Useful Information In and Out of the Classroom 11/25/16

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

The True Size – “It is hard to represent our spherical world on flat piece of paper. Cartographers use something called a "projection" to morph the globe into 2D map. The most popular of these is the Mercator projection. Every map projection introduces distortion, and each has its own set of problems. One of the most common criticisms of the Mercator map is that it exaggerates the size of countries nearer the poles (US, Russia, Europe), while downplaying the size of those near the equator (the African Continent). On the Mercator projection Greenland appears to be roughly the same size as Africa. In reality, Greenland is 0.8 million sq. miles and Africa is 11.6 million sq. miles, nearly 14 and a half times larger.” (L:G; SA:SS)

Quizalize – “make your own quizzes in minutes.” (L:G; SA:A)

WriteReader – “WriteReader is a unique digital learning platform where children from age 3–10 can learn to read by writing and publish small digital books.With the WriteReader app the child takes pictures of family, friends, things or situations and write about them in their actual level of written language. A teacher or parent then “translates” the child's text to conventional writing and by comparing their own attempt to the edited version the child will step by step improve his/her writing and reading capabilities. The child can later in an easy way share his/her books with friends and family or publish them on the Global online library. This way the child experiences in an early age what the written language can do, which can have big influence on the child's motivation and learning capabilities.” (L:E; SA:LA)

Chatterpix Kids – free iPad app; “Grab your camera! Let’s ChatterPix! Chatterpix Kids can make anything talk -- pets, friends, doodles, and more. 
Simply take any photo, draw a line to make a mouth, and record your voice. Then share your Pix with friends and family as silly greetings, playful messages, creative cards, or even fancy book reports. And best of all, it’s FREE! AGES: 5-12.”  (L:E; SA:A)

TimelineJS – “TimelineJS is an open-source tool that enables anyone to build visually rich, interactive timelines. Beginners can create a timeline using nothing more than a Google spreadsheet, like the one we used for the Timeline above. Experts can use their JSON skills to create custom installations, while keeping TimelineJS's core functionality.” (L:G; SA:A)

Smarty Pins – geography game (L:H; SA:SS)

Original photo by Pat Hensley