TeachersFirst - Featured Sites: Week of Apr 15, 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
How Our Laws Are Made - Mike Wirth
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): branches of government (55), congress (40)
In the Classroom
Use the graphic as an introduction to a detailed discussion. Share the site on your projector or interactive whiteboard. Use it to reinforce the process once you've taught the lesson. Encourage students to bookmark it to review or test their understanding. Anyone who teaches civics, government or US history will be able to use this graphic on an interactive whiteboard. For that matter, it should be required viewing for citizens and politicians alike!You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
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The Incredible Adventures of the Amazing Food Detective - Kaiser Permanente
Grades
2 to 6In the Classroom
Create a link on classroom computers for students to use this site as a center or in a computer lab setting. Display the activities on your interactive whiteboard (or projector) to play as a class. Share a link on your classroom website or blog for students to play at home. Have students create online posters on paper or do it together as a class using a tool such as Web Poster Wizard (reviewed here) or PicLits (reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Privacy and Internet Safety - Common Sense Media
Grades
3 to 12tag(s): cyberbullying (47), internet safety (118)
In the Classroom
Share this link on your class web page and/or in a parent newsletter to help parents learn about Internet safety. Use the videos to help students learn how to be safe online. Share the videos on your projector or interactive whiteboard. Use the information to run a parent information night.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Pictogram Graph - Jo Edkins
Grades
K to 5tag(s): charts and graphs (183), data (144)
In the Classroom
Use Pictogram Graph with an interactive whiteboard (or projector) for whole class graphing. This site would also make a great math center in the classroom. Groups of students can visit the center and graph collected values at a computer or interactive whiteboard.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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American Indian Response to Environmental Changes - National Museum of the American Indian
Grades
4 to 12tag(s): environment (274), native americans (80), natural resources (49)
In the Classroom
Project this site on an interactive whiteboard and watch the videos on each of the tribes. If you have laptops available, have students navigate on their own. Have the class take the included interactive quizzes to see what they've learned. Group students and have each group read about a different tribe. Then using the online story project planner, have students create a presentation about their tribe that can be uploaded to the site. Be sure to visit the teacher area for lesson plans, links and other resources.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Random Word Generator - Dillfrog.com
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): creative writing (130), creativity (98), vocabulary development (96)
In the Classroom
Display the generator on your interactive whiteboard (or projector) and challenge students to use as many words as possible in their daily writing. Use words from the site for vocabulary of the day practice. Challenge students to define as many words as possible from the word generator. Set a timer and have students use as many words from the generator as they can in the time allowed. Build creative fluency and flexibility as students dream up new story scenarios to use the new vocabulary.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Stem Career - Rich Feller
Grades
7 to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Share some of the infographics on your projector or interactive whiteboard. Allow time for students to search careers to report to the rest of the class using conventional or multimedia posters and other products. Use an online poster creator, such as Padlet (reviewed here). Include the skills required for the job, the education needed, and what that person does. Challenge students to create an advertisement for a STEM career they might enjoy.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Moneyville - Northern Bank's Financial Literacy programme
Grades
2 to 6tag(s): financial literacy (104), money (158)
In the Classroom
Create a classroom account and have students work together and explore economic principles. Share how to use this site on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Have students create individual accounts and create a learning station for students to explore this site to learn more about economics. Take advantage of discussions that occur and use them for teachable moments when exploring economic decisions. Share this site with parents through your class website or newsletter for students to use at home.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Trello - Fog Creek Software
Grades
2 to 12tag(s): DAT device agnostic tool (167), graphic organizers (41), organizational skills (97)
In the Classroom
Use this site in the classroom for organizing any long term project such as a research report or collaborative projects. Create a board for each group with a timeline and assign parts for each project. Gradually release the responsibility from one project to the next, asking students to create their own task lists so they learn time management. Teachers of learning support and gifted will love this tool as a way to teach organizational skills. Share it with parents to support their organizationally challenged students. Yearbook or school newspaper advisors may want to consider this site for organizing and assigning tasks. Share this site with your school's PTA as a resource for organizing and planning school events.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Project Laundry List - Project Laundry List, Inc.
Grades
2 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): earth day (76), ecology (120), environment (274), holidays (134)
In the Classroom
During environmental science units or Earth Day, use this to have students calculate what their own households spend to care for clothing. Have students consider different tips for reducing environmental impact and saving money. As a homework assignment, have students implement two changes for two weeks. Have parents sign off on a log form to verify student participation. (Parents will love the extra help and possible money savings!) Set up your own celebration of "National Hanging Out Day" by having teams of students prepare presentations (the website even provides one) to share with others students and the community.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Scrumblr - scrumblr
Grades
2 to 12tag(s): bulletin boards (15), organizational skills (97)
In the Classroom
Use this as a place to put web quest links and information. As a project idea, have students create a wall about their summer vacation. They can include links and other information to display. Have elementary students build a class homework board each day, having a different student add the assignment for each subject; then share the link to the board for them to access at home. "Writing down" assignments can be fun! Any activity you can do by sorting and ranking words, terms, or ideas can be done instantly (and changed later) on a Scrumblr board. Use this tool as a new format for book reports. Do your students have favorites such as music or sports? Create a wall around these favorites or hobbies. Use a wall for grammar or vocabulary words or science unit terms. Create walls of pro/con for debates or high level thinking viewpoints. Post assignments, reminders, or study skills on a wall. Do you use student scribes or reporters? Use the site to create a wall with the goings-on in class. See a similar tool (and more ideas to use either tool) in the TeachersFirst review of Stixy here. Decide which one you prefer!This is the perfect quick start tool for your gifted students to record the ideas that occur to them during class. Have them create their own boards with a "what if" column for the crazy questions that pop in their heads, things like "What if Shakespeare wrote in a different meter?" or "Would Poe and Stephen King get along?" Give permission for far-fetched questions and graffiti! Have them create pro/con boards for tough topics such as gun rights during a unit on the Constitution, including links to evidence to support the statements they make on notecards. This tool could also help them brainstorm and sequence steps for a major independent project, sometimes a real challenge for the brightest students!
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CK-12 - CK-12 Foundation
Grades
5 to 12tag(s): atoms (51), cells (90), charts and graphs (183), decades (9), energy (182), equations (145), fractions (218), genetics (77), inequalities (25), landforms (41), measurement (157), oceans (157), organisms (20), periodic table (52), probability (123), pythagorean theorem (26), rocks (45), scientific method (64), seasons (33), solar energy (37), solar system (115), statistics (119), STEM (206), test prep (80), variables (17)
In the Classroom
Introduce CK-12 to your students (and parents) on your interactive whiteboard and demonstrate ways to use the site at home. Be sure to create a link to the site on your class website or blog for easy access at any time. Create an account and upload your own resources and activities to create your own flexbooks for use with students. CK-12 is available in many languages. Use this site with your ESL/ELL students as a supplement to classroom resources.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Desmos: A Beautiful, Free Online Graphing Calculator - Eli Luberoff
Grades
9 to 12tag(s): calculators (35)
In the Classroom
Use this Better Calculator in place of expensive graphing calculators that many students may not have. Be sure to provide the link on your teacher page or wiki for easy access. This is a wonderful tool for iPad or 1:1 classrooms with their newly released free iPad app.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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