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All About Explorers is a site that Russel Tarr tipped me off to this morning. The site, developed by Gerald Aungst and Lauren Zucker, was designed to help students develop their skills in identifying valid information found on the Internet. On All About Explorers students find fake biographies of famous explorers. The biographies do contain information that is in part based on facts, the content is intentionally written to be inaccurate. Applications for Education Teachers who want to use All About Explorers to teach their students to be discerning consumers of information should take a look at the All About Explorers lessons and treasure hunts. The treasure hunts are short activities in which students compare information from multiple sources on the web. The lesson plans are a series of five activities designed to introduce students to web research strategies discerning the quality of information found online. My only criticism of the lesson plans is that lesson four perpetuates the myth that .org domains are generally non-profit organizations and that they somehow have more credibility than .com or .net domains. (A quick glance at martinlutherking.org or dhmo.org will dispel those myths).

"Lesson Plan Map "

"All of the lessons include Common Core standards that can be addressed through the lessons. And all of the lessons can be copied into your Google Docs account. These are some of the Common Core standards addressed in Google's search lesson plans. Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects based on focused questions, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation. Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, assess the credibility and accuracy of each source, and integrate the information while avoiding plagiarism. Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including determining technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyze how specific word choices shape meaning or tone. Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse formats and media, including visually and quantitatively, as well as in words."

On this page, you'll find Search Literacy lessons and A Google A Day classroom challenges. Our search literacy lessons help you meet the new Common Core State Standards and are broken down based on level of expertise in search: Beginner, Intermediate, or Advanced. A Google A Day challenges help your students put their search skills to the test, and to get your classroom engaged and excited about using technology to discover the world around them.

Into the Outdoors is a new site featuring videos and lesson plans about a wide variety of topics related to nature. The site is divided into six main topic areas; life science, farm science, social science, physical science, environmental science, and natural resources science. Each primary topic area includes a handful of sub-topics. Click on any sub-topic to find videos, lesson plans, and links to additional resources. 

Teachers, register for a free account and choose from a variety of specially-designed materials including games, lesson plans, and more to bring this year's election into your classroom!

a way to visually bookmark and share lesson plans and other educational resources. Today, Learnist released an iPad app and an iPhone app. The Learnist iPad and iPhone apps allow you to create boards, browse boards, and share your favorite resources.

Not sure why you would need a second app similar to pinterest. This is discussion to have, I think! Is there a benefit to having a duplicate universe out there strictly for education? The issue may be that students may already use some of these apps, so why not meet them where they already are rather than creating nerdier, albeit safer, ed environments that may be artificial??

The Smithsonian Tween Tribune is a free resource for teachers and students. It has a huge collection of articles written at various Lexile levels. The articles also come with a quiz to assess comprehension and students can post a comment about what they read.