TeachersFirst - Featured Sites: Week of May 27, 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
American Indian/Alaskan Native Book List - Talk Story
Grades
K to 12tag(s): alaska (21), cross cultural understanding (165), independent reading (86), native americans (93)
In the Classroom
Encourage students to select books about a culture that interests them. Include this list during a multicultural unit. Have students collect ideas to create a book for their target culture using a digital tool like Story Map, reviewed here, then enhance student learning with a challenge to students to create an online book of images and captions about their target culture using Ourboox, reviewed here.You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
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21 Must-Read Books - Asian Pacific American Heritage Month - Amer. Indian Lib. Assn & the Asian/Pacific American Lib. Assn.
Grades
K to 12tag(s): asia (72), book lists (165), chinese (44), cross cultural understanding (165), hawaii (7), independent reading (86), japanese (47), korea (20), vietnam (38)
In the Classroom
Refer your class to this list for multicultural reading and reports. If you have any ESL/ELL students from these areas, they may enjoy reading literature from (or about) their homeland. Challenge students to read one of the books on this list and research the location. Have cooperative learning groups create a mash-up map using one of the many TeachersFirst Edge Tools reviewed here. Some tool suggestions are (click on the tool name to access the review): Google My Maps, Adobe Creative Cloud Express for Education, StoryMap JS, Renderforest, and Genially.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Gickr - Gickr.com
Grades
K to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Create an animated gif for any subject as an introduction to a new unit. Include images to spark student conversation as a way of determining background knowledge before teaching. Share this site with students to use when creating multimedia projects. Create a fun image to use on your interactive whiteboard (or projector) when introducing the student of the week. Share student-created images on your classroom website or blog to enhance or inspire student writing or poetry projects. Make a class mascot image to include on your wiki or blog and have young students write stories about it.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Anki - Flashcard creator - ankisrs.net
Grades
2 to 12tag(s): DAT device agnostic tool (147), flash cards (42), test prep (68)
In the Classroom
Create flashcards for your classes using Anki -- or have them make their own. Try using them as an introduction to a concept, then again in the practice of the concept, and again as a final review. It is a nice three for one creation deal! This would be great for teaching Latin prefixes and suffixes of words to students. Use this site to learn science terms or for standardized test preparation. Try having students create flashcards and share with each other to quiz themselves within their own groups. Teach students in higher grades how to create flash cards with multiple blanks to challenge their brain to remember more pieces of the puzzle (even counterexamples). Show them how to carefully read through their classroom notes and underline the most important word or words in a sentence. Then have them leave out the most important words for their flashcards. Learning support teachers might want to have small groups create cards together to review together before tests. Have students create flashcard sets to "test" classmates on what they "teach" in oral reports. Since this program is a download, flashcards may be difficult to share - one suggestion is to download the program onto a USB stick to be shared as needed. Students can also create flashcards for classmates to try after watching peer's presentations.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Survey Legend - Jasko Mahmutovic
Grades
K to 12tag(s): polls and surveys (48)
In the Classroom
Share polls on a projector or interactive whiteboard to discuss and informally assess prior knowledge as you start a new unit. Ask questions about the material. Discuss in groups why those in class would choose a particular answer to uncover misconceptions. Use for daily quiz questions to gain knowledge of student understanding and as a means of formative assessment. Have student groups alternate to create a new poll for the next day. Place a poll on your teacher web page as homework inspiration or to ask questions to increase parent involvement. Older students may want to include polls on their student blogs to increase reader involvement or create polls to use at the start of project presentations. Use polls to generate data for math class (graphing), during elections, or for critical thinking activities dealing with interpretation of statistics. Use "real" data to engage students on issues that matter to them. Use visual polls to identify cells or other scientific images as a formative assessment.Edge Features:
Parent permission advised before posting student work created using this tool
Includes social features, such as "friends," comments, ratings by others
Requires registration/log-in (WITH email)
Premium version (not free) includes additional features or storage
Products can be embedded
Products can be shared by URL
Multiple users can collaborate on the same project
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Jigsaw Planet - Tibo Software
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
Use these puzzles on your projector or interactive whiteboard! Each puzzle is timed as you put it together. Split students into teams to see which team can complete the puzzle the fastest. Instead of the typical PowerPoint type presentation to teach students facts, create a puzzle for them to put together and have them read the fact once the puzzle has been completed. Turn your classroom rules into a series of jigsaw puzzles for students to put together. Honor your star student of the week by creating a puzzle of that student. Just take a picture of the student and upload to Jigsaw Planet. Students can use Jigsaw Planet to create their own puzzles. This is a great place for them to study. They can upload spelling words, math facts, maps, etc. Students will love creating their own jigsaw puzzles. If you have a projector or an interactive whiteboard, have students create a puzzle all about them. They can create a collage of things they like in a presentation program, take a screen shot of it, and upload the puzzle to Jigsaw Planet. Students can put together each other's puzzles and guess who the student is based on the pictures. This would be a great getting to know you activity for the first week of school!Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Digital Booktalk - Florida Gulf Coast University
Grades
K to 12tag(s): book lists (165), independent reading (86)
In the Classroom
Digital Booktalk is an excellent place for students to start their search for a book that will hold their interest. Find a book trailer to introduce a novel that the whole class will be reading or set up classroom computers with a link to Digital Booktalk where students can be inspired to find their next read. Have students create their own book talks and submit to share the videos on Digital Booktalk, or use a tool such as TeacherTube, reviewed here. Share this site on your teacher web page for students and families to access during the summer.Comments
What a terrific summer resource for students and parents!Patricia, NJ, Grades: 6 - 12
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