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Believe It or Not? - NewseumED
Grades
8 to 12In the Classroom
Take advantage of the free lessons, discussion questions, sample articles, and worksheets offered for use in your classroom. Divide students into small groups and assign different discussion questions and activities to each group. Allow all older students to have a voice (and engage their interest) in the small group by using a chat service like Flock, reviewed here. Enhance learning by challenging the small groups to create a slide presentation using the free Microsoft PowerPoint Online, reviewed here, demonstrating information learned. With the online PowerPoint students can add videos, images and documents making them all interactive. Note: with Flock students can also start planning the presentation and keep the plan for 30 days. If you cannot make a field trip to the Newseum for the Gallery Guide Handout, you can do a Google search for Who Controls the News and find many free resources.You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
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Bensound Royalty Free Music - Benjamin Tissot
Grades
3 to 12In the Classroom
Play musical selections for students to talk about musical elements and styles in music class. Have partners explore the site to find examples of different rhythms or styles they prefer. Use Bensound Music for soft background music during quiet work times in your classroom. Share with students for use in multimedia presentations (with proper attribution, of course). Try sharing this resource with students when they are creating podcasts, slideshows, and other media projects. This site would also be great for performance groups such as drama clubs or musicals that need background music. Use background music for poetry readings during poetry month. Make sure students realize that "royalty-free" does not dismiss the need to give proper credit for their source!Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Best of the Year for Young Adults - American Library Association
Grades
7 to 12Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Best Word Book Ever - kokogiak on Flickr
Grades
4 to 12In the Classroom
Do you still have a favorite picture book from your childhood? Consider going to the library to find a more current version and compare the differences. Have your students ask their parents if they still have a copy of their favorite picture book, and they can pick up a copy of the current edition to compare. With older students, you can use the Best Word Book Ever comparison to see the changes in what is politically incorrect now that was in the earlier version. Students then discuss what society valued at the time of the older edition compared to what our current society values. There are not just the gender role differences (policeman vs the woman police officer). Look at the wording in the older version for behavioral expectations, too. Literature teachers could carry this one step further and make a comparison of the expectations of society at the time of a classic (Tom Sawyer, Pride and Prejudice ) and what society valued during that time. Students could make one of these comparisons using a program like Bookemon reviewed here, which creates interactive online books. Make sure your students adhere to Copyright laws if creating online. You may want to work offline using PowerPoint so student products can include copyrighted images under "Fair Use."Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Bestsellers - Shmoop Editors
Grades
4 to 12"Bestsellers" is free to use. Additionally, there is an option to create a free account which allows the advantage of using the tools like the online dictionary, "Stickies," and sharing on social networks. Creating an account requires an email address. You may want to create your own Gmail account with up to 20 subaccounts for each group of students (by code name or number) within your classes. If you plan to have students register individually, you may want to create your own Gmail account with up to 20 subaccounts for each group of students (by code name or number) within your classes. Here is a blog post that tells how to set up GMail subaccounts to use for any online membership service.
In the Classroom
Are you looking for a way to motivate your reluctant readers to pick up a book, or do you have some book hungry students who sneak to read their own book while you are teaching a lesson? The "Bestsellers" site provides a wealth of internet-based material for navigating the twists and turns of the plots and characters in books like Harry Potter and the Twilight series. The online learning guides have a table of contents that gives a quick view of what is included in each tab, which enables you to quickly find what you want without opening each section. This site provides more information than the standard textbook teacher's edition, and provides brilliant connections between some of the literary classics. There are photos, videos, and links galore. You might want to include a link to this site on your class web page, or if you prefer to control the amount of information that you want students to have before actually reading the book, then bookmark it in your favorites and dole out the information at your discretion.If looking for a different instructional method, share one of the slide shows on a projector or interactive whiteboard as you introduce a unit or allow students to use portions of the slide shows as part of their own presentations on a specific author or book on the bestsellers list.
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Better Lesson - BetterLesson
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
Use this site to create lessons for students to follow. Use this site to share inspirational lessons you create or to find inspiration in the work of others. Meet the Common Core goals by using the tools and lesson plans offered at this website. Though the site deals with the technical aspect of lesson planning, many ideas exist to reverse engineer to your own lessons. Create a course to maintain and tweak your lessons for your classes. Expand PD to others in your school or in other schools to learn from the best ideas of others!Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Beware the Ides of March. But Why? - History.com
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
Use this interesting article during your studies of Ancient Rome or when reading Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar. For younger students, create a guided reading activity using Read Ahead, reviewed here, or with older students, have them annotate the article with Kami, reviewed here. During Halloween, you could use this article to discuss superstitions and what superstitions your students know about. Create a Padlet, reviewed here with columns to keep track of good and bad superstitions.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Beyond Mulan - Using Literature to Learn About Ancient China - TeachersFirst
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
Take advantage of the resources in this article to introduce Ancient China to students of all ages. For example, when sharing YouTube videos with students, use Timelinely, reviewed here, to create an interactive learning experience by adding comments, highlighting important information, or linking to Google Map locations. Enhance instruction using Nearpod, reviewed here, to create and share interactive lessons available to use as live presentations or as flipped or blended learning activities. Finally, be sure to visit Nearpod's library to find several Ancient China presentations to use or modify to fit your needs.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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BibleGateway
Grades
4 to 12In the Classroom
Use this site for easy searching of the bible. This site would be useful in any philosophy or religion class. Save the site as a favorite on classroom computers, allowing students to use it for research.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Bibliography.com - LoveToKnowMedia
Grades
8 to 12In the Classroom
This is a great site to recommend to students for use at home to build properly constructed citations. If using on classroom computers, previous citations would not be available for all students to use; recommend that students create an account to store and access all previous work. It is simple and easy, and until academics across the world decide on one format, this allows us to digitally "attach" a dynamic image of the resource to scholarly work: a great tool!Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Bibliomania - Bibliomania
Grades
9 to 12In the Classroom
Bookmark this site for biographical information about authors as well as articles on historical perspectives on literature for your students.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Big History Project - Big History Project LLC
Grades
8 to 12In the Classroom
Use Big History Project as a complete year-long course in your high school. Adapt portions of the project for use within current classroom content. Share videos or use lessons or animations as part of any unit. If you employ Project Based Learning activities, use the three PBL learning activities embedded within the project. Be sure to read through the FAQ provided on the site for guidance on using the Big History Project in your classroom.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.
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.
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Parent permission advised before posting student work created using this tool
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Products can be embedded
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Includes teacher tools for registering and/or monitoring students
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Big Huge Thesaurus - Big Huge Labs
Grades
1 to 12In the Classroom
Keep this link handy among the resources on your class web page or wiki, and be sure to bring it up on your screen or interactive whiteboard to remind students of the rich tools it offers as you teach grammar, revision, poetry, essay-writing, or even letter and resume writing. With primary grades, share the rhyming words to help teach spelling and phonics! As students share in revising a passage or writing a poem on the interactive whiteboard, have this thesaurus available on another window to model their search for just the right word. Encourage students to look up any new vocabulary or terminology at the start of new science or social studies units so they can gain a broader "sense" of the words themselves through a constellation of synonyms and related words. Help students refine vocabulary by having them rank the various synonyms offered for a certain word, deciding which has the most positive or negative connotations. Offer the writing prompts for student journal or blog posts or creative stories. ESL/ELL students can explore new words with this tool, even practicing the rhyming sounds and noticing their varied spellings. 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.NOTE: If students enter an inappropriate word, they WILL find classroom-inappropriate terms. As with use of any reference, your students need to know your classroom's consequences of such activity. The options are no different from students looking up body parts or pornographic terms in a print dictionary or on Google.
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Big Think - Big Think
Grades
7 to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Choose a story that relates to your topic that you are teaching such as science or even music with a story such as "How Music is Good for Your Brain." Share the story with your students. Discuss the writings, and then use it as a platform on how students should approach the things that they are learning in class. This way they develop critical thinking skills and extract the most important information and leave the accessory facts to the side. Assign specific articles to cooperative learning groups to read and explore together. Then have students create a multimedia project to share with the class using one of the many TeachersFirst Edge 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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Bill's Games - Bill Kendrick
Grades
4 to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Share and demonstrate the activities on an interactive whiteboard. Create a link on classroom computers to use as a center. Challenge students to increase difficulty levels in games and activities. Ask students to journal about their problem-solving process when playing games and activities.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Bing Images - Microsoft
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
Bookmark Bing images to use when searching for images to use in newsletters, your class website, research projects, and more. Choose an interesting image from one of Bing's categories to use for writing prompts. Then, extend students' learning by asking them to create a simple one-page website using a free webpage maker like Carrd, reviewed here, to share their creative writing projects. Create a Microsoft account and log in to save images. Add your saved images to collections to organize and share content with others. Use images to create animated videos using a video tool like Typito, reviewed here. Typito offers drag and drop features for uploading your images and video, text, music, and templates.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Bingo Card Creator - Two Teachers, LLC
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
Create and play Bingo in a variety of ways. Practice sight words, math facts, or use cards as an ice-breaker activity. As a tool for personalized learning, add a variety of learning activities then allow students to select a Bingo card then complete their choice of activities to earn a Bingo with their selections from the offered choices on the card. Make Bingo cards with dates in history, science terms, or vocabulary and ask students to use Image Annotator, reviewed here, to share their learning. Have students take a picture of their Bingo card and add text, images, or audio to different areas in the card using to share tImage Annotatorheir understanding of the topic. As a culminating learning activity, ask students to create their own learning game using Scratch, reviewed here, using information from their research, (lab, a novel, math exploration, etc).Edge Features:
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Bingo Card Generator - My Free Bingo Cards
Grades
K to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Having the ability to play the Bingo game online is perfect for those who are beginning to integrate technology into their classroom. Use the Bingo Card Generator to create Bingo games to review any topic with small groups. Instead of saying the word that is on the Bingo card, give the definition (so students must find the term) or a math problem whose answer is among those on the card. Create sight word bingo cards for younger students and ESL/ELL students. Bingo is an excellent review tool for science or social studies. Put a short description of a vocabulary word into the space. Tell students the name of the vocabulary word and see if they can find it on the Bingo card. Encourage students to create bingo games for each other as a review or to engage the audience during oral presentations. Learning support teachers can create them together with students as an engaging way to review. World language teachers (and students) can create bingo cards to reinforce vocabulary.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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bioGraphic - California Academy of Science
Grades
4 to 12In the Classroom
Even if you don't teach science, you and your students will love this magazine because of the beautiful images shared! Use bioGraphic for informational reading in your Language Arts classroom. Include a link on classroom computers for students to read on their own. In science class share bioGraphic articles as a starting point for any unit on animals, for social studies, use bioGraphic to learn more about places around the world and the people that live there. Have cooperative learning groups create online books about information learned on this site using a tool such as Bookemon, reviewed here. Don't forget to subscribe to bioGraphic to receive updates as new articles are added to the magazine.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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