Useful Information In and Out of the Classroom 09/02/22

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

Accessible Color Palette Builder - Helps you see what colors work best digitally for those that have accessibility issues (L:G; SA:A)

Wolfram: Saving and Investing - “A unit on saving and investing for high school students” (L:H; SA:M)

The surprising reason birds sing - “A brown thrasher knows a thousand songs. A wood thrush can sing two pitches at once. A mockingbird can match the sounds around it — including car alarms. These are just a few of the 4,000 species of songbirds. How do these birds learn songs? How do they know to mimic the songs of their own species? Are they born knowing how to sing? Partha P. Mitra illuminates the beautiful world of birdsong.” (L:G; SA:S)

Flap to the Future - “The Cornell Lab's Bird Academy created Flap to the Future to help players understand the adaptations birds evolved that help them fly. How birds evolved flight is still hotly debated by biologists and paleontologists, so what we’ve presented is a simplification of lots of fascinating scientific knowledge and questioning.” (L:M, H; SA:S)

More Math Inspiration - “One hashtag that is always sure to reveal exciting math resources is #MTBOS (Math Twitter Blog-o-Sphere). That’s how I discovered Nathan Day (@nathanday314), and a couple of his great shares. With his permission, I am putting the links in this post as I really want more people to become inspired by math and mathematicians. If you’re a teacher with a few blank spaces on your wall, some of these might be great additions!” (L:G; SA:M)

Original photo by Pat Hensley