Ed Caster's List: TIE 542 Hot List

Way cool math site. This site provides a number of math games, logic puzzles, lessons focusing on the basic math operations, flash cards to practice basicfacts, and a variety of puzzles, but be sure to download Java to solve these puzzles. I liked the Brain Bender puzzles. These are a great resource ;for those times when there is 10 minutes left in a class, and the lesson has ended. Ideas and Resources are provided for teachers and parents. A lot of time is needed to explore the entire sight, as you may find yourself playing the games or solving the puzzles.

This site offers a number of resources for teachers. A number of free lesson plans are available. The plans are sorted by grade level, general subjects and then subtopics. It also has what are called "Featured Content." Think Green describes the green movement and has a number of links related to the topic. WebMath provides self help math solvers on topics ranging from counting coins to derivatives in calculus. Kelly Schrock's Guide provides hundreds of links web sites that assist in curriculum and professional development. I like Brain boosters, a list of question that need creative answers. Special topics such as Discovering Diabetes are described and have links provided.

This site provides templates for the creation of educational games, activities and graphic organizers, FREE. The Arcade Games are simple to create, the Countdown Timer is a handy little app for timing student activities. Post It, Fishbone and Jigsaw Diagram help to eliminate paper previously used for these types of activities. The Animated Book can be embedded into a web page or blog.

The MathFoprum, which is housed by Drexel University, offers a number of resources for both teachers and students. The most famous of these is Dr. math. Math questions can be asked and answers received. An archive of questions and answers is available for review. Many on-line pd courses and workshops are offered. Teacher2Teachers is an on-line discussion room for teachers. Here teachers can "discuss" math topics, ideas and find answers to a variety of questions.

The home of the National Archives is a wonderful source for historical documents. Downloadable phoots of numerous documents and events are available for use with debates, PBL units and WebQuests. An alphabetical list of subjects improves searching, just kow the name of the subject.

The site provides links to activities in under numerous subjects, including Grade Level help k-8, links for k-12Assessment Assistance, which provides links to grade leel activities in all subjects that are "tested," and on-site professional development. On-line modules provide tutorials for Microsoft Office, Dreamweaver, and a number of other subjects

Though this is a commercial site, there are many "freebies" available. a weekly newsletter, "Weekly Teaching Tips" is available for subscription. Some of the free items are rubric makers, bulletin board ideas and a number of lesson plans in algebra, social studies, technology and other subjects. If you can deal with the ads to join the site, there are many good resources. By the way, the sign-up costs range from $30 to $50. The $50 fee allows total access to the site.

The Library of Congress hosts this site. It is organized into categories: Classroom Materials, Professional Development, Using Primary Sources, TPS Partners, News and Events, and Additional Resources. The site makes available RSS feeds, a blog and podcasts. The podcasts have a variety of subjects. Classroom Materials includes lesson plans, themed resources, Primary Source Sets, and other class resources. This site is an American Social Scientist's dream.

This education site from Microsoft has many resources for teachers and students. Teacher section provides links to free clip art, lesson plans, templates for grades and calendars, professional development, and a few other items. for students, the site provides tutorials for PowerPoint and writing citations, templates for keeping their own grades and for a digital notebook for projects. Microsoft also provides an Administrator's Page, with links to number of topics that include data management, financial management and web portals for all grades.

This site gives teachers four units that focus on digital citizenship. The units are free once the sight is joined. Creative What? focus on the topics of intellectual property, creative content and creative rights. By Rule of Law focuses on intellectual property as a valuable commodity. Calling All Digital Citizens teaches about copyright and other creative rights.Protect Your Work, Respect Your Work explores issues of originality and plagiarism, and protecting original work. The units are geared for grades 8-12 but can be adapted for grades 6 and 7. The units are downloadable, have pre- and post assessments, and a number of activities related to the unit.

The site has a number of mathematics lessons for grade levels kindergarten to high school. The lessons are more enrichment than review, and all illustrate concepts. Rectangle Pattern Challenge asks students to find a pattern and extend the pattern to the Nth level. Mathematics of Cartography can be used in math and social studies classes. Personal Favorite is the Fractals Geometry Unit, complete with pics of Sierpinski Fractals. Don't miss pattern Block Fractions or Let's Do Math.

DigiTales is a site dedicated to digital storytelling. The "About" section offers a description of digital storytelling. The StoryKeepers" Gallery is the place for many different digital stories. DigiTales Tools lists the tools needed for digital storytelling for both Mac and Windows formats. One section allows teachers to build a rubric appropriate for grading a digital story. Resources provides links to music and sound sources, many that offer free samples, 7 steps to creating a digitale, and a number of sites freviewing digital citizenship.

This site is entitled Technology Integration Projects. There are several pages to the site. The pages are Professional Reading, Online Tutorials, ICT and Curriculum, eMentors, and Technology projects. Ths page is sorted by 4 Divisions, Gr 1-3, 4-6, 7-9 and 10-12. Then the projects are categorized as Language Arts, math, Science, Social Studies and Miscellaneous.

Ever wonder how to integrate digital photography into you classroom? Ever run out of ideas for its use? This site provides many different activities for using digital cameras in the classroom. There are lessons for math, science, social studies and reading, for grades from kindergarten to 12.

This site contains a number of units, lessons, and ideas on using the SmartBoard. The material on the site seem to be eared to 7th grade and above. The resources cover the subjects of math, science and social studies. 10 Bright Ideas for Social Studies is an interesting part of the page. It provides links to an interactive U.S. map puzzle,, the Jamestown Game, that reviews the beginnings of Jamestown and a number of other activities.

This Web 2.o tool has a different take on internet searching. After your search topic is entered, screenshots of the first 25 matching sites appear. You can use the mouse to expand the screenshot and if it is useful. a double click will take you to the site. One nice aspect is that you can save the sites that you find in a workpad, a visual bookmark, for later use.

Here's one for the science teachers. The News and links part gives the teacher a list of 10 cool web sites each month. Exploratorium's Ten Cool Sites lets teachers see 10 cool sites from more than 20 topics. Educational Hot Links gives the teachers a number of sites that can be used in teaching science and the social sciences. There are virtual tours of the museums that work with this project. Resources to a variety of interesting science topics are also available.

Awesomestories provides exactly that: awesome stories. The stories are classified as biographies, disasters, famous trials, history, inspiration, religion, sports and my favorite, Flicks. Flicks looks at events that inspired many comtemporary films such as Braveheart, Bagger Vance and Seabiscuit. There are some stories that are narrated. There are a number of audio clips. The stories are somewhat hard to read. names and phrases are linked to sites to provide additional background. For example, on the first page of teh story American Colonies, lhinks are made for George III, colonies, Thomas Paine and thirteen colonies. Even with this distraction, the stories are excellent.

Formerly from IMSA, 21st Century Information Fluency provides numerous resources on the subject of information fluency. On-line kits are given, focusing on searching, browsing, Web 2.0 and other subjects. There is an Evaluation Wizard, used to evaluate web sites, 15 minute micromodules that are aligned to NETS and the Illinois standards. 2 blogs, a wiki and a ning are open to participation. On-line courses are offered for professional development.

Another Web 2.0 site, digizen.org, provides teachers with information about social networking including the positive and negative aspects of it,. There is a section focusing on cyberbullying. The site also receives two RSS feeds, one that focuses on the featured content and one that looks at the digital world. DigiCentral allows you to make your own widget, and soon will let students upload their own work related to cyberbullying.