Curriculum Resources
SD Teacher's Curriculum Bank--Lesson plans for every content area with standards from SD teachers. Mister Teacher--whiteboard activities for your classroom. Kids.gov--Kids.gov is the official kids' portal for the U.S. government. This site links kids, parents and teachers to U.S. government information and services on the web from government agencies, schools, and educational organizations, all geared to the learning level and interest of kids. Education Social Networks We are Teachers - Social network for educators where lots of ideas and lessons can be found. ePALS--The internets largest community of collaborative classrooms engaged in cross-cultural exchanges, project sharing, and language learning. Skype for Education--Join the Skype community of teachers and collaborate on assignments with teachers from across the world! Sophia--online social teaching and learning platform that connects peoploe who want to teach with people who want to learn. Mashup of Facebook, Wikipedia, and YouTube for teachers, tutors, parents, students, and others. VuSafe--the easy, secure way to find, organize, and share educational videos |
Course Management
Moodle--Free Course Management Software package designed to help educators create effective online learning communities. Blackboard--The Blackboard Academic Suite enables institutions to access any learning resources at any time from one place. Global Schoolhouse--Educators, students, parents, and community members can collaborate, interact, develop, publish, and discover learning resources. Edmodo--A wonderful safe/secure learning environment for teachers and students. A nice all-in-one solution for education. 19 Pencils--19Pencils is the easiest way for teachers to discover, share and manage web-based educational content with students. A teacher can create quizzes, websites, track students, and more. Webquests WebQuest.org--San Diego State University ran original WebQuest site. Among the best resources for learning WebQuests. WebQuest Taskonomy--Here you will find a taxonomy of the 12 most common types of WebQuest tasks. WebQuest about Webquests--Useful introduction to the WebQuest concept. Several versions tailored to different grade levels. Teacher WebQuest Generator--Interactive Webquest Wizard that allows you to select from a variety of themed pages and fill in the form with information. WebQuest is stored in the TeacherWeb site and can be edited using your password. |
Language Arts
Wordia - Brings words to life through the use of video. Knowcase - Create collaborative outlines with this easy-to-use site. Authorstream- Upload your PowerPoint presentations to embed in your blog. You can narrate your presentation and play it as a video. American Writers--this is a great resource on its own for anyone studying American writers and their works. Students can search based on the writer, a book or a location, or they can browse through the different time periods of American history and see the major writers of the time. The site features each of the programs and lots of video clips from each (you’ll need the Real Media player) and an excellent teacher resource section. Booktalks – Quick and Simple--According to the FAQ’s, a booktalk is like a movie trailer – revealing just enough of the book to encourage others to read it without giving away the key points. The database at this site contains talks on over 1200 titles for students at all grade levels. Other parts of the site will help you set up and use booktalks with your students as well as link you to other book review resources. A nice example of a teacher sharing her research and hard work with everyone. Carol Hurst’s Children’s Literature Site--The core of this site is the large number of reviews of children’s books, a resource that’s regularly updated. They also feature an extensive collection of ideas for using the literature in many different curriculum areas. Just One More Book--A very regular (two or three times a week) short podcast series about children’s books by a couple (and occasionally their daughters) who are very passionate about their subject. Learning About Authors and Illustrators--If you or your students are curious about the people who create books, there may be a web site dedicated to the writer of your favorite book. The problem of how to find that site is solved at this site. An excellent reference that needs to be in your bookmark file. Literature Learning Ladders--Created by Annette Lamb and Larry Johnson, two former teachers, this site encourages “active reading” through the use of a structure called Learning Ladders. In addition to providing detailed instructions on how to create your own Learning Ladders activities, the site features many other resources for teaching literature, primarily in the elementary grades. MidLink Magazine--This long-running site, supported by North Carolina State University and the University of Central Florida, says that it’s mission is to “highlight exemplary work from the most creative classrooms around the globe”. While the scrolling billboard on the main page can be a little confusing, use the menu links at the top to take you to information about how any teacher can submit their students’ work to be part of one of the ongoing projects. Check the Newest Projects page or look in the archives to get some inspiration for all kinds of writing projects to use in your own classroom. Projects are updated quarterly so check back regularly. ReadWriteThink--This is a recently created co-production of the National Council of Teachers of English and the International Reading Association that is part of the Thinkfinity project. All of that means that English and reading teachers at all levels are going to find some high quality materials for their classroom on this site. You can browse through the lesson plans or use the Thinkfinity search page to find relevant materials at all the projects’ partner sites. Overall, a very good start. Thinkfinity Literacy Network--Created by the National Center for Family Literacy, this site offers a variety of materials for both teaching literacy skills as well as self-directed individual learning. Use the search tool to find lesson plans, podcasts, interactive activities, and more based on multiple factors. The Network also offers free, online courses for literacy teachers and managers of literacy programs. Another excellent project of Verizon’s. Thinkfinity Foundation.WritingFix--A project of the Northern Nevada Writing Project, this site features more than 500 resources and lesson plans created by teachers attending their many workshops since 2001. Because of the large amount of materials, the people at WritingFix recommend checking out their top 12 (scroll to the bottom of the main page), the twelve most popular collections used by teachers, starting with the Daily Prompt Generator. Lit2Go--Lit2Go is a free online collection of stories and poems in Mp3 (audiobook) format. An abstract, citation, playing time, and word count are given for each of the passages. Many of the passages also have a related reading strategy identified. Each reading passage can also be downloaded as a PDF and printed for use as a read-along or as supplemental reading material for your classroom. Online Portfolio Googlios - A way for students to create digital portfolios online using Google Tools. Mixbook- Collaborate on a photobook with friends. Create stories, photo journals, and more with your uploaded images. You can zoom in on photos, add backgrounds, and embed this in a blog. Scrapblog-Create multimedia scrapbooks. Upload your images and play with the themes, stickers, backgrounds, text features, and frames. Embed this in your blog. Math
Math Forum-This online community includes teachers, students, researchers, parents and educators who have an interest in math and math education. The site includes Ask Dr. Math, Problems of the Week, discussion groups and much more. AAA Math- Customized by grade level and topic, AAA Math features explanations of various mathematical topics, practice problems and fun, challenging games. Cool Math- This fully interactive site and allows the user to sharpen basic math skills, play games and explore new math concepts. Figure This- Created by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, this site helps families enjoy mathematics outside school through a series of fun and engaging challenges. Math Cats- Math Cats provides playful explorations of important math concepts through games, crafts and interactive projects. Includes a magic chalkboard and an art gallery. Math League-The Math League, designed for students in fourth grade through high school, specializes in math contests, books and computer software. The “Help Facility” is handy reference guide for math topics complete with examples, definitions and explanations. Fun Brain- This site includes 17 original games based on soccer, car racing and much more. Other games include Math Baseball, where a child can score runs with correct answers and Operation Order, where students can build pyramids with their knowledge of algebra. National Library of Virual Manipulatives--The NLVM is a resource from which teachers may freely draw to enrich their mathematics classrooms. The website offers computer-based mathematical manipulatives and interactive learning tools at elementary and middle school levels. The library is actively being extended and refined through projects including the **eNLVM**, a project to develop interactive online learning units for mathematics. 4 Dice: Fraction Games - A great iOS app for learning how to add, subtract, multiply, and divide fractions. This game meets Common Core Standards and has blue tooth capabilities to allow for two players across multiple devices. 5 Dice: Order of Operations Game - A neat iOS app for practicing "order of operations" where the answer is giving and students need to figure out the equation. Some nice features include the email feature for teachers to track students ability as well as a nice interactive whiteboard to help figure out the problem. ABCYA - A wonderful site/apps for educational games. AplusMath - A nice site for math games, worksheets and flashcards. Axiom - A fun iOS app where students tilt the mobile device to guide their ship to collection different numbers and operations to solve mathproblems. BrainNook - A great site for math games/apps with "differentiated instruction". Bubbabrain - A excellent site with 1000s of educational games where teachers can create their own games. BuzzMath Middle School - A fantastic iPad app for Middle School students wanting to learn and practice their math skills. Some nice features is when a student gets an answer wrong BuzzMath shows them the correct answer and how to solve it. Also, supports "differentiated instruction" as well as a website with a teacher portal for managing and tracking students. Clever Island - A nice site with lots of educational math games that cover areas such as: counting, classification, ordering, etc. Cookie - A great site with lots of educational games for Elementary schools. DimensionU - One of my favorite sites/program for K-12 for developing math skills in all areas. This site uses cutting edge technology to reinforce math skills in 3D games in safe competitive environments. Dinosaur Train Classic in the Jurassic, Jr - A fun iPad game based on the popular PBS tv show that has kids playing 3 math based games on counting, sorting, and a balance, to help the dinosaurs complete their adventure. DragonBox - A excellent multi-platform site for teaching students algebra in a fun and unique way by starting out using pictures instead of numbers. GazziliMath - A wonderful addicting iOS app that my 6 yr old son loves!!! This is a great app for the younger kids learning to add, count, subtract, and more. Also, has a high replay value as kids need to complete levels to unlock more and more features. Game Classroom - A nice site with lots of math games, worksheets, and homework help for students. Grid Lines: Ordered Pair Game - Grid Lines is a very unique and challenging game which has students plot order pairs/points on a four quadrantgrid. This is great for upper El Ed and MS students and has blue tooth capability for multiplayer. IXL - One of the most popular sites for math for grades K-8th as well as for learning algebra and geometry. Not only does this site have an educational portal for student tracking and reporting but tons of lessons to choose from as well. Kidz Page - A nice site with lots of fun educational math games. Learning Games for Kids - A great sites with lots of games for education. Lure of the Labyrinth - A site designed for pre-algebra students to go on an amazing adventure to rescue their lost pet and avoid monsters. Not only does this app have a wide variety of lessons for MS students it also is aligned to state standards. Fuel the Brain - A nice site with lot of different educational math games to choose from. Funschool - A cool site with lots of math games. Gamequarium- One of the most robust sites around for math games and resources. Mangahigh - A wonderful site for anime styled math games where students earn rewards/badges. Marble math - Is a great iOS app that has students playing the old fashioned marble tilt puzzle game solving basic math problems (addition, subtraction, etc.) plus decimals and fractions. A user can either tilt their iOS device to move the marble or use their finger to guide their marble to the desired spot. Not only is this game highly addictive it gets rather challenging in the upper levels. Math A Tube - A great resource for math students/teachers for all areas of math. A person can not only find videos and worksheets, but explanations of all sorts of math concepts (ie, geometry, decimals, fractions, etc.). Math Champ - A very innovative iOS app that turns a student's iPad into a "buzzer" to answer questions before their classmate. This does require a teacher to "host" the game as well as setup a class list. Math Chimp supplies all the Common Core Standard questions from a wide variety of math problems. Math Chimp - A wonderful site for finding games, videos, and worksheets on a wide variety of math concepts. Math Dojo - A fun iOS app for addition in the style of a fighting game. The paid version unlocks all the different operations/levels. Math Game Time - A terrific site for grades K-7 with lots of educational games, worksheets, and videos. Math Minute Madness - A wonderful iOS app that focuses on basic math skills and has students trying to solve as many questions in a minute to earn stars so they can add animals to their virtual zoo. Math Playground - A great site for finding math resources such as: word problems, games, worksheets, flashcards, and more. Mystery Math Town - Ideally this adventure is for kids 6-12 and focuses on addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Students enter a town and try unlock levels and characters by not only solving equations but finding the variables to solve the given equation as well. This game is highly addictive and has very high replay value. Numbers League - A fantastic iPad app for students 5 on up that uses basic math skills to defeat a legion of evil super heroes. This interactive comic style game focuses on Common Core Standards and can be used by students of all ages as it gets harder and harder. Operation Math - This is a very fun iPad app that focuses on the basic skills of math while trying to stop an evil villain from stealing numbers by solving equations and locking his escape route. OM is a great game for kids 5-12 with high replay value that takes them to lots of geographical locations. Ordered Fractions - A fun iOS game that uses dice to roll random numbers and then have students put them in boxes to create fractions. Students then have to compare these fractions to put into ascending order. Pipo Games- A nice site/program with lots of educational games for any curriculum, math included. A paid account unlocks all features and games. Play Kid Games- A very nice site with lots of fun and engaging math games. RoomRecess - A nice site for elementary students to learn basic math concept through educational games. Sakura Quick Math - Is an ideal iOS app for grades 1st - 5th that focuses on all basic math skills. Not only does Sakura track students progress it allows for users to write the answer directly on the iOS screen. Sheppard Software - A nice site with lots of fun math games in a wide variety of areas. Skip Math: Skip Counting Games - A fun iOS app similar to Doodle Jump where students jump from platform to platform to count by numbers (i.e., 2, 4, 6, 8, etc.). Another neat feature is the ability to take a picture of yourself and put it on the game character. Sumdog - A great site with educational portal for student tracking, to reinforce math skills while students play against others worldwide. Sushi Monster - A nice iOS app for practicing addition and multiplication facts. TenMarks - One of the most popular sites/programs for math for Grades 1st thru HS. This program helps students develop their math skills in all areas while tracking student data and using "differentiated learning." Tutpup - A great site educational math games that focuses on areas such as: addition, subtraction, multiplication, and more. What2Learn - A excellent site with lots of math resources as well as the ability to create your own game. YodelOh Math Mountain - A super-fun iOS app that focuses on the basic skills of Math such as: addition, multiplication, subtraction, and division. This game is a hoot and reminds me a lot of the Price is Right game where the mountain climber tries to reach the top of the mountain before time runs out. Zondle- A innovative site with an educational portal that allows teachers to track, monitor, and create games for students. |
Creating Outlines
Webspiration Classroom - From the creators of Inspiration, a wonderful graphic organizer that now allows for online collaboration. One of the best visual outline creators on the web. Quicklyst - A free user friendly site for creating outlines. Quicklist also integrates with a search engine and dictionary for enhanced note taking. Study queues can be made as well. Knowcase - Create collaborative outlines with this easy-to-use site that features a drag-n-drop interface. Thinklinkr - A real-time collaborative outline creator that has a nice built-in chat feature to engage in project development. Checkvist - A great collaborative online outliner that has an abundance of features such as: gmail/browser integration, mobility, and nice import/export features. CRLS Outline Maker - Takes users through a step-by-step process to create an outline. Read Write & Think Outline Maker - A very easy-to-use outline creator that teaches how to create outlines. Loose Stitch - A nice fun site for creating collaborative outlines that can the be exported to a blog or website. Wisemapping - More of a mindmapper than pure outline creator, but still a great visual site that teaches the basic concepts of creating an outline. Mindmeister - A fun site for real-time collaboration that is ideal for creating brainstorms, mind maps, and outlines. Blogs/Wikis Wikispaces-Free webpage tool creator for teachers to use to share information online with students, parents, and the community. Kidblog- Great way for schools to have kids blog. No student email is required and everything is monitored before being posted online. 21 Classes- Get students blogging in a safe and secure environment. Search Engines South Dakota Library- great resource for doing research. It has a page for kids in which they can find appropriate/leveled websites, and full text articles (also marked for different reading levels). Qwicki--Digital storytelling search engine that provides audio, visual, and text to any question. (Alpha). Education Eye- Fun site for brainstorming with this visual search engine Quintura for Kids- A search engine for kids that acts a bit like a tag cloud where results can be embedded into a site. Sweet Search - A group of experts, including librarians and teachers, evaluates all content from this search engine. Top Marks - A great site developed in the UK by teachers who approved everything on this site. Quintura for Kids - An innovative search engine for kids that displays results in a cloud-based style. Also, has apps for mobile devices. Kid Rex - Wonderful search engine designed around Google's safe search. Very nice visual appeal for kids. Ask Kids - Search engine designed for kids ages 6-12. Yahoo Kids - Previously known as Yahooligans, Yahoo Kids is a fun site for kids to gather information on the internet. Famhoo - Family-friendly search engine that filters all content. One Key - Developed in 1996, One Key, in collaboration with Google, does a nice job of creating a safe search engine. Google (safe search) - Google has a safe-search setting which can be locked into place at the browser level for those that use Firefox. Nettrekker - Great paid site for searching the web -- not only for students but for teachers as well. Science
NBC Learn--from the National Science Foundation that launches a weekly online video series that uncovers and explains the science of common physical objects in our world and the changes they undergo everyday. Virtual Frog Dissection--dissect frogs without getting your hands dirty! V-Frog and V-Frog 2 lets you explore a frog without hurting anyone. Pause dissection and annotate with notes so students understand what is happening. Virtual Space Journey--A virtual journey through space offers photos and facts about Earth and its neighboring planets. DNA Discovery Center--answers many frequently asked questions about DNA. Solar System Scope--View the solar system in a virtual 3D environment that can also be downloaded on your desktop. |
Art/Music
Watson Music--Large list of various Web 2.0 sites to engage various learners and incorporate technology into the music classroom. Art Education 2.0--An online professional learning community for Art Educators Musicshake Education--Legal, copyright, free music for every student in your school--created by students, right from a browser. |
Social Studies
U.S Map Test//--Interactive map game that challenges students to identify states on the map by dragging and dropping. Great for smartboards! American Centuries--Take an online field trip. Assign a different museum to small groups of students. Have them explore their states and then create presentations for the rest of the class. For American History. XtraNormal--Create interactive timelines and share them online. Build a graphic organizer for an event and students will learn from visual depiction on the IWB. |
Clip Art and Images
Pics4Learning - Very popular site to find free, safe-to-use images for teachers and students. Cyclo.ps - Search engine that searches the most popular free image engines around and provides one-stop shopping. School Clip Art - Great site for free school clip art. Ookaboo - Creative commons (free) site for finding great images for class work. Picsearch - Excellent image search engine, if used with a district's filtering solution. Veezzle - Wonderful free stock photo search engine. Google Swirl - Innovative way to search for images and see their relationships with each other (use with Google Safe Search enabled). Free Photo Bank -Easy way to find creative common images. Open Clip Art -Great way to find free clip art. Find Icons - Nice site for free icons. Digital Storytelling Creaza--Offers a suite of online tools that students can use to create, publish, and share digital stories, in and out of school; premium version has a fee. Kerpoof--Multimedia software used to create original artwork, animated movies, stories, greeting cards, and more! Xtranormal--students can create their own movies using digitally animated characters. Story Jumper -Excellent site for digital storytelling, with many educational resources for teachers. Shwup- Great site for making collaborative slide shows. PreZentit -Very similar to Shwup, a nice looking site for making collaborative slide shows. MeMoov- Very user-friendly site for digital storytelling that allows users to record their voice for narration. Zooburst - Great site for for digital storytelling, where a user can make an online 3D pop-up book. Comic Master- Fun site for digital storytelling that has a drag-n-drop interface. Stupeflix-Mix images, videos, and soundtracks. Add titles, transitions, and themes. There is no library of free music but you can easily embed it. See this great example. VoiceThread- Integrate slides, drawings, videos, and images. People can leave comments in a variety of formats. Glogster- An interactive and multimedia poster. Magnoto- A mix between Wallwisher and Glogster. Display your photos, videos, text and audio in unique ways on a cool background. You have the freedom to move the parts around. People can comment on the different pages and subscribe to them. Yodio- Add narration to slideshows easily through your computer or by using your phone. Embed this easily in your blog. Presentation Tools Prezi-the alternative to PowerPoint. Create non-linear presentations with images, text, video, and cool transitions. Ahead- Works like Prezi. This is an online platform for dynamic presentations. Upload videos, audio, images, pdfs, and Word documents. Capzles-make an impressive presentation with your videos, images, and music. Moreover, blog about the experience which goes on a horizontal timeline. Also has a free app for your mobile phone! Slideshare- Upload your PowerPoint presentations, Word documents and pdfs to embed in your blog. You can narrate your presentation. Vuvox-Choose from 3 different types of effective presentations- express, collage, or studio. Upload your own video clips, photos, and music and add incredible effects. You can embed this in your blog. Presentation Tube--A nice windows app for creating presentations out of Powerpoint slides. |
Computer
Weebly--Allow students to create easy to make websites using drag and drop items to their webpage. Websites are free! Show My PC--Allows you to connect to anyones computer using a generated password shared via e-mail or phone. Free. UW Stout Rubrics--Rubrics for just about any assignment. Search and entire list of rubrics created for particular projects. Jeopardy Labs--Play Jeopardy to review lessons and prepare for exams. Create your own templates or borrow from other teachers. Video Editor Animoto- Make videos with creative common images and audio. Upload your own images, video clips, and audios. Drag on Tape- Very user-friendly site that uses a drag-n-drop interface to edit and mix video. Jay Cut- Similar to iMovie that allows users to edit or create a video. Masher- Create a video by mixing video clips, music tracks, and images. These can be from your own library or choose from a huge library of audio, video, and music content, which are free to use. Easily embed it in your blog. Picture Editor/Slideshows Animoto- Make videos with creative common images and audio. Upload your own images, video clips, and audios. Splashup - Looks like Photoshop and is a great way to edit photos and manipulate layers and effects Cloud Canvas - Great site for photo editing and drawing or painting, similar to Splashup. Magic Studio - Great multi-media site for uploading photos,documents or video and then editing them. Empressr-Upload video, images and audio to create cool slideshows with impressive effects. Use the charting and table tools, import images from Flickr, embed your presentation on your blog, and create a backchannel with Twitter during your presentation. PhotoPeach- Slideshows and quizzes with music that embed on your websites or blogs. Yodio- Add narration to slideshows easily through your computer or by using your phone. Embed this easily in your blog. Extras Bouncey Balls--Classroom management tool that allows students to self track noise level in the classroom Cacoo - Nice site for creating online charts and graphs with a built-in chat feature for collaboration. Encyclomedia - Video encyclopedia where results can be embedded into a site. Google Tools for Educators- Students collaborate in real time to create slideshows, drawings, documents, and more that are on the web and can easily be embedded. Google has numerous free apps that make collaboration and creation easy! Google Tools Tutorials Zoho Shows- Similar to Google apps, but you also have great drag and drop features! Very useful alternative if you can’t get Google apps in your school. Includes pre-built themes, clipart and shapes |
Social Bookmarking
Diigo--browser add-on that can really improve your research productivity. You can highlight portions of web pages that are of particular interest to you. You can also attach sticky notes to specific parts of web pages. Del.icio.us--keep favorite websites, music, books, and more in a place where you can always find them; share your favorites with students and colleagues; and discover new and interesting things by browsing popular and related items. Middlespot - Innovative website for social bookmarking that allows users to collect sites in a visual way. |
Surveys
Survey Monkey--Allows you to create surveys for your classroom or use it for student data or student evaluation. |