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Columbus Day - Myvocabulary.com
Grades
3 to 10In the Classroom
Use this site to reinforce and support vocabulary as you study Columbus Day. Share the word puzzles on an interactive whiteboard or projector. Have students create their own word activities from the same vocabulary list, such as matching or ranking challenges for their peers to try on the interactive whiteboard.You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
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Photovisi - Photovisi
Grades
K to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Select pictures from your computer or Flickr photo stream. Choosing a collage type is important and users will need to already have an idea of the number and orientation of the pictures in order to choose the right collage. Download your collage easily. An additional link to purchase items with your collage is also found on this site.Students can use the collage picture as part of a presentation to the class in order to guide their discussion. This would be great to use on an interactive whiteboard or projector. Use this to create a picture collage in order to get students thinking or brainstorming about a topic or unit of study.
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Newspaper Clipping Generator - fodey.com
Grades
2 to 12There are also links at the top of the page to create: a newspaper, ninja text, wizard text, talking flowers, talking tomatoes, talking owls, a wanted poster, talking cats, talking squirrels, and a clapper board. Be aware: this site does include some minor advertisements.
This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Basic ability to enter text into fields, download and find the finished file. For file to be shared, understanding how to upload the file onto another site or blog. The "clippings" you make do NOT remain on the site for access later by URL.As files are downloaded to the desktop, you may want to create a Favorites folder, or other "collection" of students projects in one place for easy work at grading time. Another idea: use a class wiki with all projects.
Create a fictional account of a happening or description to identify the errors or determine the item being described. Create an account of a class celebration or a fantastic project that should be shared. Students can use this site to create a fantastic account of a vacation or experience. Have students develop a newsworthy article on an event from the novel they are reading. Use this site as a "first week" activity for students to write articles introducing themselves to the class. Have them use pseudonyms in their "articles" and share them on your class wiki or web page. A week later, have a matching contest where classmates must identify the mystery students! You could do a similar "famous Americans" or "important scientists" activity where students learn and share.
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Cobocards - Cobocards
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
Sharing with friends for collaboration does require the sending of an email invitation.Explore the guided tour to learn an overview or find answers to specific use questions. Save your "sets" and decide whether you want them to be completely public, just for you personally, or shared with a "group." Create your own groups for each class or subject. Publish your cards for others to use. Published sets can be altered to create a new and personalized set.
Teachers in lower grades will want to create cards their students can use and perhaps have more techno-savvy help with the process. Content and English teachers may choose to set up their own network of users. Learning support teachers could suggest that their students create their own flashcard sets to assist learning of the concepts. Use the interactive whiteboard or projector for quick flashcard or electronic testing using your sets as a whole class or in small groups in the classroom. Collaborate with other teachers to create useful sets for all to use. Rotate responsibility each marking period among student groups in your class to create a set for each chapter/unit/week for the rest of the class to use as review. Give a special award (or bonus points) for the most creative, complete set that marking period.
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E.ggTimer.com - David LeMieux and Ben Lew
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
What a fabulous alternative to a traditional egg timer. Project the time on an interactive whiteboard or with a projector while students take a test, solve a drag and drop, practice speeches, rotate between learning centers, or during cooperative learning groups. Be sure to turn up the volume for the "time's-up" alert! As you teach basic concepts of time in primary grades, use this timer for students to understand the real concepts of one minute or ten seconds. Show the relationships between minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, etc. You can even use it to teach counting backward from 60!Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Spezify (beta) - Spezify
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
Use Spezify on an interactive whiteboard or projector as you introduce a new topic in science or social studies or when the class asks "What is ____?" . With very young students or non-readers, use Spezify to help them find information they can understand and to inspire them to try to read some of the short text excerpts alongside the images. Activate students' prior knowledge as they recognize the images and remark, "I didn't know Edison was the one who invented that!" Visually show the "big picture" on any topic. As you teach research skills, try a comparison of Spezify results with Google results for both functionality of the search engine and reputability of the results. NOTE: Preview any search terms you plan to display in class if the terms could possibly bring up inappropriate images. You may need to adjust your terms. Of course your students know what they are supposed to do if something inappropriate comes up when using a search themselves, right? If you have not discussed this, now is the time!Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Antarctic Sun
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
Use this site as a learning center or station during a lesson on Antarctica and the scientists living there. To highlight information, preview the site and create graphic organizers to guide students through and find the important information. For help making graphic organizers, try Graphic Organizer Maker, (reviewed here)Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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This I Believe, Inc. - Jay Allison, NPR, et. al.
Grades
7 to 12In the Classroom
Searching the "For Educators" page gives you a wide variety of ideas for using this site and these essays. Since students enjoy using first person point of view in their writing, this might be an inspiration for some. You can use some of these essays as conversation starters on topics you are studying in class. (Example: Penn Jillette wrote his essay stating that he believes there is no god. This could be related to many books studied, such as 1984 or Brave New World.) Have students write their essays as blog entries or record them as podcasts using a tool such as Podomatic, reviewed here, or as an illustrated essay using ThingLink, reviewed here. Spanish teachers will want to explore the options to listen to or write essays in Spanish, as well.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Primary Research: Bring History Closer to Home - Primary Research
Grades
9 to 12In the Classroom
Provide this site to students who are considering group History Day projects, and it will surely encourage creative ideas. Consider adapting one of the projects to your local area for an entire class, or for a group of students looking for additional challenge. Why not make the projects even more interactive, by having students create multimedia projects. Have students narrate a photo using a site such as ThingLink, reviewed here. Have students create online books using a tool such as Bookemon, reviewed here. Challenge students create using a site such as Powtoon, reviewed here, and share them SchoolTube, reviewed here. "Map out" your local history using a tool such as MapHub, reviewed here. The project possibilities are endless!Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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American President - Miller Center of Public Affairs
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
If your students do Presidential biographies, this is a perfect site to save in your favorites for their use in preparing these. In addition, the multimedia gallery could be helpful in providing images to accompany lesson plans or other classroom presentations.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History - The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
Grades
4 to 12In the Classroom
Find many lesson plans, resources, and primary documents to enrich your history lessons. Make a splash with visual learners by starting class with artifacts from an era displayed on your projector or interactive whiteboard. Explore primary sources and historic texts as part of a Common Core literacy program cooperating among English, reading, and history teachers. Have your students sign up to enjoy access to all the resources. Enhance learning by challenging cooperative learning groups to choose a specific historical time period and become "experts." Have the groups create presentations to share with the class about what they learn. Use a tool like Zoho Show, reviewed here, or allow students to choose the format of their presentation by using Genially, reviewed here, where they can interactive images, infographics, charts, and presentations of all types, and insert maps, surveys, video, audio and more.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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TheatreHistory.com - TheatreHistory.com
Grades
9 to 12One of the nicest features on the site is the "Script Archive," which gives access to full-length plays, one-act plays, 10-minute plays, and monologues. This is a fabulous source for theatre and speech teachers alike.
Be aware: this is a commercial site, so there are links to purchase books, but it is more subtle than most sites, and all the links are freely given without a need to register. There are also advertisements, preview for appropriateness before sharing with your class, as these ads change without notice.
In the Classroom
As theatre is inextricably linked to the history of a country, divide categories among a class of students and have them research on the site, creating humanity links between the theatre and culture of the time. Have them report their findings to the class in a panel discussion, PowerPoint, a video (share the video using Teachers.tv (reviewed here), or an online book using tool such as Bookemon (reviewed here).Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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The Story of Stuff - Annie Leonard and Free Range Studios
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
The most difficult aspect in learning about the environment is understanding how the "stuff we use" impacts more than students can imagine. Use this thought-provoking movie to stimulate class discussions, get students thinking, and create awareness. Students can take aspects of the video and do group research of additional information needed to understand. Students can also create awareness campaigns, poll friends and families, blog, or create other multimedia articles. Looking for some creative multimedia options? How about having students create public service message podcasts ("Stop! Where do you think that ___ came from?") using a tool such as podOmatic, reviewed here. Or create videos and share them using SchoolTube, reviewed here.Students can research the origins of many popular items in their lives, tracing the materials used and the resources needed to create and transport the materials and the product. Students can create a Google My Maps, reviewed here, showing the movement of materials throughout the world from resource to send product to consumer.
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Planet Forward - The George Washington University
Grades
7 to 12In the Classroom
Where do you start? There is so much information on this site that is continually updated and interesting! Create student groups in major environmental categories such as Sustainability, Energy, Transportation, and others to mine the site for information. Create blog posts about issues, and create students' own surveys to identify local misconceptions to compare to those discussed on the site. Encourage students to apply their findings and information locally by writing for a local or school newspaper or to be interviewed about student work. Students can create videos, wiki pages, or other multimedia products to produce content, dispel or challenge myths, and create understanding of issues. Conventional products such as display boards, posters, and other announcements can also be created. Have students create online posters using a tool such as Genially, reviewed here. Make every day Earth Day by tying class topics into ecology issues.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Cinco de Mayo - The History Channel
Grades
4 to 12In the Classroom
This site is ready to use in class. Have cooperative learning groups explore various aspects of the holiday and Mexican culture.If you have time, have them make their results into a class wiki with a page for each angle. Have students write a journal entry replacing pen and paper using a blog tool such as edublog, reviewed here, or Telegra.ph, reviewed here, from the perspective of someone living in Mexico during the 1800s. Share maps of Mexico on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Have cooperative learning groups create commercials highlighting what they have learned (be sure they include some new vocabulary words) or even a video advertisement modifying their learning for your class's Cinco de Mayo celebration. For the video use a tool such as Adobe Express Video Maker, reviewed here. Share the videos using a tool such as Schooltube, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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FORVO - forvo.com
Grades
2 to 12In the Classroom
World language and ESL/ELL classes (using a whole class account) or individual students (if a specific school permits students to join sites) can maintain their own word lists with pronunciations. They can submit words to hear them pronounced by native speakers or pronounce them themselves. A teacher could submit words or assign students to explore and find a list of personal words to learn each week. Students can also compare pronunciations of the same word by several different speakers coming from different countries (Mexican Spanish vs. Spanish from Spain etc.). ESL students will no doubt enjoy disputing the pronunciation of words from their native languages! This is a perfect collaboration of geography and world language classes. Share the maps on your interactive whiteboard or projector. This site could also be useful as a learning center, for students to practice pronunciation. (Don't forget the headsets!) List this link on your class website for students to use for at-home practice!Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Padlet - Padlet
Grades
2 to 12In the Classroom
Use a Padlet to collaborate in collecting ideas, brainstorming, and more. Use this tool easily in your Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) classroom since all students can access it for free, no matter what device they have. Padlet does not show which work is attributable to which student, so you may want to require that students initial their contributions in order to get credit. If allowing all students to post to the wall or make comments, you may want to discuss internet safety and etiquette and establish specific class rules and consequences. Making the setting private again will prohibit content from later being replaced by classmate "vandalism."Use a Padlet to collect Webquest links and information to share with students. Leave the wall open to comments, and solicit input, discussions, or viewpoints from students. They can even contribute other sources they find. Color code resources to indicate different reading levels or "high challenge" sources for your more able students. Assign a student project where students choose their theme and design a wall around it. For example, have students create a wall about an environmental issue. They can include pictures, audio or video, links, and other information to display. Use as a new format for book reports. Do your students have favorites such as music or sports? Create a wall around these favorites or hobbies. Use a wall for grammar or vocabulary words. Create walls for debates or viewpoints. Post assignments, reminders, or study skills on a wall. Do you use student scribes or reporters? Use the Padlet site to create a wall with the goings-on in class. Embed your walls in a blog, wiki or website. See a similar tool (and more ideas to use either tool) in the TeachersFirst review of Lino here. Decide which one you prefer! Unfortunately, the Padlet embedded viewer is very small but can be scrolled in both directions.
Use Padlet as a class space during snow days and school breaks. Share the link to a teacher-created, public wall where students can share notes about what they did during the snow day or respond to a thought-provoking question.
Encourage creativity and organization by having your gifted students (or anyone doing independent projects) create Padlets to collect ideas, images, quotes, and more in an "idea bin." Require them to share a brainstorming Padlet to show you the ideas they considered before they launch into a project. Have them brainstorm (and later sort/color code) the possibilities for a creative problem solving or "Maker Faire" project. In writing or art classes, use Padlet as a virtual writer's journal or design notebook to collect ideas, images, and even video clips.
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 embedded
Products can be shared by URL
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Father Figure - Lesson to Honor - Education World
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
Take advantage of these FREE lesson plans to honor the dads in your students' life.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Lewis and Clark - LA Purchase Vocabulary - Myvocabulary.com
Grades
4 to 10In the Classroom
Use this site to reinforce and support vocabulary as you study Lewis and Clark. Share the word puzzles on an interactive whiteboard or projector. Have students create their own word activities from the same vocabulary list, such as matching or ranking challenges for their peers to try on the interactive whiteboard.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Internet Classics Archive - MIT
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
Use this resource in study of classical languages as well as cultural world history. Add the site URL to your list of top online libraries. In literature class, share this site and have students (or groups of students) explore one of the many works listed at this site. Challenge the groups to create electronic "posters" or word graphics (about their piece of literature) using a tool such as Piclits (reviewed here).Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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