Spotlight

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This site will take to you a ma that will illustrate the size of the BP oil leak compared to a map of your area. I was appalled to see this in relation to my area.

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Come to the Philadelphia Zoo this summer for FREE. The intent is to have teachers visit then plan to bring their students on a field trip later in the year. The Philadelphia Zoo is the nations first zoo and has made many improvements of the past several years.

In addition, their education department has a summer institute for teachers as described in this link.

Begin your trip with the Discovery video “Beyond the Bars: Zoos and Zoo Animals (1987)”. There are blackline masters, a teacher’s guide and a quiz you can use with your class too!

This site is full of logic games for many age levels. At this time of the school year, you may need a time filler at the end of class as students finish projects. You can even put this up on your IWB and have groups of students try their hand at solving the puzzles contained within the pages. Caution, their are puzzles with NO directions. Part of the puzzle is trying to figure out the puzzle! Be patient, as the flash loads very slowly. Enjoy...

1. Casual Game Play #1 -
   
2. Casual Game Play #2 - make sure to try the island/volcano game
3. Casual Game Play #3 - click and drag
4. Casual Game Play #4 - ball physics

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Searching for information can be cumbersome if you don't have a plan. Random searching can produce a lucky find, but most of the time you need a plan for what keywords you will use and know a little about your subject. For example if you are searching for the text of Abraham Lincoln's speeches, using "Lincoln" in the search box will result in over 151 million hits. But if you narrow your search to Lincoln's speeches +text you may get around 65,000 hits. Well either way it is too many to look through in one day!

Here is a great resource for searching.

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This is a re-post from Tim Childers' blog; Beyond the Bell. You can create a quick way to take attendance on an Excel spreadsheet that can be used in your classroom. Students check themselves IN. For a complete step-by-step series of instructions, visit Tim's blog.

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Looking for a short tutorial for a student in your math class? Try this website and see if they have what you need. There are videos in all areas of math from the 4 basic functions, to quadratic equations. Try a few and put the links on your website for students to access this library when they need assistance.

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I'll bet you have wanted to show a YouTube video in your class, but were worried about the comments, or side videos that arrive randomly on the page. Quietube is a site that will allow you to view these in a clean window. You can choose a white or black background and give the link to students or show them in class without the extras. You simply put a button in your toolbar so you can access it anytime you find a video you want to use.

Bolex camera." style="border: medium none; display: block; width: 223px; height: 246px;">Image via Wikipedia

Many years ago I can remember getting a lesson from the media specialist about how to thread the 16mm projector and the filmstrip projector for my 6th grade health lessons. I had to research the county library book of films available, figure out where I would be in the curriculum in 30 days and hope that the movie I just ordered from 20 miles away would arrive on time for the class.

Now I hear teachers at the water cooler, yes we really do have them here, talk about some new site where they found a perfect 3 minute movie to show to their class today. With the advent of new online resources, video is becoming a much better medium to use to emphasize a point. There are thousands of educational films being used daily around the globe to promote a concept.

The ultimate resource in my book is DiscoveryEducation Streaming. If your school, county or state has provided this service to you by all means, USE IT. DES purchased United Streaming years ago and has since added much of the material from the DiscoveryChannel to the mix. There are different levels of the subscription at different costs. For example, the Planet Earth series is available through DiscoveryEducation Streaming, but you must upgrade to DES PLUS to be able to use the materials available with the new LIFE series. In addition of video, DES has images, clip art, songs, teacher resources and much much more.

In a recent online reading, I came across this link to a site that have 100 Video Sites Every Educator Should Bookmark. There are tremendous resources on this list and you should definitely explore some of these offerings. Who knows you might just strike gold in this plethora of resources.

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If you are a musician looking for some specific sheet music, check out MusicNotes.com. Not only can you buy sheet music for reasonable prices, but you can get 10% off this week (March 22, 2010). Music from the television show GLEE, Celtic Woman and Shrek are all available in addition to the classic music for an orchestra. The Shrek version of Hallelujah is only $5.25 before discount. Enjoy!

These sites are recommended in the April 2010 edition of MacWorld Magazine on page 43. They are for preteens and can go as low as toddler. Enjoy!

• TuxMath ages 5-8 - One or two player arithmetic skill games
• kids.discovery.com
• kids.nationalgeographic.com
• kids.yahoo.com
• americangirl.com/fun
• nick.com
• nickjr.com
• kidshealth.org/kid
• si.edu
• smithsonianeducation.org/students
• scholastic.com/kids