Weekly Core Subjects Resources

I hoped to have these earlier today....but it appeared that Blogger had other ideas!  It was also interesting to view my blog and see post from the previous days missing.....that are still missing by the way.  In case you missed them I wrote about 280 Daily and a couple wikis Wikis: Mobile Learning 4 Special Needs and ICT Magic.  Got to love Technology.

English

1.) 280 Daily as shared above is a online journal that is compatible with mobile browsers that allows users to write daily journals in 280 characters or less.  There are several other features of note, so I recommend checking it out. 

2.) Invitation to World Literature is a website that provides videos of resources for books of literature from around the world.  Source: Free Technology 4 Teachers (Although the Blogger issue has removed it)

3.) Poetry Forms is from the Educational Technology Training Center and provides users with forms for various forms of poetry.  Each form is digital with a text box that you can use to fill in your poem.  Great for students who struggle with poetry.

4.) Reading Worksheets from the Busy Teachers Cafe provides printable reading comprehension, book reports, vocabulary, and other materials for teaching reading. 

Mathematics

1.) Sumdog provides games and activities to improve numeracy skills.  This would be a valuable website for special education students struggling with high school math as well. 

2.) "Math-o-mir is a software tool designed to write and edit mathematical equations as easily as possible. The goal was to achieve the same level of simplicity as with pencil and sheet of paper. It is designed to act as your personal math notepad where you can write down your quick and informal calculations." 

Science

1.) From Scientific American comes Bring Science Home which provides information and procedures for scientific experiments that students can do at home.  There will be a new experiment for each day in the month of May.

2.) LabWrite is a website that provides students a useable interface for writing a lab report from the beginning all the way to submission.

3.) ChemSense studied students' understanding of chemistry and developed software and curriculum to help students investigate chemical systems and express ideas in animated chemical notation. You will find resources for both on the computer and in the classroom.

4.) Science on the Simpsons is a great way to catch your students attention.  It provides video clips and explanations of when science was used in the cartoon.  Each clip provides a description and a time stamp for how long the scene is.  Source: Larry Ferlazzo

5.) Another great link for Virtual Cell Biology Animations.  There are several different animations available from the Big Bang to Mitosis.  

6.) Edheads are interactive scenarios that students can virtually participate in using scientific approaches to solving problems and answering questions.  You will find activities for Forensics, Physics, Technology, and Anatomy.

7.) Human Body Maps provides 3D models of the human bodies; both male and female.  You can click on a part of the body and it will zoom in closer to show you the various aspects of the organ.  Similar to Google Body Browser, but Flash is not needed.  Source: The Whiteboard Blog

8.) Planet Quest and Alien Safari is a website to learn about some of the most rarest organisms in the world.  Source: iLearn Technology Blog

Social Studies 

1.) Real Lives 2010 is a software that you can download or email to get a free copy.  A license for a computer lab or school will cost more.  The software is an educational simulation that allows users to take on the role of a person born in this world from any demographic and then see how they survive through time based on national averages and those characteristics.  Seems promising and interesting.

2.) The National Jukebox makes historical sound recordings available to the public free of charge. The Jukebox includes recordings from the extraordinary collections of the Library of Congress Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation and other contributing libraries and archives. Source: School Library Journal Blog

3.)  Teaching History with Technology is a website that provides lesson plans, activities, projects, games, and quizzes that use technology. Explore inquiry-based lessons, activities, and projects. Learn about new and emerging technologies such as blogs, podcasts, wikis, ipods, and online social networks and explore innovative ways of integrating them into the curriculum. Find out how others are using technology in the classroom.

4.) Medieval Period is a website that provides resources and information about this time period in history.  For AP World History teachers this would be a valuable website.  Source: World History Educators Blog

5.) Political Cartoons in U.S. History is a valuable resource when using them to teach social studies.  It is pretty much a gaurantee that they will be on test, so it is important to provide students chances to interpret them.  Source: U.S. Government Educators Blog

6.) Osama Bin Laden is dead and of course with that comes Politcal Cartoons...and some good ones I might add. 

YouTube Movies

YouTube is now offering visitors the ability to rent movies from their website directly.  They are trying to compete with Netflix and Hulu and I can't say I blame them.  There is a huge demand for streaming movies.  The benefit of YouTube Movies is that they are also offering several free movies as well.

To access the free movies, visit YouTube Movies and then at the top of the screen you will see an "All Categories" drop down menu.  If you click on that you will see "Free Movies" to the left.  Click on that and then you will see all the free movies organized by categories (DISCLAIMER: It is important to note that several of the free movie selections are completely inappropriate for school, but I did not want to ignore sharing these resources because of that.)  Since the movies are free, there is an advertisement before the movie shows.  However, you can still use sites like Safeshare.tv and ViewPure and it will start the movies without the ads (Hopefully YouTube doesn't create a fix for this!)

I tried to use one of the sites that lets you download YouTube Videos...but there was no success.

There are several great movies for education that are free, especially in the Documentary and Biography section.  Otherwise, here are a few examples of movies that are available:

Supersize Me

Down From The Mount

The Patriot

Home

The Battle of Britain

Fuel

To Kill a Mockingbird

21 (For you Math Teachers)

First Orbit

Thanks to Edudemic for sharing this with me.

So You Are New To Twitter...Part II

 

I have been on Twitter for about a year and a half.  In that time frame I have picked up over 2000 followers and followed over 1300.  With a change in position coming next year, I decided it was time to organize those 1300 into lists so that I could easily see what people were saying related to subject matter or specialty.  I made a mistake in thinking that would be a simple and quick task. 

So here is my suggestion to those of you that are new to Twitter and starting to buy into the process of a PLN.  CREATE YOUR LIST NOW!!!  Even if you are not following someone to include in a list, you will.  I created about 15 list.  I have some for subject matter, some for administrators, some for educational technology, etc.  It took a lot of time to put people into those list.  My PLN life will be so much easier now that I have done that. 

Another reason that I did this is that I wanted to be able to easily see some of the latest Tweets from people I follow that are not involved in education.  I also wanted a way to easily follow some of my favorite educators on Twitter. 

You can see my original "So You Are New to Twitter" post HERE

Syncdocs

There is a movement in education for schools and districts to use Google Docs.  For many teachers, the thoughts of moving from one software to another can be a daunting task.  Syncdocs is a free software download that makes it easy for users to transfer files from your desktop into Google Docs.  Simply select a folder on your PC, like “My Documents”, and Syncdocs copies it online and across all your computers, automatically. This folder is then kept in sync.  All file formats are preserved and so is the folder structure.  There’s no complex interface to learn because Google Docs is mapped as a network G-drive and your files are synced automatically.  For more features, click here.

For more information, watch the video below:

Weekly Core Subject Resources

First set of Core Subject Resources for the month of May.  The home stretch to summer time.  Hoping for a good two week dry spell at some point so I can get out on the golf course.  My area received anywhere from 15-20 inches of rain the past two weeks.  To put that into perspective, that is 600% above normal.  On to the resources.

English

1.) Global Poetry is a wiki created by an English class to help log favorite poetry from all over the world.  You will notice the pages are organized by country, so add yours or share a favorite if your country is already listed. 

2.) Wolty is a simple Language Notebook for you and your friends to post your notes and help each other.  You can sign in with Facebook or create an account.  Wolty aims to get you into the habit of saving the things you discover and the questions you wonder along with this meaningful context.  An interesting concept. 

3.) InstaBlogg is a simple blogging platform that requires nothing but starting your blog with a post and then sharing it with others.  For more information, check out the post at Free Technology 4 Teachers

4.) 10 Free Online Spell Checkers - We all know that most document based software comes with their own spell check, but with more web publishing, these could come in handy. 

5.) Topicmarks summarizes text documents for you electronically.  Get a smart synopsis in minutes instead of reading everything yourself.  You can condense any text into an abstract, extract facts, connect texts, and outline and summarize your text.  It is currently free, although there is a process in the future to start charging for the feature.  

Mathematics

1.) nrich: Mathematics Enrichments is a website where you will find thousands of our free mathematics enrichment materials (problems, articles and games) for teachers and learners from ages 5 to 19 years. All the resources are designed to develop subject knowledge, problem-solving and mathematical thinking skills.  Source: EDge21 Blog

Science

1.)  Virtual Volcano explores the explosion at Pompeli.  A valuable resource for explaining the powerful forces behind these wonders. 

2.) Dynamic Periodic Table is a completely interactive Periodic Table of Elements for the Chemistry classroom.  You get information, data, and images for all the elements.  Great for teachers with an Airliner or SMARTBoard in the classroom.

3.) Body Spectrum provides digital coloring books for learning about anatomy.  There are 12 different coloring books that you can use.  Another valuable resource for teachers with an Airliner or SMARTBoard.

4.) Moon Zoo is a website that goes above and beyond to help visitors explore the moon and the lunar surfaces.  For more information check out the iLearn Technology Post. 

5.) WeatherSpark is a new type of weather website, with interactive weather graphs that allow you to pan and zoom through the entire history of any weather station on earth. For more information, check out Free Technology for Teachers

6.) Eyes on Earth is a website for viewing the Earth through various telescopes and also for gathering data and seeing how the Earth is changing.  For more information, check out the iLearn Technology Post. 

7.) Photopic Sky Survey is like the Google Earth of our Universe.  Zoom in and pan around the universe like never before.  A fun way to see just how tiny we are here on Earth.  Information for planets and other aspects of the solar system are clickable to information from Wikipedia. 

8.) Harvard Natural Science Lecture Demonstrations provides information and videos into several experiments related to science.  Demonstrations are divided into different areas of science.  I also recommend checking out their NatSciDemo's YouTube Channel.

Social Studies

1.) American Historical Association has put together a list of 100 films reviewed by Historians.  A good glimpse into what historians think are accurate portrayals in films.  For more information, check out the U.S. History Educators Blog.

2.) EconStories.tv is a website that provides videos explaining the differences in the theories of two famous economists.  There are also music videos and can be humorous and entertaining for studying Economic concepts.  For more information, check out Free Technology for Teachers.


3.) Where Do You Fit is a new 2011 Pew Research survey to help determine your political typology.  It breaks it down into multiple categories between Liberal and Conservative.  This is the most complete Political spectrum survey I have seen.  Great resource for government teachers. 

4.) Ingenious is a website that helps to bring together images and viewpoints to help create insights into science and culture.  You can read articles, debate topics, view images, and create your own account to a have your own personalized links, images, e-cards, and web galleries.