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Historypin - We Are What We Do - Grades 4
to 12
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This is a site created in partnership with Google as a project to help generations share and talk more through social networking. The concept is that young people ask older people to share their photos; these photos are then uploaded through Google maps to show the world as it once was. The older pictures can be compared to today's images through Google street view. In addition to uploading photos, stories can also be shared about the time period and the pictures. Historypin is still in Beta stage; however, there are plans for events throughout the world to launch the site in the near future.
11588
In the Classroom:
Use as an enhancement to research projects of family, historic events, and world cultures by finding and uploading pictures to the map. Use Historypin as a resource to compare and contrast different time periods in the same geographic area. Demonstrate on the interactive whiteboard or projector how different places have changed over time. Have individual students or cooperative learning groups create podcasts using PodOmatic (reviewed here) to go along with the maps. ESL students will appreciate the ability to upload pictures and/or learn about their country of original. |
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| The Unit on Chinese Mythology - University of the Pacific - Grades 9
to 12
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This easy to use lesson plan is focused on helping students understand Chinese Mythology. The lesson uses a writing and reading comprehension activity to reach its objectives.
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In the Classroom:
Take advantage of the free lesson plans and classroom activities on this site! This lesson plan would be great for a Philosophy, History or Chinese language class. Be sure to save the site as a favorite to allow for easy reference later on. |
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| Ancient China Online Games and Activities - - Grades 1
to 12
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Though we don't often recommend "lists" of links, this site hosts 19 links to games about or related to Ancient China. The games vary in age level and topic, ranging from Tangram squares, to review games and Calligraphy how-to's.
11539
In the Classroom:
Browse through this site to find activities to fit your specific class during a unit on Ancient China. After you've found games that can work, save them as favorites on classroom computers and use them as learning centers or stations. This would be a great way to review before an assessment or immediately after a lecture introducing the topic. |
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| China Past and Present - Mrdonn.org - Grades 1
to 12
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This site from "Mr.Donn," hosts lesson plans, interactives, and other resources to supplement a unit on Ancient or Modern China. The resources are grouped by historical period, touching upon topics such as the Song Dynasty, Marco Polo, and the Communist Revolution. Though TeachersFirst does not usually recommend lists of resources, this site has so many it made the exception!
11542
In the Classroom:
Save this site as a favorite and use it as a resource to find supplementary materials or lesson plans for a lesson or unit on China. Several of the activities would make great learning centers or stations as a review tool before an assessment or after immediate instruction. Be sure to save the sites as favorite on classroom computers, making it easier for students to navigate there. |
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| Teaching the Levees - Teachers College Columbia University - Grades 6
to 12
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This site was created as a companion to Spike Lee's documentary "When the Levees Broke" about Hurricane Katrina. However, with the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf, the Louisiana levees were in the news again. The site contains a downloadable curriculum including lessons on the history of New Orleans, discussion of government's role in managing large-scale disasters, and concepts of environmental justice. There are links to other teachers' shared lesson plans, an accounting of the curriculum's relation to national social studies standards, and more information about the Spike Lee film itself.
11469
In the Classroom:
Use the site in conjunction with lessons on the US Gulf coast, or as an example of how we negotiate the government's role and responsibility in helping after a large-scale disaster. The menu includes access to pictures and comments from the general public. You will want to preview this area before sharing it in class. Have cooperative learning groups investigate specific areas of this site and create videos to share with the class using a site such as SchoolTube (reviewed here). |
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| PrimaryAccess - Curry School, University of Virginia - Grades 5
to 12
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TeachersFirst Edge entry: for slightly adventurous technology users who want a tool to work with primary source materials. Primary sources are a must in teaching social studies. How can you get students to dig a little deeper with these sources and use them to tell their own stories? PrimaryAccess provides a platform for students to use primary sources to construct their own slide show movies, story boards, or rebus stories. The tools provided here are powerful: students can assemble pictures and text, and then assemble the information into comic strips or story boards and add a sound track, movie effects, "thought bubbles" and more. You can upload your own class set of primary source images and more for classes to work with. You can also search the site for projects other teachers have completed and shared. Log in as a guest to see a sample of the work that can be created. This site requires free membership.
11471
In the Classroom:
Skills needed: Join the site (free) and set up classes for your students, and register student names. Teacher membership requires an email address, but you do not need to wait for a confirming email. Rather than using your personal email, use gmail. See the various support documents under Documentation. Although many web tools are completely intuitive, this one is unique enough to go more smoothly if you glance at the how-to information long enough to see how the interface works. Try logging in as a guest to see examples of what students will see and try the tools. Be sure to explore the various tabs for Start, Script, Find, Narrate, etc. Then log in as a teacher and explore some of the projects already created by other teachers. Start with one of those and add/delete images and more, then assign the project to a class or individual students. You have the option of including your Flickr collection of photos, so you can easily create a local history project using primary sources right from your community. Plan to have student volunteers demonstrate how to access/use the tools on your interactive whiteboard or a projector before turning the class loose. Finished, published projects can be seen from your teacher menu or by URL.
Safety/security concerns: There is no concern about interaction with the general non-education public on this site. Student work also does not display the student name(s). Check school policies about posting student work online. Student accounts do NOT require email!
Possible Uses: Browse the sample projects created by others for inspiration. Use the site yourself to create "movies" of historical images as you introduce a unit on projector or interactive whiteboard, then assign students to create their own. These summaries or introductions will help differentiate instruction for low-level readers or English language learners. Create class assignments and track them easily using a teacher account. Some possible projects: the story of your town, a civil war history through the eyes of a slave child, an advertisement for a time-travel "trip to the Roaring Twenties," or anything your imagination (and your students' imaginations) can generate. Be sure to share finished projects with parents and others by URL and collect the URLS for published offerings on your class wiki or blog so others can see them and respond.
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| NEN Gallery - National Education Network - Grades 0
to 12
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Here is a copyright free gallery of over 50,000 high quality images, video clips, and audio files for the educational community. View the gallery online and download free files, without having to register or create an account. Registration is necessary for the uploading of files. Moderators review all content on the site before posting. Registered users can store content in separate online albums. Search the site's resources by keyword, subject, instructional age, or phrase. The site originates from the United Kingdom so you may notice some spelling differences from American English. The gallery files reflect this particular geographic location, history, culture and language.
11407
In the Classroom:
Bring history lessons about the 20th century alive by reviewing World War II photographs, videos, and interviews with survivors from the United Kingdom. Then ask your class to upload photographs of artifacts, people, film clips or conduct interviewers with survivors in their own community. Record the interview with a site such as Vocaroo reviewed here. Compare and contrast the experiences of both groups during the War. Have students in family and consumer science research fashion, clothing, food, and/or drink from various locations and time periods. Enrich an anticipatory set about William Shakespeare with photographs of his birthplace, Macduff's castle, the Globe Theatre, and his cottage in Stratford. Younger children will enjoy the numerous digital images of animals and antique toys. Prepare a series of topic albums for students to access and use for research by using the sites "My Album" feature. |
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| PWSRCAC - PWSRCAC - Grades 0
to 12
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Prince William Sound Regional Citizen's Advisory Council provides a free curriculum that is geared toward teaching about oil and oil spills. While this curriculum is about Alaska's Exxon Valdez oil spill, the information would be very helpful in teaching about other oil spills in recent news. It would be a great place to help develop lessons where students compare and contrast two spills, their magnitude and their effects on the environment.
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In the Classroom:
Use the whole curriculum in environmental science classes or pick and choose pieces that you want to incorporate into your curriculum. Have students research and understand about oil spills in general using this tool, and then have students expand by comparing and contrasting the Exxon spill to the BP spill in 2010. Have students create Venn Diagrams using a tool such as Interactive Two Circle Venn Diagram (reviewed here) to compare these two spills or other oil spills. |
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| Pullfolio - pullfolio.com - Grades 8
to 12
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Teachers First Edge Review: For slightly adventurous technology users. Create an online portfolio created from your flickr set of specific photos. Choose your photos by choosing a set or a specific tag. Pictures are displayed in an elegant and beautiful format. Since Pullfolio is not flash based, the ipod/iphone app is another plus. Pullfolio instantly updates as you update your flickr set or continue to use the tag. Use the free version or go pro to use your own domain and access additional features.
11311
In the Classroom:
Skills required: Users must be able to add pictures to a set on flickr or use a specific tag for particular pictures. Register for an account using a password. Be sure to choose your username carefully as it becomes part of the url of your portfolio. Follow the directions to identify your flickr account with Pullfolio.
Safety/security: An email address is required for registration of this tool. 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.
Have students create their own pullfolio, but why not create a class pullfolio that showcases student work? If using as a class pullfolio, pictures will not be attributed to the individual students. Create some way of identifying pictures to various students. Require students to tag their pictures with their initials as well or create a comment with their initials in the picture's description.
Possible Uses: This tool would be a great asset to a photography or art class but can be used in any subject area. Create a pullfolio of pictures that showcase life around us, or in a Math class to show various Math functions in man made structures and nature. Use this site to take your geography class around the world (virtually). Have students create presentations in any subject area and narrate the pictures rather than doing a traditional oral report. Speech and language on lower grades or ESL/ELL teachers could create pullfolios for vocabulary development, tagging them for positions, feelings, etc. Involve students in taking the pictures, then share the resulting pullfolios for them to practice their new words. |
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| Popular Science - Bonnier Corporation - Grades 6
to 12
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Created as the online version of Popular Science magazine, Popsci.com offers a great variety of science articles and authentic science work. Information on science, cars, technology and gadgets are searchable and easy to understand. The "DIY" section offers some wild and possibly adult level challenges that would be fun to consider by students. Be sure to check out the DIY options first, as some are not appropriate for middle school or immature high school students (such as making a flamethrower).
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In the Classroom:
Use the gadget portion of the site as a launch for student created machines. Look at some newly created products as a class on the interactive whiteboard or projector, and then have students design their own machine that would be marketable to current buyers or potential future buyers. Have students take a picture of their creation. Challenge students to narrate the picture using a tool such as Voicethread reviewed here. |
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| I Spot a Story - Limor Elkayam, President and CEO - Grades 5
to 12
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See news stories from different angles to build creative flexibility, writing skills, current events knowledge, and more. "I Spot a Story" has the typical newspaper categories to choose from, but what makes this site different are the high interest stories, the link to the original story, different “takes” on the same story, and sometimes a video about the story. You don’t need an account to use this site, but if you have one, you can “add another angle”, which means adding the information for another article or video on the same topic.
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In the Classroom:
Assign small groups of students to a category. Have the students choose one of the stories to present, one day a week. Older students could do some background research about the article they are presenting. Students could then present their background research and article to the class using your interactive whiteboard or projector. Have students include interactive elements in their presentations. Challenge students to narrate a picture using a tool such as Voicethread reviewed here. Another idea: challenge groups to create an online book using a tool such as Bookemon, reviewed here. At the end of the the week, have the small groups rotate to another category. ESL/Ell teachers can use these stories for vocabulary development and language skills in the context of meaningful events. |
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| Disaster in the Gulf - Natural Resources Defense Council - Grades 7
to 12
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Go below the surface of the ocean to identify and understand the problem of the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Use this resource to bring home the fact that only a small amount of oil stays on the surface. Click on the question marks to find information about where the oil has gone and how organisms are affected. Be sure to scroll up and down in the image as there is a lot of information there. Find additional fact sheets, news accounts, and footage of the oil spill disaster and its effects.
9492
In the Classroom:
Have students view the interactive image to obtain basic information. Share the site on your projector or interactive whiteboard. Share information learned from the site with others in class and discuss important points learned. Conduct additional research into effects of oil and the food chain(s) that are being affected. Determine the different types of populations of people affected as well by the disaster and write editorial letters of their viewpoint. Create a conventional or multimedia project that showcases students being these animals or people. Create a Voicethread or Voki to share your information. Student groups can research additional information about specific organisms or problems to report back to the class. |
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| VUVOX - VUVOX - Grades 6
to 12
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Teachers First Edge Review: For adventurous technology users. Looking to take your presentation skills to a new level? Enter Vuvox. Use the production tools on this site to produce a richer and more interactive presentation with photos, videos, music, and text. Share your presentation easily. Use one of the three basic tools available on Vuvox: Express, Collage, and Studio. Express is an easy to use and minimalist version of Studio. Use Collage to create panoramic slide shows with interactive text, photos, and videos. Use Studio for the most creative control and ability to create a wide variety of presentations. Use any of these user-friendly tools that feature drag and drop editing. Where to begin? First, collect the media. Then, create the presentation, and share. Choose whether to make the creation public or private. Be sure to note the tabs along the top of your page. Choose the menu options under the "Create" tab, or view "My Stuff." Look under the "Explore" tab to search content created by others.
11247
In the Classroom:
Skills required: No registration is necessary to view content. Registration using an email address is required to create presentations. No email verification is required. Users must be able to find and upload content while using the simple interface that should be easily recognized by all (WYSIWYG.) Once content is uploaded, simply drag and drop your pieces into the presentation. Apply themes already available in Vuvox. Your presentations will remain in your own channel on Vuvox.
Safety/security: Users must create a login and password with an email address. You may allow students to self-register, but be sure to keep a written record of their passwords for when they “forget.” It may be worth your time to do advanced registration for your younger students. Students must have individual accounts (email required). Check your school policies about accessing/sharing student email on school computers. 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. Students are able to pull pictures not only from Flickr and Picasa but also from their Facebook profiles. Pictures can also be uploaded, and students should be aware of copyright and other issues. Be certain to check your district policy of sharing student work on the Internet. Consider making classroom images collections on Flickr for students to access and use.
Possible Uses: This tool would be an asset to any teacher; however, if you are one of the lucky ones (or smart ones) who uses Learning Focused Schools or teaches with essential ideas, it is invaluable. You could map your entire lesson, chapter, or unit on one presentation using Vuvox. Introduce the concept with this tool, and go back to it often with your students as you move to different parts of the unit. Your visual learners will appreciate the context connections. It would provide a great review if you were doing this on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Post this to your wiki, web page, or even give kids the URL of the Vuvox that you have created for them so that they can review as often as they need it or explain it at home as part of study for a test. However, you do not have to stop there. Try having the students map a concept or chapter with this tool. In history class, create time lines of relevant events to the curriculum. Have students create presentations for different events, and then have them post the link of their product to a class blog or wiki. Showcase events and issues such as environmental and world events. Or simply make a timeline of an animal or plant life cycle together as a class or in small groups. Add a peer review component and require students to comment on peer creations. The possibilities are endless! |
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| Hulu - Hulu LLC. - Grades 0
to 12
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This website is an up-to-date catalog of television shows, clips, cartoons and anything else that could be viewed on major television. No membership is needed to use this website. If you see something on television that you would like to use in your classroom, all you need to do is find it on here and you can show it in class via your television or interactive whiteboard. There are commercial television shows and some movies available on the site. Search by channel, recently added, TV or Movie, Trailers, or many other search options. Note: many schools may block this site to prevent student access to entertainment. Use it from home to find specific curriculum-related programs and request that those URLs be unblocked for class viewing.
11174
In the Classroom:
Use this to watch episodes of Glee in sociology class, and have student compare and contrast the television show with their real life high school experiences. Use science movies to reinforce concepts in class, or embed the codes given into your class website or wiki and assign television as homework! Have cooperative learning groups investigate a certain news story or current event and create multimedia presentations. Challenge students to create a video and share using a site such as SchoolTube (reviewed here). |
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| Bookr - pimpampum.net - Grades 0
to 12
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Teachers First Edge Review: For slightly adventurous technology users. Use this resource to quickly and easily create a book from a series of flickr pictures. Click on the fields on the front of the album to add a title and an author (both required to share the finished product.) Enter a flickr user name to view that user's (or your) entire album. Drag a picture into the field of the page. Change to full page for the picture or to create a border around the picture. Add or remove pages by clicking the + or - buttons in the lower right. Change pages by clicking on the lower right hand corner. When finished, click publish. Share your creation by entering an email address. Copy and save the url of your book to find later. Currently embed codes are not an option. This site does not require a login. Start over by clicking "Recycle" which will overwrite your previous album. Click "view archive" to view the albums of others.
11175
In the Classroom:
Skills required: Bookr is so easy to use. No registration required and albums are simple and easy to create. Be sure to keep the url of your creation to look at and share later. Be sure to check out this review to learn how to get your own collection of photos to use in your album.
Safety/security: When viewing albums created by others, keep in mind that there may be inappropriate materials, however, none have been viewed at the time of this review. Since Bookr does not collect information or require a login, this can be used by young students. Be sure to create a place to collect the url's of the created works to find easily later.
In the classroom: Use from Kindergarten to high school, including science concept tales, poetry books, general writing, math problem solve-its, and more. Use Bookr to create animal books, what I did last summer, places I would like to visit, vocabulary albums with definitions and related pictures, and more. Here is a link to a nice grade 1 example. ANY grade can use this tool, depending on the amount of direction by the teacher. Another idea, have students create personalized books for their parents or grandparents for special occasions (Mother's Day, Father's Day, or Grandparent's Day). |
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| Text 2 Mind Map - Text2Mindmap.com - Grades 3
to 12
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Text 2 Mind Map is an online graphic organizer creator and it requires NO membership! An outline can be turned into a visual map that is easy to interpret and modify. The font, colors and line size can easily be changed using an online toolbox. Switching to full screen mode is with one click in the toolbox. Maps can be saved as .jpg files for use in other programs such as a word processor or presentation program. No sign up is required, and the program is free. However, pop-up blockers need to be turned off to save a map.
11112
In the Classroom:
This is a great program to use with an interactive whiteboard and projector with entire class for brainstorming a topic or concept. Ideas can be manipulated and changed as fast as they can be shared. To save time, an outline that has been started and saved as a text file can be copied and pasted into a Text 2 Mind Map. The map can be color coded by branch or level to help organize information. After the map is complete, copy and past the outline in a word-processing program. Save the map as a jpg file. The map and the outline can be used by students as a guide for writing and further research. Text 2 Mind would be a great tool for use small groups to help students organize and manage a project. |
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| Voice of America - Broadcasting Board of Governors - Grades 4
to 12
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Concerned about quality news? Voice of America's policy is to be a reliable and authoritative source of news. It claims accurate, objective, and comprehensive news reporting. It represents all of America without more focus on some segments than others, providing balance in the news. Find the most recent and pressing news stories along the top. Search news stories divided by categories such as US, Africa, Asia, Americas, Europe, Middle East, Economy, Education, Arts and Entertainment, Health, Environment, and more. View interactive resources such as a You Tube channel, podcasts, webcasts, and newsletters.
10841
In the Classroom:
View news stories and compare them to similar stories in different news media. Discuss the differences and similarities of these stories and use a Venn diagram to portray. Try using the tool “Interactive Two Circle Venn Diagram” (reviewed here).
Discuss the focus of each article and reasons for the focus. Answer what the reporter is trying to convince and possible bias in various stories. Create an essay, letter, or blog post outlining viewpoints and linking these various sources for greater understanding of issues and how they are represented in the media. Have students share their letters or essays on a podcast using a tool such as (reviewed here). |
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| TimeSpace: World - The Washington Post - Grades 6
to 12
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It seems we are bombarded with news everywhere we look: aggregated on our email provider's homepage, on television, in the newspapers. Making sense of what's happening in the world can be difficult. The Washington Post is providing a visual look at the day's (or any other day's) news of the world with this site by focusing on where news is happening. The map of the world is highlighted with icons that represent major news stories. Click on a geographic area and you will access news stories about events from that area, and also drill down to a more detailed map of the geographic area. Mouse over the icons to get a preview of the story. Adjust the settings on the maps to access more or less stories in a particular format (video, blogs) or on a particular topic. Move the slider bar to see stories from yesterday or last year.
10968
In the Classroom:
This site would provide an interesting "warm up" activity projected on an interactive whiteboard or projector. Focus on a geographic area that your class is studying, or just see where the news hot spots are today. Have students research different locations or stories and create multimedia presentations about what they learn. Have your students create an interactive online poster ("glog") using Glogster EDU, reviewed here. Or have students create a news broadcast and share it as a podcast using a site such as PodOmatic (reviewed here). In world language classes, have students explain about current events IN their new language. |
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| American Revolution - Teaching American History - Grades 6
to 12
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Take the American Revolution interactive! Quite simply, the site breaks down the American Revolution into three battle phases: 1775-1778, 1778-1781, and 1783/The Treaty of Paris. Click on one of the phases and you are lead through an interactive overview of the battles during that phase. Some of the information is simply displayed; other parts require a "Q&A" approach to work through the information. Each section also includes web links for further information. The Treaty of Paris section leads students through a demonstration of how the boundaries of the new country were drawn, and would be a good springboard for discussion about the further growth of the United States throughout its history. The graphics are clear, colorful and attractive, and the information is solid.
11068
In the Classroom:
This is one of these sites that is just so perfect for the interactive whiteboard, you feel you must find a way to use it. Use this presentation as a "stop and check for understanding" lesson within the larger discussion of the American Revolution. On an interactive whiteboard or projector, the whole class can participate. Additionally, the site might be available on a classroom computer for those who need some further reinforcement or for students who are ready to challenge themselves to move to the next lesson. Have cooperative learning groups investigate a specific portion of this site and create an interactive online poster ("glog") using Glogster EDU, reviewed here. |
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| Inca Investigation - American Museum of Natural History - Grades 5
to 12
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This interactive site helps students to know what life was once like in the ancient Inca city of Huánuco Pampa. By exploring artifacts and places, students have to figure out what buildings on the map were used for. As they match the six buildings they will collect chronicles. When all buildings have been collected they can print out their book of chronicles showing daily life in an Inca city.
11073
In the Classroom:
This site would work well for individual or pairs of students in a lab or on laptops. They can record information in history journals. The printed out chronicles can be used as a study guide. Students could also take the chronicles and create a podcast about what life was like in an ancient Inca city. Have students create podcasts using a site such as PodOmatic (reviewed here). |
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