Useful Information In and Out of the Classroom 1/29/2021

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

20 Virtual Field Trips for Your Classroom – “Virtual field trips allow us to take our students where the bus can’t. Students can make connections with locations, concepts or people through the power of virtual field trips. What are the best virtual field trips out there? And how can we take the learning even further? Here are 20 field trips and 10 activities to do while you're on one!” (L:T;SA:A)

Big Ideas for Little Scholars – “BIG IDEAS for LITTLE SCHOLARS was created for teachers and parents of the insatiably curious and intellectually gifted or advanced. You’ll find here a collection of recommended learning resources designed for use with K -8 gifted and advanced students.” (L:T;SA:A)

Let’s talk a good game: Mining talk shows for classroom engagement ideas – “It might benefit us to seek inspiration from some of the people who have mastered keeping vast audiences interested through a screen for years: talk show hosts. With the job to provide entertainment to people who can switch a channel any time they get bored, these men and women have learned a thing or two about how to gain their viewers’ rapt attention. There is no reason educators can’t adapt some of these techniques, such as the games they play with their guests, for the classroom.” (L:T;SA:A)

Virtual Valentines Project 2021 – “The Virtual Valentines Project is an easy, free project designed to teach students geographical awareness and cultural understanding while connecting classrooms all around the world for Valentine's Day. Through this experience, our goal is to circumnavigate the globe with virtual Valentines greetings and cultural exchanges in order to spread a little happiness to children everywhere. Whether your students are in kindergarten or are seniors in high school, this project will help them learn something new. And here is the best part, because our project is completely virtual, classrooms in any learning environment can participate.” (L:T;SA:A)

Epic Pals – “EpicPals is a monthly, collaborative reading project that utilizes Epic! Books for Kids and Padlet. (Both of these sites/apps are free for you to use). Each month 6 books are chosen from Epic (both fiction and nonfiction) and a coordinating collection is created so you can easily assign the books to your students. The link to the collection can be found on the bottom of the each month's Google Doc. Padlet boards are also created for each book where students can respond to the stories and read other students' responses as well. These Padlet boards are easily accessed by students by scanning the QR codes or clicking on the links in the monthly Google Doc OR by clicking on the book covers on the monthly Bitmoji Classroom (link above and on the Google Doc). Simply print the Google Doc each month OR send a link to the Google Doc or Bitmoji Classroom to your students.” (L:T;SA:LA)

Original photo by Pat Hensley