Educational Videos and Games

Here's a collection of educational videos, games and lessons for grades K-12.  NeoK-12 has collected the best videos, games, and lessons from the Internet and put them into one spot. As a teacher you can create an account that will allow you to create video playlists that even include notes and instructions for your students.  Have students gain information on a topic by having them watch a video(s) and play games that correspond to lessons.  Students can also demonstrate understanding by creating their own  presentations that they can create and share online. Presentations can also be printed if need be. You'll need an email to create your own account. No student email addresses needed unless you want your students to save their own presentations. The Educational Games & Puzzles section of the website can be used on your interactive whiteboard, center activities or just for free time. Take a look!

A Cool New Tool- Print Friendly

I just came across this new tool, or it's new to me. It's called Print Friendly.  If you are like me you often find yourself with a web page or article that you might like to print off of the Internet or you have students who are doing research and want to print from web pages that have all the extra "stuff" that isn't needed. We've all seen it. The printer in the computer lab has 22 pages that just printed out, it's jumbled with ads, other information and really all the student wanted was two paragraphs. You know what I'm talking about. So here's the solution, Print Friendly. 

Print Friendly lets you get rid of the extra "stuff" that isn't needed. You simply copy and paste the URL of the document you want onto their site and click. You'll then get a document that allows you to do a variety of things such as delete images, boxes of texts, resize or change fonts, and save as a PDF. You can even install a bookmarklet that allows you to simply click a button on your browser's task bar whenever you are on a site you want to print. You can save or print your final versions. And- you can even email your document if you wish.

TeachingHistory.org

I've been a big fan of  TeachingHistory.org for some time now. It's a great site with plenty of resources for your classroom and own general knowledge. FREE. How could I forget to mention that? They also email you a monthly newsletter which highlights key events for the month. But one really nice thing that TeachingHistory.org has is their FREE Historical Teaching Posters. Last year I obtained their poster for conducting historical research and this year they are offering a FREE poster on the Civil War. I urge you all to take a look at the site and sign-up.  
One last thing I'd like to mention is Richard Byrne and his Free Technology for Teachers Blog! Bookmark it if you haven't done so already and be sure to check out his post about the Historical Posters. Free Technology for Teachers is an AWESOME blog, filled with tons of resources and info. I love the idea of using the poster, the interactive poster and then having students create their own digital poster using Glogster! What a great a project!

Welcome Back!

Welcome Back! The 2011-2012 school year is off and running. An exciting yet very busy time for any and all of us involved. I've got lots of information to share with you this year, so I hope that you will continue to follow my blog. So here we go the first post for this school year is.... (drum roll, please)......

 Remembering 9/11 this is a link to a blog maintained by World Affairs Council of Pittsburgh. They have complied a nice list of resources that can be used in your classroom to help teach about 9/11.  With this year marking the 10th anniversary you may find these resources helpful. In fact, on a side note, it just hit me the other day that those students who are now Seniors in high school were just in first grade back in 2001!  

If you get a chance you may also want to check out "Nick News With Linda Ellerbee Reports on 9/11 for Kids Too Young to Remember, in "What Happened?: The Story of September 11, 2001," Although this aired already, you may be able to catch a rerun. Geared for younger students, but definitely worth taking a look at. 

Enjoy!

Teacher Appreciation

In honor of it being the end of the year, I thought I'd post something inpsirational for you. 
Check out "You Have Made A Difference" by Brian Asselin & Eric Disero.

Free Critter Kit

Although it's the end of the school year, I thought this might be of interest for you for next year.  PETCO is offering a Carefresh Lesson in a Box to teachers. The best part is it is FREE! The kit includes lesson plans, money-saving coupons for students and teachers, student lesson pads and a DVD among some other things. If you have a classroom pet or are thinking of getting one this would be a good way to introduce it.  There is a limit of one box per teacher, per year.

National Jukebox

I've been obsessed lately with finding good tools that can be easily incorporated into the classroom. Specifically into the Social Studies classroom and I'm excited to share this resource. It recently just came out, but it's awesome! Well in my opinion anyways, probably that history geek coming out again :-)  Anyways, here it is. The National Jukebox from the Library of Congress is a collection of historical recordings that is available FREE of charge.  You can check out featured artists, playlists and genres. Currently the Jukebox only includes recordings from 1901-1925 but they are working on adding more regularly. You can also create your own playlist. What better way to expose students to time period music. Check out some good ol' Ragtime featuring Duke Ellington or some classic George Gershwin. Bring the sounds of the classic record into your classroom.