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Algalita - Plastic Ocean Pollution - Algalita Marine Research Foundation
Grades
4 to 12tag(s): environment (253), oceans (142), plastics (3), pollution (55)
In the Classroom
Use your interactive whiteboard or projector to introduce this site. Use the Trash Tracker lesson as is or adapt for your own use. Consider having students work in groups of four, and have each group explore a different expedition (listed by year and selected by you). Have the small groups of students investigate the first several days of the selected expedition together. After that, have pairs take notes about what they learn, using Memo Notepad, reviewed here, then have partners compare notes for the days they investigated. Once they've investigated their expedition, remix the groups so you have one student from each of the different expeditions together. Have them share information and determine what was alike and different for each year. Use a graphic organizer or mind mapping tool such as WiseMapping, reviewed here, to help students keep track of the information. Once done have students access the additional resources pages (the blogs will often have more information for the expeditions), and look at the maps. Older students may want to investigate information about careers related to GIS, Conservation, and Marine Biology by using the link at the bottom of the page.You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
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Festisite Playing Cards - Festisite
Grades
K to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): images (267)
In the Classroom
Upload images of famous historic figures and places to use as flash cards. Have students use these to learn dates and events. Create a deck of cards with your students' images and use to pull a card and call on students. Make a deck of cards with your students' images, laminate, then use for any FACE CARD ONLY card games played in the classroom. Create large format "cards" to make a start of the school year bulletin board with student faces. Use a set of laminated "student" cards to draw groups for small group projects. Make famous person cards to use in a review game where you must tell three facts about the person pictured.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Smore - Shlomi Atar and Gilad Avidan
Grades
2 to 12tag(s): design (76), infographics (70), multimedia (62), posters (44)
In the Classroom
Show students how to embed media into a Smore newsletter to create their own "infographics," transforming and displaying what they have learned from a unit of study. Use your interactive whiteboard and projector to let student groups present a flyer about a book they've read, a news article, or similar. Have them create campaign posters for fictitious candidates as you study the election process. Smore lets you preview as you work, or return later to complete and publish your flyers. Add ready-made graphics, images from files on your computer, or on the web. Offer Smore as one of the project options for your gifted students doing projects beyond the regular curriculum, especially those who are visual/artistic. Since this tool requires membership, you may want to use a teacher account for younger gifted students, and be sure to get written permission from parents!Allow students to create flyers for upcoming events such as Earth Day, Grandparents Day, Father's Day, Mother's Day, birthdays, and anniversaries. Make holiday greetings to share.
Edge Features:
Parent permission advised before posting student work created using this tool
Includes Interaction w general public/ public galleries with unmoderated content
Includes social features, such as "friends," comments, ratings by others
Requires registration/log-in (WITH email)
Premium version (not free) includes additional features or storage
Products can be shared by URL
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World Memory Project - U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and Ancestry.com
Grades
8 to 12tag(s): family (53), germany (25), hitler (6), holocaust (42), jews (63), world war 2 (169)
In the Classroom
Challenge your students and transform their learning using a site such as Timeline JS, reviewed here, to create an interactive timeline of individual families' involvements in the Holocaust or of the days of the Holocaust itself. Have interested students create a family tree using documents from this site.Timeline JS offers the option to upload and add photos, videos, audio, Tweets, and Google Maps making it interactive. Make World War II history more real with these actual accounts.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Re-Living the Wright Way - Tom Benson - NASA
Grades
3 to 12tag(s): aviation (51), flight (33), gravity (52), inventors and inventions (88), motion (56), newton (24), scientists (72), wright brothers (17)
In the Classroom
This site provides teachers with resources on the topics of Newton's Laws of Motion, The Four Forces of Flight, Lift, Drag, Thrust, Weight, Center of Gravity, Roll, and Pitch. View the videos using an interactive whiteboard or projector. Download the simulations to your classroom computers and have students work in groups to solve them. Have students work cooperatively to complete one of the many activities found on the site like building a model airplane. Students can then conduct an investigation to see whose plane can fly the farthest.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Chartle - Zygomatic
Grades
6 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): charts and graphs (196), data (212), noregistration (75)
In the Classroom
You will want to play with this tool before using it in class. Use it anywhere numerical data is collected and is best shown in a chart. Collect data in a science, survey, or math class and display it using different graphs to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using each graph type. Use for quick creation and sharing of created graphs. Create charts together easily on an interactive whiteboard when introducing the different types. Have students operate the board while others offer instructions on what to do next. Use graphs to portray different sets of data about a topic in a new and unique way. Use this tool to create graphs and charts for presentations and reports. Make quick charts students can share with others such as "How I spend my time" and "Places I have visited." During political campaign seasons, create charts to visualize better what the pollsters are saying.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Festisite Money - Festisite
Grades
K to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): currency (13), financial literacy (93), money (113)
In the Classroom
Have fun creating personalized money for students to practice counting! Allow students to buy classroom rewards using your own classroom dollars generated using this site. Use class-made manipulatives from this site to teach basic economic concepts with simulations: running a small business, supply and demand, or simply making change. Use custom made currency as a behavior incentive system to help emotional support students build self-control. If students study different cultures, why not have them design their own country, complete with currency? Share this site with parents to use at home with their students or for the PTO/PTA to create fun money for school events.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Power Poetry - The Teacher's Corner
Grades
2 to 12tag(s): creative writing (123), figurative language (19), poetry (196), writing (309)
In the Classroom
Share this page with students during a unit on poetry or to inspire a poetic look at content in any class: maybe science or even math! Allow students to choose from all the poetry forms or from a selection of options. Use poetry as a way for students with verbal-linguistic strengths to explain challenging concepts and terms. In elementary classes, the simple "about me" and basic figure of speech poems will introduce students to poetry and figurative language. Be sure to keep electronic copies of the results, not just paper print outs. Copy/paste the poems students create into an online class literary magazine (on a wiki or blog) or have students illustrate and read poems.Have students use Flipsnack, reviewed here, to turn their PDFs into an online book, There is even a page-turning effect! If you only have a word doc or image use CutePDF, reviewed here, to convert them to PDF format.This is a perfect activity for Poetry Month!Comments
For the phobic poet, this should grease the wheels!Patricia, NJ, Grades: 6 - 12
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John F. Kennedy Presidential Library - JFK Library
Grades
7 to 12tag(s): 1960s (54), 1970s (30), 20th century (168), history day (38), kennedy (25), presidents (153), vietnam (41)
In the Classroom
All of these topics are of interest to students doing research into 20th century US and international history, and might be particularly useful to students working on in depth projects for National History Day. After researching a specific topic, have students make a multimedia presentation using one of the many TeachersFirst Presentation tools reviewed here. Some tool suggestions are (click on the tool name to access the review): Adobe Creative Cloud Express for Education, Vevox, Animatron, Renderforest, and Microsoft PowerPoint Online.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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YouTube Teachers - Learn. Teach. Share - YouTube EDU
Grades
K to 12This 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.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Duck Duck Go - ddg.gg
Grades
2 to 12tag(s): search engines (42), search strategies (18)
In the Classroom
Provide a link to Duck Duck Go on your class website or as a start page on a classroom computer. Use Duck Duck Go to teach about search strategies and help students think of search terms. When discussing searching in class, compare Duck Duck Go to other search engines, noticing the differences between the search experience and results between the various search engines. Be sure to discuss the advantages, disadvantages, and reliability of the search results with each of the various search engines. Be sure to point out the additional search terms and how these terms can provide more targeted search results. Try a game where students predict what other terms might show up from a given starting search. This will teach the mental flexibility to realize what else the search engine might "think" you mean. For example, if we enter "apple," what other terms might we see?Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Money Management - Money Management International
Grades
2 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): financial literacy (93), money (113)
In the Classroom
Have students create "talking pictures" to illustrate financial concepts learned on the site using Blabberize. Have students take the online quizzes on the site including the one asking kids how much allowance they should get. Compare the online results to your classroom results. To show what they have learned from this site, challenge students to create an online graphic to share using DesignBold.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Poster My Wall - 250 Mills LCC
Grades
4 to 12In the Classroom
Have students create posters to demonstrate understanding. After an assigned reading, have them create a poster to explain the text. Have students email their finished product to you as an informal assessment. Create a quick presentation of the best posters to share with the class when discussing the reading the next day. Offer posters as one of several options for students to share what they know with you and their peers. Of course, you will want to require proper credit for any images students use in their posters. Use student-made posters to reinforce class rules at the start of the year or to visually display concepts such as branches of government or story elements.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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CurriConnects Book List: Money, Money, Money - TeachersFirst
Grades
2 to 10tag(s): business (50), financial literacy (93), money (113)
In the Classroom
Build student literacy skills, reinforce what students are learning about money and economics, and help students build the important reading strategy of connecting what they read to prior (classroom!) knowledge. Share this link on your class web page or wiki so students can select independent reading books to accompany your unit on economics or financial literacy. Don't forget to share the list with the school and local libraries so they can bring in some of the books on interlibrary loan. CurriConnects are a great help for teachers who have lost school library/media specialists due to budget cuts.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Solar System Scope - Sunaeon
Grades
4 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): earth (194), map skills (69), moon (87), planets (123), seasons (59), solar system (124), sun (87), time zones (7)
In the Classroom
The change in seasons is a difficult concept for students to understand. Use this interactive tool to show the sun's position at various times of the year and how the sunrise and sunset times change. This is terrific to share on an interactive whiteboard or projector, then have elementary (or even middle school) students "act out" the roles of sun. moon, and earth by moving about the room. Turn down the music to avoid distraction. Show how sunrise and sunset are also different at various points on the globe. Allow students the opportunity to play with the tool first and ask them what they notice and what questions they have. Inquire together to understand the various concepts. Share on an interactive whiteboard or projector with a student emcee to run the inquiry. Be sure to include this site with your study of map skills, longitude, and latitude so students can see how our maps and nature's actions fit together.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Word Hippo - Wordhippo.com
Grades
2 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): antonyms (12), dictionaries (48), noregistration (75), spelling (93), synonyms (15), vocabulary (251), vocabulary development (102), word study (58)
In the Classroom
Use this site for vocabulary development and word study assignments, such as writing sentences, paragraphs, or essays using new words. Since the site permits translation, this would be a valuable tool in world language classes, ENL/ELL classes, and more. Introduce this site on an interactive whiteboard and elicit examples to show the class how quickly it works. Have students create their own word walls with synonyms, antonyms, sentences, and more for their latest vocabulary words. Try a tool such as Padlet, reviewed here, for each student to create an online "wall" with words aligned to color coded stickies for synonyms. antonyms, etc. Alternatively, have students create class challenges for their peers with color coded matching activities for the interactive whiteboard matching words to synonyms, antonyms, and an appropriate fill in the blank sentence. Share this as a favorite on your teacher public page for handy reference any time students encounter an unknown word. Even subject area teachers such as science and social studies will find this tool handy for students with weaker vocabulary levels.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Easy notecards - Easy Notecards
Grades
6 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): flash cards (44)
In the Classroom
Use this site as a learning center or station before a final assessment in your class. Have students create and practice with flashcards based on their most difficult topics, allowing them to better focus their studying. Offer this as one of several study aid options for different learning styles. Have learning support students create their own aids in small groups to test each other. This would also be a great one to post on your teacher wiki or webpage, allowing students to practice both in and out of the classroom.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Running for Office--Cartoons of Clifford K. Berryman - The National Archives
Grades
7 to 12As an important primary source, political cartoons provide an important insight into the issues and controversies of their time period. More than simply who did what, and what happened where, these drawings show us the emotions and conflict involved in the ugly and messy business of politics.
tag(s): 20th century (168), comics and cartoons (61), elections (87), politics (124), presidents (153)
In the Classroom
Students can gain insight into the events of the first half of the 20th century as well as draw parallels between the issues of that time and today. How are Presidential campaigns different and how are they similar? Enhance student learning by challenging them to create their own political comics. Have students create a rough draft of their comic using Canva's Printable Comic Strip Templates, reviewed here. Then, students can create and share their comics online using a tool like ToonyTools, reviewed here, for a single frame comic, or Make Beliefs Comix, reviewed here, for multiple frames.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Explore Ancient Egypt - PBS NOVA
Grades
6 to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Sites like this are what interactive whiteboards (or projectors) are made for! The visual impact is striking, and using this site as an adjunct to classroom discovery about the wonders of Ancient Egypt will do much to bring the topic alive for students. Of course, students might also browse the site from classroom computer clusters, using the information for research or enrichment.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Rubrics for Assessment - Joan Vandervelde
Grades
K to 12tag(s): assessment (145), rubrics (39)
In the Classroom
Bookmark (or mark as a favorite) and save this site as a resource for assessment of class projects. Give a copy of the rubric to students before beginning projects to define expectations.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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