Friday, April 16, 2010

Useful Information In and Out of the Classroom 4/16/10

tool1 Here are some interesting sites that I’ve found this week, thanks to my Personal Learning Network (PLN). As a teacher, I feel we have to keep up to date concerning research in our field and current issues in the education system. I hope some of these inspire you, inform you, and even have you asking questions. Thank you for coming by and visiting!

Science Bob"Science Bob" Pflugfelder has been a fan of science since he was just six years old. Over the years, he has been exploring the scientific world with thousands of students. He also encourages parents and teachers to practice "Random Acts of Science" by trying out interactive science experiments that they can find on his site to help make science come alive;” great resource for science fair experiments or just experiments to do in the classroom

Kids in the House – “The Kids in the House Web site is a public service provided by the Office of the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives. Our mission is to provide educational and entertaining information about the legislative branch of the United States government to students of all age levels. Topics covered include the role of the U.S. House of Representatives, the legislative process, and House history.”

Our Courts – “free interactive civics resources;” great way to learn about the court system

The Space Place – “games, animations, projects, and fun facts about Earth, space and technology.”

Drum Set – fun interactive drums, use your mouse or the keyboard

Original image: Tools by Pat Hensley

Posted on the Successful Teaching Blog by loonyhiker (successfulteaching at gmail dot com).

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Thank you so much for doing this regular post! I only discovered your blog a few weeks ago and I've found some of the sites you've highlighted extremely useful already.
Sophie

Anonymous said...

As a civics and social studies teacher, I loved the links to the courts and the House. The more resources connected to civics the better so that this generation can become informed citizens. I'm just starting my blog, but feel free to visit. Thanks so much for sharing!

Jessie Anne said...

I have subscribed to your blog as part of requirement for a Technology in the Classroom course that I am taking while working on my masters in ed. Thanks to your posts, I have already gotten so many great ideas that I can incorporate to my future lesson planning!

In this post you mention that you found these sites through your PLN. I was intrigued by this term, but though preliminary web based searching I wasn't able to get much in the way of how/where one can create one. How did you create yours? Was it done through a web site or a desktop program? I will definitely want to bring this up to my professor as something she may want to incorporate into the curriculum for this class.

loonyhiker said...

@Sophie Thanks so much for reading my blog and I'm glad you find it helpful!

loonyhiker said...

@Jessie Anne Thanks for reading my blog and I'm glad you like what I'm posting! I've created my PLN by joining Plurk (www.plurk.com) and Twitter and reading blogs. I've gotten to know people in this way and have gotten great ideas from others. I think this connection is so important. If you join Plurk or Twitter, you can find me as loonyhiker and you can see my "friends" as well. You can connect with them also. I hope this helps you.