Group items tagged

Thinking Blocks is a suite of learning tools designed to help students solve math word problems accurately and efficiently. Using brightly colored blocks, students model mathematical relationships and identify known and unknown quantities. The model provides students with a powerful image that organizes information and simplifies the problem solving process. By modeling increasingly complex word problems, students develop strong reasoning skills which will facilitate the transition from arithmetic to algebra.

"When we're working with our K-8 students it is always a concern that students privacy and anonymity be maintained. Most sites require users to register so they can sign in to use the resource. Many educators will create an account and log students in to use a web 2.0 resource in the library, lab or classroom as a variety of sites provide for education accounts. The extra steps necessary to set up such accounts might take time that any librarian or teacher finds hard to locate in their busy day. Surely too a majority of us are quite tired of remembering every username and password we create for ourselves let alone keeping track of those of our students. We also wonder how many footprints we are leaving on the web. Below are some sites that can be used without creating an identifying username, email or password. All sites were tested, Some have examples on the example pages."

"Our mission is to save every educator time and money while identifying top-quality resources for schools and classrooms. Big Deal Media is a content-rich collection of print and electronic publications that offer the information and tools K-12 educators need-all vetted through the prism of the curriculum."

I think placing a survey or poll on your classroom blog or website is a great way to get informal feedback from your students. I usually put a survey on my class blog a week or so before any formal assessment that my students are going to take. That feedback helps me identify the areas that my students need more help and or clarification on. - R M Byrne

"To engage students in making design decisions that affect the transfer of energy \nbetween a building and the outside environment. To help students identify and \nconsider the types of decisions involved in improving a building's energy \nprofile. To analyze the green roof option in economic and community terms."

"To obtain permission to use a work protected by copyright, you must determine who is the copyright owner of the material you intend to use, contact the owner, and request the right to use the work in the territory and format you intend, and -- in some cases -- pay the owner a fee. Often the most difficult part of this process is finding the owner to ask permission to use the work. To make that a little easier, we have provided some information about researching copyright ownership for music, with addresses of record companies and music publishers, as well as film and television producers, publishers and other entities through which you might be able to clear rights. In addition, we have provided sample permission letters for you to use in drafting your letter to the copyright owners once you have identified them."

"The second Horizon Report for the K-12 sector describes the continuing work of the NMC's Horizon Project, a research project that seeks to identify and describe emerging technologies that will likely have a significant impact on K-12 education."

"The Visual Ranking Tool brings focus to the thinking behind making ordered lists. Students identify and refine criteria as they assign order or ranking to a list. They must explain their reasoning and can compare their work with each other in a visual diagram. This tool supports activities where students need to organize ideas, debate differences, and reach consensus. The tool and related resources are available for free, from any computer that is connected to the Internet. Students may work on their lists at home or at school, and can even compare their ideas with students located in distant classrooms. "

Google Body is a detailed 3D model of the human body. You can peel back anatomical layers,zoom in, click to identify anatomy, or search for muscles, organs, bones and more. You can also share the exact scene you are viewing by copying and pasting the URL.

Mobile Geotagging allows users to post media (photos, video, audio or text) from a mobile phone to a specific point on a map. Flagr allows users to create public, semiprivate, or private maps. Great tool for teachers in many subject areas to enhance learning. For example, students studying habitats or different biological species can take pictures within their community and then send each picture band a description of where the habitat or species was found. In the classroom the teacher opens up the class flagr map and the students then identify the species and discuss why they were found in each particular habitat.

"IXL's math skills are aligned to the 2006 Pennsylvania Early Learning Standards for Kindergarten, the 2005 Pennsylvania Early Learning Standards for Pre-Kindergarten, and the 2005 Pennsylvania Assessment Anchors, providing comprehensive preparation for the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA). With IXL's state standards alignments, you can easily find unlimited practice problems specifically tailored to each required standard. Even better, IXL automatically tracks student progress and displays proficiency scores in the state standards report. This report allows you to quickly evaluate student aptitude and identify trouble spots. "

To help local education leaders with their own school reform efforts, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) has produced a new series of onlin evideos highlighting successful school improvements from districts across the nation. The videos illustrate how several school districts have successfully turned around their low-performing schools using the four models endorsed by ED's $3.5 billion Title I School Improvement Grant program. This program makes funds available to states by formula, to help them target the bottom 5 percent of U.S. Schools--or approximately 5,000 chronic underperforming schools nationwide. Local school districts compete for the funds after identifying the schools they wan to overhaul and then determining which of four models is most appropriate: transformation, turnaround, restart, or school closure. Through interviews with school administrators, teachers, parents, and studetns, the videos aim to show how sometimes difficult changes in school leadership, personnel, curriculum, and culture can lead to dramatic improvemetns in student achievement.

Quickly get the gist of a document, webpage, or any text selection of your choice. Identify the key topics of a document while eliminating redundant information

Shakespeare searched was created by the Folger Shakespeare Library, in Washington, and allows students to search for specific words within the lines of Shakespeare's plays and sonnets. A keyword search can identify a specific passage in a specific poem or play or find larger meaning and themes within his many works. Search the word "love" for example, pulls hunderds of passages from plays like "Romeo and Juliet," " A Midsummer Night's Dream," and, of course, "Love's Labour's Lost." within each search, common results are grouped by topic. These grouplings or clusters break the search down further to show how many tiems a Shakespearean character used the word love, or find words that are most commonly associated with love.