Heads in the Cloud

Browse the results of the US Census by topic like education, employment, agriculture or ethnicity. The information can be broken down according to periods of time across the nation or within a state. Once you have accessed the information you want - you can use it yourself or try their interactive maps that are specific to your requests. Good US history resource, MS +.

Find lesson plans and embeddable digital tools to work with the concepts of chords, frequency and rhythm.

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/).

"InterroBang is a socially networked problem solving game where middle and high school students complete real-world missions to win prizes, learn problem solving and connect with others to change the world. InterroBang players are awarded points for completed missions based on a problem-solving rubric. Teachers can use InterroBang to extend learning from their classrooms with these student-centered activities. 1. Pick a MISSION. Start easy (10 points) and work your way up. There are many to choose from: more added every week since students can add missions as well. 2. Make a PLAN. We'll help you get started. Do it by yourself or collaborate with your friends and people on your team. 3. Go out and DO IT. Have fun. Document what you're doing with text, pictures, video, and audio. 4. You must PROVE you did it. Upload pictures and videos that verify you completed the mission. Tell us in detail about your experience. 5. CONNECT with the community. Take a look at what other players are doing. Make strategic alliances. Create missions."

Always looking for a good way to engage students, this blogger makes math appear dynamic and interesting. Most of the math content in the projects he proposes is HS level. However, his manner of thinking through HOW to present the lessons in meaningful, real-life situations is relevant to any teacher. This is one of those blogs that makes me wistful about being in the classroom full-time.

Library of Congress resources for teachers. The incredible amount of data available via the internet includes uploaded historical documents and images. As we teach students to express themselves through multiple modes, we can also explore with them how to use images and text from the past to help us understand other contexts. Exploration of primary texts with students is even more vital now than in previous times, and it is much easier, too, due to sites like this.

Trying to find a way to link time and place.. This tool is excellent for documenting current events. With some anachronisms (Country/city names), it can also be used for history projects. You can make a movie of the path - including comments along the way. (eg. http://www.tripline.net/trip/Silk_Road_Travels-35447507447210038F7CB9175B8803EE)

This dictionary site features slides created by children in Beijing. A good resource for a Chinese classroom to use, it is also a model of what children can create and share with others.

"The various aspects of a web exhibit fit together seamlessly so that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts-with descriptions, narratives, maps, photos, videos, and audio clips joining together to create a rich, immersive experience. Exhibits combine deep research, attention to nuance and detail, respect for visitors, and thoughtful and thorough presentation methods. In this way, exhibits provide visitors with practical knowledge, motivation to change their behaviors, and intangible benefits from understanding science and culture more deeply. Exhibits on health or climate change, for example, can help people understand complex topics and learn how to change their habits for the better. Similarly, art exhibits can provide a non-intimidating way to explore famous works, while revealing hidden stories lurking on the canvas." Lots of topics ranging from time to poetry to butter...

Select your grade level to begin a spelling challenge. Passages appear with blanks - you can hear the entire passage read aloud and click again to hear the words that fill the blanks. Students type their answers in the spaces and submit the paragraph once they are done. They can compare what they typed to the correct spellings and click on the audio again if they want. Students have three levels they can go through, but independently the student might be able to try different grade levels.

Kerpoof is a fun studio that lets students make cards, pictures, and books. For the books students are supplied with settings, characters, and objects that they can arrange themselves to suit the story that they type. The students pick a theme - including pirates, aliens, and fantasy. The animated movies are similar in that you choose a theme and then begin building scenes. Best for elementary.

Students watch an animated version of "Cinderella."Afterwards they learn about setting, characters, sequence, exposition, conflict, climax, and resolution through interactives. Intended for grades 3-5.

"An in-depth and interactive resource, Edutopia.org offers practical, hands-on advice, real-world examples, lively contributions from practitioners, and invaluable tips and tools."

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.

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).

"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."

LiveBinders is a free resource that allows you to gather together all of the web-pages you want in one location. You can also include images, videos, and documents (as pdfs) in the binder. Teachers may want to let younger students access the pages they need directly from a binder. Teachers might want to gather all of their websites and resources for a topic in one binder - like all math worksheet sites. Students can put all of the pages in one binder as they are working on a project - to make the information more manageable. Currently, I have students using this for their Technology process folders - they can make tabs for each part of the process, keep all the pages they refer to, and upload any documents they create in googledocs as pdfs. They give me access to see them so i can know how much progress they have made. I actually made a binder with the tabs laid out for them that they copied so we could all start with the same basic plan.

BrainPop presents lots of topics for all areas of the curriculum in multimedia style with videos, a variety of activities, lots of information, and online quizzes that can be sent to the teacher. Animated characters Tim and his robot Moby answer a question in each of the videos on Brain Pop. Each topic is tied to state standards for the subject, grades 3-12. I would think this would be best as a regular resource for elementary classrooms, although I know they have a great deal of information available for middle school too. This is a subscription service, but some of the topics are available free.To browse just those videos, visit http://www.brainpop.com/free_stuff/. Brain Pop for Educators (http://www.brainpop.com/educators/home/) has additional resources for teachers including lesson plans. Brain Pop is also available in Jr, (K-3), Espanol, and ESL versions. Check out one of the videos!

"For Students, GLOBE provides the opportunity to: collect scientific data on their local environment focused on the atmosphere, water, soil, and land cover share their data with others via the Internet publish the results from their research projects create maps and graphs of GLOBE data on the GLOBE web site collaborate with other GLOBE students and scientists around the world"

History of The Wheel on Dipity. Dipity can be used to create historical timelines for class. I really like the sources feature available at the bottom of the timeline. Keep in mind, this is also an EXTREMELY social medium - it can pull your pics, tweets, blog posts, even your bookmarks together from all over the web and put them in a timeline or flipbook format. I think there is a tremendous amount of potential for that and I am interested to see how its use evolves. In the meantime these features also make it great to grab information on current events and global issues - which is probably the best use of the tool right now.