Share these web resources on your teacher web page or copy the printables to encourage parent involvement and help them know how best to support their students.
Students, teachers and parents will find helpful information for getting organized, taking notes, writing and plagiarism, test taking tips, and research. Be sure to check out the special sections for teachers and parents. Flash and Acrobat Reader are needed for some sections of the site. Get them from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page..
In the Classroom: For younger students, share the site with parents (such as to help first graders study spelling words). For upper elementary and middle school, introduce the site on a projector or interactive whiteboard at the start of the year or as you start major projects. Whether you teach regular ed or learning support, these tips will help your students be better organized and use their study time wisely. Include this link on your teacher web page and ask students to try out different strategies as they study for tests or complete long-term assignments. You might even give points on the test or project for a student reflection telling you which study strategy they tried and how it worked for him/her.
During parent conference time, the topic of homework inevitably surfaces, and parents are anxious for advice on how to help their children get the most out of assignments and projects. This online resource provides many useful tips on helping children develop good study habits and a positive attitude toward the learning process.
Parents of elementary and middle school students will be delighted with this helpful collection of ideas for successfully entering a new school year. Backpack safety, study habits, bullying, television use, and homework and study habits are just a few of the topics discussed.
In the Classroom: If you have a summer newsletter, be sure to highlight this website. List this website on your class website during the summer months for parents to view during the break.
This article on the importance of study skills and ways to encourage children to develop good study habits is especially useful for parents. There are sections on time management, encouraging your child, organization, study tools, and more. The skills apply to all students and would be especially helpful for learning support students even earlier in their academic careers.
In the Classroom: Share this link with parents at open house or conferences. Publish it in your classroom newsletter or on your teacher web page. You might even print out one section at a time as a series of mini-help sheets for parents. Middle school students could use it in class as a discussion starter to help themselves develop independence with their school work.
TeachersFirst Edge Entry: for moderately adventurous technology users. Create simple audio podcasts using this online tool and the free space they provide. Simply put, this tool lets you create and place sound recordings online for people to listen to and/or download from a web site. There are MANY free podcasts in a variety of subject areas (art, health, technology, music, business, and more). The site itself is a "web 2.0," social networking style site, so some schools may have it blocked. Ask about unblocking just YOUR teacher account so you can have students access it while at school and under your supervision.
What can it do? You can record sound directly with the microphone built or plugged into your computer and make it available for people to listen to online or download to their MP3 player. See and hear a sample we made for you.
In the Classroom: Skills needed: Join the site (free); Membership requires email. Then attach a mike or use your built-in computer mike; create the podcast by clicking a record button,(you may have to tell your computer to "allow" nonsecure items over and over). Choose a background for your podcast page. Share it with others using one of several sharing options on the "My Podcast" tab, including copying the link to paste in an email or newsletter or embedding the podcast in your class web page or wiki.
Safety/Security: Podomatic does not allow memberships for those under 13. Teachers using this tool with younger students should do so under supervision and with a teacher-controlled account. The site is a "general public" site, so the home page has links to recent podcasts that may not be appropriate for the classroom. Discuss this possibility and tell students NOT to click on other's work or simply avoid sending students into the site on their own. Be sure you have parent permission and check school policies before allowing students to post work online. Carefully select or SKIP many sharing mechanisms for safety's sake. Limit any identifiable information within the podcasts. You may want to share the links to class podcasts only with your students and parents. If you have students record podcasts as assignments, you may need multiple accounts because the free accounts have limited file space. An elementary teacher might have enough space for 25 students to keep a limited number of products on his/her own account, depending upon length. The site will tell you how much space each podcast takes and how much you have left. Check your school policies about accessing/sharing student email on school computers. You may want to create your own Gmail account with up to 20 subaccounts for each group of students (by code name or number) within your classes. Here is a blog post that tells how to create these subaccounts for use in joining any web-tool site.
Possible uses: You could record your homework assignments or directions; you can record story time or a reading excerpt for younger ones to listen to at a computer center AND from home! Have better readers record selected passages for your non-readers (perhaps older buddies). Launch a service project for your fifth or sixth graders to record stories for the kindergarten to use in their reading and listening center. Have students create "you are there" recordings as "eyewitnesses" to historical or current events; make a weekly class podcast, with students taking turns writing and sharing the "Class News;" have students create radio advertisements for concepts studied in class (Buy Dynamic DNA!); have students write and record their own stories or poetry in dramatic readings; language students or beginning readers could record their fluency by reading passages; allow parents to hear their child's progress reading aloud, etc. Compare world language, speech articulation, or reading fluency at two points during the year. Have your Shakespeare students record a soliloquy! Write and record a poem for Father's or Mother's Day (or other special events) and send the URL as a gift to that special person.
Here's a site that explains why teachers give homework, what parents can do to help their children work effectively, and ways to assist while allowing chldren to assume the responsibility for their assignments.
Encourage parents to become involved with their children's education using these helpful, downloadable booklets on helping your child with science, history, math, reading, homework, early adolescence, preschool, general success in school, and being a responsible citizen. Some are geared for elementary only and others extend through middle school. Most are also available in Spanish version. Download as a pdf (Acrobat file) or Word document. You can order copies, but it may be easier and faster to simply print your own. Remember that you need Acrobat Reader to open pdf files. Get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: Hand these booklets out at back to school night, open house, or conferences. Encourage parents to become involved supportively.
Kid's HealthGrade 3 to 12
- The Nemours Foundation's Center for Children's Health Media- 7422
Divided into parts for parents, younger children, and teenagers, Kid's Health presents health issues in an attractive, frank, and appealing format. The younger kid's section features a daily health question, homework help, a "Big Question" section, hot topics, and health concerns presented from the point of view of the child. In addition, some of the pages are available in Spanish. Other sections include health issues for grown ups and a glossary, the latter of which is available in Spanish. Video clips include health-related topics featuring well-known athletes. The teen section provides answers to multiple teen questions about health including sexual issues, drug and alcohol concerns, food and fitness, your body, your mind, and hot topics. The parents' section has regular health topics about raising a child. Requires Flash.
In the Classroom: Health teachers will want to share this site on their teacher web page or in class as part of sex ed units and study of disease. Younger students wondering about illnesses such as cancer will also be able to find good information, written at a level they can understand.
This site contains open discussion of topics. We suggest that you preview it to be sure it is in compliance with your school's policies. Some portions discuss topics that will cause great giggles among less mature students, so preview and set the tone before trungin students loose.
ScribdGrade 9 to 12
- Trip Adler , Jared Friedman, Tikhon Bernstam - 8605
TeachersFirst Edge tool: for moderately adventurous technology users. This online file storage and sharing space allows you to upload Word documents, Excel files, pdfs, PowerPoint files, and other formats and keep them in a place where others (or just you) can access them. Scribed provides tools to convert between file types, for example to make a Word document into a pdf (readable in Acrobat Reader on most computers)or even to convert it into a SOUND file (MP3). The sound conversion apparently takes some time, as our editors found when uploading a sample. The default set-up makes files public when you upload, so you are , in effect, "publishing" them to the web, but you also have options to make them "private," i.e. limited access via a private URL for that document, or to make them only available to a certain "group." You can create or join groups, as well. Our editors made a sample that is "private," but available via this link. The site uses FLASH, so be sure you have the plug-in.
In the Classroom: Skills needed: Join (free). Email address is optional. Determine whether you have the copyright to the file(s) you wish to upload. You may ONLY upload files to which you hold the rights. Locate files on your computer and upload them. (Read FAQ for file types that are permissible). Choose options for that file: tags, private/public, etc. Create groups, such as for your class or group projects. Determine rights of the groups---who uploads? Who administers the group? You can also bulk upload. There is also a "collections" feature within your account, possible for different types of work, different student authors, etc. If you have a class log, click "more options" at the left of a document display to copy code and embed the actual Scribd file in your blog---a SAFE way to share it without sending students to Scribd.
How would you use this? As a productivity tool for yourself, you can make all your own files available from any computer, so you will never say, "I left it on my desktop at home." This is handy for itinerant teachers or forgetful students. Having pdf versions of handouts available with a few clicks makes it easy to share them with students via email or links on your teacher web page.
As an instructional tool, you will first need to manage some safety issues. Scribd is a site for the general public, a]so the texts available can have objectionable subject matter. "Browsing" Scribd is not an option for the classroom unless they launch a Squeaky-clean education version. If more mature students want to maintain (and even share) a writing portfolio to accompany college applications or simply document their growth as a writer over time, this tool is great, It will even save "versions" of documents to show writing process. There are some other ideas in our sample document. For safety reasons, we recommend a written Scibd policy for your classroom requiring parent permission for using the site, maintaining limited access for class members of selected "collaborators," such as a partner class from another school, and strict NO BROWSING, NO COMMENTING , NO JOINING GROUPS unless they are known to the teacher. The simplest way to control this is to have all students use ONE account (that you can monitor) and create individual collections or "tag" their work with their initials or some other unique identifier. This would allow everyone to "keep" work there, so you can open drafts on a whiteboard, access writings from a few months ago for comparison side-by-side, etc.
A "possible uses" list:
Share handouts or study guides (yours or student-made)
Share permission forms, lab report formats, assignments, calendars, project rubrics and details, science fair documents, collaborative writing or group projects. Create an online literary magazine "dropbox." Encourage student responsibility by suggesting they maintain their own file repository on Scribd so they ALWAYS have their homework. Help students "hear" their own drafts read aloud (if the audio conversion works quickly enough). Share all lab data from a science experiment so students have a large data set to analyze. Then share their lab reports. Have students "turn in" any assignment to your group (if you and their parents think they are trustworthy on the site alone). The list goes on and on...
This free site offers daily news on current events along with in-depth special reports, polls to participate in, games and quizzes on a variety of topics. Scholastic News Online can be used alone or as an extension of the Scholastic Classroom Magazines. Be sure to visit the Homework Hub for information students (and teachers) can use for getting organized, taking notes, writing and plagiarism, test taking tips, and research. Parent section offers tips for discussing current events with their child. Flash is needed for some games and videos. Get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: Put a link on your teacher web page for parents and students to access it at home or in study times at school. Preview the site to determine which news stories best suit your curriculum and the age of your students. Younger classes may need help reading some of the articles: use a projector so the news story can be read aloud as students follow along. Take a class vote after viewing the Vote Now! Poll and graph the class results. After posting the class vote, compare the class results with the results of the poll on the site.
bubble.usGrade K to 12
- Kirill Edelman and Levon Amelyan- 1207
TeachersFirst Edge Review: for slightly adventurous technology users. This simple and free online tool allows you to brainstorm ideas – no special software! Bubble.us features some highly interactive abilities: saving your mind map as an image, sharing (emailing) your work with a friend, printing your organizer, creating colorful mind map organizers, embedding your work into a website or blog, and working with friends. You are able to "play" at this site without registering; however registration is necessary for saving, embedding, emailing, and other features. This site requires Flash. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
Here is an example of a bubbl.us map embedded in a page. Click and drag on the background to read more, or try the zoom controls:
In the Classroom: Skills Needed: If you intend to save, email, or print your organizer you must join the site. Registration is free, simple, and requires an email address. You can start using the “membership” immediately and without confirming the email, though, which makes it quite convenient. Tip: rather than using your personal or work email, create a free Gmail account to use for memberships. If you plan to have students register individually, you may want to create your own Gmail account with up to 20 subaccounts for each group of students (by code name or number) within your classes. Here is a blog post that tells how to set up GMail subaccounts to use for any online membership service. Experiment with the small icons on each “element” to change colors, drag, make new connections, etc.
Once registered (if you choose to do so), you will be taken to the work area. A box marked "Start Here" can be clicked on to type the subject of your mapping activity. By clicking Enter you create a new level (branch) within the map. By clicking Tab you create an additional branch on the same level as the current word. Save and set sharing (read-only or open access) in the area at the right. You can “send” a read-only link via email or copy the embed code from the Menu at lower right), but you cannot find the URL directly from your map. "Send" it to yourself via email to copy the actual URL. You may want to have your class accounts all be “friends” with you for easy sharing or simply have them "email" their finished work to you using the menu button.
Safety/Security Concerns: Check your school policies on student email subaccounts (Gmail), if you plan to have students use Bubbl.us on their own. You may want to use a teacher account and allow students to use it under your supervision. Be sure to obtain written parent permission before posting ANY student work online. Fortunately, there are no “see others’ work” links or other easy access to inappropriate content.
Possible Uses: There are countless possibilities at this mental mapping site. Demonstrate the activity on an interactive whiteboard or projector, and then allow students to try to create their own graphic organizers. Use this site for literature activities, research projects, social studies, or science topics of study. Use this site to create family trees. Have students collaborate together (online) to create group mind maps or review charts before tests on a given subject.
Some student project ideas: Have students... organize any concepts you study; color-code concepts to show what they understand, wonder, question; map out a story, plotline, or LIFETIME; map out a step-by-step process (life cycle); map a real historical event as achoose-your-own-adventure with alternate endings(?) based on pivotal points; plan a “tour” for a “thought museum.”
Use this mapping website as an alternative to a traditional test, quiz, or homework assignment in literature or social studies: have students demonstrate their understanding by completing a graphic organizer about the main points. Be sure that they RENAME it before they start work to an individual name so you know who did it (they could EMAIL it to you!) or have them print their results to turn them in. See more ideas in the embedded example above!
Based upon Gardner’s Eight Styles of Learning, this inventory allows your student to understand how they learn. Through 80 questions, the user will be told which learning styles are his strength or weakness. It’s simple to use. Simply type in a username, if you are male or female, if you are right or left handed, and your age. Click to Begin. You will be provided a USER ID number. Make sure you write down the user ID number assigned to each student, as entering that number is the only means to look at your inventory results. All information is confidential; no names are entered, therefore the ID number is essential. The site allows a maximum of 40 users on the inventory at a time. They provide the current number of users on the main page.
In the Classroom: Regular ed and learning support teachers from middle school up will want to share this resource with students and parents to help students find the most effective ways to study and retain knowledge. Introduce to parents the concept of Gardner’s Styles of Learning by letting them take this Multiple Intelligence test in the computer lab during Parent Night. Include the link on your teacher web page or plan a start-of-the year in-class time to help students get off on the right foot. Younger gifted students may also find this site intriguing. Even teachers of gifted will find this resource helpful when their gifted students, unaccustomed to such an experience, unexpectedly "hit the wall" in challenging courses. As part of a study skills unit, have students self-assess and create a single database of the class members' learning styles and subject strengths so they can find peer-tutors during study halls.
This site provides homework tips for middle school students. Highlights include organization, avoiding procrastination and more.
In the Classroom: This article may be a useful reference for some of your parents. Share the link on your teacher web page, at conferences, or in a newsletter or note sent home.
Teachers First Edge Entry: for slightly adventurous technology users. This tool helps you create an interactive family tree. Once you are registered, the family tree is easy to create. You are able to include family members’ birth-dates, death-dates, email addresses, pictures, marital status, and more. The site also includes some really neat features: Celebrity Morph, look-a-like meter (for children and parents), "smart matches" for your family tree, the ability to print family trees, and other features. The family tree and some of the other activities require Flash. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: Skills Needed: this site is fairly simple to use. Join the site (free) and log in. Registration requires an email address and some other personal information (name, hobbies, etc..). Tip: rather than using your personal or work email, create a free Gmail account to use for memberships. If you plan to have students register individually, you may want to create your own Gmail account with up to 20 subaccounts for each group of students (by code name or number) within your classes. Here is a blog post that tells how to set up GMail subaccounts to use for any online membership service.
Navigation of the site is rather simple. Once you put in your own name, there are buttons on the bottom right and left side of your "name box" to "add" an additional family member or "edit" the current name. Once you click to "add" a member, you are able to put in their name, birth date, death date, marital status, and email address (see safety concerns). One tip: to scroll UP use the DOWN arrow, to scroll DOWN use the UP arrow.
Safety/Security Concerns: This site allows users to set-up their family tree as PRIVATE. It allows you to control who can and can't view your profile, family tree, and other information. For more information about this feature, visit the Privacy link (on the bottom bar). Before you plan your family tree project, be sure to get parental permission. You may want to use this tool with first names and last initials and keep email addresses out of it for safety’s sake.
Possible Uses: Use this site to create family tree projects in elementary or middle school classes. Have high school students create family trees as part of a unit studying immigration patterns in social studies classes. In science class, have students create fictitious "people" as they study genetics. With younger students, create a class “family” sharing important dates for individuals (i.e. birthdays) or to teach vocabulary and spelling of family terms, such as “grandmother” and “uncle.” Have students share their family trees on an interactive whiteboard or projector. Be sure to "advertise" this project on your class website (and newsletter, if applicable) so students have time to gather names, birthdates, and other information about family members. In world language classes, have students create a family tree using the correct vocabulary for relatives and talk about it (in their new language!) as they share it on the interactive whiteboard. When researching famous people, reading biographies, or even reading literature, have students create a family tree illustrating their discoveries about their famous person, writer, artist, musician, explorer, literary character, etc.
This site, created by Brenda Nicholson, a mom and trained ADD coach, offers a blog-like format with reference information and more -- all related to ADD. If you have ADD/ADHD students in your classroom, you may want to save this gem in your favorites. There are links for ADD students, life skills, organization, time management tips, RSS feed newsletters, a search engine, and other topics. Although the site includes podcasts, they do not seem to be working at the time of this review. You will definitely want to steer the parents of your ADD/ADHD students here. Be aware there is some commercialization of products (books and coaching) by the web owner, but the advantages warrant a “thumbs up” for this site.
In the Classroom: Post this link on your class website among parent resources or for students to access discreetly. This site offers tips to help ADD/ADHD students that are really useful to ALL students. Pass this site along to your special education staff. If you feel a parent needs additional information on this subject, the sister site to ADD Student is ADD Moms .
This set of "take home" fliers is designed to help parents help their students. You can personalize each of these fliers with your own name so they look like you created them especially for your class. (Well you did, didn't you?) These fliers will print directly from your browser; there are no special plug-ins required. You can also preview each flier in a new window before personalizing it. Topics include reading tips, homework tips (separate ones for elementary and middle school), and customizable SuperGram!! - Give a compliment to a student who has earned one!
In the Classroom: Use this handy link to make handouts for back to school night, end-of-summer letters to greet new students, or conference handouts. Of course you'll love the convenience of sending "Supergrams" in a flash to reinforce GOOD things in your classroom. Mark this one in your Favorites, for sure.
This website offers information about the Six Traits of Writing. The site provides links to lesson plans, rubrics, parent tips, writing prompts, posters, and detailed information about each of the six traits. Although this website tends to be geared towards elementary and/or middle school grades, all teachers could glean something from this extensive, no-frills site.
In the Classroom: Be sure you mention this site in your blog, class website, and class newsletter for easy explanation of the Six Traits model. Make a set of posters and put them into clear sleeves for each student. When put into a three-ring notebook, students can save quick writes and samples throughout the year by placing them into the appropriate section.
Use this free website to help your students prepare for standardized writing tests. Team up with the science or social studies teacher and have students use the Six Trait Writing "across the curriculum" as they write essays or stories for other content areas.
This visually "plain vanilla" learning style inventory, created by an instructional designer at Penn State, is simple enough to use in a middle or high school classroom without explaining elaborate personality traits and indexes to preteens and young adults. (There is one unfortunate mention of smoking, since the inventory was designed for college students. You may want to point it out and make an active disclaimer. about not promoting smoking!). This free, simplified inventory is short enough to complete and discuss during one class period. NOTE: the results of the inventory come up in a small pop-up window. Make sure your pop-up blocker is not preventing you from seeing them. The Google and Yahoo toolbars block pop-ups! In Internet Explorer, you can temporarily turn off the blocker by RIGHT-clicking on the narrow yellow bar that appears at the top of the web page window.
In the Classroom: Regular ed and learning support teachers from middle school up will want to share this resource with students and parents to help students find the most effective ways to study and retain knowledge. Include the link on your teacher web page (with a note about the unfortunate mention of smoking!) or plan a start-of-the year in-class time to help students get off on the right foot. Even teachers of gifted (whose students are notorious for inconsistent study methods because they have not "needed" to study) will find this resource helpful when students "hit the wall" in challenging courses. As part of a study skills unit, have students self-assess and create a single database of the class members' learning styles and subject strengths so they can find peer-tutors during study halls.
Give students a hands-on experience as they investigate the properties of light. Complete the practical experiments that range from growing seeds to making a pinhole camera to learn about reflection, absorption and shadows. The site provides downloadable worksheets and teacher notes that are ready to print and copy. A few British terms are used in this site.
In the Classroom: Share the activity handouts with students and parents to try as a whole-class experiment or an at-home enrichment activity while you are studying plants and/or light.
This site provides a good introduction to science fairs to help teachers, students and parents. There are separate sections of information on getting started, choosing a topic, completing the project, displaying the project and the Scientific Method. The section and links on Scientific Method are quite useful, even if your school does not do a science fair.
In the Classroom: As you study scientific method, use the science fair examples as exercises for students to identify independent and dependent variables for the various projects. Give students the links to "find" experiments and analyze them with a partner or do this analysis as a class, sharing the project ideas on a projector or interactive whiteboard. The whiteboard tools would allow you to color code and highlight the various steps of scientific method consistently to help learning support students.
Include this site on your teacher web page for students and parents to access as a reference. Consider directing students and parents to particular links within this site that apply to the science fair students are participating in.
Although this site sells its programs to help parents and children stay safe on the Internet, the sections for Teens and Parents contain valuable information and tools. In addition to examples of how scary and intrusive unsafe use of the Internet can be, the pages for parents and teens offer Safety Tips and a downloadable Internet Safety Plan. This site requires Real Player or QuickTime and Adobe Acrobat. Get them from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page..
In the Classroom: Share the parent information on your teacher web page or in a classroom newsletter, especially if you ask students to use the Internet for homework assignments. It is easy to avoid the advertising or donation areas of the site and use the important information.
This website offers a variety of books for parents (about parenting topics). Some topics include gifted students, helping your child manage stress, money management for kids, homework tips, sleeping guides and more.
In the Classroom: This article may be a useful reference for some of your parents. Share the link on your teacher web page, at conferences, or in a newsletter or note sent home.
This site provides a chart for students in grades 1, 3 and 5. The chart describes what should be expected of students at each grade level in reference to unloading their backpack, homework time and reloading their backpack.
In the Classroom: This article may be a useful reference for some of your parents. Share the link on your teacher web page, at open house, or in a newsletter or note sent home.
Students – ages 11 to 16 - can solicit the help of a virtual librarian on this British site that offers an "Ask Jeeves" style of homework assistance. A teacher-monitored live advice session is offered during evening hours (U.K. time - roughly 2pm-5pm Eastern time).
In the Classroom: While this site does not have all of the answers, and the search method can be a bit awkward (correct spelling is a must!), it is still useful as a resource to point students in the right direction when they need more information about a topic. Bookmark this site on your classroom computer or suggest that parents make it available to their children as an at-home reference.
This site, a companion to the PBS program of the same name, uses five case studies to help parents, teachers, and students understand the challenges associated with learning and developmental disabilities in children and adults. It includes several simulations that can give users a sense of how someone with a particular disability perceives the world.
In the Classroom: Any teacher who works with special education students could benefit from this one.
Here is a comprehensive listing of accommodations and interventions in the classroom for ADD/LD students. Includes information on student work areas, student transitions, lesson plans/assignments, homework adaptations, testing considerations, student motivation and parent involvement.
Combine writing, an explorers' study, and fall celebrations using this activity which asks students to compose an epitaph for an explorer of their choice. Writing and art opportunities abound, and the end product makes a great display for parent-teacher conferences.
The EServer (originally founded as the English Server) is a cooperative which has been publishing humanities materials since 1990. It currently offers over thirty-five thousand works. A few of its many general topic categories include: 18th Century Studies, Cultural Theory, Recipes, Literacy and Education, Marx and Engels, and Rhetoric. This is a comprehensive and rich site well worth a look.
In the Classroom: Include this site on your teacher web page for students and parents to access as an extensive reading resource.
Woices (beta)Grade 4 to 12
- Woices Enterprise, S.L.- 10000
TeachersFirst Edge Review: for moderately adventurous technology users. This site, still in beta, offers a FREE service that allows you to create and share "echoes." Echoes are words (audio recordings), left by anyone at any place, and can be played over and over by any visitors who find them. Listeners will feel as if they are really there! Echoes can be anything from personal memories, personal messages to a class, history or art related annotations of a place, music to accompany that place, or any kind of audio you can connect to a location. The audio recordings are linked to geographic locations or real-world objects (in the place where they are located). Echoes could also be fictitious accounts "placed" somewhere in the world to tell a story. Woices states that the goal of the site is to "extend reality by creating a new layer of audio information, what we call the echosphere, that will make the world a more interesting place."
You can create your own "echo" or listen to various "echoes" created by others from around the world. Click Explore to hear the echoes of the world (in every language imaginable). You do not need to join to explore and listen to others' echoes. The site uses Google Maps to share the world. Echoes are also labeled with an "e-code" for easy access by URL and listening via mobile phone. Completed echoes can be shared as an embedded device in a wiki or web page, via email, or by URL link (click Share). Here is a sample echo created by the TF Edge team. The site also includes tools for comments, blogs, forums, and other "social" aspects. This site does require Flash. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
Note: Future plans for Woices (remember, it is still in beta) include integrating it to work with GPS-enabled mobile phones, so you could "listen" to locations as you visit them without knowing or searching for the e-codes -- right on your mobile phone. Imagine touring the Gettysburg battlefields or a museum with an audio guide on your mobile phone, created by other Woices users.
In the Classroom: Skills needed: No special skills are needed to listen to echoes. Just click Explore. To create your own echoes, you must register. Registration does require an email address and activation via a link sent to your email. To create your own, visit the Create link and follow the detailed instructions. The instructions include three simple steps (Put it on the Map, Give it a Name, and Send It). Step one requires you to click your location on the map. Then click Proceed to go on to the next step. At Step Two you add the title, description, tags, your photo (optional), language, and then you RECORD. Simply use your computer's built-in microphone and the site's "record" button. You can record more elaborate mp3 files using other software for later upload as an echo. You have TEN minutes of FREE recording time. Finally, click to Send It, and your new echo is on the web. The link is visible in your computer's address bar or can be emailed by clicking Share. You can also combine echoes created by you or various members of a group to form a "walk" of related echoes. Completed echoes can also be shared as an embedded device in a wiki or web page.
Note that using music or sounds from other sources could be a copyright violation. TeachersFirst editors remind you to use copyright-free music or -- better yet -- record your own.
Safety/security concerns: This is a public site, so once an "echo" is created, any user can access the information. If you are considering having students create their own echoes, you will want to be certain to adhere to your school's Acceptable Use Policy and obtain parental permission. If you are having students register independently (which may not be the best option), why not consider creating a free Gmail account with up to 20 subaccounts for each group of students (by code name or number) within your classes. This will allow you to control the accounts. Here is a blog post that tells how to set up GMail subaccounts to use for any online membership service.
This site also includes various social features (Community section) and advertisements. This is a great opportunity to teach basic Internet Safety in the context of a productive lesson. If students are working independently, be sure to have clear expectations and consequences spelled out -- then monitor activities. And remember, anything that is posted on this site, is available to any visitor on the web. There is no way to make the "echo" private. Take advantage of the Comments feature for students to respond to each other's echoes or to invite parents and others to respond. For example, if students create a local history tour, share it with older adults in the community to comment with their memories about the sites.
Possible Uses: The possibilities at this website are endless! Even the youngest of students can use this site (with assistance). In world language classes, have students LOOK for echoes from other countries, and even make some to practice language as they narrate cultural highlights of countries where their language of study is spoken. Make echoes about places you study in geography or history class. Have students create an echo tour or your own hometown and the important local historical sites (be sure to protect the identify of yourself and your students). Make a fictional echo "story" in real settings, using a sequence of links to echoes for the events in the story. Create a teacher-made echo treasure hunt of important locations for cooperative learning groups to explore. Make echoes about environmental sites or issues. Make a literary "walk" of a poet's geographic area with readings of his/her poetry "placed" in the places they describe, such as Emerson's account of Lexington and Concord. Make a mapped, narrated "walk" of the botanical species or animal habitats in your area. Make echoes about landforms. Create whole-class "I wonder" echoes about places they begin to study, ex. narrating the pueblos and asking about the people who once dwelled there. Then add more echoes as you learn. Use this site to record directions, questions, or prompts about places they should research and links they should use; then have them access the echoes at learning stations or with a substitute. Create "Echo" audio newsletters to share on your class website, connecting to the various "places" your class has been studying. Teachers could also record echoes about locations on a map to teach about map reading skills or have ELL/ESL students record echoes about places where their primary language is spoken to share with classmates. Have the students make the echoes, of course. Have students create their own echoes as "electronic" gifts for family and close friends. Why not create one celebrating moms for Mother's Day? Use this site to celebrate dad, grandparents, and other care givers also! Be sure to list this link (and relevant safety concerns about the site) on your class website for students to use at home. Include it as long breaks approach so students can work with their families, creating echoes about places they visit during family vacations or reunions.
This site offers language lessons for 4 languages: Spanish, English, French and German. The site plans to add additional languages in the future. Joining for free allows students to learn vocabulary, dialog, writing, oral skills, comprehension, and more - in a highly interactive format. Support from native speakers is a regular feature of this site using the interactive video chat capability. The range of topics includes more than 100 commonly used language situations. The site saves errors for review, lists of lessons already studied, results of those lessons, etc. This project of UNESCO's International Year for Languages offers lessons in "What you really need to know!" This site requires Flash. Get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: Check school policies concerning both student memberships and interaction with outsiders. You will want a written set of rules which both students and parents agree to before allowing students to navigate on their own in the portions of the site that use video chat with outsiders. Younger students (under 13) should use a teacher or class account, rather than an individual one, to avoid conflict with COPPA (child online protection act in the U.S.).
Make this site available from your class web page or as a favorite on local machines for ESL, ELL, and world language students to use to reinforce their survival and vocabulary skills. World cultures classes might even want to “taste” a bit of a language as they learn about other countries. French, German, and Spanish language students will enjoy the opportunity to "chat" with native speakers in their target study languages. (Be sure you have parent permission for students to interact with outsiders!). You will need headphones or speakers for the audio portions of this site. This site is excellent for enrichment or personal learning. Include it on your teacher web page for students to access both in and out of class.
Teachers First Edge Entry: for slightly adventurous technology users. This tool allows you to create an interactive family tree. Once you are registered, you can easily create a family tree. You are able to include family member's birth-dates, death-dates, email addresses, pictures, video clips, and more. This site also has the capacity to create timelines for births, deaths, weddings, divorces, education, occupation, and other important events and information. The family tree and some of the other activities require Flash. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: Skills Needed: this site is fairly simple to use. Join the site (free) and log in. Registration requires an email address. Tip: rather than using your personal or work email, create a free Gmail account to use for memberships. If you plan to have students register individually, you may want to create your own Gmail account with up to 20 subaccounts for each group of students (by code name or number) within your classes. Here is a blog post that tells how to set up GMail subaccounts to use for any online membership service.
Navigation of the site is simple. Click on Tree to start your family tree (or Timeline to use that free resource. For the family tree, arrows are provided to add family members. The arrows pointing up indicate a parent, arrows to the left or right are used to add a wife/husband or brother/sister, and arrows pointing down are used to add a son or daughter.
Safety/Security Concerns: This site allows users to set-up their family tree or timeline as PRIVATE. It allows you to control who can and can't view your profile, family tree, and other information. For more information about this feature, visit the Settings link (on the top right corner). Before you plan your family tree project, be sure to get parental permission.
Possible Uses: Use this site to create family tree projects in elementary or middle school classes. Have high school students create family trees as part of an immigration unit studying patterns in social studies classes. In science class, have students create fictitious "people" as they study genetics. With younger students, create a class timeline sharing important dates for individuals (i.e. birthdays) and class dates (field trips, tests, or other special events). Have students share their family trees on an interactive whiteboard or projector. Be sure to "advertise" this project on your class website (and newsletter, if applicable) so students have time to gather names, birthdates, and other information about family members. In world language classes, have student create a family tree using the correct vocabulary for relatives and talk about it as they share it on the interactive whiteboard. When researching famous people, reading biographies, or even reading literature have students create a family tree illustrating their discoveries about their famous person, writer, artist, musician, explorer, literary character, etc.
Teacher's First EDGE Review: for slightly adventurous technology users. This online tool allows you to see various cities and countries throughout the world. The site features placemarkers added by users to interactive Google Maps including stories, photos, videos, and comments and ratings from other users. Visit this "story" we made in Reston, Virginia (west of Washington, DC) for a sample placemarker full of teaching ideas left by our review team “captain.” Mapskip allows you to zoom in and out (using the arrows) and scroll across the map in any cardinal direction. You can view the entire world, or individual cities. Red hands are used to represent placemarkers created by users. There are special features available for teachers upon registration. See their blog entries for more details about these features and ways to see only content created by your students or classmates. The Mapskip blog is written by the MapSkip staff to explain new features and tools. Registered members are able to comment on any updates there, as well. The videos require Flash. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: Skills Needed: Register (requires email and activation from confirmation email). Before you submit your registration, be sure to scroll down to request "additional features for teachers" with the checkbox near the bottom of the form. Manipulate the map as you would on Google Maps (zoom, drag, etc). Click to add a new placemarker, enter a "story," title it, and upload pictures or video. You need to know how to locate and upload files. You can also edit your profile, view places created by you or any author you choose to "follow" and more. You can "rate" placemarkers left by others, as well. Why not make our review a "Favorite"?
Safety/Security Concerns: Membership requires an email address and user name. Use your “memberships” (extra) email account for such memberships, so you don’t clutter your mailbox. Register for the "special teacher features" to enable you to establish student accounts linked to your email address. Since this site has photos, videos, and stories submitted by members, always be sure to preview what you wish to share in class. The site has a link to click if anything appears inappropriate. At the time of this review, this website and its contents appear very useful and appropriate for intermediate and secondary students. Be sure to check your district's acceptable use policy before you submit anything to a website. Use fictitious names or initials for your students (or use the teacher features!) and be sure to get parental permission if photos, videos, or any student work are included. Since others can read, comment, and "Favorite" any entry you or your students make, you may want to discuss ethical behavior and help students build a “thick skin” to outside criticism. This is a good place to learn positive interaction with the public.
Possible Uses: Even without joining, you can share PREVIEWED Mapskip entries created by others on an interactive whiteboard or projector as you study faraway places. Create Mapskip entries about historical sites in your local area, including images taken with digital cameras, artifacts from your local historical society, links to newspaper articles, or video/audio interviews of older residents telling about old times. As you study community or landforms in your elementary class, "mapskip” them with annotations of a local map, showing examples of landforms and local community landmarks with digital pictures. Allow older students to use the site independently or in small groups. Mapskips are ideal as a product for individual research projects. In world language classes, have students plot a trip or write an imaginary story of their dreamed trip to Spain or Mexico. Take your students on a whiteboard trip to the native countries where the language is spoken. Literature settings can take on new meaning when your students annotate them on a map. Have students "mapskip" the landmarks of an author's life and/or the locations in his/her novels. Trace the path of a famous person's biography or annotate a famous painter's works, using links to the images from the places shown in landscapes. The "story" of a work of art can include critical analysis, as well. Anything that has a "place" can be a mapskip. Have students map family trips or important places in family history and share the maps with parents!
Teacher's First Edge Review: for slightly adventurous technology users. At this site, students can create, share, and "remix" comics. The "remix" link allows students to add their own twist to ready-made comics. Students can read comics created by others and also make comments on them. Other highlights of the site include a featured author and blog. This free version of Pixton will be followed with a fee-based version for schools (with teacher and student registration levels and safety tools) in 2009, but the free version will remain available. Eventually, the free version will only include a 30-day trial period. Be aware: the Pixton for Schools (if continued after 30-days) will cost $1 per student. See an example created by the TeachersFirst Edge team. This site requires Flash. Get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: Skills Needed: Register and watch “trailers” or play with the simple tools to choose a situation (template), color, graphics and symbols. Then enter dialog. Make changes with simple tools alongside each block of your comic. Save your work to come back later or you may "publish" right away. You have a choice about whether others are allowed to “remix” your work. You also have the option to edit work or embed it in a website, blog or wiki. Comics can also be shared by URL (copy it from the address bar) or sent via email.
Safety/Security Concerns: Registration requires an email address.
You may want to create your own Gmail account with up to 20 subaccounts for each group of students (by code name or number) within your classes. Here is a blog post that tells how to set up GMail subaccounts to use for any online membership service. There are some safeguards in place to be sure students use appropriate language and actions. It would be wise to preview whatever you wish to share with your students, however, since the general public can create comics with their own ideas. Students should submit their work without identifiable names and location, according to your school policy, perhaps using their newly-assigned Gmail address and account (monitored by you, since you own the master account). You will also want written parent permission before allowing students to create comics that can be seen online.
Possible Uses: Use comics to write summaries of current events, responses to reading assignments, expressions of teen problems, and creative works of humor. With younger students, use an interactive whiteboard or projector to create a class comic on a current topic of study, such as the life cycle of the frog or ways to conserve energy. Use this site to integrate an art and writing lesson. Why not have students create comics to demonstrate a concept in science or social studies, rather than a traditional paper/pencil quiz? World language teachers and ESL/ELL teachers will love the chance for students to demonstrate written language skills in the “context” of their comic situations.
This website provides an online connection to students from various areas of the world. There are links provided for students, families, and teachers. The website is available in various languages - English, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, and Portuguese. Students can share stories, artwork, and more. The educational content includes life planning skills (careers), social studies (geography, government, history, etc.), writing, and many other academic areas. Free registration is required for each student and teacher. All content is monitored by volunteer moderators. What a fabulous resource to use in geography or language arts class. This website doesn't just teach students about countries throughout the world, but also allows students to interact with students of various cultures as they write and respond to each other in this safe environment.
In the Classroom: Students need not have their own email to use this site. Kidlink explains that they are permitted to use the teacher's email address (which allows you to monitor their activities, as well). You might want to use your "extra" email account. Set up accounts for your students to communicate in your world language class or as part of your study of other continents. With younger students, you may want to communicate as a whole-class activity, composing on a projector or interactive whiteboard.
If your school policies limit your ability to use such a site, see the FAQ information and ready-to-go presentation explaining Kidlink. Share it with your principal and parents. ALWAYS get written parent permission when sharing student work/ideas online.
This site provides homework tips for elementary students. Highlights include prioritizing, guiding - but not correcting, establishing a routine and more.
In the Classroom: This article may be a useful reference for some of your parents. Share the link on your teacher web page or in a newsletter or note sent home.
Use this terrific online tool for your students to create posters or short reports in a poster format. Create lessons, worksheets, or class pages and instantly publish them online using this free Web Poster Wizard. The teacher sets up an account (for free), and follows simple directions so students can upload images and write about their project or pictures. The site even includes management tools so you can keep separate classes of students and see their work by class.
Plan to spend some time reading through the directions and trying out this tool before you assign it to students. Teachers and students must register and login each time they use this tool. Students can share the URL for their posters with grandparents or parents to show off their good work!
Students will need to know how to locate and upload a file for an image (such as a digital picture) to place it in their poster. If you allow them to use images from the web, the tool asks them to give information on their image source, as well (hooray for ethical use of the Internet!). If you use digital pictures of students, be SURE that you do NOT use full names on the site. You should get parent permission for uploading any student images, even if anonymous.
In the Classroom: Some uses for this simple tool: book reports (take a digital photo of the book cover), biographical posters of famous people (images from the web), "all about me" posters, posters about community members such as veterans of World War II whom students interview and photograph, author posters, fictitious character studies, science posters on processes or terms with accompanying digital pictures to illustrate, etc. The possibilities are endless. Once students know the tool, they can use it over and over.
Teachers, make sure you select the archive option to keep student projects live online for more than a month. Use the Teacher Feature option to create one web page of your class’ archived projects. You will want to put your created web page link prominently on your class homepage.
Explore the science of fear with this fun and interesting site. Click on “Explore Fear Online.” View "Fear and the Brain" to understand how the brain responds to fear. Learn animal responses in "Fear in the Wild." Other links include "Fear and the Media," "The Fun Side of Fear," and "Dealing with Fear." Each link includes several more specific topics. There is also a Parent’s Guide with some of the topics.
In the Classroom: Brainstorm situations that cause fear and identify how the brain processes this information. Explore the similarities of fear responses with the feelings when riding thrill rides. Identify as a class how people respond to fear and ways fear can help you. Creative writing students can explore different ways that people show fear so their writing can describe what fear LOOKS like instead of simply saying, “he was afraid.” Why not include this site when studying Poe's tales of terror or as a curriculum-related activity during Halloween season? Check out the “Dealing with Fear” section to help students struggling with anxieties and worry. Emotional or autistic support teachers and school counselors may also find this site helpful in allowing students to understand their body’s reactions to fear. Health and psychology classes can use this site to explore the physiology of fear.
Teachers First Edge Review: For the slightly adventurous. Use this free web site to create flashcards for teacher or individual student use. There is also a link to “Study Flashcards” that are already ready to go. There are literally HUNDREDS of ready to go flashcard packets: presidents, addition, algebra, music, and more.
If you are creating your own, you can add images, video, or audio. Study flashcards online or share with others in created study groups. Use flashcards to learn new information (question and answer are side by side,) study (shows the question and then the answer,) or quiz themselves by entering answers. Create a game with the flashcards by using a timer and score board on the site. Share flashcard sets with others by sending a URL address or create study groups to share. View public flashcards created by others by using their search feature.
In the Classroom: Skills needed: You can access the already created flashcards without any account, email, or age requirements. However, if you wish to create flashcards, an email and birth date is required to create an account. Users must be 13 years of age or older. Verifying email is required to create flashcards.
Using Brainflips: Use the Deck panel to enter flashcard deck title and other basic information. Use the Card panel to add, edit, and change the order of the flashcards in the deck. Create text or multiple choice answers for each flashcard and even enter alternative answers. Click "Insert" above the question field to add images, audio, and video to flashcards.
Safety/Security: Since an email and birth date are required, consider creating a class account for teacher use or for groups of students to use. Create teacher flashcards for class use by creating card decks and providing the URL for students to use. The home page of this site includes changing “featured” content contributed by the general public. Check ahead of time to be sure it is suitable for the classroom. You may want to send students to the flashcards via a direct link to the deck. You may want to prohibit or point out the links to advertising located along the top and sides of the site. Students must have individual accounts to create flashcards on their own(email required). Check your school policies about accessing/sharing student email on school computers. You may want to create your own Gmail account with up to 20 subaccounts for each group of students (by code name or number) within your classes. Here is a blog post that tells how.
Possible uses: Facts, spelling words, vocabulary, definitions, foreign language, root words, historical names -— all can easily be typed into this flashcard format for any subject. Plan a system of tags for sets on related material so they can be grouped. For example: tag all geography terms "geography" and all words from the same science chapter using the chapter number or topic. You can use multiple tags, too! In the computer lab, using a projector or interactive whiteboard, walk your students through making their own sets of flashcards or using teacher created flashcards for student and group use. Students or parents can then access their electronic cards at home or anywhere with a specific URL that can be placed on any teacher blog or website. No email address is needed to use the cards, only to create the cards. Include the link to your sets on your web page for students to study before tests. Collaborate with other teachers to create useful sets for all to use. Rotate responsibility each marking period among student groups in your class to create a set for each chapter/unit/week for the rest of the class to use as review. Give a special award (or bonus points) for the most creative, complete set that marking period. Learning support teachers may want to work together with small student groups to create verbal and visual card sets to accompany the chapters they are studying. Involve the students in the process so they can reinforce new content as they create their own “study materials” with color coding, images, and more.
Wonder no more what parents can do each day during Reading Month (March). This online calendar gives parents 31 separate primary level reading activities to do during that month or any time. Each activity explains how it fits into literacy, whether it boosts comprehension, increases fluency, or enhances vocabulary. Scroll to the bottom of the page for a pdf version of the activities.
In the Classroom: If parent involvement with homework is weak, you may want to do the activities in your classroom instead, by showing the activities daily on your whiteboard. Make a list of students who accomplished the reading tasks. Be sure to list this link on your class webpage during your school’s designated Reading Month. In fact, make sure the link is on your school’s homepage as well. With older students, challenge cooperative learning groups to come up with 2-3 additional classroom or home activities to do during Reading Month, or any time of the year. List the activity suggestions on your class website, blog, or wiki.
Skype An AuthorGrade K to 12
- Mona Kerby and Sarah Chauncey- 10262
Don’t despair over lack of funding for an author’s visit! Through this Skype network of authors, you can bring an author into your classroom. Peruse the list of authors then click on their name. The site provides contact information, photos, book covers, and more pops up. Contact the author to negotiate a time to "meet." If it is more than a 10-15 minute visit, you will need to negotiate payment per hourly rate. It is best to familiarize your students with a particular author’s work before the virtual visit. Also, if you have an electronic white board, the author’s visit projects onto the big screen, which makes the visit more meaningful. Sorry, the visit can’t be recorded. You will need Skype set up on your computer and projection before the visit. Make sure you are familiar with Skype before contracting an author’s visit. You don’t want to waste their valuable time while you’re learning to use the technology. Need to learn more about Skype? Read TeachersFirst's review here.
In the Classroom: During your school’s Reading Month, broadcast an author into your classroom for a live reading of their book(s). Invite parents to the virtual visit and follow up by parents assisting in writing thank you letters to the author or crafts relating to the book. Or create a class book highlighting the authors visit. Make an online book using a site such as Bookemon, reviewed here and be sure to share the link with the author, too! Make sure you have your class’ questions ready before the author’s visit. Share the “visit” on your interactive whiteboard or projector, so everyone can see! While saving money by visiting authors by this method, turn this into an ecological/economy lesson: How much gas, resources, time, etc, did you and the author save by having the author visit your classroom virtually? Hype the Skype visit! Have a countdown taking place for days prior to the visit.
Teacher's First Edge Review: For advanced technology users. Have a series of web pages you want to share with someone? Use Jog the Web to share links and a specific jogging pathway (“track”) through them. Look at some of these great examples: Google Earth in education and Find a Fallacy.
Search or browse existing “tracks.” Once clicked, a sidebar appears on the left that provides information about the track. The number of pages in the “jog” appears, as well as forward and back arrows. View the names and descriptions of the pages and any instructions that the author added. Click on any of these names to follow the link directly to the page. Register to create your own track. See TeachersFirst’s safety and use tips for using this site below under “In the Classroom.” Some content on this site may be inappropriate for the classroom. Always preview.
In the Classroom: Skills needed: Registration is free and requires a password and email address. Once validated by email, click "Create a New Track" and enter a title and description. Find all of your tracks on your page. Click on each to edit descriptions or add steps (these are the web address url's of the pages you are adding.) Easily delete your tracks by clicking on the trash can icon next to each track.
Safety/Security: If students are to create tracks, each student will need to create an account (with an email address) and then email verification. Check your school policies about accessing/sharing student email on school computers. You may want to create your own Gmail account with up to 20 subaccounts for each
group of students (by code name or number) within your classes. Here is a blog post that tells how.
Consider creating a single class account using your “extra” email address, so you can monitor and submit student work safely. Student-created tracks can be identified through title or adding initials at the end of the title. The home page of this site includes changing “featured” content contributed by the general public. Be sure to preview the content ahead of time. You may want to send students to your track via a direct link.
Classroom use: Create your own tracks as webquests for students to follow for class assignments. Students can be assigned different subtopics of a subject such as biomes, find related pages, and create a track working through these pages. Students could also create tracks to annotate their sources for a research project, critiquing each source in the sidebar. Teach about evaluating web sites and reliability of sources by having students in small groups create tracks comparing different sources on the same topic. Create tracks as homework help solutions for parents and students. Use a blog, wiki, or website to share these tracks for students to visit for obtaining information. Want to learn more about Wikis? Check out the Teacher’s First Wiki Walk-Through reviewed here.
This site is filled with study tools to help students learn information in a variety of subject areas. Stacks of topics related to geography, history, math, languages, medical, tests (SAT, ACT, etc.), science and more are linked with collections of learning tools that include virtual study cards, matching games, word search puzzles, and hangman games. There really is something here for nearly all subject areas and grade levels! Students can select the tool that works best for them and work at their own pace until they are satisfied with their progress. If you can’t find a stack to fit your needs, you can edit existing lists or create customized study stacks. The site also allows you to print out study cards, or export flash cards to study them via cell phones, PDA, or iPod. Email the stacks to peers or connect with Study Stack through Facebook. Some of the activities require Java. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: Encourage parents to use this site as a study-at-home tool for their students. Link your blog or website to this site by entering your url at the bottom of the homepage. Make sure your guidance counselor at your school is aware of this site as a tool for studying those college entrance tests. Be sure to save this site in your favorites.
TeachersFirst Edge review: for social networking technology users who love literature, reading, and writing. This online eBook and literary discussion tool allows you to read collaboratively with others using an online eBook reader that is built into the site. The site is open to the public, so teachers should preview with their students' maturity level in mind and guide them carefully into constructive and safe use of its tools. Our editors found no objectionable texts available at the time of review, but these change. Those interested primarily in reading and discussing selections offered by Bookglutton can read the books from any computer, but you will want to set up a membership to keep track of what you are reading at the very least. The books offered include free texts that are in the public domain (no longer under copyright), user-submitted books, and fee-based purchases offered by publishers who sell their books in online form. More savvy users can embed the book-reader tool in another web site or wiki, as well. Readers who are logged in can discuss a text live (chat style) with others they "meet" on Bookglutton or with a specific group. They can also leave comments on pages or passages so others can respond later. Your comments (annotations) can also be kept private for viewing just by you, just like marking up the margins in your paperbacks. Works available include those from Bronte, Dickens, and many traditional classics of the high school curriculum.
In the Classroom: Skills needed: You must join and manage various profile options, including email notifications for activity and various social features. Teachers will want to explore the options for Groups. If you wish to upload and discuss unpublished texts such as student drafts or a literary magazine proof, read detailed directions and formatting requirements for using their E-Pub Converter for uploads (more technically challenging than using books already on the site). If you wish to embed a book in a class wiki or web site, you need to know how to copy/paste the embed code and put it in your wiki. Many of the social options mirror those on Facebook (friends, wall, etc.)
Getting started: Start by browsing the catalog to see which of the books you already study are available here. Watch the "How it Works" video on BookGlutton's home page to see how both "Talk" (left side) and "Mark" (right side) annotation tools function. "Talk" is for real-time interaction, while "Mark" allows comments from others at a later time. Join the site (email required) and set up groups for your students to use: "A group can be a good way to share private book uploads with multiple people, or just to read a favorite [book] from the catalog together." Try opening a book from the catalog and making some notes, then retrieving those notes later. Create a group for your class discussion of the book and invite your students to join that group. If your school does not permit use of student email, consider setting up a Gmail account and subaccounts that you control so make a set of discussion memberships. Use up to 20 subaccounts of that Gmail account to create student accounts and passwords to be used by each student or group of students (by code name or number) within your classes. Here is a blog post that tells how to set up GMail subaccounts to use for any online membership service. Start out by working with one of the many classics available because they are past copyright. Consider embedding the book in your wiki or web page so students are not distracted by all the other social options. If you do plan to have students use the site, plan a full tour and explanation of the tools (with caveats about the areas that are off limits). Your projector or interactive whiteboard will be ideal.
Safety/Security concerns: This site is completely public and includes the ability to make "friends" and chat with others outside your school. Many schools prohibit use of such “social networking” features. Check your school policies before allowing students to access the site on their own, then spell out specific permissions and consequences. You will want to obtain written agreements on class policies from both students and parents. Set your class discussion to "private" to avoid drop-ins by uninvited guests! If you or students submit your own texts (according to school policies, of course), take the time to teach safe ways to submit, voting/ranking etiquette, and the potential for cruelty or rude behavior by anonymous viewers. Bookglutton may be blocked by your filtering system because of the social networking options. Another, more teacher-controlled option would be to use a single whole-class account to interact with books and others who are reading the same text. While limited to class consensus on an interactive whiteboard or projector, this might be a way to get started with the tools and possibly find like-minded school groups to "discuss" literature with you.
Possible Uses: Make study of classic (or "old," to your students) literary works more engaging by having students annotate, respond, and share thoughts in a Group. Set the group as private and include just those from your class or use your network to find other high school classes interested in sharing the discussion. Embed the ongoing dialog in your class wiki, or make separate groups for 3-4 students and embed both their annotated editions in your wiki for comparison of their responses. Require student groups to explain new vocabulary encountered in works using the "mark" tools and challenge them to add personal responses to passages, literary devices, characterization, themes, etc. Teach any kind of literary analysis by involving students directly with the text and allowing them to interact with each other in the discussion. Take literary discussion from teacher-centered to reader-centered. Consider uploading your drafts of the school literary magazine or work from a creative writing group for others to read, react, and respond (after establishing guidelines about appropriateness and mutual support). Share selected, well-annotated editions as embeds on your class wiki for other students to use as windows on challenging texts. Learning support or ESL/ELL teachers might find the use of the "mark" tool helpful in creating student-friendly annotated editions of required texts. Why not work together with your students to create these and continuously add to them from year to year?
Confused about copyright issues? Use this site to understand the rules and how they apply to the classroom. Download the Educators' Workshop to assist school leaders in learning about copyright or the Educators' Guide for use by all teachers regardless of subject or grade level. View videos about copyright in the classroom. Don’t miss the Library of Classroom Curricula, there are lessons for grades K-2, 3-5, 6-8, and 9-12. Subjects include social studies, language arts, fine arts, math, science, technology, computers, research skills, and parent information! This site requires Adobe Acrobat and Flash. Get both from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: This site is a must-see for your own understanding of these challenging concepts. Share the interactives on your projector or interactive whiteboard. Divide middle and high students into cooperative learning groups to explore the site. Identify what is considered fair use and teach students what is considered acceptable use in the classroom before assigning, creating, or posting student projects. Use the free curricula on this site to teach your students about copyright and fair use beginning at a young age. Share this link on your class website or blog for students (and parents) to access at home.
Meth ProjectGrade 6 to 12
- Meth Project Foundation- 10092
This website serves as a support element for the Meth Project, an organization determined to educate the public about the dangers of methamphetamine usage, to change current attitudes particularly among teens about meth use, and to have an influence on public policy concerning drug use prevention. Besides basic information (the facts are startling!), it collects news releases and offers things people can do to help in the fight. Since it started as a project in the State of Montana, it offers continual updates on which states are joining the project. It collects data on many aspects of meth use, and best of all, it offers the news of its positive results. One of the most interesting parts of the website is the ads section where viewers can see and hear television and radio ads portraying teens in the duplicitous behavior meth use often leads to. This site requires Flash. Get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: Save this site in your favorites. This site could easily fit in health class, science, current events lessons, and more. Use the site in social studies classes to provide factual information about this very difficult problem. Use it as a jumping off point for students researching similar issues for other types of addictive behaviors. Have your students make their own ads based on the videos and radio transmissions they can view here. Share the videos using a tool such as Teachers.TV reviewed here. Keep the reference information from this site for students who want to do further reading, research, and self-education. List this site on your class website for students (and parents) to explore both in and out of the classroom.
Teacher's first Edge Review: For moderate technology users. Need a quick and easy site for creating and sharing a story? Use Storytop to instantly create stories that tell what students have learned. Storytop is a free and easy to use service that requires users to create an account in order to save any created stories. Login requires a username and password only (no email is required.) The clip art available is simple and not extensive, but this may be better than having students choose from an extensive collection. See a quick example of a StoryTop story here.
In the Classroom: Skills needed: Teachers need to be able to help students in a storytelling process from the initial idea to the storyboard of the scenes they plan to create. Other skills include being able to navigate through the controls of the site which are very easy to understand. Managing comments or creations of groups are easy, though students should be aware of their responsibilities and consequences. To share stories, click "share" and copy the link provided when you say you want to email your story to a friend. You can paste this link anywhere, including in your class wiki or simply in a teacher's list of completed stories and their links. To share online, you need to know how to add links to your class blog, wiki, or website.
Basic directions: On the screen on the left, choose items to edit such as backgrounds, objects, people/animals, weather, and text boxes. Create your scene, add your information, and make multiple pages by using the green arrows. Teachers can create a group so students can comment on the creations made by other students. Share creations through web links. You can also take snapshots of scenes by using print screen (PrtSc) function in PC or snapshot (apple/shift/4) in Mac. These images of your story can then be saved and uploaded to a blog, wiki, or website. Click the help button to read FAQ helpful in using this tool.
Currently embed codes are not given for saved stories.
Safety/security: Groups are not listed, so public and groups can only be joined when the actual group name is known. If you want students to comment on other stories, create a specific group (with a meaningful name for YOUR class) and have your students join that group. Caution students to not share the group name. Many school policies prohibit such interaction, so be sure to check your school’s Acceptable Use Policy. You will want to discuss these features in the context of Internet Safety. The only way students can see others’ projects is through joining a group or publishing the web link online. Students must have individual accounts, but an email address is not needed. You may want to create a word doc, Favorites folder, or other “collection” of the URLS to all your students’ projects in one place for easy work at grading time. Some teachers use a class wiki with links to all projects from there. You may allow students to self-register, but be sure to keep a written record of their passwords for when they “forget.” It may be worth your time to do advanced registration for your younger students.
Possible uses: Telling what you learned can be boring. Make it more like a story to identify what students have learned about the topic. For example, after studying air pollution, students can create a story about the source, problems caused, and solution that changed a specific pollutant from causing harm. In Biology, create a story about members of a food chain or biome. In Language Arts or world language class, create an alternate ending to a story or create your own short story. Tell the story of a famous figure in history or a day in the life of an animal. Have your students create stories for their “little buddies” in a lower grade. With younger students, create a curriculum-connected story as a whole-class activity, using you interactive whiteboard. Be sure to share the link with parents! Learning support or ESL teachers may want to create visual stories for students to narrate aloud to build vocabulary and expressive language. Create stories about any topic relevant in your subject area/class. Share the stories on your interactive whiteboard or projector.
Teachers First Edge Review: For slightly adventurous technology users. Record a message and embed it into your favorite site or provide a link to share for free. Send to a friend by entering your email and the email of the recipient. Here is an example of a Vocaroo created by the Teacher’s First Review Team, explaining a biology concept for high schoolers. Recording the message is easy and embedding into a site such as a wiki or blog has never been simpler! No login or registration is needed. Although, if you choose to send a message via email, you must choose a password to use at the site. Vocaroos are stored on their server. Created messages can also be downloaded to individual computers. Visit their FAQ's for frequent questions and responses. The Vocaroo recording service requires Flash. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: Skills needed: Users need to be able to navigate controls on the website and sound levels on their computer. Copy/pasting embed codes is also a necessary skill for insertion in a website. Email the sound clip very easily.
Safety/security concerns: Future saving of Vocarros is unsure depending upon server space. Before using with students, you may wish to obtain permission from administration and/or parents. Be sure to check your school’s acceptable use policy. Students should be made aware of acceptable use and consequences of misuse of the service.
Possible uses: Record snippets of information as reminders on your class web site or instructions for students to follow. This is terrific for learning support students or non-readers! Have students describe aspects of classroom learning experiences to share with others, such as what they learned from a science experiment or found out about life in colonial America. Record a quick message for an absentee and email the link to him/her explaining how to catch up on missing work. Create tutorial pieces that students can use as study aids (or have them create them for each other). Use this site in world language classes or for ELL students: have students record and listen to their own pronunciation or send short messages to each other to translate. Have students use this site to practice speeches before the presentation to hear their speed, tone, and words. Use this site for research presentations, instructions for a substitute, or many other possibilities. With younger students, read a short story on Vocaroo, and have student follow along using a picture book. Or have the students read their own stories into Vocaroo and email the readings to their parents! For Mothers Day, why not have students record messages for mom or grandma? Another idea: create a class wiki where parents can "find" the entire selection of Vocaroos for Mother's Day (or another holiday). Record Vocaroos of each student talking about the importance of Moms for Mother's Day or how grateful they are for certain things at Thanksgiving. Embed them all in a class wiki to share with parents. Just email the URL for the collection.
If you choose to have students email one another (or their families), rather than using personal email accounts consider creating a teacher Gmail account and set up subaccounts for up to 20 students to register (by code name or number). Here is a blog post that tells how to set up GMail subaccounts to use for any online membership service.
Study SkillsGrade K to 12
- Learning and Teaching Scotland- 9871
This Study Skills site is fabulous! The activities are all divided by ages (5-9, 10-14, and 15-18). Each age level includes teacher information, parent information, and Learners… the link to find the neat interactives! Each age level also highlights four key areas: Do, Get, Remember, and Understand. Each area includes some age-appropriate text and interactives.
Highlights from the youngest level (ages 5-9) include Reading for Information, Sorting Shapes, Sorting Information, Kim's Game, Writing About Different Things, and others. The middle level (ages 10-14) includes Time Management, Exam Preparation, Note Taking, Revision, Memory Tips, Mindmaps, Pictograms, and others. The older students (ages 15-18) delve into topics such as Summarizing, Essay Writing, Learning Styles, Referencing, Learning from Lectures, and several others.
For professional purposes, there are also links (some PDF files) to research about the importance of teaching study skills. This site makes it easy and fun to teach these life skills! This site was creating in the United Kingdom, so you may notice a few spelling and pronunciation differences from American English. This site requires Flash and Adobe Acrobat. You can get both from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: This is one of those rare sites that should be saved in ALL teachers' favorites. Be sure to list this link on your class website.
Share this site on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Have students work with a partner to navigate the age appropriate activities at the site. Why not highlight a different area each month or unit of study so you have material with which to apply it (Do, Get, Remember, or Understand). During month/unit one introduce study skills using the Do link and resources. Then further investigate subsequent study skills each month/unit using the other main topics : Get, Remember, and Understand. Have students try out some of their "new skills" before the unit test. Be sure to ask them afterwards why they were successful (or not) in applying the new study approach. Maybe even add a question about the latest study skill at the end of every test.
Plan your dream job, pretend to live on your own, pay bills, and decide what the "important" extras are at this site. There are links to interactives that help you learn to save, spend, and earn money! You can even plan a “dream prom” budget. Students learn about money and economics as they practice living in the "real world." There is a Teachers' Guide, although it is tricky to find. Click on the GO button and then the Info link. Here you will find a link to a Teachers' Guide and Parents' Guide. The guides provide statistics about students (and adults) knowledge of money, standards, lesson ideas, tutorials, technology tips, and links for more information. You MUST turn off any pop-up blockers to fully access this site!
In the Classroom: Have students work on individual computers and explore this site. There are many options to print off pages that they complete (for example, the mock budget that they create in Check It Out). Visit the "Teachers' Guide" to get more ideas about how to use this website in your math, social studies, or economics class.
This collection of online written and oral interactive stories features British pronunciation, but the story clips are short and easy to understand. Many of the characters are also on American television (64 Zoo Lane, Teletubbies, Jakers, and others). Students will enjoy learning clicking to the next page of the story as they view the animation and frequent rhyming sequences. Some of the stories also require readers to click on elements of the story in order for it to continue, or to hear special dialog. All the stories are also available in print format. The home part of the site keeps track of the places readers have looked at and offers games and links to other C Beebie features.
This site requires Flash and Windows Media or similar player. The printable pages require Adobe Acrobat. Get them from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: Add this link to your classroom computer for students to use for extra reading practice. Share this site on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Set this site up as a learning center (or using individual computers, if available). Don’t forget the headsets! List this link on your class website. Use free printouts to reinforce what was learned in the stories and for students to take home or do as homework. The “Watch and Listen” link at the left will take parents to a page where they can download podcast versions of the stories to take in the car!
TeachersFirst Edge entry: for slightly adventurous technology users. So you want to meet with other teachers around the globe and your school can’t afford for you and your students to fly there? No problem. Sign up for free video conferencing through DimDim. For the free version of this web conferencing site, up to 20 conference attendees can communicate with each other. No downloads are needed. Power point presentations, graphs, pdf documents, plus more, can be shared via DimDim conferencing.
Warning—this is a commercial site, so upgrades on services are offered prominently. As with most high-tech sites, these upgrades to the premium levels are offered for a cost (DimDim Pro). DimDim Free is free. This site requires Adobe Acrobat and Flash. You can get both from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: Skills needed: You should be comfortable exploring this website to see which features are free versus which features are offered for a fee. A fast connection for your computer is advantageous as you watch the various videos to learn about the site. After viewing the tutorials, why not experiment with friends or colleagues before embarking on a prestigious seminar. It is easy to use, however, the more you get acquainted with it, the easier it will be. You will need to impart knowledge of how to use this tool when setting up a conference with parents or colleagues.
To get started, a quick registration is necessary. We suggest that you watch the tutorial videos after signing up to learn how to use the various features. If at any point you need to talk to a DimDim service employee, click on "Talk to Us." Type in your question and you will receive instant feedback. To host a web meeting, simply click on "Host Meeting." Create a name for your “Room” (that’s the place you and your attendees will meet). Next, create a Meeting Name (that’s the name of your seminar or meeting). Type in a description of the agenda so that others will know what information will be shared. Type in the email addresses of your invited attendees and an invitation will be sent to those people. Type in the Room Key (that’s basically the password your attendees will need to enter your web conference. Now, you’re ready to talk to a group of friends or colleagues. At the appointed time, your attendees will click on a link (sent to them via email) that will send them directly into your web conference. The free version lets attendees listen to each other.
Safety/security concerns: While this site may mainly be for teacher usage, there may be occasions when older students will be using this site to conference with peers in other schools or countries. The content shared by others during the conference will need to be monitored closely.
Possible uses: Applications for this site extend through all subject areas, as you connect with classrooms all over the world, exploring a vast array of subjects, languages, and social connections. World language learners will appreciate this site to talk in real-time to other language learners. Professional development is easy when the presenter invites up to 20 attendees to learn more about various educational subjects. Offer web conferencing through DimDim for students’ parents when you need to discuss details of upcoming projects or field trips. Save time and travel expenses, by chatting via DimDim! Have students “host” a DimDim session to “teach” others at another school about local history, news, or a current unit of study. Invite parents to learn from the students, too!
Economics and the stock market have taken center stage since the crises of 2008. This site provides a nice overview of the world of personal investment including sections on earning, saving, spending, investing, giving, owing, safeguarding, and tracking. There are also a number of interactive features that can provide insight into the student's attitudes toward money. Online calculators help students understand how finance charges affect the "bottom line" for purchases bought on credit, and how saving in interest-bearing accounts can increase assets. The "Ideas for Teachers" link includes lesson plans and other tips for using the site in an educational setting. This site requires Flash. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: This site provides some great tools for use by students in a personal finance or "Real World" class, as well as information to supplement a discussion of economics or current events. You could also use it as a real world application of many math concepts or team teach middle school math and social studies together. Consider assigning the interactive quizzes as independent work, and using the topical overviews to accompany a lecture or class discussion. One drawback: the "sounds" that accompany mousing over your choices are very distracting. Consider turning down the sound (or hitting mute) on your computer if you use this site on an interactive whiteboard. Challenge students to write “financial” blogs offering advice, based on the information learned at this site. Or assign them to demonstrate competence with concepts such as per cent and interest by creating a financial advice column for a student online newspaper.
This site, created by C-Span, examines numerous areas of Abraham Lincoln's life and legacy. Main areas of this site include Schedule, Timeline, Videos, In His Own Words, & Gallery. The highlight of this site is the video link. Click and find video clips (some reenactments, others lectures) about the Lincoln-Douglas Debates, Gettysburg Address, Pre-Presidency, and his Assassination. This site also highlights the release of four new pennies in February 2009.
Be aware: the links in the left sidebar will take you to the parent site (C-Span), not the Lincoln information. The right sidebar provides a list of recommended websites about Lincoln. This site requires Real Player, you can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: If you are planning for the 200th birthday of Lincoln or any study of the Lincoln era, check out this site! This is a phenomenal site for any secondary class. Use this site for research projects. Share the videos on an interactive whiteboard or projector. Have students create their own videos of reenactments based on their research. Share the videos on TeacherTube (explained here).
This site offers free comprehensive, interactive language and literature courses developed by MIT staff as part of their open course ware program. All courses include a regular syllabus that features assignments, interactive activities, and other resources such as videos and slideshows. There is a wide range of language offerings; the cultural courses complement the language instruction and include topics such as popular culture, history, economics, media , and thinking skills. There are courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels. This site requires Adobe Acrobat. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: AP history, language, and economics students may find MIT’s online course materials useful. MIT has committed to putting its entire curriculum on the web, and these early offerings include syllabi, reading materials, and a variety of subject-specific class notes. Before using these pages, students and parents should all be aware of what Open Courseware is and is not. Teachers at smaller schools may welcome the availability of language alternatives. Teachers of gifted who are looking for acceleration options will also find these courses valuable, though you will need to develop a means of doing assessment if your students are to earn credit for them.
Stixy (beta)Grade K to 12
- Jonas Höglund and Anders Ottoson- 9631
TeachersFirst Edge entry: for slightly adventurous technology users. Create collaborative visual and verbal spaces where you can “post” and share ideas, images, snippits of text, sticky-notes, photos, documents, and more using Stixy. The product makes a bulletin board of items, reminders, comments—essentially everything you could throw onto the front of your refrigerator and more. You can share the stixyboard by URL. Here is an example of a Stixyboard created by the TeachersFirst Edge team. At the time of this review, Stixy was testing a calendar feature with a limited test group. Some features of Stixy appear a bit slow, but the tool still says it is in beta testing. Be patient as the pages load. (Watch the little status report in your lower left in Internet Explorer; it will tell you that things are loading.)
In the Classroom: Skills needed: Join (free) using an email address. Note that you do not need to access this email to be able to log in right away (handy when some email is blocked at school!). It will help if you forget a password, though. Use your extra, memberships email account (such as Gmail). If you plan to have students create individual accounts with their individual email accounts, check school policies. Another option is to use your teacher Gmail account and set up subaccounts for up to 20 students to register (by code name or number). Here is a blog post that tells how to set up GMail subaccounts to use for any online membership service. If you plan to have students collaborate using a Stixyboard, they will need to be able to log in individually, using either a Gmail subaccount or their own email accounts. To share a board, click Options. You can find the URL for the board there, as well.
Safety/security concerns: Sharing of Stixyboards is completely controlled by the users who create the boards. If students only “share” with those within their group, there is no “contact” with outsiders. Make sure they include you as a shared member on any collaborative project so you can monitor student work. Check school policies (and obtain parent permission, if necessary) before allowing students to post any work to the web. Stixy does not promote public sharing and commenting.
Possible uses: Teachers can use Stixyboards shared by URL to assign or create web-based tasks: directions and tasks to do on the web (with links), collections of writing prompts (images AND text), or calendars. Students –even young ones – will catch on to the tools of Stixy very quickly to create their own Stixyboards. Have students “collect” quotes and images to convey a message or profile a concept or time period: a Stixyboard about the 1960’s, a writer’s journal of ideas for future writings, a collection of images that use LINE as a major design element, a board full of questions on a new curriculum topic -— a visual KWL chart that can be added to, rearranged, and edited as the unit proceeds -- almost a cognitive “journal” as learning proceeds. For example: Thoughts about Macbeth or The Great Depression. As students read a piece of literature or a challenging speech such as the Gettysburg address, they can collect, question, and comment on snippets from the text, including their own “I wonder” or “what if” notes. Have students make a Stixyboard of the water cycle or other processes, including images and notes to explain each step, then “turn in” the URL for their work or share it with others for changes and additions. (Changes are logged as part of the “list” at the left of any board.) For art classes, assign students to collect and annotate images as they prepare to create artworks of their own, just as artists collect materials in design notebooks and sketchbooks.
Some thoughts on giving credit and copyright: Since it is simple to add notes, students can easily keep track of the SOURCES of anything they collect into a Stixyboard, such as images or quotes, simply by copy/pasting URLs into a "Credits" note. Make sure you require them to do this kind of citation, especially if they use any images. Note that a password-protected (see options) Stixyboard CAN use downloaded images from the web under Fair Use, provided you limit access to that board ONLY to members of that class.
This site focuses on those important people: grandparents. Learn about the history of the holiday, when the holiday is celebrated, and find numerous classroom ideas to celebrate these important people in our students' lives. There is a link For Teachers with a WebQuest (designed for middle to upper level elementary or middle school students). Under the link The Task you will find several individual activities that students of any age could do with their grandparent. Another link Activities and Resources offers a lot of information for teachers and parents. There are video clips, songs, printable pages, and more. This site requires Flash, Media Player, and Adobe Acrobat. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: Be aware that some students may have recently lost a grandparent; be sure to provide other options for some of the activities (for example, interview an aunt or uncle, rather than a grandparent).
Share the video clips (about the history of the holiday) on your projector or interactive whiteboard. Visit the Task page to learn several ways to incorporate this holiday into your language arts, social studies, or even music classes. You may want to share this site with families on your website or in your class newsletter.
Classroom Book Talks is a collaborative wiki -- open to classes all over the world -- where students can share their likes and dislikes on various genres of literature through interactive book talks. They can add their own interpretation of a book by presenting it in book talk format on this wiki. Students can also comment on other book talks presented by various students in remote locations. This site requires Flash. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: Make sure to address the simple rules, located on the homepage, with students prior to assigning projects. Based on the fact that this is a collaborative project and other children from around the world contribute to it, students must be open to varying opinions and works of art. Have students complete book talks individually or in small groups and then submit presentations for assessment. Check out the classrooms that used this as a medium for a summer reading program! Students could conduct book talks over holiday breaks or while on educational trips, as well. Allow for students to discuss books among each other as homework assignments. Have parents read and view their child's work and comment on it. Do not forget to obtain permission prior to submitting student work on-line.
This site uses a wiki tool as its foundation. To learn more about wikis and find logistical tips, see the text to showTeachersFirst Wiki Walk-Through.
Denver Public Library's Podcasts for Kids is a constantly-growing story resource from a variety of authors including Beatrix Potter. There are also folktales, fairy tales, interviews, songs, news, nursery rhymes, and story time favorites. Students can listen to them online or download them directly to mp3 players or the computer for listening later. There are also links for podcasting help and a kids’ page with reference information, games, homework help, and more. This site requires Quicktime. Get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: Encourage beginning readers, ESL, ELL, and special ed students to read along with texts in hand as they listen to the stories and the pronunciation of possible new words. Check back with this site frequently to see new stories that have been added. Include this site on your teacher web page for students and parents to access as encouragement for extra reading. Save this site in your favorites and use it as an L.A. learning center (don’t forget the headsets). Play an audio story with the speakers turned up and lights turned off for a quiet listening activity.
This free service from NBC News offers students 13 and over a chance to interact with clips and images from the NBC News media library as part of current events study, history, or elections coverage. Students must create an account to access the free materials (or a teacher may use a whole-class account). You can access clips and images ("cue cards") by keyword search, "flip" them over to read background information, such as broadcast date and author, read the full transcript, and "snag" the clips into a personal library of clips where you can add your own notes, tags, and more. The student section includes "games" (challenges) on the history of media coverage, the U.S. Election 2008, foreign affairs, and more. The site permits sharing and discussion with other students, so verify school policies and establish your own for permissible student use of the site in class. Students can start using one of two courses: Decision '08 or U.S. History. Courses include a complete course outline, writing and challenge activities, opportunities for discussion, and daily clips and questions. Essays come with tips and associated cue cards. Once submitted, "friends" can comment on them and rate them. This site requires Flash. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: If your school permits, have students (ages 13+) establish their own accounts (email required, but you may want to use your own Gmail account and subaccounts). It is wise to obtain written parent permission and to explain the site before they hear students talking about "friending" people in class! You can assign them to do research projects, track a candidate in the election, or even follow portions of an entire course. Allow fellow students to become "friends" and comment and rate each others' work. Just be sure that YOU are a "friend" for each student so you can see what is happening. If you are not permitted to use such tools, consider establishing a class account and doing some of the activities on an interactive whiteboard or projector. Make the link available from your teacher home page for students to access from home. At the very least, you can share and discuss current events using these clips.
Join your child guides, Zoe and Alex, as they travel to Animalia (an interesting world of talking animals). This CGI-animated series is based on the best-selling children's book by Graeme Base. At the Parents and Teachers link the site explains that Animalia teaches creativity, cooperation, persistence, world cultures, and language arts. Take a tour of Animalia, go to the Games and Activities link to find writing activities, art fun, creativity builders, and even mystery codes. There are also links to watch video clips! This interactive site requires Flash and Adobe Acrobat. You can get both from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: Use this site to spruce up language arts class! Take a tour of Animalia together on an interactive whiteboard or projector. Have students work on individual computer to watch video clips and try the interactives. Have students write the story or "crack the code" at the Games and Activities link. Save this site in your favorites on your classroom computers so students can visit during language arts class or when work is complete. Use this site to help your ESL and ELL students further familiarize themselves with the English language. Gifted student respond well to this book. Consider extending your study of animals or writing by creating your own books modeled on Animalia.
SchoolTube.comGrade K to 12
- Lightspeed Technologies- 9437
TeachersFirst Edge Review: for any technology user comfortable with watching video and/or using video cameras. You can be as adventurous or not as you wish! This safe, free site lets students and teachers show off their talents by sharing their appropriate videos to be viewed all over America. With a simple registration, you can upload your classroom video, which then goes into a “holding” area. That video then awaits approval by the website’s moderator before becoming available. Because of the layering of approval, this site poses no security concerns to students or schools. Not only can teachers and students upload videos, but administrators may also want to post welcome or informational videos to be viewed by parents and students. You may also wish to share some of these videos with your class. Teachers will find videos suitable for classroom instruction (and lesson plans). Use the search box at the top of the webpage to look for topics that relate to your current units of study. If your school blocks streaming video sites, consider accessing this site and choosing videos at home, using a tool such as Vixy (reviewed here) to bring them in on a USB stick for class use. Searching the site and simply viewing the videos does not require any registration or log-in. There is a link to SchoolTube Games , as well. Viewing the videos and games requires Flash. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page. See a sample video at the end of this review.
In the Classroom: Skills Needed: no special technological skills are necessary to search the site or view the videos. If you wish to upload your own SchoolTube video, you must register as a user at the site. Registration is free. Create and save your edited videos where you can find them on your computer. (Windows Movie Maker or iMovie are great, free tools for video). Then upload to SchoolTube. You can share the video via link or by embedding it in another web page (see sample below).
Safety/Security Concerns: If the teacher is the one uploading, the only potential concerns include posting videos with identifiable information or images about your students, school, or class. Check your school policies about posting pictures of your school. If you post student videos, obtain written parent permission to post student work, again within school policies. Any student visible in a video should also have parent permission in accordance with school policies.
Possible Uses: Students can use SchoolTube to share videos with sister schools, or to broadcast weekly news from their school or classroom. Students can also produce project videos on any curriculum topic. Try making “You Are There” videos about different events in history! Teachers may want to use this site to share ideas and lesson plans with other teachers across the nation. Make “how to” videos to share with parents and friends. Embed SchoolTube’s video player into your school’s website and encourage parents to view school news or clips from events they were not able to attend.
Here is sample "embedded" video shot for us by the SchoolTube folks at the NAESP conference, 2008. We included it here by simply copying the "Embed" code from the Schooltube site and pasting it into our site, just as you could with your teacher web page or wiki:
Teacher's First Edge Review: for thoroughly adventurous or organized technology users. Ning is a tool for creating social networks. Though that may be a scary term to parents and a concept prohibited in your school, this education initiative from Ning provides advertising-free, private spaces for classroom use in K-12. Because of concerns over COPPA (federal legislation protecting children on the web), Ning specifies that the tool is for ages 13 and up. Users outside the U.S. do not need to worry about this law. There are related blog posts and debate about whether the law applies if you configure your Ning a certain way, but TeachersFirst cannot recommend circumventing the law. A Ning provides an online space for forums (threaded discussions), blogs, “friends,” groups, personal spaces for members, and more. As the administrator of your Ning, you can control the actual set-up. Assuming you can access the Ning URL at school, this tool can provide a PRIVATE online space for your classes or teaching team as an electronic home for use in and out of school.
In the Classroom: Skills needed: Before you start, make sure your specific Ning URL will not be blocked by filtering on the school network. See some of the tips from the Edge team . Join Ning and set up a network, including name, URL, and description. Be sure to choose Private to limit viewing of your network to those you INVITE to join. Drag your desired features to create your Ning layout. You can always change it later. Make appearance choices. Create a “master key” (and for heaven’s sake WRITE IT DOWN somewhere secure – not on a sticky note at your classroom computer). Customize at will, but right away you will want to follow Steve Hargadon’s blog entry with detailed directions to remove the ads from your Ning for education space. The ad-free offer began in November 2007 and may not continue forever, so do it now!
Safety/security concerns: Since the Ning tool establishes profiles for each member; you will want to customize the profile settings to stay in accordance with your school policies. You will probably not want students to be able to set up groups, since they might make them “private” and lock you out. You can also change the questions they are asked as part of their profiles. The simplest way to set up student accounts may be through a teacher Gmail account with subaccounts. You could then create the accounts and passwords on your own or have students enter the information. Even though your space is private, we recommend asking for parent permission mostly to be sure that they are aware of this positive use of social networking and all the lessons about Internet safety that can grow from its use in class. A modified version of the Blogging agreement offered by TeachersFirst would work (a word doc).
Possible uses: A class social network has limitless possibilities. Engage students in discussions on current events, independent reading, literature, and more. Create groups for students to work on projects and use the space as a forum to work out tasks, scheduling, and file sharing. Get creative and ask students to play the role of a historical figure on a social network across time: Ben Franklin networks with Harry Truman to argue about the atomic bomb. Use the Ning as a forum for any simulated or real task. Invite parents to join to give their points of view on upcoming elections. Include the principal or superintendent in your class discussions of students’ rights as you study the Constitution. Your students themselves will suggest ways to use this all-too-familiar tool from their world. Imagine the “profiles” they could create as characters from fiction or inventors from history! Steve Hargadon, creator of this Ning in Education initiative invites participants to join a Ning for teachers who are using this tool. We hope you will tell them where you heard about it and send them over to check out (and suggest) more tools at the TeachersFirst Edge.
Students can take an interactive tour (or quick picture tour) of three community sites: a park, a library, and city hall. Each location allows students to “click around” to learn more about the location. For example at the library, students learn what non-fiction, fiction, periodicals, and other library terms mean. There are also links on the bottom of the page for People, Places, and Things. The People link teaches students about volunteering, the homeless, and various careers. The Places link features safe places to play, field trip links, and more. Go to the Things link to Build a Community, go on a Scavenger Hunt, or play other interactive games. Much of this site requires Flash. Get Flash from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: Use this during your unit about neighborhoods and community. Share the site on an interactive whiteboard or projector. Then either set up a social studies computer station or have students explore on individual computers. If you plan to visit the library or town hall, preview it with a visit to this site. Have your students draw other community buildings and explain their functions by using a map or go floor by floor, as in the library visit. You could even create a class wiki “tour” using digital pictures. You might want to list this site in your class newsletter or on your class website for parents to share with their students.
ESL and ELL students learning names for community locations will appreciate this site for helping things come alive. Use this site to increase and strengthen vocabulary. Ask students to compare these locations with parallel offerings in their home communities.
Have you been pining to include pertinent webquests in your curriculum? This site allows you to view already created webquests and/or use their online tool to create your own webquest without HTML code or web editor software. This site walks you through a tutorial on creating your own webquest for the parameters YOU want. The tutorial includes planning, building, and getting your webquest published. Best of all-- it is free. This site also includes ready-made webquests in nearly every subject area (math, art, music, social studies, science, etc.) submitted by others like you. There are webquests for all grade level. The webquests are free to use and many include reviews by other educators. An easy to follow webquest matrix is available, with all of the subjects and grade levels. You are also able to do a webquest search for a specific topic. Nearly all of the webquests are in English, but a few are in other languages. Note: the quality of webquests is completely determined by others using the site to create webquests, so PREVIEW before using any webquest in class.
In the Classroom: Search the multitude of webquests that are “ready to go” at this site. If you are looking for a more personal touch, you can create your own webquest for each class, tailored to what you want to cover or want students to research. This site also provides a place to post a personal portfolio of your work (if you choose to include any student work, you must have written permission to do so from the student and his or her parent). You might also want students to create webquests as final products of group research projects. Be sure to provide a meaningful rubric for the essential features.
Come along with Vera (your child guide), and learn about life during World War II in England. This historically rich website offers students a peek into various aspects of life from 1939-1945. Learn about wartime homes, rationing of food and other items, read letters from evacuated children, and much more. There are a few interactive activities (such as Rationing of Food). The Research Room includes photos, posters, letters, documents, radio clips, and sound . Don't miss the Teachers and Parents link complete with lesson plans, standards, printable pages, activity ideas, and more. What a fabulous way to introduce elementary and middle school students to this critical time in world history. Although the site focuses on life in England, all of the material is suitable for discussion on United States involvement in World War II and how things changed both at home and abroad. Some of the sound clips require RealPlayer or Flash. You can get both the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: If your class is learning about World War II, this site is a must-see! Share the website on an interactive whiteboard or projector. Have students try their hand at the rationing activity and see how much of their food could be purchased. Integrate language arts into the lesson by having students write letters to Vera asking her questions they might have about her life and times. Or have them write a “blog post” as Vera would have. If you study the Diary of Anne Frank, even with slightly older students, compare the experiences of Anne’s family and those of a British family during the “blitz.” Take the interactive tour of the wartime house and have students compare how their own homes are similar or different from Vera's wartime house.
Pest World For KidsGrade K to 5
- National Pest Management Association- 9298
Students learn about biology, ecology, health, and the environment through the studies of pests. Lesson Plans are divided into younger and older elementary students. Younger students' lesson plans include "Intro to Pests" and "Totally Termites." Older students include inquiry based activities such as "Termitology" and "Before They Were Pests." The site includes games and documents. Click on "Amazing Pests" to learn fun pest facts and view a dictionary of pests. View "Threats and Prevention" to learn about the damage that pests can cause and ways to prevent infestation and damage. Play fun Learning Games such as "Name That Pest," "The Pest Rangers," and "Archibald's Adventures." The audio is sure to get student attention.
Note: Students can also send a pest card by entering a recipient's name and email address as well as their own name and email address. Many district's have policies prohibiting students from using a personal email address. Additionally, they can sign up for newsletters which require parent authorization for those under 13. Please check your district's policy concerning student email and Acceptable Use Policy Activities can be seen online and also downloaded as an Adobe PDF document. Perhaps you want to sign up as a teacher and share the email with your class on a bulletin board.This Site requires Flash. Get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: Use what students already know about pests to bring complex concepts such as social behavior and needs of organisms into focus. Students can use the site and create tip sheets for managing pests. Use multimedia programs such as PowerPoint and others to create these as a digital storytelling project. Students can also play the interactive games and write a story about life as a pest. Focus on the adaptations of pests to determine where they live and what other pests they are related to.
In this current events activity, students (or all members of your class working together) choose current news events and assume character roles. After viewing the latest hot event in the particular news item and reading some background, students (or your class) assume one of the characters' roles. They must make decisions, consult advisers, hone predictions, and make choices to steer tomorrow's news today. They can come back later to compare their predictions to what happened with the situation in the real news. Thus current events are no longer isolated factoids but become dynamic processes. News topics vary greatly and can include violence and other ugliness happening in the world today. Preview carefully before recommending a game to students, depending on the standards of your school community. Some topics include actual violence occurring in the world. Topics cover world news, U.S. politics, technology, and even entertainment. At one time, there are up to 20 news "games" going on. Players can see what other players have decided. Some games are closed; that is, their decisions are final. Members (your class as a whole?) also gain rank and opinion rating depending on how active they are on the website and how their opinions compare to those of the mainstream. As of this review, this site is still in "beta." This site requires Flash 9 or newer. Get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page..
To use many features of the site, you must create a membership (requires email). There are many "social" features within the site that make it a potential safety issue if all students are allowed to use it on their own. See ideas for handling these concerns below.
In the Classroom: Try this site as a regular part of your secondary discussions on current events or choose selected "games" that connect with your current curriculum topic. For example, explore stories from African nations as you study world cultures in Africa.
Classroom teachers will want to start by conducting this activity using a whole-class account (use your "extra" email account to create a single account, monitored by you). Use the game to facilitate discussion and build students' global citizenship by allowing them to make choices and see the results. Be sure to talk about the line between fantasy and reality: which parts of these games have actually happened and which are part of the "game" hypotheses. Include the link on your teacher web page for students to access both in and out of class if you believe they are ready to handle it on their own. Check your school policies on allowing students to participate in online decision making and sharing, and obtain written parent permission before individual students are allowed to log on. As an alternative for students who may not have permission, you can pose some of the same questions and provide newspaper and news magazine articles for background. But you know which tool your students will prefer!
This language-rich website features podcasts spoken using British English. The podcasts review the previous episode, explain new English vocabulary, discuss the subject in English, and then present the Spanish language podcast. Be aware that clicking to play a podcast will start a long pause as the podcast downloads to your computer, and it may appear that noting is happening! The subjects are of high interest for students. The name is somewhat of a misnomer, though, since people with no knowledge of Spanish might be a bit overwhelmed by the language used. Unfortunately, accompanying worksheets with complete transcripts are not free, and there is no text available elsewhere. There are a few other free worksheets available under the About link (see resources). Listening options include listening on your computer, iPod, or mp3 player as podcasts.
IMPORTANT NOTE: This site includes tools for blog users to interact (in English or Spanish). Any visitor can comment on the posts and podcasts or participate in Forums. There is also a link to a sister blog on Spanish culture. Check your school policies on students posting comments, etc. to the web and whether they are permitted to do so anonymously and/or with name or initials.
In the Classroom: This site is a treasure trove for Spanish teachers. It also provides a way for your ESL and ELL students to share their language and culture as the focus of a lesson, perhaps as you study other cultures. Have the ESL or ELL students and native English speakers work on understanding podcasts together. They can discuss what they understood and what they did not. You might have your Spanish speakers write out the dialogue and vocabulary selections, but be sure to have a knowledgeable adult check the Spanish before using it with your students.
To alleviate safety concerns, you might want to create a simple class policy (e.g. initials only) and obtain parent permission before inviting your class to participate in the blog, since you will not be able to monitor their submissions. The site does moderate to prevent "bad" comments from appearing online, but you do not control this moderation. ALL blog comments require an email address (kept hidden). If safety and school policy concerns limit student access, use the site as a whole-class activity and selectively choose portions for students to use. You can assign DIRECT links to podcasts by right-clicking the "Audio: download" link and copying the URL that shows in "Properties," ex. http://media.libsyn.com/media/learnrealspanish/nisbeginners20_el_kindle.mp3. Students can RIGHT-click >Save target as to download and load podcast files to their mp3 players or simply keep to listen over and over at a computer.
Cool Junie B. Jones activities abound at this fun site. Just click on the activities link to access the official scrapbook, joke book, quizzes, diplomas, crafts, and much more. To learn more about Barbara Park, the creator/author of Junie B. Jones, click on her biography. Of course, you’ll want to begin your site tour by reading Junie’s letter on the first link. Download a free Junie B. Jones screensaver to show your support of this famous character. This site requires Flash and Adobe Acrobat. Get both from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page..
In the Classroom: Have a Junie B. Jones Day and enjoy doing the many activities suggested at the site. Recruit a parent to round up the craft materials.Along with book reports, have a Junie “Show and Tell” of creative items to celebrate this famous character. Send a Junie e-card to invite other classes, via the link on the Activities page. Share this link on your teacher web page to promote independent reading, as well.
Open the microscopic world of science to your students with NASA’s virtual microscope. The free software (Win, OSX, Linux) comes with access to over 90 multi-dimensional, high-resolution image datasets, training animations, and videos that teach the basics of microscopy. Students can explore and annotate pre-prepared images as if they were using real instruments in real-time. This resource-rich site is one of NASA's career outreach programs and offers loads of information for students and teachers. Subscribe to the RSS feed to be alerted as new data is added every week. This website requires Java and Quick-Time. You can get both from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page..
In the Classroom: Consider having the entire science department request the download and installation of this exciting free software. If you are the lone science teacher, ask your principal to request installation of the software on computers of your choice. Be sure to download the datasets in advance, as file sizes are large. Use a projector or interactive whiteboard to show the microscope view for whole-class discussion. Load the software on student computers for small-group activities.
Be sure to provide this link on your teacher web page. Parents can install the software at home for homework assignments.
Check out the many educational pages at this totally free site. It is easy to navigate with the left hand column ready to click. You will find a dictionary of computer terms, lessons on the parts of a computer, web building, and more. Use the site search engine to explore the learning possibilities, including cool math, science, and social studies fun. There are many additional resources, too: “World Places,” “Arcade,” “Story Time,” and many more. There are activities about computers and technology, L.A., math, science, social studies, and others. Several welcome student contributions. Many of the activities require FLASH. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page..
In the Classroom: Doing a report on a foreign country? Check out the World Places to see if an entry has been submitted from a foreign student. If not, perhaps a student in your class can submit one for an unreported country. Use this site as an opportunity to discuss the question of WHO wrote the material. If it is written by a student, should we treat it as “trustworthy” as we do an encyclopedia or web site with adult authors and “credentials?” This accessible site gives you an opportunity to discuss reliability of web sources in a way your elementary students can understand, since students are invited to submit content.
Many of the activities are perfect for an interactive whiteboard or projector.
Some notes of caution: You will not want to turn your students loose at this site since there is a chat room link. (Chat room, called Kid's Club, requires sign-in and password, though.) Also, do not confuse this site with www.kids-online.COM (another online chat room portal for children and not affiliated with this educational site). You should also obtain written parent permission before allowing students to submit their work to for online publication.
It’s worth your time to explore some of the over 400 pages of educational activities for primary children linked from this site, created by a first grade teacher, John Rickey. No fees or passwords are required. Activities, games, and stories engage the young viewer with hours of learning fun. Make sure you open the activities into a new window tab, as many of them do not automatically do this for you (RIGHT-click on each link and choose “Open in new window”). This makes finding “Home” much easier. There are interactive stories and other L.A. activities, music, science, math, social studies, puzzles, art, and more. There are items “for sale,” but you need not even look there. This site has something for everyone. This site requires Flash and Java. Get them from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page..
In the Classroom: Check out the “Free Stuff for Teachers” section for free downloads of graphic organizers and other printables. Math teachers, don’t miss all the electronic flash cards available. Don’t miss the oodles of science experiments and social studies projects to go along with your standards. Many of these activities are perfect companions for your interactive whiteboard or projector. Activities would also well on individual computers or as learning centers for cooperative learning groups.
Be sure to include a link to this website in your class newsletter and teacher webpage for students and parents to find at-home practice help. Have students write a "game review" of portions they find and like; then post the reviews on your teacher web page, as well.
Storytelling comes alive at Zinger Tales. Listen to actual recordings of well-known tales by some of America's most famous storytellers. The rich language and expressions will captivate your students. Some examples of the stories include Why Dogs Chase Cats, The Three Bears and Goldilocks, The Cracked Pot , and numerous others. This website requires Flash. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page..
In the Classroom: Find the text for the stories featured at this site (or find text for any tall tale or oral history). Have students read the text multiple times to become familiar with the story. Watch and listen to the stories as a class on an interactive whiteboard or projection screen. Or have students use individual computers and listen to the stories of their choice. Don’t forget the headphones! Learning support teachers will like this option to let folk tales spark the imagination of their weaker readers. Study storytelling techniques from this site. When students are comfortable with 'their' favorite story, record your own classroom storytelling podcast. Or burn a CD to as a gift to parents or fundraiser for a classroom project.
Check out this easy-to-use flashcard site useful for any subject area. The Leitner System of efficiently learning facts through flashcards makes learning a breeze. This online version actually graphs the results of a study session so you can see progress. The sign-up for this free tool is ultra-quick and requires no email address. The set-up is quite user friendly. Within a few minutes of accessing this site, you have personalized flashcards to help with learning. Another cool feature: when you give your card sets the same ‘tag,’ you automatically have the ability to study those multiple sets together. After the study session, you will see the study stats for just those card sets. Flashcards couldn’t be easier!
In the Classroom: Facts, spelling words, vocabulary, definitions, you name it -— all can easily be typed into this flashcard format for any subject. Plan to tag sets for related material so they can be grouped. For example: tag all geography terms "geography" and all words from the same science chapter using the chapter number or topic. You can use multiple tags, too! In the computer lab, using a projector or interactive whiteboard, walk your students through making their own sets of flashcards. Students or parents can then access their electronic cards at home or anywhere. No email address is needed to sign-up for this free service. Include the link to your sets on your web page for students to study before tests.
TeachersFirst Edge entry: For slightly adventurous technology users. This site is useful to create an interactive video (hypervideo) through the use of hyperlinking. Just like hyperlinks in a document, create hot links to notes, websites, and other material you link to from parts of the video. The links appear as little circles (hotspot markers) that are clicked to reveal the information you "attach." Add more information to your video for students to access during the playback. Easy-to-follow directions and quick tours to get you started. When the video is done, you can generate and embed a code in your blog or website. Video can also be emailed. Quicktime and FLASH are required. Get them from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page..
In the Classroom: Skills needed: Site is free, but you must join to create your own videos. Videos must originate from YouTube or TeacherTube (see editorial comment below). You can always upload your own originals to one of these sites, if you wish to annotate a video you shot for use in class, such as a science demo. Paste the YouTube url into the search function, click on a part of the video you want to label, and add notes to, or link to a website. No special skills needed. A teenager or techno-comfortable teacher will figure this one out in one minute. The only challenge is determining what notes and links to use. Keep a second window open to copy and paste website addresses quickly. Watch the demos for quick learning of how to use this application.
Safety concern: some featured videos available on the site's home page, especially those under "Entertainment," may not be appropriate for school viewing. If your school does not have an actively-enforced student acceptable use policy with specific consequences for accessing inappropriate content, you may want to avoid this page or generate such an agreement for student and parent signatures before allowing students open access to Asterpix. You can always create products of your own and share them directly by URL or by embedding them in your blog.
Does your school block YouTube? Try creating a video using an original from TeacherTube instead. Or follow your school's technology policy to request unblocking of specific YouTube video URLs that are directly related to curriculum.
Editorial comment: Be sure to SHARE the completed examples (and student-made products) with administrators and school decision-makers to demonstrate why school policies should permit such powerful opportunities for teaching and learning. Perhaps you can advocate, at the least, quicker unblocking of specific videos (24 hours or less?) for classroom use or permission for teachers to unblock on a per-computer basis. Your efforts to respect policies while pro-actively advocating for appropriate change will benefit all teachers and students.
Possible uses for annotated videos: Use a video and have students add information to check their understanding, such as to label the actions they observe during a chemistry demo and add links to web pages that explain the underlying concepts. Create teacher-made videos to share individually or on a projector with students of ALL ages to illustrate and annotate concepts that are especially challenging or simply to help students visualize the connections between the words they read or hear and the real world examples. Shoot on-site video at the zoo or at a pond study site, then add annotations later. Use videos already available, but add the explanations using the terminology from your curriculum and allow student so access then for review or extra help. Secondary students will love using Asterpix themselves and will give a new dimension to presentations they create. Teachers can use the interactive video for extra tutorial work, explanations of topics, etc. The possibilities are endless!
For those teachers, school counselors, and parents looking for a safe place for "tween" girls to feel acceptance - check out this website based on the Beacon Street Girls. This website offers interactive games, details about Beacon Street Girls books, and other ways to connect with girls from around the world. You will have to steer clear of some advertising content. Some of the activities require FLASH. Get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page..
In the Classroom: Counselors working with small groups of girls may want to include this as an activity option or discussion starter in their meetings. Teachers who find that girls' interpersonal behavior is interfering with classwork, especially in middle school, may also find that this site can provide a positive activity during study halls and even provide some writing ideas for girls' journals.
You, too, will say “Wow!” when your students explore this financial literacy site. There is a free membership offered, and it takes only a moment to register. Written to meet National Council of Teachers of Mathematics standards, CommerceWOW!Zone provides children and teens with a better understanding of the value and usage of money. This interactive tool targets two audiences: elementary-aged and teens. The under-12 group follows the adventures of Penny Arcade and her friends as they learn about money through videos and exciting, interactive games. Teens can play a virtual stock market game where they receive $50,000 in fantasy money every month to "invest" in the real stock market. Teens compete with other players in this educational, fun experience.
In the Classroom: This Commerce Bank site provides oodles of lesson plans to make your financial units come alive. Many of the activities would work well initially on a projector or whiteboard with follow-up activities on partner or individual computers. This site is a MUST when you reach the "Time and Money" portion of your math curriculum or talk about money in your elementary social studies class. Be sure to include the link on your teacher web page for parents to participate, as well. The site even provides guest speakers for classrooms and assembly visits to teach financial issues (Florida, Washington, DC, and Northeast areas only). Your class may want to become Junior Bankers and earn a badge, so check out the Junior Banker game section. High school business and economics teachers will love this one, too!
Have you ever needed a second reading teacher in your primary classroom? You will come close when you visit this site. Browser Books’ name says it all. Your students will choose from a list of books to read. Click on the arrow at the bottom right on each page, and the page turns to the next. You won’t need to answer, “What’s this word?” when your students read these online books. Click on each word and hear it read aloud. Students will love the kid-friendly faces in each book. Books are leveled from pre-Kindergarten to first grade. The Moosejaw, Canada web creator of this site deserves the awards she has garnered.
In the Classroom: Your students will find the easy navigation at this site a bonus. Give them a laptop to read these books in their cozy reading spot (with headphones), or choral read with the entire classroom or group using an interactive whiteboard. Individualized reading opportunities abound using these books. For computer savvy parents, assign this as extra homework reading. They will not complain about this homework assignment.
I was wonderingGrade 5 to 10
- National Science Academies- 8728
This site encourages young women (especially middle school age) to become scientists by celebrating the lives and contributions of 10 female scientists, sharing hands-on, "sharable" science activities and including games that make science fun. Book suggestions and amazing links associated with the women scientists' fields complete the offerings of this site designed to dispel the myth that girls can't do science.
In the Classroom: The topics range from robots to subatomic particles, from biology to astronomy to social science. Use this site as a jumping off point to for scientist biographies and study of science careers in a variety of areas. Many of the links make excellent curriculum resources, as well. Be sure to make this site available from your teacher web page and encourage students to try some of the hands-on activities at home. Most are designed to be "social events" where students can invite friends to join in. Mention this to parents, as well, so they can encourage their young scientists with science parties!
Doing a unit on Family Ties or family history? Download the Family Tree Maker (or use the online vesion) so you can record your family’s roots. Or, read about the Still family who has one of the longest running family reunions in America. Take the interactive quiz about “Keeping in Touch,” communication avenues through our history.
In the Classroom: Make sure your students use the downloadable family tree maker, since the online version erases data when you click off the site. Check out the Teachers and Parents section for more family ties activities. This site could also be an effective adjunct to literature study of books about family. You might even want to create family trees of characters from books students are reading or famous families from history in a biography unit.
This interactive web activity challenges students to match weather symbols to various locations in Great Britain based on the weather forecast. Although this website was created by the BBC and uses cities within Great Britain, it could be useful in any classroom that is studying the weather or making a weather chart for morning meeting time. The entire activity requires Flash, get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.. Be sure to visit the Teachers/Parents link to view general standards for this interactive game.
In the Classroom: Utilize an interactive whiteboard and take your class to Great Britain to learn about the weather. Then create a weather calendar on the desktop of your classroom computer and have a different student each day drag the symbol for that day's weather into the box for that date!
This subsection of the Songs for Teaching site has excellent chants and other childhood favorite songs which get children moving, speaking, and rhyming. Words to the fingerplays and songs are copyable, and many contain Quicktime sound excerpt files as well (enough to get you going with the song, though not the complete song). A few even have pictures of someone going through the motions of the song or rhyme. A link to Songs for Early Childhood allows you to see even more action songs. There are even songs to go with class content, such as Martin Luther King, Jr. Your kinesthetic learners will retain the concepts in these songs. ESL, ELL, and speech/language students will respond to the music; it aids with articulation, accent development, and memory. This site requires Quicktime. Get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: Share this link on your teacher web page and/or in a parent newsletter so that parents can use it at home too! Don't forget to turn up your speakers if you are using the music in class. If your class responds very well to using songs, you might try writing lyrics together about something you are studying -- using one of these familiar tunes.
Exercise your gray matter by solving one of the 12,000 'braingles' at this site. It purports to be the largest collection of puzzles, riddles, mind games, etc, on the Internet. Once you explore the site, you trust their word. The site is mobile phone and wii-friendly. Don't miss the section with SAT vocab (in Mentalrobics). There are articles on study skills and strategies such as clearing your mind before studying, "chunking" when reading, or various strategies to memorize material. Engage students into math and reading exercises through the endless riddles and puzzles at this site. They won't even be aware they are 'reading' or 'solving math.'
In the Classroom: Start class with a "warm-up" brain teaser. Or include this link on your teacher web page (with a caution about parental supervision for younger ones). Site creators claim the entire site is family-friendly, safe for classroom use. Portions of the site require membership, and the membership level that displays ads is free. You may want to set up a CLASS account and use it under controlled circumstances since there are forums and chat rooms, however. Or ask your tech folks to block the portion of the site that includes "community" in the URL (http://www.braingle.com/community/) to avoid having to deal with forums, chat rooms, etc.(If you are lucky enough to have such helpful tech support, make them cookies once in awhile!)
My Wonderful WorldGrade 3 to 12
- National Geographic Education Foundation- 8384
This website is all about our Wonderful World - Geography! There is something here for everyone (students, teachers, and parents). The website provides information, quizzes, interactive games, and more than can be mentioned. The interactive maps will make the study of world cultures far more engaging and "real" as your students navigate on their own. The site draws together resources that National Geographic had separately and add links to other good interactive sources. You truly have to explore this website to understand all of the material available. This site requires Flash. Get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page..
In the Classroom: Start out by checking the teachers' link. Get your interactive whiteboards ready for the games and activities, and be sure to share the link on your teacher web page for serious global involvement.
TeachersFirst Edge entry: for moderately adventurous technology users. Voicethread allows you to upload images (from your digital camera, scanner, or even paint program), then allow students to record their own comments and/or narration about the images. Other listeners can "comment" back, as well. TeachersFirst is providing the link to the VoiceThread home page but suggests that you first watch this quick explanation about two types of FREE educator memberships being offered for classroom teachers (one completely free, the other after a one time fee of $10...so "sort of" free). You can click to go to the home page from there. Access to the ed.voicethread site (as opposed to www.voicethread)is restricted to grades K-12 students, educators, and administrators.
VoiceThread explains how to set up a classroom account and has some ideas for classroom use, as well. Ideas from the TeachersFirst Edge review team are listed below, under "In the classroom."
In the Classroom: Skills needed: join the site (free). You will be logged into your account immediately after you fill in the registration form. Watch the "One Minute Voicethread" to get a very quick overview of how easy it is to create a digital story. Set up student identities. You will want to "Browse" some Voicethreads to get an idea how they work. Use first names only. You need to know how to locate and upload saved pictures. You WILL need a microphone, either plugged into your computer or built in. They can be purchased for less than $10 at a discount or electronics store. Once you create a Voicethread, it can be shared by copying the URL and sending it via email or other means, inviting others to comment back. You can also decide whether you wish to allow comments and whether these comments will be moderated by you.
Of course, you should be sure that you have the RIGHTS to any images you upload. Fair Use does not apply when you put an image on the web!
Safety/security: TeachersFirst recommends that you explain the VoiceThread projects via a note sent home and obtain parent permission to post student work to the web, even anonymously. Then invite parents to share in the results (The VoiceThread classroom page tells you more about this). TeachersFirst does not recommend using actual, identifiable pictures of children. Let them draw a picture or take a digital picture of an object that somehow represents them (middle schoolers will love that idea!). If you allow others to "comment" on student Voicethreads, the experience can be both wonderful and a bit intimidating. Use this opportunity to promote ethical and kind interaction with other students and their projects.
Possible uses: Elementary classes can create or take pictures, then ask each child to talk about the images. Each child can comment on the SAME pictures, creating a collaborative collection of responses. After a field trip or special class event, you can assign groups of students to explain each of the digital pictures you took and how they relate to curriculum topics. In art class, students can critique works of their own or of fellow students. In language arts classes, students can scan and comment on writing pieces as part of a reflective phase of the writing process. Or post an image as a prewriting activity and allow students to respond orally in an idea-generating phase. In social studies, have students provide a picture of a grandparent then narrate what they learned about that grandparent from interviewing him/her. Have students create narrated pictures as gifts (for parents or other care givers) for special occasions, winter holidays, Thanksgiving, Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, Father's Day, etc.. During a science experiment or demo, have a student take pictures of the steps. Then ask students to "narrate" them by commenting on what is happening. The narration assignment could even be a center activity or an assignment on a few classroom computers for students to rotate through. What a great way to review and apply key vocabulary! Be sure they identify their voices if you are using a single class account and want to be able to assess understanding. Other ideas: narrated local history projects (pictures of local sites), audio "museum tours" of artifacts (photos) or war veterans telling their stories along with images of their uniforms or old photos. Speech/language, ESL/ELL or early childhood teachers could use this tool to promote vocabulary development and oral expression.
Wow - this resource is amazing! This website provides numerous activities and/or games for extra practice in literacy, math, science, history, geography, art, and religion. Some examples of the specific activities include, "Saving the Environment", "Fraction Monkeys", and "Ancient Egypt". The site provides a huge amount of topics and a wide range of activities. Many of the activities are interactive and require FLASH. Get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.. Note: The site is British, so beware of spelling differences!
In the Classroom: This website would be an excellent resource to use with an interactive whiteboard. You may also want to provide this link on your teacher web page for parents to use at home. Nearly all subject areas (and topics) are included. Do yourself a favor - and utilize this excellent resource! Learning support teachers will love the opportunities for their students to get extra practice.
This Website is designed to meet the needs of schools that would like to offer foreign languages but have no language. It serves as an introductory-level course in French, German, or Spanish. Each 10-15 minute lesson presents many words, with emphasis on the spoken word rather than the written word. Teachers of gifted may have students who want to learn a language as independent study using this site. This site requires Adobe Acrobat Reader and Windows Media Player. Get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page..
In the Classroom: Share the videos as a whole-class lesson on a projector. You will need speakers for the audio portions of this site. Include this site on your teacher web page for students and parents to access as a reference. As you study different continents or cultures, include a little of the language to expose your students to the "sounds" of other places. If you have ESL students in your class, share a video for the native English speakers to better understand the experience of learning a new language.
Use this interactive online calculator to determine the extent of your use of natural resources, including your carbon footprint, use of land, water, and trees based on your responses to a series of questions about your lifestyle and behavior. Students can compare their "footprint" to the average in several nations. There is a brief explanation of each "footprint" and an accompanying letter to parents and teachers (downloadable). Even adults will be interested in measuring their own impact on the environment.
This resource was featured in a recent New Teacher Hotline Podcast as one of the Tech Toolbox resources. Hear more about it on the podcast .
In the Classroom: Share this site on a projector or interactive whiteboard, then assign it as homework or have students bring in the information to complete the questionnaire in class. A great follow-up assignment would be to have students write a family plan for ways they will change their behavior to reduce their negative impact on the environment, one household at a time.
BookwinkGrade 2 to 8
- Sonja Cole and Paul Kim- 8160
Bookwink is a reviewing service for books. The video reviews describe the monthly book selections on a particular topic. Users can access archives of other reviews for free. You can also subscribe to monthly podcasts to download to your computer or iPod (This feature requires you to install iTunes -- available by free download).
There is an index to book annotations organized by subject, grade level, author, title, and related subjects. This even includes read-alikes to find books similar to a recent favorite. There are no free audio books, however; clicking on the book title leads right to Amazon.com where users can choose to purchase the books. You should check interlibrary loan at your public or school library for promising choices, since both boks and audio books are available, with audio books often available especially for students who have special needs or learning disabilities.
NOTE: Not recommended for dial-up connections! Uses the Quicktime plug-in for the videos. Get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page..
In the Classroom: Check the monthly offerings and use a projector to feature books on topics you are currently studying or simply to promote independent reading. Share the link on your teacher web page for them to access in the classroom or from home to help reluctant readers (and their parents) to seek out exciting books. Be sure to clue in your school librarian so he/she can feature current Bookwink offerings in the library or borrow them via interlibrary loan.
Create your own handwriting worksheets--customized any way you wish. Five practice lines with dotted lettering is provided on each worksheet. Teachers choose the words, font style, paper positioning, and then create their own written instructions, for customized handwriting worksheets. Having this handwriting generator allows you to incorporate handwriting into your various units of study. If you are inept at handwriting yourself, this free technology does it for you...perfectly.
In the Classroom: Share this on your teacher web page for students and parents to practice at home with this week's spelling words. You can also project the "worksheets" onto your interactive whiteboard for a tactile approach to teaching the letters as students "magically" trace them -- with their fingers acting as the interactive whiteboard pen. For students with weak fine motor skills, this "finger" practice may help them before they can quite hold the pencil well.
Art AccessGrade K to 12
- Art Institute of Chicago- 8062
Art teachers and social studies teachers alike will love this well-organized site filled with images, lesson plans, and activities to use at home and at school. Click on a collection for lesson plans, family activities, and numerous images. There is also an interactive world map to accompany the collection so you can click to see where different artworks originated. The collections include: African American Art; American Art to 1900; Ancient Indian Art of the Americas; Arts of Africa; Impressionism and Postimpressionism; India, Himalayas and Southeast Asia; Modern and Contemporary Art; Renaissance and Baroque Art; Rococo to Realism.
In the Classroom: Take a few minutes to explore the art of a continent, country, or time period you introduce through social studies or literature. Include this site on your teacher web page as you study these related topics to students and parents can access it outside of class even if you do not have enough time to devote a full lesson. The images are not very large, so viewing on individual computers or using a projector that has a zoom function would help you share with a class. Teachers will like the creativity of some of the "family" activities and may want to use them at school or suggest them in a newsletter or on your web page.
For those who just can't wait for the next Harry Potter book, this site offers plenty of Harry Potter news, discussions, galleries with possible title pages and other illustrations, a page of avatar graphics, links to Potter movie trailers, and anything imaginable to do with the books and/or the movies. This is a consumer site, so it is a bit more "Hollywood" than "education," but there are portions that promote discussion, character analysis, and pure love of reading.
In the Classroom: Channel your students' high levels of anticipation about the next HP book by encouraging them to participate in some of these online discussions, with parent permission, of course. Include the link on your teacher web page to accompany an independent reading or for author study.
Encourage your writers to create and publish web-based writing with the help of this site! The site offers opportunities for kids to do creative writing on their own, read what others have done internationally, find writing suggestions from experts, and create online writing projects. In one section, they can write original "spells" a la Harry Potter. All writing submitted is carefully screened for this safe site. Be sure to check out Adventure Island (click on Writing with a Difference), a place for your students to create their own online story where readers navigate, read descriptions, and make choices. Some pages require FLASH.
In the Classroom: Select a theme you are studying in science or social studies or a setting from a literature piece you have studied, and make an Adventure Island as a group project. You must register(free), but the process is simple. The teacher informaiton is thorough and helpful. Check out some of the examples first. Be sure to have written parent permission before sharing student work on the web, even anonymously.
TeachersFirst Edge entry: for slightly adventurous technology users. Imagine being able to give students (or parents)an exact link to a specific quote within a web page. This TeachersFirst Edge tool does exactly that. Why would you want to? Perhaps you want to send students to a certain paragraph for an activity: for reading comprehension, for reading a specific portion of text, or even for highlighting a literary device within a text or poem. Students will no longer waste time, announcing, "I can't find it!" or return to school saying they couldn't do the homework!
In the Classroom: No membership or cost required. Tool can be used in less than 30 seconds. Skills needed: Open TWO windows in Internet Explorer or any web browser. One should be open to citebite; the other to the web page you wish to reference. On that web page, locate and "highlight" the exact passage of text you want to "send" people to see. Copy/paste the passage into the quotation box at Citebite (copy, then change windows). Return to the target web page and copy/paste its actual URL into Citebite. Click "Make Citebite." Copy/paste the new url, indicated after "Your citebite link is:" Note: if the original quote is within a FLASH presentation, it will not copy/paste or generate a Citebite. See this example of a Citebite link to a tip about TeachersFirst Edge tools: http://pages.citebite.com/b1j4l1j7o0ndu
Have your middle and high school students do a web page "credibility critique" on their potential sources by using Citebite before they start a research project. They can highlight passages as proof of credibility -- or lack thereof -- and give you the Citebite links. They will love this easy way to reference a specific portion of a page. You will love the ease of finding it. If you give them a Word document table as a web site evaluation rubric, they can paste the Citebites there, with their comments in the neighboring cell!
A nice basic site with an easy-to-follow history, and explanation of the Menorah, and some songs and crafts. There are directions for and an explanation of the dreidel game -- kids can also sing along to the song "Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel," and even spin a virtual dreidel (you must have or download RealVideo software first, which is available from the site). You can also print out a pattern to make your own dreidel, or print out Chanuka pictures to color for wrapping paper. Some of the activities require FLASH.
In the Classroom: Recommend this site to parents who are looking for holiday activities to do with their families! Within the classroom, this site would be excellent on a unit on world religions in either world history or cultural geography. During a study of Judaism, use this site on the interactive whiteboard or projector as an activator or introduction. There are quick games or puzzles that teachers can use as a quick review at the end of the lesson.
This unique and interactive website provides video tutorials and practice for secondary students. Math concepts include number properties, ratios and portions, percent, probability, data analysis, algebra I, algebra II, word problems, circles, lines and angles, roman numeral numbers, triangles, quadrilaterals, solids, coordinate geography and multiple figures. There are video tutorials and interactive practice activities for the students. FLASH is required.
In the Classroom: Try that interactive whiteboard and challenge your students with this SAT preparation website. Give the link to parents and students for additional practice at home or during study halls.
Kerpoof is a site designed to inspire creativity among children as they interact with the pictures. They can select a scene and add items to the scene and/or adjust object sizes . The scenes are richly varied, containing fantasy as well as international items. The site promises to change often. You can also find coloring sheets to print and color. You and your students can customize your own scenes, if you join (see classroom use tips). Editor's notes: In spring, 2007, this site became rather sluggish in opening. We suspect it has gained popularity, and the multiple users are slowing it down. Be patient!
In the Classroom: Use these online "scenes" for students to create their own writing prompts. Let students choose (you might want to limited their options to save time)and work individually or create a scene for the whole class on an interactive whiteboard. Then print it out and ask students to tell the story or write the paragraph about the scene. Special ed teachers and speech/language clinicians can use Kerpoof to prompt vocabulary development. Incorporate social studies and science curriculum topics by describing scenes with community workers, careers, farm animals, and more. NO reading required except to select print, save, etc.
If you "join" as a teacher, you can save the scenes your class creates and revisit them at a later date. Do NOT allow students to join unless you have parent permission. The information requested is very safe, but it would be simpler to use a whole-class account.
This information clearing house, the self-described "voice of the autism community" provides much-needed information on autism and related disorders. At this site you can explore About Autism, Life with Autism, Research & Programs, Autism Communities, and more! You can also sign up to receive e-newsletters, learn about fundraising opportunities, and find many tips for parents and teachers. This site is recommended in articles by the National Association of School Psychologists, a helpful endorsement in distinguishing among many web sites dealing with autism.
In the Classroom: Use this site to learn the basics about autism. No classroom teacher can be expected to be an expert on autism, but this site may help you understand some of what you see and some of the more recent information about autism, especially since few teachers receive much training about this in their teacher-ed programs. If you have students in your classes with autism, ask your principal if you can spend part of an inservice day reading and exploring this and other TeachersFirst resources listings on autism. This independent study may save your sanity and benefit students who really need our understanding. This is a great resource to provide to parents!
This introductory article explains basic characteristics of autism and Asperger's, major treatment considerations, and IEP suggestions. Tough ostensibly for parents, the language is mostly that of educators and psychologists, so some interpretation may be needed for many parents to fully understand. The article includes a few resource links at the end. Note that this article dates form 2004 and does not reflect the 2007 release of new statistics from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) on autism prevalence. The file requires Acrobat Reader. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: No classroom teacher can be expected to be an expert on autism, but this site may help you understand some of what you see and some of the more recent information about autism, especially since few teachers receive much training about this in their teacher-ed programs. If you have students in your classes with autism, ask your principal if you can spend part of an inservice day reading and exploring this and other TeachersFirst resources listings on autism. This independent study may save your sanity and benefit students who really need our understanding.
See and participate in an outstanding example of an online community with a specific and rigorous mission: active involvement with text-based study of literature as "a way to teach" (and learn). This site, created by a teacher at Whitney M. Young Magnet High School in the Chicago area, invites you and your students to share in a community where technology supports literature study, making it irresistible. You must join (free) and log in to access materials, but the effort is well worth your time. The environment is both safe and rigorous, setting an expectation of excellence for all who join. If you do not participate and use your membership, it will not remain active. You earn "points" for participation!
A Way to Teach includes lesson plans and active teaching ideas from Shakespeare to Hemingway to journalism. Find inspiration in the Illuminated Texts created by students using PowerPoint or Flash. See student work (or teacher examples) that go beyond the ordinary discussion of literature to total immersion in a textual/visual experience and inspire your students to articulate their interpretations at a level to bring tears to a literature-lover's eyes! In the words of the creator himself on his original version of this site: "The mission of A Way to Teach is to spread and propagate the text-based teaching of literature. I hope that it can be of some use to you as the ideas and lessons that I have been given over the years have enriched and shaped my own teaching."
Be sure to explore the forums and supportive how-tos to get started with illuminated text projects. Clicking on any of the areas you teach provides you with ideas for different ways to approach any text-based lesson. Mr. Scotese is very creative, and he shares his creativity quite generously. If you teach other literature, the ideas are adaptable for use with any text.
While the site itself needs no special plug-ins, some of the ideas require Powerpoint, Adobe Acrobat, or Flash software. You can get these from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: Start your school year or any literature unit by sharing a student-created, illuminated text on your interactive whiteboard or a projector. If you study Shakespeare's sonnets, be sure to share a Flash version of one you will not be studying so students can SEE the richness of Shakespeare's words before they take on a sonnet of their own. Try this example . Obtain parent permission (and the OK under your school policies) for your students to join and comment to each other and to others lucky enough to participate in this community. Start a group for YOUR class on this safe site and see English class become the talk of your school.
Dates That Matter provides a new perspective on history by placing each day-in-history event in broader context and explaining its long-term impact. History is a fabric woven of many events, and Dates That Matter helps students see the full tapestry.
The dates display on a projector-ready screen: A single sentence reveals something about the date. You then click to see a sequence of thought-provoking questions to guide students to a greater understanding of interrelationships as they try to guess the actual event. When the historical event finally shows on screen, a further explanation, Why does it matter?, fills in the remaining context and offers reviewed links to learn more.
Teachers who work with low readers might try using these daily clues to teach the reading strategy of connecting what you read with prior knowledge to place new learning in context.
A full, annotated version of each dte is availabel from the Teacher page at the end so you can plan for student responses and have hints for guiding the discussion. You can also preview upcoming dates to choose those you may want to put in your weekly plans.
In the Classroom: Begin your social studies class once or twice a week by sharing a Date That Matters on a projector or interactive whiteboard to foster broader understanding of the connections that form world history. Or use the links at the end as an extra credit or enrichment opportunity or for gifted students to investigate more. Focus class attention as everyone enters by projecting the date and starting sentence.
Make this one a link on your teacher web page for students (and parents)to access outside of school.
Plant Parts Salad BarGrade K to 3
- Missouri Farm Bureau and Missouri State University- 6835
This simple webquest is a great tool for teaching students the six main parts of plants, their jobs, and food samples of each part. Younger grades would need assistance navigating the webquest. The culminating activity (creating a book using six paper plates) is creative and "kid-approved". A detailed grading rubric is provided. Printables require Acrobat Reader.
In the Classroom: Even if you do not have the time to complete the entire webquest, the culminating activity could easily be adapted to meet the needs of all ability levels. The link for growing your own lettuce, could be an interesting homework assignment or an at-home activity with parents. If you don't do it at school, put the link on your teacher web page for families to try.
Want to become a part of cyberspace history and preserve a part of our culture? Use your ipod, phone or computer to record the chants, songs, jump rope rhymes, or circle games that your students enjoy. Then submit them to the database so the students can hear themselves on the net.They can also listen to recordings made by other classes. Be part of a new way of recording oral history! Include this activity as art of your study of history and the songs people sang on the railroads, on riverboats, or as they immigrated.
In the Classroom: Before recording for the website use a tape recorder to have students practice speaking clearly when recording. Have older students teach younger grades a chant or song to record. Directions for recording are included on the site. Make sure you follow your school district policies for posting information on the web.Include a link on your teacher website for parents to listen to the class recordings.
Looking for a way to present topics such as: lasers, orbits or tidal forces? Through hands-on, interactive games and animations, this site tackles subjects that are often considered too advanced for elementary students and presents them simply and concisely.A la carte style menu lets you pick and choose subject areas that relate to your classroom. You can even download a Spaceplace podcast. A Spanish version of the full site is available.
In the Classroom: There is a special section for teachers that offers printable pictures for the classroom and classroom activities. Use the menus or search function to find extenxsion topics for your regular curriculum, such as "What Batteries Will Last Until Your Old Age?" when studying electricity, and share them on a projector or as a classroom center during that unit. Encourage budding scientists by making this site available on your classroom computer all the time or sharing it on your teacher web site. Play the Space Place Musings podcast as students wait for their bus. The full site provides enrichment or home activities for kids and parents, too.
All Aboard.... the Dinosaur Train! This website takes two topics that kids love (dinosaurs and trains) and turns the experience into a wonderful lesson in language arts, science, social studies, and more. Climb aboard the train and find lesson plans, games (which ARE educational), a field guide (introducing the various dinosaurs), a print option for printable pages of dinosaurs, and a video button to view clips of this educational show. There is also a link for parents and teachers (with lesson plans, class activities, overview of the show, and more).
NOTE: the popularity of this site can make it slow to load, especially at peak times. Open it on the classroom computer before the lesson so it is in the “cache,” and avoid heavy traffic times such as 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Eastern time when schools are online across the U.S.
In the Classroom: If you are teaching about dinosaurs, herbivores, carnivores, measurements, and many other topics, share this site on your interactive whiteboard. Share parts of the video clips and then discuss the science concepts discussed. Have students use the "Field Guides" to learn more about specific dinosaurs. Have cooperative learning groups create multimedia presentations about the dinosaurs they study. How about creating a class DinoWiki (dinosaur wiki). Not comfortable with wikis? Have no wiki worries – check out the Teacher’s First Wiki Walk-Through reviewed here. Be sure to list this site on your class website for all of your dinosaur loving students to view at home!
NOTE: Open this site on the classroom computer before the lesson so it is in the “cache,” and avoid heavy traffic times such as 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Eastern time when schools are online across the U.S.
SmART KidsGrade 2 to 8
- David & Alfred Smart Museum of Art- 4526
This site, updated in 2008 and designed by the University of Chicago’s David & Alfred Smart Museum of Art, provides an interactive experience for children to study art. The site is geared at students ages seven to twelve to build a core knowledge of basic art concepts and to learn about and respond creatively to art. Students can browse the art speak dictionary of over seventy terms with audio accompaniment, play a game that matches Smart Museum artworks with their appropriate descriptions, tour an artist’s studio, and examine the work of the month. This artistic site also offers art making demos and a sketch book for students to record and email responses. For safety purposes, you may want to create your own Gmail account with sub-accounts for students (by sub account code name or number) within your classes. Here is a blog post that tells how. There is also a link for teachers and parents offering lesson ideas, classroom activities, and background information on the site. This site requires Flash. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page..
In the Classroom: Use your interactive whiteboard or projector to share this site with your students. Then set this up as a learning station, or have students work in pairs to complete the interactive art challenges.
Share this Civics Quiz with your students. Are your students more knowledgeable than the average U.S. Citizen? The site says the average score is a 55%! The quiz consists of approximately 30 questions, all related to the U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence, the three branches of the government, the roles of the president, and much more. A final score is provided at the end of the quiz.
In the Classroom: Have students complete this quiz on individual computers or with a partner (if there are not enough computers). Why not have your older civics or government students create their own interactive surveys using Google Docs (reviewed here), or quizzes using Quizschool (reviewed here). Or create one together as a class. Have students share their quizzes/surveys with the class on an interactive whiteboard or projector or as links from your class wiki or web page for use outside of class. Be sure to invite parents and other teachers to respond! What is important for citizens to know, in your students' view?
As the name suggests...this site is all about weather. The main links include About Weather and Weather and People. There are also links for parents and teachers. The teachers' link includes lesson plans (with UK standards), activities, extensions, printables, and more! Use the About Weather link to teach about wind direction, wind force, precipitation, temperature, sunshine, visibility, and clouds. Each topic includes a short interactive. Note that temperatures are given in Celsius! At the Weather and People link, you can teach about the housing, sports, and clothing of various cities throughout the world. The activities link the housing, sports, and clothing to the climate in specific areas. This site is simple to use (for both teachers and students) and makes the complicated "world of the weather" much more simple to understand. This site requires Flash and Adobe Acrobat. You can get both from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: If weather or climate is the topic - this site is a must-see! Start your journey at the Teachers' link to learn more about the activities and gain some new ideas for your own classroom. Correlate your social studies (geography and culture) with your science (weather) lessons. Share the activities on your interactive whiteboard or projector. If individual computers are available, have students work in pairs to explore this site. Have cooperative learning groups create PowerPoint presentations about the weather in their town (or a researched location).
On its surface, this site appears to be simply a "virtual tour" of Ellis Island. However, the Teacher's section contains a good deal of information on how to create an on-site, interdisciplinary immigration experience for students. There are tips on content, involving parents, and other aspects of the project. Well worth a look if you're studying this time period.
This is a monthly collection of stories and folk tales from the Old South, most of which are just a bit "scary." Each of the three or four monthly stories is taken from a particular southern regional tradition. The stories can be read and downloaded, or students may listen to them using the Real Audio player plug-in. Since it changes frequently, teachers or parents should preview this material before turning their students loose.
In the Classroom: This site could supplement a study of folk tales or the history of the south in the U.S.
Use this site to create polls for your students (or have students create their own). The polls are embeddable in your wiki, blog, or class website. The site is still in beta. You can create a name, an expiration date for the survey, questions (multiple choice, yes or no, and ranking), and input your email address to be informed as results come into the site. Rather than using personal email accounts consider creating a teacher Gmail account and set up subaccounts for up to 20 students to register (by code name or number). Here is a blog post that tells how to set up GMail subaccounts to use for any online membership service. Registration is not required to use this site. There are some advertisements and external links at this site (all appropriate at the time of this review). So if you allow students to use this site on their own, be sure to watch carefully.
In the Classroom: Use this site to collect data for math activities and graphing. Use it for people to rate student-created projects or for social studies projects about elections, or other social issues. Have students make wiki pages on an issue and include a poll and then graph the poll results in math class. Poll parents and grandparents on your class web page to involve them in decisions or use their experiences to help students understand times “long ago.”
Here's an idea for classroom exhibits. The Boston Children's Museum offers a large collection of "exhibits in a box" for rental to schools. The topics cover social studies, science, the arts, even disability awareness. Costs vary, but the average seems to be $20 to $30 per week. This is a neat idea, and the cost might even be something that a school parent teacher organization could help cover. Take a peek.
Here's a lesson unit that lets students design a perfect mate, then compare it with their parent's concepts. Sounds strange, but this teacher-tested lesson has proven immensely popular with teachers, parents, and students alike. This lesson plan, one of TeachersFirst's long-popular resources, was one the winners in a lesson plan contest sponsored by TeachersFirst in 2002. TeachersFirst editors have added technology options where appropriate.
In the Classroom: The survey handout included in this lesson makes it a perfect starter for the study of Romeo and Juliet. As you read the play, you could extend the idea by having students complete the same survey as Montague or Capulet parents!
Students, teachers and parents will find helpful information for getting organized, taking notes, writing and plagiarism, test taking tips, and research. Be sure to check out the special sections for teachers and parents. Flash and Acrobat Reader are needed for some sections of the site. Get them from the 
