Monday, February 21, 2011

Weekly Core Subjects Resources

Hope everyone is having a great President's Day.  Our district will be in session because we are using it as a snow day make up, so no celebrating George Washington's birthday for me.  If you are off, then take this time to check out some great resources for the subject area that you teach.

English
1.) VocabAhead has a great Study Room where students can go to learn about critical vocabulary that you would see on the GRE, SAT, and ACT test.  The Study Room provides a short video providing the definition of each word and a real life example of its use.  There is also the text available for the video for students with special needs.  A great resource and possibly an even better tool for Bellringer activities.

2.) Readability is a web & mobile app that zaps online clutter and saves web articles in a comfortable reading view. No matter where you are or what device you use, your reading will be there.  It does cost $5.00 a month to use the service, but for those of us that read on the web a lot, it would be a great add on.

Mathematics
1.) Math-Drills.com is a site that provides various worksheets for mathematics classrooms.  There are several to choose from and are available in links at the top of the page.  Each worksheet is available in PDF format.  Another option is The Math Worksheet Site.

2.) Math TV is a website for sharing video tutorials for explaining various math concepts.  You can choose from videos for basic math, algebra, geometry, calculus, and trigonometry. 

3.) AplusMath is a site for students who need a little extra help learning math.  There are several activities, games, and even a homework helper.  There is even a flashcard creator. 

Science
1.) The Apollo 13 Mission Transcripts is a site that provides all students would need to know about the Apollo 13 mission.  You can get the transcripts that are divided into 6 difference phases of the mission.  An excellent personal and primary document resource.  The site Spacelog also has transcripts for other missions as well that are worth checking out.

2.) The Encyclopedia of Life is a valuable resource for science teachers and students in the science classroom.  Students can learn about the various species as well as get the latest news on life sciences. 

3.) The Arthropod Story takes you on a tour through the amazing evolutionary history of arthropods. Along the way, you'll get a healthy dose of taxonomy, paleontology, natural history and principles of evolution.  Looks like a great webquest from the Understanding Evolution website that has other valuable resources for science teachers.

4.) The Plant List is a working list of all known plant species. Version 1 aims to be comprehensive for species of Vascular plant (flowering plants, conifers, ferns and their allies) and of Bryophytes (mosses and liverworts).

5.) The Science Museum provides a great website with resources, activities, interactives, simulations, and games that students can participate in to learn science concepts.  There is an educators section that has classroom resources, one if which is a game called Thingdom, a fun game about genetic inheritance and selective breeding – adopt a thing, care for a thing, make baby things!

Social Studies
1.) Time Zone Converter is a valuable tool when teaching geography to help students understand time.  It is always a struggle for students to understand how it is a different time and day in other parts of the world.  This would be a great supplement. 

2.) 65 Twitter Feeds for History Teachers is a great blog post for teachers looking for ways to integrate Twitter into the Social Studies classroom.  A great list of hashtags and usernames. 

3.) The CIA World Factbook and Google Earth are great resources for teaching Geography.  Now thanks to a one man project by David Tryse he has combined the two into the KML Factbook.  Awesome is an understatement.  You might be interested in checking out his other Google Earth Projects.

4.) Legistalker is a great website for staying up to date on what legislators are up to.  Always good to see current events in real time.  A great resource for studying government trends and happenings. 

5.) The Reading Like a Historian curriculum engages students in historical inquiry. Each lesson revolves around a central historical question and features sets of primary documents modified for groups of students with diverse reading skills and abilities.