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Flag Day Resources - Fact Monster
Grades
1 to 12In the Classroom
Use the U.S. flag quiz on this site as a learning center or station during a Flag Day celebration or national symbol unit. Have students complete the quiz in cooperative learning groups, allowing them to assist each other when there is confusion.You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
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The Star Spangled Banner - Smithsonian Institue
Grades
3 to 12In the Classroom
Use the interactive quiz on this site as a review tool before an assessment or to introduce a mini-unit on the flag. Introduce the site on the interactive whiteboard before allowing students to complete the quiz individually on classroom computers. Because of the amount of reading on the site, be sure to provide lower achieving readers with the vocabulary beforehand or a tool to help them look up complex words. Younger students would do better with partner readers or whole-class reading on an interactive whiteboard where they could highlight new words.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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History of the American Flag - FoundingFathers.info
Grades
3 to 12In the Classroom
Use this site as a resource during Flag Day celebrations or a unit on national symbols. Use the site as an activity to help students better understand the significance of Flag Day, as well as the American Flag. Introduce the site on the interactive whiteboard or projector before allowing cooperative learning groups loose on the site. Have students investigate the "story" of the flag, presenting the information in a multimedia presentation. Some tool suggestions are (click on the tool name to access the review): Adobe Creative Cloud Express for Education, Acast, Animatron, Renderforest, and Microsoft PowerPoint Online. Have cooperative learning groups or the whole class (younger students) create online books using a tool such as Bookemon, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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How Deep Were the Impacts of the BP Oil Disaster - Natural Resources Defense Council
Grades
7 to 12In the Classroom
Have students view the image to obtain basic information. Share the site on your projector or interactive whiteboard. In groups of four, have pairs read and discuss the poster together. Next have the pairs in the group share information learned from the site with the other pair in their group and discuss important points learned. Conduct additional research into effects of oil and the food chain(s) that are being affected. Determine the different types of populations of people affected as well by the disaster and write editorial letters of their viewpoint. Create a conventional or multimedia project that showcases students being these animals or people. Create a Voki, reviewed here, to share your information. Student groups can research additional information about specific organisms or problems to report back to the class.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Tracking the Oil Spill in the Gulf - NY Times
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
Use this site as a springboard for discussions about the environmental impact of oil spills and, in a broader sense, of human activity in general. Use the map on the interactive whiteboard or projector to show students the physical location of the spill, as well as where the spill has had an immediate impact.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Oil Spill Lesson Plans and Resources - NOAA
Grades
3 to 12In the Classroom
Take advantage of the free lesson plans and classroom activities on this site! Be sure to save this site as a favorite to allow for easy retrieval later on. Students can select different aspects of oil spill cleanup and mitigation and play the role of experts in a mock blog post playing their role. Use Blogger, reviewed here or Straw.Page, reviewed here for your students blogging tool. Have students continue their role play by commenting on each other's posts.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Prince William Sound: Detecting Changes 25 Years After the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill - NOAA
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
Use this site as a springboard for discussions about the environmental impact of oil spills and, in a broader sense, of human activity in general. Share some of the text portions on a projectir or divide up the site among different student groups. Have student groups explore various aspects of oil spills and report to the class, perhaps sharing visuals from this site on an interactive whiteboard or projector. Have students create a multimedia presentation using PowerPoint Online, reviewed here. This tool allows for to narrating and adding text to a picture. Challenge students to find a photo of the oil spill, and then narrate the photo as if it were a news report. To find Creative Commons images for student projects (with credit, of course), try Vecteezy, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Web Resizer - webresizer.com
Grades
2 to 12In the Classroom
Provide the link to this site for students to use in altering and resizing images for use in presentations and online applications. Be sure students understand the file size needed for the various sites that are used in class.Comments
Use this all the time. Easy to use and SO helpful. You can use online, don't have to download.Frances, CT, Grades: 6 - 8
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Safe Share TV - SafeShare.TV
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
Use this to put videos into your teaching presentations. Or, to help students create presentations without the typical YouTube distractions. Have students edit clips to include only the information that is relevant to their project. Or, add clips to your class webpage or wiki as part of homework assignments or discussions. You could even use a clip as a writing prompt.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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This Day in History - Timelines, Inc.
Grades
4 to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
To add events to the site, locate the "add event" found at the bottom of the Timelines.com homepage. Follow the very clear (with samples) directions to insert your own event. Viewing the timelines is simple. Click to watch videos, view the maps, click "Like" or "Dislike" or make comments by clicking on the words.Monitor what students are viewing in the premade timelines. Also, teach students appropriate events to include and check their work before having them submit work so that they are more accurate.
Use the timelines on the site in science class to help students understand the history behind discoveries that they take for granted, such as the the space race. Today's students have never lived in a world where traveling to the moon was not possible, and understanding the history of the event could be very helpful in understanding the magnitude of such an event. This site would also be useful in art or music class. Have students investigate the history of their favorite group or type of music and create a multimedia presentation to share with the class. How about a video (including music, of course). Use a tool such as Moovly, reviewed here, and then share the videos on a site such as SchoolTube, reviewed here.
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Jackson Pollack - Miltos Manetas
Grades
3 to 12In the Classroom
Use this site as an anticipatory set on Jackson Pollack. Students can create a "painting" and share it with a partner or the class using a projector. Since the site paints via "mouse-overs," it can also work on interactive whiteboards that use a special "pen," but not on touch-sensitive ones, since these boards have no idea where your "mouse" is hovering. Research Jackson Pollack paintings and biographical information. Then go back to the site and have students again create a "painting" following Jackson Pollack's style. Have students explain why their painting follows Pollack's style. Create a class wiki to share paintings and explanations. Possibly compare these with images in other artist's styles. Want to learn more about wikis? Check out the TeachersFirst's Wiki Walk-Through.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Goofram - goofram.com
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
This site is very simple to use. Simply type in the term you are searching and click "search."This site is as safe as any other search engine. Just be sure students are aware of the consequences of misusing the search engine.
Use Goofram the next time that you use search in your classes. Discuss the difference between each side of the screen where both parts appear. What is the advantage of Wolfram Alpha vs. Google? Use this site as you discuss how to search and use materials on the web. Practice showing different searches and aspects of the searches that are useful. Challenge students to use these sites for individual research projects.
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Stormboard - Edistorm.com
Grades
6 to 12Begin by entering the name of your storm, choosing privacy options, adding a description, and inviting users to join in (Stormboard members or by email). Type on the stickies. Drag them to arrange. Stormboard will suggest possible new stickies along the bottom. The center sticky on your screen will drive the "smart" suggestions. If Stormboard's suggestions take you away from your goal in your description, move another sticky into the center spot or close the suggestions area. Use the viewfinder to see where all your stickies are located. Group related ideas together by aligning them together or color-coding them. Contributors can drag an "idea vote" to mark the ideas that they like best. Click on the tab "Top Ideas" to view those with most votes. Click on "All Unrated" to view all, including those with no votes (great idea if you may have missed one).
In the Classroom
Consider creating a classroom account for use with your students. Require them to initial their stickies in order to know which idea is whose. Use for any decision-making activity such as "What kind of pet should I buy?" Also use to generate related vocabulary words about a topic by entering their first word and letting the "Idea Bots" suggest stickies along the bottom. This is especially good if students must find information for a presentation or learn about a particular theme or topic. Share this site with your gifted students to use for organization, brainstorming, or collaboration with others outside their class. Social studies classes could brainstorm on how they might travel back in time to solve a political crisis or avoid a war. Lit classes could "storm" better outcomes for a novel or play based on evidence from the first portion of the text (for example, what if Romeo and Juliet had used Stormboard first?). Many issue-based or ethics-based problems in Science and Health can also be organized, debated, and discussed in this space. Why are some ideas "Top rated" over others?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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WordArt - WordArt.com
Grades
4 to 12In the Classroom
You must be able to copy and paste text or provide a url to a page of text as well as determine parameters of more advanced word clouds. Alternately, these word clouds can be kept very simple. After creating the word cloud, be sure to save the image (or use a screen capture) to share with others. Another idea, use the url of the cloud or embed into a place to share such as blog, wiki, or site.This is a terrific visual tool to share on an interactive whiteboard or projector. Help students develop creative fluency by creating their own WordArt and ideas from scratch. Paste in a passage or URL for a political speech to visualize the politician's "message." Analyze advertising propaganda by visualizing the language used in TV or print ads. Create WordArt of historical texts of inauguration speeches as time capsules of the issues of the day. Use this site as a way to help students see and memorize text, especially visual learners. Use it also when writing poetry or reading passages of great literature to "see" themes and motifs of repeated words and images. Have students paste in their own writing to spot repeated (and monotonous) language when teaching lessons on word choice. Students will be surprised to see what words appear to be dominant. ESL and ELL students will eagerly use this site since word order will no longer be a problem for them. Have students work in groups to create word posters of vocabulary words with related meanings, such as different ways to say "walk" or "said" and decorate your classroom with these visual reminders of the richness of language. Collect thoughts about the class subject at the beginning of the year and then again at the end of the year to determine changes in thoughts about the subject matter.
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Khan Academy - Sal Khan
Grades
4 to 12In the Classroom
Share the site with your students in order to access at home for homework help. List this link on your class website. If you are unable to view this site on student computers but You Tube is unblocked for teachers, consider using a projector or interactive whiteboard to show to the whole class. Use your google account to log in once you click on the exercises link. From there, find access to exercises that students can complete that are related to each video. Encourage students to share links to specific videos they find helpful on a "Video Reviews" (yes, that is a pun) page of your class wiki. For a very real challenge, have students create their own simple review videos in the Khan Academy style using FlexClip, reviewed here. FlexClip is designed to allow you to create short animated or explainer videos to share on YouTube and other social media sites, then, upload to SchoolTube, TeacherTube, or YouTube, whichever works best in your school. Embed them on your class wiki for a year-to-year student-made study guide!Comments
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Study Skills Resources - TeachersFirst
Grades
3 to 12In the Classroom
Make learning how to learn part of your class routine at any grade level and in any subject. Feature one or more new study strategy each month and share this entire list as a link from your class web page for students and parents to access both in and out of school.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Evernote - Evernote
Grades
9 to 12In the Classroom
Use this tool easily in your Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) classroom since all students will be able to access it for free, no matter what device they have. Consider creating a class account that can be used by all students. Spell out the use of the site and what is allowed, not allowed, and the penalties. Even though all students have the same login, create different notebooks for different tasks that students can use to upload information that can be shared by all. Create separate notebooks for student groups who can then share their notebook with other groups. Use Evernote to snapshot and share links, documents, files, and pictures for any group project or class work. Whole class accounts can be used by a class scribe during class and accessed from home for review, etc. If your students are permitted individual accounts, they can collect notes in Evernote and share their research notebooks with you as evidence of completion of that phase of long term projects. Encourage creativity with your gifted students (or any students) by having them set up individual Evernote notebooks to use as "idea bins." Idea bins are a place to collect quotes, snippets of writing or poems they have started, questions and thoughts, artistic project ideas, images they like, or even voice memos to remember creative inspirations. It is important for students to know that idea bins (by whatever name) are an important part of the creative process, even for engineers!Edge Features:
Parent permission advised before posting student work created using this tool
Includes social features, such as "friends," comments, ratings by others
Requires registration/log-in (WITH email)
Products can be embedded
Products can be shared by URL
Multiple users can collaborate on the same project
Includes teacher tools for registering and/or monitoring students
Requires download/installation of software
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StoryCorps - Dave Isay
Grades
4 to 12In the Classroom
Grandparent's day is in September. What better gift to a grandparent than to be able to spend time with their grandchild and tell them a story about an important time in their lives? Of course, you'll want to prepare students with some interviewing skills and questions before they interview their grandparents, and show them how to record the interview with some type of recorder (tape recorder, cell phone, video camera, etc). This recording can then be submitted to StoryCorps and it will then reside at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. Students can also interview parents about their first memories of school, and what they remember about the grade that the student is currently in. Share these interviews during the first week or month of the school year. Not only can these interviews be submitted to StoryCorp, but students could then do a write up of their interviews and publish them in a classroom book of memories. Have students create online books to share with the class about their interview. Use a tool such as Bookemon, reviewed here. Or have students narrate a photo of the person they interviewed using a site such as ThingLink, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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The Brilliant Line - RISD Museum
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
Share this site on a projector or laptops so students can see the lines up close. This site would be an excellent way to introduce the power of line as a design element and as a way to form shading, contour, and more. Share the video on a projector to explain how these images were made. Beyond art and art history classes, this site also provides an interactive experience with the history of the Renaissance as part of a western heritage course. Descriptions are written at a very high reading level, so some assistance may be needed. Have students compare these works with other forms of art such as sculpture or painting from the Renaissance or perhaps write a blog post as an artist during the laborious process of producing an engraving. With middle school art classes, use the analyze lines tool for students to discover ways to use simple pen and ink or felt-tip markers to create rich drawings using only lines. Middle school students may not have the maturity to handle some of the figure drawings.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Voice of America - Broadcasting Board of Governors
Grades
4 to 12In the Classroom
View news stories and compare them to similar stories in different news media. Discuss the differences and similarities of these stories and use a Venn diagram to portray. Try using the tool "Interactive Two Circle Venn Diagram" (reviewed here).Discuss the focus of each article and reasons for the focus. Answer what the reporter is trying to convince and possible bias in various stories. Create an essay, letter, or blog post outlining viewpoints and linking these various sources for greater understanding of issues and how they are represented in the media. Have students share their letters or essays on a podcast using a tool such as (reviewed here).
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