Useful Information In and Out of the Classroom 9/9/16

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 Landing – resources and tools for math (L:E; SA:M)

CNN Student News – news stories for middle and high school students (L:M,H; SA:SS)

Expeditions – “Google Expeditions is a virtual reality teaching tool that lets you lead or join immersive virtual trips all over the world — get up close with historical landmarks, dive underwater with sharks, even visit outer space!Built for the classroom and small group use, Google Expeditions allows a teacher acting as a “guide” to lead classroom-sized groups of “explorers” through collections of 360° and 3D images while pointing out interesting sights along the way.” (L:G; SA:A)

Web Rangers Teacher’s Guide – “The WebRangers Teacher’s Resource Guide allows teachers to quickly assess more than 50 WebRangers activities and discover how each activity meets National Standards of Learning. (Common Core alignments will follow.) Here, educators will be able to read a brief description of each activity and understand how each activity addresses a breadth of subjects including geography, history, language arts, math, science, and social studies.”  (L:T; SA:A)

Baldwin Library of Historical Children’s Literature – “The Baldwin Library of Historical Children’s Literature in the Department of Special Collections at the University of Florida's George A. Smathers Librariescontains more than 130,000 books and periodicals published in the United States and Great Britain from the mid-1600s to present day. The Library also has manuscript collections, original artwork, and assorted ephemera such as board games, puzzles, and toys. The Baldwin Library is known for comparative editions of books, with special emphasis on Robinson Crusoe, Pilgrim’s Progress, Aesop’s Fables, and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. The Library also has the largest collection of Early American Juvenile Imprints of any academic institution in the United States.” (L:T; SA:LA)

Original photo by Pat Hensley