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Michelle Jacobsen 9/16 Overview: This website is used to help teachers with their states standardized testing K-12. You have to be a member to be able to access the site; my mom who is a 5th grade teacher in Nebraska showed me this website and said that most elementary teachers in her school use it. Content: The content of this site its web-based instruction, practice and reporting depending on your states standards. You can use it in the classroom, at home or in the lab. It is geared to help improve standardized testing scores in the classroom. Students can also access the program. Design: The design is extremely simple, but very easy to navigate though. Once you create an account all you have to do is log on and select your state from the map and it gives you many options of what to do on the site.

Overview: The purpose of this site is to serve as a professional development aid for teachers as well as a classroom tool. It covers all grade levels and all subjects which makes it useful for the whole school or a whole school district. Design: The design is kind of all over the place. There doesn't seem to be any unifying theme or color scheme. The home page is boring to look at and has too much coming at the viewer all at once. It was also difficult to figure out what the primary purpose of the site was. Content: The content is actually pretty good but the site is really more of an educational catalog rather than a free aid for individual teachers. This site then only becomes truly useful if a school pays for it. The "interactive" history section was dreadfully disappointing as there was nothing interactive about it. Overall I would not use this site in the future but it still has uses for some school systems.

Overview: This site is mainly for teachers to help improve their skills and knowledge and by providing information that is useful for them to view for free or purchase. Although this site can be helpful, I think it needs some additional work. It provides videos and workshops for teachers which can be beneficial. Content: The content is clear and easy to navigate although I had a little trouble finding the lessons for students or teachers. One problem I noticed was I couldn't find other links to web sites. The authors weren't clearly identified and there was no information on them. This site is also for others to use. There are lessons that students can learn from on their own at home. It covers Arts, Foreign Language, Literature and Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies and History. Teachers and students of all ages can find lessons or material to learn from. Design: The design of the web site is good. The homepage is organized. Other than the homepage, I didn't notice many graphics; however, there are videos of workshops that teachers can view from their own home. The other pages could use more interesting graphics and this site needs to provide other links to other sites.

Overview: This site is really geared toward students and not so much for teachers but I liked it because it has a couple games that create real-life scenarios. In these games students had to do calculations that applied high school math. I think the website would appeal to secondary education students in more advanced math classes. It also has link that show students about jobs in the financial field and they can hear from people who currently work in this area, which I think can help students find the area more interesting and they may be able to connect better with the subject that way. Content: Most of the content is definitely for older more advanced students. The games are slightly challenging must are intriguing at the same time. The website has many links to various areas of finance that can help students find jobs in the future if they are thinking about this field. It also shows them that there are people their age running billion dollar companies. Design: The design of the website is geared toward high school students, showing money, nice cars and vacation spots. The links are also very organized and easy to see where stuff is at. The games are set up in an easy to follow manner with guided steps of how to start.

Amy Andreen 9-14-11 Overview: This site is based out of the UK but it has great historical content. The greater part of the emphasis is on European history which is very interesting to look into. It will obviously have a bias that leans toward the British, but I find that to be beneficial in researching topics and content for the classroom. It's a site that would be useful to both Social Studies teachers as well as High School Students. Content: A wide variety of the site focuses on the historical events that took place on European soil. However, it is not limited to this. There are primary accounts from both World Wars as well as other events throughout history. There are podcasts that allow students and teachers alike to have a more interactive experience on the site. The list of topics within the site is almost endless. As far as content goes, this site is a great resource. Design: The Historical Associations' site is beautiful when it comes to content; however, I found the site very boring to look at. It isn't hard to navigate which is great, but in my opinion it lacks in inviting colors that should add interest to the viewers. There are many different tabs that allow one to explore the site very easily and enjoy all of the content offered. Once the researcher or viewer makes it past the layout, this site has fabulous material that can be very useful to teachers and their students.

Videos from National Geographic on different animals, environments, ecosystems, etc.

Posted by Mitchell Clark 9/18/09: Lesson Planet is a search engine designed to save the effort of designing various lesson plans by providing over 150,000 teacher approved lesson plans and over 75,000 worksheets. This site provides material for all subjects in grades K-12 and also includes state standards. Content: This Education World sponsored site has an incredible amount of information that has been provided by many teachers in various fields. It has lesson plans for all grade levels and all subjects including math, science and technology, language arts, education, social studies, health, art and music, and it also includes research resources. Each lesson plan includes the author and date that the lesson plan was posted. Also every lesson plan is rated on a scale of 1-5 by other teachers so you don't waste your time searching through inadequate lessons. Another great feature about this site is that because teachers can post their own lesson plans, there are always new and relevant lesson plans. These plans are easy to access due to multiple links which are designated to different fields of education i.e. science or math. There is also a search bar at the top of the web page that allows the user to search specific lesson plans as well as narrow their search results to grade level and rating (1-5). Overall this is a well organized site that provides a wealth of knowledge. The only thing to keep in mind is that these plans are posted by individual teachers which could contribute to a partial bias in the lesson plan. Another thing to consider is that there is $40 dollar membership fee for this site which is an inconvenience, but this fee also discourages the submission of junk lesson plans and worksheets by other internet users. Design: This site is well designed and very easy to navigate. There are no advertisements or links to unrelated material. The sponsor of the site and contact information is clearly displayed at the bottom of the page as well as t

-Overview: Lesson Planet is an excellent resource for teachers to find ideas and lesson plans for specific topics and grade levels. They are able to type in exactly what they are looking for and it is just like a Google search engine just for lesson plans. There are other links to related articles and blogs for teachers, and there are places where teachers can access the standards. It is a very good place to create lessons from and gain ideas for teaching successfully in the classroom. -Content: The content is easily accessible from exactly what the teacher types in to find. There are specific tabs and easy instructions to help the teacher find what they are looking for. It is a very helpful resource tool that teachers can use to plan activities for specific subjects, for a specific standard and find worksheets and articles that relate to the topic they are teaching. There is a huge amount of content within the website that is easily accessible for anyone who would like to use it. On each page there are tabs to things that relate to the topic as well as a list of subtopics that are easily accessible as well. -Design: The creators are in the process of creating a new design that may be more visually appealing, but currently the design is very simple and professional. It has enough color and visual recognition tools to help you locate specific things quickly and find what you are looking for without creating distractions and taking away from the content. The search portion is big and centered on the top of the homepage so it is easy to type in and find exactly what you need right off the home page.

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Emily E. KrabbenhoftJanuary 22, 2011Overview: This website, created by Discovery Communications, is an excellent resource for parents, students, and teachers. For parents it provides ways to help motivate their children and ways to help with homework. For students it all gives homework help and other ways for students to further their knowledge or to practice what they already know. For teachers there is interactive projects, lesson plans, and puzzle makers. Content: The content of this website, the information providers, and the quality is well presented to users. While the information is provided by a company to further their products, it offers a lot of free resources for everyone. It also does not push its products on the user, for example no pop-ups or constant nagging to purchase things.Design: This website has a great design. You do not get lost when you are navigating the website because it has great descriptions and titles of the pages. All of the links work properly and direct you to the appropriate websites or links. 

Hannah Clucas. October 10, 2012. Overview: This website is a giant database for schools. It has something for administrators, teachers, students, and even parents. There are a lot of available resources. The website is amazing and helpful for all facets of learning. Content: For administrators, there are curriculum options, helpful assessments of resources schools are currently using, and a host of other useful things. For teachers there are lesson plans, puzzle makers, additional resources, and even information on student travel. For parents there is a section on ways they can motivate their students and give them help in homework. The student section has a homework help section as well as links to contests they can join and clipart. There are also videos that parents, teachers, and administrators can use. The website is probably more helpful to teachers and administrators. Lesson plans are divided into two grade level groups, k-8 and 9-12, making it easy to find lesson plans for intended grade levels. Some of the links on the website are not useful, such as the link to downloading Google Chrome. But none of the links are inappropriate. Design: The design of the website is logical and flows well. There is a section for administrators, teachers, parents, and students at the top and bottom of the home page. It is colorful and fun to get your attention, but not to the point that it is overwhelming. Its use of media is appropriate and helpful.

Lorena Garcia Evaluation date: 10/13/14 The site I chose to evaluate was Discovery Education located at www.dicoveryeducation.com. The purpose of this site is to provide free education resources. The intended audience of this site is teachers, students, and Parents. This site provides some downloadable lessons. It offers lessons plans for the various school grades. I feel this site could be a great resource for new and veteran educators. I found that this page is quickly to determine the content because there are links about who they are, what they offer, also they have links for students, parents, and Teachers who are the intended audience. In fact there is contact information for anybody who has questions or verify information about it. Anybody can contact them by phone, (1 800 ), Twetter, and Face book, and e-mail. It is clear that this page is to provide Educational information with the different options of downloadable lesson plans. It is worth visiting this page, specially Educators. They can find a lot information and great ideas for lessons. The information is clearly labeled and organized school year. These links are very well organized and easy to find. I did have some trouble finding my way back to the original page. However, overall I would most definitely recommend and use this website.