TeachersFirst - Featured Sites: Week of Sep 16, 2012
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
Do Lectures - Talks That Inspire Action - The Chicken Shed
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): business (58), careers (139), creativity (118), debate (46), environment (325), nutrition (159), psychology (66), sociology (22), video (278)
In the Classroom
Do Lectures are a great place to find inspiration and new ideas for your classroom. Many of the videos connect today's real world with curriculum topics, even in entrepreneurship, health, or family and consumer science classes. Use Do Lecture videos as the perfect supplement or launching point for units of study in your classroom. Find a video that supports the topics happening in your classroom. Share on your website for student viewing. Use on your interactive whiteboard (or projector) for a whole class discussion. Stop the video at various points to discuss or debate ideas included. Challenge cooperative learning groups to create videos in response to videos viewed on Do Lectures or their own topic. Share the videos on a site such as TeacherTube reviewed here. Teachers of gifted could plan an entire unit of study around one video or have students select one to use as the launch point for an independent project.You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
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Websites Like - Alternatives to Your Favorite Websites - WebsitesLike
Grades
K to 12tag(s): search engines (62)
In the Classroom
Use this site for professional purposes to find materials to use in your classroom. You could provide this link to students to use during research projects or even to find additional remediation help for a challenging topic. Demonstrate the site on your interactive whiteboard or projector.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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LiveTyping - Online Text Recorder - LiveTyping Studio
Grades
3 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): editing (72), note taking (40), paragraph writing (17), process writing (48), sentences (50)
In the Classroom
Use LiveTyping on your interactive whiteboard (or projector) as an interesting way to demonstrate editing or improving sentence/paragraph writing. Type or copy/paste in text, make editing changes, then "Enliven" to save the image or to replay the finished product. Have students do the same to show their own editing/revision process. Teach about different types of sentences (simple, compound, complex, etc.) by typing with this tool and sharing the examples on your class web page, showing how to combine sentences or improve sentence variety. Compose paragraphs and improve the topic sentence LIVE with "instant replay" for students to see how the writing/thought process can work. Then have them make their own in class or for homework. Use the codes provided to embed or save completed examples on your class website, wiki, or blog for students to view at home. Use different examples for students to use as a resource for editing decisions. During poetry month or a poetry unit, challenge students to write a haiku "live" or to add figurative language to a simple line of poetry "live" as we watch.Demonstrate note-taking or composing a "main idea' sentence as a class after reading a passage and share the final product as an example. What a great tool for science or social studies literacy for Common Core!
Teachers could share tonight's homework assignment using this engaging tool and share it on the class web page in hopes that students might actually DO it!
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TagCrowd: Make Your Own Tag Cloud From Any Text - Daniel Steinbock
Grades
K to 12tag(s): speech (89), vocabulary (321), word clouds (11)
In the Classroom
This is a great visual tool to use. Take a poll and have your students type their answers into the word cloud builder. Then display on an interactive whiteboard or projector and see which answer was the most popular. Use this site as a way to help students see and memorize text, especially visual learners. Use it also when writing poetry or to "see" themes of repeated words and images. Have students paste in their own writing to spot repeated (and monotonous) language when teaching lessons on word choice. Use this site to surprise students with words that appear often in their writing. Have students work in groups to create word posters of vocabulary words with related meanings, such as different ways to say "walk" or "said" and decorate your classroom with these visual reminders of the richness of language. More ideas for primary grades: Dolch words, class names, numbers to 20, words with the same beginning letters, collection of ALL the words that hang in the classroom (so students can walk around and find/touch them on a laminated Word cloud card in their hands), or any collection of similar words.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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KidsTV123 - YouTube Channel - KidsTV123
Grades
K to 3This site includes advertising.
tag(s): alphabet (86), alphabetical order (19), animals (322), colors (80), counting (113), countries (81), dental health (22), phonics (71), preK (289), spelling (169), states (165), time (142)
In the Classroom
View videos on your interactive whiteboard or projector. If you allow students to explore on their own, take caution since they could click and go elsewhere on YouTube. To share a single video safely at a center, use a tool such as View Pure, reviewed here, and create a shortcut to the View Pure page directly on the desktop. Share a link to this site with parents through your classroom website or newsletter for students to view at home.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Optimist World - Optimistworld.com
Grades
6 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): environment (325), media literacy (65), news (262), sustainability (18)
In the Classroom
Use this tool for you and your students to find articles related to science, social studies, and cultural topics you are studying. Share the TV clips on your interactive whiteboard or projector, for some "happy news" to share with your students. To teach about the subtleties of "spin," have students select, read, and compare two articles on the same subject (possibly one with a more neutral or negative spin?). What makes the article positive? Have small groups of students take turns presenting weekly news. Use articles as practice for finding main idea and other comprehension skills. Create a selection of stories as writing prompts for persuasive writing pieces. Collect news sources related to an upcoming election to follow in a civics/government class. Have students create an online presentation on their selected news topics from categories you've assigned for your classroom news. Use one of the many TeachersFirst Edge tools reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Linguee - Gereon Frahling
Grades
3 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): dictionaries (60), french (91), german (66), idioms (45), portuguese (21), spanish (111)
In the Classroom
Use this in world language classes to show how key words and phrases appear in the target language. This is a useful tool, as well, to check for plagiarism of papers written in German, Spanish, French, and Portuguese. ESL/ELL students can benefit from backing away from their reliance on translation by seeing new words or short phrases in context.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Crickweb Grades K-2 learning games - Crickweb
Grades
K to 2This site includes advertising.
tag(s): animals (322), listening (87), money (185), preK (289), reading comprehension (123)
In the Classroom
Use this site on your interactive whiteboard (or projector, as a center, or whole class activity. Create a link on classroom computers for students to practice reading skills. Share with parents through your classroom blog or website for at-home practice.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Scholastic - Teaching With Brian Selznick - Scholastic
Grades
3 to 8This site includes advertising.
tag(s): authors (120), letter writing (19), virtual field trips (55)
In the Classroom
Using your interactive whiteboard or projector go on three virtual field trips to visit the Museum of Natural History. Then use the activities to have your students work in collaborative groups. Be sure to check out the Novel Notes activity. Have your students use the Letter Writing Generator reviewed here to write their own letters.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Wind Map - Fernanda Viegas and Martin Wattenberg
Grades
K to 12tag(s): atmosphere (31), energy (207), maps (298), weather (201)
In the Classroom
Watch the various wind patterns across the US. Ask students what they notice about the patterns and what could be causing them. Use this as an introduction into a weather unit or as part of the study of wind energy and alternative power. If students could map the wind around their house or community, how would they draw it? Be sure to share this site during March, when talking about the "lion" and "lamb" metaphor and the changing weather! Be sure to check it out during hurricane season, as well.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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PicMonkey - PicMonkey
Grades
K to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): images (277), photography (157)
In the Classroom
This tool is so simple to use! Use it to edit pictures for class projects or for publishing to a blog, wiki, or site. Use these fun photo effects for creating interesting pictures for About Me information on a blog or other sites. In primary grades, teachers can use it to edit pictures you can share on your class web page, perhaps a student of the week. Use for pictures of lab events in science. These pictures can be incorporated into presentations or other multimedia products using online tools or PowerPoint. Students can dress as a historical figure, take and upload a picture, and use in classroom projects. Have students upload a photo add voice bubbles to explain what they learned using a tool such as Superlame, reviewed here. Be sure to check district policy about using student pictures, though the website does not "keep" them. If using pictures from the Internet, be sure to discuss copyright issues and approve pictures that students use. Find Creative Commons they can use (with proper credit) on Compfight, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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