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I think this is a fantastic resource for English teachers because it connects students with actual authors through author-planned workshops, which serves as a motivational tool and keeps the class interesting. Also, it provides teaching plans that comply with national standards and student activities based around each type of writing. These workshops would be perfect for display on an IWB because of the IWB's interactivity.

Summary of available materials - resources for active whiteboard use, activity suggestions, and useful links Use in classroom: Can be utilized in the classroom by involving students in the utilization of the whiteboard to present materials to class based on a review of assigned materials related to specific topics. Student learn to utilize technology and take an active and interactive part in the teaching and learning process

ANIMATED HISTORY - If a picture is worth a thousand words, a good animation is worth ten thousand. After reading book after book dealing with history and finding only complicated maps with dotted lines and dashed lines crisscrossing the pages, An effort has been to depict key naval and land battles using animation technology.

This is an excellent site that allows animation to present complicated facts through animations connecting events with the historical concepts and activites that surround them. An excellent way to present complicated specific information to student in an accurate, detailed, and yet entertaining way.

This website looks like a fantastic resource for teachers, although I was saddened to find that they didn't include English or Literature in their list of subjects.

This website looks like a fantastic resource for teachers, although I was saddened to find that they didn't include English or Literature in their list of subjects.

Interesting video about installations at the Modern Art Museum in San Diego, which showcase pieces from the Light and Space movement.

This site specializes in aggregating video from various sources online, but only content that has closed captioning. This could be a great asset for tracking down material online if you are in an inclusive setting and want to ensure that a student with a hearing impairment can still make use of video utilities like Youtube. This was an interesting video, and it was neat to see some glimpses of what look like some very cool installations, including some by James Turrell, who has some permanent installations at the Mattress Factory right here in Pittsburgh!

I think this site is pretty awesome even for hearing students. I know that when I watch something with words along the bottom, I automatically read what is along the bottom no matter what. Things that have tickers across the bottom, like CNN or (what I'm more likely watching, shamefully) E!, I get super distracted, which is frustrating. But having the words that are actually being spoken, kids may become better readers and also better absorb what is being presented to them. Reading along also makes watching a video a less passive activity.

I liked this piece because it reminded me of a conversation I had in another class this week. Another person in the class was asking how we can prepare our kids for technology in the future that we have no idea will exist as of right now. The example given was how nobody knew iPads would exist a few years ago and now tablets are the big thing. My thoughts are that if we make sure our students are well-versed in the technology that we have right now, future technology builds on that and becomes intuitive. It wasn't hard for me to go from Pac-Man to Zelda, or from Zelda to Doom. Each built on skills that I already had. When I got my iPad as a gift, I had no idea what the purpose of it was; now I can't live without it. It wasn't hard for me to learn at all because it built on the skills I already had. I think this article says all of that, albeit in a much simpler way.

Great points!

English Language Grammar and Vocabulary Exercises

This is a huge bunch of interactive (i.e. fill in the blank) exercises for English Language grammar and vocabulary. It's from a German website, and it seems like it might be a good resource for a student who was having trouble with a particular language or grammar area.

Found this link by poking around some of the Carnegie Museum sites. I like the idea of using the structure they point out with an IWB. You could have pictures of each thing you list on your word-association warm-up, and even give some multi-media examples in the music section, and have students list first impressions from listening/watching. An IWB could make this lesson really fun and interactive.

This site has numerous whiteboard activities which one can download varying for grade level and content area. I particularly liked that before downloading, you can view previews of the content. It seemed to have a lot of games, which may be a little too juvenile for older students, but some can be incorporated. I particularly liked the Jeopardy! game template, as I feel that is applicable across grade levels and is fun for the class to participate in. The fact that you can customize these for whatever you are teaching is great, so I think this site should be really reviewed across disciplines, as you can use things listed as Language Arts in other disciplines and vice versa.

This article focuses on the misuse of technology, mainly smart boards, in the classroom. In the article the author states that some teachers may find their teaching to be gimmicky or that the students will only pay attention to the technology. In turn, those teachers will only use the smartboards for power point presentations or as a glorified chalkboard. That does not have to be the case, as those previous examples are probably the worst uses for a smartboard. The article quickly points out that these boards are interactive and should be used that way. In the classroom, the last way that I intend on using a smartboard, if I am lucky enough to have one, will be as a chalkboard. There are so many great ways to use it and the technology is ever evolving. I intend on making use of this device to the fullest extent.

This is a website that has a ton of ridiculously cool interactive activities for teachers to use in the classroom. This company, Lakeshore, has interactive boards for Math, Language, Science and Social studies that would be a really cool way to keep kids active in the classroom while incorporating technology. I would personally use this to try and keep math interesting and interactive. Allowing students to feel like they are an active participant in their learning is a great way to empower them.