10Tech Elementary Learn & Earn: Why Re-create the Wheel? (Due March 15)

Monday, March 8, 2010

Why Re-create the Wheel? (Due March 15)

Hello Bloggers,

There are times when I come to a lesson and think one of two things: 1) How can I make this lesson more relevant for this group of students or 2) I have taught this lesson roughly five gabillion (yes, that's number) times and I want to change it up a little before I go insane. In an attempt to remedy one, or both, of these dilemmas I often get on the web and open up Google. I always think I can scour the web for a quick addition to a lesson plan, but more often than not this consumes much more time than than originally allotted. This leads us to the focus for this week.

Teachers First is a teacher resource site that can eliminate the pain and agony of investing a great deal of time trying to figure out how to spice up a lesson. The resources found on this site are endless; from entire grade and subject-specific lesson plans to the "websites of the w eek" section, this is a website that should be on your favorites list. In fact, earlier today I was curious if this site had student-friendly games related to electricity (my current science unit). From the home page I just scrolled over "classroom" at the top. Next, I clicked on "by keyword." Then I typed in Electricity. Bingo! Several suggested sites popped up, each with their own description. Before long I found a site dedicated to electricity games. This is a link I can email my parents so

they can play the game together with their child at home.

Your assignment for this week is to check out the website and post about a tool, lesson plan or idea from the site you found useful or that you could possibly use in the future.

Comments (67)

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Tina McDaniel · 787 weeks ago

First, I thought the website for Teacher's First was pretty cool. There is a TON of information and websites that could be useful in the classroom. The one that I am going to post about today I found on the "websites of the week".
It is the "Reading Games".
http://www.teachersfirst.com/getsource.cfm?id=107...

The site has many interactive computer games that help students learn to read. It would be a great tool for computer lab where students could still learn/read at his or her own level. The site has includes prefix/suffix information as well as games for sight word recognition. There is even a choice to create a rap song and learn about rhyming.

I copied this site and added it to my favorites as the links for math, science (which is great for ideas for last minute science fair projects--and could have been sent earlier to my parents!)

I am pretty excited to have a resource that is useful, up to date, and relevant to the classroom for all grade levels.

2 replies · active 785 weeks ago

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Amy Cassady · 787 weeks ago

I really loved this website. Right now we are studying astronomy and there are TONS of sites to go to that are about astronomy. I found a virtual moon tour that I will use when we study the moon phases and I also found some great sites about constellations.

I also looked at some of the writing sites and found Explore.org (about half way down in the writing sites!) This site has wonderful pictures that I am planning on putting up on the document camera at the start of my writer's workshop and having the kids write about what they see as an "entry task" or warm up. Very cool site!!!

2 replies · active 785 weeks ago

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Molly Klemkow · 787 weeks ago

I was so excited to go and explore on this website! I love to find new ways or new ideas for my preschools. I soon found after doing some research on the website and it only goes down to Kindergarten. So I tried to use that grade level and see if I could find some ideas for our current unit which is animals (farm, ocean, zoo/circus, and jungle). I didn't find much that I felt was appropriate for my kids. I did find a sea world website that had great pictures. Since starting this class I have been contemplating if I should have some sort of projection device in my room to be able to browse websites with my kids. I am fearful that it will get broken because of the age of my students and because of some of the behaviors.

1 reply · active 786 weeks ago

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Kimberly Fitzpatrick · 787 weeks ago

I visited the Teachers First site and found a bunch of great resources for Lewis & Clark. The Sierra Club was particularly interesting to me because it's written in kid friendly language and is easy to maneuver around and locate things. I will definitely use this in my current Growth of a Nation unit. Here's the link: http://www.sierraclub.org/lewisandclark. This site even includes L&C's journal entries, compare/contrast, and wilderness notebooks. Another great thing about Teachers First is that it allows you to be very specific with your search, i.e., grade level, subject, strand, etc. I’ll definitely bookmark it and use it in the coming days and weeks.

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denise strom · 786 weeks ago

Like Amy, I loved this website, too, especially with our Astronomy unit just getting started. The virtual tour of the moon was a perfect place for me to start exploring...very timely, as just yesterday we started writing moon poetry! If the students have visuals such as these, they will be able to dig deeper and be more creative in their writing. I love Amy's idea of having a visual as an entry task writing prompt. Very cool! I'm excited to use this site. Thanks, Mr. B! __By the way, I love that your CURRENT unit of study is ELECTRICITY! Hahah

1 reply · active less than 1 minute ago

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Samantha · 786 weeks ago

I know that we are supposed to stay on topic with teach first but I found something really cool! And well, I am not always one to follow directions... Anyways, if you go to the king county library page and follow the link to bookflix (you will need your library card number and pin) you will find some cool stuff. First there are books that you can project with your class with the read along words on the page too. But when you are finished listening to the story you can take a quiz for comprehension and there are a list of sites along with that topic. Even Australia! Yes you heard it right! There are about five sites that are great for our first graders to learn more about the topic. You can find info and web sites on spiders, animal habitats and listen to books on the topic. I was so excited to share I had to go off topic. Try it it is cool!

Now on topic, there is a lot of information on Teachfirst.com and also teachersfirst.com so make sure you go to the right place. I loved the Barnaby Australian story for 1st graders and Mama Lisa's songs. There were some other sites but they cost money and I am cheap. Good hunting friends!

1 reply · active 785 weeks ago

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Ruth Cerna · 786 weeks ago

I can see "watt" "attracted" you to the website on electricity, Mr. Betlach! (Not as funny as Denise's but still funny). I love this site and bookmarked it right away. There were many good sites within the elementary reading category. Through the Magic Door (www.ttmd.com) is really nice for finding specific books. It's hard to motivate struggling readers and this site lists books by categories such as Adventures on the High Seas, Cowboys, Books About Courage, New Siblings Books, Strong Girls Books, etc. You can also find books by grade level and reading ability -- although the levels are more general than specific. Really useful in my role.

1 reply · active 786 weeks ago

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debbieo · 786 weeks ago

OK - still getting lost and distracted on all the possibilities!!! I added Teachers First to my favorites and will use it frequently. My favorite part was the section "What's Hot" and the link "Popular on TF". I found a link called Think Math from Harcourt and will be able to demonstrate lots of fraction and money skills in the coming weeks. Thanks for more ideas to make learning visual and fun. I'll have to keep exploring!

1 reply · active 786 weeks ago

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mark lange · 786 weeks ago

The website is a great resource. I saw many things that will enhance my math and social studies lessons. I am sure I will be back often. What I found was on one of the very first sites under Elementary Math involving the 2010 Census. Since the Census in a hot topic right (I don’t know about you, but I am tired of all the commercials though) and it is a lesson in 5th grade Everyday math, I plan on using both the lesson from the website and Everyday to make an entertaining lesson. Thanks for the site Brandon.
http://www.teachersfirst.com/getsource.cfm?id=108...

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Evelyn · 786 weeks ago

Wow! This website is enormous, and has something for everyone! I kept getting distracted, going deeper, and deeper, and found a cool website put together by an international group of students, working from their individual countries. The topic was Endagered Animals. One of the participants was a student from Australia, who talked about the times he spent at the zoo, studying with his mom and with his class. This is just one area I'll explore with my first graders when we return to Australia next year. Thanks, Brandon - great website!!

1 reply · active 785 weeks ago

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dmitchell · 786 weeks ago

This was a very cool website. I would think it had something for everyone. I looked around a lot and found one called game classroom. It had games for every grade and subject.It should definetely be on the district's learning links. I found myself playing a space invaders game with math facts. I could see my first graders loving this and improving their math fluency, so their ships wouldn't crash!
It had math, reading and even grammar games. It was nice to see several games at one website. It makes navigating with 23 first graders much easier. I can't wait to have my kiddos practice math facts!

2 replies · active 785 weeks ago

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Callie G · 786 weeks ago

I found some great things on this site, but had a bit of frustration navigating the bar at the top. No one else mentioned this so maybe it is because I'm using Firefox or my mac? I keep trying to click on keyword search and it goes to "What's Current" instead. And I found getting the "real" URL tricky because you go to a Teacher's First "framed" page each time you click and you couldn't remove frames as I've seen on some other sites. I had to right click and open in a new tab/window to be able to copy the URL.

Or maybe I'm just grumpy because I have to do 22 report cards today. :)

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Callie G · 786 weeks ago

I found some great things on this site, but had a bit of frustration navigating the bar at the top. No one else mentioned this so maybe it is because I'm using Firefox or my mac? I keep trying to click on keyword search and it goes to "What's Current" instead. And I found getting the "real" URL tricky because you go to a Teacher's First "framed" page each time you click and you couldn't remove frames as I've seen on some other sites. I had to right click and open in a new tab/window to be able to copy the URL.

1 reply · active 786 weeks ago

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Callie G · 786 weeks ago

Okay, and now I'm wasting time on the site and I have report cards to do!!!!

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Melissa M · 786 weeks ago

One of my favorite things about Teacher's First, is that I subscribe to their weekly email update. Each week I get an update about resources that they have on their website. The updates often feature resources that focus on current themes. For instance this week's update has information and resources about St. Patrick's Day. This has been a great resource for me and time saving because it comes to my inbox. A fun resource that I came across from the Teacher's First site is the Globetracker's Mission. This resource tied in well to our National Parks project. It is presented like a blog by two "characters" Geo and Meri. The other thing I appreciate about it is that it is written in kid friendly language.

1 reply · active 786 weeks ago

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Mona Best · 786 weeks ago

I really liked this site and could've probably spent hours exploring it...ahhh..but, progress reports call!

I used the keyword search regarding activities for 'Grammar' and found so many fun games for children of all ages. I know someday with SMART boards these games could probably be projected on a screen and the students could participate as a group since I only have 1 computer in my speech therapy room.

I'm also running into an issue today where I am given a certain amount of time to search the site and then Outlook 'times out' and I have to enter my password/username and start all over again.

But, to end on a good note, loved this new website!

1 reply · active 785 weeks ago

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Rosemary L · 786 weeks ago

Wow, I think I found a new favorite site! Exploring the content strands, I explored the Earth science one. Was a bit frustrated that to use some of the lessons I need administrator priveldges to open and use. Virtual field trip to a dino museum will be fun with the kids. I can't wait to return to school, add this to my links on my swift site. Also will share the site with my grade level team. MUCH smarter than spending hours online trying to figure out how to jazz up a lesson. I am going to use the MANY activites under the reading portion for primary. We just completed work on homophones and syllables - this one had short interactive movies to work through. The kids will review and practice skills in a fun format.

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cheryl reilly · 786 weeks ago

I got some ideas for St. Patrick's Day to use in my language group this week.

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Wendy Ward · 786 weeks ago

I found a few marginal elementary level games to reinforce nutrition and fitness. The problem I have is that I could never justify having the kids SIT at a computer to learn and review these concepts while they could be moving while learning the concepts. I even struggle with offering these sites as a fun "at home" idea, since I'd much rather have them spend their time outside playing and running around instead of spending more time in front of a screen.

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Teresa Eccles · 786 weeks ago

I found this site somewhat cumbersome. I found a few sites that had helpful links but I didn't find the format appealing. I might use some of the links such as this rainforest site. http://www.manatee.k12.fl.us/sites/elementary/sam...
but finding it was not any easier than a well directed google search.
I actually found myself spending a lot of time surfing through various links and sites, I am easily distracted. I would like to investigate whether or not the tool at www.prezi.com might be helpful with my students or perhaps when doing teacher presentations.

1 reply · active 778 weeks ago

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Kim Schmitz · 786 weeks ago

I ended up doing my homework tonight with my 3 year old on my lap. I went into a part of the site on length and clicked on zoo. Gregory and I ended up doing some interactive stuff in the zoo on biggest and smallest. Though I think that this is too easy for my first graders, my three year old loved it. I ran out of time tonight to find things for my classroom, but will definately bookmark this site for later use both in my classroom and at home. When I got ready to write this post, Gregory said to me, "Mommy, can I do your homework some more?".

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Renae Hanson · 786 weeks ago

I've spent way too much time messing around on this site - but it is a GREAT resouce. The 4th grade teacher in me was drawn to the Astronomy resources (love the virtual moon!), but I did find some great stuff for math as well. Spent way too many minutes messing around with the area & perimeter games.

P.S. I think Denise AND Ruth are funny.

2 replies · active 785 weeks ago

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Beth Belmondo · 786 weeks ago

I am so glad to have another resource site! When I read the post I was forcibly reminded of myself just popping online to quickly find a fun activity and then ending up wasting time I didn't have searching all over the place.
I searched under the holiday lesson/activity ideas because I had ST. Patrick's Day on my mind. I loved how they listed the relevant grade levels near the titles and had a little blurb about what type of link it was (art projects, printable worksheets, games etc.) so it saved me a lot of time clicking through multiple links. I was satisfied with the first link I clicked, and there was a lot of good information (some with pictures!) that I can use on Wednesday.
Thanks for the new resource!

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Jessica Cooper · 786 weeks ago

I took a look at some of the links found on the website and there are a few that I can use for our current unit on astronomy. Students can see space up close and visit the moon. I will certainly be using this in our integrated time.

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Corrie Blechschmidt · 786 weeks ago

Very cool website, I often find myself trying to tweak a lesson plan and having a resource like this will be fabulous. I like to explore the brainteasers and puzzle section. I try to spice up entry tasks and make them relevent to what we are studying. Thank you for this great resource!

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