TeachersFirst: Week of February 7, 2010

Featured Sites - Week of February 7, 2010

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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 .

Decimal Squares - Grades 4 - 6 - permalink
Decimal Squares provides eight interactives on decimal concepts. Each activity provides one to three difficulty levels. Specific topics include place value, concentration, basic decimal addition and subtraction, and more. 10673

In the Classroom:
Use these activities for students to practice previously learned concepts. Demonstrate the activities on your projector or interactive whiteboard to emphasize decimal number sense and follow up with student play (with a partner or independently.) Observing student game play would serve as a great informal assessment. List this link on your class website for students to practice decimals both in and out of the classroom.

For similar resources, click the appropriate keyword: decimals | place value |

Free Clip Art by Phillip Martin - Grades 0 - 12 - permalink
Free Clip Art by Phillip Martin is an extensive collection of clipart. All the clipart is free to use in the classroom, in newsletters or presentations. As long as the use is for non-profit, it may be downloaded and used free of charge. Categories included in the site are Language Arts, Science, Social Sciences, Holidays, School, A to Z, and More. Each of the above categories has countless sub-categories within them. No registration is necessary and the site is extremely simple to navigate. Of course you will want to model and require ethical use of these resources by giving credit to the source of clips in a small note or text box on your projects. There are some unobtrusive advertisements at the site. 10652

In the Classroom:
This site is great if you need some clever clipart to jazz up student handouts, classroom bulletin boards or PowerPoint/Keynote presentations. There is also web clipart that you can use for your blog, class webpage, or wiki. Interested in learning more about wikis? Check out the Teacher’s First Wiki Walk-Through reviewed here. When using the clipart be sure to download to your computer first before inserting into an application. Copying it directly from the web site puts a black background behind your image. Have students use this site in science class (or other classes to explain concepts and create colorful projects. Have students create a Voicethread reviewed here to narrate a picture and describe what they have learned.

Project wet - Grades 2 - 12 - permalink
Use the resources on Project Wet to create awareness and learn more about water as an important resource for our planet. View resources by topics such as "Wetlands," "Oceans," and "Natural Disasters," among others. Click on "Use Project WET" or the icons along the bottom to view resources by teachers, student, and parents. View "News and Events," read blog posts, and find a variety of great resources on this site. There are interactive games about hydration and the water cycle in the “Children and Young Adults” area. Advise students to avoid the store link along the top as well as other ads that may appear along the sides of the site. 10162

In the Classroom:
Assign students to groups where various water issues can be identified and reported upon to the rest of the class. Use the water issue to find where it exists around the world and the common water problems facing communities and cultures today. Use the interactive water games to reinforce concepts about the water cycle and more. Note that games require some reading, so partner emergent readers with a buddy to help. Have students use a mapping tool such as Mapskip (reviewed here) to create maps of the "wet" locations they research or learn about (with audio stories and pictures included)! Be sure to identify water issues that may also be present in your own area. Students can create a multimedia or conventional display that showcases information learned. Students may decide to create a community awareness project to showcase their information. Read case studies to view project activities around the world.

For similar resources, click the appropriate keyword: environment | water education | water |

Online Basic Skill Games - Grades 0 - 8 - permalink
This site provides links to basic skill games for math, language arts, science, and social studies. Although we don’t typically review “hotlists” this one really has something to offer anyone teaching elementary or middle school. Each subject area has several topics. Each topic has countless links for more information and/or activities. Language Arts topics include Letter Fun, Working with Words, Go Grammar, Spell It, and Read It. Science highlights Animals, Plants, Physics, Biology, Anatomy, Weather, and Space. Math includes everything from Money to Probability to Graphing to Patterns (and more). At the Social Studies link you will find Maps, 50 States, U.S. Presidents, History, The World, and Flags. The link to interactive websites includes activities for grades pre-K -12. 10665

In the Classroom:
Save this site in your favorites on classroom computers and use it as a center. Students can focus on areas of strength or weakness on a math game day. Because this site offers multiple levels and activities for many topics, it is easy to differentiate for ability levels within your class. Include this site on your class web page for students and parents to access for home based skills practice. There is a LOT here to explore.

A Family Farm Album: The Photographs of Frank Sadorus - Grades 3 - 12 - permalink
Take a journey through the life of Frank Sadoras. This site has a wonderful collection of photographs and biographical documents that chronicles Frank’s life growing up on a farm in Illinois from 1898-1912. By using this site, you and your students will get a view of what life was like growing up on a farm as well as the photographic techniques Frank used to take his photos.

10649

In the Classroom:
This site is a good site to use if you want to introduce more primary sources into your teaching. There is an extensive activities and resource section that covers the topics of photography, history, farming and genealogy. In addition, the PDF entitled the Turning Point would be a good resource to use in a lesson on narrative writing. Share the photos in art (or photography) class on your projector or interactive whiteboard. Have students create blog entries from the perspective of Frank Sadorus. Use the pictures for creative writing exercises. Why not have a photo of the week and have students write a short piece on the class wiki about what they feel the picture represents, what is happening in the photo, what the animal or person was doing/thinking in the photo, or whatever else is applicable in your class. Do you want to learn more about wikis? Check out Teacher’s First Wiki Walk-Through reviewed here.

Marco Polo's Route to China and Back - Grades 2 - 8 - permalink
Marco Polo's Route to China and Back shows students the travels of two historical journeys of Marco Polo. As students correctly answer questions about each route, they travel further along on the map. If students answer the questions incorrectly, they are given the opportunity to click on a resource link that takes them to the correct answer. This site is not only challenging but fun for young explorers. The site also includes some wonderful authentic photos and drawings. 10694

In the Classroom:
Incorporate this site into a web quest to build student knowledge of Marco Polo, interesting geography facts, and the history of Asia. Create a class wiki about Marco Polo and have students add different facts they learned or questions they might have. Not sure how to create a class wiki? Check out Teacher’s First Wiki Walk-Through reviewed here.

For similar resources, click the appropriate keyword: Marco Polo | explorers |

Sugar stacks - Grades 2 - 12 - permalink
Confused about what the sugar content is in foods? Compare the sugar amounts visually using this fun resource. Pictures show the item, amount of corresponding sugar cubes stacked in front as well as the nutrition label amount for that item. Choose other categories of foods below to make additional comparisons. New features such as holiday meals are also seen on the site. There are snacks, beverages, candy, breakfast foods, vegetables, and more. Use the form along the bottom to comment and make suggestions. 10577

In the Classroom:
Assign students to research different types of foods to compare sugar amounts. Have students use an online tool such as Interactive Two Circle Venn Diagram (reviewed here) to compare various foods. Use this prior to a discussion of nutrition, biomolecules, or how the body uses food as fuel. Have students work cooperatively and discuss their observations with the rest of the class. Consider determining the ratio of grams to number of sugar cubes, investigating, and then creating a class set of food and sugar cube pictures. Use this graphic way to explain the concept of proportion in a very concrete way as you teach it in math class. Use student ideas to create other visual images to drive home nutritional messages to others.

Google News Timeline - Grades 6 - 12 - permalink
When we were young and our parents wanted to know what was happening in the world, they either read the newspaper (morning or afternoon) or watched the evening news on one of three networks. Maybe they subscribed to a weekly newsmagazine if they were really serious about it. Today, news is a 24/7/365 operation and the number of sources for news has exploded. Many younger students may not realize that the snippets of "news" that show up on their email provider's home page do not represent the full range of news stories worth following, or that the various 24 hour new channels each have their own bias. So how does one keep up? Many use Google's news aggregator and click on stories of interest there. The Google News Timeline organizes this information in a searchable, time-indexed format. Pick a date or a date range, and see the major news stories displayed in columns and get a bigger picture view of how stories change over time. 10684

In the Classroom:
Use this format for helping students follow a single story or topic over time: on an interactive whiteboard or projector, students can track news items visually. Pick a date in recent history to recall the events of that time period. As a weekly class warmup, project the week's summary and ask students to pick a story to discuss, write about, or blog about. Have cooperative learning groups research and learn about one of the events and create a podcast to share with the class using PodOmatic (reviewed here). Ask students to research particular topics for different perspectives across news sources, or across time. Keeping up with current events can be overwhelming; the Google News Timeline can help manage the vast number of resources out there.

For similar resources, click the appropriate keyword: news | politics |

Dr Grammar - Grades 4 - 12 - permalink
Dr. Grammar Rx provides writers of various abilities with guidance on grammar, formatting, word origin and much more. Although this site is rather “plain vanilla” it is very useful. This extremely large writing resource details common writing errors and links to other sites for topics like style, formatting, ESL/ELL issues, etc… 10672

In the Classroom:
Have students struggling with citations? Clauses, commas, capitalization posing problems? Send them to Dr. Grammar! Teachers can refer to Dr. Grammar using a projector or interactive whiteboard for in class use and demonstration or can encourage independent student use during composition. Have pairs of students research a specific area of this site and create an electronic “poster” or word graphic using tools such as Piclits (reviewed here) or Typogenerator (reviewed here). This is also a great addition to a teacher website, wiki, or blog for students to use both in and out of class. Be sure to save this site on your computer’s favorites.

Neave Planetarium - Grades 0 - 12 - permalink
View stars and planets easily in your browser window. Move the sky through a simple click and move of the mouse. Find information about the stars and planets by clicking on each object, the name of the star, its constellation, brightness, and distance away is portrayed. View the stars from other areas of the world for comparison. Latitude and longitudes are easily seen to identify locations. Quickly change the date and time of viewing and other options such as full screen, constellations, and daylight. 10137

In the Classroom:
The uncomplicated interface makes this free site easy to navigate. Group students to visit sections of the sky and report on constellations found there. Students can also research the history of the stars in the constellations as well as stories related to navigation and mythology. Create models, posters, or presentations of the constellations for discussion in class. Have students create online posters on paper or do it together as a class using a tool such as Project Poster (reviewed here or PicLits (reviewed here. Create stories or poems about the stars or constellations. Share the stories and poems on your class wiki. Not comfortable with wikis? Have no wiki worries – check out the Teacher’s First Wiki Walk-Through reviewed here.

For similar resources, click the appropriate keyword: planetarium | constellations | stars |

Mailinator - Grades 6 - 12 - permalink
Teachers First Online Tool: Frustrated at creating sub accounts with your gmail account for more than 100 students? Try Mailinator as a possible solution to the problem. Make student accounts for the web 2.0 tools you would like your individual students to use. Create a "spoof" email account from one email account (preferably the teachers gmail.) Use this "spoof" account to enter when creating web 2.0 accounts. Mail can be viewed online for any verification if necessary. The bonus? Less spam when signing up for other sites! 10625

In the Classroom:
Use your teacher gmail account to create different Mailinator accounts for each student by sending an email to the "spoof" account. For example, a student sends an email to gottalovebio@mailinator.com. Magically, your "spoof" email address has been created. Use this "spoof" email all year long for any web 2.0 tool you wish to sign up for. Find emails sent to the "spoof" account by viewing on the mailinator site (type in your "spoof" email address) or following an RSS feed (use a feed reader to view them all.) Important Note: emails must be read within a few hours as they are then permanently deleted. Caution students not to use these email addresses for anything important as it is not a regular email address. Use only for creating logins and registrations for other web 2.0 tools. Stumped with coming up with a unique name. Possible name choices are given on the site (refresh to see more options.) Be sure to read the FAQ's to familiarize yourself with the service and answer any questions you may have. Check to be sure this is not blocked by your school. If available on a teacher computer, consider cycling each student through your computer to get them signed up while being monitored. Record their "spoof" emails in case these are needed later and students forget. Be advised that these email accounts are public. If the same email address is entered on the site by someone else, those emails will be viewed. Despite this, use the service to quickly enter students to use the variety of cool online tools found on the Internet today.

For similar resources, click the appropriate keyword: Edge | email | web 2.0 | tool |

TubeChop - Grades 0 - 12 - permalink
Teachers First Edge Review: For adventurous technology users. Chop pieces of You Tube videos easily and effortlessly in as little as a few steps. Quickly share your chopped video by providing a URL link or using the embed code in a wiki, blog, or other site. View easy instructions and examples of chopped videos on the front page of the site. Advise students that ads do appear on this site and they are to be ignored. 10560

In the Classroom:
Skills required: No registration is needed to use this free, web based application. Users need to be able to find an appropriate You Tube video and know where the start and end times of the portion they wish to cut. If more than one portion is wanted from the video (i.e. remove the whole middle), users will have to create two chopped segments which can be posted separately.

To use TubeChop: First, select the video you want to use. If the URL is not known, no problem. Search for the video within TubeChop itself. Once the video is selected, click the "Chop" button. Select the part you want by dragging the two black sliders that appear under the video to choose the desired start and end times of your chopped piece. It is helpful to note the time markers when you are previewing the original video and then move the markers to those points. Once your chopped piece has been chosen, simply click "Chop it." The chopped video appears with its own Tubechop link. Copy the embed code to share the video on your blog or website. The embed code is easily entered on a wiki as well.

Safety/Security: If YouTube is blocked in your district, Tubechop videos will not show, either, since they are "pulled" from YouTube. Check school access before you plan to use TubeChop! (When tested in a district that blocks You Tube, the actual Tube Chop video did not play.) Be sure to check District policy about use of You Tube videos. Even if YouTube is not filtered, as with all resources used in the classroom, be sure to preview the appropriateness of the video before using in the classroom. TubeChop removes unwanted material whether inappropriate or not needed for that particular lesson.

In the classroom: Choose only portions needed for use in that particular lesson or remove unwanted portions that are inappropriate (or boring!) Create little clips to use as a webquest. Though it is time consuming, it would be easier for younger students to focus on smaller pieces of video to locate information. Chop small pieces of video for use as writing prompts for essays, creative writing, or blog posts. Chop portions of videos showing different viewpoints or arguments to any scientific, political, economic, or historical event. Use in the Arts to showcase music, dance, art, or other creative pursuits. Use chopped portions of video footage captured by the public to compare with news accounts to uncover bias and discuss perspective.

For similar resources, click the appropriate keyword: you tube | videos | video segments |

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