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News English Lessons - Sean Banville
Grades
4 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): audio books (42), audtxt (19), diseases (59), listening (119), news (223)
In the Classroom
The articles are short and interesting, a perfect match for non-fiction reading comprehension. With so many different activities to choose from, it will be easy for the classroom teacher to differentiate. There is an mp3 audio version of each article so students can listen as they read. Assign small groups of students to present the news each week, using the interactive whiteboard to show others the country and city from which the article originated. Make the newscasting experience even more real by having students read scripts of these news stories or their own original stories using a EasyPrompter, reviewed here. Students can then go to another news source such as News for Kids, reviewed here, to see what else is happening in the news. For a project and to enhance student learning, have the small groups create a "talking map" using a site such as Zeemaps, reviewed here. This site allows students to create audio recordings AND choose a location (where their article/story took place). What a fabulous way to share the article with the rest of the class!You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
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Florida Kids Page - Florida Division of Historical Resources
Grades
4 to 12tag(s): native americans (155), states (128), symbols (21)
In the Classroom
Share this site with students researching state symbols, native americans, or Florida. For students studying Florida, challenge cooperative learning groups to create online books about one part of this website. Use a tool such as Bookemon, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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WordSift - Stanford University
Grades
4 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): dictionaries (49), reading comprehension (145), reading strategies (86), thesaurus (21), vocabulary (255), vocabulary development (106), word clouds (12), word study (59)
In the Classroom
This is a classic tool to promote "before reading" strategies and vocabulary development. Use WordSift to preview text to be used in class and define vocabulary before reading to increase reading comprehension. Have students use WordSift with different portions of text to identify key words and vocabulary for class presentations. Use WordSift to discuss different meanings of words using images presented through the site. This site isn't only for English teachers, share with Science and Social Studies teachers to use in their classrooms with reading texts in their content areas. ENL/ELL and learning support teachers will want to share this as a support for any reading assigned in regular classes. Be sure to show students how to copy/paste to WordSift texts from informational web pages and news stories on the web, as well. Share this link as a Favorite on your public page so students can use it anytime.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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TeachersFirst Brain Twisters - TeachersFirst
Grades
3 to 9In the Classroom
Brain Twisters work well as a whole-class activity projected on a screen or interactive whiteboard, with students pooling their knowledge to work through questions as a team. Thinking aloud together -- eliminating wrong answers, testing possibilities, debating what they know -- builds both content knowledge and test-taking strategies. Alternatively, use them in small groups with assigned roles: a moderator to guide discussion, a keyboarder to submit answers, and researchers to look up what the group doesn't know. This makes Brain Twisters a natural fit for teaching information literacy and research skills in a high-motivation context.Offer Twisters as an enrichment challenge or extra-credit option for students to complete at home -- consider giving credit simply for completing the quiz rather than for the score, since family members may want to help. The printable version and last week's answers make it easy to use Brain Twisters even without live internet access. Be sure to mark this as a favorite and share it on your class webpage.
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The 50 States - TeachersFirst
Grades
4 to 8tag(s): california (18), new york (23), states (128), texas (8)
In the Classroom
Use this site on a projector or interactive whiteboard to discuss and informally assess prior knowledge as you start your study of the 50 states. One easy use would be for testing students on knowledge of the capitals. Open the site on the interactive whiteboard or projector, and you can test students not only by state recognition on the map but with what the capitals are. State location and capitol information are not clearly stated until clicked on, so this would be a fairly easy formative assessment or review of the information.Comments
Great resource!Ladisha, VA, Grades: 9 - 12
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Learning to Give - Points of Light Institute
Grades
K to 12tag(s): african american (131), animal homes (54), animals (284), charactered (88), charts and graphs (183), colonial america (86), communities (37), data (212), diversity (57), ecology (113), environment (246), heroes (22), money (114), recycling (48)
In the Classroom
Use this site as a resource for all subjects; search for a subject and browse the resources. Share with other teachers in your building or district, including teachers of the arts. Get your students involved! Challenge cooperative learning groups to create a multimedia presentation using one of many TeachersFirst Edge tools reviewed here discussing one of the topics at this site. Some tool suggestions are (click on the tool name to access the review): Canva Infographic Maker, Lucidpress, Powtoon, and MoocNote.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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EconEdLink
Grades
1 to 12tag(s): consumers (15)
In the Classroom
Take advantage of the free digital lesson plans offered by this website. Useful for any economics class, regardless of age. The site includes standard criteria and images, which are helpful in preparing the lesson for class use.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Classroom Jeopardy - superteachtools.com
Grades
K to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): grammar review (33), matching (9), study aid (177)
In the Classroom
Use this great resource to create Jeopardy games for any content area. This resource is perfect for use on an interactive whiteboard or projector with a student emcee. Use for vocabulary/terms, identifying parts of anything, and reviewing for any curriculum topic. Use as an opener to a unit to determine what students already know. Play as a review game to assist learning for all students. Encourage students to create the clues and answers to their own Jeopardy review games as a creative way to review and reinforce. Learning support teachers may want to have students create review games together.You or your students can copy and paste the HTML code for any game on your web page, wiki, or blog for easy access to any Flash Jeopardy Game.
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Daytum - Ryan Case and Nicholas Feltron
Grades
K to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): charts and graphs (183), data (212), infographics (73), statistics (126), visualizations (15)
In the Classroom
Some of the best data to collect is anything that is a habit: types of drinks students drink at home, hours watching TV/playing games/doing homework, meals/fast food, etc. Use the site to collect data from other students or classes for a Math, Social Studies, or Psychology class. Use Daytum for a Science class by counting animals at a feeder, recycling efforts, amount of paper used in the classroom, days of rain/no rain, etc. Anything that can be counted can be used by Daytum! Be sure to identify students who will be counters and recorders of the data Before using Daytum, be sure to follow the directions on the How To page. Decide the goal first and the data to be collected. Having an idea of the kind of data to be collected as well as how it will be displayed is necessary before using. This tool is best used as a class activity rather than creating individual accounts. Create a class account and use a class computer or computer attached to a projector or whiteboard to collect data as students enter the room. Set up the parameters of the data to be collected (or enlist the help of an ambitious student.)Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Preceden - Matt Mazur
Grades
3 to 12tag(s): timelines (60)
In the Classroom
Create an ever-growing timeline throughout the school year by adding events discussed in class so students understand where events relate to each other in history. Create a timeline with events in American History and add a layer of authors' works to connect literature's time periods to history. Have your students use Preceden to create a timeline of their life and their family's life. Then use events from their life for writing a memoir, poetry, etc. Science students could create a timeline for the stages of mitosis for a cell or the life cycle of a forest or an animal. Have students in government or history create timelines related to topics you are learning about in class.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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American Presidents Related Resources - TeachersFirst
Grades
K to 12tag(s): holidays (292), presidents (152)
In the Classroom
Use these resources to connect Presidents' Day to your curriculum in almost any subject or select one or two ideas to highlight along with your regular lessons. This collection would also be useful during a unit on the three branches of government, specifically investigating the Executive branch.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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U.S. Presidential Inaugurations Resources - TeachersFirst
Grades
1 to 12In the Classroom
Since news sources often generate specialized but temporary web resources just in time for Inauguration Day (January 20), you will want to use these resources in combination with a Google News search for the most timely information, such as news articles and images. Assign older students to compare historical background and current practice in a chosen aspect of the inauguration and create a multimedia presentation, wiki page, or mock "news" video about the day's events. Share selected images and explanation with younger students using your projector or interactive whiteboard.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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African-American History Resources - TeachersFirst
Grades
K to 12tag(s): black history (132)
In the Classroom
Browse this collection as you approach Black History month or simply to add multi-cultural dimension to many history lessons.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Election Resources - Teachersfirst
Grades
K to 12tag(s): elections (87)
In the Classroom
Use this handy "spcial topics" collection to find just the right student activity or reference information when you are studying elections. You can also share it on your teacher web page as an "approved" list of election resources for home and school study.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Big Huge Labs - Big Huge Labs
Grades
K to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): collages (17), editing (97), images (275), maps (220), multimedia (70), photography (136), posters (46), thesaurus (21)
In the Classroom
You can choose images from Flickr, Instagram, Dropbox, your files or provide a URL. This tool is so simple with very few steps for creating. Simply upload your photo, select from a few options, and then create.Check out the Big Huge Labs educator account. Easily pre-register students to avoid creating logins, view and download their creations; view the site advertisement free. You will find information about the Educator Account here.
Options here are endless. Find out what students understand about a concept by creating a 6 word story. Students find a suitable picture and sum up the concept in 6 words. Students can use the Motivator tool, reviewed here, to create. Place their creation on a blog, wiki, or web site and have students write about how their understandings of the concept have changed throughout the study of it. Create Badges for field trips and other activities. Use the Trading Card Maker, reviewed here, to identify what a student understands about a concept. Create trading cards of the many species that exist in the world or of places to visit, past leaders of nations, or states and other countries. Create vocabulary trading cards. Use social networking in the classroom? Create an Avatar to use on these spaces. Reading a book or viewing documentaries? Create Movie Posters to share information or to inform others about various times in history. Whatever you use this tool for, it is powerful for students to use a great image and word captions to display their knowledge.
Edge Features:
Includes an education-only area for teachers and students
Parent permission advised before posting student work created using this tool
Requires registration/log-in (WITH email)
Requires registration/log in (NO email)
Products can be embedded
Products can be shared by URL
Includes teacher tools for registering and/or monitoring students
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Treasury Direct Kids - U.S. Department of the Treasury
Grades
4 to 8tag(s): advertising (24), financial literacy (92), posters (46)
In the Classroom
After presenting the basic info on this site, view the posters under the tab Art of Debt. Discuss and then have students make online posters parallel to the old ones they see displayed here. Use an online poster creator, such as Padlet, reviewed here. Have them make their own graphs of funds and debts based on their own finances using ChartGizmo, reviewed here. Use this site when teaching percentages; have students do problems figuring the interest on today's debt. Introduce them to the concept of buying a bond today and have them calculate its accrued interest and how many years it will take to gain face value. Have students in a team create modern-day videos using a tool like Vmaker, reviewed here, to advertise and sell savings bonds. Share the videos using a tool such as SchoolTube, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Penzu - Alexander Mimran and Michael Lawlor
Grades
4 to 12tag(s): communication (125), DAT device agnostic tool (133), journals (27), writing (310)
In the Classroom
A class journaling program has limitless possibilities. Engage students in discussions using a topic from current events, current social issues, independent reading, literature, and more. Any class using a journal can use Penzu. For example, science lab write-ups or the problem of the week in math. Penzu can even be used for homework. Just think, no more lugging heavy boxes full of notebooks around! In language arts, students journal daily and harvest from their musings and ideas to create a short story or a poem. They can even use Penzu to develop their brainstorms and rough drafts. For social studies classes, students can write posts and ideas about famous people or daily life in a time period being studied, then create a "diary" for the famous person in Bookemon, reviewed here or a poster using Genially, reviewed here about daily life. For either of these ideas, once they are ready to present their final project, have them share it with their peers and others, and consider adding other media. See more ideas for student blogging/journaling at TeachersFirst's Blogging Basics for the Classroom. Share journals with parents as appropriate by URL. Be sure to respect student privacy before sharing.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Longwood Central School District SMART Board Lessons - Longwood Central School District
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
These lessons are great for the new SMART Board user or the seasoned pro. Use these if you need a lesson but don't have time to create one from scratch. View the lessons and use them to help you create your own lesson. Click the different tabs to view the different grade levels. Please note that all of these activities require SMART Notebook software (which comes with SMART brand IWBs). Don't have SMART brand IWB's? Some files will work using the SMART Notebook Express online viewer available here. (Download the notebook file from Longwood's collection to your desktop and then upload to SMART Notebook Express site.) If you use a lesson, go to the staff directory under District Information -> Email Directory and send the creator a thank you. Think how great it would be to receive an email from a teacher "out there" thanking YOU for sharing?Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Motivator - Big Huge Labs
Grades
K to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): collages (17), images (275), photography (136), posters (46)
In the Classroom
Make sure students are aware of copyright laws. Use this site to encourage the proper use of photographs for which students have authorization. Model including appropriate photo credits on the posters. Check out the Big Huge Labs educator account. Easily pre-register students to avoid creating logins, view and download their creations, and view the site advertisement-free. You will find information about the Educator Account here.Younger students can use this tool together as a whole-class activity or simply enjoy the posters their teacher creates. Have students create a picture about a unit topic with a caption using new terms learned. For example, create posters on predators and prey or on animal classifications. Students can create a poster of a study skill or learning activity that helps them learn. Create a caption that explains how the student learns best. Every subject area can use this resource to create interesting presentation posters for display or as springboards for discussing what was learned. For example, in Biology, students could create a poster on a cell part with a clever caption highlighting the importance of its function. In Literature or History, students can create posters about the perspectives of others in the story or in that historical period. Rather than a traditional research project, have cooperative learning groups use this site to show their knowledge in any subject area. Ask students to apply concepts such as constitutional rights by illustrating them in poster images with captions. Teachers can create bulletin board images, as well. Have a classroom motivation poster competition to start off the school year! Share the winners on your class wiki or in a PowerPoint presentation at back-to-school night/open house. As special occasions approach, have students bring in or take a digital photo they can turn into a poster as a family gift, with their own inspirational saying. Create a portfolio of 6-word stories, utilizing a powerful picture and 6 words to demonstrate the concept that was learned. Assign students the task of posting their project on a blog, with a more detailed explanation of their understanding of the concept depicted in the picture.
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Mission US - Thirteen
Grades
4 to 8tag(s): 1800s (90), abolition (14), american revolution (99), evolution (85), great depression (33), immigrants (50), immigration (86), slavery (82), westward expansion (42), world war 2 (169)
In the Classroom
This is a must for any social studies or US History class. If you are remote or hybrid teaching, besure to read the section for usng Mission US while learning at home. Start by checking out the teachers area so you can follow the progress of your students. Use the demo game on an interactive whiteboard or with a projector to introduce it to your students. Once classes are set up have your students work in cooperative groups and work their way through the activities. There are wonderful teacher resources available including models for instruction, tips, instructions and student handouts. Resources are available in both PDF and Word so you can customize the worksheets for your students. This feature is great for differentiating materials for various student levels. When all students are done with a Mission, enhance student learning and have a class discussion about what side they chose and why? Consider using a backchanneling tool such as Yo!Teach, reviewed here, which allows all students a chance to voice their opinions (even the shyest and quiet ones). If your class is remote learning, for the discussion, extend learning by using Gravity, reviewed here; require them to comment (politely) on their peers choices and reflections.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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