a handy site for teachers who are looking for some lesson plan ideas to go along with children's books. The library features picture books, books for early readers, and books for young adults. Each book is linked to a list of activities that could be done either while reading the book or after reading the book. The books themselves are not free (you can buy them online or find them locally) but the listed activities are free for your viewing. Teaching Library is supported through Amazon Affiliate sales so if you purchase a book through their site you will be supporting them.
Applications for Education Teaching Library could be a good resource for teachers struggling to develop a new lesson idea. If you're looking for some new books to add to you classroom, but you're not sure which ones you want, take a look at Teaching Library's suggestions.
a free service that hosts learning communities. Nuvvo members can join existing learning groups and or create their own learning groups. In each group members can share lessons, ask questions, and have discussions. Group members can post videos, slideshows, and other media to support their lessons. Some of the groups that might be of particular interest to educators are the Project Based Learning group, the Cooperative Learning group, and the Education 2.0 group.
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Like any social group, Nuvvo's value lies in its members' activities. Nuvvo provides a good place for teachers to share lessons and exchange ideas. Exchanging ideas and lessons with other teachers is a great way to get a new perspective on a teaching strategy or a lesson you're trying to teach.
The Apple Distinguished Educator crew creates a number of resources, and the link below is to those it gathers under the title, "Global Collaboration, Exploration and Innovation." These are videos, ePubs, PDFs and similar to provide ideas on all sorts of cool projects.
3 education technology experts give advice on their 3 top web based tools. Elluminate, Twitter, SlideRocket, Blogging, etc. Tool recommendations come with ideas on implementations. Quick read.
The educational web site ProProfs.com has launched a free, easy-to-use quiz creation site that can help teachers enhance their lesson plans and engage students. Called Quiz Maker, the site is based on feedback from thousands of ProProfs users who shared their ideas for how ProProfs could improve on its Quiz School application.
Explore Cartoons Made by Children Across the Globe Designed in partnership with Stanford University's Graduate School of Education and Zeum: San Francisco's Children's Museum, Toontastic inspires the artist and writer in every child while teaching key storytelling principles that help to promote creativity at a young age. Toontastic's drawing tools bring children's wildest ideas to life alongside virtual playsets chock full of pirates, princesses, faraway galaxies and many other characters and settings to spark the imagination. Students' cartoons can be shared online via ToonTube, Toontastic's Global Storytelling Network, to help children connect to friends and family and learn about other cultures, customs and lifestyles through stories created by their peers around the world. The app is available for the iPad. Download it from the Apple iTunes App Store for $1.99.
The Kids' Science Challenge is a national (United States) contest for students in grades three through six. The challenge asks students to innovate and build upon on our current conceptions of how things work. There are three areas of innovation in this year's contest; reducing waste, developing meals to be eaten on Mars, and developing a toy or game that demonstrates an animal's intelligence. The contest is open until February 29, 2012.
Applications for EducationTo help students start thinking about the topics in The Kids' Science Challenge, the challenge website has a series of games and videos for students. For teachers, The Kids' Science Challenge offers a page of lesson plans and hands-on activities designed to help students develop ideas related to the contest's three challenge topics.