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Thomas Jefferson - Life and Labor at Monticello - Library of Congress
Grades
4 to 12In the Classroom
Use the images on this site to create a "picture walk" in your classroom, introducing the topic of Thomas Jefferson, the Founding Father. Select 10-15 of the more powerful and diverse images, hanging them up in different locations around your classroom. Have students rotate around the classroom every 30-45 seconds, jotting down what they observe and infer about each image until the entire class has completed the circuit. After the class is back in their seats, have a class discussion based on what they observed and what this says about Jefferson. A great way to get students thinking about the content in a way that's more personal and lecture-less!You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
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National Museum of African American History and Culture Collection Stories - National Museum of African American History and Culture
Grades
4 to 12In the Classroom
Share stories from this collection to provide a personal look at events from African-American history in the United States. Use stories as an example, and ask students to find additional artifacts from the National Museum and research to discover the story behind the item. Have younger students use Kiddle, reviewed here, a kid-friendly search engine to find documents about their particular object. Younger students could bring an item from their home to tell the story of its history. For either of these ideas, enhance student learning by encouraging them to create online books for sharing the stories using a tool such as Ourboox, reviewed here. Ask students to find local residents with knowledge of historical events to come talk to your class about the "behind the scenes" story, or set up a Zoom meeting with an African-American leader. Use these stories for informational reading in your Language Arts classroom, and as a wonderful resource to use for covering the informational reading standards required with the CCSS.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Pulitzer Center Lesson Plans - Pulitzer Center
Grades
3 to 12In the Classroom
Use the lesson plans on the site as a resource for discussing and debating global issues. If there is no time to complete a full unit, explore resources from each topic for ideas to use in your classroom. For example, try the ideas on interviewing individuals who migrated to the United States offered in the How Did I Become the Person That I Am unit. Share this site with students interested in journalism careers as a resource for learning more about the profession and some of its members.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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edpuzzle - edpuzzle
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
Create short review videos or use your own narration with chosen videos to create flipped or blended lessons for your students. Is your school embracing remote learning? This is the perfect tool! Consider the power of students using Edpuzzle to annotate videos to explain the material in their own words. You or your students can use the tool to create and narrate "how-to" videos. Annotate by highlighting the significant features of videos through the creation of voice comments. Students can also create questions to play with each video. Be sure students create a script to read from before beginning their chosen video.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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NorthPole.com - Northpole Productions, LLC
Grades
K to 7This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Introduce the NorthPole to students by projecting it for all to see the different areas to explore. Add a link to classroom computers for the entire site or specific areas. Post a link on your class web page or newsletter for parents and students to use at home. With younger students, consider demonstrating how to write a letter to Santa or send a postcard to a relative from this site. Take photos, or have older students take photos, of the crafts and recipes the students make and post them on your website for parents to see. Engage older students by having them post the photos with and explanation using a portfolio tool such as bulb, reviewed here. Alternatively, students could enhance their learning by annotating images taken of their activities with text, URL's, or videos using Genially, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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You Be The Historian - Smithsonian Institution National Museum of American History.
Grades
4 to 8In the Classroom
You Be the Historian can be an excellent springboard for class discussion about primary and secondary sources and the historical process. The activity can also be used as an introduction (or supplemental material) when studying life in the late 1700s. Special Features include a teacher's guide to using this web site in the classroom on or offline.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Classtools Countdown Timer - Classtools.net
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
There are many uses for this practical online tool. Get out your interactive whiteboard or projection screen (or even the classroom desktop computer) and make sure the speakers are turned up. Use this tool for students to practice speeches, or to limit the time for a quiz or spelling test. Use the countdown feature for timing the rotations from center to center. You can even use the timer for reading fluency exercises or physical education warm-ups! A clever classroom management tool would be to start the visible count-down on your computer screen when you want the class to settle down for directions or to transition to the next subject. Select calming music for quiet times. Students may even want to use this tool for themselves. Kindergarten students can practice counting along with the watch!Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Quilting Techniques: Math Lesson Plans - Quilting Assistant
Grades
2 to 12In the Classroom
During Black History month or when learning about western expansion or colonial days, students may enjoy making quilts from fabric or paper and learning about the different patterns used in quilt making. Introduce this activity and have students label the different fractional amounts in the quilt squares. Practice adding fractions by writing the equations generated by making different quilt squares. Hang completed quilts in the classroom or hallway for an interesting display of work with fractions and proportion.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Dimensions of Creativity: A Model to Analyze Student Projects - TeachersFirst
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
Do more than simply tell your students to "be creative." Try the ideas and practical suggestions on these pages if you ask: How do I help students who struggle with "being creative" in project-based learning? How do I differentiate tools/projects to match students' varied creativity skills? How do I know that more "creative" students are moving forward, challenging their creative thinking and not simply using past "tried and true" ideas, wrapped in a little glitz? How do my students and I talk about the creativity skills they used (or did not use) in making a project?Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Tundra - National Geographic
Grades
2 to 10This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Have cooperative learning groups explore specific areas of this site and create a multimedia presentation to share with the class. Have students make a multimedia presentation using one of the many TeachersFirst Edge tools reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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The Geography of Slavery in Virginia - University of Virginia
Grades
4 to 12In the Classroom
Students will certainly gain a more concrete and visceral understanding of attitudes toward slaves when reading these advertisements. The concepts are not necessarily Virginia-specific! Use some of the "personal profiles" to help students get to know one of the runaway slaves or servants more intimately. Have students review the diary entries of slaveowners to cut through our modern interpretations of what plantation owners thought or believed. Use these primary sources to guide a frank discussion on the role of slavery in Virginia and the South prior to the Civil War. The site is also an important resource for students doing research on antebellum Virginia.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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geoGreeting - Jesse Vig
Grades
1 to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Share this site on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Introduce students to Google Maps by creating messages with geoGreeting. Art teachers can use this tool to show the flexibility of letter forms created by real objects via satellite view. Primary reading teachers may even want to expose students to alternate letter forms created from satellite views! Use this site to expand your students' understanding of geography. Create messages, then explore and research the buildings and areas that are used in the creation of the message. Have students work with a partner to research a building and create a multimedia presentation to share with the class. How about an interactive online poster using Genial.ly, reviewed here, or narrate a picture using a tool such as ThingLink, reviewed here. If you want to use another geography tool, have students use an online mapping tool to create their own "tour" for the class. Try a tool such as Tour Builder, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Geography Awareness and Exploration Resources - TeachersFirst
Grades
2 to 12In the Classroom
Mark this one in your favorites for Geography Awareness Week each November. Include the link on your class web page for students to access both in class and at home. Ask students to explore and choose their favorite geography resource, then give a "tour" of it to the rest of the class on your projector or interactive whiteboard.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Fractions of a Second: An Olympic Musical - The New York Times
Grades
3 to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
View this site on your interactive whiteboard or projector and listen together to the different spacings of finishes by event. Challenge students to create timelines of finishes for other Olympic events (with music, photos, videos, and more) using Timeline JS, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Steamboats
Grades
4 to 8Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Freckle Education - Sidharth Kakkar
Grades
K to 8This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
After creating your classroom account and adding rosters, introduce this site on your interactive whiteboard or projector. If you are lucky enough to have a class set of mobile devices, allow students to use Freckle while you work directly with individuals or small groups of students. Freckle is a great way to supplement instruction for both gifted and special needs students. Use in your blended learning class, when you want to differentiate, or when teaching remotely. Visit the FAQ section for ideas for implementing Freckle in your math, ELA, social studies, or science classroom. Be sure to share login information with parents for student practice at home.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Homework hotline - homeworkhotline.org
Grades
3 to 12In the Classroom
Visit the "Boring Stuff' link for parents and teachers to find a PDF of 10 Ways to Use the Homework Helper Site in Your Classroom. Find segment guides, scripts, and book reviews beneficial for in class or use by students outside of class. Share this link at Back to School Night and put the link directly on your class website. Encourage middle schoolers to build independent work habits using this site.Consider creating helpful information, videos, and tutorials of information students need answers to and creating your own help site as a school. Use students to create book reviews, math tutorials, etc. Use a tool such as SchoolTube reviewed here to share the videos.
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authorSTREAM - authorSTREAM.com
Grades
4 to 12In the Classroom
Have you been contemplating a "flipped classroom" teaching style where you do the activities and hands-on things during class and the students listen to the information and lectures outside of class? This is a great tool for a flipped classroom or any use of sharable media. You can create your notes and lectures in PowerPoint, adding video clips and narration, download as an MP4, and then share with all of your students through iTunes. This greatly enhances the opportunities for extended thinking and active time in the classroom. More simply, try recording yourself giving an informational presentation, saving it here, and sharing with students via your website or wiki to access from home as a review tool or a catch-up for absentees. Have older students create their own presentations and share with the class and teacher via iTunes. Students who are normally very shy and uncomfortable can feel safe "presenting" in front of the class! High school students can also share links to their best work as part of a digital portfolio or college application. Art students can create online portfolios with narrated artist notes. Student-made book talks can be shared on iTouches in the library/media center. Link to them by QR code! Teachers at any grade level can share back to school night information with parents unable to attend.Edge Features:
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)
Premium version (not free) includes additional features or storage
Products can be embedded
Products can be shared by URL
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The Electronic Embassy
Grades
4 to 12In the Classroom
Use the embassy row tour as a hands-on activity during a lesson on international diplomacy. Have students look at the site in cooperative learning groups, with the intentions of creating their own tour of embassy row. Using the images and information on the site, have students create a multi-media presentation detailing what an embassy is, why it's important, and show examples of embassies in D.C. Have students create a multimedia presentation using PowerPoint Online, reviewed here. This site allows users to narrate a picture. Challenge students to find a photo (legally permitted to be reproduced), and then narrate the photo as if it is a news report. To find Creative Commons images for student projects (with credit, of course), try Pikwizard, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Venn Diagram Shape Sorter - Shodor
Grades
3 to 8In the Classroom
Introduce this site on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Then have students explore this site independently or in small groups. Ask students to create their own Venn Diagram and have other students guess the rule. Consider using a site such as Interactive Two Circle Venn Diagram (reviewed here). Use the site to demonstrate Venn Diagrams that might be used with different subjects: Science - use to sort animals by different characteristics, Social Studies - sort countries by different types of rule over a given time period. The possibilities are endless.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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