TeachersFirst - Featured Sites: Week of Nov 15, 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
FutureLearn for Schools - FutureLearn
Grades
7 to 12tag(s): advertising (26), business (54), computers (109), creative writing (126), cultures (226), dental health (14), environment (251), financial literacy (95), gifted (66), literature (221), photography (131), politics (118), professional development (393), psychology (65)
In the Classroom
Allow gifted students to enroll in courses that interest them or that provide enrichment beyond classroom content. Share with others in your building as a resource for professional development. Explore the topics yourself for some new, engaging material to round out your own expertise. Allow students to enroll in a course that would fit into their career goals as an exploratory opportunity in that field. With older students you may want to consider requiring them to take a course with the idea that it is a model.Learn Engineering - The Physics Behind Engineering - Lesics
Grades
8 to 12tag(s): careers (182), engineering (137), STEM (310)
In the Classroom
Share information on the site during career lessons and activities. Share this site with parents as a resource for learning more about careers in engineering. During a unit in careers, divide students into small groups (their interest) to cover all engineering fields, and challenge them to create a multimedia presentation using Presentious, reviewed here, and present their findings about that field to their classmates. Presentious is a mix of the best parts of slide and video recordings, in one new format and is easy to use.Television Archive News Search Service - TV News Archive
Grades
5 to 12tag(s): d day (11), journalism (74), news (226), world war 2 (163)
In the Classroom
This site is ideal on an interactive whiteboard or projector, learning station, or on individual computers (with headsets). Provide students with a topic for a keyword search and allow them to explore on their own. Embed video clips into your class web page or view together on an interactive whiteboard as an anticipatory set or "activator" to introduce a unit or lesson. Looking for video clips for D Day? Click here.MasterMath - Stan Lisle
Grades
5 to 9This site includes advertising.
tag(s): charts and graphs (169), decimals (85), equations (119), fractions (159), functions (52), integers (21)
In the Classroom
Use MasterMath resources as part of your flipped classroom. Have students watch videos before coming to class, then discuss questions and problems together. Create a link to videos on your class web page for students to view at home for additional practice. Use this site as an anticipatory set or "activator" to introduce a unit or lesson on a projector or interactive whiteboard. Share this site with other math teachers on your campus, especially NEW teachers.Quizalize - Zzish
Grades
4 to 12tag(s): differentiation (85), game based learning (206), gamification (86), polls and surveys (49), quizzes (90)
In the Classroom
Make a class challenge! Create practice quizzes to review the material just learned in class. Use an interactive whiteboard or projector for students to view the "leaderboard" (teacher dashboard) as in a game. Students score more points by answering questions quickly. As with other tools with a leaderboard, it is helpful to have a collaborative environment where competition is not the goal, instead working together and improving is important. Use Quizalize as a formative assessment and to differentiate to see what material needs more review with classes (or individual students). Use this tool often to obtain a snapshot of each student's understanding of content (subtopic/standards); quickly see who understands a concept and who needs some individualized practice. Share with students as a resource for creating quizzes for studying at home. When students are using surveys and polls for reports, introduce them to Quizalize since it works on any device. Share quizzes with your fellow teachers.Story Maker - ABCya
Grades
K to 6This site includes advertising.
tag(s): digital storytelling (155), drawing (62), writing (325)
In the Classroom
Story Maker is so simple very young students can use it successfully after a demonstration on a whiteboard or with a projector. Use this tool to design simple projects using student drawings to tell the story. At the beginning of the year have students draw and annotate stories to tell about their summer and share with classmates. Students of any age love to draw, so why not enhance their learning by having them draw their impression of a message to the reader from a story and then explain it in writing on Story Maker?4 Win-Win Math Games - Marilyn Burns
Grades
K to 5tag(s): addition (127), base ten (5), game based learning (206), mental math (19), multiples (15)
In the Classroom
Add these activities to your toolbox of math games for classroom use. Take advantage of the tips to teach one at a time and create a list of math game-like activities that students know. These are perfect for differentiating instruction. Adjust numbers used in each for different groups of student abilities. Use as one of your station activities. Teach a parent volunteer how to play these game-like activities and use for tutoring sessions. Be sure to share a link to this PDF with parents to play at home. If your school holds a math night, these are perfect for use! Share a link to this article on your class website or print and include with your class newsletter.Seesaw - Charles Lin, Carl Sjogreen , Adrian Graham
Grades
K to 10tag(s): blogs (68), communication (130), DAT device agnostic tool (146), digital storytelling (155), Learning Management Systems (20), portfolios (24), Teacher Utilities (202)