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As class sizes keep growing, it becomes harder and harder to find the time to look for new teaching materials, while still giving your kids the personalized attention they need (and deserve!). After all, you can only be pulled in so many directions at once, right? With that in mind, I put together this list of websites for elementary teachers, hoping that you'll finally be able add something fresh and fun to your lesson plan. Now, you don't have to skim the results of hundreds of Google searches to find a handful of useable internet resources-I've already got 101 of 'em!

Storyline: members of the actors guild foundaton read children's books allowed, accompanied by activities and lesson plans.

Elementary books read aloud by various authors and actors. Titles change, so you can have an email sent to receive updates. Activity guides are also available for the books.

Last month, The American Cooperative School of Tunis (http://www.acst.net/) lost their entire elementary library in an attack on their school. If you would like to donate to help them build their collection, please visit this page: http://www.titlewish.com/103198. If you would like to learn more about what happened, see this article: http://www.theatlanticwire.com/global/2012/09/sudan-protesters-attack-german-and-british-embassies/56859/

The end of the school year can be a nervous time for students, especially those that will be making the jump into elementary school, middle school, high school or college next fall. These transitioning students are left with a variety of questions -- from curiosities about academic rigor to managing a social life and coursework, to worries about using a combination lock. (It took me more than a couple tries.) Fortunately, there are plenty of resources on the Web that offer useful information for all stakeholders -- parents, students, educators and administrators -- that will help ensure successful transition. Here are a few for each major stepping stone in the K-12 pipeline.

1,500+ eBooks for teachers (and growing!) - Elementary, English (ELA), Math, Science, Social Studies, World Languages, Cross-Curricular, Professional Development

JogNog, a website that provides competitive learning games that motivate students in grades 2-12 to learn, has opened up its library of elementary and middle school content to teachers who want to create games that match their specific lesson plans.

Like academic libraries, school libraries rely primarily on their parent institution for financial support. The latest nation-wide expenditures figures for school library media centers in public schools comes from Characteristics of Public Elementary and Secondary School Library Media Centers in the United States: Results From the 2011-12 Schools and Staffing Survey published in August 2013. The "Selected Findings" summary in the beginning of the Adobe Reader PDF version notes -- -- During the 2010-11 school year, public school library media centers spent an average of $9,340 for all information resources [Information resources include such items as books, periodicals, audio/visual materials, database licensing, and software. They do not include salaries, computer hardware, or audio/visual equipment.] (table 4). This includes an average of $6,010 for the purchase of books and $490 for the purchase of audio/video materials [Includes all copies of any tape, CD, DVD, or Blu-ray]. -- The number of holdings in public library media centers per 100 students was 2,188 for book titles and 81 for audio/video materials at the end of the 2010-11 school year (table 5).

IMSA Full Circle Resource Kits are used by thousands of teachers, librarians and technology coordinators to train today's students in critical 21st Century research skills. Each Kit is packed with articles, curriculum, learning games and assessment tools for strengthening information fluency. Applications include staff development, library orientation, diagnosing students' needs and curriculum integration for elementary grades through college. Kit resources are free.

WebCHECK Professional, designed for educators and Web designers to use for (1) assessing the quality of Web sites used for assignments and learning activities and (2) determining how to improve the quality of locally-designed personal, classroom, library and/or school Websites. · WebCHECK Senior, designed for high school students (grades 9-12) · WebCHECK Middle, designed for middle school students (grade 5-8) · WebCHECK Junior, designed for elementary school students (grades 2-4) · WebCHECK for Facilitors, designed for K-12 educators, administrators and higher education faculty to use when assigning a single Web site to be evaluated by groups or classes of students or by educators in an in-service or professional development workshop. What makes WebCHECK unique: · based on a foundation of instructional design and motivation theory. · available online, fully automated, and free. · both fun and easy-to-use. · a powerful instructional and learning tool. · generates a full evaluation report to share results with teachers, administrators, students, parents, etc. · uses graphs for visual representation of scores and text for details and interpretations. · On the WebCHECK Web site, you will find all of the instruments, as well as more than 30 lesson plans, designed by school librarians nationwide, that incorporate WebCHECK at various levels and subject areas.

This is a terrific resource for Elementary School Librarians!

I really love the way that Monarch Academy Elementary (Primary) Librarian Keisa Williams has incorporated Google forms into her already excellent library wiki. Students get involved in the library and get experience using web 2.0 tools such as Google Docs, while Keisa gets an organised documents with records of all student requests, along with names, date of request and so on.

Elementary, middle, and high school research manuals.

designed to help students practice recognizing scams and dangers online. That game is appropriate for elementary school students. Richard Byrne

"What it is: IDroo is an educational multi user whiteboard that lets students instantly collaborate online.  Everything that is drawn or written on the whiteboard is visible to all participants in real-time.  IDroo supports an unlimited number of meeting participants, the only limitations are computer power and internet connection speed.  There is a professional math typing tool built-in making it easy to teach or work through math problems collaboratively. Best of all, IDroo can be used with Skype! IDroo is free for non-commercial use. Now for the downfall (and this is a HUGE downfall in my humble opinion), IDroo is currently only available for Windows.  I  know, disappointment for us Mac lovers. *sigh*  If you are using a Windows computer this is a great way to collaborate online! How to integrate IDroo into the classroom: IDroo would be a great app for collaborating with other classrooms around the world.  Students can use the multi user whiteboard space to work together, share ideas, and brainstorm.  IDroo would also be fantastic as a way for teachers to tutor students virtually.  Set up an "open lab" time once a week online where students can drop in and get extra help.  Virtual lab times are especially helpful for elementary students who can't dictate their own schedules and often can't stay after school for extra help. Tips: Don't forget to allow IDroo to access Skype API after you download!" iLearn Technology

Should we scrap Dewey in schools?

"Here's an article written in 1944 by Stephan M. Cory (University of Chicago January 1944 edition of Childhood Education). It is a classic satire written in the first person of a seventh grade student discussing his experiences in elementary school. I think it's a great example of the contrast of learning in rigid formal environments and learning in the context of meaningful problems and authentic tasks. The focus is public education but it's not a stretch to extend to classroom training in the workplace."

"Share your main library websites: elementary, middle school and high school examples and please also share specific examples of effective practice in the following areas: * Reports * Book and Reading Promotion * Digital Storytelling * Inquiry/Information Fluency Instruction * Digital Citizenship * Pathfinders * Presentations/Speeches/Online Instruction Please also add your names to our lists of SchoolLibraryBloggers and SchoolLibraryTweeters and consider linking us to your best presentations "

Online, interactive, standards-based science curriculum www.science4us.com

Great way to find evaluated apps for ages 3-8.

17 pins for teachers