Bounce is a fun an easy way to share ideas on a website. You provide a URL to a website and then it will grab a screen-shot of the website. From there you can then click and drag to create a textbox around an area that you want to take notes about. You can provide a title for the page and after you are finished taking notes, you can share the page via Facebook and Twitter. You can also provide names so that Bounce can label the feedback.
Students could use Bounce to analyze a website or as a teach you could use the site to provide feedback about a website that you want students to review. If there is a website with an article, you could provide notes at certain parts of the article you want students to be prepared to discuss, or write about.
My Fake Wall provides students and teachers the ability to create a Fake Facebook wall. Not sure how long this site will remain open before Facebook claims copyright infringement or some other lawsuit. As much as our students are on Facebook, this would be a great website for a student project. You can find several sample Fake Walls to show students as an example.
My Fake Wall could be used across the curriculum in various ways. It would be a neat way for students to create a wall over a math problem or formula. History teachers could easily incorporate it into a project over a person or event. Same goes for Science Teachers and English teachers. The possibilities are endless and once again provides an alternate project idea for students.
Using My Fake Wall does require signing up with an email and a password, this will allow you to save and share the walls that you create. You will want to check with your district to make sure the site is not blocked as well. You can see a sample below of Franklin Roosevelt.
I have created several Google Docs that will be updated monthly with Core Subject Resources, but I still wanted to continue with my weekly updates as well. Many of these resources will be added to the Google Docs later.
English
1.) Random Logline Generator will create a random sentence or topic that you can utilize in the classroom for students to write freely and creatively. It will provide students with a good starting thought point.
2.) QuietWrite is a site that you could use in correlation with the resource above. QuietWrite removes the editors so that you can focus on writing. Create an account and it saves your writing, and it saves it automatically as you type. This would be a great way to create a blog as well. You can export to a WordPress blog and even edit the writings on an iPad.
3.) From Read Write Think comes an Acrostic Poem generator and and interactive. The interactive goes through the steps of creating an acrostic poem. They also have the same interactive available for a Diamante Poem. If students are not working on a Poem, they have also created a Letter Generator interactive as well.
Mathematics
1.) Whiteboard Resources offers flash based games and interactives for math teachers. You can find interactives separated by content and curriculum area. Each interactive comes with a short description of who can use it and what it is.
2.) A Complete Source of Online Math Tools offers 100s of resources for math teachers separated by subject matter. This would be a great starting point for math teachers looking to integrate web based resources into their math curriculum.
3.) Virtual Math Museum is a website that takes several aspects of mathematical formula and used them to "create art."
4.) The University of Mississippi has an online Math Contest where students and classes can answer a problem of the week and when they solve it correctly have their name and location added to a list. Also available are Algebra, Middle School, and Elementary based math problems. To learn more about the program, watch the video below.
Science
1.) Google Sky is like Google Maps for the Solar System. You can examine the Constellations, Hubble Images, and several other aspects of our solar system.
2.) :60 Second Science is a video competition for students to submit science videos. There are several other resources available on this website and you can also find the rules for the contest.
3.) Sumanas Multimedia Development Services offers animated tutorials in a variety of formats for the various scientific disciplines. The Science in Focus section offers animations for science that is currently in the news.
4.) The Biology Project is an interactive online resource for learning biology developed at The University of Arizona. The Biology Project is fun, richly illustrated, and tested on 1000s of students. It has been designed for biology students at the college and high school level.
5.) DnaTube is a scientific site providing video based studies, lecturers and seminars. One of the best features of the DnaTube, is that it supports other types of scientific works through flash animations, powerpoints, in addition to videos.
2.) A growing area of study in the Social Studies classroom is the Middle East, and thankfully there is a site for Teaching the Middle East which provides links, resources, and activities for teaching this part of the world across the social studies curriculum.
3.) A great video that explains the Civil War in 4 Minutes. Great for an introduction or a review.
4.) Picturing America, from the National Endowment for the Humanities brings masterpieces of American ar into the classroom. Students can gain a deeper appreciation of our country's history and character through the study and understanding of its art.
5.) DataMasher provides the data available from the United States and allows users to create mashups to visualize them in different ways and see how states compare on important issues. Users can combine different data sets in interesting ways and create their own custom rankings of the states.
6.) ARTSEDGE: Multimedia Library is a website that provides images, audio stories, music, video, and interactives from the Kennedy Center. There are valuable resources for teaching about the arts as well as lessons for educators.
7.) The Old Photo Album provides a walk down memory lane by providing vintage photography of war and everyday life. You can search through the photos by category or by tag. It is a blog that has been around since April of 2009. Visitors can submit photos as well. A great primary source website.
Foreign Language Bab.la offers translations in many different languages, ranging from colloquial and regional expressions to more technical or field-specific vocabulary. Special features include search filters, synonyms, pronunciation, sample sentences and much more.
Art The Google Art Project has received quite a few blog posts in the blogosphere but I thought I would share it here as well. Through the Google Art Project you can explore museums from around the world, discover and view hundreds of artworks at incredible zoom levels, and even create and share your own collection of masterpieces
EmbedPlus is a website that takes watching YouTube videos to the next level. Using the EmbedPlus software, when you embed a video you have several options that you can include to make watching that video online interactive. Here are some of the features that you can add:
- Scene Skipping - Like DVD chapter buttons, use the wizard to mark notable parts like game highlights, changing performers, and lecture sections.
- Movable Zoom - Dynamically magnifies the area you point over. Use it to get a close look at objects, writing, and things like moving athletes.
- Slow Motion On-Demand - Instantly watch videos at a slower rate to more clearly see what happens.
- Real-time Reflections -Add a discussion to your video
- Third Party Annotations - You can add your own annotations to the video
Using EmbedPlus is as easy as copying and pasting a URL from YouTube. From there choose your size, Start time, and Scene Markers. You then choose your annotations and then are provided the code and URL. See a sample video below.
Quicklyst is a website that allows user to easily take notes. It looks and has a similar feel as another note taking web-based app WorkFlowy, but it has more features.. The application requires no registration or login to get started, although that is still an option so that you can save notes for the future.
Quicklyst provides you with instant access to the most popular Internet sources, including Wikipedia and the Merriam-Webster dictionary. Quicklyst makes it easy to organize your notes into study guides for upcoming exams. You can even search your notes for a specific topic or subject. Quicklyst allows you to study with an Amazon Kindle device, printable study guides, and a smartphone or tablet computer
