Spring 2007
Web reviews in alphabetical order by Class and student name:
Here, for your information, are the web site reviews from my educational computing students for the Fall 2006 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 and email addresses are "hot linked."
EDUC 222-1
Songs for Teaching
http://www.songsforteaching.com/
Reviewed by Elaina Cole
Email: eacole01@morehead-st.edu
The Songs for Teaching website is an amazing website. These songs are great for classroom learning and the website makes it possible to incorporate the parents into the learning process as well. This site contains many different types of songs. They have songs about science and math, and different languages. Although you must pay for them before you download them, they are a great way to make learning fun. To download them you have to add the disc’s to your shopping cart and then proceed to checkout, where you will be “securely” checked out.
I chose this website because when I was in elementary school I was taught the days of the week and the months of the year through a song. And I think that once you have that song implanted into your mind you will never forget it. If you asked me to sing those songs right now I could.
Game Aquarium
Reviewed by Elaina Cole
Email: eacole01@morehead-st.edu
This website is called Game Aquarium. It has many different types of educational games on it. Not only are there different games but you can choose the games by your learning level. There are Preschool through 6th grade, there is also grades 3-6. this site isn’t only for the kids, there is a section coming soon that teachers can make print-outs, and it has a link to 900 plus educational sites. For example to help children with spelling and vowel sounds they have a hang man game. There are many types of levels and games that can be played on this website.
I chose this website also because of personal experience. When I was in 4th grade we played where in the World is Carmen San Diego. That was the best part of the day. I looked forward to it. It was also a type of bribe I think. Because we had to be good so we could get on the computer at the end of the day to play.
Kid’s Lab
http://www.manatee.k12.fl.us/sites/elementary/palmasola/SRW.htm
Reviewed by Elaina Cole
Email: eacole01@morehead-st.edu
WOW! This is all I can say for this website. It is awesome. This website contains so many different educational games for kindergarten through third grade. It has amazing games. It provides feedback to the student if he or she got it correct or if they were wrong in their decision. They have quizzes on comprehension, and reasoning skills, but it is also fun at the same time. It is also very easy to navigate. Children with any computer skills could figure it out.
I would use this in my classroom because it is a great tool for the students to learn. It incorporates the reading strategies, but also makes it to where the games do not out weigh the educational means behind it. It is a very balanced web-site and I would recommend this to everyone.
Yahoo Kids Study
http://kids.yahoo.com/learn/index
Reviewed by Krystle Coleman
Email: klcole01@morehead-st.edu
In this part of the yahoo website, yahooligans study zone, kids can explore many different things. They can pick what subjects that want to learn more about or get help in school, or they can choose to learn about what’s going on in art and entertainment. They can also play computer games that are educational on this website as well. Teachers could also use this part of the website in their classroom because it has some educational video clips on it as well. Right now there are clippings of animals and it has a paragraph at the bottom that tells about the clip.
I think Yahooligans is a good website for young students; especially the study zone part. It is very educational and can also be used by teachers and parents trying to help their kids learn more about a subject or if kids want to do research over their favorite animal. I know I talked a lot about animals, but there are also different subjects kids can click on and it gives them a lot of good websites they can go explore as well!
EdHelper.com
Reviewed by Krystle Coleman
Email: klcole01@morehead-st.edu
This is a website that is great for teachers to use! It has almost anything a teacher would want to look for on this website. It helps out with lessons, and even has unit activities. The unit activities are by the month too; for example, if you pick May thematic units, there are things that go along with Mother’s Day, Teachers Appreciation Day, and also Memorial Day. It has a tool that you can make word searches and different types of puzzles. It has a bunch of activities teachers can use in their classroom in every subject; science, math, spelling, vocabulary, and the list goes on and on. The website is also really easy for anyone to use.
Like I said earlier, this website is a great website for teachers because of all the things it has to offer. I like it better than other websites that have lesson plans and activities because this website is much easier to navigate and I think the activities that they have are more enjoyable for students. With each unit, this website also gives different activities for each grade level so the teacher doesn’t have to come up with a way to make the lesson harder or easier. Everyone’s busy outside of school and sometimes it’s just easy to not even have to think about how to make an activity harder for the next grade up…it’s already done for you!
Teacher Planet
http://www.teacherplanet.com/calendar/04-APR-07.htm
Reviewed by Krystle Coleman
Email: klcole01@morehead-st.edu
I like this website because it has a lot of different ways teachers can go about what they’re looking for. Like EdHelper, it also gives activities and units that teachers can choose from, but what is really nice is that it has different fundraising ideas that teachers can use in their schools. No one ever really thinks about the fundraising part, but most schools always have fundraisers, either for different clubs they have, or just to raise money to give to a charity. It also gives them tips on what to do and the fundraisers are by group size.
If you’re a teacher looking for fundraising ideas this is the perfect website. It has lots of good ideas for fundraising and it also gives you tips on what and how to go about your fundraising activity. The fundraisers are sorted into groups; this way if you have a really large group, you won’t want to pick a fundraiser that most small groups do. So go check out the website and get started on your fundraising!
Ultimate Guitar Tabs
Reviewed by Jerry Dotson
Email: bigdouble4@yahoo.com
In this site it offers tabs or guitar note that help guitar players figure out songs. It is reviewed by each person who examines a tab. As a musician I find this website to be very helpful, and where I plan to be a music teacher it could very helpful to my students. For one if a student was to have problems with a certain song they could type in the name of the song and it would show them how to play it. The site also offers the correct tempo to play the song and correct tuning for the instrument. It also has the latest news in music posted daily.
The reason why I choose this site is that it has helped me for many years figure out different songs that I couldn’t. It’s made up of people who figure out a song and submit it to help anyone that it can.
Music Notation
Reviewed by Jerry Dotson
Email: bigdouble4@yahoo.com
This site offers lots of different tabs for all types of instruments. It the perfect go to site for musicians. This site is based on the www.ultimate-guitar.com website. Even though they are built on the same concept they are different. Both due offer tabs for musicians that can figure out a song, but mxtabs.net is different. It offers tabs for all instruments. For example guitar, bass, drums, piano, trumpet etc. It is the perfect domain for a musician.
The reason why I choose this is because when I’m a music teacher I will be teaching students how to play instruments, but what will they do when I’m not at there house to help? They can get on the internet and go to this site and it will help them with everything.
Funbrain
Reviewed by Stacy L. El Harrab
Email: stacy_rachid@hotmail.com
Funbrain.com is an educational website for K-8 teachers and
kids. The site contains different
activities related to subject areas such as Math, Science,
I chose this site because I think it has some interesting activities for children of all ages. It also offers games in different subject areas and some good links to other websites such as Infoplease and FactMonster. This website also offers some good activities that parents can do with their children at home to give them extra practice and assistance with their homework.
Smithsonian Education
http://www.smithsonianeducation.org/
Reviewed by Stacy L. El Harrab
Email: stacy_rachid@hotmail.com
This website is a good website for students, teachers, and parents alike. It offers lesson plans for students in different academic levels as well as opportunities for professional development workshops, field trips, and a resource library. This site also offers a means for grant proposals and writings to assist educators. There is even a link called IdeaLabs where students can participate in online tutorials and simulations about different subjects such as walking on the moon. Educators have the opportunity to locate other resources to help teach a lesson as well as a link to find curriculum standards by state.
I chose this website because I personally like to teach lessons about people and culture and thought this website offered some wonderful as well as interesting lesson plans intended for that subject matter. It also has excellent links to other resources for educators, students, and parents. By visiting this website, one can even arrange a field trip to the famous Smithsonian while at the same time teaching a lesson to the students.
WebMath.com
Reviewed by: Stacy L. El Harrab
Email: stacy_rachid@hotmail.com
WebMath.com is a website for students of all ages for assistance with math. This site virtually offers math for everyone, general math, K-8 Math, Algebra, Plots & Geometry, and Trigonometry & Calculus. This site also offers a link call Cosmeo, which is powered by the Discovery Channel, and allows one to actually go in and pick their textbook, page number, and problem number to hear a teacher explain the steps to work a particular problem. This site also offers a way for students to submit questions about math problems, but not to a blackboard or discussion board where an answer to the question may not come until the next day, but where the question is answered immediately.
I chose this website because it offers assistance with math problems for people of all ages and all skill levels. It also offers assistance where one can hear a live teacher explain how to solve a problem. This process works in the same manner as a virtual classroom. The site also offers a way for students to ask questions about particular problems they are having and have their questions answered as soon as their questions are posted. They do not have to wait for a reply, they get their answer immediately.
PE Central: The Web Site for Health and Physical Education Teachers
http://www.pecentral.com/
Reviewed by Jennifer Haut
Email: jkhaut01@morehead-st.edu
This web site is designed for teachers that teach health and physical education. The web site has lesson plan ideas and helpful items for educators to give them new ideas in when teaching. A second thing that the website offers is a place where P.E. teachers can buy equipment that they may need to teach. Finally, the web site provides job offerings, which come in handy for the students who are graduating and looking for a starting job. With a quick log in these all these things are at the click of your mouse to help in the teaching career.
I choose this website because it provided lesson plans that you must have as a teacher. The ideas that they have to offer are fresh, entertaining, and healthy for the children. They meet all the needs that must be met in the lesson plan. Also the site provided assignments that engage the students.
Educational Web Site on Astronomy, Physics, Spaceflight and the Earth's Magnetism
http://www.phy6.org/
Reviewed by Jennifer Haut
Email: jkhaut01@morehead-st.edu
This web site is designed for educators in the math and science field. It contains a number of helpful items that can be used in the classroom. It gives teachers simple explanations that they can use to better get the point across to their students. The web site also provides fresh material on physics, astronomy and earth sciences, with new content and added interest to meet all learning styles. Also found at phy6.org are lesson plans for to get teachers started in their career or giving them new ideas to refresh what they already teach.
This web site came in handy for me because it allowed me to look at the content written for students in a way that comes easy to them. This allows you to really get the student interested and involved in the assignment. It brings the knowledge that you know into words that they can understand.
Awesome Library
http://www.awesomelibrary.org/
Reviewed by Jennifer Haut
Email: jkhaut01@morehead-st.edu
This web site is good for teachers in all subject areas. It addresses subjects from English to Special Ed. In each subject it has broken down assignments and ideas that address things in each content area. It also has lesson plans for each subject area taught in schools. This web site ranges from kindergarten to twelfth grade. It also has a place for the students and the parents to get a sense of the things that they and their children are being taught. Finally the web site gives you items to use as a learning tool for hands on activities.
I used this web site because I intend to teach to different fields. This site allows me to get ideas for both without having to search all over the internet. It has everything organized to make it easy to enrich my skills in both fields.
CIA The world Factbook
https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index.html
Reviewer: Sarah Houshel
Email: slhous01@moreheadstate.edu
This website is run by the CIA and contains the world factbook. It allows you to search for information on a particular country and also offers the world flags that a student might find helpful. This site is updated when new information is made available, so it is a creditable source. With the drop down menu, one can choose a specific country and when the page is brought up, you can find out where the specific country is and all the information that is available.
This site is beneficial to a student in the upper levels because it is very specific. A student can navigate the pages easily and find information on just about every country listed. It would be a little bit advanced for some students because most students wouldn’t know where to begin looking. This would allow students to have specific knowledge about a particular country at the tips of their fingers.
I like to learn
http://www.ilike2learn.com/ilike2learn/
Reviewer: Sarah Houshel
Email: slhous01@moreheadstate.edu
This website lists the different types of maps for geography. It is brightly colored and offers different quizzes to help. You could test your knowledge on mountains, rivers, lakes, and country names on the same website. When playing the Longest Rivers quiz, it gives you hints to see where certain rivers are located. There are many different subject areas in geography that are covered. This is classroom friendly as well as user friendly.
I chose this website for the different content areas in geography. I am a geography education major and I like the different content areas within geography that this site offers. It allows the user to choose which area they would like to quiz over and doesn’t repeat the same quiz twice.
Sheppards Software
http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/index.html
Reviewer: Sarah Houshel
Email: slhous01@moreheadstate.edu
This website contains different subject areas that can be used for reviewing. There are many different games that involve geography, science and math. There are map games that help with learning the names of states and countries. As you progress through the levels, the games get harder. The math and science include links to other websites that could be beneficial later. There is a vocabulary section that allows vocabulary practice for the SAT and the GRE. This website is designed for everyone of all ages to use, not just school kids.
I picked this website because when I was taking a geography class and had to learn country names, I used the website. I was able to practice over and over and over and never played the same game twice. I was able to learn the country names without a lot of confusion. I feel that this website could be beneficial to a lot of people.
Barney
http://www.barney.com/usa/index.html
Reviewed by: Luke Davison Reed
The source of the barney website was music and coloring. The quality of the website was well built and also the accuracy of the information was to but also the games were very accurate when I went through them.
The Barney website is a lot of fun. The music is always playing and you have the choices to play games, watch videos, and listen to music. The name of the site is Barney but there isn’t any type of game on there that you actually play with Barney. Many of the games Barney just talks about what you can do on the game and will guide you through it. The games on Barney’s site are called Riff’s Music Everywhere Game. In this game you get to pick from objects in a house or a barn and also animals. When you pick a object it makes the noise of this object.
I picked this site truthfully because I thought it would be a great education site to use in the future. This site was more for somebody that just wants to go play some games but not learn anything. The one thing I did enjoy about this site is that you could hear the sounds of the animals but that was the only beneficial thing I got from this site.
Barbie
http://barbie.everythinggirl.com/
Reviewed by: Luke Davison Reed
In the Barbie there is a lot of things that you can do. You can chat with Barbie or even catch a glimpse of her new movie. If you like to play dress up then you are in luck because you can play dress up on Barbie. You may even want to go sing some music with Barbie to. There are so many things to do that you will never get bored on this site. There is a lot of advertising for product on here that you can buy. Barbie is ready to go have some fun, so lets go.
I picked this site because I here of a lot of young girls loving Barbie but I thought to myself is Barbie educational? I wouldn’t use this in the class room because there is no type of teaching going on here but just play. I wonder if a boy wanted to go in this site, what would he be able to do. The site is very fun but its defiantly not a education tool that I was hopefully planning on using in the future.
The Magic School Bus
http://www.scholastic.com/magicschoolbus/tour/tour.htm?animals
Reviewed by: Luke Davison Reed
The Magic School Bus site was a very good choice. This site
is diverse with what information you can learn. You can jump on the
The reason I chose this site was because I used to watch the show when I was a child. I always thought when I was little I learned a lot from just watching the show. I guessed it was still the same and I was correct. The magic school bus would be a wonderful tool to use in the class room to teach kids that you can benefit from watching television.
Teacher Xpress
TeacherXpress - The Education Web - All in One Place - For Busy Teachers: Welcome
Reviewed by Chrystol Thompson
Email: cxconl01@morehead-st.edu
This site is a wealth of resource links to hundreds of sources. This site includes hundreds of links to newspapers, magazines, teaching associations, lesson plans, etc. just to name a few. The most valuable feature within the site is the links to numerous search engines. This feature provides quick research links that are essential for all teachers as well as students. All the features are user friendly and well organized. Use the sites free registration feature to format the site for easy access. Also you can add your favorite links to the site for greater accessibility.
As a student, I find that I use this site almost daily. I am required to complete a lot of research. I have found that this site leads to quality resource material. The sites provided links provides access to such newspapers as the New York Times. Also I have found that using the sites listed search engines, I have the ability to search a greater variety of topics in less time.
NASET National Association of Special Education Teachers
National Association of Special Education Teachers: Teachers Teaching Exceptional Children
Reviewed by Chrystol Thompson
Email: cxconl01@morehead-st.edu
This is a site packed full of information for Special Education Teachers. This site offers free access to disability information, news articles, e-publications, and many other items. This site is very useful in that it provides access for research projects as well as helpful techniques needed for teaching in the classroom. The career center within the site offers a wealth of information concerning books resources, job listings, fact sheets as well as resume and cover sheet information. The site is user friendly and easy to navigate for specific information using the sites search feature. Although the site offers many resources for free, a membership is offered that allows the subscriber even more features at $45.00 per year.
This site offers the quick access to information concerning Special Education that I find I need as a student. I find that as an upcoming teacher, it is essential that I stay current with the ever changing educational system. This site offers the news I do need to keep up without having to spend hours in front of the computer searching.
Enchanted Learning
M: Crafts for Kids - EnchantedLearning.com
Reviewed by Chrystol Thompson
Email: cxconl01@morehead-st.edu
This site offers easy access and user friendly features to a wealth of learning. The concept is learning through crafts that are age and content appropriate for elementary students. The site offers hundreds of ideas for the classroom such as bulletin boards, puppets, books, and animals. Also offered is a vast amount of activities in the areas of math, reading, science, and geography. All of the activities are organized alphabetically A-Z
as well as by materials needed to create the project. This adds essential quick discovery and printing of projects to use in the classroom.
This is my favorite and most used site in developing lesson plans. I use a lot of hands on materials within my lessons. This site offers the variety as well as directions and print outs that make creating within the classroom easy. I enjoy these activities because although directions are provided, there is always room for the imagination.
Morehead State Website
Reviewed by Dustin Withrow
Email: dgwith01@moreheadstate.edu
The
I basically picked this site because it is easy to navigate and I use it daily. I actually know the guy who constructs this site. His name is Brad McDavid. He did a great job and I wanted to review this site because of that.
Chi Omega Official Website
Reviewed by Dustin Withrow
Email: dgwith01@moreheadstate.edu
The chi omega website is very useful for me. I use it because I am a member of the Chi Omega sorority. I do not think that it is easy to navigate. Especially the Chi O creation links. I feel like I can’t view all of the information I need on this site. I wish I knew more about the internet so that I could help them make it more user friendly.
I picked this site because it is a site that I look at from time to time and I feel like it could use some improvement. The designers may want to reevaluate the site to make it more user friendly. If I could give them advice about this site I would tell them to improve the Chi O creations link so that people would feel more comfortable buying items from the site.
Facebook Website
Reviewed by Dustin Withrow
Email: dgwith01@moreheadstate.edu
facebook.com is probably the most viewed site by college students. I check my facebook account at least twice a day. I love the way the website is set up. It is easy to upload pictures and other items onto your account so that they will be displayed for the world. When you first log on to your account you get a newsfeed of recent activity from your friends. This site helps connect people all over the world. It lets friends and family keep in touch.
I picked this website to review because I am addicted to facebook and I believe that the site is set up very well. I wanted to review this so that I could let everyone know how great facebook is. It is a great site that helps connect people to people.
Spring 2007
Web reviews in alphabetical order by Class and student name:
Here, for your information, are the web site reviews from my educational computing students for the Fall 2006 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 and email addresses are "hot linked."
EDUC 222-2
YouTube
Reviewed by
Lindsey Anderson
YouTube Inc. I do believe is the source.
This site is a
tool a person can use to look up video clips from pop culture movies, songs,
and other types of art mediums that can be useful for teaching with technology
in a way that singular instruction possible would not. It is
also a site that has a large base of links to choose from and it is
interactive, where you can add your own clips.
I chose this site
because it has helped me research many times not only past news broadcastings, but of movie clips that better explain or explain in a different
way the subject matter I am studying.
SparkNotes
Lindsey
Anderson
SparkNotes LLC. Was its copyright.
This site is a
great advantage to college students who are bombarded
with several diverse reading lists or subject matters that are somewhat
confusing. This site takes popular or widely acknowledged authors and their
major writings and summarizes the plot, lists characters, and explains quotes,
symbols, and motifs. It ranges from Literature to Poetry to Writing and Film
and Philosophy. It is very easy to use, but sometimes lacks minor
authors that is also covered in college Literature classes.
I selected this
website because it has been a great tool for me. This website has made several
Literature readings more comprehensive to me by explaining elements that I was
unsure about. It also summarizes the plot so I will
know the general direction of the storyline so I can read more efficiently.
Citation Machine
Lindsey
Anderson
Copyright 2006 by
David Warlick & the Landmark Project
This website is
good and useful for helping students with the proper means of citing the
different types of documents that is required of them in schools. It is useful
for high school, college, and university students with links to the different
ways of citing sources. Choices are MLA and the APA
and the different criteria for the different types and numbers of the sources
that may need to be cited.
I chose this
website because there are several regulations about the MLA style of citing sources
that I do not understand and this site asks me the questions as I fill in the
answers and it cites the information in the appropriate order. It is handy for
numerous cites when any student could be lost in all of the qualifications.
Teacher Vision
http://www.teachervision.fen.com
Reviewed by: Jamie Fay
Email: jamebo17@insightbb.com
Teacher Vision is a site that is committed to helping teachers save some time in their hectic work schedules. Teacher Vision provides educators with lesson plans based on age and subject. The age is ranged from preschool up until senior year and the subjects range from reading to social studies to art. Teacher Vision also allows you to browse through certain themes you can base your lessons on. It also gives you advice on class management from successful teaching methods to guides on how to personalize your work space.
I picked this site for my review because I think it’s very helpful to educators, especially those that are just starting out. It gives you lesson plans and teaching methods for each subject. I think this site would be very informative to a teacher who is constantly busy and doesn’t have time to make up lessons on their own. It also is a good site for allowing teachers to communicate together through various blogs.
Education Planet
http://www.educationplanet.com/
Reviewed by: Jamie Fay
Email: jamebo17@insightbb.com
Education Planet is a wonderful resource for both students and educators. The home page has a list of many topics and sub topics. When you click on the subject that you wish to know more about it sends you to a page filled with many helpful links and resources. The links send you to stories, photos, examples and many other things that help you learn the subject better. The home page also has a helpful link on it that will send you to a page with 80,000 teacher reviewed lesson plans.
I chose this site because it is a useful tool that many educators could utilize. If they wanted their kids to learn more about a subject that they are teaching they can send them here to read stories, look at photos, etc. It’s a very helpful tool to the students also if they want a quick review of the material that the teacher already covered or if they are doing a research project.
Soft Schools
Reviewed by: Jamie Fay
Email: jamebo17@insightbb.com
Soft Schools is a website that is dedicated to grades preschool through middle school. It has many different resources on its main page. It gives you links to certain subjects, worksheets for lessons, and games. This website allows the teacher to set up math worksheets devised by the computer. It will allow you to say how many problems go on one page and anything else you want on it. There are also links on the sites home page to other sites for teachers and sites for parents.
I chose this website because I thought it was really cool that it would generate a worksheet for you to give out to your kids. It also provides games that your kids could participate in and it would allow them to learn more about the subject. The website is more directed to the subjects of math and science but it also has links to things like Social Studies, Spanish and French.
Kids Reads
By: Brittany Hunt
Here is a site where you can take your children or students to, were they can learn about their favorite books and authors. This web site has many cool features that are very appealing to young reader. Her they can look up the newest books and authors, and find reviews over their favorite books. This site has a section called fun stuff, this part of the web page if full of trivia and word games that can allow children learn more from what they are reading by playing fun activities. You can also enter contests on kidsread.com. There is a section for teachers and librarians, news letters, book club, write to us, and for parents.
I like this site because it is appealing to young readers; there is a lot of fun activities and important information over many authors and new books. This would be a good web site to take students to because it is easy to use and will allow them to see how much they really now about the books they are reading. I even liked to explore the activities over some of the books I have read in the past.
Meet Children Book Author’s
http://www.chilfrenslit.com/fmai.htm
By: Brittany Hunt
This site allows you to look up your favorite authors; all you have to do is select the name of your author. It will connect you to a variety of different resources that pertain to the author of your chose. It is easy to use and help you to maneuver around the internet to find what you are looking for. It will send you too many different authors’ home pages were you can find tons of facts and information.
I have used this site a lot this year in my classes. I like this site because I always find what I am looking for with out have to search forever. This site is user friendly and easy to use. You are only a point and click away from you favorite children author.
Leap Frog
By: Brittany Hunt
This site is loaded with the newest learning games for children and teens. Parents and educators can purchase learning material for their children and students through this site. The products are divided in to five separate age categories, this allow you to easily find what you are looking for. The ages for these products range from zero months to eighteen years old. On this site you can shop, look at parent information, visit Leapster world, and look at teacher information. Children will love to explore leapster world; it provides game, secret codes, tips and trick, and a game library. There is a lot to find on this web site, it even provides research on their products that shows the improvement of children after using their products.
I thought that this site would be helpful to teachers and parents who are looking for electronic learning material. This site gives a variety of products for many age groups, I was pleasantly surprised to find that they have product for teenagers. They also provide a section on their web site for educators, where they can find special offers and classroom products just to name a few. I chose this site because one day I may be using their products in my classroom and at home. It is nice to know that leap frog has many products that are geared towards the classroom setting.
Discovery Schools
Reviewed By: Christopher Simpson
Discovery Org.
The belief in educational software as applied for use within the classroom, are great tools for enrichment and helpful aides. I found the discoveryschool.com website very useful in helping to aide the progress of studying and researching scientific topics. The website provides lots of interesting and fun activities for the teacher and the students to either do together or print out and complete as self guided assignments. The website is very comprehensive, but provides lots of information that can be used in high level grades.
I found this website particularly useful within the context of general/earth science, but in higher disciplines of science such as chemistry and anatomy, it would be hard to use this site as a guided tool in those areas.
Teachers Need Help Too
http://www.teachingstrategies.com/
Reviewed By: Christopher Simpson
Creative Curriculum .Inc
Mostly funded by the U.S. Government’s educational department for high achievement, as part of the no child left behind acts towards the progression of teacher certifications. This website provides lots of instructional strategies, grouped by age, and course level, for teachers to use. The site also provides submitted testimonials in regards to some of the strategies that teachers from all over the world have found on the website and implemented in their own classrooms.
I really liked this website. I like to think of it more as a web-resource, than an actual website because it is so useful. I know that I will be saving this address on my computer for future use. I really liked how they provide the real life scenarios that figuratively set up the evaluated strategies that they provide, you can really add your own touch to the strategies as well.
AOL StudyBuddy
Reviewed By: Christopher Simpson
AOL.COM
StuddyBuddy is an online interactive homework help tool, used by parents who own the browser software AOL. The website provides lots of study notes and interactive activities that can be used from either a student’s perspective, in which the website is very simple to use and the menus become very interactive and informative, or the parents can use the website to look up information in order to help their children with their various homework assignments.
I loved this website when I was in high school! My mother was very well versed in most of my subjects, but when it came to anything in science she was clueless. So this website, was truly a study buddy. I love the online web assistants that will help you in the various disciplines.
Education World: Creating a WebQuest: It’s Easier than You Think!
http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/tech/tech011.shtml
Reviewed by Madeline L. Murphy
E-mail: m.murphy@moreheadstate.edu
Education World asked two educators who have created their own WebQuest to share with then the benefits that WebQuest bring to the classroom. The sit answers some important questions for the reader. Why WebQuest? What to look for in a well planned WebQuest? What is the WebQuest formula? Where do you begin? What is the design process? Why not share your WebQuest? Some additional resources were given to provide more information. The sit was colorful using key word that attracted my attention. It had enough links to other sits for me to explore other information needed.
WebQuests are probably the most talked about and widely used web-based activities in today’s classroom. I needed to know more about WebQuest in order to develop one for myself. The most needed information was the six building blocks of a WebQuest.
Spartanburg District 3 County Schools: Constructing Your WebQuest or Web Site
http://www.spa3.k12.sc.us/Constructing%20You%20WebQuest.html
Reviewed by Madeline L. Murphy
E-mail:
m.murphy@moreheadstate.edu
WebQuest is an inquiry-oriented activity in which some or all of the information that learners interact with and comes from resources on the internet. There are two levels of WebQuest: Short Term and Long Term. This sit, I consider to be a long term web sit because it allow me to analyzed a body of knowledge deeply, transformed it in the way I needed too, and help me to demonstrated my understanding of the material by creating something that my students can respond to on-line. It is a step by step guide on how to construct a WebQuest.
Learning to design WebQuest is a process that should go from the simple and familiar to the more complex and new. This means starting with a single discipline and a short-term quest. The description of the design/construction process fitted this sit. This sit is the most basic way to guide students to pre-determined sites on the internet. For that reason, this was right for me.
Hommocks Middle Schools: Child Development and Positive Discipline
http://www.mamkschools.org/hammocks/class/hc/nelson/Child%20Dev/Child_Dev.htm
Reviewed by Madeline L. Murphy
E-mail: m.murphy@moreheadstate.edu
This is an actual teacher’s WebQuest
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