Resource Room
(Educational Links)
 Edugadget plain-talking technology reviews for teachers WIKI Communication and collaboration committee |
iMovie | Free Images/ Sound Webpage, WIKIs & Blogs Resources | Shareware Live Images/ Maps Newspapers/ Mags | Database/ Lesson Plans | Museums | Black History | Just Plain Fun |
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Free sample effects for iMovie Integrate desktop video into your curriculum iMovie matrix List of sample educational iMovies Improve your skills as an iMovie maker and iDVD's. Snazzing
Up |
| Free Images |
Designed
to a T Great clip art place Webshots:
Download a FREE screen saver, wallpaper,
and photos Classroom clipart is a K-12 educational clipart site for student Copyright
friendly free Images for Education |
| Free
Music |
Royality Free Music and Effects Sounddogs Free hollywood sound effects. Open Directory Project Soundfiles, samples and loops. Shareware Music Machine. Collection of software related to converting audio format |
| Create a Webpage/ Rubrics |
Web for
Teachers Tools, Integrating Technology, Stars,
Professional Development, Web Wizard and Host, Site of the Week. Portaportal
Store all of your classroom links online with this web based
bookmarking utility. PB Education WIKI
excellent, easy-to-use wiki that provides a lot of nice features, looks
good, and is free. |
| Education Directories/ Resources |
The Educator's Reference Desk
An excellent resource from the
Information Institute of Syracuse,
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| Shareware & Freeware |
Graphic Converter You must have this program before sending pictures via
e-mail. Great for managing your graphics. It's free and current.
Guide |
| Live Images: The
World |
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| Maps |
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| WebQuests |
Click Here |
| Newspapers/
Magazines |
Time Magazine for Kids: This children's version of TIME For Kids is published year-round and is a place for kids to express their views on the news. What's Verbatim? Verbatim is a magazine devoted to what is amusing, interesting, and engaging about the English language and languages in general. They gently poke fun at the messes people can get into with English and the misunderstandings that arise from our common language. Archaeology's Dig A children's magazine on archaeology from the publishers of Archaeology Magazine. Quizzes, fun facts, contest and more! Ask questions of a real archaeologist! |
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FedWorld Information Network Home Page -Access to thousands of U.S. Government web sites, more than a 1/2 million U.S. Government documents, databases and other information products. FREE --
Federal Resources for Educational Excellence |
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Lesson Plans |
MLTI Educator Site new information web portal for the MLTI project. LessonPlansPage
2,500+ Free Lesson Plans for PreK-12 - Making
Teaching
Easier! Discovery Channel Lesson plans are available on this page for Grades K-6. Ancient History, Animals, Astronomy, Earth Science, Economy, Human Body, Life Science and Literature are featured. Newton's Apple A complete collection of Teacher's Guides/lessons from this PBS program. Lot's of fun science experiments from the last seven seasons are listed here also. How Stuff Works The
index to hundreds of fantastic 'How Stuff Works' articles! Thursday's
Classroom Lesson
plans and educational activities from NASA provides a connection
between NASA's latest research and the classroom environment. National Geographic
for Kids News, cartoon
and editorial writing, exploring the world and the always
great photos. U.C. Berkely Space Science Laboratory Load your on-line resource cart with lessons on Space Science, Sun Earth and Solar System. Suggested grade level and NSES Content Standards given for each lesson. HUBBLE SPACE
TELESCOPE: Check out these awesome pictures taken
by the Hubble Space Telescope from high above the Earth's atmosphere! |
| Museums |
The
Exploratorium: |
| Black History Month |
Dorseyville Middle
School Black History Month, A-Z
Scavenger Hunt African American History A Black History Treasure Hunt! Education World The African American Journey World Book takes a comprehensive look at the history of African Americans and their struggle for freedom. The Internet African American History Challenge The Encyclopædia Britannica Guide to Black History. Over 600 articles, hundreds of photographs and a dozen film and sound clips. |
| Just Plain Fun |
Silly Billy's World Want to draw some pictures with your computer? This site shows you how. Tetra Virtual Aquarium What temperature is best for your angel fish? What's a cherry barb look like? Which fish eats which? Learn all this and more as you build your own virtual aquarium. Pick your fish and watch 'em swim - it's better than your mom's lava lamp. Click here for The Cool Word
of the Day Check your
weight on other planets Enter your
weight into the calculator and find your weight across then solar
system. How Stuff Works? Do you ever wonder how things work? You can spend hours exploring this area to find out about all sorts of machines and things and why they work. Includes hundreds of articles and question of the day. Virtual Body Build a virtual skeleton bone by bone (it'll clap when you get it right). Then take a narrated tour to learn about your brain, watch a heart pump blood, and find the three ums: duodendum, jejenum, and ileum.  |
Why are some Web sites more successful at engaging and educating children than others? Just like a book, magazine or movie, good content is most important. You want information and images that people care about, and the page(s) should be well organized so that visitors can find what they want and enjoy the experience. In addition, the best sites all have five characteristics, regardless of their subject matter:
- They are purposeful. That is, they have clear goals and objectives.
- They are interactive. A site doesn't have to use all the most sophisticated technologies; it just has to spur kids to do something. Maybe it includes a "mailto" (a special kind of link for sending an email message when a visitor clicks on it), so that visitors can contact the kids with comments, or feature something as simple as a button users can click on to get a pop-up definition. Think action.
- They provide assessment . Great Web sites provide a way to measure learning, skills or other aspects of effectiveness. Think about this aspect as you build sites with your kids, as a way of measuring their skills development.
- They tell a story. Stories are the essence of both learning and entertainment and are a way of sneaking knowledge past a kid's defenses. Web site stories don't have to be novels or even narratives. A collection of neighborhood slang terms can tell a story about language, and the right photograph can tell a story of adventure.
- They are systematic. The brain searches for patterns, and great Web sites all have a logical structure that reveals their stories in a way that children can understand. Don't mistake "logical" or "systematic" to mean linear. One of the great things about hyperlinking and the Web is that visitors can find their own way to the heart of a story according to their individual interests and through multiple paths
Look for these
characteristics in the sites you recommend to children, and build them
into the sites you and your kids create. Again, the learning value in
building a Web page is not so much in using the software but in
learning to be better communicators.
December 17, 2004