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The Statue of Liberty: The Meaning and Use of a National Symbol - EDSITEment
Grades
3 to 7In the Classroom
If you are learning about the Statue of Liberty or national symbols in general, visit this useful online unit. Even if you don't have time to complete the entire unit, you can "cherry pick" the good stuff. The activities are ready to go and very simple to use. Why not use your interactive whiteboard to share some of the unique pictures and activities available at this website.You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
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Interactive World Fact Book
Grades
4 to 12In the Classroom
Use the country reports on this site as a resource for students working on research projects or papers. Be sure to post the site on your teacher wiki or webpage, allowing students to access the material both in and out of the classroom.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Historypin - We Are What We Do
Grades
4 to 12In the Classroom
Use as an enhancement to research projects of family, historic events, and world cultures by finding and uploading pictures to the map. Use Historypin as a resource to compare and contrast different time periods in the same geographic area. Demonstrate on the interactive whiteboard or projector how different places have changed over time. Have individual students or cooperative learning groups create podcasts using PodOmatic (reviewed here) to go along with the maps. ESL students will appreciate the ability to upload pictures and/or learn about their country of original.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Photos from the Library of Congress - Library of Congress
Grades
4 to 12In the Classroom
Useful as an introduction to the use of primary source materials in teaching history.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Torah Tots - torahtots.com
Grades
K to 6This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Keep this site in mind as an easy place to find lists of the Jewish months, Jewish symbols, information about Judaism, and plenty of information about Jewish holidays. Classes studying world cultures, the Hebrew language, and/or international holidays can learn from this site and also use it as a model to create similar games and projects for other cultures and languages. Select music for students to listen to while completing coloring pages and puzzles. Engage students and replace paper and pencil and use an online tool such as Interactive Two Circle Venn Diagram, reviewed here, to compare and contrast traditional Christmas activities with Hanukkah events.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Social Studies Web Sites and Resources
Grades
1 to 12In the Classroom
Save this site as a favorite it and browse it whenever in need of new lesson plans and materials within a social studies classroom. This is a great resource for new teachers, or for someone just looking for fresh ideas on how to cover a topic.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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X (formerly Twitter) - Twitter, Inc.
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
Bring teaching and learning to new heights by using this service as a great form of professional development. At conferences, use X (formerly Twitter) as a backchannel to expand upon thoughts and ideas during presentations and after. Have a question to ask others' opinion about? Throw it out to X (formerly Twitter) to see the great perspectives given by those who follow you. Start out slowly and look at conversations that catch your eye. Follow people with experience in your areas of interest to gain from the conversations. Start off by following @teachersfirst or @moreruckus2 (our leader). Learn about hashtags -- ways to mark, search, and follow conversations on a specific topic. For example, the #ntchat tag is for new and pre-service teachers and the #edchat hashtag is for all teachers. Participate in these chats which are scheduled at certain days and times or search for their tweets anytime. Find archived tweets from these chats to learn from some wonderful and motivated teachers when it is convenient for YOU. Use other X (formerly Twitter) applications to search or collect specific hashtags. As a teaching tool, X (formerly Twitter) is amazing! If your school permits access, have a class account to share what you are doing with parents and especially for your class to follow people in topics you study. Studying space? Follow NASA. Studying politics and government? Follow your congressional rep or the White House. Consider using your teacher or class account to send updates to other teachers across the country or across the globe. You can also teach about responsible digital citizenship by modeling and practicing it as a class. A whole-class, teacher account is the most likely way to gain permission to use X (formerly Twitter) in school, especially if you can demonstrate specific projects. That can be as simple as making sure you and that teacher are FOLLOWING each other, then sending a direct message (start the tweet with D and the other teacher's X (formerly Twitter) name) or creating a group with your own hashtag for a project such as daily weather updates. Even if you are not "following" someone, you can send them a tweet using @theirtwittername in the body of the message. This is called a "mention" but can be seen by others, too. Compare what your class is observing in today's weather, which topics you will be discussing today, or ask for another class' opinions on a current events issue. Ask for updates about local concerns, such as talking to California schools about wildfires in their area or a Maine school about a blizzard. Challenge another class to tweet the feelings of a literacy character, such as Hamlet, and respond as Ophelia, all in 280 characters or less. Have gifted students? Connect your classroom with the outside world to find greater challenges and connections beyond your regular curriculum.Learn much more about teaching ideas and tools for X (formerly Twitter) in the many resources listed on TeachersFirst's "/twitter-for-teachers/">X (formerly Twitter) for Teachers page.
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The Jewish Trivia Quiz - www.jewish-trivia.com
Grades
3 to 12In the Classroom
Make a shortcut to this site on classroom computers and use it as a center. Divide students into cooperative learning groups to explore the site. Working in groups have a class competition to see who can answer the most questions in the shortest amount of time. Introduce this site on an interactive whiteboard or projector and use it as a spring board for a unit study on various Jewish holidays. Have cooperative learning groups replace paper and pen by creating a quiz online to test their classmates. Use a site such as ProProfs Quizmaker, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Frederick County: A Crossroads of History - Maryland Public Television
Grades
K to 5There is a link for Web Links , these lead to other sites that provide research information. Some of the links include forums, so watch students carefully.
In the Classroom
If you are teaching about the history of Maryland, War of 1812, Revolutionary War, Underground Railroad, or the Civil War, check out the lesson plans available at this website. The printable pages and online student activities offer excellent supplementary lesson ideas.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Online Egg Timer - SengaServ UG
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
This site will be great to use with a projector or whiteboard to have a visual time reminder for students. Use the three timers to track science experiments. It is a great way to track intervals. Use the timers for clean up time, students have to be cleaned up by the time the third bell rings. Use for games or group work. Set all the timers to the same time, divide your class into three groups and give them a challenge problem. See who finishes in the fastest time. If you often use the same times, set the timers and add the page to your favorites. Now you have timers set up ready to go. Your students will probably have some creative ideas for using the timers, as well. Primary grade teachers introducing concepts of time and clocks can challenge students operate the timers themselves as a center, maybe timing how long it takes to tie a shoe or read a page, then reading the timer or writing the words for the time.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Centennial of Flight Commission - US government
Grades
4 to 12In the Classroom
Use the games on this site as a way to help students review the information in learning centers or during a lull in class time. Teachers can also post this on their class wiki to allow students to access it both in and out of the classroom!Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Travel Where Women Made History - National Park Service
Grades
4 to 8In the Classroom
Use the maps and timelines on this site on an interactive whiteboard or projector to guide students through a class lecture or discussion of the Seneca Falls Convention. The images do a great job of putting the convention in perspective with other event locations. This would be useful in a US history classroom.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Random Name/Word Picker - Russel Tarr
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
The obvious use for this tool is for selecting students to answer a question or do an activity. Other uses could include forming groups/pairs or creating seating charts. Allow students to use it when it's time to choose the next student. Instead of names, enter activities for P.E., rainy day recess activities, the next book your class will read together, or anything where you need to make a choice. Use for vocabulary practice, too. You may want to save one wheel as a template when you know you'll be selecting several students. That way you can remove names from the list on the wheel you are using, but will have the original for the next time.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Primary History - BBC Schools
Grades
K to 6In the Classroom
Use this site on a projector or interactive whiteboard to discuss and informally assess prior knowledge as you start your study on any of the five time periods. Then have students explore this site independently or in small groups. It might help to create a shortcut to this site on classroom computers and remember to have students use headphones. Take advantage of the free lesson plans and enrichment activities to help design curriculum. Download the fun activities and let students choose an extension activity that interests them. Ask students to research various aspects of a given time period in cooperative groups. Present student learning by piecing together their findings into a class online books using a tool such as Bookemon, reviewed here. Share student learning with the parent community by posting this project on the class website. The site traces periods in time mostly relevant to the United Kingdom. Have students' research what was happening at the same time in other parts of the globe and enter this history on the timeline. This is also a great find for gifted students to access and use to lead them to more in-depth investigation.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Print what you like - printwhatyoulike.com
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
Use in the classroom to save paper and printing ink. Teach students to remove unwanted images and change margins to fit the content on a page. Be sure students save the page as a pdf to view and print again later if needed. Model an environmentally friendly classroom with the use of this resource. Be sure to check with your tech department on the ability to add bookmarklets to the browser toolbar. This resource can be used without signing up - a bonus for the classroom! Use this when technology access is low or you want to print an activity for students to do when you are not there to supervise the technology use. Create in-class reading from blogs or other websites appropriate for your classroom. Make a pdf that can be opened on your interactive whiteboard without all the ads and clutter of the web page so students can annotate, highlight, and even practice reading comprehension skills such as "main idea." List this link on your class website for families to try at home! Use it to share articles with parents, as well--as long as you model proper behavior by giving credit. Best practice ALWAYS includes a url and title/author on any printed article from the web.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Florida
Grades
4 to 12Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Spy Letters of the American Revolution - Clements Library, University of Michigan
Grades
4 to 12In the Classroom
The use of spy letters shows students a different perspective of the Revolutionary War. Have your students use the information about the spies and write a biography. Add a little mystery to your classroom and have students write spy letters from the perspective of people on each side of the war. Have students use the images and information from the site and create a poster using Canva, reviewed here. Post the letters on an interactive whiteboard or projector and use the letters in an English class to discuss letter writing, grammar, and sentence structure. The whiteboard tools can be used to highlight and annotate. Several more examples of fun activities including writing with disappearing ink can be found in the Teacher's Lounge.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Paul Revere Biography - Paul Revere Memorial Association
Grades
3 to 8In the Classroom
If you teach Johnny Tremain, you should include this site as a resource connected to the historical novel. Or share this as one of several sites for student reports on colonial times. Share this and other sections of the TeachersFirst Colonial America tour as part of your study of the colonies so students can see what these historic locations look like today.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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SMART Board Goodies - Amber Coggin
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
Shop the site for interactive whiteboard resources to download for classroom use. Use the singing horses to teach cause and effect. Use the Facebook page template for students to create biographies of famous people, of themselves for back to school, or of teachers in your building for Back to School nights! There is much to explore at this "gem" of a site!Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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For the Teachers - For the Teachers
Grades
K to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Be sure to bookmark this site to save as a favorite to find lesson ideas and activities throughout the school year. When planning for a substitute, look through the site to find useful ideas for lessons and planning organizers. There is so much material here to use, consider exploring the site with peers using techniques similar to a book study. Divide the site into sections to discuss at different times of your study. Organize your favorite materials from this site and your other resources using Padlet, reviewed here. Share your Padlet with peers to collaborate and create a useful time for organizing and sharing your favorite teaching materials. Supplement information included on report cards by using a site like Seesaw, reviewed here, to create portfolios for your students to demonstrate progress in reading, math, and other content areas. Include student-created projects based on activities found on For the Teachers.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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