TeachersFirst - Featured Sites: Week of Oct 25, 2015
Here are this week's features. Clicking the tags in the description area of each listing will present a list of other resources with this topic. | Click here to return to the Featured Sites Archive
International Dot Day - Reynolds Center for Teaching Learning & Creativity
Grades
K to 12
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Become part of a global celebration of creativity, courage, and collaboration on International Dot Day. Formed in response to The Dot written by Peter H. Reynolds, this day is set aside to rekindle an... more
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Become part of a global celebration of creativity, courage, and collaboration on International Dot Day. Formed in response to The Dot written by Peter H. Reynolds, this day is set aside to rekindle and inspire the power of creativity in all of us. Register (sign up) for the free International Dot Day Virtual Event on Monday, Sept. 16 at 10am ET. Scroll down the page and click Resources to find Connect with Other Classrooms, a free downloadable Classroom Guide, and the Dot Song. Explore the site to find many posters, badges, pictures of Dot Day in action, and more. Don't forget to follow International Dot Day on Instatgram, Facebook, and X (formerly Twitter) to stay in touch with all of the latest updates from around the world. Sign up to become a member of the Dot Day Community and celebrate with others around the world each September! Some of the videos are on YouTube. If your district blocks YouTube, they may not be viewable.
tag(s): cross cultural understanding (214), literature (387), creativity (186),
In the Classroom
Although the official International Dot Day is in September, use ideas from the site to inspire creativity and collaboration throughout the year. Read The Dot to students and encourage them to brainstorm and collaborate ways they can make their mark in the world. Celebrate by joining the International Dot Day Virtual Event on Monday, Sept. 16 at 10am ET with a live stream featuring the author and his twin brother. Challenge older students to explore their place in the world through the use of a blog. If you are beginning the process of integrating technology, have students create blogs sharing their learning and understanding using Penzu, reviewed here, with Penzu you can add images or your own artwork as illustrations. Or, use Webnode, reviewed here. Take this a step further by joining the Connect with Other Classrooms and sharing your Dot Day activities with your global friends. Consider following International Dot Day on Instagram, Facebook, and X (formerly Twitter) to stay in touch with all of the latest updates from around the world.
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Math 4 Raft Race - Learn Alberta
Grades
3 to 6
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Help Carl and his friends enter the school raft race challenge. Use your math skills to collect the four items needed to build a raft. Complete as many activities as possible to enhance the quality of... more
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Help Carl and his friends enter the school raft race challenge. Use your math skills to collect the four items needed to build a raft. Complete as many activities as possible to enhance the quality of your raft. Practice your skills with basic operations, symmetry, time, equations, diagrams, and more. When finished, watch what happens when Carl and his friends enter the race!
tag(s): venn diagrams (29), time (177), symmetry (65), equations (224),
In the Classroom
Introduce the Raft Race on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Allow students to explore and play on their own. Share a link to the site on your class website for students to play at home. Use this site as an anticipatory set or "activator" to introduce a unit or lesson on time, symmetry, equations, and more. Use ideas from this activity and have students create an annotated image including text boxes and related links using a tool such as Thinglink, reviewed here, to explain what they learned.Comments
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Happier - Nataly Kogan
Grades
3 to 12
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Share positive moments and increase your happiness! Share by describing your happy moment, upload a picture (not required), and place it in categories you create, such as working out, family, and more... more
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Share positive moments and increase your happiness! Share by describing your happy moment, upload a picture (not required), and place it in categories you create, such as working out, family, and more. Click Share to share with others, including on Twitter or Facebook. Why use categories? If you are lacking motivation for working out, viewing your positive messages from before can definitely help! Connect with others and comment on their happy moments! Read helpful tips to center you on happiness, find mini-courses, and use daily reminders to increase your happiness. Read the many articles on your journey to a happier YOU! This site/app is easy to use with today's busy lives, and interactivity is grounded in actual science.
tag(s): social and emotional learning (106), emotions (82), psychology (89), mental health (43),
In the Classroom
With testing, social pressure, and the desire to do well use Happier in class to reinforce social-emotional learning (SEL) by celebrating the small steps and successes on which students should be focusing. Teach students to identify positives along the way, no matter what the test or situation's outcome. Consider asking what did you learn from the situation? Identify categories that encompass all of the student's lives and focus on finding happy moments in all areas. Be sure to use this yourself! Find the positives in every facet of your day building happiness day by day. Psychology and Sociology classes can use this as an experiment about happiness, collecting student or family data through the year.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Reddit - Reddit.com
Grades
9 to 12
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Reddit democratizes news through voting on the headlines that matter to you. Though informative, it is not eye catching. Simply "upvote" or "downvote" a headline to bring it higher (or lower) in the n... more
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Reddit democratizes news through voting on the headlines that matter to you. Though informative, it is not eye catching. Simply "upvote" or "downvote" a headline to bring it higher (or lower) in the news column. Curate the best stuff on Reddit by creating a Subreddit. Note: New accounts are unable to make a Subreddit without time spent being active in the community. Search or view the various Subreddits for a topic of your choice. To make a Subreddit, choose "Create your own Subreddit." On the left-hand side are the boxes for your Subreddits (under the Multireddit label). Subscribe to various threads of interest through the subscribe button. As you subscribe to the threads, your Reddit page will change to show these subscriptions. Some threads are Ask Me Anything (AMA), and the poster will answer when you ask. As Reddit is Social Networking, be sure to look at the comments of others before sharing with students. Since you can curate your own topics, this may not be a major concern.
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This site includes advertising.
tag(s): news (382), social networking (179), microblogging (58),
In the Classroom
Use Reddit to show the uniqueness and value of topics by the upvotes and downvotes. Also discuss the thinking behind the upvotes and downvotes. Comments to the posts offer more detailed information to portions of the topic that can lead to different points of view, deeper analysis, and discussion of related topics. Since the average person and professionals use Reddit, students can ask a question to get crowdsourced answers such as "How to write a better term paper?" View the various topics that have high or poor ratings and determine whether the ratings are based upon facts or opinion. Students can find various topics for term papers or research by viewing the Reddit topics. Reddit is also popular for finding peer review journals and tutorials.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Word Mover - ReadWriteThink
Grades
2 to 12
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Use Word Mover to assemble found poems from word tiles. Use word banks, existing famous works, or create your own word tiles. Experiment with word placement, size, font, color options, and twelve back... more
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Use Word Mover to assemble found poems from word tiles. Use word banks, existing famous works, or create your own word tiles. Experiment with word placement, size, font, color options, and twelve backgrounds. Register with a username and save to your device or computer, send as email, or print. Click on the Instructions in the top menu, or find an introductory video (and plenty of lesson ideas below that) here. Word Mover will work on any device that uses a web browser and Flash. There is also an app for both iPads and Android devices.
tag(s): DAT device agnostic tool (248), writing (569), creative writing (243), poetry (377), grammar (310), sentences (61), creativity (186),
In the Classroom
Word Mover is a perfect tool to use with an interactive whiteboard or projector for a class activity for constructing sentences. Employ this tool in this manner to teach simple lessons about subject-verb agreement, complex sentences (with proper punctuation), or any grammar lesson. Write a found poem from a descriptive informational article with the proper attribution and citation. Use on class computers and at literacy stations. If you are lucky enough to have iPads, have students use the text to speech feature to listen to their creations. ESL/ELL students especially will benefit from hearing their sentence construction. With older students, creating found poems can be a non-threatening outlet for creativity and self-expression. Have students use a found poem for a book they've read, or a particularly descriptive article about an interest of theirs (sports, animals, music, and more). National Geographic is an excellent source to find descriptive informational writing. You may want to enhance classroom technology use by having students start saving their work in a digital portfolio. Suggestions are Mahara, reviewed here, for high school students FreshGrade, reviewed here, for middle school students, or Seesaw, reviewed here, for elementary students.Comments
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25 Moments That Changed America - Time Magazine
Grades
6 to 12
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Take a look at what leading experts consider the 25 moments that changed 20th century America in this interesting list from Time. Click through the slideshow or view all moments in one list. Each even... more
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Take a look at what leading experts consider the 25 moments that changed 20th century America in this interesting list from Time. Click through the slideshow or view all moments in one list. Each event, listed in chronological order, also includes a summary and photograph. A few also include a video clip. Click on the links at the bottom of each moment to view more information from the Time Vault.
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This site includes advertising.
tag(s): 20th century (85), civil rights (274), womens suffrage (53), presidents (202), 1900s (90),
In the Classroom
Use this site to introduce any lesson or unit on 20th century America with an interactive whiteboard or projector. At the end of a 20th century unit, have students create their own list individually or as a group before sharing this site. This site contains many events that may be unfamiliar to most younger Americans, use it as an opportunity to explore these events further. Have students create an annotated image including text boxes and related links using a tool such as Google Drawings, reviewed here, to share information from different events. Google Drawings allows you to annotate an image with links to videos, text, websites, and more. Not familiar with Google Drawings? Watch an archived OK2Ask session to learn how to use: OK2Ask Google Drawings, here.This is a good informational reading source to help meet your Common Core Standards.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Multimedia Mania Project Checklist - MidLink Magazine
Grades
5 to 12
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Do you need a checklist for students to use before submitting multimedia projects? This site provides a printable list (pdf) that covers several areas such as mechanics, documentation, and quality of ... more
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Do you need a checklist for students to use before submitting multimedia projects? This site provides a printable list (pdf) that covers several areas such as mechanics, documentation, and quality of content. Check off each item on the list, multiply the weight, and come up with the total points.
tag(s): multimedia (102), rubrics (51), assessment (239),
In the Classroom
Use this checklist as it is or as a starting point for creating your own rubric for any project. Not sure how to build your own rubric? See Rubrics to the Rescue, here. Share with students when assigning any project and ask them to complete it and turn it in with the project when done. Create a link on your web page or blog so students (and parents) can access information from home. Have students make a multimedia presentation using one of the many TeachersFirst Edge tools, reviewed here.
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Mathematics Instructional Resources - Los Angeles Unified School District
Grades
K to 12
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The Los Angeles Unified School District offers resources for math instruction in all grades and correlated to Common Core Standards. Choose from elementary, middle, or high school links to find curric... more
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The Los Angeles Unified School District offers resources for math instruction in all grades and correlated to Common Core Standards. Choose from elementary, middle, or high school links to find curriculum maps, lessons, and assessments offered by grade level or high school curriculum topic. Middle and High School links also provide intervention through tutorial labs. Be sure to check out the printable article Opening Strong in a Common Core Classroom that provides many suggestions and strategies for the first ten days of school.
tag(s): assessment (239), professional development (530), commoncore (135),
In the Classroom
Bookmark this site for use throughout the year. Take advantage of the free lesson plans and curriculum maps provided. Share with colleagues as you plan Common Core lessons. Use the intervention links provided for middle and high school students to reinforce and review topics. Share the Opening Strong in a Common Core Classroom article with your back to school activities.
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A Day in the Life: Dress the Part - History.org
Grades
5 to 12
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Dress the Part is an interactive that teaches about eighteenth-century clothing and its relationship to social status in Virginia. Choose a member from different social statuses such as field slaves u... more
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Dress the Part is an interactive that teaches about eighteenth-century clothing and its relationship to social status in Virginia. Choose a member from different social statuses such as field slaves up to the gentry. Learn about that place in society and choose the proper clothing. When your member of society is appropriately dressed, read more about their situation and social status.
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In the Classroom
Use this activity to introduce the idea of social classifications during the 1700's. Use this site as the starting point for individual or group projects. Challenge students to create an interactive map and tell a digital story about a society member's ancestry and movements. Use a tool such as Tour Builder, reviewed here. With Tour Builder, you can add locations, text, images, and videos to build the story. A simpler project would be to ask students to use Cube Creator, reviewed here, and design a Bio Cube about different members of Virginia society.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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