Here, for your information, are the web site reviews from
my educational computing students for
the Fall 2002 semester.
After studying a number of sites, the students wrote reviews for
Web Sites they judged to be well designed and useful to educators. Please feel free to forward these
reviews
to anyone who might be interested.
The reviews are organized by class and alphabetically by student
name. To find what you want you
can use your web browser to search all the reviews by keyword or character string.
The URLs (Uniform Resource Locator - the http://...
stuff) is “hot linked” meaning you just click on the URL.
EDUC 222-1, Web reviews in alphabetical order by student name:
Education Helper
Reviewed by C.J. Batten
Email: Cbass1724@aol.com
This site is ranked number one by www.sitesforteachers.com. There are free lesson plans, worksheet
generators, word and critical thinking problems, and some exams. There are 25-plus subjects to choose
from as well. For each subject it
has a grade number next to it so you can plan your lesson accordingly. This site is for elementary teachers up
to high school teachers. There is
a search engine in the website also so you can search for what you are looking
for.
If you run out of ideas or are stumped at what kind of activity to
do with you class, then go to this website for teachers. It is well designed and easy to
use. It is good because you can
just type in a key word and it will search the site for you. There are infinite great ideas and it
is very user-friendly.
English Teachers
http://www.better-english.com/exerciselist.html
Reviewed by C.J. Batten
Email: Cbass1724@aol.com
This website is for English teacher. There are over 250 free exercises to do relating to
English. It has exercises for
verbs, grammar, vocabulary, and even spelling. The exercises can be done online and give you a score when
you click on the correct answer.
It keeps track of your percentage of right and wrong answers. You can also sign up for a free email
that comes out once a week, which has free grammar exercises in it.
This is a must see site for English teachers. It is focused towards the elementary
and middle school areas of English but will be great for anybody with
difficulty in English. Teachers
who have access to a computer lab could take their kids in there for a short
little quiz. I like it because it
is very easy to use.
Shape Books
Reviewed by C.J. Batten
Email: Cbass1724@aol.com
This site is intended for elementary teachers who want to
incorporate art with writing. It
has ideas for any type of season, sport, or holiday. There are free printouts available also. The student makes shape books, whether
it is a story or a poem they are writing.
Then they cut out shapes pertaining to the subject on each page of their
writing. Or you can make a shape
and have the children do their writing on it. It is a fun designed activity for elementary teachers for
the students.
Just about everyone has done this activity in their day at
school. Like if it is around the
holiday season you can have Christmas tree cutouts that children can write
their lists on. Or if it is
baseball season you can have baseball bat cutouts to make a border around a
poem they wrote. There are many
ideas you can find and use on this site for writing and shape usage.
Discovery Schools
http://school.discovery.com/teachers/index.html.
Reviewed by Nikki Brandenburg
Email: garnikk2002@yahoo.com
This website is valuable because of the massive amount of
knowledge and the convenient way it is organized. The clipart gallery would be
useful in creating PowerPoint presentations to enhance the lessons I would be
teaching. This is possibly my
favorite site out of the three. One of the reasons I selected this site is
because it isn't directed towards one specific grade level but there are lesson
plans for K-12.
The varieties of lesson plans are phenomenal with a variety of
subjects and thorough objectives and goals. There are several links to other
educational tools. This website
would be very helpful with getting ideas for lesson plans and chatting with
other teachers. It also offers free stuff for teachers! There are so many
creative and fun lessons and ideas to enhance learning for students of all
ages. I love how user-friendly this site is. This is not only a great site for
teachers but it is great for kids too.
AskERIC
Reviewed by Nikki Brandenburg
Email: garnikk2002@yahoo.com
The second site I chose was
AskERIC. I selected this website because it had so much useful material.
This is a high quality website that would be a valuable asset for teachers and
parents. They offer free lesson plans, a variety of reference material, details
on classroom management, and much more. There is a specific page for beginning
teachers.
The page has different links and resources that would be very
helpful for a beginning teacher. There are materials that can be purchased from
this site to enhance the students learning opportunities. Each category is broken down further
into more specific areas of concentration. I have used this site for lesson
plan ideas, and to review different teaching methods. This is also a great site
for beginning teachers.
AWESOME LIBRARY
http://www.awesomelibrary.org/special-ed.html.
Reviewed by Nikki Brandenburg
Email: garnikk2002@yahoo.com
I chose this site for many reasons. Initially I visited it because
it was an organization and not a company. I am going to be a Special Education
teacher and this site will be valuable to me because of everything it offers.
There are many links to other teachers, different subjects as well as lessons
and ideas for Special Ed. classrooms. The different subjects are clearly
organized. This site is also great for General Ed. teachers.
There is so much
information here. This is a page with a variety of resources to assist in
Individualized Education Plans. There are also links to General Ed. and home
schooling. I will use this site to develop creative and helpful lessons for my
students. This site has a bright
yellow school bus at the top of the homepage. It is very appealing to the eye and a fun and informational
web page.
SITE NAME: Kids’ Space
URL: http://www.kids·space.org/
Terry Earehart
E-mail address: tle01@morehead-st.edu>
Reviewed by: ITCS –Internet Training & Consulting
Services
Description of site: Kid friendly web page with bright colors
several links to guides that help visitors locate the portion of the web site
that interests them; the site is searchable also. The Kids’ Space Foundation is non-profit.
Why I chose this site: When I visited this site I was trying to
experience it from a K-9 grade perspective. I believe this site would appeal to
the younger end of this spectrum with its ability for students to post their
art work in the "Beanstalk" section or there stories in the "Story
Book" section.
SITE NAME: Web66
URL: http://web66.coled.umn.edu/
Terry Earehart
E-mail address: tle01@morehead-st.edu>
Reviewed by: ITCS –Internet Training & Consulting
Services
Description of site: This site is a product of the University of
Minnesota’s School of Education and states three main goals: (1) help K12
educators learn how to set up their own WWW Internet servers; (2) link K12 WWW
servers and the educators and students at those schools, and (3) help K12
educators find and use K12 appropriate resources on the WWW.
Why I chose this site: The first thing that I noticed when I
visited this site was the link to the "International Registry of Schools
on the Web. I think this alone would be immensely helpful to any classroom
learning situation to fond out how others solve problems or just approach
classroom life. The site also has icon links to "Magellan Four Star Site,
Tech Top Ten, Exploratorium 10 Cool Sites" and more.
SITE NAME: Ask Eric Virtual Library
Terry Earehart
E-mail address: tle01@morehead-st.edu>
Reviewed by: ITCS –Internet Training & Consulting
Services & carries the seal of the U.S. Dept. of Education.
Description of site: ERIC is the acronym for: The Educational
Resources Information Center and is a federally funded national information
system providing access to several education-related sites that are categorized
into headings such as "Counseling, Educational Levels, Edu. Management,
Edu. Technologies", and many more.
Why I chose this site: This site is searchable so if you do not
see a specific category you can type it in and locate what you need. The site
is well designed but a caution is listed by the ITCS as "having pretty big graphics"
to enable searchers with slow connections to turn the images off before
connecting. This does not dampen my enthusiasm though. This site has something
for everyone in education.
New Teachers Survival Guide
http://www.dun.org/sulan/teacher
Reviewed by Beth Elam
Email Silverkitten24@aol.com
All new teachers are worried about how their first day of school
is going to go. Wouldn’t be nice to have all your fears put to ease
before you enter those doors for the first time? This site will quench those
fears. The site includes traits needed to be a teacher, how to achieve
classroom discipline and the myths that go along with it, how to find a job and
if a public or private school is better for you. It also includes links to
other helpful sites and other miscellaneous questions you might ask.
I choose this site because I know that when I go to start my first
day as a teacher I am going to be nervous as most new teachers are. This site
helps to prepare new teachers for what they are in store for and how to take it
all in stride.
Teaching Ideas
http://www.teachingideas.co.uk
Reviewed by Beth Elam
Email Silverkitten24@aol.com
This site shows teaching lessons for all subjects and all grade
levels. An example would be a health lesson for fourth graders about digestion.
The site includes links to other web sites that have the same type of content
and information. The site also allows teachers to share and bounce ideas off of
each other. There is also a book corner where you can enter any book and get a
review of it or enter an author and see all the books they’ve written.
This site has lesson plans for any subject, which would make it
ideal if you need some help making one up. Not to mention having other teachers
to talk to about your ideas. The site is very easy to navigate through and find
the information you want even for the computer illiterate like me.
Faculty Development
http://www.hcc.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevelopment
Reviewed by Beth Elam
Email Silverkitten24@aol.com
Pulling your hair out because of a student? Having problems
developing a lesson plan? Have no fear. This site has anything and everything a
teacher could ever need or want to know about teaching. The site includes
information on the first day of school and how to deal with it, preparing a
lesson plan or course syllabus, teaching techniques, dealing with stress,
communicating with your students, teaching organization, how people learn and
absorb information, workplace skills and how they apply to you, motivating
students, dealing with difficult behaviors of students, plus much more!
I picked this site because it answers almost any question a
teacher could have (I say almost any question because you never what questions
could be asked). This site has the lesson plans like most other web sites but
this one includes something more. It shows how children learn and develop and
how to work with this. It also shows how to deal with stress, which we know
most teachers have.
Integrating learning styles and skills in the ESL classroom: An approach to lesson planning
http://www.ncela.gwu.edu/ncbepubs/pigs/pig2.htm
Reviewed by Audrey Ruiz Lambert
Email: alrne@icqmail.com
This site provides an in-depth discussion of learning styles and
right/left brain processes which determine the way individuals approach
learning. Educators need to be
cognizant of the different learning styles and of their own tendencies to teach
in a particular style, which may be exclusive to some of the learning styles of
their students.
McCarthy developed the 4MAT system which provides educators with
teaching strategies that allow them to provide instruction in various manners
that target all learning styles.
Lesson plans are listed on this website targeting teaching in an ESL
classroom. Student motivation,
concept development, practice, and application are all outlined and
explained. Also embedded within
the lesson plans are activities designed to improve flexible learning in the
students allowing them to stretch their learning capabilities.
While this website is not an easy read, it is beneficial to those
interested in different learning styles and strategies on how to capitalize,
not stumble, on these differences.
American Sign Language Teachers Association
http://www.aslta.org/national/index.html
Reviewed by Audrey Ruiz Lambert
Email: alrne@icqmail.com
This site provides much information about the teaching of American
Sign Language (ASL). The resource
page provides numerous links that provide a wide variety of information
regarding deafness and culture, sign language, and the teaching of ASL. This is a relatively new area of
teaching, and is still in its infancy stage. This website allows an individual to keep up on what is
happening across the country.
The legislative page shows states which now recognize ASL as a
foreign language and allow high school and college credit for it (Kentucky is
one of these states). The teacher
page gives guidelines to administrators involved in the process of hiring a
sign language teacher. Also in this
page is a link, currently under construction, which will provide web resources
for teachers.
This is an area which should be of interest to foreign language
teachers and those fluent in sign language who are considering teaching. With new state mandates requiring a
minimum number of credit hours in a foreign language for high school graduation
the widespread teaching of ASL would be a feasible, and very useful, way to
fulfill these requirements.
Lesson Planning:
Putting it all together
http://humanities.byu.edu/Linguistics/Henrichsen/LessonPlanning/lp_18.html
Reviewed by Audrey Ruiz Lambert
Email: alrne@icqmail.com
This website provides clear concise instructions to ESL teachers
for writing lesson plans.
Oftentimes, once a lesson is started educators realize it is either too
difficult or too easy for the
students. One point that is
emphasized is the need for a “contingency” plan should you need to
deviate from the original lesson.
One really nice feature of this page is the examples of lesson plans
other educators have written and tried.
At the end of the lesson description is self-evaluating comments written
by the teacher about the problems they encountered with that particular lesson,
and things they might have done differently.
While the lesson plan guidelines can be applied for any age level,
the lesson plans themselves are geared towards adult learners.
abc Teach Network
Reviewed by Allison Ruth
This website, abc teach, is quite impressive. This is a place for
parents, teachers and students. It has everything from basic alphabet
activities to babysitter forms. This website even has certificates and coloring
pages that you can print out for your students. It also has ideas for
activities that you can do during class with your students.
I chose this website because of all that it contained. It seemed
to have everything that a teacher would needâ€|from helpful hints
to games. Children of all ages can enjoy this website. Not only will your
students like this website, you will enjoy it just as much, maybe even more.
Access Art
Reviewed by Allison Ruth
Access Art presents the public with a wonderful site dedicated to
all forms of art; sculpting, drawing, photography, etc. Differentiating from
the types of art forms, students ranging from age 3 to 19 can use this website
productively. One activity shows little children how to mix colors while
another activity teaches students to make sculptures with something called
“Withies” or long, bendable, wooden sticks. Each activity takes you
through a workshop allowing you to follow steps to achieve your desired art
project. There is a specific resource activity that helps teachers by giving
them teaching ideas, in depth definitions, and teachers notes that analyze
different things pertaining to art.
If you have an appreciation for the arts and want to help your
students create new, interesting things, this is the website for you.You can
allow your students to use it or you can use it yourself. It’s full of
things to do that will broaden a child’s knowledge of the arts.
Kids on the Net
http://kotn.ntu.ac.uk/index.htm
Reviewed by Allison Ruth
Kids on the net is a wonderful website that incorporates games and
learning into one. With a combination of games, students can find out
historical facts and learn to read and write. Kids on the Net allows children
to not only read other writings from children, it allows them to create their
own and display them on the internet. Included in this website is a teachers
portal designed to give teachers help with using the website as a classroom
resource or as to a child individually.
Teachers will love this site. Whether wanting to teach creative
writing to one student or to twenty, this website will help you do that. It
will also allow your students to enjoy writing and want to do it on a daily
basis.
EDUC 222-2, Web reviews in alphabetical order by student name:
The Lesson Plans Page
www.lessonplanspage.com/about.html
Melinda Adkins
There are over 1500 free lesson plans you can get. There are seasonal ones where you can
find anything from Veterans Day lessons to Christmas lessons. There are Back-to-school lessons. You can also access weekly Science Projects
and Math worksheets. There are 10
different subject areas to choose from.
Also there is a place where you can add some of your favorite lesson
plans and you can access plans from other teachers who have submitted their
favorite lessons. There are two
very helpful places on this
site. The first is a page on
building effective lesson plans, step-by-step instructions. The other one is how to help students
become more efficient readers.
If you need a lesson plan, this site is for you. With over 1500 lesson plans there is
sure to be one for you. The
helpful hints are what I like the best because building my own lesson plans is
a problem for me, but with the help from this site it comes much easier.
A to Z Teacher Stuff
Melinda Adkins
This site was ‘created for teachers by teachers’. There are themes of several kinds. Over 200 original teacher-tested lesson
plans. Worksheets and pages you can
print and use with your lesson plans.
There is a place where you can go and find the exact grade level of
lesson plans you are looking for.
Many teachers have submitted tips that help in their classroom that they
believe may be helpful in yours.
There is a teacher store where there are many discounted teaching
resources. Also a teacher chat
where teachers can get on there and discuss their day or talk about lesson
plans they’ve used or just find a friend.
I chose this site because it first caught my eye because it was so
colorful. After looking into it I
noticed the Teacher Store. It was
great. All the stuff you buy as a
teacher discounted at affordable prices.
I then went to the Teacher Chat and met some really nice people of all
ages.
The Teacher’s Corner
Melinda Adkins
This site had many things in it. Lesson Plans for all grade levels. Thematic Units for all grade levels. Seasonal items for all holidays and
seasons. There are many teacher
resources. You can find anything
from magazine subscriptions to software.
There is also a really cool place called Book Nook. On this page you can find
children’s books to go with the lessons you are teaching and there are
also many other book for other reasons.
Also you can find books for you the teacher. There is also an ice-breaker place where as a substitute is
very helpful for me. There is also
a place where you can write in the type of lesson plan you are looking for and
you can search for it.
If you are a substitute this is a page for you. In the ice-breakers page you can access
all sorts of things to help during those ‘weird’ moments. The Book Nook was really fun too
because there were so many books to read and use for different lessons.
Chandra Harper
Netfrog – The Interactive Frog Dissection
http://curry.eduschool.virginia.edu/go/frog
This website is an environmentally-safe alternative to classroom
dissection. Rather than dissecting animals in the classroom, this site offers a
step-by-step guide to the whole process. It includes an interesting approach to
skin incisions, muscle incisions, and internal organs. The website uses Windows
Media Player to assist in the learning process, allowing students to gain a
greater level of experience with the project.
I picked this website because I think it is very well organized
and fairly easy to navigate. I would more than likely use this website in my
own classroom if I was teaching a lesson about the anatomy of frogs, so that I
wouldn’t have to do dissection of live animals.
Chandra Harper
Human Anatomy Online – InnerBody.com
http://www.innterbody.com/htm/body.html
This website provides information on many body systems, including
the skeletal system, muscle system, nervous system and much more. If you click
to go to any of these, it will take you to a large picture of the system. You
can move your mouse over certain areas of the picture and it will tell you the
name of the part your mouse is resting on.
I would definitely use this website in my classroom if I was
teaching human anatomy. It is very easy to use and navigate. Its pictures are
very detailed and well illustrated. This website is wonderful!
Chandra Harper
Cincinnati Zoo
This website is the official site of the Cincinnati Zoo. On this
website, you can learn about specific animals. You could also use this site to
adopt an animal from the zoo as a class activity. This site also allows you to
plan a class trip to the zoo. It gives you the hours the zoo is open,
directions on how to get there, a calendar of events, a map of the zoo, and a
field guide for the students to learn their animals before they get to the zoo.
This website would be fun to use in an elementary classroom. It is
visually appealing as well as neatly organized. Children would enjoy using it,
but they might find it difficult to use without the aid of a teacher. I would
use this website if I was planning on taking my class to the Cincinnati Zoo.
Ask Eric Educational Information
Reviewed by Joseph Mills
Ask Eric which stands for Educational Resources information Center
is a personalized internet service
that provides education information to teachers, librarians, counselors, and everybody else who is involved or wants to be involved
in education. The website is very
in depth in terms of helping the helping the teacher. It provides numerous lesson plans on every subject taught in
the curriculum and gives very good instructions on how to implement these into
the classroom, and its provided at every level from K-12. Ask Eric is not limited to just
teachers. It lists numerous ideas
to help counselors with their profession and helps them develop ideas for
numerous problems that a student might be having. It’s the largest educational resource site and is very
useful for both beginning teachers and the most experienced ones as well.
For anyone who is interested in becoming more familiar with the
classroom Ask Eric is the perfect site.
Its a very well organized site with an abundance of information that
would be useful especially to the teacher. In my opinion it would be most beneficial to the beginning
teacher because it has so many ideas in every subject. I’ve used Eric on numerous
occasions and found it very helpful in my lessons. I would definitely advise anyone to browse Ask Eric for
ideas on the many facets of education.
Discovery School Channel
http://www.discoveryschool.com
Reviewed by Joseph Mills
Discovery School is a website that wants to involve teachers,
students, and parents in the educational process. The site provides teacher material such as lessons and
materials for the teacher, enjoyable resources for the student, and advice for
parents to help their children excel in school. Also for teachers they have a library for curriculum
resources. On this page they have
lesson plans for teachers, teaching tools and strategies, a custom classroom
store, a conversation store where teachers can subscribe to magazines, and
information through e-mail. The
students have a page that includes games, study tools, advice for homework, and
learning adventures. On the
parents page they provide the parents with advice on certain topics related to
education, such as a back-to school roundup, information on teacher-parent
conferences. They also talk about
dealing with teachers they dislike, and helping the parents to get their
children to their own homework.
I chose this website mostly because I’m a huge fan of the
discovery channel. When the
discovery channel implemented its discovery school for teachers, students, and
parents I became more interested.
It’s a perfect website for very creative ideas and lessons. It has numerous hands on activities
that children both young and old would enjoy. Discovery School is very organized and provides very
useful information for anyone interested in becoming a good teacher, student,
and parent in relation to education.
Teaching is a work of Heart
http://www.geocites.com/athens/Thebes/9893
Reviewed by Joseph Mills
This particular website is not quite as advanced as the other two,
but it still provides value information.
It’s a website that provides ideas whether you’re a teacher,
a soon to be teacher, or somebody who wants to know about education. It also provides more comfortable
atmosphere when browsing it. It
stresses the importance of teachers being caring and loving instead of just
teaching the curriculum. It
is great though for lessons, themes, educational software and the list goes on
and on. It provides activities and
examples for everything that is listed on its page.
I chose this website because it provides a different aspect to the
classroom. I think it is very
important to bring a caring and understanding attitude into the classroom, and
this website stresses that. My
favorite part is the quotes from teachers. It provides inspirational quotes and helps teachers
understand the importance of the teaching profession. By providing both curriculum aspect and the importance
factor this website is ideal for any teacher. The website is also very easy to follow and doesn’t
bounce around much.
Lesson Plans.com
Reviewed By: Debryn Sorrell
This website offers more than just lesson plans. It offers a variety of educational
information including recent news and great ideas. Professional magazine subscriptions are also available. To get access to the lesson plans you
must give your e-mail address.
With access to these wonderful lesson plans also comes a weekly
newsletter (via e-mail). The
lesson plans range in content. All
grade levels are available.
I like this website because it seems never ending. I feel confident in using it for ideas
for projects as well as some insight into the world of educators. The content is diverse. You can choose from small lessons to
large units, depending on what you would like to use.
Teacher Help
Reviewed by: Debryn Sorrell
This website is loaded with information. Lesson plans, workshops, and recent educational news are all
available on this site. This site
is easy to navigate and simple to follow.
It looks busy, but really is very enjoyable to read and browse
through. It may take awhile to get
to all that it offers, but if you’re looking for one specific something,
the general topics are listed on the side of the page.
I like this website because it has a lot to offer. You don’t have to go through one
hundred websites to find everything that you’re looking for. You can read the latest educational
news then find a lesson plan that will help your students with learning the
food groups.
Lesson Plans Page
Reviewed by: Debryn Sorrell
This website rocks!
All grades are represented including the college level. There are lesson plans available for
nearly all subject areas including ideas for how to incorporate diversity and
technology into your classroom.
This website is also loaded with features.
It offers worksheets that go along with certain lesson plans. (Good if used correctly) It offers educational news and stories
from teachers that can provide inspiration after a hard day.
I like this website because of the wide variety of things to
choose from. The large range of
lesson plans is a plus for anyone who can’t seem to come up with just the
right one to meet the needs of her/his students.
EDEL 516, Web reviews in alphabetical order by student name:
World Wide Web Assignment
Educational Computing
Betty J. Criss
November 18, 2002
Name of Site and URL
School Counselor-
Betty J. Criss
This site was made by Russell Sabella, PhD Dr. Sabella is with the Florida
Gulf Coast University and teaches in the Counseling Program
This site is made for Guidance Counselors. It is to advance technology literacy
among counselors. Dr. Sabella has
added links for other counseling sites such as the American Counseling
Association. School
Counselors can subscribe to a free monthly newsletter that focuses on
technology issues, resources, and activities; and explore free and almost free
resources.
I chose this site because it has been a place that I have
constantly returned to for information in the field that I am working. There are interesting articles that are
printed, along with answers to questions that are asked about technology. I also turn to this site when I am
looking for information on some guidance problem, and usually I can find a link
to a good site.
Name of site AOL @School the
url is htt p://aolatschool.com/
Betty J. Criss
This site is maintained by aol, but uses educational professionals
at every level to maintain a meaningful internet tool for people of all ages.
This site has something for everyone. There are counseling tips and lesson plans.Teacher lesson
plans for every grade level.
Age Appropriate Learning Portals for children which covers grades k-high
school, and even adult education.
It contains search engines that are designed for Educational Use. It also has a section that is
maintained by each state department of education, and has information
concerning standards and testing programs. This software is available to school nationwide free
of charge by calling 888-339-0767. Students Teachers and Administrators and
parents can use the content included in this learning tool from home.
I chose this site because I was impressed with some of the lesson
plans that were on line for Guidance
This site is called homework spot
url is http://www.homeworkspot.com
Betty J. Criss
This site has been reported as "Best of the Web:
Homeschooling" by U>S. News & World Report. It is written with the help of students, teachers, parents,
librarians, and journalists. This
spot is a free homework information portal that features the k-12 homework-related sites together
with engaging editorial in one educational spot. It contains resources for English, math, scienc,
history, art, music, technology, foreign language, college prep, health, life
skills, and extracurricular activities.
It is arranged into grade appropriate categories for elementary, middle
and high school. It contains free
access to libraries, museums, and current event resources. There are also fun, mind-stretching,
activities.
I chose this spot because of the many different subjects that were
taught and the material that is presented. This would be a great spot for parents of serious home
schools, and also for anyone looking for help on their homework, reports or
other subject matter.
MacTutor History of Mathematics
http://www.-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/history/Indexes/HistoryTopics.html
Reviewed by Sylvia Hawkins
email: shawkins@fleming.k12.ky.us
Here is where the School of Mathematics and Statistics of the
University of St. Andrews, Scotland stores research of historical math
topics. Include in the site are
reports on mathematicians, ancient numeration systems, information on the
history of math topics (including geometry, physics, etc.), and a time line for
historical math developments. The
site list mathematicians aphabetically and chronologically. It also includes a list of women
mathematicians. Mathematical
methods and discoveries of ancient civilizations (Greek, Roman, Mayan, etc.)
are included with explanations.
I found this site to be a wonderful source of topics for student
research and writing projects. It
information for a scavenger hunt on the history of mathematics. Since standards based units, that
include incorporating all subjects, this site provides a excellent supply of
information to link math to the study of ancient civilizations.
Math Goodies
Reviewed by Sylvia Hawkins
email: shawkins@fleming.k12.ky.us
This site was created by Mrs. Glosserís Math Goodies,
Inc. It contains resources for
students, teachers, and parents.
There are 62 interactive lessons, on a variety of topics, that students
may work through independently.
For teachers there are worksheets, forums, and articles on math
education. A special forum for new
teachers is provided to help them with ideas for presentation and classroom
management. Parents can find
homework help for their children as well as articles on how to supervise
homework. The parents also have
forum to help them with the woes not understanding some of the homework their
children bring home.
I like this site because it provides for sharing among teachers
and parents. Many parents tell me
they cannot remember doing the math their children have has homework, this site
provides help for those parents.
Math Power
http://www.mathpower.com/index.htm
Reviewed by Sylvia Hawkins
email: shawkins@fleming.k12.ky.us
This site provides information about basic math, algebra, study
skills, and math anxiety and learning styles. It addresses the needs of all ages, specifically those of
the community college adult learner.
A student who is frustrated by college math can be helped by identifying
his individual learning style and recognizing the instructor ís teaching
style. This site provides links
for students and teachers to information about learning styles, study skills
tips, and ways to reduce math anxiety and gives the student access to
tutorials, algebra assignments, math videos, and a forum for discussing with
the professor a variety of math topics.
I like this site because it is helpful to so many age groups. High school students can use it for
help in advanced algebra and to learn skills that will help them understand
college professors better. Also,
with so many of the parents of my students becoming displaced workers and
returning to school they turn to me with math questions. This site is wonderful aid in
reorienting those people to math study skills.
Writing With Writers
http://teacher.scholastic.com/writewit/index.htm
Reviewed by Shayla Huffman
Email: shuffman@boyd.k12.ky.us
This website targets the development of reading/writing projects
with students in grades one through eight. Students may choose a workshop based on genre, or they may
chose to go through a workshop presented by an author. The range of writing genres it offers
workshops for include: biography,
fairy tale, folktale, descriptive, mystery, myth, news, poetry, and book reviews. These are set up to provide support and
guidance for each writing style.
Research and writing strategies provide help as well as message boards
and comments provided for submitted work.
Completed pieces can be published on-line. After a writing is completed and submitted, the author will
receive a certificate of achievement.
This website is very useful and interactive. It is colorful and really allows the
student users to be guided and directed toward finished pieces. The "look" of the page is
inviting and colorful, and offers several different options to fit nearly any
first through eighth grade writer.
It provides a reward at the end, and students enjoy seeing their
published work.
Daily Lesson Plan
http://www.nytimes.com/learning/teachers/lessons/archive.html
Reviewed by Shayla Huffman
Email: shuffman@boyd.k12.ky.us
This site is provided by the New York Times, and is done in
conjunction with the Teachers College at Columbia. Lesson plans are available by grade level (for grades 6-12)
in subject areas such as:
economics, fine arts, geography, global history, health, journalism,
science, social studies, technology, etc.
In addition, this site offers links to extend and supplement the
plans. Some of these links are: Daily News Quiz, Word of the Day,
Issues in Depth, Teacher Resources, Discussion Topics, Science Question and Answer,
Test Prep Question of the Day, etc.
The activities can be used with a whole class and also provide a way to
meet the needs of gifted and talented students.
I have used this website several times once I discovered it, and
it is an invaluable resource. It
offers such a quality array of topic and level choices that it can be hard to
choose which plan to utilize. The
plans are thorough and give new and fresh takes on familiar content.
T.H.E. Journal:
Educators Road Map to the Web
http://www.thejournal.com/highlights/roadmap/
Reviewed by Shayla Huffman
Email: shuffman@boyd.k12.ky.us
This site offers a collection of websites referenced by
discipline: Arts and Humanities,
Disabilities/Special Education, History and Social Sciences, History and Social
Studies, Miscellaneous, Math and Science, Professional Resources, Teacher
Resources, and Technology. These
categories are further subdivided by topics for each category. Once a topic is chosen, the website
offers a list of applicable websites and a concise summary of what the site
offers as well as applicable grade levels. The home page allows the user to search for articles, newsletters, look at calls for papers, and special resources.
This is an excellent collection of websites. It is very helpful to have these sites
already categorized and much more efficient than doing a search from scratch
and weeding out extraneous hits. By
including the applicable grade levels, it is easy to see which sites
will be the most suitable.
Quia
http://www.quia.com/servlets/quia.web.QuiaWebManager
Reviewed by Pamela K. Owens
Email: pkowen01@morehead-st.edu
Quia is short for Quintessential Instructional Archive. The Quia
Corporation offers a variety of educational services to teachers and students.
Included among the Quia services are online games and quizzes in more than 50
subject areas; templates for creating 14 different types of online activities,
such as flashcards, matching, concentration (memory), and word search; tools
for creating online quizzes; quiz administration and reporting tools; and
teacher home pages. Developed in
1998 to improve education through Web-based technologies, Quia offers resources
to assist educators in K-12 and higher education. Through Quia, instructors can
create their own customized educational software online, which students can
access through the Web.
The well-organized format displayed here prompted me to review
this site. If you too like to be organized as a teacher, this site is for you.
The calendars, the ability to keep track of student grades online, and other
tools should help any instructor in meeting the demands of today’s
classrooms. With the broad range of subject areas offered by Quia, including
science, math, and foreign languages, any educator should find the Quia website
useful.
The Lesson Plans Page
http://www.lessonplanspage.com/index.html
Reviewed by Pamela K. Owens
Email: pkowen01@morehead-st.edu
Developed by students and faculty at the University of Missouri,
The Lesson Plans Page is a collection of over 1,000 lesson plans in a variety
of subjects, including science, music, language, computers and internet, social
sciences, art lessons, health and P.E. and even more. After getting into the
subject area needed, just click on the grade level to find a list of lesson
plans that could be implemented into most classes. K-12 grade levels are
available. This website also has a mailing list that educators may join. Free
newsletters that are offered at this site can keep today’s educators abreast
on new insights or creative tips for the classroom.
I chose to review this site because I have found it most helpful
in the past in finding excellent examples of lesson plans when I needed to
develop my own in other educational courses. This site also offers links to
other websites that educators will find most helpful.
The Educators Network
http://www.theeducatorsnetwork.com/main/index.htm
Reviewed by Pamela K. Owens
Email: pkowen01@morehead-st.edu
Based in Ontario, Canada, The Educators Network Inc. "where
teachers come first," offers resources to make teaching for today’s
educators easier. A comprehensive site for educators, this site offers lesson
plans, worksheets, opportunities to receive educational newsletters, and even
more. Material can be found in a wide variety of subject areas, including the
arts, mathematics, science, language, and health/P.E. Teachers may search the
site using the subject or grade level taught (K-12 available). Additionally,
teachers can create their own flashcards and other similar materials to be
printed off and utilized in the classroom. This site also contains links to a
wide variety of other educational web pages.
Initially the slogan "where teachers come first" caught
my attention. I also liked the ease in being able to maneuver within the
site. Since the site’s scope
is so broad offering so many different resources and links, I thought reviewing
it would be better than honing in on a site that just focuses on one subject
area.
A + Math
Reviewed by Sheila Prater
This is a wonderful site for math teachers and students. It has a wonderful game room for
students with MATHO (a combination of Bingo and math) where students work
problems to try and get MATHO.
Other games include Hidden Pictures where students work problems to find
a picture and Concentration where students try to match math problems on the
left with answers on the right.
The games are fun and they reinforce basic facts.
For teachers this site has a place to make printable and on-line
worksheets on concepts such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, division,
fractions, counting money, and basic algebra.
I teach math to K-5 special education math students and I am
always looking for fun ways to reinforce and drill basic facts. This site gives students a fun way to
practice and it gives teachers a place to check students progress by printing
worksheets or having students complete worksheets on-line and letting the
computer grade them for you.
PBS Kids: Cyberchase: Games Central
http://pbskids.org/cyberchase/games.html
Reviewed by Sheila Prater
This site is a math teachers dream come true. This site has games covering many
concepts including weight and measurement, probability, patterns, 2 and 3D
shapes, and tangrams. This site
reinforces concepts without making them seem like math. One of my favorites was Virtual Coin
Toss. In this game you choose the
number of times a coin is thrown into the air and the computer tells you the
number of times it landed on heads and tails. Another favorite was Logic Zoo. In Logic Zoo you are given a Venn diagram and you had to
sort animals listed by characteristics listed in the "zoo section".
I chose this website because it has many different math games
disguised in ways to get and keep students attention and teach concepts at the
same time. This site reinforces many concepts addressed on state testing and
will help students remember these concepts because of the fun way they are addressed.
Enchanted Learning Software
http://www.enchantedlearning.com
Reviewed by Sheila Prater
This website is made for elementary teachers. This site has lesson plans, worksheets,
coloring pages, crafts, and links to other educational activities. It lists themes, monthly activities,
activities for special days such as Veteran’s Day, and Thanksgiving, and
label me printouts on many topics.
This site covers areas including language arts, social studies, science,
and math. It covers themes from
anatomy to whales. It has jokes,
books to make, cloze activities, connect the dots, quizzes, even
dictionaries. This site gives
teachers lots of support to make their job much easier.
I chose this website because it gives teachers a wonderful
resource to help cover the many themes they want to teach. I use this website often for holiday
and theme related math activities.
I also use it to find activities on many themes to tie math into other
subjects.
Southwest Educational Development Laboratories
http// www.sedl.org./scimath
Reviewed by Lorinda Rogers
Email: lrogers@powell.k12.ky.us
This site has a stockpile of Science and Math lesson plans. Each lesson plan includes all the
important aspects of lesson plans such as objectives, materials, procedures and
time. They also include and data
tables or worksheets that might be needed for certain lessons. You can search for these lesson plans by
grade level. All grade levels are
included. You can also find lesson plans for other subjects.
I found this site while searching for holiday activities to use in
the classroom. I found a great
activity dealing with pumpkins that the math teacher and I used with great
success. The lesson included a
data chart for the students to use to collect their data and easy step by step
instructions. It made the lesson
so easy to prepare and it worked great.
A Users Guide to the Declaration of Independence
http//www.founding.com
Reviewed by Lorinda Rogers
Email: lrogers@powell.k12.ky.us
This site contains information on the timeline of, issues
surrounding the composition, hot topics discussed and a guide to understanding
the Declaration of Independence. In 1997 Assembly Bill 3086 was passed in
California requiring all high school seniors to have a class that thoroughly
taught the important documents involved in United States history. The governor of California recommended
this site to be used by teachers of all grade levels to give students a better
understanding of the Declaration of Independence. The site has 100’s of pages of links.
I found this site while trying to find some activities that would
liven up government class for 8th graders. It would be perfect to use as a SmartBoard presentation with
any grade level.
The Science of Baseball,
http//www.exporatorium.edu/baseball/index.html
Reviewed by Lorinda Rogers
Email: lrogers@powell.k12.ky.us
This site could be used as a unit itself. It has interactive activities such as;
fastball reaction time and scientific slugger. Students feel as if they are playing a game while learning
about the physics of a fastball and what makes a home run happen. Shockwave is required for these
programs. It also has articles and classroom activities. The program is supported by Louisville
Slugger, National Baseball Hall of Fame, Oakland Athletics, San Francisco
Giants, and Total Baseball.
At the end of the year we complete two-week interdisciplinary unit
on baseball. As the
Introduction to Chemistry and Physics teacher I am responsible for the science
section. This site will be a
wonderful addition to the unit.
The Lesson Plans Page
http://www.lessonplanspage.com
Reviewed by Cindy Skaggs
Email: kskaggs@mrtc.com
The Lessons Plans Page website provides a number of resources for
teachers in Lower Primary through twelfth grade in every subject. Teachers have access to lesson plans,
science projects, worksheets (pre-made or self-created) with answer keys, and
reading software. The site
provides tips for motivating students who are easily frustrated. Educators can read up on tips for
fundraising and get that extra boost from teacher success stories. No more digging through old, tattered
student magazines to find the phone number to reorder, this site provides a
one-stop shopping opportunity for such popular magazines as "Creative
Classroom", "National Geographic World", "Ranger Rick",
and many others. If you are
looking for a safe research site for your students, look no further. Teachers can access links to research
sites such as Ask Jeeves for Kids, Geography by Encarta, and Roget’s
Thesaurus. There is also a link to
Yahooligans, Yahoo’s directory of 20,000 sites that are student
appropriate. Teachers can also
subscribe to a free newsletter to stay updated on new lesson plans and
websites.
While searching Netscape, I came across the hit for The Lesson
Plans Page website. I was
skeptical since it was not associated with the Kentucky Department of
Education. I viewed several
teacher-submitted lesson plans.
Just because a teacher submits a plan on a website does not mean it is a
good lesson or even age appropriate.
I was pleasantly surprised after looking at several lesson plans. They were all very good and included a
format: topic, grade level,
materials list, purpose statement, description of the activity, extension, and
evaluation. I feel that this
website would be very useful to classroom teachers, especially if they are
looking for hands-on activities to supplement the classroom textbook. The site also recommends powerful links
that I have personally used as an educator. The Lesson Plans Page website is definitely worth
considering.
Science NetLinks
http://www.sciencenetlinks.com/matrix.cfm
Reviewed by Cindy Skaggs
Email: kskaggs@mrtc.com
Science NetLinks is part of the MarcoPolo Education
Foundation. This site provides
free science resources to educators and is recommended by the Kentucky
Department of Education. Science
NetLinks features primary through twelfth grade lesson plans that can be
organized by Kentucky’s benchmarks and teaching standards. The lesson plans include student-ready
reproducibles and online worksheets that enable students to engage directly in
Internet activities. The resources
are reviewed by the Science Board of Reviewing Editors. To help educators integrate the
site’s lesson plans into a standards-based curriculum, the content is
organized around the Benchmarks for Science Literacy. These benchmarks are goals developed by Project 2061, a
long-term initiative to reform education nationwide. Another feature of SNL is a 90-second radio program that
presents current science research and a science update hotline at
(1-800-WHY-ISIT).
The great thing about this site is that is a very useful for
educators who submit lesson plans that are organized around benchmarks and
standards. The site is organized
and the plans are reviewed to ensure age appropriateness and proper
content. It is helpful to have
Acrobat Reader, RealPlayer, and Shockwave installed on your computer in order
to get full benefit from the website.
These accessories can easily be downloaded for free from the
Internet.
Illuminations
http://illuminations.nctm.org/lesson
plans/index.html
Reviewed by Cindy Skaggs
Email: kskaggs@mrtc.com
Illuminations is recommended by the Kentucky Department of
Education. It provides sequential
mathematics lesson plans for grades pre-K through 12 in the areas of
operations, algebra, geometry, measurement, data analysis, probability, problem
solving, and reasoning. Each plan
is organized into sections that list the learning objective, lesson
description, assessment, and extension.
All lesson plans are based on the National Council of Teachers of
Mathematics (NCTM) Standards.
There is also a link to the NCTM e-resources website that includes
teaching tips and resources that can be ordered to assist in teaching specific
concepts such as multiplication.
Educators may order Principles and Standards for School Mathematics
directly from the Illuminations website.
Illuminations is well organized and is a very useful source of
hands-on mathematics activities.
Many of the plans integrate science and language activities as
well. The activities on this
website can be completed by students online.
http://mathworld.wolfram.com/.html
reviewed by Linda Strong
This website offers children mathematical expertise on various
math problems. This website has tips and hints to help children overcome their
math difficulties and even has a teachers guide to helping children help
themselves. The site also has different subjects such as Physics and Anatomy.
You can search the website using the index search or by finding your way
through the material. This website also has a guest book you can sign along
with all terms of use by the author of the website. I think that this website
is good for students who want to help themselves or want to move ahead of the
class without assistance from the teacher.
reviewed by Linda Strong
This website offers children the experience of meeting new friends
on the other side of the earth. On this website you can search for penpals, set
up an email account free of charge, update your personal information, and have
a completely innocent friendship with someone in a foreign country. I think
that this would be a nice website to use in your social studies classroom to
give your students the opportunity to explore someone else's culture and maybe
become life long friends.
1st Class Gradebook
reviewed by Linda Strong
http://www.1st-class-software.com/
This website offers teachers a wide variety of available grade
books to make their jobs easier. The website even guarantees satisfaction or
they will pay you 50 dollars for your trouble and time. The website even offers
free downloads and you can register to receive this grade book online. The
prices are listed on the page so you can see just how much it would cost you by
yourself or with other teachers. I think this is a great website to promote
safe keeping of grades in your classroom.
The Global Online Adventure Learning Site
http://www.goals.com/expedition
Reviewed by Kathryn Tipton
E-mail: kmtip01@morehead-st.edu
This web site welcomes people of all ages to join in and share the
experiences of explorers around the world. It is the wish of these explores to
instill in all people the desire to follow their dreams. Classroom expeditions
are designed for teachers and students grade 7-12. This site is divided into
four themes: The Inner Physical World, The Outer Physical World, Interaction of
Inner and Outer Physical Worlds, and Mind and Consciousness. Themes offer
suggested lesson plans that can be integrated across the curriculum. Click on
Footprint Analysis and students can compare their collected data with children
all over the world. Students are encouraged to E-Mail questions which go along
with concepts being taught. These questions are answered by people on
experiencing the journeys.
What a great way to let students see how one can set goals and
follow their dreams. This web site offers the students an opportunity to travel
the world by a click of a button. It would allow students to learn how we are
truly a global community.
ABCTEACH.COM
Reviewed by Kathryn Tipton
E-Mail kmtip01@morehead-st.edu
ABCTEACH..COM is a site teaches, parents, and children can find
very useful. The home page gives 10 topics you can choose from: Basic,
Research/Reports, Teaching Extras, Theme Units, Reading Comprehension, Fun
Activities, Portfolios, Shape Books, Forums, and Babysitting/Daycare. Each
topic is broken down to grade levels. You can select lesson plans and choose
from 5000 + free printable pages. A subscription to a newsletter is available
to help you stay up on current events. Plus you can select New Book Review and
get the latest updates on new books. ABCTEACH.COM invites teachers, parents,
and new teachers to join their on-line forum communities. They give you other
web sites you can visit if you want to continue you search.
I think this web site would be very useful for educators or
someone in childcare. It provides a variety of subjects to teach and materials
to support them. This site would be great for parents. They could use the free
printable materials and games to reinforce skills at home.
Northwest Regional Library in the Sky
Reviewed by Kathryn Tipton
E-Mail kmtip01@morehead-st.edu
Library in the Sky has a database of 1622 educational sites for
grades K-12. The Home Page features an index of locations for the users to
select. The index tabs are labeled Teacher, Student, Parent, Librarian, and
Main. You can narrow your search by selecting from Department and Materials.
The Department search is broken down by subject. These include Arts, Music,
Early Childhood, Foreign Languages, Health, Language, Library, Math, P.E.,
Science, Social Studies, Special Education, Technology, and Vocational. The
Materials section offers Counseling, Discussions, Educational Games, Grants,
Home Schooling, Lesson Plans, News, Online Searches, Professional Development,
Tutorial, and a URL Links Lists. You can choose the Assessment tab and find
information on current trainings and assessment products. Each week the editors
select their favorite web sites and list them on the home page.
Northwest Regional Library in the sky is a well organized web
site. The home page has a simple format, making it easy to use. It has a broad
selection of topics for educators, students, librarians, and parents. I found
this web site to be very interesting and helpful for those involved in
education.
Education Helper
Reviewed by Dawna Williams
email: drwill01@moreheadstate.edu
This is a wonderful website for anyone interested in working with
children. This
website contains lots of materials for teachers
and parents for use with any age child. Some items found on this
website include 11423 lesson plans, 1296 webquests, 5000+ free
worksheerts, 1600 word and critical thinking problems, and several
types of puzzles for standardized tests. This website also has a
subscribers only section where you can download worksheets on
specific subject matter such as math, spelling, and
vocabulary.
The cost of the subscription is only $19.99 for 1 year of service.
This is a very useful website for teachers. I joined this website
6 months ago and use it on a weekly basis. I use it for developing
worksheets to go along with my spelling units, as well as helping
my
son in his classes in school. The fee for the website is also tax
deductible.
Teach-nology
Reviewed by Dawna Williams
email: drwill01@moreheadstate.edu
Teach-nology.com is a wonderful website for new teachers. It contains
many features that would help a new teacher get ready for school.
Some of the things it offers are rubric generators, lesson plans,
teaching ideas, and teaching themes. It also offers sites for
things such as professional development, law education, current
trends in education, and literary reviews. It contains links
to a wide variety of things that would be of interest to anyone
in the education profession.
I use this website frequently. Anytime I have my students do a
project for class, I use this website to develop a rubric for
grading the project.
I also use it as a link to find information
needed for my classes.
There is a place to search for specific
topics and it will give you a list of where to look for the
topics.
I find this website very useful.
King Tut One
Reviewed by Dawna Williams
e-mail drwill01@moreheadstate.edu
I found this website after I changed from teaching 6th grade
Language
Arts to teaching 7th grade Language Arts and Social Studies. This
website deals with information obtained from the tomb of King
Tutankhamen. It
contains photos of artifacts discovered in King
Tut's tomb, as well as links to sites related to Egyptian
history.
It also provides virtual tours of pyramids, discussions of the
mummification process, and many other useful tools for teachers of
ancient worlds.
One part of the new requirements for Kentucky teachers is the use
of technology. This
site would be an excellent way to show students
inventive ways to use the internet. I used this site as a way of
introducing Ancient Egypt to my class. My students were very
enthusiastic to see the sites of Egypt. They were attentive to the
material and were excited to learn more about Ancient Egypt.