TeachersFirst - Featured Sites: Week of Feb 7, 2016

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

 

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Made by Joel - Paper City - Joel Henriques

Grades
K to 7
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Create an intricate paper city that will stand up on its own with the free printables on this site. Choose from several different options including Paris, vehicles, Sydney, dinosaurs,...more
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Create an intricate paper city that will stand up on its own with the free printables on this site. Choose from several different options including Paris, vehicles, Sydney, dinosaurs, a circus, Aladdin's city, and more. Click on the link to any of the paper creations and follow directions to download, color, and create.
This site includes advertising.

tag(s): australia (26), cities (17), communities (36), dinosaurs (39), france (37), preK (254), transportation (32)

In the Classroom

Have students use these printables to create a city to correspond with a book they read or for use as a story starter. Use the designs on the site as inspiration for creating your own printable city for any activity. Use as part of a transportation or community unit to share and discuss different components found. ESL/ELL teachers could explore the rest of the site and find coloring pages and other useful items to reinforce vocabulary.
 This resource requires PDF reader software like Adobe Acrobat.

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KQED Education - KQED

Grades
6 to 12
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KQED Education offers a broad selection of resources for educators and students. Scroll through to find news articles and videos that are frequently published, relating to events around...more
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KQED Education offers a broad selection of resources for educators and students. Scroll through to find news articles and videos that are frequently published, relating to events around the world. Use the drop-down box at the top of the site to view specific topics such as science or news and civics. The drop-down for teachers includes links to resources for professional development and integrating articles into the classroom. If your district blocks YouTube, the videos may not be viewable.

tag(s): independent reading (85), news (229), newspapers (91)

In the Classroom

Include a link to KQED Education on classroom computers. Be sure to help your weaker readers and ESL/ELL students by sharing the vocabulary words before reading, either on a handout or by projecting them on an interactive whiteboard (or projector). Highlight the vocabulary words in the text as you come to them. Teacher Librarians might want to keep this page open on computers for students who drop by the media center or include news notes from this site as part of your morning announcements. Do you have a student news show on your school TV channel? Find great material here for students to retell in their own words.

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Borderland - NPR (National Public Radio)

Grades
8 to 12
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Take a 2,428 mile road trip along the US/Mexican border to see and read the stories, culture, and goods that come together at the meeting points of these two countries. ...more
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Take a 2,428 mile road trip along the US/Mexican border to see and read the stories, culture, and goods that come together at the meeting points of these two countries. These 12 stories tell the tale of individuals along the border as told to reporters accompanied by US Border Patrol Agents. Each story includes stunning photography along with personal stories of those living on the border or attempting to cross into the US. The main page also includes a ticker that shows how many vehicles cross the border legally, how many pedestrians cross the border legally, how many people are detained for crossing illegally, and drug information. All of the numbers shown occur during your visit to the site Be sure to preview information before displaying for students as there is some content that may be inappropriate for younger classes.

tag(s): cross cultural understanding (157), immigrants (33), immigration (64), mexico (29)

In the Classroom

Introduce this site on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Then have students explore this site independently or in small groups. Assign a story to different student groups to explore and share with the class. Challenge students to create an infographic sharing their findings using Infogram, reviewed here.

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Ask the Judge - Tom Jacobs

Grades
9 to 12
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Ask the Judge provides information and answers for teens relating to the law. Scroll through the homepage to view the latest blog entries relating to court and law issues. Choose ...more
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Ask the Judge provides information and answers for teens relating to the law. Scroll through the homepage to view the latest blog entries relating to court and law issues. Choose the Teen Help Network link to find resources by state, including attorneys, classes for teens, drug treatment programs, and more. Receive answers to questions about the law in the teen chat room by posting your question or reading through questions and responses provided by Judge Tom. Be sure to check out the "Your Rights" portion of the site with extensive information about teen rights at school, on the Internet, and much more.
This site includes advertising.

tag(s): bill of rights (28), civil rights (194), courts (19), digital citizenship (89)

In the Classroom

Ask the Judge explores many topics of high interest to teens; introduce it on an interactive whiteboard or projector. Then have students explore this site independently or in small groups. Have students create an annotated image including text boxes and related links using a tool such as Thinglink, reviewed here, to demonstrate different rights of teens. Share with school counselors as an excellent resource of information for students and as a resource for finding specific help in your state for youth who are in trouble. Use as part of a civil rights unit as you research real cases involving teens, have students find other similar situations and compare legal outcomes.

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Genius - Genius Media Group Inc

Grades
8 to 12
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Genius allows you to "Annotate the World" of music. View lyrics and crowdsourced knowledge for thousands of songs and musicians. In addition to music, using the search bar, Genius also...more
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Genius allows you to "Annotate the World" of music. View lyrics and crowdsourced knowledge for thousands of songs and musicians. In addition to music, using the search bar, Genius also offers annotations for literature, news, sports, TV shows, and movies. Search any section to find specific content or browse through the latest offerings. Install the Chrome extension to use Genius's Web Annotator and add your own notes to any web page or put genius.it in front of any URL to annotate and read other user's notes on any web page. If your district blocks YouTube, some portions may not be viewable. Important: Content is not moderated, be sure to PREVIEW and check for inappropriate content before using with students.

tag(s): bookmarks (47), citations (34), curation (35), note taking (34)

In the Classroom

After creating an account, type Teacher's Guide in the search box to find the link for a very complete guide. The guide has information for using Genius in the classroom and creating accounts. Use the information found with literature selections to build Common Core skills analyzing informational texts. Use the site to post and share discussion assignments on specific articles or even parts of articles. Find a relevant article to your subject. Highlight the part that you want students to read. For younger students, keep it short to reduce the intimidating reality of too much information for kids. Attach a note with a discussion question for the students. Have them comment on the link in a "class discussion" as an outside assignment.

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