Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Educational Web Sites for Teachers
1. Tube Chop - YouTube.com is a huge online portal to any and every video imaginable. Just search by topic. While it can be highly inappropriate for some things, it can also serve as a great tool when used in the right way. Teachers can find ways to illustrate concepts, projects, subjects, and more. A partner to You Tube, Tube Chop allows you to edit and "chop" any You Tube video, to make it acceptable for your students and parents to watch. In addition to security, it can also be used as a time saver, shortening a clip to maybe just the phrase or comment you are discussing in your class, especially when reviewing a speech. Copy the video from YouTube and paste the link in TubeChop, then follow the simple instructions.
2. Futureme,org - Send yourself an email and select the date you want to receive it. What you type in the email is up to you. This can be extremely useful for reminders to yourself and students. Students can email themselves notes, assignment or test reminders, monthly goals, or even year-end goals, like grade expectations. Use it as a vocabulary word tool and refresher. The possibilities are endless.
3. Lit2Go - A huge list of authors and their works. Click on the author you are looking for (organized by alphabet). See a short summary of their biography and then options for accessing the actual book you'd like to read. You can download the book via audio, in PDF, and more. Most books are segmented by chapters. Students can read the actual work online and teachers can see the standards met when using this material.
4. Super Kids Math Worksheet Creator - This is a free math sheet creator. Click the types of problems you need and your math worksheet will be ready in minutes. You can choose how many problems per page, and the subject level from basic to advanced in each category. It's great for teachers and parents to continue math drills and help at home.
5. Cells Alive - An interactive gallery of biology topics with definition, cycle explanations, and illustrations. Students can search in cell biology, microbiology, immunology, and microscopy. The animations are informative and the facts are explained in direct and simple ways of understanding.
6. Social Studies for Kids - A really comprehensive site of links to all things social studies and history. They offer changing fact sheets on the week in history, current events, and featured spotlights. Teachers can find book reviews on social studies topics, educational games by subject, maps, history, presidents, states, time, and so much more.
7. Word Smyth - An easy vocabulary word quiz maker. Free access allows you to use 15 words in your quiz question. Choose from children's, beginner, or advanced levels.
8. Why Files - This site provides a collection of online interactive science projects and concepts from making a snowflake and a rainbow to playing with lightning and controlling a tornado. There are well-written explanations of the science behind each concept.
9. Snag Learning - Educational videos by subject and grade level from K - college. Subjects including everything from children's programming and music to world culture and political science. Videos are provided by channels like National Geographic, PBS, and Sundance.
10. AlgeBasics - A great site for algebra tutorials and help on a long list of topics ranging from basics to ratios, factoring, linear equations, and radicals. If you click on a topic you will get an audio tutorial as well as a visual of the problem being solved.
We hope you found these useful. Internet4Classrooms strives to find the best online resources for educational use. And we'll continue to search as technology and classroom needs keep changing. Let us know if you have a favorite site of your own!
Monday, November 1, 2010
Why Students Should Write
When you walk into an empty classroom, what do you see? Desks, chairs, books, chalkboards, maybe a couple of computers. But what you don't see is the pressure. Teachers are pressured to meet scores and standards. Parents are pressured to raise the perfect students and to have the means to provide endless resources for their children. Students are pressured to make good grades, participate in school activities, be popular. As we've seen this past month focusing on bullying, we know school can be a pressure cooker for all kinds of emotions. Along with utilizing school resources like counselors and the community of parents and teachers, writing can serve as a key tool in just letting it all out!
Students often see writing as a chore. "O.k. kids, it's time to write in our journals today," the teacher might say. "Awwww!!" reply the children. But what they don't realize, is there are huge advantages to expressing themselves on paper (or keyboard depending on the resources).
A Communication Outlet
Writing allows us to express our thoughts out loud - but not really. Students can tell what they are feeling without having to necessarily face someone. They can talk about interests, goals, their likes and dislikes. When you write an idea down, and elaborate on it, you are emptying your head. And when students can empty their heads on a daily basis, the pressures don't have as much opportunity to build.
Stress Reliever
Once the writing is complete, and their heads are "empty," their work can act as a huge stress reliever. Writing allows students to reflect. They can go back, read how they were feeling the day before, or read about something that made them feel confident a week ago. When students write, they are providing themselves a way to analyze their thoughts, figure out what is going on, and move forward. It's a great problem solving tool.
Skill Builder
Writing enhances skills all across the board. Grammar, writing, reading, researching, proofreading, and on and on. When a student sits down to write, it's not just simply writing on a particular subject assigned by a teacher. Students are researching subjects, practicing English skills, proofing and editing their work, and communicating in a way that they expect everyone who's reading to understand. They are learning how to get their points across. They are learning how to cite sources. They are learning how to improve their skills daily without even knowing it, because constant writing keeps the mind sharp.
Idea Tracker
We know that students can be so creative! Yet they can be so busy as well. Writing, even if it's simply jotting down notes, allows them to remember things for later. Whether it be an essay idea, paper topic, or homework question, the act of keeping their ideas in one place adds confidence and offers another outlet for improving English skills.
Confidence Booster
Writing takes creativity. Students have to think, research, edit, build sentences, and communicate. When their writing assignment is complete, and they can go back and read what they wrote, it's a huge self-esteem booster. Confidence is especially achieved in the case of a blog, where the audience is not just fellow students or teachers. Students have the opportunity to feel validated when people across the globe can comment and relate to their ideas and feelings.
Whether students are writing or typing their content, it is saved. The work will be there whenever they want to go back and read it. There is a record of what's been created. Knowing "I did this," provides a sense of accomplishment. Students need that now, more than ever.
How do you incorporate writing into your classroom instruction? Do you find it valuable? Do you find it difficult to get students to find their creativity?
Internet4Classrooms has a wide range of writing resources and language arts tools. Check us out if you are looking for ideas and information. We'd love to hear from you!
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Why Blog in Your Classroom?
Friday, September 3, 2010
Tools for Time Management and Homework Help
Teachers and students are officially in school mode now. Time management and classroom organization for both parents and teachers can be a difficult hurdle to overcome.
For Teachers:
With all the tasks teachers have to tackle on a daily basis, it's imperative to have the knowledge that can help you stay on target for the year's goals. Internet4Classrooms has many tips and resources to ensure you stay organized and focused.
Teachers are most successful in time management and classroom organization if they know themselves and how they reach their peak productivity. Determine how you spend your time doing and prioritizing, before you begin creating task lists. By knowing your to-do's, you can create daily and weekly schedules as well as calendars to keep you and your students right on target.
For Parents:
Parents strive to give their children the best environment and tools to succeed, but often lack good resources or simply the time to find them. Internet4Classrooms is here to help! One of the biggest challenges for parents is homework, homework, homework. Some children are big procrastinators. Some children find the work so overwhelming that it's easier for them to just avoid it altogether. We all know it takes a lot of effort to make good grades all year long. If you're feeling removed or unsure of how your child approaches homework as a whole, try this exercise first to learn the best way to achieve assignment goals.
Once you've got your homework environment created and a routine in place, homework time can become an orderly system for both parents and children. Start with good study habits, training them to be more aware of how their minds work. A child's attention span can wander very easily. Teach concentration tactics on how to focus, learning how to remain dedicated to school work by taking scheduled breaks and offering grade incentives. After study habits are established, studying methods can be introduced, such as creating an index card system. If your students master these tools mentioned, then test taking help can complete the puzzle of eliminating stress and anxiety in your child's school days.
As a main resource, parents and teachers can go here for tips on everything from researching and paper writing, to communication, reading advanced materials, spelling help and assignment completion methods. Patience and persistence will definitely encourage success for all of your goals: organizationally, administratively, and beyond.
Children and Search Engines
Although there are obvious dangers when allowing kids to access the web without proper monitoring, there are tremendous advantages as well. For this blog, we’ll focus on the Internet as a whole, and discuss safe search engines specifically for students.
First and foremost, you want to make sure your children are using trustworthy and accurate resources. Common sites like Google and Ask.com have a huge amount of information. However you need to be careful what you click on. Make sure to read the website addresses before going to them. Sites like Wikipedia.org have a lot of material, however the information isn’t verified. Anyone can post on a particular topic.
There are many websites for children. Number 36 will help you search by topic. Number 40 has history search engines, science engines, authors and biographies, and so much more. Askkids.com allows you to type in any question. Super-kids.com is a great tool for searching by category, like people or science. You can also use the Internet Public Library for specific subject and reference needs.
When you are searching, make sure to type in keywords. If you’re not using a site where you can enter in the full question, you’ll need to narrow down the words you use. If you want the engine to look for a particular phrase, put it in quotations. For example: “civil war battlefields” instead of civil war or “middle school math” instead of just math. Most search engines have an advanced link button, where you can limit your topics even further.
Finally, teach your students the importance of acknowledging the sources they’ve used. The Internet offers a mountain of information, but remember the material has been written by someone else. Happy searching!
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Internet Safety Resources
Click Here for our Internet Safety Resources, which includes articles, videos, and games for children to play to learn about staying safe on the internet. In our Character Education Resources, we've included grade-appropriate resources on bullying and cyberbullying to help teachers and parents address this topic, as it is becoming more prevalent on social media sites, especially for middle and high school aged students.
As a reminder, please don't forget to visit our Back to School section, which has been expanded this year with more materials for teachers and families.
Please send us any resources that you may have found on this topic, so that we can share them on the site.
Thanks!
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Standardized Test Prep Activities for High School
Daily Vocabulary Practice is one of the best ways that you can raise your verbal scores on standardized tests.
Our Summer Learning Program provides daily and weekly practice for these tests over the summer and into the fall, and it is not too late to sign up. Click here to register for our Free Program that is designed by teachers and currently being used by thousands of students.
We'll send you daily vocabulary lists, Latin phrases, math and science activities, "This Day in History" and other fun, engaging activities to keep your mind working over the summer.
We also have other SAT/ACT practice resources for you to use on our site, including practice tests, interactive activities for English and Math and more!
Click Here to sign up now!
New ADHD Articles for Parents and Teachers!
Check out our newest articles from Dr. David Rabiner, Ph.D. addressing such topics as:
Monday, June 14, 2010
Free Summer Learning Program
every age level from Pre-K through High School.
On a daily and weekly basis, we will provide students and parents fun activities, links to
great learning games, and other educational resources that will help
them get ready for the 2010-2011 school year.
We feel that summer learning loss is a major concern.
- Did you know that on average, students lose approximately 2.6 months of grade level equivalency in mathematical computation skills during the summer months?
- Research shows that teachers typically spend between 4 to 6 weeks re-teaching material that students have forgotten over the summer.
Here is the link to sign up for the program:
http://www.internet4classrooms.com/links_grades_kindergarten_12/summer_learning_2010.htm
Please share this link with anyone
that you feel may be interested and/or benefit from this program.
Best Wishes for a Great Summer!
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Tell Congress to Keep our Schools Competitive
Write Your Representative Today or Face No Enhancing Education Through Technology Program Funding Next Year | |
Here is a link to the EdTech Action Network's Legislative Site that will assist you in sending email to your legislators.
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Top 10 Free Sites for Web 2.0 Tools
He presented last week at the Palm Beach County School District Technology Conference. His high-energy presentation showed live demos of the different tools and created a lot of excitement among the attendees.
In further blog posts, we'll show you how educators and creative thinkers are using these tools.
The List: Top 10 Free Web 2.0 Tools for Educators
- Delicious
- Glogster
- ipadio
- Kidblog
- Voicethread
- Wallwisher
- Poll Everywhere
- Edmodo
- Prezi
- Wordle
Monday, February 1, 2010
Diversity Lesson
"We're All the Same Inside" - this is a lesson plan that has been used for years. This link is to the preschool version, but it is appropriate for all ages.
Supplies needed: some eggs and an open mind
Have children decorate the eggs and give them different color skin (or mix brown and white eggs), hair, and features. Then crack open the eggs. They are all the same inside!
Sometimes the simplest lessons are the easiest to teach.
We've heard stories of children doing this lesson in school and then showing it to their parents at home.
Feel free to share with us any other simple projects that illustrate diversity.
- Susan
Friday, January 15, 2010
Lessons from the Earthquake in Haiti
Click here to read more.
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Connect to Students via a Teacher Blog
Teacher Blog? We can help you create one. Stay tuned for our January and February Newsletters for our Technology Focus on enabling teachers to connect with students via a blog.