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So maybe this wasn't exactly on our list of sources, but I found it by clicking away from one source to another. This site has nifty suggestions for different websites that pair well with smartboards. I indeed to use National Geographic's MapMaker to track the states & countries we cover in our class, so at the end of every nine weeks, we can see what sections of the world have been explored via literature.

I love the way you can search for standards and then lesson plans/activities that meet the standard. Some of the activities on this page are too low-level for high-school students, but many of them would help my students get up out of their seats and participate in class by drawing on the board together. I would certainly use this site when teaching grammar, so students can group-edit and see the result. 

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.

I really love this interactive site.  It would work great with children in art the first example is the chair.  If you launch the site and then go into the museum and click on specific art work such as the chair you can then work with different activities.  This is a great way for children who need some assistance coming up with ideas but then there are parts of the activities that create further exploration such as designing a table to go with the chair you created.  Great art site!!

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 is an interactive activity called the Weather Maker from the Scholastic online activities page. It allows you to manipulate the temperature at the equator and at the Earth's poles as well as to control the humidity. Based on the selected inputs, an animation of your home is exposed to the resulting weather conditions.  This could be a fantastic tool for the elementary science classroom as the students explore weather change. Various weather and precipitation outcomes can be inquired about and the students could control the weather maker and adjust the various elements to create the desired climate. Based on exploring the weather maker students can make observations and draw conclusions on seasonal climates, temperature change, and weather patterns. 

This is an interactive math website that places math fundamentals in a galactic interplanetary battle. With a variety of mathematic concepts at in a wide range of subjects, the website prompts the user to perform mathematical operations in timed duals versus a computer opponent. The theme of the website as well as the layout of the activities make it a resource that appeals to student desires to play and compete.  While the website does not really provide students with a learning opportunity, but it is a great way to assess student understanding of concepts. While having a battle in quadratic functions, I quickly realized that I am not as strong with the equations as I was with the graphic representations of functions. This site provides quick activities that could be highly valuable in adjusting and refining teaching units. 

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.

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.

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!

While looking through the different sites and the information that they offer I kept learning towards the 2 cents worth site.  I'm not sure why but I think it has part to do with the organization of the site and the information presented.  But I stumbled across this article which really makes you think about your style of teaching and the way it affects your students.  It also makes you think about how students need to see you as a learner as well rather than someone so high above them that they can not relate to you.  By providing students with this view they will be more likely to listen to what your saying and see what they are learning as beneficial to themselves.  I thoroughly enjoyed the chart at the bottom so if you don't have the time to read the whole article please at least look at the chart it's a real eye opener.

Really love what David has shared, here. I left a comment on this blog post of his after I read it a few minutes ago...it reminded me of the Sugata Mitra vid you guys watched this week. Thanks, Brittney!

Listing and links to tools for classroom use

This is a user driven channel that actually broadcasts on television, it is on all the major providers including comcast and verizon fios. Pretty cool tool!

One reason I bookmarked this site is because I was shocked, flabbergast, and delighted that "10 Completely Wrong Ways to Use Commas" made it into the "Most Popular" list for howstuffworks.com. The other reason is simpler: Howstuffworks taught me how to explain transgenics, use fantasy football, and change a car tire. Students should know this site!

I found this an interesting article seeing as I have taken other career paths prior to education and I know many of you have as well. With the state of the economy, many older Americans are looking to the field of teaching for a new chance to start a career. This influx of teachers from the baby boomer generation must adapt to a new era of educating students for a tech savvy future. Are the 50+ additions to the teaching pool more valuable with their real world experiences than the grad student half their age with the latest methodology and research.

I know a handful of teachers who came to Education after years in the corporate world. They bring a lot to the classroom as, I'm sure, you will. Thanks for sharing this article.

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.