TeachersFirst: Week of October 18, 2009

Featured Sites - Week of October 18, 2009

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Here are this week's features. Clicking the "more resources like this" link below each listing will present a list of our most recent additions for the same subject area and grade level .

Spell with flickr - Grades 0 - 12 - permalink
Looking for a clever way to display a title? Enter your words, and this site will look through flickr pictures to create titles from individual pictures. Note that ads display throughout the site as well as while the images are loading. Simply take a snapshot of the words (use print screen for PC or command-shift-4 on a Mac) or drag each letter image to your desktop. Alternatively, use the embed code provided. Don't like one or more of the letters? Simply click each letter and a new one will be generated. See an example here. 10136

In the Classroom:
Students can use this site to create interesting and unique titles for projects, presentations, or blog titles. Use this site to make your lessons grab your students’ attention (which isn’t always easy). Decorate your classroom with intriguing signs and reminders created using this tool. Have students use this site themselves for projects, intriguing spelling practice, or more. Kindergarten teachers might like to "show" students what their names look like in multiple type fonts and to make bus list bulletin boards using these creative lettering forms. Art teachers can use this tool to demonstrate different types of letter graphics and letter collages. This might be a good link to list on your class website so families can access the site at home.

For similar resources, click the appropriate keyword: titles | images | pictures |

Explore nature - Grades 0 - 8 - permalink
Enjoy a virtual journey to the nature museum. Learn facts and see/do interactives about fossils, birds, mammals, and other topics. The gallery includes dinosaurs, volcanoes, insects, the continents and much more. 10338

In the Classroom:
Use these great interactives (and information) to learn interesting information about nature and the organisms in it. For example, under "Mammals," choose "Build a Digestive System" or "Evolution of Appendages" to learn more about how animals are adapted to live in their environment. Other interactives include "Bird Yard" that challenges learners to develop a habitat for birds and "Tracks" for learning to calculate the speed of a horned dinosaur. Use these interactives as a pre-activity to your unit on ecosystems or animals or as a way to connect learned information in an exciting and engaging way.

Data.gov - Grades 9 - 12 - permalink
View data sets to determine trends in data. Enhance critical thinking skills and analysis by choosing "Raw data." See the "Tool Catalog" for access to widgets and data mining tools, or "GeoData" to determine trends, ask questions about these trends, and search for answers. As you teach about data manipulation in math class, use "real world" examples that students will find interesting. A tutorial on using the data is provided. Search the database by search term, file type, or category as well as the state and local level. Either view data or download for later analysis. Be sure to check the Data Policy on the site for citing and using data set information and the other sections including an FAQ section that is very helpful. Looking for data sets that you can't find? Suggest them to Data.gov for consideration. 10177

In the Classroom:
Demonstrate this site (or the portions useful in your classroom) on an interactive whiteboard or projector. Use data related to population such as birth, death, marriage, etc. as well as other social data such as energy and utilities and education. As you teach about data manipulation in math class, use "real world" examples that students will find interesting. Geodata includes data sets such as Biology and Geology, political boundaries, and Atmosphere and climate. As a problem solving activity, allow students to access any data of interest, develop a useful graph, and create a statement or set of questions about the data. Looking for an online graphing tool? Check out Chartgo (reviewed here). Students should develop reasonable hypotheses about the data, find relevant information that leads to further understanding, and potential solutions for understanding the problem. Class discussions can lead to the complexity of most problems and associated issues. Students can create elevator pitches that propose solutions or reasons to be concerned about issues or related blog posts that follow the conversations about the data. Create a dialogue with scientists, government officials, or other experts in understanding data, issues, and solutions. Use data as evidence for debates.

For similar resources, click the appropriate keyword: data | statistics | graphs |

Job Voyager - Grades 8 - 12 - permalink
This interactive graph (created with information from the 2000 U.S. Census) shows all jobs and the percentages of people who worked them from 1850-2000. Students can scroll up over any given year to see any job and the percentage of Americans working that job during that year (gender indicated). A few do have “missing data,” but most are complete. By clicking on the job, a new screen appears which shows the percentage of workers but divides the workers into male and female (pink and blue traditional colors help to differentiate between the genders). The site reflects the growing number of female workers, the loss of agrarian occupations, and the changing fields of importance, to name a few trends. Besides viewing the breakdown of male and female employees, you can also select one field and analyze its place in society today and during any given year. Occupations range from teachers to salesman to farmer to clerical worker and countless others. You can also search by letter and all the occupations beginning with that letter will come up graphed by percentages across the span of years. 10343

In the Classroom:
This is a great find for the interactive whiteboard or projector. Share this site with career counseling staff, as well. Use this site when studying U.S. history and economics. Compare the role in society of various occupations (such as a farm laborer) from the 1850s to 2000. Have students hypothesize about why the changes occurred and predict what might show in census data in 2010 and beyond. Use this when teaching graph reading and graph creation, as well. As with any data on the Internet, you will want to challenge students on how they know whether this data set is reliable -- what is the source?

CareerZone Pennsylvania - Grades 7 - 12 - permalink
This website offers a fairly comprehensive like/dislike work personality profile. (There are other quizzes and occupation information available at the homepage). It is a very long survey (180 questions at the time of this review), but it can be saved in process which is a very helpful feature. Students answer simply “like,” “dislike,” or “not sure.” Once the profile is completed, an interest profile is developed and the meanings of the interests can be referenced in the first type of assessment. Jobs that are highly related to the individuals’ interest profile are linked here. The specific occupations are linked to information on the career including descriptions, education requirements, experience and skills needed to perform the job. Also, basic career information is also available by search without doing the interest assessment.

10340

In the Classroom:
This site could be applied to any course. It could be invaluable to guidance classes, family and consumer sciences, and business courses. This would be a great introductory lab for any of those classes as well as others. Demonstrate on an interactive whiteboard or projector and then have students work on individual computers to take the survey. Have students access the site and complete the survey and do a simple research into three different possibilities. Then have students reflect on the careers that surprised them as well as the ones with which they thought they would want to do. Have students create “a day in the life” blog entries related to a day on the job of one of the careers suited for them.

For similar resources, click the appropriate keyword: Interests | Careers | tyctwd |

Voki - Grades 0 - 12 - permalink
Teachers First Edge Review: For slightly adventurous technology users. Create a free, animated speaking character that represents yourself for a blog, wiki, or any website. Voki can also be emailed to others and downloaded to phones. Appropriate for student use in grades 6-12 but for teachers at all levels. 10113

In the Classroom:
Skills needed: Create an account on the Voki website (email required.) Access to a microphone is required to record a voice. There is an option to use text to voice (however, it does not have great sound.) Import audio from a file or use a cell phone instead to capture audio. Only one minute of audio can be recorded so be brief. Students need to carefully think of their narrative before recording. Users must be able to copy and paste html code for use in an external site.

To use this site: After creating your login, use the controls to create your character's style, click customization to further refine your character, change your background, and add your voice. Keep in mind that animated backgrounds may take longer to load on your site. When done, click publish to view and copy the embed code which can then be used on a blog, wiki, or web pages.

Safety/Security: Monitor all aspects of student production and use for appropriateness and copyright. If concerned about using student email, consider creating a class account for students to use. 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. Be sure that students understand not to change the Voki of other students if using a class account. Check your school district policy about using emails or identifying student information on the Internet.

Classroom use: Introduce and share this site on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Use this free site to record a greeting for students that can be seen on the start page of your blog, wiki, or website. Record online assignment information that is spoken by the Voki (always more pleasing to look at than the teacher!). Use this to share homework assignments, a message from you (via a substitute), and more. Use a character that is interesting or matches the assignment you may be leaving. Use Voki to record two different opinions or viewpoints and create a poll of students to view reactions. Use the Voki in Math by posing possible solutions to problems and create a class discussion or poll to determine which one is the actual answer. As students are working on projects, create a Voki that provides hints and tips for students. Allow students to use Voki to provide peer assessment to others. Consider using Voki in place of other assignments such as "What I did this summer vacation..." or "Here is information about me..." Use in any language class to record narratives or translations. Students can create a variety of Voki recordings over time which can show their learning of a language over time. Create classroom newscasts using student(s) on a rotating basis. Use Voki for vocabulary exercises which can be created by students or the teacher. The possibilities for this tool are endless. The quick and engaging nature of this tool offers unlimited uses.

For similar resources, click the appropriate keyword: speaking | audio |

Protractor - Grades 3 - 10 - permalink
Choose from a selection of controls to create a demonstration of virtual protractors. Choose from one of ten activities to generate angles and use an actual protractor to measure and check the answer. Choose from "Show the angle," "Make and measure," "Make the Angle game," and others. All of the choices make this site easy to differentiate for a variety of ability levels. Even in lower grades, this tool will allow your students to visualize right angles and other angle basics. 10336

In the Classroom:
Use this excellent resource with an interactive whiteboard, projector, or using computer stations. Show students how to measure with a protractor as a class, in groups, or individually. Students can easily operate the demo themselves on your whiteboard. Follow up with additional activities that challenge students to use and measure with protractors. This may be a good site to list on your class website for students to access both in and out of the classroom.

Teaching Copyright - Grades 6 - 12 - permalink
In five lessons, students review what they know about plagiarism and copyright and update it to include aspects of copying in the digital age. In addition to the history of copyright (with application to proper documentation and annotation), students learn about concepts such as fair use, free speech, peer-to-peer file sharing, and the public domain. The most in-depth portions are definitions and history of copyright, the concepts of fair use and stakeholders, and finally, contemporary explanations of the interpretation of copyright today including material on the internet. The lessons include Notes for the Educator, Assessment, Extension Ideas, Objectives, and many other possible resources. Each lesson varies slightly in the additions. 10341

In the Classroom:
Use when teaching essay writing and how to cite sources. Plan a unit on plagiarism using the resources on this site or incorporate them into your existing research units. Introduce this site on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Then have students do the activities on this site independently or in small groups. The culminating activity here is a trial; plan to use this with the entire class with each member having a distinct role. Why not video record the trial? Share the video using a resource such as Teachers.TV reviewed here.

For similar resources, click the appropriate keyword: copyright | plagiarism | fair use | 21st century literacy. cpyfair |

Power Play - Grades 4 - 8 - permalink
This site is an interactive site for students to construct machines using simpler parts to accomplish specified tasks. It is a good learning activity for machines and functional thinking. It also encourages visualizing parts that become a whole which develops visual - spatial skills. There was one spelling mistake in the outcome for the second machine. But overall this site is definitely worth taking a look at if you are teaching about simple machines working together to complete a larger task. 10305

In the Classroom:
Why not share this site on your interactive whiteboard or projector and have students try to figure out which part comes next! This site would be well used for students who need a little extra practice or enrichment. Have students try this site with a partner! A link to this site could easily be added to the class website or wiki.

Math A Tube - Grades 1 - 10 - permalink
This site offers a ton of links to math videos with supplementary support problems. There are many topics, and most include subtopics: everything from rounding to exponents to decimals to pre-algebra! It is a very cool place to find homework help or an alternative teaching approach for various math concepts from things as simple as adding whole numbers to more advanced topics such as geometry. The site is divided by click-able math topics. The site does have some advertisements, but they are fairly easy to overlook. *Be sure to test out this site ahead of time and make sure your school will allow access to the specific videos you wish to use. The videos themselves may be “hosted” on YouTube or other “blocked” sites. 10327

In the Classroom:
Teachers could add this site to their class web pages to provide extra support. Specific videos can be shown on the interactive white board as part of learning centers to allow the math classroom to become more like a math laboratory. If you can’t find the specific topic you are looking for here, why not challenge cooperative learning groups to create a simple video teaching the new concept(s). Use a site such as TeacherTube reviewed here, to share the videos.

The Cell Visualization Project Homepage - Grades 9 - 12 - permalink
A guided animation of cell structure can be found on this website. The five main links include Anatomy of a Cell, Walkabout, A Cell With a View, The Heart of the Matter, and Inside the Nucleus. Students can both read about the organelle and view them in the introductory cell animation. The "walkabout" link shows a three dimensional, rotating human white blood cell. The animations will greatly help students visualize the 3D nature of cells. The graphics are SMALL, however, so if your projector does not permit you to zoom in, you will want students to view the animations on individual computers so they can see. 10321

In the Classroom:
This website is perfect for the interactive whiteboard or projector as part of an introduction to cells. It helps debunk the myth of a flat cell that students relate to in diagrams, and show the dimension and fluid quality of a cell. List this site on your class website for students to use both in and out of the class as they prepare for a quiz or test on cells.

For similar resources, click the appropriate keyword: Cells | Organelles | Animation | nucleus |

Working on the Food chain - Grades 0 - 5 - permalink
Follow this animated story to learn about the different food chain roles and the animals of the Savannah that fill these roles. Read the words and watch the organisms move across the screen (and even listen to the sounds of a few -- so turn up the speakers). Follow the story to the end and be sure to click on the joke. Not only is there more information but a knee-slapper pun of a joke as well. 10276

In the Classroom:
Use the story prior to discussing roles in the environment. The site is ideal for an interactive whiteboard or projector. In early grades, the teacher or an advanced reader can read the words aloud. Use the story to discuss the roles and interactions of the animals in the story. Assign students to make concept maps on paper or electronically to use the vocabulary and understand the interactions. Use an online tool such as bubbl.us (reviewed here) to create and share the concept maps. Assign groups a different ecosystem or biome. Student groups can identify organisms in that environment that fill those roles. Create a conventional or multimedia project to show information to others in the class.

For similar resources, click the appropriate keyword: ecology | food chain | niche |

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