TeachersFirst - Featured Sites: Week of Dec 1, 2013
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
Glossary of Instructional Strategies - Kelly Jo Rowan
Grades
K to 12tag(s): preK (267), teaching strategies (47)
In the Classroom
This is an excellent site for experienced and new teachers alike! Share ideas with your student teacher or mentoree as examples of different ways to present lessons. Share with other teachers during professional development sessions. Choose one or two new instructional strategies to try each month to liven up classroom lessons. Since this site is frequently updated, check back often after you mark this one in your professional favorites. Instructional coaches will want to keep this as a handy reference.You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
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Pocket - Read It Later, Inc
Grades
K to 12tag(s): bookmarks (44), curation (34), DAT device agnostic tool (146)
In the Classroom
Use Pocket professionally to collect and share websites, videos, and images for lessons and units. Use Pocket to share sites with colleagues, parents, and students. Share this site with older students to use to save resources they find for research. Demonstrate how to use Pocket and share with students as a resource for collaborating on group projects. Be sure to talk about using tags to organize things so they don't end up with a giant "pocketful" of tangled "stuff."Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Universe Today - Fraser Cain
Grades
8 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): earth (184), solar system (108), space (215)
In the Classroom
Share the images and articles on your projector or interactive whiteboard. Try using this website as a resource in art class. Have students find a picture and information, recreating it though their own interpretation. Have students in a writing class choose a photograph and create a story about how it came to be as a creative writing exercise. Have students use the news as a jumping point for research and understanding information about the solar system. Post this website on your class page or bookmark on a class computer for use as in reporting Science News. Assign a particular article that relates to a c concept you are studying. Have the whole class read it as homework, and then have them post reactions on a class wiki page. Not familiar with wikis? Check out the TeachersFirst Wiki Walk-Through. Assign students to select a current science news article for "close reading" a la Common Core and share its contents creatively on your class wiki as examples of science in the real world.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Toporopa: Geography of Europe - Toporopa
Grades
4 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): countries (73), europe (83), maps (212), rivers (15), volcanoes (54)
In the Classroom
Create a link on classroom computers for students to explore these interactives. This site could be used in world cultures, world geography, world languages, science, government, and many other subjects. Have students try the games and then research further information. For example, after finding all European countries that have a reigning monarch, have students find further information on the monarchies. Challenge the students to use a tool like Slides, reviewed here to share their findings.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Center for Game Science: Games - Center for Game Science, UNiversity of Washington
Grades
4 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): cells (83), dna (43), fractions (158), game based learning (186), gamification (80), STEM (287), vision (45), whole numbers (9)
In the Classroom
Choose games to play on your interactive whiteboard, projector, or through links on classroom computers. Share a link to the site on your classroom website or newsletter for students to explore at home. Have students create an online or printed comic using one of the tools and ideas included in this collection to demonstrate thought processes or ideas learned through game play. If you teach computer coding, this is a great site to inspire ideas for new learning games.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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RumbleBlocks - Entertainment Technology Center of Carnegie Mellon University
Grades
K to 6tag(s): architecture (72), geometric shapes (135), structures (18)
In the Classroom
Demonstrate how to use RumbleBlocks on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Allow students to play and explore on their own. Have students draw examples of structures that were stable and ones that were not. Challenge students journal about the experience and generalize what they have learned. Consider having students exchange their pen and paper journals with a blog entry if you are looking for an easy way to integrate technology and check for understanding. Use a tool like Edublog, reviewed here. Or use a tool such as Interactive Two Circle Venn Diagram, reviewed here, for students to compare and contrast structures.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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