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English Literature: Jane Eyre - BBC

Grades
10 to 12
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Though this site is archived, the links still work. This site excels at giving background to the novel, as well as reviewing plot, characters, and themes of Jane Eyre. It ...more
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Though this site is archived, the links still work. This site excels at giving background to the novel, as well as reviewing plot, characters, and themes of Jane Eyre. It discusses the time period, the Gothic novel genre, and the background to the novel itself. Each section offers review for students then interactive quizzes to test themselves. Since this is a British site, the word "revise" is used in place of what Americans call "review."

tag(s): literature (215)

In the Classroom

A great review before a test, this site is also good for pre-reading activities to build understanding of 18th century times and novels, particularly the views of women. The sample question takes students through a step-by-step writing of an outline for an essay. On a projector or interactive whiteboard, students might write their own collaborative answers to the sample outline and then compare it with the finished model given.

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English literature: Of Mice and Men - BBC

Grades
8 to 10
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Although, this site is archived, the links still work. This is a good site to introduce the Of Mice and Men or to review and quiz student knowledge as they ...more
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Although, this site is archived, the links still work. This is a good site to introduce the Of Mice and Men or to review and quiz student knowledge as they read. It offers very general, but valuable information on context, including a brief Steinbeck biography, background on the depression, information on migrant workers (complete with Woody Guthrie song accompaniment), and a picture of housing. Print these brief sources or use the menus for plot, character, or theme to locate some explanations and interactive quizzes. Note to American students: "Revise" in the U.K. is the same as "Review" in the U.S. Check out the section called "Sample Question." This section helps students think about answering thoughtful questions about this novel. It provides "preparation," a sample question, and a model answer -- complete with commentary on that answer.

tag(s): novels (34)

In the Classroom

The "sample question" is a great lesson to go over with on an interactive whiteboard or projector in class or have students work through individually or include in student blogs.

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Wolf Quest - Minnesota Zoo

Grades
4 to 12
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This fabulous website about wolves and habitats in Yellowstone allows participants to "live" as a wolf, raise their young, explore the wilderness, go hunting, and survive. Students...more
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This fabulous website about wolves and habitats in Yellowstone allows participants to "live" as a wolf, raise their young, explore the wilderness, go hunting, and survive. Students can work alone or with partners, as they learn about wolves in the wild. Students can consult biologists, write original stories, create drawings, and more. This is the first episode; future installments are expected in late 2008. Students and/or teachers must register (free)to use the program. We recommend using a single class/teacher registration or parent/student written agreements for student registrations in order to prevent inappropriate postings "clever" students might make on the community discussion boards. There are also detailed lesson plans (click on Wolf Info > classroom activities). The lesson plans include national science standards.

tag(s): animal homes (53), animals (275), zoology (18)

In the Classroom

Introduce this free resource on interactive whiteboard or projector. The lesson plans and interactive activity are both perfect tools to drum up enthusiasm in biology class. The Game Info provides excellent descriptors and instructions for using this program. Be sure to check back for updated episodes. Include this website on your teacher web site (and the activities) as one of a set of activities on animals and their habitats to be done in class or outside. Then challenge your students to work together in documenting local animals and habitats in a class wiki or group science fair project.

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Thoughtful Learning - Write Source: Writing Topics - Houghton Mifflin Co.

Grades
K to 12
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The authors of Write Source have moved their materials to Thoughtful Learning. Explore this great site to find free minilessons, student writing topics, and models of good writing....more
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The authors of Write Source have moved their materials to Thoughtful Learning. Explore this great site to find free minilessons, student writing topics, and models of good writing. The writing topics are divided by grade level in elementary and intermediate, then grouped as 9-12 for high school. Each section includes many writing prompts --enough to whet the appetite of almost any student. The minilessons are a treasure! Many have a short video explanation and some have templates to print! The student models are shown by type (creative writing, persuasive, research, response to literature, business, etc.) and level. As for writing assessments see the elementary and middle school models in all of the major modes of writing, and rubrics that assess each example as "Strong," "Good," "Okay," or "Poor." Download blank rubrics to use with your students. The upper levels of this site, such as persuasive writing or literary analysis, open the door to higher level thinking. There are free curricula Teaching Guides for K-3, however, the other levels of curricula books have a cost. Though the videos display on this site, they reside on YouTube. If your district blocks YouTube, the videos may not be viewable.
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tag(s): blogs (78), essays (18), writing (308), writing prompts (55)

In the Classroom

Have the students choose their own prompt from the list and then share their writing within a small group, with the class, or on their own blogs. Replace paper and pencil and have your younger students create a blog using Seesaw, reviewed here., while older students can use Telegra.ph, reviewed here. With Telegra.ph you just click on an icon to upload images from your computer, add a YouTube or Vimeo, or X (formerly Twitter) links. This blog creator requires no registration. Use the models and anonymous sharing on an interactive whiteboard to create a "safe" way for students to share writing as process and hear how others do it. Take this a step further and enhance student learning by having them use a collaborative writing tool like Google Docs. There is also the option of altering student learning and PUBLISHING student models with Book Creator, reviewed here, or Ourboox, reviewed here, as a motivator. Be sure to get parent permission!

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Timeless Ideas for Teaching - Concord Monitor Publishing

Grades
6 to 12
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Posted by the New Hampshire Concord Monitor Newspaper in the Classroom program, this website offers many interactive ideas that students can use either with a physical newspaper...more
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Posted by the New Hampshire Concord Monitor Newspaper in the Classroom program, this website offers many interactive ideas that students can use either with a physical newspaper in front of them, with an online news service such as CNN, or with online editions of newspapers that you find here. The examples used all refer to the New Hampshire newspaper, but are easily adaptable to whatever topic you want the students to deal with. This site includes such varied activities as creating a database and writing recipes. It covers every section of a newspaper. Students could create their own classroom newspaper using some of these activities or simply create journalistic articles based on whatever topic you are currently teaching. This is adaptable to almost any grade level and subject area.

tag(s): local history (12), news (223), newspapers (88)

In the Classroom

Whether you use hard-copy papers or electronic editions, many of these ideas will work even better using technology: word processing, wikis, blogs (for editorials), graphic organizer tools, digital cameras, etc. Use today's tools to study this powerful medium as it goes through transition into an electronic world. Consider asking students to compare electronic vs. hard-copy newspapers and their pros/cons, as well.

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BBC-GCSE Bitesize English - The BBC

Grades
8 to 12
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This great, interactive site was actually developed to assist students in the UK prepare for exams in that country. However, it is a fantastic site for any teacher anywhere who ...more
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This great, interactive site was actually developed to assist students in the UK prepare for exams in that country. However, it is a fantastic site for any teacher anywhere who teaches writing. It addresses writing to persuade, inform, advise, or explain. It offers a variety of methods usuable by students independently or in a class. It offers interactive tests, mock exams, and audio recordings on each topic -- available as mp3, RealAudio, or downloadable pdf acripts. A wonderful addition is a set of audio recordings of poetry critiques (good models for poetry podcasts your students could create). One language note: to "revise" material in the UK is the same as to "review" it in the U.S. One "revises" before a test.

tag(s): poetry (196), process writing (34), writing (308)

In the Classroom

This is a gold mine to delve into again and again for both students and teachers. It offers simple techniques for remembering what's important such as GAP (genre, audience, purpose) and allows individuality for student needs. One idea might be to assign a different genre of essay (inform, describe, explain, advise, etc.) to different students in the same class. Using the tools on the site to improve their writing, students could then share their finished products with the rest of the class, explaining their methods and revision techniques. ESL students and poor reasders will benefit from the audio recordings. Be sure to make this site available from your teacher web pages as a reference, as well.
 This resource requires PDF reader software like Adobe Acrobat.

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A+ Research & Writing Step-by-Step - Kathryn L. Schwartz

Grades
9 to 12
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Do you want to appeal to those students who are afraid of the whole research and writing process? How about those who just don't know how to pick a topic, ...more
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Do you want to appeal to those students who are afraid of the whole research and writing process? How about those who just don't know how to pick a topic, or narrow the focus? Are you dreading walking your students through the citation part? This site enables students to go through the process of writing a research paper from choosing a topic through writing the paper, revising, proofreading, and final submission. What makes this site appealing is the use of great graphics and the very simple, one-step-at-a-time approach that makes paper writing less daunting. Links take students to college-specific sites for interactive organizational tools such as mapping and outlining.

In the Classroom

This site helps you help your students and them students to work at their own pace through the pieces that are difficult for them. Use the entire site as a guide for you research process or select different pieces of this site as models when you teach research papers so students can practice right then and there "how to do it." Be sure to include the link on your teacher web page so parents can support students as they approach deadline-panic (and you know some will procrastinate, no matter what you do).

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Quizlet: The End of Flashcards - Brainflare: Andrew Sutherland

Grades
3 to 12
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This easy-to-understand web and mobile app tool allows you or your students to enter vocabulary terms and definitions to create electronic flashcards and quizzes to enhance word study...more
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This easy-to-understand web and mobile app tool allows you or your students to enter vocabulary terms and definitions to create electronic flashcards and quizzes to enhance word study in any language or content area. Students may choose to create study sets, electronic tests, or a networking page, which allows them to interact and learn with others who share the same interests. Teachers or students can create groups to share word lists. Use this tool from any device or move between several devices and still access your work. The iOS and Android app practice tests can include multiple-choice, true/false, or written questions. Turn on "Instant Feedback" (new feature for the apps) that will give real-time feedback on right/wrong answers as you go, or wait and get your score at the end. As wonderful as this technology is, the most remarkable thing about Quizlet might be in its history--its creator was a high school student who tells his inspiring story and shares his blog through links at this site.
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tag(s): DAT device agnostic tool (129), flash cards (44), Formative Assessment (47), quiz (62), spelling (93), vocabulary (251), word study (58)

In the Classroom

Membership asks for an email. Email allows you to notify others that you want to share a word list or activity with them. If students cannot have their own email accounts, consider using a "class set" of Gmail subaccounts, explained here. This tells how to configure Gmail subaccounts to use for any online membership service. This would provide anonymous interaction within your class. KEEP A LIST of students' usernames (non-identifying) and passwords, in case they forget them! If you already use Google Classroom with your students, it only takes a few minutes to get them set up with a Quizlet Class.

Quizlet has a very thorough "Help Center" to get the idea of how the site works. Save your "sets" and decide whether you want them to be entirely public, just for you personally, or shared with a "group." The new version of "study sets" allows you to scan your notes with your phone or tablet and create study sets designed for your specific needs. You can now highlight main ideas, underline key concepts and bold important study terms to create custom content. Create your own groups for each class or subject. Be sure to note the fact that you can upload vocabulary lists by copying/pasting from various formats--- a time saver! Use this tool easily in your BYOD classroom since all students will be able to access it for free, no matter what device they have.

Content and English teachers may set up their personal network of users. Pretest your gifted students and allow them to "test out" of material they already know. Learning support teachers will want their students to create their own Quizlet sets and help learn them in the process! Teachers may create their own sets of words, or let students do the work for themselves and each other. Use the interactive whiteboard for quick flashcards or electronic testing using your sets. World language and ESL/ELL teachers will find many word sets already built and ready to use at this site. If you team teach with others at your grade level, take turns making the online Quizlets to accompany your science or social studies chapters. Be SURE to share this tool on your teacher's web page for students to use at home.

Be sure to see the classroom quiz game for groups, Quizlet Live (from the creator of Quizlet), reviewed here.

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Fun Icebreaker Ideas & Activities - icebreakers.ws

Grades
K to 12
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Start the first day of school or a new marking period with a getting-to-know-you activity from this great, searchable collection. The activities are designed for all ages, so some will...more
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Start the first day of school or a new marking period with a getting-to-know-you activity from this great, searchable collection. The activities are designed for all ages, so some will not work well with very young ones (such as writing things on slips of paper). The site is easy to navigate and sorts ideas by group size and activity level for easy retrieval. There are also activity suggestions for Zoom if you use distance and remote learning. You are invited to submit your own ideas. Since the site is designed for general use, not for schools, some ideas may be impractical in a classroom setting but could be easily adapted. Substitutes - check out some of these icebreakers, the kids will love them....and you! Warning: By clicking the "Download Templates - Free" you will go out of the Icebreaker website to the Shift website that has templates (unrelated to icebreakers) for free.
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tag(s): back to school (50), firstday (20), newbies (9), remote learning (32), substitutes (25)

In the Classroom

New or veteran teachers who want students to get to know each other as they enter a new school (starting middle school, for example), want to observe them so YOU get to know them, or need to build better team skills with a challenging class or club, will find ideas to try. Mark this one as a Favorite so you can find it again, since "first day" activities tend to get lost in the flurry -- and in the fading memory -- during the year.

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ESL Lessons and Help - Karin M. Cintron

Grades
4 to 12
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Originally written for ESL students to practice language skills, these interactive quizzes are very useful for allowing all levels of students to test their skills online in a nonthreatening...more
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Originally written for ESL students to practice language skills, these interactive quizzes are very useful for allowing all levels of students to test their skills online in a nonthreatening way. These interactive quizzes seem to touch on all bases from business English to grammar to vocabulary (including idioms), making them great for either pretesting, practice or review. They also allow the teacher to individualize what students need from a variety of choices.

tag(s): grammar (139), quiz (62), quizzes (89)

In the Classroom

Assign individual or mini-lesson practice on laptops or a computer cluster in your classroom after grading writing assignments or while studying grammar. Learning support and ESL teachers will also like the extra practice options to help students with grammar skills and idioms. Since there is no "scoring" function, you may want students to raise hands and SHOW you how they did as they complete activities.

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Teaching That Makes Sense - Steve Peha

Grades
4 to 10
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This is an exciting site for teachers because of the practical worksheets and ideas that absolutely fill it. It is geared to writing, particularly writing about what we read. While...more
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This is an exciting site for teachers because of the practical worksheets and ideas that absolutely fill it. It is geared to writing, particularly writing about what we read. While it may seem geared for intermediate and middle school students, it has a lot to offer to older students as well-- particularly ones who are not good writers and need more engaging, closer work to become better writers. In light of NCLB, this is a great site for working with slow or disabled older students or really just any students who need to become better communicators.

tag(s): writing (308)

In the Classroom

The PDF files that are downloadable from this site are great! It is divided into 6 sections that you can use to plan, or you can use portions directly with students in a lab or on laptops. Have students do different parts of the same projects, working from the templates provided. A great exercise for older students is to go through the writing samples and evaluate them as a class. Since there are multiple examples posted, it would be an excellent lesson to work with an interactive whiteboard. The ideas are limited only by your imagination!
 This resource requires PDF reader software like Adobe Acrobat.

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Bulletin Board Hang Ups - TeachersFirst

Grades
2 to 12
17 Favorites 0  Comments
TeachersFirst provides this collection of printable quotations, ready for your classroom or bulletin board. Inspire, engage, or challenge your students to think with quotes from famous...more
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TeachersFirst provides this collection of printable quotations, ready for your classroom or bulletin board. Inspire, engage, or challenge your students to think with quotes from famous leaders, sports figures, thinkers, and writers.

tag(s): bulletin boards (13), quotations (18)

In the Classroom

They look great printed on brightly colored paper! As an opening day activity, challenge small groups of students to interpret the quote hanging closest to them and predict how it may be important in your course this year. For younger students, ask them to write a paraphrase or to illustrate the quote. Be sure to change the quotes periodically and give a prize to the first student who notices. Or give a pop-quiz during the last week of school, asking students to recall as many of the year's quotes as they can (working in small groups will probably help). If you have classroom blogs, ask students to choose and reflect on a specific quote and its relevance to your class throughout the past year.
 This resource requires PDF reader software like Adobe Acrobat.

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Panoramas.dk

Grades
K to 12
6 Favorites 2  Comments
Have a high speed Internet connection? (Most schools do) Then you MUST visit these 3D virtual tours of beautiful sites all over the world with your students. Read the Welcome ...more
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Have a high speed Internet connection? (Most schools do) Then you MUST visit these 3D virtual tours of beautiful sites all over the world with your students. Read the Welcome message on the home page for directions and details, then explore the current features and several years of archives for 3D virtual tours from major world capitals to true "experiences" such as Times Square and white water rafting. Even the tour of a Banyan tree will amaze you. Bring the world into your classroom for geography, landforms, world cultures, foreign language study, or literary settings. Be in the midst of festivals or atop the Sydney Bridge.

tag(s): images (267), landforms (36), virtual field trips (139)

In the Classroom

Use a projector--or better yet, an interactive whiteboard--to take students atop the Eiffel Tower, to the high Sierras, or aboard a Mars explorer. Allow student to navigate on the whiteboard. Nte that Shift and Ctrl keys alow you to zoom, as well. Be sure to click at the top of the 3D view to Read More about the image. These tours will make landforms real, culture come alive, and science a visual art form. As you introduce terms and place, use images! You could even use a tour as a writing prompt for poetry or descriptive writing. Include the link on your teacher web page for students to "tour the world" outside of class or feature one location a week to broaden class horizons on a classroom desktop.

Comments

What a GREAT idea! Thank you. I found one with mountain biking and vistas. I'll put it up early in the period and come back to it in the end and have them write their exit cards about it. Then I will revisit it in a week or two when we start talking about metaphorical language. Shirley, CA, Grades: 6 - 12
I plan to use this as a way to start the school year with my sixth grade G/T kids. I will display a panorama on an interactive whiteboard-- one of mountains with peaks and valleys. I will ask, "Why would I show you this and say that this is our classroom this year?" The students will write down an idea on a slip of paper, guessing why I might use this as an introduction to my class. They will most likely introduce all of the classroom conduct and learning environment issues that I want to touch upon that first day: peaks and valleys during the year, some rugged terrain, studying mountains and geography, some amazing views (everyone's opinions), and more. It will also get them thinking in analogies and allow me to see how quickly some of them do this and how literal others are. Thinking, PA, Grades: 5 - 10

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Protopage - Protopage

Grades
K to 12
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This online tool creates a highly visual "home page" that can incorporate multiple elements simply by dragging and dropping them in place. Not unlike Google's personalized homepage,...more
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This online tool creates a highly visual "home page" that can incorporate multiple elements simply by dragging and dropping them in place. Not unlike Google's personalized homepage, the elements look like little sticky notes or boxes, but there is far greater flexibility and a wider variety of content readily available. You can also make the page local (simply use it as the "home" on your classroom computer), shared by a select group (passworded), or completely public. You can easily make a theme or unit page for quick access of resources, complete with directions.

tag(s): resources (80)

In the Classroom

How would you use this in your teaching? Create a set of RSS feeds for current events or a specific curriculum topic such as weather and make them available for an in-class activity, complete with directions. World language, world cultures, or geography teachers can profile a location on the globe, complete with local weather and news. Make separate tabs for separate activities. Students can access them by password or publicly from outside of class, as well. For primary grades, make simple instructions right on the desktop for a computer center activity. Use color coding of the instructions to differentiate for different children (Sam, I want you to do the yellow one). If your school permits students to set up accounts on web services, have groups make Protopages on an assigned topic, collecting and organizing resources, images, and information: "A Protopage Guide to Cells" or "Shakespeare's Times." Gifted and highly-able students will go crazy!

Skills needed: Join (free). Check out the Intro, Overview, and Quickstart to see how it works. Play to your heart's content, including making tabs. Learn about RSS feeds and other Widgets-- including sticky notes. Share the URL with those you wish to have use it. Note: this works on Internet Explorer 6 and higher and on Firefox. If your users are on older web browsers, the developers recommend upgrading. This may be a problem for some. Check with your end-user computers before you spend too much time making the perfect Protopage!

If you allow students to create their own Protopage, you will need to have very specific rules about content, since there are non-educational elements available.

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Mindomo - Expert Software Application

Grades
1 to 12
6 Favorites 0  Comments
 
Create collaborative mind maps (graphic organizers), concept maps, and Gantt charts using this online tool. See an...more
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Create collaborative mind maps (graphic organizers), concept maps, and Gantt charts using this online tool. See an example created by our editors. The example provides some ideas for using this online graphic organizer tool. Sign up with your email or download. The free version gives you 3 graphic organizers with sharing, publishing and collaboration.

tag(s): graphic organizers (57), mind map (33)

In the Classroom

Have students create graphic organizers in cooperative groups as a study guide for unit content, to collect information for a group research project, or show examples of an important concept. Share and compare the organizers on an interactive whiteboard or projector in class and allow classmates to suggest changes. Skills needed: join the site, practice with the tools (don't miss the notes feature!). Save up to 7 "private" maps and an unlimited number of "shared" maps.

Make a map available online by saving and clicking "yes" for sharing, then clicking the Save by URL icon. This will copy the URL onto your computer's clipboard so you can paste it into a word doc or even your teacher web page. Imagine sharing several student made "study guides" in the days before the unit test.

Note that maps that are shared can be seen by the public, but not altered. You specify members who may collaborate and make alterations. For students to collaborate using this tool they must have individual memberships, requiring an email account. These memberships must be activated from their email. So, if students do not have email that is accessible from school, classroom use BY STUDENTS will be severely limited. Editor's note: we asked the Mindomo folks about spell check and student safety issues. They are still developing this tool, so they MIGHT address these issues at a later date.

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Language Arts Presentations - Free Club Web

Grades
K to 12
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Wow - this website provides ready-to-use PowerPoint presentations on over 100 topics. Teachers created the presentations for teachers to use in their classrooms. This website organizes...more
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Wow - this website provides ready-to-use PowerPoint presentations on over 100 topics. Teachers created the presentations for teachers to use in their classrooms. This website organizes topics by general grade levels (K-5 and 6-12). To give you a taste of the uniqueness of these presentations, topics include Shakespeare, "grammar goofs," active reading strategies, a haunted house graphic organizer, the phonics millionaire game, pronouns, and more. Any language arts teacher is guaranteed to find something helpful at this website. Do yourself a favor and check it out! You may need PowerPoint software to view these files, depending on how the site creators save them. Note: while files are downloading, it may appear that nothing is happening and that the links are dead. Look for a tiny "downloading" icon in the lower left corner of your screen, and please be patient! This site has heavy advertising at the top of the landing page. Scroll down to find the presentations.
This site includes advertising.

tag(s): grammar (139), literature (215), narrative (16), paragraph writing (18), paragraphs (2), parts of speech (40), reading comprehension (146), reading strategies (93), shakespeare (98), six traits of writing (3), writing (308)

In the Classroom

Try these ready-to-go PowerPoint presentations on an interactive whiteboard or projector in your classroom. Some may also be well-suited for individual students to run on a single classroom computer for remediation or review. There are games, resources, and a lot of information. The site includes a disclaimer requesting that users notify the site if they find any copyrighted material. TeachersFirst recommends that you NOT download copies but instead use them online, just in case. Share this site with other teachers on your campus, as there are some PowerPoints suitable for professional development.

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Substitute Survival: Tools You Can Use - Education World

Grades
K to 12
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This website provides substitutes with practical advice on surviving in a classroom. Most of the tips, websites and lesson ideas are more suitable for elementary or middle school, but...more
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This website provides substitutes with practical advice on surviving in a classroom. Most of the tips, websites and lesson ideas are more suitable for elementary or middle school, but many of the tips are practical in any classroom, any grade and any subject matter. New teachers and those headed into student teaching would be wise to read it, as well.

tag(s): substitutes (25)

In the Classroom

Substitutes - don't go into the trenches empty handed, print out this useful survival guide (or make it a TeachersFirst Favorite so you can find it anytime) and be prepared for the unexpected!

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How to Slay a Cliche (and how to rewrite it) - Alan Eggleston

Grades
5 to 12
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Find a cliche and ideas for better ways to say the same thing using this simple blog site. The directions at the right (HOW TO SEARCH THIS PAGE USING INTERNET ...more
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Find a cliche and ideas for better ways to say the same thing using this simple blog site. The directions at the right (HOW TO SEARCH THIS PAGE USING INTERNET EXPLORER) tell you everything you need to know to locate a specific cliche and some terrific alternates to the overused expression. Many of the examples are also taught as idioms.

tag(s): idioms (29)

In the Classroom

Introduce the site to your students on a projector os interactive whiteboard. Then have them work individually or in groups to write some of their own alternatives. Use the whiteboard to write new ideas! You could even start your own class wiki to include cliches students encounter in everyday conversation and in readings along with their suggestions for alternatives. Give extra credit for new additions students make on their own! Keep the link to Cliche a Day on your teacher web page as a reference for student writing assignments throughout the year.

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Google Drive - Google

Grades
6 to 12
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Use Google Drive to create and save your Google Docs. With Google Docs, you can create, edit, reformat, upload, and share documents you've created in WORD or other office applications....more
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Use Google Drive to create and save your Google Docs. With Google Docs, you can create, edit, reformat, upload, and share documents you've created in WORD or other office applications. You can also look at the editing history. Click the "New" button to create new folders, slides, sheets, and forms, and click the "more" button to see lots more. Perhaps the best feature is the ability to collaborate on documents and spreadsheets with anyone or with a selected group. Groups share editing capabilities, making collaboration much easier. You can publish newly created, uploaded, downloaded, or revised documents and spreadsheets, as well as make links to them on personal blogs. Easy directions and familiar-looking pages make exporting and importing documents simple; Google also helps keep you organized.

tag(s): editing (90), slides (37), spreadsheets (21), Storage (7)

In the Classroom

A "tour" and simple-to-understand directions make this site easy to use. Have your students set up collaborative groups for projects, lab data, and more. Or set them up yourself, giving them specific passwords to access their "space." Help your gifted students stay organized (and collaborate) using this tool. Users are normally invited to "join" via an email message. This may be problematic for many schools that do not permit student email access on school premises. Note that notifications sent by Google Docs may also land in "junk mail" folders or be blocked by spam filters. We suggest that you experiment with a small group of students to determine what will work in your particular situation. One option is to set up the groups with the teacher as a "member" but have students work from home, using their personal email addresses, for group projects. Make sure you are protecting the safety of student work and identity, and that you are in compliance with your school's Acceptable Use Policy. Anything students can do on a single computer, they can do collaboratively on Google Docs, accessing their work from any online computer.

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Monster Mash - Cara Bafile

Grades
3 to 12
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Students play inventor or entrepreneur and create a "monster mash" in this open-ended, creative activity. A detailed lesson plan, standards and an assessment are provided. ...more
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Students play inventor or entrepreneur and create a "monster mash" in this open-ended, creative activity. A detailed lesson plan, standards and an assessment are provided.

tag(s): halloween (46)

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