Teacher Resource Links

Welcome to the new Teacher Resource Links page! Your district Library Media Specialists will be adding new and exciting online resources as we discover them, so please check back often. Additionally you will find a featured resource at the beginning of the month. So many resources, so little time…. 🙂

 

 

District Professional Book Club Holdings

Use this link to access the Professional Book Club Collection house at Algonquin Middle School – anyone in the district may borrow these resources for personal reading or inservice courses. You can also search any of our district library online card catalogs. If you need assistance, please see your Library Media Specialist

 

Mentor Library

You can search for materials in the Mentor library via any of our district library online card catalogs. You can search by keyword, author, title, publication date, etc. If you need assistance, please see your Library Media Specialist.

 

 

 Check out the newly added sites!

Tech Resources of the Week!

Game On!

Game Development as a part of your curriculum

Wondering how to work game development into your classroom? After a unit of study, instead of requiring student presentations, have kids develop a game around what they’ve learned. Imagine one based on math concepts or vocabulary terms, or a game featuring historical events. Here are five free tools you and your students can use to accomplish those purposes. Used in the classroom, these can allow students to focus on creating games that are factually correct, informational, and fun to play without requiring you to address programming skills.

Sharendipity – for teachers & students to quickly make and share simple video games

YoYo Games – offers a free game development tool called Game Maker 8 which enables users to develop simple video games using a drag-and-drop editor.

ProProfs Brain Games – allows you to build interactive crossword puzzles, jigsaw puzzles, word searches, hangman games, and sliding puzzle activities. You can embed them in your blog or email them.

Purpose Games – allows users to create custom games, share, and play them.

ClassTools.net – free for educators to make your own educational games – with easy-to-use templates that can be embedded in your webpage!

 

 AP Teacher Web 2.0 Resource Wiki

 

 Web 2.0 Tools – Some Free, Some Subscription-Based

Distance Learning, Virtual Field Trip & Video Conferencing Collaboration Sites

  • Berrien RESA Regional Education Service Agency
    Formerly BCISD, this website provides a large directory of video conference programs and video conference collaborations to choose from.
  • CILC
    The Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration (CILC), established in 1994 as a not-for-profit, specializes in the utilization of video conferencing for live interactive content and professional development as well as web based collaborative learning environments for K-20 education.
  • TWICE
    Two Way Interactive Connections in Education (TWICE) is Michigan’s organization for videoconferencing in K-12 education. TWICE promotes and supports collaborative connections for the benefit of all students.
  • NERIC
  • VC Content Providers – Database of Video Conferences
  • AT&T’s Knowledge Network
  • CABOCES – distance learning opportunities

Free Blogspace

 

  • About Blogging in the Classroom

 

Free Wiki Space for Teachers

 

Digital Storytelling / Slide Shows / Presentation Applications / Creativity

 

Copyright Friendly Images & Clip Art!

Writing Tools

 

Social Bookmarking

  • Delicious – social bookmarking – fantastic for educators
  • Education World – Article on the Best Social Bookmarking sites for educators

 

Mind/Concept Mapping & Graphic Organizers

  • Free Mind – brainstorming/mind mapping software that also outlines and organizes links and can export to html format.
  • Thinkature – really cool mind-mapping – collaborative!
  • Gliffy – create and share diagrams & flow charts on the Web
  • Bubbl.us – create, embed, email mind maps – easy to use
  • MindMeister – create & collaborate on mind maps – great for elementary
  • Mindomo – concept mapping allows you to bring in images
  • Read/Write/Think Webbing Tool – make basic cluster webs and graphic organizers
  • UberNote – for tagged notecards and notes
  • MyWebspiration – Inspiration, only web-based

 

Graphing Tools

 

Survey Tools

 

Podcasting

 

Streaming Audio/Video Portals

A few words of advice about YouTube: YouTube is quickly becoming the place people go for information! You can find a tutorial on just about anything on YouTube, and education applications are growing at an exponential rate, both in quality and quantity. However, as we all know, YouTube has some inherent risks for classroom and student use. Here are just a few brief tips for using YouTube as a teaching tool:

  • Limit your searches to respected sources. Most established newspapers, museums, libraries, and institutions have specific cannels on YouTube – search by the name of the outlet (ex: PBS)
  • Check out the K-12 Education Group link above
  • Go to teacher-specific sites like TeacherTube and WatchKnow linked above
  • Register with YouTube and set up a video playlist
  • Download videos – YouTube doesn’t typically offer a way to download videos. However, if you use Firefox at home, you can use the free DownloadHelper extension, which makes most videos down-loadable and convertible to several formats.
  • Add the work kick to the URL before YouTube and you should be able to download videos. Or try Zamzar, Robot, iTube, and PodTube.

 

Generators and Image Resources

 

Kid-Friendly Avatar Building Sites

 

Online Workshops and Conferences

  • K12 Online Conference – Edtech speakers archived from this Oct. Conference
  • Hitchhikr – Hitch a ride to any current conference
  • EdTechTalk – Join the group or listen to archives
  • Common Craft Show – simply models for how we might design our own online instruction
  • TED.com – Inspired talks by the world’s greatest thinkers

Indexes, Search Engines & Resources

 Search Tools & Reference

 News and Current Events

 State & Federal Education Sites

 

Teacher Lesson Resources

 

Indexes, Search Engines & Resources

 

 Subscription-Based Resources at AP (see your Librarian for passwords)

 

 

Links to Resources from Linda Braun’s Keynote from Oct. 27, 2010 Tech Summit

 

 

 

 

Credits: http://joycevalenzaworkshop.wikispaces.com/ – Joyce Valenza presented this workshop to Capital District Librarians, and has provided many of the useful links above.

Hillner, Jennifer, ” Head of the Class – TechTeacher”. Edutopia. October/November 2009.