Cool Educational Sites Arts and Humanities | Brain Teasers and Puzzles
Education | Language Arts | Math | Multiculturalism
Reference | Science | Social Studies
Arts and Entertainment (A&E) Leslie Kapral
Homepage of the A&E network. Its classroom link takes you to educational resources including study guides, free classroom materials, and much more.
Cartoons of the 80s Rance Sechrist
All the great 80s cartoons: fun facts, images, sounds, and links to related sites.
Kids Rule! James Horton
is a wonderful art related web site that emphasizes creativity and experimentation. It is obviously targeted towards kids, but I found myself playing the games and creating art, too. You can learn to use a camera to take photographs, look at optical illusions, or create a drawing with a spirograph. The site offers scores of artistic tutorials, lessons in art history, and many crafts for kids to create. It is truly a fun-filled web site loaded with fun things to see and do. I highly recommend that you visit it and see for yourself. I will bet that you too will experience some fun.Nativetech James Horton
is a web site that is dedicated to disconnecting the term “primitive” from perceptions of Native American technology and art. The site offers information and instruction on a variety of subjects that include food and recipes, clay and pottery, weaving and cordage, leather and cloths, and many, many more. This site offers an abundance of information associated with Native American culture. It is truly informative and educational.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Susan Yarnell
Do you like BB King? Jimi Hendrix? Anything to do with popular music? So do your students... so check out the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's website. The "for teachers" area of this site contains 78 lesson plans mostly geared toward middle and high school students, but I have successfully adapted plans for my special education students. This site may be especially helpful to teachers of Social Studies/History, English/Literature, Music, Math, Foreign Language, Sociology and Speech/Language. I found plans helpful for teaching social issues and diversity. Plans can be used by an interdisciplinary team.
There are other areas of the site that may be of interest to teachers. There is information for a "summer institute", free "educator's guides", information for "teacher workshops", a "resource list" of books and articles to use as starting points for investigation of topics in popular music, and "HOF inductee biographies".
Games and Puzzles Ami Turner
This site gives students of various ages practice with vocabulary, spelling, math, grammar, analytical abilities, and much more, with electronic and board games, music, puzzles, and other activities.
Brain Teasers Cheryl Morrison
Houghton Mifflin Co. posts three new Brain Teasers each Wednesday, for three different grade levels, and then posts the solutions the following Wednesday.
Rube Goldberg Helen Kordela
The authors of this site summarize Goldberg's work as follows:
"Through his wacky cartoons which depict the most elaborate and ridiculous devices to accomplish the most mundane tasks, Goldberg's inventions have become synonymous with any maximum effort to achieve minimal results. His ingenious drawings follow their own impeccable logic, demonstrating that the unnecessary can also be the mother of invention - often with hilarious results. Rube's audience spans generations, from adults well versed in the promise and pitfalls of modern technology to younger fans who are intrigued by the creativity and possibility of invention."
You can solve puzzles or create your own at this site.
KidCross Ron Conklin
This is a great site with a variety of puzzles. There are crosswords, crostics, math questions, metric system questions. There are questions related to science, English, geography, math, history, vocational, foreign language, holidays, etc. The puzzles are for kids. It is a nice way to reinforce information and to just get the brains going. There are additional links to similar sites. These puzzles can be printed for use in the class room.
http://puzzlemaker.school.discovery.com/index.html (Ed Fell)
This is a great site to quickly and easily create puzzles. The site offers several different kinds, but I especially like doing wordfinds for my weekly spelling lists. You can also create mazes and crossword puzzles, however the crossword puzzles are a little harder to do. A great site for the teacher without a lot of time. The puzzles created can be adapted for use at all grade levels.
The switched-on classroom Fred Morris
The Massachusetts Software Council provides support for schools and educators seeking to utilize technology in the classroom.
Classroom Connect Sheila Hoarty
This site lives up to its claim: "The premier web site for K-12 teachers and students." It offers links to schools around the world, it lets your school post its own web page, and it provides on-line resources and materials for educators, information about searching, a teacher-contact page, and a directory of outstanding K-12 Internet links: GRADES (Global Resources and Directory of Educational Sites).
PBS Teacher Connex Sheila Hoarty
The purpose of this site is to help K-12 teachers utilize PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) programming. Each month, Teacher Connex provides program descriptions, grade level appropriateness, cross-curricular applications, teacher resources, information about videotaping rights, and links to relevant Internet sites.
Institute for Learning Technologies (ILT) K-12 Resources Kathy Milliken
This site provides links to educational resources being developed to support the Advanced Media in Education projects (AME) which disadvantaged children by connecting an increasing number of urban schools -- public, parochial and private -- to the information superhighway as a national testbed for educational innovation.
School Webpage Directory Sheila Hoarty
Lists all U.S. schools (K-12), organized alphabetically by state and town. Just scroll down the list until you come to one that is blue and underlined (a HyperText link). Voila! Click and go directly to that school's webpage.
Education World Crista Tong
I found a site called education world and I could have spent hours on it. There are so many different links you can go to. They have it all - from financial planning for teachers, a visa offered by education world, lesson plan ideas, books that are important resources for teachers, reviews of different sites that are on the internet and the list could go on and on. There were so many different directions that I could have gone in it was hard to set a time limit for myself.
Brainstation Crista Tong
The second site that I found was Brainstation. What I liked the best about this site was that it is designed for parents, teachers and students. There is a section for all three parties. You can get to sites that have "free stuff" for kids and adults. You can get many links to sites that pertain directly to issues we deal with at school (being a 21st century school, getting resources dealing with special education and finding different educational software packages that you may find useful - this is just to name a few). For parents there were links to frequently asked questions, a parent soup site, links to sites that would be good for theri children as well as educational and links to get free things for their kids. I spend so much time at school trying to develop a positive home/school connection that it was nice to see the parents, teachers and the students connected in one site. I enjoyed this site a lot.
http://www.teachers.net/lessons/ (Ed Fell)
I have this site marked as my default homepage. Along with lesson plans, it post several periodicals and also live broadcasts of chats and interviews. It also provides valuable tips for teachers at all levels. Additionally, the site is continuously updated. The lesson plans change and update as well, providing many useful ideas. The site also provides information for teachers interested in doing projects with other classes and schools.
http://www.education-world.com/a_special/parent_involvement.shtml (Mike Overton)
Teacher-Created Web Sites Link Home and School ---Virtually!
This web site shares the stories of teachers who have seen the possibilities for using the Web to connect to parents. Included: Tips for making connections to parents on school and classroom Web sites!
http://www.education-world.com/a_lesson/lesson161.shtml (Mike Overton)
An educational scavenger hunt for students that teaches them how to use the Internet for research.
http://www.nytimes.com/learning/ (Sarah Chase)
I found that New York Times "Learning Network" is an indispensable resource for educators. You can get lesson plans, words of the day, quotes of the day, and all kinds of news about education issues. Current events activities are suggested for all grade levels...great ideas to get kids into the news! They even have weekly news quizzes and links to other quality daily publications. Check it out!
Title: Trackstar (Tammie Edinger)
Trackstar not only allows teachers to browse lessons according to subject and/or grade level, but design their own lessons on the Internet. Teachers can then use the lessons they have designed to allow their students to work independently to discover new information. This site also allows students to post some of their work.
Homework Helper Joe Lakin
This is a very exciting site offered by Discovery.com for students and educators. It supports students with the opportunity to explore any topic inquiry they are curious about in-depth. Moreover, this site is fun, students can challenge their knowledge with the brainpower question or the cybersurfari. This site also provides links for teachers on classroom topic ideas, a clip art gallery and services such as the puzzlemaker.
Interesting Trivia Joe Lakin
This is an interesting site for teachers wanting to obtain obscure knowledge that students will be fascinated with, such as the development of microwave ovens or xerography. This site also includes links and references to other sites in case your thirst for knowledge isn't sufficiently quenched.
Schoolnotes Leo Stermole
This site allows you to post messages and Internet flashcards after you have created an account with the company. Once you have created the account, you can leave messages for parents at home, who can then visit your site (after you have told them about it). You can also create interactive flash cards that your students can "flip through" to practice words or terms. Try going to my site by entering my school's zip code 14830 and then by clicking on my name. On my site you could read the note to my students' parents, visit my school's web site, send me an e-mail message, or look at the flashcards that I have created for my students.
Scholastic Leo Stermole
Not only does scholastic books have wonderful school book order forms for in your classroom, but they have also created this great site that has areas for kids, teachers, and parents. The teacher area has sample lessons and printable games and worksheets to go along with books on their book orders. Have you ever lost the tally sheet for the monthly book order on your desk? Well, you print out new ones of these, too. Haven't started ordering books from Scholastic, you can find out the right book club for your kids and order a free class ordering kit for your level. Just a great site from a great company.
Kids Domain Holidays Bernadette McCann
This site is great for teachers in the primary grades. It gives a complete list of Holidays from Christmas to Groundhogs day along with other holidays and events that we celebrate in school like back-to-school, 100th day and Black History month. Each holiday is accompanied by ideas for lessons, software, games, stories, printables, clip art and activities to celebrate with in the classroom or at home. Kids Domain welcomes you to enjoy and visit each holiday year round with the guarantee that they will update each holiday 1-2 months before the holiday.
http://www.teachers.net Charles Costello
This site offers many great resources for all teachers. Instructors are able to talk with other educators from all over the country to get information on jobs, lesson plans, trends in education, etc. The site also has a great deal of resources that teachers are able to view/copy and use in their classrooms. For the teacher who is looking for a new job, there are listings for educational openings throughout the world. The listings are broken down geographically to help in employment searches. All in all, an excellent site for teachers of all subject areas and grade levels.
http://www.eduplace.com Charles Costello
This site has a number of resources and links that are helpful to teachers, parents, and students. There are learning games to help make learning more fun for students as well as, ideas and suggestions for parents in helping in the educational process. The site is geared toward younger students (K-8) and offers many helpful assignments/comments to help make learning more enjoyable for all.
Connecting Students Susan Zettler
This site has a multitude of links too. This has several other subjects with sites for the Language Arts teacher, Geography teacher and Math teacher too just to name a few. What is also nice with this page is that it has many grade levels of activities which I find helpful. Students who are interested in bonus points or wanting to learn more could possibly follow an activity from one of these pages for extension activities. There are links to every teacher's favorite stuff-FREE STUFF!! I personally liked the way the site was set up and looked, so I say 5 stars for this one too!!!
Le monde du français - la langue francaise
Everything a student of the French language could want, from proper grammar to slang, complete with sound!
A central site for students of the Spanish language, with on-line language courses, a verb conjugator, information on study-abroad opportunities, and links to related resources.
Guide to Writing and Grammar Joe Fahs
This award-winning, comprehensive site includes a guide to writing categorized by sentence, paragraph and essay levels. For example, click the Notorious Confusables link to learn the differences between word pairs such as accept or except; amoral or immoral; allude or elude. Here is a sample sentence using its and it's:
"What is its color? It's green. It's been a long, long time. These come first, out of alphabetical order, because they're the champs, surely the most often confused words in English!"
There are over one hundred Interactive Quizzes to test your knowledge about grammar. Are you bold enough to try? Ask Grammar allows you to submit a question about English usage or grammar to the experts. Other links include Eminent Quotables, Anomalous Anonymies, and Grammar English Bookshelf.
Charles Darling, Professor of English/Humanities at Capital Community College publishes the site.
Animated ASL Dictionary by Bernadette McCann
Learning American Sign Language doesn't have to be difficult anymore. This award winning, animated site includes a comprehensive guide to learning American Sign Language. I enjoy using this site because you receive written instructions on how to sign the word then you will see a person demonstrating the sign slowly five times in a row. This allows you to join the demonstration and to practice signing the word the proper way. This site also provides a history of sign language along with links to various educational resources for ASL and the deaf culture.
MegaMath Angela Olkey
This University of Idaho site is full of activities and lesson ideas involving math -- games, puzzles, brain teasers and much more. It is rich in other resources having to do with math -- ideas you might never have thought of! A real must-see.
Math education websites recommended by PBS.
Problem of the week Stephanie Marks
My first educational website is a great page with challenging math questions. From the beginning, you are able to choose the student's grade level based on Elementary, Middle or High School, as well as look for more challenging questions. The students choose links to other web sites that are question oriented. The students are able to choose from a variety of levels and types of problems. It also gives a critique of the questions asked, whether there are solutions, quality of questions, and quality of the webpage. It also gives a slight hint of what is in store for the questions. It is great for the students to be able to have so much power over which site they go to. This also makes them a little more responsible for choosing quality sites.
Mr. Titen's Fun Page Stephanie Marks
This web page is a lot of fun for students. It has some cool colors as well as bright buttons to click. It is very appealing to the eye. The graphics are very cute and the middle school students will find them amusing. Not only are there math questions, but also english questions. The students can write in and try to get all the questions right. There is also an area that you can send new links and this person will post them on his site. You could have the students check out this page and then look for some more web sites like this one, and have them send in the links. What a great site!!
TITLE: Flash Cards for Kids (Vanessa Alderman)
URL: http://www.edu4kids.com/math/
DESCRIPTION
Flashcards for kids is an interactive site designed to help people practice math at various levels of difficulty. The site includes several types of math that one can choose to practice. The types of math include addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and addition and subtraction combined. The site also lets one choose the level of complexity of the problems presented on the flashcards: 1.) easy, no negative numbers; 2.) simple, only two numbers; and 3.) complex, up to ten numbers. The site also allows the user to choose the size of the numbers that he or she will be working with in accordance with the mathmatical procedure and complexity that they choose. Number size can range from numbers between 0-9, 0-99, 0-999. The site also includes a scorer and timing option. One can also choose to view the problems presented either vertically or horizontally. I graduated with an elementary education certificate, with a concentration in mathematics. I think that this would be a good site to use to practice basic math skills with elementary students.
Math Fun Facts Site Maurice Kaasa
This site has lots of fun math facts suitable for secondary school math classes. Start by searching the easy level of difficulty. Some math fun facts are accessible to younger students. Includes such fun facts as the shortcuts when multiplying by 11 and why 1 = 0 (or maybe why not). These math fun facts bring some interesting motivations to the classroom. Originally collected to provide stimulating thoughts for undergraduate non-majors these are fun for all and show some of the quirky aspects of mathematics (try fractional dimensions). Some of these fun facts were once common in the middle school and secondary school, but have disappeared from most teachers repetoires.
France on the Internet Gina Michel
Hundreds of links to great resources on France -- cinema, fashion, arts, music, food, language, magazines, newspapers and more!
Le monde du francais Gina Michel
Another comprehensive site on France, from the University of Chicago.
Berkeley Digital Library SunSITE Amy Turner
This site provides links to libraries worldwide: school, regional, state, national and international libraries.
The Start Natural Language Question Answer System from MIT AI Laboratory (Joe Fahs)
The wizards at MIT have worked on this artificial intelligence (AI) project since December 1993. You type in a English-like question and more often than not, you come up with a usable response. Try the Geography section and ask a question like "What country in South America has the largest population?" or "What is the national language of India?" BTW, Brazil is the largest with an estimated 1997 population of 164,511,366. There is no direct reply for the national language but Start did come up with the CIA World factbook paragraph on the languages of India that does include the answer (Hindi of course). Be sure to check this site out and try a question of your own!
Science Learning Network Gina Michel
Created by the National Science Foundation, this comprehensive site is a must for science teachers. Be sure to click the Schools and Educators link.
Collaborative Learning Environments On-line Fred Morris
"Where classrooms engaged in math and science inquiry projects can exchange, analyze and discuss data with others around the world."
Virtual Whale Project Jen Donnelly
Created by students at Simon Fraser University, this site uses 3-D animation and sound, and it provides links to great resources on whales.
Shale's Sea World Michelle Wida
Six-year-old Shale has put together an impressive website on ocean life, complete with stunning photos. Be sure to sign the guest book!
Animal Network Michelle Wida
Interested in reptiles? Are you a bird breeder? Horse enthusiast? Find extensive information, stories and journals on almost any type of animal, and share your own stories and information.
Dan's Wild Wild Weather Page Angela Olkey
An interactive weather site created by a meteorologist and designed with kids in mind, but adults also will love it.
Seaweb Eileen Michael
This is a multimedia education site on ocean life and the importance of safeguarding it.
National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII) Brenda Landsdowne
This is a comprehensive site for biology, with hundreds of resources, including a special section for educators, another section especially for kids, a stunning photo gallery, and links to libraries, museums, government organizations, news stories, and much, much more!
Important events in the history of space exploration during the 1960s, with photos, audio clips and movie clips. Includes the first U.S. space walk, the first moon walk (no, not Michael Jackson's), and the first U.S. space walk.
Doc in the Box Mark Johnson
Free Q&A database on health topics, organized by specialty. Answers are given within 48 hours.
PBS Teacher Connex - Science Mark Johnson
Science education websites recommended by PBS.
Miami Museum of Science Darlene Batrowny
A wonderful, comprehensive site for science buffs of all ages. Fun and educational! Be sure to visit the Hurricane pages -- you'll be blown away.
Minnetonka Elementary Science Center Kim Hall
Created by the Minnetonka (Minnesota) Public Schools, this is a wonderful site for fostering an interest in science among students in the elementary grades.
Manatee Education Materials Jen Donnelly
This is the education portion of the Save the Manatee website. It offers excellent resources for teachers, including many free materials!
Electronic Zoo Sheila Hoarty
Take your kids to the zoo -- on the Internet! (Now it's not just the monkeys who are wired.)
Endangered Species Scott Tammetta
This is a portion of the EPA's comprehensive Environmental Education on the Internet website, which is definitely one-stop shopping for teachers planning units on the environment.
All about Wolves Dayton Handrick
This site focuses on two endangered creatures, the Siberian Tiger and the Wolf. It is estimated that only 10,000 wolves and 400 Siberian Tigers remain in the wild.
Energy Ron Conklin
This is a site that has information about energy. This is by the State of California. It has several interesting things to do. This initial page is colorful and should be attractive to young students. There is an art contest, puzzles, a site where questions can be asked. This would be good for earth science and conservation.
Dole 5 a day Chris Yorio
This commercial site provides tips, games, puzzles and exploration of healthy eating for kids. It also provides easy instruction for educators. It is also updated every day.
http://www.forests.org/ric/Projects/ecuador.htm (Charles Leasure)
This site describes, in part, a rainforest in Ecuador inhabited by the Awa people. The RAINFOREST INFORMATION CENTRE received a request from the Awa people asking for assistance in protecting their lands. The RAINFOREST INFORMATION CENTER has helped the native people negotiate for their land rights and to map their lands to show the boundaries of their territory. This site also documents other areas of Ecuador in which the RIC (Rainforest Information Centre) has helped establish habitats for both humans and animals in an increasingly invasive colonization, poaching and logging program that has been ongoing in recent years. Students will be able to follow various international efforts to help indigenous people and native habitats.
http://www.exploratorium.edu/hockey/ (Charles Leasure)
By using a sport that many students are interested in, the teacher will be able to interest the students in finding out why ice is slippery, what are the mechanics involved in skating, how fast is your reaction time, how much energy is generated by a mid-air collision, how to stay healthy in hockey, what high tech materials are used in hockey, how is a fast moving puck stopped, and how fast is that puck going. This is an award winning site for science that will arouse interest in your class.
http://www.kidsastronomy.com/index.htm (Cindy Smith)
This site is an astronomy website just for kids but does have information for teachers. It has sections on space news, games, puzzles, and a dictionary among other things.
http://www.fourmilab.ch/earthview/vplanet.html (Cindy Smith)
This cool site shows views of the earth from outerspace that show what the earth looks like at exactly the moment you choose. You can view the earth from the sun, the moon, a satellite in orbit or from any location specified by latitude, longitude and altitude.
TITLE: Cool Science for Curious Kids (Vanessa Alderman)
URL: http://www.hhmi.org/coolscience/
DESCRIPTION
The Howard Hughes Medical Institute invites curious kids to explore biology, on screen, off screen, and in between. This site explores several different areas of science: classifying animals, the evolution of the butterfly, a homemade microscope, air junk, and plant parts. This is an extremely interactive site for students to engage in. For each on of the science topics listed above, there is a link to a lesson plan or directions written for the students to read and complete step by step. All of the lessons are hands-on and require students to observe their natural environments and create things.
For instance, with classifying critters, the student is shown an animal and then is presented three other animals and the student must select which animal they think is in the same classification as the one presented. If the student is right, they are alerted, and then they are presented with several statements as to why the two animals are in the same classification. If the student in right, they continue to look at different animals of different classifications. The directions are written at the beginning of the site and are clear and concise.
On the other hand, for the evolution of the butterfly, students are presented with a lesson plan where the have to make a cocoon out of specified materials and a butterfly and then use these two objects to recreate the evolution of the butterfly. This is one of the best sites that I have ever seen!!!! Check it out! I would use this site to start off a unit on any of these scientific topics.
Title: Diet Analysis Web Page (Cynthia Lyons)
This site is an excellent source for health teachers. You can enter the foods you have eaten during a day and it reviews your diet according to the RDA (Recommended Daily Allowance). This would be a good site to use when teaching nutrition and good eating habits.
TITLE: Inside the Animal Mind (Joe Fahs)
URL: http://www.wnet.org/nature/animalmind/
Are Animals Intelligent? When we call someone a birdbrain does it really mean that birds have low animal intelligence? Learn how stress affects animals, especially baboons who are surprisingly similar to humans in that "they can devote a large part of each day to making each other absolutely miserable with social stress."
Experience true multimedia on the Web with Flash animations and QuickTime movies such as the segment on Chimp Intelligence and expert advice from renowned Primatologist Jane Goodall. Top off your learning experience with puzzles such as the Animal Scramble.
http://www.fed.cuhk.edu.hk/~johnson/ Bradley Cartwright
This site is interesting for those who teach life sciences. It has a wide variety of information ranging from interactive quizzes, pictures, movies, an a plethora of ideas for lessons and activities. It also has several helpful links with it as well. This also provides a feature that allows other biology teachers to discuss ideas in their "forum."
http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/index.html Bradley Cartwright
This is a great site for science teachers to gather their resources from. There is a wealth of information on just about any subject you could think of. There are also a great deal of pictures which could be used in a lesson. This is also updated frequently so there is always new information available on this site.
Dr. Matrix' World of Science Maurice Kaasa
Dr. Matrix' World of Science is a broad spectrum approach to mathematics and science information. Arguably the best starting place for web links to math and science information, Dr. Matrix will lead you to topics as diverse as the latest technical results on the human genome and to K-12 lesson plans and resources in mathematics (http://www.scientium.com/drmatrix/math.htm#education). The site also provides links to the latest in math and science news and links to the full text of many general science magazines - ranging in depth and difficulty from Discover to Nature. A particularly good site for those with a general interest in science and mathematics, or for students and teachers, who want to research a recent development in science. Teachers of science will find some especially good resources with a bit of work. Fun is not neglected at Dr. Matrix' World of Science as there are puzzle pages maintained by Martin Gardner and Raymond Smullyan and links to other puzzle sites. For those with minds that are wide ranging there are links to the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (S.E.T.I.) sites.
Institute for Learning Technologies Susan Zettler
This site is truly a Science teacher's dream. There are links to ideas and lessons by each of the following disciplines: Astronomy, Biology, Chemistry, Earth Science, Environmental Science and Physics. There is a wide variety of topics and sites to go to from each of these, including links to other Web sites for interactive lessons, school Web pages discussing projects, virtual labs and so forth. Also included are links to see student work, links to popular science sites designed for students to use as reference for content. "It also includes online science museums, and science websites with engaging design for home users and younger children." It also has a variety of links for news stories, publications and organizations. Science teachers and buffs-budget plenty of time for this site!!!!!
Multicultural Pavilion Michael Huang
A comprehensive site for multicultural education.
PBS Teacher Connex - Social Studies
Social studies education websites recommended by PBS.
Early America Ron Conklin
This is a site I found long ago as I was looking for business law sites. It has a digital library with pictures of early American interest. There are places, battles, people, etc. There are even some crossword puzzles that can be used to test your knowledge of early American history. There is also a journal of fact and opinion. There are special interest sites. If you are teaching Ameircan history, this should be a good site.
Economics Resources Rob Gottschall
This is a great site for introducing the topic of economic to a class that has little or no exposure to this material. This is a great site because it covers several different topics associated with economics so it can be utilized throughout a semester
Reasearch a Company Rob Gottschall
This is great site to help students learn about the stock market. Students usually don't know what stocks to buy when they do this project and this site can help them determine if a particular stock may or may not be a good purchase. The one caution here is that there is a lot of information. Don't let the students "go" on this site. Know what points and stats you want the students to know and them guide them there.
The National Geographic for Kids Chris Yorio
This site provides a "safe" variety of writing projects for individuals and groups including: pen pals, contests, suggestions for story ideas and many more.
Title: Document Analysis Worksheets (Cynthia Lyons)
http://www.nara.gov/education/teaching/analysis/analysis.html
This site is a part of the Digital Classroom. It provides several document anyalysis worksheets that contain basic questions that can be used for many types of documents. Workesheets for written documents, photographs, cartoons, posters, maps, artifacts, sound recordings, and motion pictures are included. From the perspective of a history teacher, this is a great site becaue the new Regents exams will contain document-based questions.
A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust Jay Bohannon
This site is great for anyone teaching about the Holocaust. It gives a great timeline which goes from the rise of the Nazi Party in Germany through the end of World War II and describes all of the steps which Hitler did to eradicate what he perceived to be a threat to German way of life. It tells some about people who were involved in the Holocaust from the victims to the perpetrators to those who stood by and did nothing to those who eventually rescued the victims. It has a Teacher Resources section which gives teachers additional resources like documents, museums, maps, movies, and more to teach this material to several different learning learning styles. If you are stumped as to how to present this material to your students, this site gives you many great ideas for activities.
Early America by Jay Bohannon
This site is very useful in making Early American History fun for your students. It has a daily "On This Day in Early America" fact scrolling from right to left like a the news at Times Square. It has movies which can download to give your students a better connection to such people and events as George Washington, The Shot Heard Around the World, Paul Revere, to name a few. Why just have your students read about these figures, when they can watch them? For more in depth information on Early America, you can go to The Early American Review section and learn more about the people and events of Early America. If you want to read about the documents which shaped Early America or read about the lives of everyday people, you can go to the "Enter the World of Early America" section.
The Odyssey--The United States Trek Susan Yarnell
If you want your students to learn about diversity, culture, current events, positive social change and increase global awareness, check out US Trek. This site follows eight people as they trek across the U.S. and through U.S. history exploring issues from our American roots through the 20th century highlighting unique perspectives and historical locations. This free site has two sections, K-6 and 7-12. The trekkers bring stories, photos, videos, interactive polls, interviews, discussion boards and live chats to classrooms and they will visit schools as they travel. The content is updated every Wednesday and Saturday and the information archived. I found it interesting to explore history from the perspectives of women and minorities... and found the trekkers bios. and the "Making a Difference" sections really interesting too.
This trek is a sequel to The Odyssey--World Trek launched in 1999. The Odyssey was incorporated in 1997 and is 100% volunteer run.
Fortune City Erin McLean
This is an excellent site. It has historic events and along with each event are songs that correspond with each event. There are many songs to choose from under each event topic. It would be a great site for many types of cooperative learning projects. I think this is great for kids to get a feel of how music represents the time of each event and how the song through its lyrics tells a story or depicts the emotions of the people at this time. It is a great way to get students involved, for example they could write their own song for a specific event in history. This is a truly cool site.
Odyssey Online Erin McLean
This is also another very cool site that lets kids and parents see actual museum pieces through their computer. The graphics are great and the explanations are very understandable. It is great for exploring egypt and other ancient countries. This allows kids to actually see and hear aspects of the cultures that they study. This site also offers a sitemap which is very helpful in navigating all of the parts to this site. It is nice because parents would enjoy this site as well as their children. This is a way cool site that can be enjoyed by everyone in a classroom or at home. It is neat and entertaining while it is also a cool way to learn about ancient people and places.
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