TeachersFirst - Featured Sites: Week of Jan 11, 2015
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
FollowUpThen - Reilly Sweetland, Lukasz Wojciechowski Github, Joren Mathews
Grades
K to 12
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0 Comments
FollowUpThen provides simple email reminders for any email address or device. Use FollowUpThen to clean up emails sitting in your inbox. Forward it to FollupThen, and include a time...more
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FollowUpThen provides simple email reminders for any email address or device. Use FollowUpThen to clean up emails sitting in your inbox. Forward it to FollupThen, and include a time or date to receive the email back. Add FollowUpThen as a recipient on any email to receive a reminder to follow-up on the contents. Be sure to watch the introductory video and read the "How To Use" section for complete information on the capabilities of using FollowUpThen. The free plan offers up to 50 follow ups per month.
This site includes advertising.
This site includes advertising.
tag(s): organizational skills (89)
In the Classroom
Use FollowUpThen to receive reminders when waiting for email responses from colleagues or parents. Set up annual or monthly reminders for recurring events such as conference dates, programs, or report card due dates. Clean-up your email accounts. Send yourself reminder emails for due dates, future projects, parent contacts, and more.You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
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Inspirograph - Nathan Friend
Grades
2 to 12
1 Favorites
0 Comments
Remember playing Spirograph as a kid? Now you can create and play online with Inspirograph! Choose from fixed and rotating gears, and then change the size of the gears. Change ...more
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Remember playing Spirograph as a kid? Now you can create and play online with Inspirograph! Choose from fixed and rotating gears, and then change the size of the gears. Change the background and pen colors using the toolbar. Click on the + sign to personalize colors. Be sure to view the gallery of saved designs for lots of inspiration when beginning. Click the download icon to save images to your computer.
tag(s): angles (51), critical thinking (118), gifted (65), problem solving (224)
In the Classroom
Use Inspirograph to create fascinating art and to explore math concepts. Have students experiment with different gear sizes (both fixed and rotating) and explain changes. Design a table for students to map out findings such as number of points made when using different gear sizes. Find patterns between the fixed circle sizes and the number of points generated. Work collaboratively with other groups of students to create and answer questions about spirograph designs. Identify the various shapes created.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Teaching History with 100 Objects - The British Museum
Grades
1 to 12
3 Favorites
0 Comments
If you could have 100 objects from throughout history, how would you use them in your teaching? The British Museum delves into its collections and provides a rotating group of ...more
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If you could have 100 objects from throughout history, how would you use them in your teaching? The British Museum delves into its collections and provides a rotating group of 100 objects. Each object is categorized by time period, theme, and place. The objects can be searched and grouped accordingly. Each object has extensive supporting information, lesson plan ideas, essential questions, and suggestions for linkages to other objects. A PDF download for each object is available for classroom handouts. Finally, there are links to outside resources for further study. There are also connections to Key Stage (grade level) and Curriculum area that are specific to the British educational system. If you aren't familiar with Key Stages: Stage 1 is K-2, Stage 2 is grades 3-5, Stage 3 is grades 6-8, Stage 4 is grades 9-10, and Stage 5 is grades 11-12. Since this site was created in the UK, American English speakers may notice some slight spelling differences.
tag(s): archeology (26), britain (27), europe (80), great britain (16), history day (39), local history (14), museums (47), oral history (14)
In the Classroom
While the objects are classified with an eye toward their relevance to British history, there are plenty of connections to historical inquiry regardless of geographic area. If you are not focusing on British history yourself, consider using this concept to challenge students to select 100 (or some more manageable number) objects to represent their area of interest. What 100 objects might represent their community's history? Their school's history? Their family's history? From a historian's perspective, how do objects represent historical themes? How can we discover more about a culture or historical time period by examining the objects of that time? Why and how do historians choose particular objects to put into museums, and how do those objects tell a story? How could you create a "museum" of your school or of your community using objects?
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Google Doodles - Google
Grades
3 to 12
8 Favorites
2 Comments
Love Google Doodles, those fun and spontaneous changes to the Google logo? View the gallery of Google Doodles on this site. Click About on the top menu to learn the ...more
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Love Google Doodles, those fun and spontaneous changes to the Google logo? View the gallery of Google Doodles on this site. Click About on the top menu to learn the background of Google Doodle. View the Doodle Archive with the newest Doodle appearing first on the page. Click the information button (i) for each doodle to bring up an information box. Click More Doodle Details to go to the Doodle page or click Search for to learn more about the topic or date. Move from one Doodle to the other by clicking the forward or back arrows on each Doodle page. Click Doodle4Google to view the Google contest. The competition typically takes place during the Fall. Click Classroom Activities for ideas on sparking and nurturing creativity in kids of all ages. Check back to find the next Doodle4Google contest for students.
tag(s): artists (83), creativity (91), drawing (61), gifted (65), STEM (284)
In the Classroom
This amazing collection of Doodles can be used to spark thinking in a variety of classes. Use the Doodles to teach a little history. View the resources about the event, person, or country that inspired the Doodle. Encourage thinking with your gifted kids by sharing the whole gallery for exploration or a specific Doodle. Use these Doodles to spark a new project idea or challenge kids to create a simple "doodle" as a new way to report on a historic figure or a content idea. Think your students will be intimidated making a computer Doodle? Consider creating a Doodle using any computer art software or simply creating one on paper. Use these ideas in Science to show the scientific inventions or concepts. In social studies, use Doodles to showcase specific events here and around the World. When looking at perspectives of people around the world, create doodles that can show more than one point of view. Write paragraphs or stories based on Google Doodles. Use Google Doodles in STEM initiatives at your school. Don't forget Art or Gifted programs! Get your students excited about the making of the Doodles and what code writing can do! Use tools such as Scratch, reviewed here, or Tynker, reviewed here, to practice coding.Comments
Nice to have past "Google Doodles" in one website to go back and look at.David, AK, Grades: 9 - 12
Great ideas for short, informative paragraphs to practice this type of writing. Let kids find a google idea for a day, for their particular world/setting/priorities...FUN! Archives are instructive.Patricia, NJ, Grades: 6 - 12
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Quill - Empirical
Grades
2 to 12
13 Favorites
1 Comments
Quill is an interactive grammar program with over 150 Common Core, grade level aligned, lessons. Sign up to use the program by entering your name, username, password, and (optional)...more
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Quill is an interactive grammar program with over 150 Common Core, grade level aligned, lessons. Sign up to use the program by entering your name, username, password, and (optional) email. Create a class and track progress, assess, and assign what individuals have not mastered. The program has color-coded "heat maps" to track progress easily. This tool individualizes grammar and writing for ALL learning levels. There are exercises revising interesting passages. There are also practice questions that require the writing of complete sentences.
tag(s): assessment (150), capitalization (9), grammar (134), homonyms (8), homophones (6), punctuation (25), sentences (22), verbs (26)
In the Classroom
There are two ways for students to sign up. Give them the code to join the class, and they sign up themselves, or you enter them manually making the student username a combination of their name and the class code. Challenge (and excel) your gifted students with the concepts practiced at this site. Since student assignments are at their level, students can experience significant acceleration in practicing these necessary skills. ESL/ELL students will undoubtedly benefit from the practice using correct English, in their writing, over a continuous period. Use this site as part of your rotation during learning stations or centers. Inspire every student in the class to become a proficient writer by using Quill at least weekly. Be sure to share this tool on your class website so that students can practice at home, too.Comments
Excellent self checking quiz format. Great resource to show why or why not the answer is correct.Kevin, SC, Grades: 0 - 5
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Wellcome Collection - Images - Wellcome Images
Grades
K to 12
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Find over 100,000 unusual and interesting drawings, paintings, photographs and advertisements related to medical and social history through contemporary healthcare and biomedical science....more
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Find over 100,000 unusual and interesting drawings, paintings, photographs and advertisements related to medical and social history through contemporary healthcare and biomedical science. This site is dedicated to the history of health and medicine, and the oldest examples go back two thousand years. Everything is available under Creative Commons licensing. Browse the collection through the galleries or search by keyword. The titles of the galleries are Explore, Favourites, Science, History, Art (for Schools), and Galleries. Under each title, find several categories such as Olympics, Health, World, Pathogens, Cell Division, DNA, Vaccines, Surgery (Ancient, Medieval, Renaissance, Modern), Aids Posters, Patterns and Texture, and many more. The site was created in the UK, so some of the spellings may differ from those in American English.
tag(s): creative commons (28), images (261), medicine (56), photography (118)
In the Classroom
History, science, and art teachers can explore the galleries dedicated to those subjects to include pictures in newsletters, blogs, and class websites. Share the site with students on an interactive whiteboard or projector when they need images for projects. Find images from locations you are studying in world cultures or geography class. Find images to use in student online projects such as Bookemon (to create online books), or Phrase.it, reviewed here (an image editor to add speech bubbles to your image). Art teachers can find images for students to use as references or in photomontages (with credit). Use images for writing prompts or even to create descriptive sentences. Have one student describe the image as the other sketches the image. Now compare the described image to the real image. Keep this site as a reference link on your class web page for any time students are creating wikis, blogs, or electronic projects where they need images.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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playposit - Benjamin Levy
Grades
4 to 12
2 Favorites
0 Comments
Build interactive video lessons with playposit. Create an account and get your teacher code for students to use. Either paste in the address of the YouTube or Vimeo video you ...more
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Build interactive video lessons with playposit. Create an account and get your teacher code for students to use. Either paste in the address of the YouTube or Vimeo video you want to use, or use keywords to search YouTube and find it. Stop the video at any point and input a reflective pause or multiple choice, fill in the blank, check all that apply, and free response questions. Find several tutorial videos for playposit (fka EduCanon) on YouTube. If your district blocks YouTube, the videos may not be viewable; be sure to look at alternatives for sharing the videos on classroom computers.
tag(s): communication (138), differentiation (90), video (262)
In the Classroom
Create playposit videos for use in your flipped classroom or for differentiating instruction in any subject. Assign videos to individuals or groups of students. Monitor student usage and progress using the site's tools. Use this tool to enhance learning by allow students to create their own videos to review classroom material. Create videos for beginning of units, end of unit review, or ongoing instruction throughout the year. Share with Special Education and ESL/ELL teachers as a resource for creating and differentiating assignments. Create playposit videos for end of year review sessions.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Common Core America Achieves - America Achieves
Grades
K to 12
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The Common Core America Achieves website features lesson videos in Common Core shifts, key teaching points, expanded high school resources, and editable lesson plans. Find ways to assess...more
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The Common Core America Achieves website features lesson videos in Common Core shifts, key teaching points, expanded high school resources, and editable lesson plans. Find ways to assess the quality of resources. Explore the resources provided for a number of great websites to improve your instruction. Explore the What's New area on the homepage. This is a great site to save in your professional online "bin."
tag(s): commoncore (75)
In the Classroom
Use with your colleagues to improve your curriculum and teaching methods. Evaluate your resources to ensure you are using quality materials. Use this resource as a professional learning group study. Find lessons that are ready to use in your classroom that encourage high quality Common Core standards.
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