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Rubric Maker - Recipes4Success
Grades
K to 12tag(s): assessment (145)
In the Classroom
Use these free rubrics with any grade level and any subject area. Note that in the free version you LOSE your work when you close the page, so make sure you have printed first!You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
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The National Map - United States Department of the Interior
Grades
2 to 12tag(s): agriculture (54), climate (95), environment (253), geology (61), maps (224)
In the Classroom
Have your students work in cooperative learning groups to investigate the "dynamic maps". Assign each group a topic to explore (there are 7). Have the students research the information using the maps and then report their findings to the class, perhaps displaying examples on a projector or interactive whiteboard. In teaching any of the related subjects, using a projector to share a map will make the content more "real," such as displaying the butterfly layer in the map maker so students can see how the butterfly population their home state compares with other locations.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Quizlet: The End of Flashcards - Brainflare: Andrew Sutherland
Grades
3 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): DAT device agnostic tool (129), flash cards (44), Formative Assessment (47), quiz (62), spelling (93), vocabulary (251), word study (58)
In the Classroom
Membership asks for an email. Email allows you to notify others that you want to share a word list or activity with them. If students cannot have their own email accounts, consider using a "class set" of Gmail subaccounts, explained here. This tells how to configure Gmail subaccounts to use for any online membership service. This would provide anonymous interaction within your class. KEEP A LIST of students' usernames (non-identifying) and passwords, in case they forget them! If you already use Google Classroom with your students, it only takes a few minutes to get them set up with a Quizlet Class.Quizlet has a very thorough "Help Center" to get the idea of how the site works. Save your "sets" and decide whether you want them to be entirely public, just for you personally, or shared with a "group." The new version of "study sets" allows you to scan your notes with your phone or tablet and create study sets designed for your specific needs. You can now highlight main ideas, underline key concepts and bold important study terms to create custom content. Create your own groups for each class or subject. Be sure to note the fact that you can upload vocabulary lists by copying/pasting from various formats--- a time saver! Use this tool easily in your BYOD classroom since all students will be able to access it for free, no matter what device they have.
Content and English teachers may set up their personal network of users. Pretest your gifted students and allow them to "test out" of material they already know. Learning support teachers will want their students to create their own Quizlet sets and help learn them in the process! Teachers may create their own sets of words, or let students do the work for themselves and each other. Use the interactive whiteboard for quick flashcards or electronic testing using your sets. World language and ESL/ELL teachers will find many word sets already built and ready to use at this site. If you team teach with others at your grade level, take turns making the online Quizlets to accompany your science or social studies chapters. Be SURE to share this tool on your teacher's web page for students to use at home.
Be sure to see the classroom quiz game for groups, Quizlet Live (from the creator of Quizlet), reviewed here.
Edge Features:
Parent permission advised before posting student work created using this tool
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
Multiple users can collaborate on the same project
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Project Based Learning Checklists - ALTEC: Advanced Learning Technologies in Education Consortia
Grades
1 to 12tag(s): assessment (145), Project Based Learning (28), rubrics (39)
In the Classroom
If you do not want to figure out the math and relative weights of a scored rubric, these checklists share project expectations in a simple list form. You must save the web page URL for your checklist in order to view it later. Include a completed project checklist link on your teacher web page for students and parents to refer to as they work on projects at home. Note: There is no database of other teacher-generated checklists. With very young students, you will want to use the "add your own" option to write very simple text for a checklist that they can read.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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American Centuries - Memorial Hall Museum Online
Grades
4 to 12tag(s): colonial america (97), england (51), slavery (79)
In the Classroom
Browse the collection for images and descriptions of specific artifacts. Explore themes like Shay's Rebellion, the lives of African-Americans in early rural New England, or the Civil War era in New England. Interactive activities allow you to look at Early American tools, examine artifacts using a 360 degree view or see what clothing was worn (down to the underwear!) by people of the time. If you plan to share objects as part of a lesson "collect" them in a personal collection so you can pull them up easily. Challenge secondary students to use the activity labeled "Create a chronology" to group artifacts from the collections to illustrate a concept, such as slavery, clothing, or background of an author, artist, or historical event. With younger students, use one or more of the activities on an interactive whiteboard or projector or design a simple scavenger hunt within YOUR collection of objects for students to find out about colonial life and times. If you turn them loose on the entire site, you will never get them back.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Endangered Animals in Africa - Africa Conservation Fund
Grades
3 to 12tag(s): africa (162), animals (274), conservation (109), environment (253)
In the Classroom
Once you become familiar with specific naturalist bloggers on this site, you may want to revisit their posts throughout your unit on animals, biodiversity, or the environment. These real world connections would be good lesson starters. Teachers may also use this site when studying world cultures and geography of Africa. Elementary teachers will want to share selected portions of this site on an interactive whiteboard or projector as they teach about animal habitats and adaptations. Since some of the incidents that threaten the animals may be involve violence or be frightening to students, teachers should preview before sharing with younger students. The reading levels are adult, so this is not a good site to suggest for elementary students to use independently.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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World News - WN Network
Grades
4 to 12tag(s): news (223)
In the Classroom
Share this site with your school's foreign language teachers. Have students do comparisons between English and foreign language versions of the news. If you teach writing, you can find controversial topics as writing prompts for persuasive writing among the articles, as well, and have students find facts to support their positions. Make this site available from your teacher web page for current events assignments. Reading teachers will want to use the articles on an interactive whiteboard to teach main idea and summarizing: highlight key words to use in a main idea or summary sentence you write together below the article.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Hyper History Online - The World History Project
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): biographies (96), politics (124)
In the Classroom
Use this site for context regarding what was going on all over the world at any given time, especially as you launch class discussion of a new topic or time period. Help students see relationships between what they know and what else was occurring at the same time. Use it to pose questions about how events and people may be related, as well. This site will work very well on a projector or interactive whiteboard.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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World Climate - Robert Hoare
Grades
5 to 12tag(s): climate (95), earth (194), earth day (62), environment (253), temperature (34), weather (175)
In the Classroom
Use the data along with world maps (or Google Earth) for students to draw conclusions about geographic features and weather or to collect weather data over a time period to compare seasonal differences between northern and southern hemispheres. As part of an Earth Day or climate comparison activity, have students create a color-coded climate data "globe" in small groups, showing major cities and their weather data by color. You can use basketballs and sticky colored contact paper to cut out continents and climate zones, or have students make the map on an interactive whiteboard using a globe projection and highlghter tools in different colors. Older students can use the raw data as part of study of climate and cultural differences, environmental issues, or related topics.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Inventing Modern America: Games - Lemelson-MIT
Grades
5 to 12tag(s): inventors and inventions (88)
In the Classroom
Use an interactive whiteboard to play the games in science class as you talk about inventions, engineering, and the inquiry process that drives them or as an interdisciplinary connection in your lessons on inventions and the Industrial Revolution.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Fun Icebreaker Ideas & Activities - icebreakers.ws
Grades
K to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): back to school (50), firstday (20), newbies (9), remote learning (32), substitutes (25)
In the Classroom
New or veteran teachers who want students to get to know each other as they enter a new school (starting middle school, for example), want to observe them so YOU get to know them, or need to build better team skills with a challenging class or club, will find ideas to try. Mark this one as a Favorite so you can find it again, since "first day" activities tend to get lost in the flurry -- and in the fading memory -- during the year.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Video Teleconference Survey - Gerry Del Monico
Grades
7 to 10In the Classroom
The contemporary topic and the hands-on experience of making and doing a survey is quite appealing to students. This site, which does include lesson plans, maps out how to do this step-by-step with students and have the culminating project actually be interactive with students somewhere else. This is a great site to get your feet wet is you have not done either surveys or video-conferencing before.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Proverbia.net - Vicent Jorda
Grades
3 to 12tag(s): figurative language (19), franklin (12), idioms (29), spanish (112)
In the Classroom
Ask students to find three proverbs unknown to them and explain them visually on a PowerPoint slide (can easily be printed into a big book or poster). Feature a proverb a week in your classroom or on a bulletin board to build analogous thinking, cultural literacy, and inferencing skills as you ask students to explain what it means. This will gently ease your concrete thinkers into broader understanding.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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NationMaster - Luke Metcalfe
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): data (211), statistics (128)
In the Classroom
Provide this resource as a link on your teacher web page or in class for supporting data to be used in discussions or debates. In math classes, use the data to create and compare alternate graphical representations of real-world data. In geography classes, use the site tools to see correlations provided for many types of data. World language classes can study and compare the various nations that speak the language they are studying. If you are lucky enough to have an interactive whiteboard, highlight data and create graphs for comparisons on the board using the board tools and spreadsheet software, as well.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Free Papercrafts - PaperToys.com
Grades
3 to 10tag(s): architecture (83), paper folding (3)
In the Classroom
The paper folding activities would work well with cooperative learning groups. For example, during a unit on architecture or structures, have each group recreate a different monument or architectural design. Then teach about the various concepts of architecture by using the groups' models. Ask gifted/talented students to analyze how the paper fold-ups work then design a model of your school. Some of the options are purely entertainment oriented. You may want to print the paper patterns yourself instead of sending students to the site.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Radio Days: A Webquest - Tori Kenel
Grades
6 to 10tag(s): 1930s (40), 1940s (70), decades (7), radio (16), writing (308)
In the Classroom
Although this was written for 6-8th graders, it is a lesson easily adaptable to older students. The list of resources is very good, and the kinds of embellishments you can make on the tasks are limitless. It is a great project for students to work on in small groups, allowing students of all abilities an opportunity for success.If you ever considered podcasting, this webquest is the perfect lead-in. Your social studies(or language arts) students will love actually producing their scripts for "broadcast" on the web. Bring the 1930s to life in your classroom!
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Newpapers in Education - Capital Newspapers
Grades
2 to 12tag(s): comics and cartoons (61), fashion (13), news (223), newspapers (88), sports (88)
In the Classroom
All of the lessons described here require online versions of newspapers, but you may be able to find any article in a hard copy newspaper as well. You could also use online newspapers from this resource to find online papers and conduct some of the same lessons. In the course of the discussion, or possible read the article from a different point of view, a topic of basic information literacy in the 21st century.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Bibme - team exibeans
Grades
6 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): citations (34), noregistration (75)
In the Classroom
This is a great tool for students who are both learning to cite correctly and as a helpful tool for those who forget some of the "little" things that count when writing a bibliography. It offers a great example, too, of the difference between what is in a "Works Cited" page and what actually appears in the text as a citation. Teachers can use this on a Smartboard or simply through a computer lab or projector to demonstrate the correct way to cite as well as mistakes to avoid. Be sure to include the link on your teacher web page for students finishing reports in the wee hours of the morning on the due date. Set up a free account for yourself so you can "save" example bibliographies. If you assign independent projects to your gifted students (or any student), be sure to make Bibme part of your instructions so they learn to organize their sources early on. If students are allowed to set up individual accounts, this tool is worth the time! They must be 13 or have parent permission.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Mayflower History - Caleb Johnson
Grades
2 to 12tag(s): genealogy (8), pilgrims (12), primary sources (133), thanksgiving (25)
In the Classroom
Only a visit to a far away museum could get any better than having the full-text primary sources which are available with a click on the left menu. Enhance student learning and bring the Mayflower experience to life with Fakebook, reviewed here. Have students set up fictitious Fakebook page and become one of the voyagers. Perhaps students could adopt a Mayflower 'ancestor' and write how they are alike or unlike by setting up two Fakebook pages. Around Thanksgiving, teachers may want to try some of the original recipes for an authentic Mayflower 'flavor' to their lesson plans.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Bulletin Board Hang Ups - TeachersFirst
Grades
2 to 12tag(s): bulletin boards (13), quotations (18)
In the Classroom
They look great printed on brightly colored paper! As an opening day activity, challenge small groups of students to interpret the quote hanging closest to them and predict how it may be important in your course this year. For younger students, ask them to write a paraphrase or to illustrate the quote. Be sure to change the quotes periodically and give a prize to the first student who notices. Or give a pop-quiz during the last week of school, asking students to recall as many of the year's quotes as they can (working in small groups will probably help). If you have classroom blogs, ask students to choose and reflect on a specific quote and its relevance to your class throughout the past year.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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