Useful Information In and Out of the Classroom

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 Great Thanksgiving Listen – “The Great Thanksgiving Listen is a national education project that empowers high school students to create an oral history of the contemporary United States by recording an interview with an elder over Thanksgiving weekend using the StoryCorps App.

Interviews are entered into the StoryCorps archive at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress and on StoryCorps.me where they become an invaluable resource for future historians and provide families with a priceless piece of personal history.

In its pilot year of 2015, thousands of high schools from all 50 states participated and preserved over 50,500 individual recordings at the Library of Congress. In 2016, StoryCorps will continue to work with educators around the country to preserve the voices and stories of an entire generation of Americans over a single holiday weekend.”  (L:T; SA:SS)

Pizza Fractions 1 – a free iPad app: “Pizza Fractions offers a simple, visually-based introduction to fractions for elementary school kids.” (L:E,; SA:M)

Zap Zap Fractions – helping elementary school students understand fractions (L:E,; SA:M)

Conceptua Math Tool Library – “These interactive, visual tools are ideal for teacher-facilitated, whole-class instruction, "Number Talks" and for parents supporting their students at home. Each math tool is supported by Common Core State Standards alignment, key vocabulary, and IEP goals.” (L:T; SA:M)

Harvest of History - The Harvest of History curriculum consists of 16 interdisciplinary activities in four sequential modules designed for the fourth-grade classroom. Some projects are short-term, while others span the gardening season. Most build on the concepts and skills developed in previous modules to deepen and enhance student learning. Some investigations will be structured with an explicit set of questions to guide research. Others will consist of less structured, research-based questions to trigger problem-solving. (L:E; SA:SS)

Original photo by Pat Hensley