DF8_Web+2+Tool+Review

Web 2.0 Tool Review

The [|Discovery Education] website provides the following free resources for students, teachers and parents:
 * Puzzlemaker is a puzzle generation tool for teachers, students and parents. Create and pring customized word search, criss-cross, math puzzles, and more - using your own word lists.
 * Webmath is a math-help web site that generates answers to specific math questions and problems, as entered by a user, at any particular moment. The math answers are generated and displayed real-time, at the moment a web user types in their math problem and clicks "solve." In addition to the answers, Webmath also shows the student how to arrive at the answer.
 * Free lesson plans writtedn by teachers for teachers. Classroom resources has hundreds of original lesson plans for elementary, middle, and high school students
 * Homework help has videos and tutorials for math, science, english, social studies, and many other subjects for all grade levels.
 * Multimedia videos and informational resources in all content areas and for all grade levels.

This site is a great resource for teachers, students, and parents. The streaming videos could be used to enhance learning and help children review and retain information before, during or after a lesson. The puzzlemakers could be used by teachers or students to help review new information. The lesson plans would help teachers to find engaging lessons for any subject and grade level. The homework help could be used by students in the classroom or at home when they need additonal help.

The [|Storyline Online] website is created by the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Foundation. This site offers streaming video of actors reading children's books. It includes related activities and lesson plans for each story. The actors model reading and other literacy skills such as sharing their joy of reading, acknowledging the author and illustrator, reading with expression, turning the pages from front to back, and using illustrations to follow the storyline. This site could be used as a reading station or during free choice time for lower elementary grades. Students will love this site because it includes visual and audio enhancements on each story page. The words are written below the story, so the students can see the words the actor is reading. There are 23 books for students to choose. The activites and lessons plans are an easy way for the teacher to check for a students understanding of the story.

[|Starfall] is a free public service to motivate children to read with phonics. It's systematic phonics approach, in conjunction with phonemic awareness practice is perfect for preschool, kindergarten, first grade, second grade, special education, homeschool, and English language development. It is an educational alternative to other entertainment choices for childern. The Kindergarten Reading and Language Arts Curriculum motivate kindergarten children by creating an atmosphere of fun and enthusiasm, providing opportunities for child-directed instructions and facilitating the needs of English language learners and struggling readers learning alongside their peers. This is another site that could be used as a reading station or during free choice time in lower elementary classrooms. The ABC's and Learn to Read activities would be very helpful for beginning and struggling readers. The ABC's would be useful for students who are having trouble learning their letter sounds. In the Learn to Read activies there are links with catching tunes and pictures that reinforce rules for vowel sounds, silent E, chunking, lonely vowels, two vowels, and y as a vowel. A teacher could direct a student use to a particular activity to help the learn rules to use to sound out a word. The activities get progressively harder. The last activity is called I'm reading. Students can choose from 6 different types of storys. They are provided with the words to read. If they do not know a word, they can hear the word by clicking on that word.

[|Mystery Net's Kids Mysteries] provides short stories for students to solve. It also provides directions for magic tricks and mystery stories written by students. This would be a good site to help get students interested in mystery stories. It would be a good activity to use when you have a short amount of time to fill. The stories are written for upper elementary readers. Solving mystery stories helps students to use critical thinking and problem solving skills. The site includes a link with lesson plans for teaching mystery stories.

[|Book Adventure] is a gree reading motivation program for children in grades K-8. Children create their own book lists from over 7,000 recommended titles, take multiple choice quizzes on the books they've read, and earn points and prizes for their literary successes. Book Adventure was created by and is maintained by Sylvan Learning. I like how the site provides three ways to find a book. You can search by top 10 quizzed books, by reading level and category, and by title, author or ISBN. I think this would be very easy and helpful for a student to find a just right book. A book that is at their level of reading and they can search by the category they are interested in reading. Students are motivated by earning points and teachers could check on the students understanding when they took the multiple choice quizzes. The site also contains fun word games that help students learn idoms, check for misspelled words, choose between two words that are pronouced the same, but spelled differently, and more.

[|Frontline] provides access to videos on current topics. They also provide a collection of lesson plans and activites to accompany FRONTLINE documentaries in the classroom. This would be a great resource to provide real world examples to make a lesson revelant. You can preview the videos and just show portions that are applicable to your lesson. Providing a real world example will help your student to make connections and they will be more likely to remember the content taught.

The [|eMINTS] website has a tab called eThemes it is a source for content-rich, kid-safe online resources that will help enhance your teacing and save you time. eThemes provides free, fast access to over 2,500 collections of websites, on topics ranging from Aerodynamics to Zebras and everything in between! By researching and creating these resources for you, eThemes will save you the time that you used to spend wading through millions of hits on Google, trying to find a few websites that meet your teaching needs. We do the searching for you, giving you more time to improve your lesson plans and actually teach! Teachers and their students, parents and their children, librarians and curriculum specialists — anyone who works in a teaching role can use our extensive database of eThemes knowing the resources are up-to-date and safe. These sites can be used to enhance a lesson by finding a visual and verbal discription of many topics for all grade levels. They can also be used directly by students when they need clarification, review, or a refresher of a specific term or topic.

[|Illuminations] website has 104 online activities that help make math come alive in the classroom or at home. They have a collection of 551 lessons for preK-12 math educators. Their lessons are can be searched by using the National Council of Teachers of Mathematic's Principals and Standards. They provide links to hundreds of exemplary online resources identified by an editorial panel. I like this resource, because the lessons are aligned with National Math Standards. Lessons and activities can be searched by grade level, standard, and descriptive word. If a student is having trouble with a particular skill or you are teaching the whole class a new skill it is easy to find a game that will give students practice with an appropriate age level game for that skill.

[|Geography for Kids] provides fun and educational games to help students develop and sharpen their geography skills. The geography map match games help students to learn the locations and shapes of states and countries around the world. The geography capital catch helps students to learn the capitals of states and nations around the world. The latitude and longitude map game takes students step by step through understanding latitude and longitude. Then they practice latitude and longitude concepts by finding Hannah. This site can be used to help students meet 4-8 Geography State Standards in a fun game like way. Each student can work at their own pace practing on a computer at school or at home. There are some fun sound effects that make it clear if you have made a correct or incorrect match. At the end of the round there is some celebratory music. Each game is timed, giving the student an incentive to practice the skills to decrease the amount of time it takes to make correct choices. Games for other subjects are also available on this site.

[|An Ordinary Day:The Impact of Congress/Government] website shows how the work of congress has a significant impact on students' everyday lives. This colorful module walks you through a typical day: from the alarm clock ringing, going to school and work, and turning in at night. Pop-ups appear letting you know the role Congress, as well as state and local government, had with some aspect of the highlighted object. At the end of the module, a federal and state legislator share their perspective on the impact of the governent. This site can be used to help students be aware of how government regulations protect their individual rights and promote the general welfare in their daily lives. For example, when a student clicks on the tube of toothpaste in the bathroom a pop-up explains toiletries and cosmetics are monitored so they are safe and nontoxic for consumers to use. The website has visually appealing graphics and fun sound effects. The information presented about laws that apply to daily life are short and simple. The laws explained are applicable to a middle school student's daily life. Using this site that provides students with a real world application will help students learn and remember more about government.

Home