College Planning Resources

College planning is never simple, and it needs to be a team effort. These TeachersFirst-reviewed resources can help parents and students take the steps that are important to a successful college search.

 

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about.me - Tony Conrad, Ryan Freitas, Tim Young

Grades
6 to 12
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Promote yourself for college or future jobs by creating your own "me portfolio" website. No matter your age or stage in life, in today's world you are what Google shows ...more
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Promote yourself for college or future jobs by creating your own "me portfolio" website. No matter your age or stage in life, in today's world you are what Google shows about you. Take control of your online presence to show your chosen audience what YOU want them to know. You are more than your FaceBook persona or Linked In profile. about.me allows you to create a "hub" with links to your online projects you want visitors to see. Upload a photo, write a short piece about your interests, then link to your online content and social networks. There is also an Assets page where you can download the about.me logo and colors to add to other pages and projects you have on the web so visitors will link back to the hub and discover your other projects. The Terms of Use for About.Me prohibits creating fictitious personas.

tag(s): college (44), communication (115), internet safety (114), portfolios (21), social networking (53)

In the Classroom

Counselors and teachers could work together to have high school students make about.me the place they use as a "branding" home for themselves online. Start by making your own About.me page to mange your own professional presence and use as an example. Suggest to students that they use a "me portfolio" on about.me for college apps, employment apps, etc. Using about.me is also the perfect opportunity to talk with students about their online presence and how outsiders might interpret what they decide to post on about.me or any social network. Along with that discussion you'll want to review Internet safety and privacy. Consider using Privacy and Internet Safety, reviewed here. If you teach gifted students (13+) who are working beyond your regular curriculum, start by having them create a real world presence using about.me, with parent permission of course. Use this space for them to publish links to their best work, especially projects that take on a life of their own long after the assignment ends. Have a student interested in international politics? Maybe STEM cell research? Have the share the class project that got the started along with essays about where they see themselves in ten years or portfolios of their related accomplishments, including those outside of school. This portfolio site is not something to "pile up" with everything. It is for them to present their best face to the public. Encourage them to take ownership of it.

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Presentation Tube - Dr. Alaa Sadik

Grades
K to 12
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Add narration to your PowerPoint presentations to create a great resource for any use. Download Presentation Tube and use the video presentation recorder to produce high quality, easily...more
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Add narration to your PowerPoint presentations to create a great resource for any use. Download Presentation Tube and use the video presentation recorder to produce high quality, easily shared, interactive videos. Combine all parts of the lesson: video, PowerPoint, images, Web sites, and even handwritten notes into the presentation. Upload and publish the finished video presentations to Presentation Tube. You can also post the URL or use the embed code on your own website, Facebook, or X (formerly Twitter).

In the Classroom

Be sure that your teaching style fits the use of Presentation Tube before using in the classroom. Easily create presentations for students to access. Be sure to play with the software before using to create your first real product. Provide links to presentations on your wiki, blog, site, or other courseware site. Time is always short in the classroom, and sometimes it's hard to make time for oral presentations. Have the students use Presentation Tube to report out their research, and you and their peers can watch it and grade it any time. Or, have students post their Presentation Tube to your web page or TeacherTube and they can view, and peer evaluate the projects. You may want to create your own rubric with student input for this. See a selection of rubric makers "http://www.teachersfirst.com/lessons/rubrics/create-rubrics.cfm " here on TeachersFirst. Another idea would be to have students create a Presentation Tube for the results of their research, and then pause and comment during an oral presentation to the class. Students with speech difficulties or challenges with English fluency will appreciate the opportunity to prerecord their presentations without an audience. High school students can also narrate a portfolio slide show for Art school applications or a show of accomplishments for college applications. Students can package book reviews or author reports to be shared in the media center. In primary grades, have students narrate their portion of a whole-class slide show, then share it with parents and grandparents by url. They can practice oral reading as they share their story slides.

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YouTube Teachers - Learn. Teach. Share - YouTube EDU

Grades
K to 12
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YouTube Teachers and the related YouTube EDU form an education-oriented area of YouTube that categorizes videos into subjects for easy retrieval. YouTube is a vast online video library....more
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YouTube Teachers and the related YouTube EDU form an education-oriented area of YouTube that categorizes videos into subjects for easy retrieval. YouTube is a vast online video library. You upload, view, share, and comment on content found on the site. Videos found on the full YouTube range from commercial to educational content. YouTube often has questionable content so is blocked in many schools. Some schools block YouTube simply because streaming video "hogs" network resources. If inappropriate content is your administration's main concern, YouTube offers a way your tech department can configure a limited access channel. See the explanation video and related information to share with the tech department. YouTube is very valuable to educators looking for great educational content. There are videos for early elementary concepts like safety up through college-level courses. YouTube has the ability to stream content into channels based upon your viewing preferences, and videos are easily marked as "favorites" to find in your history. It offers suggested channels based on your watching history including trending and popular videos. Parents can filter out objectionable content and comments using Safety Mode -- which is often disabled. Create a YouTube channel to collect videos for easy access by students. Upload teacher-created videos for your class to your channel. Do you know a great video not featured on YouTube EDU? Suggest it for the EDU collection.
This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Use YouTube Teachers/EDU to create a channel of appropriate videos for your class. Consider creating your own videos of content that can be uploaded to your YouTube channel. Use videos to introduce topics, dig deeper into the content, and review for exams. You may even want to try "flipping" you class so students view the video information as homework and practice with concepts in class the next day. Students can be given the task of finding suitable videos that take the content deeper for better understanding. Create video guides that go with the videos or quizzes that can be given at the end. Assign videos for students to view and give them time to use the information to create a presentation for the rest of the class.

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March 2 Success - US Army

Grades
7 to 12
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This free tool is designed to help high school students prepare for state standardized testing, better understand college admissions and financial planning, and generally help prepare...more
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This free tool is designed to help high school students prepare for state standardized testing, better understand college admissions and financial planning, and generally help prepare for their futures. Preparation for these types of exams can greatly increase scores, so why not use a free, already created tool. Sign up as a student, teacher, or parent/mentor. A logged-in user can access state standardized test preparations, SAT and ACT practice tests, flashcards for ACT and SAT test preparation, Zero Hour Threat (a cool video game to help increase ACT and SAT scores as part of the college entrance process), and college planning tips.

tag(s): college (44), test prep (63)

In the Classroom

Use this in junior and senior level courses to help students who are college bound prepare for SAT and ACT exams. It saves time and helps kids, no one can argue with those advantages. Try using this with younger high school (or even middle school) aged students in a gifted program to provide enrichment and early practice for early test takers. Be certain to provide this link on your class website for students to access at home.

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What is Lift? - NASA

Grades
6 to 10
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This easy to navigate site about airplane lift is brought to you by the people at NASA. It has interactive reading with links to more detailed information. There is a ...more
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This easy to navigate site about airplane lift is brought to you by the people at NASA. It has interactive reading with links to more detailed information. There is a great diagram and an accompanying video on lift. There are non-flash versions to view, too. This link is for middle school through college age students, but there is a link at the top of the page for younger students.

tag(s): aeronautics (11), air (27), aircraft (23), flight (32), gravity (48), nasa (35), newton (23), vectors (14), wright brothers (17)

In the Classroom

Show students the video about the Wright brothers. Then have them work independently on computers to read and explore more information about lift. Have small groups of students choose a project to complete using some of the blue links provided in the reading. For example one group could explore "vector quantity" and present it to the class as if they were explaining it to a fifth grader, making it easier for everyone to understand the concept, and definitely ensuring that this small group will internalize what "vector quantity" is. Have students use a tool such as bubbl.us, reviewed here, to create and share concept maps of their assigned topics. The main bubble could be part of the concept in scientific language and the bubbles joining it could be the concept in kid language. Have groups present their project to the class as an assessment, and you could also embed it on your webpage or wiki for parents to view and students to use as a review.
 This resource requires PDF reader software like Adobe Acrobat.

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College Personality Quiz - US News and World Report

Grades
9 to 12
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One of the most difficult things about the college search process is knowing where to start. Many students find that first step so overwhelming, they delay beginning the search and...more
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One of the most difficult things about the college search process is knowing where to start. Many students find that first step so overwhelming, they delay beginning the search and may miss valuable opportunities. The College Personality Quiz is one way to help students get un-stuck. The Quiz takes a good 20--30 minutes to complete thoughtfully, and requires Java and that cookies be enabled in order to get the results. However, the questions that the student must consider will spark more concrete thinking about college choice, regardless of the specific results the Quiz returns.

tag(s): college (44)

In the Classroom

Include this site in your favorites for college bound students and allow students who have finished work ahead of their classmates to use their extra time by completing the quiz. Consider having students complete the quiz at home and journal (or blog) about the results they discover. Advise parents of this site and encourage them to review student results with their student. Of course, once the student has results, US News and World Report's website provides a wealth of data about specific colleges as well as their annual rankings of colleges by category.

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Teams - Microsoft

Grades
K to 12
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Every teen and college student knows Teams, the free tool for making calls from computer to computer anywhere in the world. By downloading and installing free software and setting up...more
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Every teen and college student knows Teams, the free tool for making calls from computer to computer anywhere in the world. By downloading and installing free software and setting up a free account, you can talk and/or make a video call to a similarly equipped computer elsewhere in the world for free. Teams uses a lot of "bandwidth," so is not suitable for very slow networks. It may also be slow at high-traffic times on a good network. Some patience and pretesting are required before you can be sure it will work for your needs. Connect to classrooms, experts, authors, virtual special speakers, or interview subjects using Skype.

tag(s): virtual field trips (130), webcams (18)

In the Classroom

Download and install the Teams software. If you are not allowed to install software on school computers, ask to have a single laptop available that is Teams-capable, so you can borrow it. Alternatively, explain to your principal that you are planning a series of Teams visits in your classroom, and your techies will install it there. A single teacher-controlled Team call works in most school settings. Anything you can do by telephone or video call, you can do on a projector with your entire class. Connect the computer to a projector or whiteboard for the entire class to see if you are using video. (The video may be fuzzy, but good enough to follow a person's face.) Use Teams to talk to authors (check out their websites or this blog for contact information). Have students write questions in advance. Use your contacts, web page "contact us" emails, and parent contacts to find others willing to Teams call into your classroom. Interview scientists or government officials, deployed military personnel, or classes far away in a different culture or language. Younger students can compare weather, family life, community events, and more.

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Study Stack - John Weidner

Grades
4 to 12
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This site is filled with study tools to help students learn information in a variety of subject areas. Stacks of topics related to geography, history, math, languages, medical, tests...more
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This site is filled with study tools to help students learn information in a variety of subject areas. Stacks of topics related to geography, history, math, languages, medical, tests (SAT, ACT, etc.), science and more are linked with collections of learning tools that include virtual study cards, matching games, word search puzzles, and hangman games. There really is something here for nearly all subject areas and grade levels! Students can select the tool that works best for them and work at their own pace until they are satisfied with their progress. If you can't find a stack to fit your needs, you can edit existing lists or create customized study stacks. The site also allows you to print out study cards, or export flash cards to study them via cell phones, PDA, or iPod. Email the stacks to peers or connect with Study Stack through Facebook. Some of the activities require Java. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.

tag(s): flash cards (42), greek (45), hebrew (16), latin (22), test prep (63), vocabulary (243)

In the Classroom

Encourage parents to use this site as a study-at-home tool for their students. Link your blog or website to this site by entering your url at the bottom of the homepage. Make sure your guidance counselor at your school is aware of this site as a tool for studying those college entrance tests. Be sure to save this site in your favorites.

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Academic Earth - Academic Earth

Grades
10 to 12
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Ever wonder what it would be like to have open access to lectures at Harvard? Stanford? MIT? Academic Earth gives you that access in a limited fashion. This site contains ...more
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Ever wonder what it would be like to have open access to lectures at Harvard? Stanford? MIT? Academic Earth gives you that access in a limited fashion. This site contains thousands of video lectures by some of the most well-regarded professors at several of the top universities in the US. You can sort the lectures by subject, by lecturer, by university, or by "playlist." The playlists sort lectures from various topics and multiple professors into thematic groups. Within individual subjects, there are individual lectures and courses--collections of lectures by the same professor on a general subject. Watch a lecture on "The Civil War and Reconstruction Era, 1845-1877," or "The American Novel since 1945," or "Linear Algebra." The topic possibilities go on and on.

tag(s): college (44)

In the Classroom

These are college-level lectures given at Ivy-league universities. The subject matter and the complexity of the subject matter will be beyond many high school students, and the delivery format (video-taped lecture) means there is a certain "MEGO" (my eyes glaze over) effect when viewing these offerings. However, for gifted or academically talented students, these lectures may be exactly the kind of enrichment they have been thirsting for. Provide a link to these lectures for times when a student or two has gotten way ahead of the rest of the class. Let parents know about this site for home use. Refer students who are doing in-depth research. And in your own copious free time, check one out yourself! It may provide an idea or two to apply to an upcoming lesson of your own.

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Physics Facts - Introduction to Physics - Space, Light, Motion - Kidipede

Grades
5 to 10
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This site, designed especially for middle school students, highlights the basic foundations of physics. Although this site is recommended for middle school students, it is also appropriate...more
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This site, designed especially for middle school students, highlights the basic foundations of physics. Although this site is recommended for middle school students, it is also appropriate for high school students studying the subject areas. It is mainly a "text" site, without interactives. However, this is a great resource for explaining complex topics, researching specific topics in science, and much more. Each general area (i.e. Laws of Motion, Electricity, and more), includes several sub-topics. There are also links to for students for project and activities. There are two caveats: there are some advertisements -- nothing too distracting -- AND some of the suggested activities include "buying" a book from Amazon. You do NOT need to purchase anything to take advantage of this free resource!

tag(s): earth (188), electricity (60), light (55), mass (21), motion (53), newton (23), simple machines (21), sound (71), space (234), time (87), weather (166)

In the Classroom

Use portions of this site as an anticipatory set in your science class. The information is simple to understand and would be useful for students struggling with a topic. Use the site for research about specific topics. Have teams of students explore each of the "sub-topics" within the main topic. Ask them to record their findings in a digital portfolio of resources using bulb, reviewed here. bulb includes free resources for creating and sharing online portfolios that include images, written work, and video making it perfect to use for sharing student work during parent conferences and when submitting college applications. Challenge cooperative learning groups to create informational videos sharing their research using a tool like Adobe Creative Cloud Express Video Maker, reviewed here. Then share them on a site such as TeacherTube, reviewed here. Why not list this link on your class website, so students can access the page both in and out of the classroom.

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A+ Research & Writing Step-by-Step - Kathryn L. Schwartz

Grades
9 to 12
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Do you want to appeal to those students who are afraid of the whole research and writing process? How about those who just don't know how to pick a topic, ...more
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Do you want to appeal to those students who are afraid of the whole research and writing process? How about those who just don't know how to pick a topic, or narrow the focus? Are you dreading walking your students through the citation part? This site enables students to go through the process of writing a research paper from choosing a topic through writing the paper, revising, proofreading, and final submission. What makes this site appealing is the use of great graphics and the very simple, one-step-at-a-time approach that makes paper writing less daunting. Links take students to college-specific sites for interactive organizational tools such as mapping and outlining.

In the Classroom

This site helps you help your students and them students to work at their own pace through the pieces that are difficult for them. Use the entire site as a guide for you research process or select different pieces of this site as models when you teach research papers so students can practice right then and there "how to do it." Be sure to include the link on your teacher web page so parents can support students as they approach deadline-panic (and you know some will procrastinate, no matter what you do).

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Survival Guide for New Teachers - US Dept of Ed

Grades
K to 12
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This comprehensive guide provides ideas and positive support for all aspects of your fledgling teaching career: from parents to college loan debt. College faculty may also want to share...more
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This comprehensive guide provides ideas and positive support for all aspects of your fledgling teaching career: from parents to college loan debt. College faculty may also want to share it with prospective teachers and student teachers.

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Citation Style Guides - Seattle Central Community College

Grades
8 to 12
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Provide students with a resource to answer all their questions when working on a bibliography for a class project or paper. This site conveniently features MLA, Turabian, APA, and AAA...more
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Provide students with a resource to answer all their questions when working on a bibliography for a class project or paper. This site conveniently features MLA, Turabian, APA, and AAA styles, presents specific citation examples, and links to other helpful web resources. Developed by the Seattle Central Community College Library.

tag(s): citations (30)

In the Classroom

Post this site on your teacher webpage for students and parents to access at home.

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Understanding University Success

Grades
8 to 12
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While there's a wealth of "common knowledge" about what it takes to succeed in higher education, specific discussions of the factors and preparation that let students succeed is harder...more
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While there's a wealth of "common knowledge" about what it takes to succeed in higher education, specific discussions of the factors and preparation that let students succeed is harder to find. Developed by a consortium of leading universities, this online PDF reference is the sort of reading that counselors, parents, and students should have available when they begin to plan their high school careers.

tag(s): college (44)

In the Classroom

Guidance counselors will find this one especially useful.
 This resource requires PDF reader software like Adobe Acrobat.

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The American Association of Community Colleges

Grades
6 to 12
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The American Association of Community Colleges offers many resources for those interested in community colleges, including a community college finder and a directory of community colleges...more
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The American Association of Community Colleges offers many resources for those interested in community colleges, including a community college finder and a directory of community colleges nationwide. The site could be helpful for students interested in comparing community college offerings and finding out about colleges in specific areas.

tag(s): college (44)

In the Classroom

Bookmark this page on your classroom website for your students and their parents to use at home.

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My Future - Department of Defense

Grades
9 to 12
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This site was created by a military recruiting consortium to offer information on ways in which military careers and experience can be beneficial. It includes information on military...more
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This site was created by a military recruiting consortium to offer information on ways in which military careers and experience can be beneficial. It includes information on military careers and ways of getting funding for college through military service. Click Explore Your Options for Occupations and Industries.

tag(s): careers (195), navy (8)

In the Classroom

Be sure to share this site with students when investigating possible career choices! Put it on your class website for students (and parents) to explore at home.

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Previous   21-36 of 36