Useful Information In and Out of the Classroom 5/3/13

Here are some interesting sites that I’ve found this week, thanks to my 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!

Note: Each resource is labeled with a level and subject area to make it easier to use.

Levels: E: Elementary; M: Middle; H: High; G: General, all levels; SN: Special Needs; T: Teachers

Subject Areas: LA: Language Arts, English, Reading, Writing; M: Math; S: Science; Health; SS: Social Studies, Current Events; FA: Fine Arts; Music, Art, Drama; FL: Foreign Language; PE: Physical Ed; C: Career; A: All

Math Trail - game involving math and geography skills (L:M, H; SA: SS)

100,000 Stars - “100,000 Stars is an interactive visualization of the stellar neighborhood created for the Google Chrome web browser. It shows the real location of over 100,000 nearby stars. Zooming in reveals 87 major named stars and our solar system. The galaxy view is an artist's rendition.” (L:H; SA: S)

Kodu Game Lab - “Kodu lets kids create games on the PC and XBox via a simple visual programming language. Kodu can be used to teach creativity, problem solving, storytelling, as well as programming. Anyone can use Kodu to make a game, young children as well as adults with no design or programming skills.” (L:G; SA: A)

Astronomy Picture of the Day - Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer” (L:H; SA: S)

Scoot and Doodle - “online, collaborative studios where friends and classmates easily get creative together, face-to-face and in real-time.” (L:G; SA: A)

Original Image: Tools by Pat Hensley