TeachersFirst - Featured Sites: Week of Dec 8, 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
Talky - talky.io
Grades
7 to 12tag(s): chat (41), communication (138), microblogging (15)
In the Classroom
Use Talky to host tutoring for small groups of students from any computer! Share with students as a resource for collaborating on group projects from home. Use Talky to set up an online interview with authors located across the country, veterans who can discuss their personal experiences with war, or experts to discuss careers in their field. Also use this site to meet up with absent students as needed. If a parent can't make a conference, meet online using Talky to share student work, progress, and more.You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
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NicerTube - NicerTube.com
Grades
6 to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Use NicerTube anytime you wish to share YouTube without all of the "clutter" or just spice up a presentation! This is great to use for your more easily distracted students! Share the link with your students for sharing their videos in presentations. Use your NicerTube created links within your classroom presentations to spice up video presentation at any time!Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Tour Builder (Beta) - Google
Grades
5 to 12tag(s): digital storytelling (152), maps (207), timelines (56)
In the Classroom
Create a simple tour to share (or find one in the gallery). Share the tour on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Create tours of events from history, famous battles, scientific discoveries, biographies, and much more. The possibilities are endless. Create a timeline of famous people or a hub of locations related to a topic such as toxic waste sites or habitats for a certain animal. Tour settings for Shakespeare plays or an author's life. Tour Van Gogh's painting sites or map landforms such as glaciers. Have students who have Google accounts build a Tour of important events in their lives (or use a teacher-controlled account). In world language classes, create cultural tours in your new language. Scroll through the gallery for ideas on how others have used Tour Builder. You may just find some neat tours to share in the gallery.Edge Features:
Parent permission advised before posting student work created using this tool
Includes Interaction w general public/ public galleries with unmoderated content
Requires registration/log-in (WITH email)
Products can be shared by URL
Multiple users can collaborate on the same project
Requires download/installation of software
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X (formerly Twitter) Magnets - twittermagnets.com
Grades
3 to 12tag(s): creative fluency (5), microblogging (15), poetry (190), Teacher Utilities (158), twitter (18), writing prompts (58)
In the Classroom
Create a message or "poem" of the day as a class to send from your class X (formerly Twitter) account. Use as a center activity or have student groups create their own messages about what you have learned today in any subject area class. Have ENL students create simple messages to reinforce language skills. If you don't have a X (formerly Twitter) account, just have students create offline messages. Take a quick screen shot, then write, illustrate, and share on your classroom bulletin board! Generate creative messages as a class to use as writing prompts. Have students tell the story (or nonfiction news account) about what caused the message. Looking for more ways to use X (formerly Twitter) in the classroom? Read more about X (formerly Twitter) at TeachersFirst's X (formerly Twitter) for Teachers page. You can also use this site as a tool to teach about digital citizenship and the etiquette of tweets.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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RADCAB - Steps for Online Information Evaluation - Karen M. Christensson
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): evaluating sources (27), internet safety (111), media literacy (104), Research (84), rubrics (35)
In the Classroom
Share this site and content on your interactive whiteboard or projector as you begin a project involving research. Demonstrate how to use this site before allowing students to explore on their own. Print and use the rubric available on the site. Require that students (or groups) complete the rubric on their chosen sources for research. Share a link to the site on your class website and classroom computers for easy student (and parent) reference at any time. Another idea: to enhance student learning is to assign cooperative learning groups one part of the acronym. Each group could create a presentation to share with the class about what they learned about their part of the evaluation process. Have students create online posters individually or together as a class using a tool such as Web Poster Wizard, reviewed here, or PicLits, reviewed here. Students will LOVE finding and sharing examples of "bad" sources!Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Community Science Workshop Network - Community Initiatives
Grades
K to 12tag(s): engineering (125), gravity (42), inventors and inventions (75), musical instruments (49), plants (147), sound (73), STEM (274)
In the Classroom
Use these activities to create contraptions for students to manipulate in class. As students use a manipulative, collect their questions about what they observe or wonder about the contraption's motion and characteristics. Students can research the science behind the object or motion. Use class discussion to create understanding about basic scientific principles. Be sure to include a link to this site on your classroom computer or website. Students can use these activities to teach concepts to other students in their class. Many of these activities make great demonstrations as an introduction to a science concept and for uncovering student misconceptions. Expand what you ask students to do by using creative writing, reading, creating Infographics, or learning correct ways to research and report findings about the subject matter. A suggested easy to use infographic creator is Canva Infographic Maker, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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The Hand-Washing Challenge - learnalberta.ca
Grades
K to 2tag(s): hygiene (9)
In the Classroom
Use this in kindergarten to show students the importance of washing hands after using the restroom or before eating. Keep your classroom healthy this flu season by making hygiene a theme of the week. This would also be good to have on a computer at a center as a reminder to primary grade students. ESL/ELL students will enjoy learning the limited vocabulary that comes with the hand washing steps.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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