507PhoenixTech

A non-profit organization, Teaching Channel launched publicly in June 2011. In addition to exemplary website content, this organization produces a weekly one-hour program featuring Tch videos, Teaching Channel Presents, which airs on PBS stations in nearly 75 million homes across the United States. Being veted by PBS for educational content to put on the air gives this site more credibility use in the classroom! This website offers a full library of educational videos that are student-centered and lesson plan ready! There is little information on the organization philosophy when you first enter this site and a balance of teacher's commentary on instructional methods and menu of available video topics! This can be a great resource in lesson planning with the integration of instructional video that have reliable content and provide the student-centered materials that engages student in the lesson.

This March 29, 2011 Blog by Paul Bogan, provide an interesting prospective on why Teacher-based learning is creating behavioral management problems in middle and high school classrooms! The privately funded George Lucas Educational Foundation strives to make Edutopia a source of communication and leadership for improvement of instructional methods through-out the K- 12 educational community! Edutopia is "dedicated to transforming the learning process by helping educators implement the improved strategies." Edutopia's strategies are Comprehensive Assessments, Integrated Studies, Project-based Learning, Social and Emotional Learning, Teacher Development, and Technology Integration. This website focuses less on video production and more on Teacher's blogs that communicate how teachers are implementing the Edutopia's list of improved strategies! On this site more can be gained by researching instructional methods and finding inspirational examples of successful schools than gathering classroom ready lesson materials.

Edmodo is an interactive social website for teachers to setup their virtual classroom! Provides teachers and students a safe and secure place to connect and exchange information, share content and educational applications, access homework, and view grades, class discussions, and notifications. In late 2008, Nic Borg and Jeff O'Hara, believing to evolve the school environment needed to reflect the connected world, set out to create a tool that closes the gap between accessing the internet and availability of how they learn in school. It is Edmodo's goal to help educators harness the power of social media to customize the classroom for each and every learner. Edmodo functionally makes the virtual classroom anytime, anyplace learning. Teachers have the full ability to post messages, discuss classroom topics, assign and grade classwork, share content and materials, and network and exchange ideas with their peers! This website shares new ideas that are developing through the growth of this social learning community, giving it the potential to eclipse other teacher resource site!

Web 2.0 Education resource Make your classroom a social learning network!

This website povides video Math course online for K -12 and College students . MathVids was launched on March 14, 2008 as a joint project of Scott and Ryan Anderson! It has since grown to 1550 Math video lessons taught by 40 teachers! According to the founders, through "the accessibility of online math videos, we hope to provide students around the world with an equal opportunity to access high quality math lessons and improve mathematical literacy in the 21st century." Seeking only the highest quality of math video, this website screens content very closely. Often allowing several teachers to teach lessons on the same subject for reaching students that may reach the conclusion through separate intelligence! This website is organized like a textbook, so math students can be browsed through easily in addition to using fully-functional search utility that will help students find exactly what you need. I found this site very user friendly and could see myself examining some of this material for lesson planning ideas!

This appeals to me because it is a fun video website that make video technology the central topic for the improvement of classroom education. The Infinite Thinking Machine (ITM) is a high-energy Internet TV show, first launched in 2006, directly targeted at K-12 educators, parents and students with the simple goal is to inspire creativity and innovation in education. Currently in its second season in the current format, it provides an upbeat and engaging commentary that appeals to older student and educator, alike. New episodes are released every two weeks during the school year. Each show features a classroom teacher as its host, many engaging educators as "Field Trip" correspondents and amazing innovators as guests. Innovative approaches to education are showcased, and the teachers, administrators and students behind them are celebrated. Special segments address deeper topics head-on, often challenging conventional educational thinking. Currently in its second season, the ITM depends on a mix of funding from its producing organization, education partners and corporate sponsors. Produced by Computer-Using Educators (CUE), a nonprofit educational association focused on advancing student achievement through technology. I found the several segments that I watched informative and interesting professional produced programing!

"Explore the science of music with us, through these online exhibits, movies, and questions. Along the way, you can compose, mix, dance, drum, experiment, and above all…listen." This site allows students to learn about the science behind music and experiment with different sounds and instruments. Artists from around the world contribute to the videos and sound files giving historical background to musical instruments and styles of music.

This site is very informative and would be a great resource for any general classroom teacher in making connections between music and science.

A writing generator for grades K-6, this resource is very teacher- and student-friendly. An animated guide on the home page for teachers was very simple to understand.

Scholastic Story Starters help students generate ideas, allow creativity, identify story elements, accommodate writing levels and allow students to illustrate their work. It can be used for whole class instruction and individual writing projects.

ReadWriteThink features K-12 classroom resources, professional development, and parent resources. There are lesson plans aligned with NCTE and IRA standards and student interactives.

FableVision has many resources for K-12 educators including software, books, games, videos, a blog, a newsletter, and professional development. The resources are aligned with national standards (NETS-S, NCTM, etc.). The Grants link has pages of available grants for educators. It has some free resources and many products available for purchase.

The Busy Librarian has great ideas for educators on the Home page and the Books for Us link. Book reviews, links to resources, and lesson ideas that integrate technology with a primary education focus.

The Literature Network features access to books, short stories, and poems, an author search, a quote search, quizzes, and a literary periods timeline. Users can also search by literary period or literature history. It has literature forums for reading, book & author discussions, writing, and teaching. Older students could locate resources for projects. Teachers could use the literary periods timeline visual for instruction.

Google Books includes: QRC codes, author information and website links, bibliographic information, reviews, summaries, Wikipedia references, and related books, magazines and websites. Users can view, purchase, create an online library, or locate a book in a local library. Options to select a one or two page view can remove the menu and ads and be used to accommodate readers' needs. Older students could locate resources for projects. Users need to have selection skills to navigate the site. Not all book titles or authors searched had useable results.

KidPub has stories, poems, creative writing, videos, and reviews by kids and teens. It has links to Twitter, writing contests, message boards, and events. The site exclusively publishes (for a yearly fee) books and ebooks by kids and teens (who get royalties) as well as professionally edit and format, create cover art with input from the author, and help publicize and sell the books. The site offers a Publishing Guide. KidPub is a good resource to explore the publishing process and show students published works by other kids their age.

The Write Source website has writing topics by grade level (K-12) and provides student models with comments by grade level. It helps students create multimedia reports. The materials are created by teachers and writers. It provides information on MLA and APA style, a blog, and a list of publishers for student writing. The site has two very useful student resources: guidelines for how to evaluate interent resources and Research Links: Homework Help and Search Engines. The Write Source could be used by teachers and students.

Earthducation Adventure Learning Series is a series of 7 expeditions to every continent spread over 4 years by explorers and educators designed for the dynamic connectivity between education and sustainability. As the explorer and educators carried out their expeditions throughout the world,  students can experience the travels with them virtually. 

Interesting site that offers to those who may not travel to Paris, a feel of the Louvre. There are several online virtual tours that showcase the various exhibition rooms. This virtual field trip introduces one to the different cultures, sights, and events outside his/her own.

The title says it all!

This site teaches younger students about the mechanics of Cinquain, Haiku, Free Verse and Limericks. Students can choose from several phrases to complete poems of each style. Poetry Engine would be a great introduction to a basic poetry unit and is interactive whiteboard ready.

This site allows you to create customized maps by one of two methods. Draw your own or layer information onto existing maps provided by Ikimaps. Once completed, maps are given a unique URL to share by link. They can also be embedded onto websites. Ikimaps could be used as part of student presentations or could be created, with the use of an interactive white board, as a interactive, multimedia activity during class.