Useful Information In and Out of the Classroom 12/30/16

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

Since it is the holiday season, I thought I would link to some of the holidays celebrated in December. This might be a good time to expose our students to these different holidays.

Pop Penguin and the Place Value Race – “The Penguin Family siblings invented a fun place value game. Can you reach the end before Pop?” (L:E; SA:M)

1941 Pearl Harbor Map – interactive map on Pearl Harbor; It takes a long time to load features but it is pretty interesting. (L:H; SA:SS)

Expii Solve – “a free interactive website, focused on math and science, where students, teachers, tutors, and enthusiasts are encouraged to add their voices and teaching styles to the canon of lessons that are hosted on the site. We believe that high quality educational resources should be available to everyone, crossing borders and barriers to reach every student.” (L:H; SA:M)

Animated Maps of Military History – “If a picture is worth a thousand words, a good animation is worth ten thousand. After reading book after book about the Pacific War and finding only complicated maps with dotted lines and dashed lines crisscrossing the pages, we decided to depict the key naval and land battles using animation technology.” (L:H; SA:SS)

Inside Your Computer – a TED-ed lesson; “How does a computer work? The critical components of a computer are the peripherals (including the mouse), the input/output subsystem (which controls what and how much information comes in and out), and the central processing unit (the brains), as well as human-written programs and memory. Bettina Bair walks us through the steps your computer takes with every click of the mouse.” (L:G; SA:A)

Original photo by Pat Hensley