Group items tagged

Jessica Chandler January 24th, 2011 *Overview: This site is called Starfall. This website was designed to help students read. There are different categories to choose from such as ABCs, Learn to Read, It's Fun to Read, and I'm Reading. Each category has great contents once the recommended link is chosen. ABCs read the letter aloud that is chosen and shows word in which make the correct sound. Learn to Read contains different easy reads on line for the kids to read. It's fun to Read contains different types of reading such as tongue twisters, poetry, music, and etc. I'm Reading brings up a selection of books to read. This allows the students to choose what book sounds the best. If the child doesn't know a word, clicking on the word will read it out loud. There are many useful things to get out of this website for elementary and preschool kids, and for the teachers of that certain level. *Content: The content is very clear and prepared. It is easy for children to understand the concept of this website. It is easy to access everything to learn about reading. A child could participate in this designed website alone or with the parents. It has great content and is very beneficial for the younger students who cannot read. This website also makes reading fun! *Design: This website is fantastic! It helps the students love to read and demonstrates different patterns and the alphabet to the children. It is very colorful, but only the links are. Therefore, the content isn't hard to read. It is easy to find what you are looking for, and the site Is not overloaded with a bunch of information. It is quite eye catching and would be an excellent website for kids trying to learn how to read!

Whitney Reese Reviewed: 2/4/12 www.starfall.com Overview: The purpose of this website is to teach children to read with phonics. The intended audience for this website is children ranging from the prek grade levels to second grade. It includes many resources such as the letters of the alphabet and their sounds, tools to learn colors and numbers, short tales for beginner readers, several word and reading games, reading materials for more advanced readers including comics and plays, and many interactive educational games. It also has its own unique curriculum for teaching children to read. My overall impression of this site was very good. It was really easy to navigate and loaded quickly. It is very colorful and kid friendly. It also has great content for learning to read. Content: The content of this site is very clear and concise. It is organized in an orderly fashion, which makes finding where you want to go easy. The authors of this site are identified and are credible. The content of this site seems very up to date and serves as a great resource for teaching children phonics. The quality of information provided is very good and every aspect of the site seems to work properly.  Design: The design of this site is very attractive using bright colors and animated graphics. The homepage is set up easily so that kids are able to navigate but has links that adults can use to obtain site information as well. All multimedia aspects serve a clear purpose. Kids would love the design of this site. 

A free website to teach children to read with phonics. For preschool, kindergarten, and first grade. Exciting phonics games and online interactive books.

Dane Xavier Servantez 10/11/12 Overview: This website is very useful for students, teachers and parents who want to learn about the basics of health and safety. Some of the topics include chemical safety around the house, to drug abuse and nutritional value. This website is great because it comes with worksheets and advice for teachers and parents. Teaching health and safety isn't the funnest thing to learn in the first place, this website makes that fun for the students happen. The overall site is easy to navigate and deals with kids from K-5 and teens from grade 6-8. Content: The content of the page is exceptional, it is powered by USA.gov and has services from the Office of Citizen Services and Innovative Technologies which is part of the U.S. General Services Administration. There is a contact information link followed by the policies and privacy of the website. I assure you the information given is professional and current.  Design: The design of the page is not the most appealing page, but it gets the job done. The organization is not the best, its kind of random and everywhere. The links are all labeled in correct subjects, as are the pictures that are presented and the overall color is somewhat appealing. This website wont catch your attention right away, but it also wont drive you away either.

10-11-12 Step up to Writing is a website designed to show students how to write a well-structured paragraph using the step up method.  The Step up method is simple and compares writing to an everyday concept. The intended audience is for all students but would be best used for students between 3rd and 5th grade. Other than the links to the different paragraph sections no other resources are presented. If you want a good website to teach writing methods this is one to use.  The content on this site is very well organized that you can maneuver is very easily. At first look it provides basic information, the method is simply put until further clicking on each link to further diverge in to the each section. The information is written in a way that children can understand the information.  The website design was good but not perfect. Everything downloads effectively. When looking for the developer you need to go to the link at the bottom; it isn't very easy to find but is still accessible. No other links are on this section of the webpage but on the main homepage many helpful links are presented.  Overall this website need to improve the design a little but presents good information worth investigating. 

Overview: The purpose of this website is to give teachers tools to help engage student learning about U.S. history. The audience of this website is history teachers all the way from elementary school to high school. The available resources of this website are teaching materials for teachers, content about numerous historical topics, and a section about the best practices for teaching history. I like this website because not only does it offer history content to teach, it gives teachers tools to help engage students in the material. The quality of this material is high and is well organized and it is eye appealing to visitors. Content: At first look, visitors to the website are able to know where they are and it is made clear who the audience of the website is. The authors and sponsors of the website are made available and contact information is provided. The only negative point about this website is its information currency. There is no last revision date, only a copyright year. The quality of information is great. There are numerous links to sources about various historical events and there are links for each grade level as well. There are also quizzes on the website to help enhance student learning. Design: The speed of this website is high; the homepage downloads immediately. The main page is very appealing and the content is accessible from three different tabs on top of the page. The information regarding authors/sponsors is also accessible at the bottom of the page. The navigation of the site is good; however, there are no directions available to visitors for navigating the site. . The site is compatible with various browsers and the content of the website is well organized and is plentiful.

Gil Lowrey- 10/7/12 Overview: Proteacher.net is another resource site teachers can use to get ideas for lesson plans. You can search individual subjects or specific grades. There is also a chat section to chat with other teachers and a group's section to keep fellow teachers in the loop of your findings. Content: The content is extensive; it covers several subjects and grades K-8. You can also find specific standards and activities relating to those standards. Design: The design is poor. It is a little complex to navigate at first, but once you figure it out it becomes easier. This can be tricky and obviously everyone has his or her own learning curve. There is also a large portion of the site given to advertising which seems to take away from the sites validity at first, but when you remember this is simply a site to help find more resources it seems to not matter.

Casey KarchOctober 5, 2012Overview: The purpose of the Math Drills website is to provide a mathematics tool to instructors and parents through worksheets. They provide worksheets for elementary students to complete in grades one through six, ranging from just about anything they will need to learn to move through the district channels. Answer keys are provided as well. The intended audience is parents and teachers, helping to develop the children. The resources available to this site are links to worksheets, a tour of the website, and a link to contact the teachers and technicians that worked on the site. My impression is that it can be extremely useful for instructors and parents needing to get their students extra practice in mathematics. It is not an overwhelmingly designed site, so it is nice to navigate. Everything is in order and easy to understand. Content: The content in this site is exceptional. The main downfalls of it are the lack of hard information and varying information. It only contains worksheets, not explanations of the material. Other then that, it does not contain a date of last revision. On the plus side, the first look and information quality are excellent. The content will be very useful for teachers and parents, saving a lot of time. Design: Design is not very eye catching, but all the information is clearly labeled and easy to access. Home page is a nice touch, not too extravagant but not too boring. The use of multimedia, browser compatibility, and content presentation all appeal to multiple ages, making it an excellent source. Also, it contains an excellent link to find out further information by contacting the makers.

Michelle Hill February 24, 2012 Overview: The purpose of this website is to serve as a resource for furthering education and academics at the elementary school age. Therefore, the intended audience is teachers, students, and even parents. Available resources include games, pintables, apps, and videos for the subjects such as math, English, history and more. These resources are for ages Pre-K to 6th grade, and vary depending on the subject being learned. Overall, my impression of the website was that it was a great website that can aid me throughout my teaching career and will definitely be used in the future. Content: The content of the website was rated as very useful for my information needs based on the fact that the total number of "yes" answers outnumbered the "no" answers. Some strengths of the website included first look, the information providers, information quality, and further information. More strengths include that the site clearly stated the audience and basic contents of the site, information on the authors, the content was complete, information was consistent, and there were other links to other sites included. Some weaknesses of the site included that the information currency was either not provided or not applicable. The latest revision date was not provided, therefore I could not determine if the date was appropriate, so both of these were considered not applicable. Also, I had no way of telling if the content is updated frequently. Overall, the website provided a lot of content that will be useful. Design: The design of the website was rated as very well designed and easy to use based on the fact that the total number of "yes" answers outnumbered the "no" answers. Some strengths of the website design included the speed, home page, ease of navigation, use of multimedia, browser compatibility, content presentation, and availability of further information. It was all very well organized, the contents were clear, every

Courtney Lovell February 2, 2012 Overview: The purpose of this site is to provide lesson plans to elementary educators. It covers all of the basic subjects in elementary school and could be useful to future elementary teachers. Content: This site is lacking some important qualities, such as there is no information about the author on the site. Also the site does not have revision dates. The information quality of this site is superb. The site is well organized and easy to get around. The information appears to be accurate on this site and similar to information on other sites. This could be good tool to use as a future elementary educator. Design: The homepage of this site has a strong eye appeal. As the audience you can easily tell where you are and there is a table of contents available on the homepage. The homepage is lacking information about the provider and the copyright date. This site is easy to navigate and downloads efficiently. It also has useful information that can help elementary educators.

Tyler Rogers February 4, 2012 Overview: The purpose of this website is to provide educators with activities and lessons for space science. This website is geared towards educators. Viewers will find classroom activities, a list of standards that the site address, and links to other educational space science sites. The site is very easy to navigate, and the lessons and activities provided are of high quality. I would recommend this site to educators because of the excellent lessons, and because of the simple, yet effective layout of the entire site.  Content:  From the first click, the content is clear. Information about the author, including contact information, can be difficult to find. Revision dates are found at the bottom of the home page. By picking one of the listed topics, users will find activities and experiments created by the author. These activities can be effective for many grade levels. They are free of bias, and all the links function properly. Most of the activities contain printer-friendly pages for both the educator and the students. Design: This site has a simple design. The home page is clean, and the table of contents is clear. Copyright information and recent revision dates are available near the bottom of the screen. The site is remarkably easy to navigate: any link in the table of contents will take users to a list of every activity or classroom experiment available for that topic. Selecting an activity will then take users straight to the printable lesson. The actual lessons are all in black and white so that they can be printed easily.  This website uses very little media, as pictures only contribute to the home page, and title the banner of any other page. This site is compatible with multiple web browsers. 

Dillon Karajanis 10/22/13 Review of SendMyTeacher.com Overview: When I stumbled across this website I almost decided not to evaluate it due to its content but as I read on I saw that it could possibly be used as a teacher resource. The purpose of this website is to get teachers to participate in a five day program that provides them with the knowledge and techniques to motivate their students to pursue math and science careers. The audience targeted for this website is third through fifth grade teachers and the resources available for this website is the application to participate in this program, and a section where the students can apply to send their own teacher through the program. Overall I thought that this website was worth bookmarking because this experience could be beneficial as a teacher resource but not as a classroom tool. Content: At first I was unable to tell exactly what the website was about but as soon as I started reading the introduction I found out exactly what it was for. As I explored the site I found out the author of the site with ease because they are directly displayed as well as the latest revision date information. It seemed updated frequently and easy to understand. The content is clear and states its purpose so the user is not unclear of what the site is for. Even though I cannot use this site in my classroom I decided it was worth bookmarking for future reference incase I wanted to apply for the program. Design: The home page along with all the other pages of the website seemed to load successfully with no images or text not viewable. I noticed the sponsor right away along with the copyright information at the bottom of every page. Even though I did not see an index on the site, it is easy to read and navigate creating minimal problems. There is minimal sounds and videos in the site, but regarding the purpose of the site and the images it does have I believe it has a decent visual satisfaction. In general I thought this site to b

Dillon Karajanis 10/22/13 The Great Body Shop Review Overview: As soon as I accessed this site I knew what it was for. The purpose of this website is to provide teachers with certain materials, advice and other resources to improve or assist with educational instruction. The audiences intended for this website are Pre-K through middle school teachers and there are multiple resources that are included in the site; such as lesson plan ideas, trainings and tools or materials for multiple grade levels. Over all I thought this website to be the most beneficial to me as a teacher because I can use it to assist me in my teachings and refer to it for help or additional ideas. Content: At first look I am quickly able to determine the basic content of the site and its intended audience. I was able find the author of the site quickly as well and there is contact information provided easily as well. Even though the latest revision date wasn't clearly provided, I thought this site to be very useful information based on my needs and purposes. The site was accurate, the punctuation was correct and in general even though some basic information was unclear this is the most useful website I evaluated. Design: As far as speed goes, I was able to access the home page quickly and easily. The design of the home page is attractive and has the entire site's content listed on the side making it easy to navigate as well. The copyright information is easily spotted at the bottom the page as well. The site has useful links about them and who they are associated with making them appear as a credible source. The site format is consistent and easy to follow and the content involved makes the site worthwhile to visit. The website's overall impact had a positive effect on me and I thought it was well designed and an awesome educational resource.

Content: The first look at the content of this website really gives the user a lot of information. It is very easy to determine the basic content of the website and the intended audience. There is a paragraph stating exactly what the website is about, providing science related resources, and who it is intended for, K-12 educators. The information providers are easy to find by simply clicking on the "About SNL" link. It states the staff members who work on the website; although there is no information presented about any of them which makes it difficult to determine their qualifications. There is contact information through e-mail to contact the staff if the user has questions or to verify information. The sponsors are displayed at the bottom of the page. They are the AAAS and the Verizon Thinkfinity Program. The information seems to be relatively current. It appears that it was last updated 7/10 and none of the information is older than 1999. Some of the older information might be out of date, but there is plenty of information that has been contributed over the last two or three years. Also the links are all working and lead the user to sites that are up and running. I believe the information provided on the website is very high quality. There is a large amount of information that is very well organized and easy to work with. There appears to be no bias and the information is accurate. It also provides information that meets my exact purpose. There are tons of places for find further information. There are links to other resources as well as the science benchmarks for grades K-12.

Morgan Kuchta September 1, 2010 Blackboard.com Overview Blackboard (Bb) is a company with a website (Blackboard.com) that is similar to eCompanion used here on the UW campus. It provides an online domain for teachers to post assignments, announcements, proctor tests, host chats and discussions, and post grades. It is an interactive site for teachers and students to communicate and use as a resource. Bb is obviously aimed at the education audience and has different tools for everything from kindergarten to college. I have used Bb in the past in high school and it was always a very effective tool. It was dependable and very user friendly. I would highly recommend this site to all educators wishing to use an online forum. Content Summary At first look, Blackboard is an extremely well organized website, it gives its purpose on the home page and all major pages for the site have tabs clearly labeled at the top. The author information is not available, however blackboard is a company that provides an online forum for teachers and schools to use as a means of communicating with their students and promoting online learning, so it more than likely has more than one author. There is an email address for any support that you need and they also have a frequently asked questions section, broken down by the type of client you might be, i.e. teacher, student, designer, or administrator so you are likely to get your question answered right then and there. The site is very up to date and claims to be adding new features about once every few months so it stays current. The Information quality of this site is great, it is obviously a business and their purpose is clearly stated and easy to understand. It has links to all their concurrent sites that have other tools you can use to make Blackboard more accessible to you and your students i.e. Bb Mobile. Design I had no trouble downloading the home page. Although it is not full of bright colors its appeal states its purpose: efficie

Sara Scribner 1/22/10 Overview: This website is intended for students and teachers in Elementary Education. It includes interactive games ranging in difficulty from grades kindergarten through 5th. Although some games are less educational than others, this site offers some helpful, fun tools in teaching most subjects. Overall, this website is very credible and well suited for Elementary Education. Content: At first glance, the audience and basic content for this site are easily determined. Located at the bottom of the homepage are links to find information about the author, the site sponsor, contact information, and a note to parents and teachers with more information about the site. A copyright date was available, but a revision date was not provided. However, the site seems to be current. As I navigated through this website, all links were working. ABCya! is well organized, easy to understand when learning a new game, and provides accurate (content-wise and spelling/grammar-wise) information. Although this site offers games for all subjects, it seems primarily focused on student math skills, for majority of its games are math related. Also, it is clear this site is commercial because of the many ads that litter the pages. Despite the multitude of ads, I believe the content is accurate and useful in the classroom. Design: This quickly downloaded website is visually appealing to me and to young children. Although the rainbow of colors makes the page seem busy, it is very organized and the content is easy to locate and use. Links to other websites are not given, but there is so much information provided one could most likely find what he is looking for. Fun sounds accompany most games one plays adding excitement. For Kindergarteners, all games have sounds and the instructions are read aloud. I would however caution students using this site unsupervised because of the many advertisements.

Alexis Lunberg: February 1, 2011 The purpose of this website is to provide games and activities for young children in math, science, and literacy. The site also provides a link for homework help. Each section of the website is supposed to provide interactive teaching games and activities for the subject provided. The intended audience looks like it would be around kindergarten through third grade. The design is really simple and not very eye catching and there isn't very much content on the homepage. Since there isn't very much content it is hard to know what is actually on the site. Content There are a lot of things to critique on the content of this website. First of all it is very hard to identify what age group the site is intended for, and there is very little information about the person/people who made the website. Also the viewer has no idea when the site was made and whether the site has been updated. Some of the links to the other sections of the website are not working and the site doesn't really meet the purposes that the teacher would think it would. The games are of low quality and outdated. Overall the site doesn't have very good content. Design The design of the website can overall be confusing if you are trying to get back to where you started. The homepage isn't very attractive and the graphics can be kind of confusing. For instance the math section has a graphic of numbers above the text, so you would assume that the games in that section would be very basic. There are some basic games in this section but there are some that are so challenging that they seem like they don't belong. Several of the links are outdated or broken and there isn't a consistent format used throughout the website. Also the links on the website aren't very useful. Overall the design needs a lot of help.

Overview- This site is intended for older elementary students and well as 7th and 8th grade students. This site communicates civics in a very exciting way. There are selections and choices to pick from on the opening page. These choices range from categories such as quizzes, independence, the constitution, legislative, executive, and judicial braches and well as elections, and citizenship. Following your selection of the topic of your choice, one is given additional categories to explore. Content- I like this website because it is very simplistic, but very informative for educational purposes. It is clear and detailed. As an elementary or middle school child this type of website would be an excellent way of establishing ones first book report or learning about government. It is very easy to access all areas of the site. Design- The design is very colorful and eye catching.

Korinne Thoren 14 September 2011 The Artist's Toolkit Overview: The Artist's Toolkit is a site for students around grades 5-8 that provides an interactive way to study the elements and principals of design. The site is a fun way for students to learn about important art concepts that are at the foundation of all works of art. Overall, this is a fun and educational site. Content: As previously mentioned, The Artist's Toolkit is a site designed to teach students about elements and principals of design such as line, space, balance, and movement. Examples and interactive games are provided for each concept giving the user the ability to see examples but also create their own work. The website contains a link of credits to the creators of the games, etc. but users must link back to the sponsor's page to find any contact information. This site would definitely be beneficial for younger students learning about basic design but would not work well for older students. Design: The design of this site is very appealing and student friendly and the same basic design is used throughout. The website does not, however, contain external links to other educational websites and some of the games did not work on the first loading. Information on the site is well organized and informative and there are lots of good graphics and sounds that enhance the overall site experience.

Overview Spanish Teaching is a site for the teacher or student of the Spanish language. At first glance, it appears a bit basic. It is not super eye catching nor filled with an abundance of sights, sounds and fluff. However, its form and function are succinct. Every item on the page has a specific purpose and supplies exactly what it implies. The hyper-links are true to form and also supply additional topic related substance. It is easy to use, straight forward and would be relevant for all grade levels of instruction. Content The site is broken into four divisions; Spanish Members Zone, Online quizzes for students:, Teaching websites of the week and Lesson plan ideas. Each division contains links to topics suited to the subject. Design The design of the site is simple. Site name and purpose is scrolled down the left side of the page in a colorful bandana. The Main idea: Spanish Teaching is at the top , a picture reference for memory follows. Next comes the site topics, Learn, Teach, Travel. At the top of the site home page the words Teaching , Traveling and Learning are in different bright colors and open to related links. Athe design is easy to follow and use.

Overview: Fuel the Brain is a math website which provides games for students at different learning levels. This site is mainly geared towards lower grades including K, 1, 2 and 3. This site seems really fun upon first glance. Not only are there games for children, there are also printable worksheets for teachers and parents. Teacher guides and articles are also available.  Content: This website offers games that cover counting, numbers, operations, algebraic thinking and geometry. These games would be ideal for young children. The website has minimal advertising. The author information is available under the 'About' link and the contact information is available under the link labeled 'Contact'. The copyright is not available. Design: Fuel the Brain's homepage is very colorful and attractive to younger children. However, older students would not appeal to this website. At the top of the homepage the links are provided clearly for easy navigation. 

Chelsea Eisenbarth 9/11/11 Overview: This website is made by the Lewis and Clark Fort Mandan Foundation and is swamped with information on the trail and expedition that the group took. The website is more accessible for children in upper elementary grades, parents, and teachers. There are many different links to explore and information to sift through. The site wasn't my favorite but serves as a good reference point if needed. Content: The authors of the site were clearly identified with biographies of each person involved available to the browser. The information was valid and there was a lot of it. However, it seemed easy to get lost or sidetracked in the overwhelming amount of information. I couldn't find a revision date and ran into a couple of old links that were no longer in use. The information was sometimes confusing and hard to follow as you had to click multiple times to find it. Design: The homepage loaded successfully at first try. The homepage is attractive but there are many different links and areas to click. Clicking on one path will take you to multiple others and this continues as you go making it difficult to backtrack or trace your steps a second time. I thought that the design could be improved for easier navigation but the website still contains valid information that can be used as a reference when teaching material on Lewis and Clark.