TeachersFirst - Featured Sites: Week of May 12, 2024
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
Gez.la Virtual Trips - gez.la
Grades
2 to 12In the Classroom
Take advantage of this site to visit places where time, money, and mileage inhibit your dreams of bringing your students into wondrous worlds. Find ways to visit where your class has never gone before. Small groups or individual students can focus on one of the tours and use it as a starting point for additional research. ENL/ESL learners will appreciate the visual tours. Reach all types of learners through a class visit. Use these virtual reality tours as a class anticipatory guide, center activity, home connection, or extra credit. Challenge your gifted students to guide their own learning. Extend learning and challenge students to create their own virtual tours using Google My Maps, reviewed here. Google My Maps includes tools for you to add routes, images, videos, and more to create virtual field trips anywhere in the world.You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
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United States Holocaust Memorial Museum - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Grades
7 to 12In the Classroom
Use these free materials as the starting point for any lessons on the Holocaust. Go on a virtual field trip of the museum to engage students' interest in the causes and outcomes of the Holocaust. Be sure to help students understand the personal toll of the Holocaust by visiting the "Who Were the Victims?" portion of the site. Organize your lessons using ActivelyLearn, reviewed here. Add articles, videos, and documents into an ActivelyLearn lesson to guide students through the learning process. Easily differentiate materials based on student interests and abilities within your ActivelyLearn unit. As a culminating project, and to enhance student learning, ask students to share what they learned using Odyssey, reviewed here. Ask students to create a story map for individuals involved with the Holocaust, or to tell the story of events leading up to the Holocaust.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Google Arts and Culture - Google
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
Share this site with students and allow them time to explore on their own. Encourage students to find and share interesting art and activities with their peers. Use Padlet, reviewed here, as a collaborative tool for students to share items from this site. Ask them to include a link to a favorite portion, then add a comment on why they found it interesting. Include information from Arts & Culture when studying historical events to provide interest and perspective on that period. Have students use a map storytelling tool such as Google My Maps, reviewed here, to add information found on this site and others to tell the story of art around the world throughout history.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Americans - Smithsonian Institution
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
Replace some of your current written Native America resources with the genuine artifacts and stories available for viewing on this site. Introduce the site to students on your interactive whiteboard to demonstrate the different features available and how to find them. After students have time to explore, create groups to do in-depth research within the four different featured areas. Create a Padlet, reviewed here, with four columns for students to share web and video resources found during their research. Instead of written or oral presentations, ask student groups to create quizzes for their classmates using a quiz-creation tool like Baamboozle, reviewed here. Baamboozle is a quick and easy resource for creating and sharing quizzes for teams of two. As a final project, transform student learning by using Book Creator, reviewed here, to create class books sharing information about Native Americans. Book Creator is a digital book creation site offering the ability to add images, text, video, and more. Be sure to share student-created books on your class website or blog after publication.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Smithsonian X 3D - Smithsonian Institution
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
Take advantage of these many resources to take a virtual visit with your class to the Smithsonian Museum. View artifacts and tours together on an interactive whiteboard or with a projector then allow students to explore on their own. After viewing a tour, ask students to research a topic further. Instead of a written report have students create an online quiz for fellow students using a quiz tool like Knowt, reviewed here. Use a video response tool like Gravity, reviewed here for student collaboration and sharing of research. Extend learning by asking students to create their own virtual field trip using Google Earth, reviewed here. Have students add articles, images, and videos to locations featured on their virtual trip.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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BLVRD - Art. Virtually. Anywhere. - Robert Hamwee and Elizabeth L Reede
Grades
8 to 12In the Classroom
Engage students by taking a "window walk" as you explore the large variety of art found on this site. Use a tool such as WordClouds, reviewed here to create and share word maps with features of art found in the different museums. Use this site to begin your exploration of different time periods in British history. Enhance learning by having students create an animated timeline including images and videos to share art from around the world during the same time frame or to demonstrate British art throughout the years. Use a timeline tool such as Time Graphics Timeline Maker, reviewed here that allows you to create interactive timelines.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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The Memory Palace - Nate DiMeo
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
You may want to consider choosing the link Where Do I Start? to begin your journey with this podcast. This section contains the author's personal favorites. Listen to weekly podcasts together in class to stimulate discussion and interest in art and history topics and the art of storytelling. Assign the weekly podcast as listening homework. Some of the comments may suggest songs and other stories that are similar. After you've invetigated those, share them with your students. Have students create a series of questions to ask each other about issues discussed on the podcast. Have cooperative learning groups create podcasts demonstrating their understanding of one of the concepts. Use a site such as Buzzsprout, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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The Walters Art Museum - The Walters Art Museum
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
Find printable lesson plans to create cross-curricular lessons. The lesson plans include objectives, multiple activities, examples, and a wrap-up. Students can then use the site to find other pieces of art that demonstrate or support the same concept.Connect middle and high school students to the museum through one of the prescheduled video conference calls to learn about specific topics. Be sure to prepare students for the conference call, and encourage students to participate with comments and questions to enhance the learning experience. After the conference, have students navigate through the pieces of art on the site that relate to the topic from the video conference. Enhance student learning by posing questions on Flip, reviewed here, for students to answer and comment on each other's answers.
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Social Studies Virtual Field Trips - CSISD Tech
Grades
4 to 12In the Classroom
Immerse your students in your studies with a close-up in-depth look through virtual field trips. Visit places where time, money, and mileage inhibit your dreams for bringing your students into wondrous worlds. Find ways to visit where your class has never gone before. Find ways to motivate your most reluctant learners. For history teachers who teach ancient Rome, the history of the Islamic religion, ancient China, or just about any other historical topic, this would be a real treat for students. Help them recognize that these cultures were once real people, with skills, and goals. World languages teachers will be able to introduce different cultures from a new perspective. Small groups or individual students can focus on one of the tours. ENL/ESL learners will appreciate the visit. Reach all types of learners through a class visit. Use field trips as a whole class anticipatory guide, a center activity, a home connection, or even as extra credit. Challenge your gifted students to be guides to their own learning. Make your class go global!Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Teacher Resources for the Baltimore Museum of Art - Baltimore Museum of Art
Grades
1 to 12In the Classroom
Have you been trying to incorporate different sources into your social studies content? Use the content areas found in this collection. In gifted classrooms, use these activities for choice enrichment activities to deepen content knowledge. Use the artwork to inspire a narrative or informative writing prompt. Art classes have immediate lesson plans. Use it as a quick lesson in case of a sub. When going on a trip to your local museum, begin by investigating the content found in the Baltimore Museum of Art. Assign students the opportunity to uncover the mystery of artwork in your own museum to increase interest and motivation during your visit. Students then work on a multimedia project, find one for them to use here, of what they discovered and present it to the class. Some tool suggestions are (click on the tool name to access the review): Adobe Express for Education, Animatron, Renderforest, and Google Slides.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Hiroshima Peace Museum - Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum
Grades
8 to 12In the Classroom
Take your class on a digital field trip to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum to get a first-hand look at the effects of an atomic bomb. Display on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Provide students time to explore on their own. Have students use Fakebook, reviewed here, to create a "fake" page similar in style to Facebook about a survivor of the bomb. Have students create interactive timelines using Preceden, reviewed here, for events leading up to the bombing and following. Be sure to include a look at the museum during your World War II unit. This site would also provide good research material for a class debate about nuclear weapons.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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National Museum of Natural History Virtual Tours - Smithsonian Institution
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
Perfect for use on an interactive whiteboard (or projector), the virtual tour can allow students access to exhibits and artifacts they may never be able to visit in person. If you have access to tablets or have a BYOD policy, students can explore exhibits or areas individually. If you are fortunate enough to be planning an actual field trip to the Museum of Natural History, this site is a great way to prepare for the trip.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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The Michael C. Carlos Museum
Grades
7 to 12In the Classroom
Introduce the class to the areas to explore on your whiteboard or with a projector. Allow small groups to choose which resource they would like to learn more about, with a culminating activity of creating a multimedia presentation using a tool like Genially, reviewed here where students have a choice of presentation formats.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Contemporary Arts Museum of Houston
Grades
5 to 12In the Classroom
Share this site with students and allow them time to explore on their own. Ask them to find artwork that interests them as a starting point for a period of time or as a starting point to research more of the artist's work. Have students share their work in an online book using Book Creator, reviewed here and include images, film, audio and more.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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