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Natasha Tuft Web Site Review September 20, 2009 http://ilovethatteachingidea.com/ The purpose of this site is to allow teachers to share and find creative classroom management and teaching ideas. "Get inspired with creative ready-to-use teaching ideas!" I was very impressed by all of the very useful links, organized information, and abundance of different kinds of ideas for different age groups. CONTENT This is a site with a very clear purpose. At the very top it says "We inspire teachers with practical, teacher-created ideas and resources that you can use in your classroom immediately." In an easy-to -find place you can contact the information providers. Not only is there a "About Us" link, the site encourages you to join their free e-mail newsletter in a few different ways as you navigate the site. If there is a regular newsletter that tells me that the site is regularly updated, current, and active. The quality of the information is very good, of course remembering that any teacher (or anyone for that matter) can post teaching ideas. The usefulness of each idea is in the eye of the beholder. There is much access to further information on any given subject as there are topics and many links. DESIGN The page loads quickly and the homepage is appealing. The sponsor can be contacted easily and the organization of the links makes it easy to navigate the page. In trying to find "use of multimedia" I actually found a couple of downloads that didn't work, which doesn't mean there aren't other useful downloads or clips. The site was compatible with my browser, had excellent content presentation which was organized and eye-appealing. Things seemed current as mentioned above and there was a lot of availability to further information. The site made me excited to start planning my teaching curriculum and methods!

Kacee Von Krosigk 1-24-10 Content Web English Teacher is a way for teachers to learn new ideas to incorporate into the classroom. The viewers can follow this website on facebook.com or twitter.com. I believe this is a way to get teachers to discuss ideas for the classroom. Sharing ideas is a great way to use new and fun activities and projects in the classroom. There are also book report ideas, children's literature, mythology, poetry, speech, vocabulary, writing, and many other categories to choose from. Design The website doesn't seem to be very well made. There are a lot pop ups which become very off-putting and bothersome after awhile. There is a column on the left side which allows easy navigation from page to page. There is a Google Search on the bottom of the page. It is very distracting seeing all of the other ads. I wish this website would have a place where teachers or students could write other ideas to use in the classroom. There seems to be a lack of communication among anyone when there is definitely a need for it. Overview This website has a lot of creative writing prompts that I would love to use in my classroom. I think many teachers would be happy with this website because it has creative and new ideas for many different teachers and subjects. The content is easy to understand but it seems as if the page hasn't been undated in quite a while.

Samantha Cook 10/11/12 The Renaissance website on philosophy of that time is very useful for someone either looking for some background information on this topic or also for research for a paper. The Renaissance was a time period where there was a great movement into many of the ideas that we have today, like philosophy and the idea of not a large empire but smaller countries. This site gives a good overview of the philosophy side of that change, and how these thoughts started coming around. The information provided is good and accurate and gives a broad range that allows someone to either get a brief or go deeper. The purpose of the sight is to provide information. The intended audience for this sight is either high school students learning about the Renaissance or College students doing the same thing. They use this sight and the quality information provided as more of a summary then a full out research area, to give them brief ideas of the subject but there is so much deeper. The information provided is from all current sources nothing more than 1970s but that is not necessarily a bad thing. This is where academics at universities have gone through and interpreted the older writings into what is needed to know. There is also a large amount of sources which helps weed out the biased sources and ideas you can have by having different opinions added together. My overall opinion of this sight is it is a good sight for basic information, if you want to go deeper then you need to go elsewhere but it is a good sight to give a brief introduction into the idea of philosophy. It is pleasing to the eyes even without pictures and looks academic in that sense, I personally think pictures could make it better but it is fine without them. Overall it is a good trust worthy site.

This website, Incredible Art Lessons, is orangized very well and is very easy to navigate through. The intent and purpose of the website is very clear, it is specifically designed to give support and ideas to art teachers for a wide range of ages. There are many different links that teachers can use to get ideas for new projects from. The website also has lesson plans and ideas for all age groups in school, ranging from elementary lessons to undergraduate lessons. I really liked how the site also provided art project ideas for each holiday. The site also provides online activities for students for each project/idea. The lay out of the website is very easy to use and all of the links are current and helpful. At the bottom on the webpage there is a clear way to contact the creators of the website, and it was last copyrighted in 2009.

Kacee Von Krosigk 1-24-10 Content The National Writing Project states, "…focuses on the knowledge, expertise, and leadership of our nation's educators on sustained efforts to improve writing and learning or all learners". They seem to focus on any forms of writing and they want a future that has each and every person as a successful writer and learner. They are anchored at colleges and universities. Teachers from all levels and all subjects use these ideas. They want to improve the teaching of writing and learning in schools and communities. The page that I focused on was, "30 Ideas for Teaching Writing". It has very interesting and fun ideas to use in the classroom. Design The website is very professionally created. The viewer can tell that this is a qualified website to use. There are no distracting pop ups. The bottom of the page says 2010 National Writing Projects which would make the viewer feel comfortable about using the information. There are many links to very useful pages that any teacher would be happy with. Overview As an inspiring teacher, I would be very happy using this website for projects for my students. There are full length articles and updated information. The purpose of this website is to encourage teachers to be more creative and fun in the classroom by using the ideas given.

Katrina Swanson February 26, 2013 Overview: This website was created by a kindergarten teacher who wanted to share her ideas and lesson plans from inside her own classroom. It is intended for the kindergarten aged level but teacher access only. The teacher looks at the material and then creates her own ideas from it. The site gives tons of lesson plans for every day of the month and even extra fun things to do with kindergarteners. Content: The content of this site is very helpful to kindergarten or early childhood teachers. It is easy to determine what the site contains and also that it is created by a former kindergarten teacher. There is contact info available to contact her if there are any questions or ideas that come up. She provides updated content to the site daily and the links are all working correctly. The site is intended for others to get information as well as entertainment from to use in their classes. Design: The design of the website is very fun and entertaining. It includes lots of visuals of example lesson plans, words, links to different places on the site, videos and even has printables! The pages load efficiently and the links are correctly labeled. The information is organized in a way that everyone is able to view easily. It is a great website for any kindergarten teacher to have to spice up their classrooms!!

Overview: Preschool Activity Box has many good, different ideas, tips, and activities. The intended audience is teachers or parents who are teaching pre-k children. The website is well organized and easy to navigate. As soon as you click on the link to the website, you know where you are at and can see the index of activities and worksheets. The website is up to date although many of the links are dead ends. I like this webpage, it has good ideas but since most of the links are dead I probably would not use it. Content: At first look I was able to distinguish the purpose and audience for this site. There were no authors listed for this site but the sponsors are listed at the bottom, the only thing they don't have is contact info for the sponsors. The information was updated in 2011, so it is very current. There are very good ideas, activities and tips. Design: The website is concise and has good organization. The homepage loads well and at a first glance you know exactly what webpage you are on. The copyright and date are clearly seen and there is a link to their sister site. The first links are live and lead you to some tips and activity ideas, but when you go any further, for printouts, the links go dead. This is very detrimental to the site. There is a huge mix of live and dead links, so it makes it a guessing game as to which link will work.

Overview: There is a lot of information as well as links that contain many good ideas, printouts, and activities. This site is not well organized though. It is way too busy. There are so many pictures and words that it is hard to tell where you are at and where you want to go. The intended audience is adults, whether that is a teacher or parent. I do not like this site all that much. Although there is a lot of good information and ideas, it is hard to navigate and it takes more time than I would be willing to spend. Content: The content of this site is of good quality and there is a lot of it. There are numerous ideas for activities, food, and printouts for children. There are many links that parents could use. The last update for this website is 2011, so it is extremely recent. The sponsor is clearly labeled and there is contact information if you ever have any questions and comments. Although this website contains a lot of good stuff it was extremely had a first glance to tell what the website was about. Design: This site easily downloaded as well as had many links to navigate through. It is also current and has other information and links available. But the overall of design of this site was poor. There are so many different ads, link, pictures, and words that it is too busy and hard to understand what exactly are the links that are desired for Preschool activities and ideas. The title is not easily noticeable either. The site had a very confusing layout

Overview: This website is a good website for teachers who need fun and creative ideas for many different activities and lesson for Preschoolers and Kindergarteners. The last time this webpage was updated was in 2010, this is fairly recent, since that is within the last year. There are a variety of activities, games, quizzes, and many printouts. The intended audience is teachers who are looking for ideas. I love this website. It was easy to navigate and gave me a ton of great ideas and printouts I can use. Content: This website is full of links, all of which work, that lead to many different types of content from letters and numbers to animals to coloring pages. Within each of these sub-headings there are many activities and ideas to use for the children in your class. Each section and sub-sections are clearly defined and have pictures that correspond. The last update was last year, this seems to be a while ago, but since material for pre-k does not change drastically in a year, it is still up to date. There is not any information on the author, so that is lacking, but overall the content on this website is up to date and easy to access. Design: The design of this website has all links well defined and organized. There are pictures that also correspond to all of the links and headings. There is easy navigation throughout the whole website and everything is easy to access. Everything is up to date. There are a few varieties of media, mostly in the form of words and images. There is a copyright, also with a description as to how the website can be used for educational purposes.

http://www.crayola.com/free-coloring-pages/ Reviewed by Angela Eiden 8/31/2010 Overview This site was created by Crayola, the crayon maker. It is designed for kids and teachers alike. There are literally thousands of coloring pages for teachers and children to choose through. This site also includes features such as craft ideas and games for the youngsters. The site is fairly easy to sort through, once the desired page is found simply print and color. There are also hundreds of craft ideas to sort through. There are step by step instructions for each and every craft idea. The game page is loaded with fun and interesting games and ideas for those of all ages. This site is fairly easy to navigate through and it is very age appropriate. Content The only sponsor listed on this site is Crayola due to the fact that this site was designed and created by Crayola. This site does have a copyright listed through Crayola LLC. Furthermore, there are several logos that are copyrighted within the site. There are no outside links to other sites due to the extent of the Crayola content throughout the site. The site is quite useful in the educational information for the younger elementary students. And the content is extremely age appropriate for the intended audience. Design This site has a solid design for the intended audience. It is extremely colorful due to the nature of the creators, Crayola. Furthermore, the background theme plays off of the original theme of the Crayola box.

Lyle Wiley September 10, 2011 Overview: The About.com Shakespeare site is a resource site for educators and students dedicated to the Bard. The site is intended for educators and students and would mostly benefit the novice in all things Shakespeare education. The site contains many linked brief articles with Shakespeare information, historical background, lesson plans, teaching tips/ideas, and a frequently updated blog. While the site is housed in a template web page with few interactive media features and little eye appeal, it is well organized and certainly provides some useful information and ideas for educators needing a jump start in Shakespeare studies. Content: The basic content and intended audience for the website is easily discernable. Furthermore, the author of the content along with his credentials and contact information is readily available. The content of the site appears to be frequently updated and the author looks to at least post a blog entry monthly with new or updated site information. The information is well organized and easy to access and understand. While the site is relatively free of bias, there are a number of advertisements which often distort the flow of information but not severely. There are few external links (outside of About.com) on the website and no real media interactivity tied to the information. However, the information on the site looks to be accurate and certainly provides some good information and ideas for educational approaches to the works of Shakespeare. Design: While the homepage downloads quickly and the site navigation (complete with clear indexes of site content on the front page) is easily managed upon entry to the site, the immediate feel of the site is a naked template. This may not be eye catching, but the ease of information dissemination is handy. There is essentially no multimedia in play with this informational site, but the information communicated is worthwhile, succinct, and well organized.

Overview: I think this website could offer a lot of opportunity for teacher's when it comes to subjects and unit ideas. It seems to offer a lot of ideas for many units and themes, and also provides opportunities such as providing coloring questionnaires, and other activities easily accessed. This website is membership only to have access to everything, and it does cost money as well. However, navigating through the site I feel it would be a beneficial resource if a teacher was in need of lesson plans or activities for a unit. The design is okay, nothing too grabbing, but the website is easily navigated and a quick resource for opportunities when it comes to ideas for a unit. Content: The content is not so easily accessible, most likely to me not becoming a member for the site. The things that I do have access to seem like fun activities that can be included within a unit however; there are limited items to have access to. The items located underneath the membership field seem to offer a wider range of ideas and lesson plans, so it would seem that becoming a member would be beneficial if you needed ideas for a lot of units over time. For quick access, however, there is little to offer if a teacher needs resources quickly without having to pay a huge fee. What little links there are offered without becoming a member appears up to date and reliable, and there doesn't appear to be a bias with the website, unless having to pay a membership fee counts as being bias. Overall I feel this website would be a great resource as a teacher, the only hassle apparent is paying in order to receive all of the benefits. Design: The direction for this site are very clear, there are tabs at the top to help direct onlookers to different themes and units if Olympics is not a unit needed. There is an area for non members to access and an area that you are able to see what members are able to access. There is color added to the design which helps catch the eye, but this website is d

Overview: TeacherVision is a website that allows you to pick themes and units that you would like to teach to a class and offers printable's such as games and other activities easy accessed to give to the student's. It also provides links to lesson plans related to social studies and language arts. This website is for links related to the Olympics, which includes history and ideas to provide for students. The overall design is a bit lacking, but it is easily navigated and offers references and slideshows to help understand the Olympics. Definitely something that would be useful when looking for activities and ideas on a unit concerning the Olympics. Content: You are easily able to determine what is on this website due to its easy navigations and layup where everything is labeled and links are provided for each label. The audience is intended for teacher's who are needing ideas, lesson plans, quizzes, and activities when it comes to a unit; in this case the Olympics. The authors for the links are located once you click on the link, and most are teachers or other educators who have used these ideas in their own classrooms. The copyright is located at the bottom of the page which is an accumulation of all links located in the site from 2000-2011. All links currently work and provide a good source of ideas and interactivity that a teacher may use in their classroom. It is very easy to understand, and if Olympics are not a topic that is needed, then there are themes provided for other units if there is something else needed. I would use this site if I was doing a unit on the Olympics. Design: The homepage is easily downloadable, but does not have a strong eye appeal. It is a site for teacher's use only, not one that I going to interest student's. The site is easily navigated with descriptive links for activities and lesson plans needed for an Olympics unit. Everything is details within the links, and there are resources available for extra information and

Shaya Wolf - 2/26/2013 Overview This website is for teachers need ideas on assessments in the math field. They can choose between Algebra 1, Algebra 2, Geometry, and Trigonometry and assessments are given under each subpage. All of the assessments are complete but in need of small changes to fit your needs. It includes many resources, but they are all very similar and lack variety. Overall, this site is worth bookmarking and provides simple assessments organized by subject. Based on the content and design quality of this site, it is worth your time to visit the site if you have the time. Content At first look, you can easily tell that the purpose of this site is to provide assessment ideas for teachers. The information providers section of this website is lacking significantly. The author and sponsor are not clearly identified nor is their contact information provided. The currency of the information is debatable. The site doesn't provide a latest revision date, but at the same time, most of these assessments will ever change. They don't seem to be too outdated. So far the content doesn't sound too good, but the information quality really brings the site back to a site worth bookmarking. All of the information is of quality. The purpose of the site is clear and achieves the intended purpose, which is to provide teachers with assessment ideas. The site is well organized and easy to understand. It is free of bias, accurate, and consistent with similar websites. Design This site loads quickly but lacks a homepage altogether. The site is still easy to navigate, although there isn't necessarily a main title or base to jump off of. The site sponsor and author are not included. It is very easy to navigate throughout the page and all of the links work properly. There are no dead ends or incorrect links. There is a main graphic used under each page, however that is the only multimedia. The graphics enhance the site overall. This site works well with all browser

Shaya Wolf - 2/26/2013 Overview This site is intended for teachers who are looking for new ideas for lesson plans. It is meant to be used as a resource for teachers who simply need a good idea to get them going. The lesson plans can be used as is or tweaked to fit the teacher's specific needs or goals. This site, if I were to venture a guess, is probably for new teachers as it gives very specific ideas and makes everything accessible by grade and subject, tools that are nice for everyone, but are specifically for newbies in the field. My overall impression of this site is that it is definitely very useful, designed well, and worth your time to look at and use. Content This site is extremely user friendly. IT it obvious what the basic content is and that the intended audience is teachers. The author and sponsor information is provided in an organized manner, including contact information made accessible through a link at the bottom of the page. This site was last updated in 2008 and considering that these lesson plans won't be outdated for a while, especially considering a teacher's ability to tweak existing plans to fit their needs, I would say that this revision date is appropriate to the materials provided. The purpose of the site as a database of lesson plans is clear from the very beginning. The provided links achieve this purpose in the most effective manner possible. The content is complete, however may be added to, and easy to understand. All of the information is organized utilizing a navigation bar and allows teachers to find information related to a specific need. The information is obviously accurate and there are no spelling or grammar errors. The only downfall on this site is that there are no additional links for further needs or purposes. Design The homepage loads efficiently and quickly. The homepage serves as a main source of organization and contains all of the necessary contacts, as in the author and sponsor of the page. The website

Lauren John 1/30/2011 Jumpstart.com Overview: This site was created to help children learn to read through online games set in a fantasy land. It is focusing on making reading enjoyable and imaginative for those students who may have shorter attention spans or read at lower levels than other students. It offers incentives for completing lessons and practice of more school skills than just reading. The audience not only includes those with attention deficits, but also very young children who would be drawn in by the cartoon images and colorful designs. Although cute, the web design was not the easiest to get around. They offered directions verbally on what each place had in store for the child and how to maneuver in each game, but I had to figure out for myself how to move the person and what the buttons meant. Overall it was well designed though and the content was related. The biggest difficulty I ran into was that the player must be a member to take part in almost every one of the games. Content: The content of this website was fairly desirable. It was clearly stated in an upfront manner who and what they site were intended for. Although there is no author information or way to reach them, the sponsors are clearly identified and they are jointed with several other reputable sites. There is no revision date, but the materials are copyrighted through 2010, and I have actually seen the children I babysit play this game, so I know it is trusted by teachers in my school system. This site has many ways to get around it, but I could see how students would have a difficult time at the beginning because there are not clear labels. The site claims to have many ways to learn math, science, and reading, but in the time I spent there, it seemed like only the members were able to access the games that involved those. That made it so I was stonewalled enough times that I got bored with the site and gave up. I would consider using it in my classroom if there weren't

Lacey Boyles April 15, 2015 This website is for parents and children, there is a section for each. There is also a section for teachers. The website is easy to navigate. It focuses on children from ages birth to elementary grades. It seems that you can access this website on computers and also smart phones, iOS and androids for example. From what I looked through this would be a good site to not only visit again but also show to my children. Again this was a very well set up web site. It was easy to get around and they have the parent, children, and teacher sections separate. There are a few things I do not like about this site. There is a lot of adds for games that could draw attention to students if they were to get on here. When clicking on games you have to sign up and possibly pay to play. There is an index which gives you an idea of where you are going. The purpose of this site I would say is not 100% clear as there is information for parents, teachers, and children. The content on this page is really good. It has lots of ideas on activities, which it separates in to categories such as topic subject, age, and grade. There is a contact us page that you could go to if you needed help. I didn't need help so I am not sure how well or quick it works. Over all I did like this site and would go back again for ideas.

Colter Huhn 1-24-10 This site has a very clear purpose which is to be a resource for middle school teachers and students, which is the intended audience of the site of course. The resources available on this site lessons and activities for a classroom, project ideas for clubs and classrooms, information on science, games for students and a message board for teachers to share ideas. My overall impression of this site is it is a spectacular resource. The content is perfect for the intended purpose and the design is easy and also nearly flawless. For the content this site is very strong. The basic content is easily found as well as the audience. The author is found at the bottom of the page with some information as well as how to contact them. The information is current, revised within the last ten days, and all links seem to be working fine. The information meets the sites purpose, is complete, very well organized, easy to understand, interactive, accurate as far as I can tell. The web site design was also very strong. The site was fast and compatible with both Firefox and Internet Explorer. The homepage was attractive, clear; it has the site organized into sections, with the site sponsor, information of the provider, and a copyright date. The site was very easy to navigate with the site split up into sections of interest, and all links were appropriate and working fantastically. All videos and pictures helped to enhance the information and the site was very current. The presentation of content was sufficient in information to make the site worthy, it was clear and organized, basic theme, info was easy to find and the links were well organized.

For middle school teachers and students. Resources given are lessons and activities for a classroom, project ideas for clubs and classrooms, information on science, games for students and a message board for teachers to share ideas

Rachel Keyes ITEC 2360 01/24/11 http://www.kimskorner4teachertalk.com/readingliterature/litresponse.html Average website Overview This is a site designed for teachers, giving alternative exercises to help their classes respond to literature. My overall impression is that this is an organized, helpful site. The audience would be teachers who are looking for creative and exciting ways for their students to approach literature. It's a very simple website that has links with the corresponding projects listed. Content The content of the site is well organized and listed. The links on the page go to credible sites with ideas for creative book reports, class discussions, etc. The page was last updated in 2007, so it is possible that the ideas and links could be extremely out of date by now. There are some links that no longer exist and do not work, which is one of the sites major weaknesses. The author of the site is a teacher herself, and repeatedly expresses that the ideas are not hers, and provides the credit for the real authors of the ideas. Design The design of this website is extremely plain. Other than the text and the links, there are no pictures or visual aids. The title is clear and gives the author's name and the purpose of the site. The author reminds the audience that she is merely posting these ideas and they are not hers. The site is outdated, and some of the links don't work because they do not exist anymore.

Keenan Zimmerman 2/1/2011 Review of: http://www.busyteacherscafe.com/ Overview: Busyteachercafe is a site designed to help K-6 teachers come up with ideas. There are printables, strategies, themes, email sections and a store where I'm not sure what exactly you can buy. Most of the sections have useful ideas a teacher can use. The website is very colorful and looks like it is geared more toward 1-3 graders rather than on up to 4th 5th and 6th grade. It is not a very good website both in content and design. It has potential but at the moment it is not a very good site. Content: The content of the website seems very useful but it is very limited. There are few actual lessons or printables in each section. If the website is brand new than in a couple months I might say the website is very good content wise but at the moment the content is rather poor, another strike because we have no idea how old the site or information within the site are. The author of the material is nowhere to be found and even the e-mail section gives no clues as to who you are writing to. Design: The design is the worst part of the website. Although it has easy directions and it is rather easy to find what you are looking for, the site is littered with adds which are annoying and the search option is horrible finding almost nothing on the site when I used it. The search in the store section doesn't seem to come up with anything and because everything on the site is free I'm not sure why a store even exists.

Elise Verley September 9, 2011 http://artofsciencelearning.org/ Overview: The site is a resource for using art to help students understand science. Its intended audience is teachers and is developed by The Learning Worlds Institute. It is a great idea but they don't have any ideas available for how to combine science and art. There are several conferences listed to attend, this is their primary focus currently. This may be a young site and there will be more information available on the site soon. Content: They have articles of research available that proves that using hands-on artistic approaches to teach science attract and retain students in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. They have related websites and articles listed so there are more sources to find out more information on the topic. Design: It is a basic website, that is easy to navigate the information available on the site. There is not a search function but the information on the site is easy enough to find that it may not yet be necessary. There is an RSS feed that has their most recent postings as well as profiles on social networking sites. There is a forum for teachers to interact and share ideas.