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ThingLink - Thinglink.com
Grades
2 to 12
9 Favorites
0 Comments
After a 60 day free trial, Thinglink is no longer free. Try using a similar program like Genially, reviewed here, Image Annotator, reviewed...more
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After a 60 day free trial, Thinglink is no longer free. Try using a similar program like Genially, reviewed here, Image Annotator, reviewed here, or even Google Drawings, reviewed here. If you need help using any of these replacement tools, you could watch an archived OK2Ask session: OK2Ask Google Drawings, here, OK2Ask Genially, here, or 3 Cool Tools for Images (Image Annotator is 1 hour and 5 minutes into the presentation), here. ThingLink is an interactive image tool offering a unique way to link "things," within images. Teachers and students should register using the EDU area. Although the example on the home page uses Facebook to share a ThingLink, you do not have to use Facebook at all. Start with an image from upload, online URL, or Flickr. Select specific items within your image (called "things") and link them to resources or other websites. By clicking an area within the image, viewers can access the "thing" (website) that you have linked. Add multiple links to separate items from areas within a single image. Choose or upload an image and click on the ThingLink icon on your image to begin editing. Click on specific spots to add information to the link. If you plan to create many ThingLinks from your own images, it may be easier to use a class or personal Flickr account to pull images from instead of using the maximum number of images to upload. Preload your images to that Flickr account before starting your ThingLinks. ThingLink presents a variety of levels for technology use depending on teacher requirements for the project, or even student ability; it allows for adding narration, videos, text and links to help explain different parts of the image. Free Android and iOS apps are available. Teacher tools include making student groups and more.
In the Classroom
Use digital images of lab experiments or class activities for sharing on a class wiki or blog with clickable enhancements offering additional information. Have students add links or even a blog reaction or explanation to their project or experiment image. Use the site for making a photography or art portfolio blog. Have students annotate images to explain their work or various techniques they used. World language or ENL/ESL teachers can enhance images with links to sound files or other explanations for better understanding. Use in world language to label items in an image with the correct words in that language. Young students could write simple sentences to practice language skills while explaining about a favorite picture or activity. Use in Science to explain the experiment or in a Consumer Science class to explain cooking or other techniques. Consider creating a class account for student groups to use together. Teachers can create a ThinglLnk of an image with questions and links that students must investigate to respond as a self-directed learning activity. An image of a tree could have questions and links about types of leaves, photosynthesis, and the seasons, for example. Gifted students could create a collection of annotated images that link to sound files to add "personalities" to science objects (think of the talking trees in the Wizard of Oz) or create an annotated image of a almost anything they research to go beyond regular curriculum they have already mastered: Annotate an image of a food product to link to information about its sources and potential harms. Annotate an image of a campaign poster and "debunk" its claims with links to video clips that show the politician in action, etc. Annotate an advertisement with links its propaganda techniques. Teens with a sophisticated sense of humor will especially enjoy linking to ironic examples that debunk or offer a satire of the original!Edge Features:
Includes an education-only area for teachers and students
Parent permission advised before posting student work created using this tool
Includes Interaction w general public/ public galleries with unmoderated content
Requires registration/log-in (WITH email)
Products can be embedded
Multiple users can collaborate on the same project
Includes teacher tools for registering and/or monitoring students
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CK-12 - CK-12 Foundation
Grades
5 to 12
3 Favorites
0 Comments
CK-12 offers a large variety of lessons and resources in STEM topics mostly geared for sixth grade and higher. Choose to access the site as a student or teacher to ...more
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CK-12 offers a large variety of lessons and resources in STEM topics mostly geared for sixth grade and higher. Choose to access the site as a student or teacher to begin. Search by specific content or to find standards-aligned flexbook textbooks. Download flexbooks in several formats such as PDF or mobi and epub format for use on Kindle and e-readers. Create an account and add flexbooks to your list. Add your own files and resources. Specific topic searches provide links to information from flexbooks as well as available study aids, activities, and assessments.
In the Classroom
Introduce CK-12 to your students (and parents) on your interactive whiteboard and demonstrate ways to use the site at home. Be sure to create a link to the site on your class website or blog for easy access at any time. Create an account and upload your own resources and activities to create your own flexbooks for use with students. CK-12 is available in many languages. Use this site with your ESL/ELL students as a supplement to classroom resources.
This resource requires PDF reader software like Adobe Acrobat.
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Algalita - Plastic Ocean Pollution - Algalita Marine Research Foundation
Grades
4 to 12
3 Favorites
0 Comments
Explore plastic pollution in the North Pacific Ocean at this terrific site. Click Educators on the top menu, and fine several lessons, videos, toolkits, and more. Be sure to check ...more
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Explore plastic pollution in the North Pacific Ocean at this terrific site. Click Educators on the top menu, and fine several lessons, videos, toolkits, and more. Be sure to check out the Students tab at the top to see Student Spolights to explore accomplishments of students from around the world.
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.
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Faces of Learning - Q.E.D. Foundation
Grades
8 to 12
1 Favorites
0 Comments
Discover a community about how people learn. Attractively packaged, the site encourages you to share your experiences and thoughts about what makes a learning environment and how you...more
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Discover a community about how people learn. Attractively packaged, the site encourages you to share your experiences and thoughts about what makes a learning environment and how you learn. Don't miss the self-assessment activity called "Your Learner Sketch" to discover strengths about your own learning and potential problem areas. This is a wonderful site to find others with similar experiences and concerns. After joining the website community, you can submit sketches and photos, add to blogs, and learn about other resources and activities. Record stories orally for others to hear. Explore stories via tags in a tag cloud. Explore links to other sharing stories experiences like Story Corps.
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This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Encourage students to do a project about learning and post their results here, if policies permit. Share this link on your class web page and/or in a parent newsletter so they can better understand the nature of learning and its challenges. Use the self-assessment with any class -- without joining the site -- as you talk about study skills and finding individual strengths for studying and learning. Consider letting students form study groups based on the results. This is an ideal activity for early in the school year.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Wolfram Tones - Wolfram Research Labs
Grades
6 to 12
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Wolfram Tones is a different and dynamic approach to thinking about music. Instantly create music and download it to your computer. Choose tone style, select a variation, and adjust...more
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Wolfram Tones is a different and dynamic approach to thinking about music. Instantly create music and download it to your computer. Choose tone style, select a variation, and adjust the tone by using the generator, instrumentation, pitch mapping, or time controls. Save your "tone" to your collection or email it to friends. Your collection is associated to the computer where you make it using web browser cookies so no registration is necessary. Tones are packaged as midi files. Mathematical rules create these complex forms of music on Wolfram Tones. The program takes the mathematical pattern and turns it onto its side to produce a musical score. Here, the height of the pattern is the pitch of the note. More than just a musical resource, this website allows you to see and hear math.
In the Classroom
In math class, have students choose and analyze a musical pattern as part of a unit on algorithms. Have them change the parameters using the program controls to produce a sound that they like. Then have them relate the changes they hear to the changes in the math. In music class, have students create their own portfolio of music using Wolfram Tones. Encourage students to replicate their tones with their own musical instruments. Your talented math/music students and gifted students will love this site! Be sure to share the link on your class web page for easy access.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Math Pickle - Dr. Gordon Hamilton
Grades
K to 12
1 Favorites
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Math Pickle goes WAY beyond traditional math drill and skill games or math problem worksheets. There are mathematics puzzles for kindergarten through twelfth grade. Choose by grade...more
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Math Pickle goes WAY beyond traditional math drill and skill games or math problem worksheets. There are mathematics puzzles for kindergarten through twelfth grade. Choose by grade level or math topic. View the puzzle list by name and math content. Puzzles include correlation to math standards and downloads for puzzle sheets when necessary.
In the Classroom
Bookmark this site to use as a resource for challenging math activities for the classroom. Use these activities with gifted students to promote problem solving, trial and error, and exploration of concepts. Have students create blogs. If you are beginning the process of integrating technology, exchange paper and pen and have students create blogs sharing their learning and understanding using Site123, reviewed here. If you are teaching younger students and looking for an easy way to integrate technology and check for understanding, replace pencil and paper and challenge your students to create a blog using Edublog, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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MobileRead - MobileRead.com
Grades
3 to 12
1 Favorites
0 Comments
Join Mobileread, a social networking site for eBooks. View as a guest, or join to be able to submit a nomination or comment to a discussion thread. Find free eBooks, ...more
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Join Mobileread, a social networking site for eBooks. View as a guest, or join to be able to submit a nomination or comment to a discussion thread. Find free eBooks, eBook lending libraries, eBook reviews, Notable eBook uploads, and poetry. Discover latest technology, audio books, hardware reviews, and accessories. Conversion, reading software, and authoring software fulfill your Ebook needs. Get mobile links, Ebook blogs, web clipping software, or Mobile Mobilereads. The option to choose a language is available to accommodate for ELL/ESL readers.Be aware: This site has a lot of public interaction. Either explore the site yourself for whole group activities or monitor carefully .
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This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Consider sharing parts of this site on your interactive whiteboard. Expand your language arts classroom with a variety of books through free eBook resources. Give each student his/her own personalized book club to match interests. Enjoy your favorite interests too. Find the latest information on eBook technology.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Power Poetry - The Teacher's Corner
Grades
2 to 12
5 Favorites
1 Comments
Fill in the blanks of online forms to create instant poems of many types. Even though the site looks "plain vanilla," the results are great fun! Click a poem form ...more
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Fill in the blanks of online forms to create instant poems of many types. Even though the site looks "plain vanilla," the results are great fun! Click a poem form from the ten options. The options include more traditional cinquains, haiku, and more. Once you complete the form, click to create the instant poem and display the results on the page. Keep a copy by printing or -- even better-- by copy/pasting into a document or other online tool for sharing. Make any day better with poetry! The page is very simple, but the results are inspiring.
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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Evil Mad Scientist - Evil Mad Science
Grades
6 to 12
3 Favorites
0 Comments
Discover irreverent, creative new projects featured every week in Evil Mad Scientist blog. This blog features applied science and math concepts in unique or unusual ways. A few of them...more
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Discover irreverent, creative new projects featured every week in Evil Mad Scientist blog. This blog features applied science and math concepts in unique or unusual ways. A few of them push the envelope, but all will get you thinking. Every Wednesday, new projects tickle your imagination. Watch videos, read the latest stories, or comment on existing projects. Browse the shop,-- not to buy, but to see and analyze remarkable inventions. Join a mailing list to never miss new projects. Note: a few of the ideas involve hacking electronics and computers, so the site may be blocked by school filters. Preview to know for sure. See notes below on ways to share specific articles.
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This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Inspire creativity and original thinking with Evil Mad Scientist. Use as inspiration or examples for student projects in art, science, or music, research, or applied creativity. If you share a link with students, you may want to link to a specific post or use Readability Test Tool, reviewed here, to provide a "clean view" of the post. Evaluate projects together on the IWB to help students identify characteristics of creativity and talk about how the ideas may have come to be. Use this site during a unit on scientific method so students connect the discipline of research with the creative results. What kind of experimenting took place? What principles of science? Compare the inventions available in the Shop with inventions from the Industrial Revolution. How is today a different environment for inventors (or is it?) Begin your own Evil Mad Scientist blog to feature your students' creativity or slightly irreverent ideas in a safe and school-appropriate environment, almost as an STEM graffiti wall.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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New Math - Craig Damrauer
Grades
6 to 12
1 Favorites
0 Comments
Though this site is not updated, the contents are still there.Take a different look at math (and many other topics) through intriguing word equations! View a series of slides...more
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Though this site is not updated, the contents are still there.Take a different look at math (and many other topics) through intriguing word equations! View a series of slides with many different equations such as secret = whisper - whisper again, unicycle = bicycle + oddness, among many others. Some of the concepts relate to life, government, and current events, not "math." Slides can be viewed in several different ways: choose random to view a random slide from the selections, or change the view to scrolling to go down the catalog of slides offered. Each slide contains a link so you can share it in through Facebook, Twitter, email, and more. The SHARE button is on the bottom left side of the screen.
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This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Display a new slide on your interactive whiteboard (or projector) weekly as a conversation-starter in a math class, social studies class, or gifted classroom. Ask students to explain what the equation might mean. Challenge students to create their own new math word equations and share them using a talking avatar using a photo (legally permitted to be reproduced). Use a site such as Blabberize, reviewed here. Much of the vocabulary used with the equations is very advanced. Use this in English class for vocabulary development. Then challenge students to create some of their own "equations" with other new vocabulary words.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Jumble Kids - Tribune Media Services
Grades
3 to 6
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Try your fingers at a puzzle similar to the classic word jumbles found in newspapers. Choose a puzzle date; then the timer starts to test how quickly you can find ...more
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Try your fingers at a puzzle similar to the classic word jumbles found in newspapers. Choose a puzzle date; then the timer starts to test how quickly you can find a solution. Unscramble the sets of words by dragging the letters into their correct spot in the word. Then unscramble the circled letters to find the answer to the problem in the puzzle. The cartoon with the puzzle question can be printed in pdf format and colored. Click on the hint button for additional help in solving puzzles.
In the Classroom
Use this site as a classroom word-building center either on classroom computers or your interactive whiteboard (projector). Have students use examples from this site to create their own word jumbles for others to solve. Use a site such as Web Poster Wizard (reviewed here).Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Brain Metrix - BrainMetrix.com
Grades
4 to 12
1 Favorites
0 Comments
Improve brain functioning with this challenge. A series of 21 different "brain games" gets your brain thinking. Activities focus on different areas of brain training. Compete against...more
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Improve brain functioning with this challenge. A series of 21 different "brain games" gets your brain thinking. Activities focus on different areas of brain training. Compete against yourself to improve. While most of this site is free, full access requires membership.
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This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Enjoy your new workout routine! Share the activities on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Challenge your gifted students (or ANY student) to strive for tiptop "brain shape." Use as a way to prove to struggling students they can improve with practice to gain confidence. Provide this link on your class website as an enrichment site.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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World Science - World Science
Grades
4 to 12
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Find science news featuring the latest research, discoveries, and questions facing science today. Find interesting questions to inspire all of your students to wonder why and continue...more
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Find science news featuring the latest research, discoveries, and questions facing science today. Find interesting questions to inspire all of your students to wonder why and continue guessing. Examples of articles include: Second "Mozart effect" Premature Babies May Grow Faster, Huge Hidden Saturn Ring Found, and New Anti-Cancer Strategy Makes Tumors Age. Latest breaking news and science in images add a greater depth to the site.
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This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
World Science empowers your students to recognize that they too can ask questions, and they too can understand the latest science questions and answers. Inspire thinkers to find questions and seek answers. Set as your home page and always captivate your students. Use as a reference site to add the latest science news. Subscribe and send to each of your students emails. Reinforce the scientific method in everyday research. Have your classes create their own science news on your website. This is an excellent site for inspiring critical thinking skills and creative thinking. Be sure to include this site as part of your current events and curriculum in gifted and advanced classes.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Syvum - Syvum
Grades
4 to 12
1 Favorites
0 Comments
Enter the world of Syvum, a site of logic, math, reasoning, words, and general knowledge puzzles. Join others in playing the many games offered. Every challenge offers background information...more
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Enter the world of Syvum, a site of logic, math, reasoning, words, and general knowledge puzzles. Join others in playing the many games offered. Every challenge offers background information to help you understand the puzzle. With a free membership you can even create your own quizzes and puzzles.
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This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
As a teacher, get a free membership with some capabilities to manage your class such as creating your own quizzes and monitoring class progress. This is the sure-fire way to increase problem solving and creative thinking skills through gaming. Use as a whole class activity, individual, or reward time options. Expand the way gifted and advanced classes think! Put a link to this site on your class webpage, wiki, or blog.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Free Kids Books - Red Sky Ventures
Grades
K to 6
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0 Comments
Free Kids Books is a growing library of unique children's books and literary resources available for download in a user-friendly PDF format. You may purchase the books, but this review...more
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Free Kids Books is a growing library of unique children's books and literary resources available for download in a user-friendly PDF format. You may purchase the books, but this review relates to the FREE PDF format. Find books by the categories: toddlers, children, and young adult. This site is growing, so keep checking back. You will also find a Garfield alphabet poster and more to fill your language arts classroom needs! Links to literacy resources, publishing sites, and author resources, children's activities, and book review sites make this a very useful site for further resources to expand your language arts program.
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This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
If you are not a primary level teacher, be assured all the ESL/ELL, world language, theme related alphabet books are completely customizable. A great way to use the resources with older, struggling readers is to tap into their interests and have them customize the resources.Create a class book with favorite activities, rhymes, names of books, or any way you choose to create classroom community. Make a special book for your school to welcome visitors or new students. Read the PDFs on the interactive whiteboard, projector, or at a center. Post as a link on your website for students to read at home.
This resource requires PDF reader software like Adobe Acrobat.
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Wridea - Octeth Ltd.
Grades
4 to 12
6 Favorites
1 Comments
Wridea is an idea management, brainstorming, and collaboration tool. It's a place to organize and categorize your ideas, share them with others for input, and store them. To collaborate...more
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Wridea is an idea management, brainstorming, and collaboration tool. It's a place to organize and categorize your ideas, share them with others for input, and store them. To collaborate using this tool, you must have individual memberships (email required). Note that maps that are shared can be seen by the public, but not altered. You specify the members who may collaborate and make alterations. At this time, this site does not work properly in Internet Explorer. However, it is a great tool to use in Firefox, Safari, Chrome, or other browsers.
In the Classroom
Demonstrate the activity on an interactive whiteboard or projector, and then allow students to create their own Wridea tool. Use this site for literature activities, research projects, social studies, or science topics. Have students collaborate together (online) to create group study guides or review charts before a test. Have students use Wridea as a study guide by brainstorming all the important concepts they remember about the unit being studied in history or science, and then have them share their Wridea with another student who will add concepts that were left out. Build student creative fluency by having them use Wridea to create categories of wonder, question, and answers for research; map out a story or plot line, or map out a step-by-step process (life cycle); map a real historical event as a choose-your-own-adventure with alternate endings based on pivotal points.Comments
This resources looks like it has a wide variety of applications suitable to upper elementary and secondary classrooms. Sign up was quick and easy, but I received a message upon completing those steps that Wridea doesn't support Internet Explorer. It "suggested" using Mozilla Firefox instead. I'm a strong advocate for being comfortable with using several browsers, so, this doesn't throw up any huge roadblocks to me, but if you do not have or use Firefox, you will need to take that extra step as well before actually making use of this tool.Rita, WA, Grades: 6 - 12
Editor's Note: the review has been updated to reflect this new information.
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Pinterest - Pinterest.com
Grades
K to 12
3 Favorites
1 Comments
Pinterest is a virtual pinboard that lets you organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. Browse the site without registration. Type Edu or education in ...more
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Pinterest is a virtual pinboard that lets you organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. Browse the site without registration. Type Edu or education in the search bar, and find two different Education results. Clicking a picture gives a description and the option to Follow or Comment. To create/add to your pinboards, register for free. If you have an account, you can Repin the picture to a pinboard you have titled and created within your account. Click on the image again to visit the original site of the image. Often this is just what you are looking for to learn specific details. You can also search Pinterest for specific items such as Guided Reading, File Folder Activities, or other classroom needs. Pinterest members can "follow" other users and see their new items as they add them to their pinboards. Use Pinterest on any device or computer, and there is a related Facebook app.
In the Classroom
Use this site as a resource for finding printables and other items for classroom use. Create your own pinboards for organizing classroom resources found on the web. Create pinboards for students to view and/or add to as a whole class activity, such as "things that use energy," food groups, or groups of items for primary level vocabulary/practice (clothing items, farm animals, clock faces for telling time, etc.). Maybe even create "which one does not belong?" pinboards for PreK and early grades to view and change on an interactive whiteboard and repeat at home. In higher grades, make pinboards for different subjects or units where you collect videos, images, classroom blogs and websites, etc. Share your pinboards with students and parents by putting the link on your class website. Challenge your older students to create their own pinboards as a research project. Use Pinterest to show their hobbies/passions, wise quotes, recipes that fit a specific theme, art/lyrics, or a travel Itinerary. Follow other teachers using Pinterest to see items that they are adding and using in their classrooms. Add TeachersFirst to your pinboards! Note: Take a screenshot of something you find to upload to Pinterest!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)
Products can be shared by URL
Multiple users can collaborate on the same project
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Smarthistory Art History Conversation - Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker with Khan Academy
Grades
3 to 12
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Investigate the world of art history accompanied by two professors at the Fashion Institute of Technology, Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker. Smarthistory started as a a blog featuring...more
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Investigate the world of art history accompanied by two professors at the Fashion Institute of Technology, Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker. Smarthistory started as a a blog featuring free audio guides, podcasts, and videos. Later it became an interactive exploration of eras, styles, and artists. Smarthistory has recently merged with KahnAcademy utilizing the same concept: that high quality education should be free and available to all. You can watch Smarthistory videos on YouTube,
here. If your district blocks YouTube, the videos may not be viewable in class.
In the Classroom
A must for any art classroom, Smarthistory adds an extra dimension and deeper understanding to any history, social studies, or cultural studies classroom. Use the Smarthistory videos on YouTube to engage and enhance student learning. If the videos aren't viewable in class assign students to watch them at home; that's perfect for the flipped or blended classroom. If you are going to require students to watch the videos from home, consider using edupuzzle, reviewed here, to add your own voice or add questions within the video. Use in writing workshops to provide insights to art and culture and to into thoughts and feelings. Study written works alongside the art of past time periods. Bring unlimited, world-class resources to each class. Gifted classes will devour this website. Provide this link on your class website to offer students extra challenge and exploration.
This resource requires PDF reader software like Adobe Acrobat.
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Marshmallow Challenge - Tom Wujec
Grades
K to 12
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Even though the site says the "challenge is coming soon" just click the video and it will come up in YouTube. The Download works perfectly. Use a marshmallow challenge to ...more
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Even though the site says the "challenge is coming soon" just click the video and it will come up in YouTube. The Download works perfectly. Use a marshmallow challenge to motivate your students! The concept of this project is to have teams of people work together to create a free standing structure that supports a marshmallow. Sounds overly simple? Well, not always. The given materials for each team are simple, inexpensive, and require creative thinking and problem solving skills to use! All in all this adds up to a fun, interesting, and entertaining activity for young to older students, business people, and any group that needs to learn how to work and think together. Spaghetti, string, marshmallows and masking tape are all the supplies that you will need. Have fun with this, your students are sure to do so! The site recommends giving your class one hour to complete the project and activities. They also mention this project would work for smaller groups (4 students) up to larger groups (800), divided into groups of 2 or 4 and working together. There is a typo in the opening paragraph of the site. However the activity content was worth looking over the typo.
In the Classroom
This engineering challenge would be great during a unit on structures. However, in ANY classroom it would be a solid and creative way to teach design process, group skills, and creative problem solving. This activity is so versatile that it could be use in any grade, even at the college or business level. Of course in younger elementary grades, more instruction would be necessary and possibly some parent volunteers. Its lessons are multiple, from fluency, flexibility, possibility thinking, and promoting originality. In science classes, try including this activity in a lesson on gravity or forces. Prior to implementing this lesson, watch the TED talks video link for yourself. (These links are available at this site.) It is a worthwhile investment of seven minutes, and download and read the adobe acrobat file on the project. It may be a good idea, depending on the age of your students to create a short PowerPoint with the rules and instructions. Also, a visual timer and musical timer would be a great idea for this challenge. Use a site such as the Online Countdown Timer (reviewed here). Show the timer on your interactive whiteboard (or projector) so students are aware of how much time remains. The materials are best given to teams in a small brown bag so that there is an element of surprise and suspense during the instructional period. Another idea is to share this with your administrators, it would make a great challenge for a interactive faculty meeting especially if team building and thinking skills are trying to be built by the administration between faculty members.
This resource requires PDF reader software like Adobe Acrobat.
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Platonic Realms - Math Academy Online,
Grades
7 to 12
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Enter the world of math at Platonic Realms. Find high quality mathematical content for secondary school and college students that is free. A math encyclopedia, math quotes, mini texts,...more
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Enter the world of math at Platonic Realms. Find high quality mathematical content for secondary school and college students that is free. A math encyclopedia, math quotes, mini texts, and a free link library compose this site.
This site includes advertising.
This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Keep Platonic Realms on hand for all of your math classes. Find simple explanations to advanced mathematical concepts. Keep handy as a link on your website and keep as a favorite on each student computer. Advanced through remedial students benefit from the extra information and reinforcement.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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