Heads in the Cloud

Videos, interactive presentations, data to visualize, labs. Lesson plans and resources to look at global issues and trends revealed in data. Handouts and lesson plans for teachers.

"Welcome to the Online Poetry Classroom. Here you will find a wealth of resources, including Discussion Forums where teachers can share ideas and seek help from colleagues; Pedagogical & Critical Essays about poetry; extensive links to relevant websites; Curriculum Units & Lesson Plans; biographies of hundreds of poets; and over 2,000 poems."

Add content to a picture - label it, color it, include lines and shapes, and add links to closeup pics. Lots of possibilities with the editing tools. Could be used with diagrams from science, maps, historical photos or artwork. Easy to embed or share. Below is a picture annotated to give more information about JFK's assassination.

"Discover and apply principles of genetic inheritance by studying the inheritance patterns of fruit flies in a virtual environment. You will work on a virtual lab bench from which you can order fruit fly mutants from a web merchant, mate the flies in an incubator, anesthetize flies for observation, examine flies under a microscope, and analyze the data from offspring to determine patterns of inheritance. Your task is to propose hypotheses, design experiments, and analyze and interpret the data from these experiments."

Some of these activities could be good for the classroom. Writer's Block lets kids read a story starter and complete it with their own ideas. Watch and listen to animated stories. Review books.Best for younger elementary students.

Learn more about wildlife conservation. Choose a field trip with the interactive map - you can choose according to region. The website includes a feature that allows students to submit their questions to a field researcher.

NPR has a number of podcasts and other media available on current events and global issues. It is easy to share the information with students to start discussions. When creating websites and other resources, I have used some of their multimedia resources.

A great way to have kids dig a little deeper about historical topics, events, and persons! When you create a box you have spaces for 6 persons or things in one box. You can create multiple layers. When you click on one of those images, it comes to the forefront as one side of a cube - as you click on the different sides of the cube you learn a little more about the significance of the item. So I may see a picture of someone on the original side, but the rest of the cube gives me more information such as an image of a document, the student's own writing, a video, or a weblink. As you explore all of the cubes in the box, you can see the evidence build up. In this way the students can prove what they think happened. The box in the link below shows items relating slavery/abolition. http://museumbox.e2bn.org/creator/viewer/show/34

David Warlick's new InfoGraphic-a-Day is a great way to help kids (and adults) understand how data can be formatted and analyzed. The site's organization with specific subjects and some interdisciplinary themes like Health works well with a 21st century approach. Students also can work on developing skills related to understanding all of the content that is available and creating and sharing their own work. Conveniently, Warlick has included a section just for data sources - although teachers and students could certainly seek out their own. If you like this site, you might like to check out his Blogroll too - I liked the DailyInfographic.com because I thought its Glogster-like posters looked like a great idea for a student project - with models already created. Check out this one about technology and the environment to see! http://dailyinfographic.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/earth-day-internet-infographic.png

Tools for teacher and students. The plagiarism checker and keyword checker could be useful when assessing students written work. A number of graphic organizers are available. Items can be shared on your blog or website. The "fakebook" template would be a fun way to have students demonstrate their reading comprehension or historical understanding.

An excellent resource for 3rd -5th grade, especially at holiday time. The interactive site focuses on building the skills of a historian - examining primary sources and discriminating between fact and myth. The teacher's resources include many graphic organizers.

Good for interdisciplinary themes "Geo-literacy is the ability to use geographic understanding and geographic reasoning to make decisions. Whether we are making decisions about where to live, what precautions to take for natural hazards, or how to set up a manufacturing supply chain, we are all called upon to make decisions that require geo-literacy throughout our lives."

With the election coming up in 2012, it is important to remember that "current events" does not have to be limited to a humanities classroom. This lesson could make a nice starting point for an interdisciplinary lesson on math and government.

Work with GPS can be great because it gets students out in the "real-world." Lessons may focus on animal habits, different earth science features, or the built environment humans have created. Mapping is a great skill to use and develop along with these projects. Most people are familiar with GPS systems in cars, but many mobile phones have this capability as well. There are also special devices dedicated to GPS tracking. This site can help you to explore the possibilities for learning with GPS.

Word-related fun! Browse their online dictionary. Play games for vocabulary and spelling. Make and define your own words using the build-your-own dictionary feature. Resources for teachers include background information on dictionaries and words. You can access the Scripps' Spelling Bee information from this site. Probably best for 2nd to 4th grade.

Information, animations, and interactives help students understand cells, heredity and DNA. An amazing amount of information presented beautifully. Teachers could begin to explore the more basic concepts in MS, but this would make a great resource for HS. Teachers should check out the new companion site Teach. Genetics, which includes a list of lessons and resources (http://teach.genetics.utah.edu/content/).

Documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. Easy to collaborate or submit assignments for viewing. Create forms that can be used as surveys to collect information.

A map tool that allows students to look at the world in terms of different species, locations , and ecosystems. The site also features interactives students can use to discover more about certain areas and species, like gorillas. Videos, podcasts, and photos enrich the site. Teachers looking for data sets to use with older students may appreciate the information the WWF makes public (http://www.worldwildlife.org/science/data/item1872.html).

This site looks at global scientific issues and presents articles and links that relate to them. Suitable for MS+ teachers to find resources, but intended for undergraduates to participate. Issues like biodiversity, environment, genomics, biotechnology, and evolution are presented with guiding questions.

Easy tool to use for surveys - collect data easily and analyze it. Helpful for students in MYP technology who need to get input for their investigation or their evaluation phase. Also useful for teachers and administrators. Very reliable.