Tuesday, August 6, 2013
Annotated Website List for Teachers
Category: Teacher Lesson Plan Site
Audience: Teachers
Grade Level: All
Subject Area: All
Description: Teachers Pay Teachers is a site where teachers can buy,sell, or share their own lesson plans and ideas. These plans may include lesson procedures, center ideas, printables, games etc. There is a search box if you are looking for lessons in a particular subject area or you can browse freely. It also has specific categories you can click on separated by grade, subject, price, or resource type. This website has many free resources which is wonderful but unfortunately some can get quite pricey.
Category: Teacher and Student Resources
Audience: Teacher
Grade Level: Pre-K-5
Subject Area: Reading
Description: This website is resource for teachers but has many resources to use with students. All the materials on this website are directly linked to the Common Core State Standards. It includes: reading lessons, decodable books, reader’s theater scripts, fluency passages, phonological awareness, phonics, and assessments. It also has resources for student use such as worksheets, graphic organizers, word sorts, and flashcards. It has leveled books that you can print across 27 levels of difficulty. I use the books on here for guided reading groups as well as for the children’s book bags they bring home for homework.
Category: Teacher Planning Site
Audience: Teachers
Grade Level: Pre-K- K
Subject Area: Reading, Writing, Social Studies, and Math
Description: Hubbard’s Cupboard is a resource for parents/educators of early childhood students in the area of literacy and math. It focusses on lesson ideas that are engaging and hands on for students. It is separated into “activities” rather than lessons. The activities are games or activities with hands on manipulatives. With each activity comes a description of the activity along with a picture of what the activity looks like. It also includes a list of online resources for more ideas similar to the one you are currently viewing. The website also includes resources for in classroom use: printable books (by sight words or word families), morning message ideas, writing templates, and center ideas. This site is great but there are no assessment pieces so you’d have to formulate your own to go with the lesson ideas.
Category: Student Interactive Learning Site
Audience: Students
Grade Level: Kindergarten
Subject Area: Phonological Awareness and Math
Description: This website is for students to play interactive learning games involving basic Kindergarten skills. All of the games involve both a visual and auditory component and are done on a basic level. It asks students a question and the students are given three choices to answer and have to click on the right one. This website is extremely simple. The graphics and visuals are on a basic level but the skills being tested are accurate for Kindergarten. The only printables available are coloring pages of animals and letters. I wish there were printables related to all of the online games offered. I also wish that there were worksheets with content and not just to simply color.
Category: Student Interactive Learning Site
Audience: Students
Grade Level: Lower Elementary
Subject Area: Reading, Science, Math, Spelling
Description: This is a site for interactive games for children in many subject areas. There is a drop down menu to choose a desired topic. Once you designate a subject, a large list of games appears. Students can drag the mouse over a game to see the lesson goals. If it interests them they can click on it and begin playing. You can also narrow the game choice by game topic such as coloring games, letter games, vocabulary games, measurement games etc. The games on here are developmentally appropriate and are appealing and motivating for children. For letter practice one game lets children drag magnetic letters on a simulated refrigerator. This game could easily be adapted in their own homes on their real refrigerator.
Category: Student Interactive Learning Site
Audience: Students
Grade Level: K-5
Subject Area: All
Description: This is a site full of games for students that address skills in different subject areas. It would be a great website to use during center time on a current subject you’re using in the curriculum. Many of the games are interactive and test student knowledge. For example, if you have been working on letter sounds there is a fantastic Bingo game that allows the student to play until they get BINGO by recognizing letter sounds produced through the computer. This website is organized by grade and subject.
Category: Teacher Resources/ Lesson Plan Site
Audience: Teachers
Grade Level: K-6
Subject Area: All
Description: Have Fun Teaching is an abundant resource for teachers. It has worksheets, game ideas, flashcards, videos, activities, and songs that can all be used to compliment your curriculum. It is organized by grade level and within each level you can search by subject. There are even specific flashcards/activities for ESL students. There are also items for teachers to use in planning such as center activities, behavior management plans, worksheet creator, lesson plans, smartboard lessons, posters, and thematic units. This website is extremely easy to navigate and is well organized. It would be easy to locate something specific you were looking for.
Category: Student Resources
Audience: Students
Grade Level: Elementary- High School
Subject Area: All
Description: This site is an educational web portal with a collection of fun, interactive, and informational websites for K-12 students. The idea is to make them a “know it all” by providing the means to explore the web on their own. It encourages the idea that “smart is fun.” You can browse by grade level or subject and there is a search box if you are looking for something specific. I think the leveling on this website is a little broad. When you click on grade level it is separated into elementary, middle school, and high school and not specific grades. I think the information a kindergartener would look for is a lot different than what a fifth grader would be looking for. I think it should've been broken down my individual grades.
Category: Student Resources
Audience: Students
Grade Level: K- 8
Subject Area: All
Description: This is a collection of references by subject for students to use for skill building or help on a school projects/assignments. It provides tips on the subject, why it is important, how to solve/figure out, examples, and other websites or sources to go to receive more information on the subject. The Kidport website itself is an interactive website for students that encourages thinking and learning simultaneously. The site includes interactives games and videos for children as aids in their learning. I liked this website because it had multiple means of information on one subject. For example if you clicked on identifying words it gives you different strategies to use and examples of the different strategies. Then it gives you links to websites that involve identifying words.
Category: Student Resources/ Teacher Resources
Audience: Students and Teachers
Grade Level: PreK-6
Subject Area: All
Description: This is a resource for both students and teachers. The website highlights what the author considers to be wonderful on the web and makes it easily accessible for students. It involves a directory with subjects/topics and games that are interactive and can be used to complement curriculum. When you click on a topic it provides lists of links that coincide with that topic. This would be a great site for teachers to show children how to locate information on topics they are learning about in school. It is also helpful as a means to practice skills in the interactive games. Teachers can also use the free newsletter to let parents know what educational sites are available to the children for use at home as well as in school.
Monday, August 5, 2013
Technology Autobiography
My earliest memories of technology involved coming home from preschool and watching my favorite videos on the VCR. I had many movies on VHS including the classic Disney movies, Kid Songz, Mary-Kate and Ashley, and even home videos. I remember watching the same videos over and over and having to wait many minutes while the tape would rewind. This was how I learned which buttons meant play, stop, fast forward, and rewind. Eventually, I was able to manipulate the VCR myself.
I remember my dad videotaping me and my sisters using his video recorder and then we would be able to watch them on the TV. All of our TVs were big tube TVs. One of them even had a dial instead of buttons.
In Elementary school I was also exposed to printers. I remember going to computer class and being so excited to print a copy of what I worked on to show my parents. I remember working as fast as I could to ensure I would have time to print. I remember going on field trips and remembering to pack my Walkman/Cassettes and eventually Discman/ book of CDS. I also always had to have my Gigapet (digital pet) to keep me busy on the bus!It was in fifth grade when my Dad first introduced me to the internet at home. We had AOL dial up internet and had to wait what seemed forever for the computer to acquire internet access. I remember hearing those annoying sounds on the phone when I was trying to make a phone call and someone else was on the internet. We had one house phone and we all had to fight for phone time. It wasn't until high school that I received my first cell phone. It was a simple flip phone but it was such a large advancement at the time. It was the best Christmas present I had ever received and I couldn't wait to go in and show my friends.
It was in college that I got my first laptop and when Facebook started becoming popular. Facebook was an easy way to communicate with classmates/friends on the college campus as well as maintain friendships while I was away at school. Technology took off from here. I got an IPod for Christmas and was able to put music from hundreds of CDS on one place. I now have replaced my old flip phone with the IPhone that has all the capabilities of a computer. I watch TV on a flat screen and watch DVDs instead of VHS. I now read books on my Nook and browse the internet on the IPad. New technology seems to overtake the old.
It is unbelievable to see how technology has drastically changed just over my lifetime and I have no doubt we have only just seen the beginning.
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