). Share the site with parents and your school counselor.You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
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Typing Club - TypingClub.com
Grades
3 to 12tag(s): computers (162), keyboarding (48),
In the Classroom
Create a link to Typing Club on classroom computers or in the computer lab. Demonstrate how to use this site (for younger students) on your projector. Use this site for students to practice and learn keyboarding skills. Share a link to the site on your class newsletter or website for students to practice at home.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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The Hunger Games Gender Empowerment Lesson Plan - Glenn Wiebe
Grades
8 to 12tag(s): book reports (51), characterization (26), creative writing (243), sociology (36),
In the Classroom
Download and save this lesson plan for use when reading The Hunger Games in your classroom or as an extension when discussing gender roles and stereotypes. Have students share what they have learned by creating personalized images (with text) using PicFont, reviewed here. Have students use Fakebook (reviewed here) to create a "fake" page similar in style to Facebook about one of the main characters in The Hunger Games . Use these lesson ideas less formally in an afterschool book club.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Futility Closet - Greg Ross
Grades
6 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): puzzles (269), trivia (30), logic (326), poetry (377),
In the Classroom
Bookmark and save Futility Closet as a resource for thought provoking trivia throughout the year. Share one item on your interactive whiteboard (or projector) at the beginning of each class for class discussion. Allow your gifted students to explore this site independently, and perhaps even start their own blog collections. Allow students to explore the site and find interesting items to research and explore further. Use the search tool on Futility Closet to search for trivia on current lessons such as Shakespeare, angles, or any keyword - you will be surprised at your findings! Some of the "curiosities" would be great writing prompts for students to take a position and research/support with evidence. Have students share one item they find interesting and create a project using a tool such as Padlet, (reviewed here). Subscribe to Futility Closet using your RSS Feed Reader. Teacher-librarians would love to use these as research prompts. Include one during your school newscast or PTO newsletter (with proper credit to the source, of course).Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Sketch Toy - Hakim El Hattab
Grades
K to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): writing prompts (123), creative writing (243), images (487), drawing (135), perspective (15), geometric shapes (230), creativity (186),
In the Classroom
Use Sketch Toy to demonstrate symmetrical drawings. This tool is great for enhancing, creating and visualizing math concepts from basic geometric shapes and area to complex constructions and trig. Use on an interactive whiteboard or projector. Use for hands-on work with any geometry or trigonometry functions. Since this tool works on such a variety of devices, it would be ideal to use in a BYOD (or 1:1) geometry class. Art teachers who want to "draw in" their more mathematical students can offer this as a design option, especially when teaching about perspective. Drag in images of alphabet letters for younger students to practice tracing. In art class, pull in images of artworks (even students' own work) and have them highlight design principles such as the path of your eye in viewing this image. Annotate any image using freehand drawing and writing. Use this tool as a visual writing prompt. Transform learning by creating drawing stories where a small group adds to the drawing as they pass it around on a tablet, narrating the story among themselves. Save it and play it back for them to write down their own versions of the story. Drawing stories would be a great way to practice world language skills or for ENL students to master vocabulary!Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Barat Primary Source Nexus - Barat Education Foundation
Grades
2 to 12tag(s): Juneteenth (22), poetry (377), slavery (129), professional development (530), martin luther king (72), immigration (110), roosevelt (23), lincoln (111), presidents (201), writing prompts (123), journalism (113), black history (174), cross cultural understanding (214), primary sources (155), advertising (45), history day (43),
In the Classroom
Take a look at the free professional development for using primary sources for teachers. Search for Connecting to the Common Core, where there are writing prompts for K-5 plus a link to the triangle activity. Download and use the PDF for the Thinking Triangle. Have older students research an interest and report to the class using a tool like Slides, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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The Florence Nightingale Museum - The Florence Nightingale Museum
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): character education (84), medicine (84), biographies (141), heroes (40),
In the Classroom
Florence Nightingale is a favorite subject for biographies, particularly during Women's History Month. The biography and digital artifacts from her life will be useful to students who are researching the impact she made on modern medicine and nursing. Use this research information to create a simple infographic about Nightingale, using Canva Infographic Maker, reviewed here, or Venngage, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Flickr Bad Maths Group - Danny Nicholson
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): financial literacy (129),
In the Classroom
Use Bad Maths images as a great class starter discussion. Display an image on your interactive whiteboard and challenge students to find the flaw. Since many photos show British currency and metric units, use these images as a way to learn conversions to more familiar units. Challenge students to find their own examples of Bad Maths in your neighborhood and share in class. Give them bonus points for taking a cell phone shot and sending it to you! Have students take a picture of the "bad math" and create personalized images (with text) using PicFont, reviewed here.Comments
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Quotes Cover - QuotesCover.com
Grades
1 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): back to school (89), images (487), quotations (34), posters (71), firstday (37),
In the Classroom
Create posters with students' favorite quotes, book titles for a bulletin board, All About Me information, or whatever your imagination produces! Have students include a poster as part of a research project or choose a favorite quote from class reading materials to "cover" a book talk. Create a poster with a quote from any figure in history and personalize it using Creative Commons images. In primary grades enter sight words and other basic vocabulary to create word posters. To find Creative Commons images for student projects (with credit, of course), try Wikimedia Commons, reviewed here. Have students create a poster for Back to School night to share with parents. Use this tool for students to make posters of the class rules they agree upon during the first week of school. Create quote images to use as Facebook "cover" photos for a famous person or fictitious character. World language teachers and students can create clever vocabulary or sentence posters to help master the new language.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Qwant Search Engine (Beta) - Qwant.com
Grades
4 to 12tag(s): search engines (101), bookmarks (101),
In the Classroom
Create a classroom account to create and share resources for any subject. Allow students to add information found on their own. You may want to have students cooperatively "tech out" Quant on your projector or interactive whiteboard so they know how to use all its features. Bookmark Qwant on classroom computers as an alternative search engine to the one you already use. For an alternative research project, have cooperative learning groups research a certain topic and share their resources using this tool.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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