TeachersFirst - Featured Sites: Week of Apr 19, 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
Math Antics YouTube Channel - mathantics.com
Grades
3 to 12tag(s): addition (127), decimals (84), division (97), equations (118), factors (29), fractions (158), geometric shapes (135), mixed numbers (8), multiplication (121), subtraction (108)
In the Classroom
Share these videos on your interactive whiteboard or projector. FLIP your classroom and have students view the videos at home to discuss and apply the next day in class. (This is a great option if YouTube is blocked in your school.) Use the videos to introduce or practice any math topic and assign others in the series for homework. Be sure to provide this link on your class website for students (and their families) to access at home for additional Math practice.You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
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Free Online Stopwatch - Ummay
Grades
K to 12tag(s): classroom management (123), organizational skills (89)
In the Classroom
There are many uses for this practical online tool. At the beginning of the school year, display on your interactive whiteboard or projector to time or count down any classroom activity. This will get the students in the habit of checking how much time they have left. Project the Stopwatch or Timer while students take a test, solve a drag and drop, practice speeches, rotate between learning centers, or join cooperative learning groups. When rotating between centers or taking turns in a cooperative learning group, schedule the time sequence to keep everyone on track. Use the Date Countdown to share days until any important event via social media. Share this tool on your class website for students to use at home (to practice taking timed math practice tests, practice for a speech, and more).Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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The Battle of Appomattox - Civil War Trust
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): 1800s (75), civil war (136), DAT device agnostic tool (146)
In the Classroom
Use one of the short videos hosted by National Park Service historians to give students the context and details about the Battle of Appomattox and Lee's surrender. Share the video clips on your projector or interactive whiteboard. Some nice graphics give a summary of the battle, a map shows troop movements, and a gallery of photos can give students a look at the battlefield today.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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The Triangle Factory Fire - Cornell University Kheel Center
Grades
8 to 12tag(s): 20th century (62), immigrants (34), immigration (68), industrial revolution (22), industrialization (11), labor day (5), safety (67), women (145)
In the Classroom
A particularly rich source of primary documents, photographs, and interviews with survivors, add this to your resources for lessons on the labor movement, stories of early 20th century immigration, and women's history. There is a helpful section for students on using primary documents and resources, and an excellent bibliography. During Women's History Month challenge students to compare women's labor issues in 1911 with the labor issues women have today. Use an online tool such as Lucidchart, reviewed here, or the Interactive Two Circle Venn Diagram, reviewed here. Be sure and include this information as a resource for Women in History Month or National History Day projects.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Once Upon a Roof - Virtual Museum of Canada/ Societe d'histoire du Lac-Saint-Jea
Grades
4 to 12tag(s): architecture (72), homes (5), structures (18)
In the Classroom
Include this resource during an elementary social studies unit on homes (Homes in the New World). The Prozone includes Teacher materials for Canadian elementary social studies lessons. Include it during an Art or drafting lesson on home design. If you teach about career explorations, this site would be of interest to budding architects and builders from elementary on up. Have students draw or annotate an image of a home, complete with architectural terms, and explain why it fits the location where it is built. In upper level classes, compare the homes found on this site with newer, green designs. Have physics or science students annotate a home image to show the forces upon it and the underlying structures used to keep the home standing. Share the images in a "home show" on your class wiki!Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Virtual Pan Flute
Grades
1 to 8tag(s): music theory (45), musical instruments (49)
In the Classroom
Let your composers go on the pan flute. Teach (and practice) rhythm using this tool. Create a melody for your story and create a mood. Use the pan flute to improve your students' short-term memory. Combine with vocabulary or spelling words to create rhythms to aid memorization. Use the pipe to make a melody for each character in a story. Add a melody to a text to create excitement and suspense. Have your students create different melodies to represent themselves and write to explain.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Presentious - Presentious
Grades
2 to 12tag(s): blended learning (36), multimedia (48), slides (42)
In the Classroom
Looking for an easy to use tool that gives even the viewer more functionality? Encourage your students to use this tool for projects and reports. Use this tool for analysis of a lab report, a culminating project for literature circles, book reviews, discussion of various historical figures or periods, or a digital portfolio for work completed in class (not just art or music). Students could illustrate a short story they wrote, using the audio to record the story as the illustrations slide past. Use this program when you have to be away from the classroom instead of writing out all the directions for a sub. Use it for absent students to stay on top of what has been discussed, assigned, or completed in class. Consider having students explain how to solve a math problem and posting it on the class website for students to refer to at home. This tool would be useful for blended or flipped learning, giving students time to internalize information about content they have to present, and leaving class time for individualized learning. This tool would be a great one for gifted students to use when reporting on research. Students will love the ability to move through portions easily.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Save the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus - Lyle Zapato
Grades
6 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): creative writing (123), evaluating sources (28), internet safety (112), literacy (118), media literacy (108), satire (6)
In the Classroom
Use this site as an anticipatory set or "activator" to introduce a unit or lesson on finding credible sources. Share this tool on a projector or interactive whiteboard. If you are beginning the process of integrating technology, have students create blogs sharing their learning about analyzing Internet resources (and even fake news) using Telegra.ph, reviewed here. This blog creator requires no registration. You may want to share the Wikipedia and Snopes articles about the Tree Octopus. What a great creative writing idea this is! Have your students try their hand at something like this. Use one of the web page making tools reviewed by TeachersFirst here, to publish the creative writing assignments. Invite other classes to vote on the one they think is true.Comments
I have used this site for years. It is well made and, once the students catch on, it provides the basis for great discussions and a lot of laughter. I also use the Dehydrated Water website where you, too can buy dehydrated water or, even buy a franchise to sell dehydrated water. My other favorite is Dog Island Free Forever where your dog can live stress free with other dogs without the stress that comes from living with humans.Sharon, PA, Grades: 0 - 8
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Change Gamer - Mike Farley
Grades
6 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): animals (295), earth (184), ecology (101), energy (131), environment (246), financial literacy (91), fish (18), game based learning (183), human body (93), map skills (59), migration (45), natural disasters (17), planets (111), plants (149), politics (116), problem solving (225), stars (70)
In the Classroom
Use these interactives to review concepts learned during a unit of study. Consider using the interactives at the start of a unit to teach concepts as the material is being learned. Be sure to download the student activity document. Use the pre-questions to identify misconceptions and activate prior knowledge. Directions in the document alert you to the basics of using the interactive. Provide the post-questions to the students as they play the interactive to be aware of what they will be learning. Replace paper and pen and use a blogging tool such as Telegra.ph, reviewed here. This blog creator requires no registration; be sure to have students save the URL to share with you. Students can answer the questions individually, as groups, or as a class to review the concepts learned during the interactive and connect it to class. As a class, discuss how the scenario presented in the interactive is or is not like actual environmental issues of today. Enhance learning and get the shyest of students involved in the discussion by using a backchannel chat such as YoTeach!, reviewed here. Change Gamer would also be an excellent activity for gifted students or for those who are ahead in their work in a differentiated classroom.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Factile - (was Jeopardy Rocks) - Solis Creative LLC
Grades
3 to 12tag(s): gamification (80), quiz (65), quizzes (89)
In the Classroom
Jeopardy games are a great way to review all types of information, in any subject, with your students. As part of the review, have small groups of students take a category and create the Jeopardy game. Have students create a Jeopardy quiz for their classmates to take after they give a presentation. Learning support teachers may want to have small groups create the review quizzes since creating the quiz is a great way to reinforce content. Share a link to any Jeopardy Rocks activity on your class website or blog for student use at home.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Seterra Online Free Map Quiz Games - Seterra Online
Grades
3 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): cities (17), continents (32), countries (73), game based learning (183), maps (212), quizzes (89), states (123)
In the Classroom
Share this link on your class projector or interactive whiteboard. This is a perfect addition if your students are learning the 50 states, capitals, or even countries throughout the world. Be sure to include this site on your class web page for students to access both in and outside of class for further practice. Share this tool as an excellent study guide for learning locations around the world. Challenge students to increase time and accuracy in completing these map activities.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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